Mitchell to Morgan: Of house updates, outfit fails and crockpot wins

As the title suggests you can expect three things from this post:
1. House updates - woo!
2. Outfit fail - boo
3. Crockpot Success - Mmm

So without further ado, 1. House updates.

We basically have the top half of the house in order. Well the main living areas. Our bedroom is on the top half and will be one of the last rooms to be tackled, sadly.

Now the fun and challenging part of our move has been going from a 2 bedroom basement suite to a 6 bedroom house - we needed more things! But we had approximately $0 dollars to do it. Paul's a student and we live mostly on my income so excess spending money isn't something we really have. Therefore through friends and family and the free section on Craigslist we have filled our house. And let me tell you - we have been so blessed. To start with even in our old house almost all of our furniture was free or super inexpensive (ie. 5 giant bookshelves for $50 dollars). It's amazing.

So we have been assembling our free things, mixing it with our old stuff and making our home.

In our living room we cut the legs down on our previous kitchen table to make a bigger coffee table - we want to be able to serve snacks/appies/food there easily AND we want it to be a surface big enough for game play. It worked perfectly! Some might think it's a bit tall but any shorter and there is too much bending for game play and my back can't take it (sadly).

We got the rug at Ikea on sale for $29 using a gift card. It was such a good deal we got two (you'll see the other in dining room). The couches were a wedding gift in our old house from Jenna and Colin when they needed to downsize (and a wedding gift to them from Andrew and Leone). Same is true of the glass coffee stand and lamp. The lampshade I got when I worked at the Wikininish Inn 10 years ago! The Poang chairs were both free as well - one from the Friesen's and one from Craigslist. The corner stand I got in the "free corner" at Sarah's old building and I paid $20 for those giraffe's back in Nanaimo in my early 20's.

And as you can see from the photo the armoir was a gift from the Patersons and it looks great in our space.

I love this nice long table - it's not the most beautiful but it is hugely spacious and I love that. It seats up to 8 people. The chairs are from our last place and we bought them with the table from Sarah - we have loved them and are glad she took such great care of them. We got both the Hutch (I'm in love) and the table from our friends the Chibota's who had them in their home and didn't need them.

Can I tell you of the joy I felt while organizing my pantry?

And the mild panic.

But oh the joy I now experience whenever I open these doors.

Bliss.

And you can see the second to bottom shelf that Paul build me. Originally it was a huge open space and he was kind enough to divide it for me and I LOVE it. The wood cost $25 at Home Depot BUT we only used a 1/4 of the sheet and the other 3/4's will be used to build my desk in a closet. So it's well worth the price for two uses!

A kitchen with space! Cupboards and counters galore.

This sight makes me swoon.

I'm weird, I know.

I'm in love with these chalkboard label's I made using chalkboard sticker from Michael's. I bought a giant length of it for $12 (still haven't even used half of it) and labelled everything. Easy to switch around and easy for children, international students and husbands to read.

Next up is our Kitchen Nook.

We got the chairs from Pam and Lawrence at church and the table we got from our former next door neighbours. They just moved back to Holland (yikes or Sweden, I forget) and left us their table, 4 beds and much bedding. Soooo grateful. We wanted to buy their couch but needed to stick to free things.

This table is awesome though because it perfectly matches the "Command Center" or Armoir/Desk I have in the kitchen AND it has wings that when added allow the table to seat 8-10 comfortably. LOVE IT. That is a lifegroup must! Now between two tables we can seat 16-18 people which is so needed when you feed a group of 12-20 college students each week.

Sometimes I just sit here and stare at the kitchen.

I can't wait to see this space filled with people - for dinner, for parties, for bible studies, for double dates. To sit around the Dining Room table with students from all over, to invite our families to a meal or have a late night snack with my husband. This space will be used to it's fullest extent and I can't wait!

2. Outfit Fail
I love J's Everyday Fashion. J is adorable and her clothing choices are cute. Most of them I could never pull off but it's fun to pick up what I can. Recently I saw this on her site: I have maroon pants and a black polka dot shirt. I can probably pull that off.
Nope.

J looks tinier than usual in this look and I feel bigger than usual. Not the intended goal I can assure you! I think it needs a different type of shirt, and I have one at home that is more black with less dots so I will give this outfit one more try in the future.

The funny thing about this shirt is that I love it on others - I bought it at Old Navy because I'd seen my boss and another woman (at the mall) wearing it and LOVED it on them. Also whenever I wear it I get a lot of compliments about how cute it is. And yet I really don't like it on me. I keep wearing it though because of the positive responses it gets. And I keep wearing it because I bought it and don't want to waste money by not wearing it.

3. Slow cooker Creamy Taco's recipe

Yesterday morning I used my Crock-pot for the first time in the new house. Before heading to work I threw the ingredients together while chatting with our new roommate Rachel. It was finished within 10 minutes). I turned it on to low for 8 hours and the timer moved it to warm after 8 hours.