New Kitchen Island Light Fixture

A few weeks ago, my family and I were taking a stroll thru Home Depot and I wanted to wander down the lighting section. There are so many beautiful kinds of lights Home Depot offers and it was fun to check them all out. It didn't take me long before I spotted a light fixture I really liked and told my husband, "I think this is what I want for our kitchen." He said he liked it and it was listed at a good price, so we came back the following week and bought one.

I have some before and after photos to share, but first, I want to say that before my husband installed the new light fixture over our kitchen island, in its place was a very outdated fan. When we first did a walk-thru of our home before putting in an offer on it, I remember thinking it was so strange to have a ceiling fan in the kitchen. Anyone else with me on that one??

I knew I wanted it to come down, so 8 months later, it did and I am very happy about that!

 

I am debating on whether or not to add stripes to the kitchen nook. We did it in our last house and I really miss having stripes somewhere in our home. I don't know what it is but I have always loved striped walls, and since it worked out so well in our last homes kitchen nook, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try them in our new home and see how they look.

And I always love a good before and after....so here is where the kitchen started when we first moved in:

Ummmm, yea....a bit of a change don't you think?!
We still have to update the appliances because they are about 25+ years old....no joke...but we have to save a little bit for that. :)

Have a great Tuesday everyone!!

The Gallery Wall- Complete!

After a bit of tweaking, I finally finished our gallery wall! I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out- even though it took some time to complete...it was worth it especially to have our memories displayed. 
I used a collection of frames we already had which was nice- it meant I didn't have to purchase any new ones. :)
Most of the frames came from Target...and a few came from random thrift stores in the area.

So to recap, I started out with not as many frames as I wanted. Because our wall is pretty tall right here, adding a few more photos made sense. And it still didn't look too overwhelming. 
The last thing I wanted was for this space to feel cluttered.

So after some tweaking, adding and taking away just a couple of frames, I decided on the best placement. That picture is below. :)

And that is all! Hoping to get some other photos ready soon of our kitchen light.

Thanks for stopping by!

A New Gallery Wall- Staircase

When we first moved into our second home not too long ago, I, of course, wanted to add some photos that meant a lot to my family and I. In our last house, we had a gallery wall of family pictures going up the staircase, and I loved it. In our new home, I wasn't sure if that was something we were going to do because our stairs are the first thing you see when you walk into the entryway of our home, so I held off and put 3 big canvas pictures there until I could decide what I really wanted.

Well, then Jennifer from Dear Lillie decided to do a gallery wall going up her staircase and it turned out beautifully! I loved it! That gave me enough inspiration to do one again and so I gathered all of our pictures from the house and chose only a select number to line the stairs. I did this so that the space wouldn't feel overwhelming. I am not really a fan of crowded gallery walls- sometimes they look awesome and well done and other times they look cluttered to me. So to avoid that, I just decided to do a certain amount and keep the frames simple with black and white.

I started out by making templates of each of the frames I wanted to use which worked out pretty well. I have to be honest and say that by the end however, I just ended up taking the templates off and just using my judgement on where the frames should go. Needless to say, that method had me putting more holes in the walls, but honestly, they are so little that it doesn't bother me. And we plan on painting the stairway walls in the future, so we can cover up whatever we need to then.

This was just the start to the pictures...I ended up adding a few more because our wall in the stairway goes up pretty high, so I wanted to add a few more we already had to fill that space. I will have some pictures of that to come soon once I have time to edit them. 
Overall, I do think that having a gallery wall here makes sense and since we loved having one in our last place, I'm excited we finally got one up in our new place. 

I'm hoping to have some more finished pictures to share later and also later in the week, I will share pictures of our new light fixture in the kitchen! Until then, have a great Monday everyone!

A Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake Dessert

Happy Mother's Day to all of the ladies out there who have mothered children!

Today, I just wanted to share a simple recipe I found through a blog and whose actual recipe was found by bloggers Pip and Ebby. Here is what you need for the dessert and the instructions on how to cook this delicious recipe.

Ingredients:

• 19.5-oz. box chocolate fudge brownie mix
• 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
• 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 12 oz. Reese’s Pieces candy
• 12-oz. bag milk chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons whipping cream
• 12 large Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
2. Prepare the brownie mix according to package directions. Spread the batter in pan and set aside. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with hand-held mixer until fluffy. Add condensed milk and peanut butter and beat until smooth. Stir in the Reese’s Pieces candies. Spoon the mixture over the batter. Spread evenly.
3. Bake for 40 minutes or until cheesecake layer is set and edges are golden brown. Cool for 30 minutes and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. In a small microwaveable bowl, microwave the chocolate chips and whipping cream for 1 minute, or until chips are melted. Stir until smooth. Spread over cheesecake layer. Sprinkle Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup pieces over top. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Serves: 12-18
Total time: 3 hrs


If you like peanut butter, chocolate, cream cheese, etc. than you will LOVE this recipe! It's amazing and won't last long in our house. :)

Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day and thanks for stopping by.

Springtime in Colonial Williamsburg

It has been a while since I have posted some pictures of Colonial Williamsburg (without the horses, that is) so I thought I would share some pictures of my findings there. 
Springtime is among one of my favorite times to go and visit...fall is probably at the very top, but in the spring, everything is in bloom and the weather is just amazing. I find this place particularly calming and serene which is why the girls and I have such a good time here. We always look forward to visiting.

I have a thing for gates which is why I was drawn to the one above. Just something about the worn look that makes it authentic and very colonial.

All of the buildings are picture-worthy...but I only had time to snap a few shots of some of them. 
Wouldn't it have been fun to have lived in one of these?
I hear that those who work in Colonial Williamsburg get to rent out some of the homes which would be quite fun.

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Thanks for stopping by!