FORONYA ZA KITENGE....MACKENZIE DESIGN....NILIUZA KWA MTEJA WANGU WA KIJITONYAMA.

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NILI DESIGN NA KUFUNGA CORNER SHELF HII KWENYE SALUNI YA MTEJA WANGU MWENGE!#

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Before hatujaweka vitu...

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My new “office”

Hey hey! Hope you had a great weekend! Ours was fun – we had drum corps finals for my husband and (because drum corps is done and we have him “back”) a family day at the Indiana state fair. We had a blast!

Slowly but surely things are coming around in the family room. If you’re just joining me on this project we recently took down a wall between my office and our family room. The end result is AWESOME. Seriously the best thing we’ve ever done in this house, hands down, no question.

My office was the brightest room in our house so not only did we get more space, we get a TON more natural light as well. It’s my favorite part. :)

But the question for me has been where to put a new desk. This was my set up in the office before:  

The old farmhouse table was huge! I absolutely loved it as a desk although recently it was feeling a bit too big to me. I was looking into something smaller and smaller is definitely what I ended up with. ;)

Originally I planned on keeping an actual desk in that area. I even considered building out window seats in the corner for me to sit on. But when all the floors were done and I started moving furniture around I realized it was a perfectly lovely corner just as it is.

I came up with a plan for a desk space that has worked really great for me so far. It’s not going to be for everyone but I love it. Even though we have more space I still want to use it wisely and this has worked well!

The corner where my desk was now holds a comfy chair and an ottoman:

Both of which we already had. I’ve actually bought very little for the “new” family room – the only two things are in this corner! That brass banker’s lamp is from Target and is perfect in that spot. I really wanted some soft light back there in the evenings.

By the way -- the subwoofer is a part of life that I’ve come to embrace. I may cover it someday, I may leave it as is – it doesn’t bother me like it used to. You pick your battles. ;)

Now my “desk” is a simple laptop table from World Market:

Most of the time it’s used as an end table next to the sectional. When it’s time for me to work in the morning I pull it over (I have pads on the bottom so it doesn’t scratch the floors) and then sit down to work (with my feet up on that ottoman!).

I got their oversized version so there’s plenty of room for my laptop, camera, notebook, whatever:

It’s nice for when I’m sorting mail or writing checks or whatever too, although I do have to write on a paper or notepad because the top is textured. Not a big deal to me – they have smoother versions but I loved this look. 

I’m still working out the other storage in this part of the room so it’s functional for me. The dresser that was in my office is now in the living room and still has the office stuff in it. I need to switch out some of the contents to the dresser that’s in this little nook now.

The built ins next to the fireplace give us tons of new storage too so I’m considering those for my supplies as well. I have an outlet next to the built ins that I plug my computer into and just leave there so it’s always ready.

So far I’m quite loving it! It’s no big deal at all to pull the table over in the morning. And when I’m done working I put it back next to the sofa – it’s kind of nice to be able to put it all away, you know? I considered moving my desk upstairs to the loft and working up there every day, but especially in the summer when the kiddo is home I need to be downstairs where all the action is.

And I still get to work in what I think is the prettiest corner in our house: 

There are a few minor things that will be changed here over the next few weeks – I’m redoing all the window trim like I did in the living room. The walls will all be painted a new color (more on that this week) and I still need to do little things like touch up the crown molding and baseboards.

But for now this spot is the most completed area in the family room and I’m enjoying it! The view doesn’t hurt either:

SO many hydrangeas this year! Love!!

Oh, and a few of you have asked but we did contact two realtor friends before moving ahead with this reno project. I was concerned that getting rid of the office would hurt the value of our home but both said the bigger family room far outweighed that. (It would be different if it was a bedroom though.)

Do you have a dedicated office space? Do you need to be able to shut the door or could you handle having it out in the open? Any creative solutions you’ve used to make your own work space?

Happy National S'mores Day!

I just heard on CNN that today is National S'mores Day. I've never done an actual s'mores video, but we did do this delicious ice cream pie inspired by them. I'm not around a lot of campfires these days, but when do I get a craving, this frozen version does the trick. Follow this link if you want to check out the original post, and get ingredients. Enjoy!

Showing off Jen!

Hello everybody! Any fun weekend plans? Not much here…just enjoying the time before the Bub heads off to school.

I’ve been hard at work on the family room but it’s all been little things like replacing board and batten, caulking, filling holes and installing shoe molding. Not very exciting but progress nonetheless! I hope to have more to show you next week!

This weekend I’m showing off another incredibly talented blogger! Jen from With Heart does beautiful work, but she also shares that work through some really informative videos. She’s so good we had her speak at the Haven Conference. ;)

I’m sharing a few of her rooms and projects that I love – but you’ll want to clear your calendar because her blog and videos will hook you all day!

Jen does a great job of repurposing and using what is already in her home for her renovations – their kitchen was totally transformed with some paint and a new backsplash:

I can’t even believe the cabinets are the same! And she gives a really great tutorial on painting kitchen cabinets in this post.

She transformed her master bathroom in much the same way – unless your bathroom is a disaster there’s usually no need to tear everything out. She added some tile around the existing tub, painted the cabinets and splurged on new countertops:

You can see what was new and what was “renewed” in this post. Beautiful!

Her living room was redone by updating thrifted finds and it turned out so well:

Can you believe that sofa was recovered? It looks brand new – I love it!

Her new outdoor space is gorgeous as well – it got some updates recently with a new pergola and new stain:

So lovely right? I thought this little hanging herb planter was SO cute:

Such a simple project and great if you don’t have a ton of space to grow plants!

Jen’s site is full of great DIY tutorials too, most including the how-to in videos. This DIY roman shade using old blinds project is brilliant:

I’ve seen this before but didn’t realize how easy it was till I saw her video. All you really need is some glue and a little bit of fabric!

So there you go…you’ll be sucked in to Jen’s blog, believe me! ;)

I hope you have a lovely weekend my friends! Enjoy and be safe!

 

 

Seared Scallops on Corn "Cream" – Not to Sound Corny, But This is Summer in a Bowl

This seared scallops on fresh corn “cream, ” shows that you can take a few seasonal ingredients, put them together simply and quickly, and with a little luck, and a very hot pan, produce something pretty special.  

There are three keys to producing sufficiently seared scallops. First, they must be perfectly dry. Second, the oil goes on the cold scallops, not in the hot pan. Third, your pan must be extremely hot, which means you have to use a very heavy, cast iron or stainless steel pan.

That bit of brown caramelization on the edges of the scallops might not look like a big deal, but it is. It’s a huge deal, and makes a tremendous difference in the final flavor. So, if you have the ways and means, I highly recommend you follow the procedure as shown.

As you’ll see, I used fresh white corn, but frozen will work in a pinch, although using that in August is almost a crime against nature, but let your conscience be your guide. Also, frozen corn is almost always yellow, and I really prefer the color of the white corn here. In any case, I hope you give this delicious, and very summery scallop dish a try soon. Enjoy!  

For 4 first-course sized portions:

For the corn “cream":
2 ears white corn

2 tbsp butter

salt to taste

1 cup chicken broth or water

pinch of cayenne

For the scallops:

12 large scallops

2 tsp high-heat vegetable oil (like canola or grape seed oil)

1/2 tsp smoked paprika, or to taste

1 tsp kosher salt

1 red fresno chili, sliced thin (I glazed my pepper rings in the hot pan with a slash of water, a small chunk of butter, and juice of 1/2 lemon)
radish sprouts to garnish