a recipe, upgrade, and makeover

On my summer bucket list I mentioned trying new recipes. Earlier this week I made tacos in an iron skillet. I like to call it Taco Pizza. I found the recipe on pinterest [found here] and it was delicious.  Quick and easy too.

Onto the upgrade....which is a small change but a big upgrade. Well, anything is considered a step up from a cardboard box. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

Last summer when we moved into our condo we hung our tv on the wall. So we didn't need our TV stand. We stuck our old TV stand in the small nook beside the TV to hold the DVD played and cable box. It didn't fit right and actually was very awkward looking. But we lived it....Then, came Christmas when we rearranged some furniture and moved the TV stand elsewhere. Long story short, we didn't have anything small enough to hold our DVD player and cable box so we dug out a cardboard box for the meantime.

Well, meantime lasted 6 months. Ekk...how tacky. So this is what it looked like:

Don't mind the other box...JD ordered some shoes. But do you see the ugly cardboard-box-exposed-wire mess?

Here's what it looks like now:
The only thing I bought was the green plant and small silver frame (couldn't resist the $3.50 sale price). Still need to put a picture in it.

But the office (where I just dumped all the books that used to be on this shelf) now looks like this:

Wow. What a mess.

It doesn't usually look this bad but it hasn't really been put together since we moved. I made the desk last summer but everything is else very hodge podge.

Here's the other corner filled with more unpacked boxes.

But don't worry because we're already on Mission Office Makeover. Our goal is to create a guest room/office/video game room in this space. So here's the plan:

• add storage
• add a sleeping space
• hang all of JD's video game art
• add shelves for office storage 
• find a way to organize my desk supplies and all of JD's work supplies (when he works from home overtakes the desk with a lot of paper/books)
• do so in a functional, cohesive, budget-friendly way

Not sure when well be done...hopefully before I go back to work in just about 3 weeks. So sad that summer's almost over.  Stayed tuned.

photo editing

We're back from the beach and we had an amazing time. I'll share more about our trip in an upcoming post, but I wanted to quickly share a photoing editing site that I stumbled upon. It's too good not to share. The site is called ipiccy. I barely know what I'm doing but through trial and error,  I'm slowly figuring it out. Better than nothing right?

If your looking for something simple and easy, this site is great. I made these two collages below to show you the before and after effects.

The first photo we took in the car and didn't realize the camera was zoomed in. I actually like how it turned out but it was way too light. I don't remember what I did but I played around with the exposure, shadows, and contrast.

The second photo was too dark. I lightened it and adjusted the color vibrance and exposure.

Nothing too fancy but a great site with easy to use editing tools. Give it a try!

roooooooound here

Luckily JD and I survived the horrible storms and unlike so many here in the DC area, never lost power. But just minutes ago we realized our ac unit froze over. After some goolging, we determined it has been overworked. Reasonable enough, it has been running for two days straight.

Lately, I've been spending hours on this computer trying to finish all my grad work. Yesterday and today I logged 8 hours each day trying to finish before our beach trip. Almost there. I can almost feel the sand...

In the meantime here's some summer pics...

Did you notice that beer was gluten free? It is actually very good. I might just crack at the beach and enjoy a blue moon.  We'll see. We got a new patio set have spent a lot of time out there. We got it on sale from Target and it was well worth the $63.00 (which came close to $90 with shipping).

Surprising enough, I've already accomplished some things on my summer bucket list. I made three new recipes, two from Rachel Ray Chip & Dip Patties and Sweet Marmalade Corn on the Cob (both great) and the fajita steak above (so good, read the description in the recipe). Bought renter's insurance, slept in, went to the pool, began organizing the office, and spent time reading the word.

We're headed for the beach early Friday morning and its supposed to be 104 degrees. Wowza, it's going to be hot. See ya when we return!