Hello Monday, Hello James

Before I start today's post I want to tell everyone to tune in to the season premier of Price Is Right tomorrow at 10am because I'm going to be on it! My sister and I went three months back on her 18th birthday and tomorrow morning is our show date! Yes, I WILL GET CALLED DOWN. So WATCH! Tomorrow I will be back to share some fun facts about Price Is Right, what it's like, the interview process, and all that insider jazz.. 

Soooo... 

Wow, what another great week we had! I made some more serious progress in the new house and completed FOUR DIY PROJECTS! That's more DIY projects in one week than I've done in my entire life. 

You guys are probably going to be hearing the "progress" phrase a lot because I have come to learn that the "process" is ever going. 

Another week where we went to Disneyland a lot... A whopping THREE TIMES THIS WEEK! I've decided that needs to become a regular thing. We had coffee dates with our sweet friends who were the first friends to see our new place, volunteered at a church event on Saturday, Derek and I got to squeeze in a date night at the dollar theater, and we had another great worship service on Sunday. 

Here are some photos- 

Hello to pirate attire and morning cartoons. I never ever thought I would be so richly blessed as to have this little pirate loving boy as my son. September 19th (last Thursday) was national pirate day but everyday is national pirate day in the Williams house! 

Hello to dentist appointments. My very favorite. Does that make me weird? I love going to the dentist and mine is the very best. 

Hello to another favorite new coffee. Starbucks in a box for my fridge! My target only had the mocha one but I'm dying to try the vanilla!

Hello to searching Pinterest for Halloween costumes for James only to find this genius idea of dressing your kid up like Dwight Schrute! I want to do this so bad but James would not go for it. He wants to be Peter Pan, Hook, Smee, or Jake. He goes back and forth between which one on any given day. 

Hello to the coolest new car wash place my husband found that fills your tank with gas while it's getting washed! Love it. 

Sorry this post is short you guys, we have had a LOT going on. Seriously, my calendar is crazy booked with play dates and places to go, just the way we like it! 

DONT FORGET TO WATCH THE PRICE IS RIGHT!! 

Recipe: Chicken Divan Casserole

Today I'm sharing my family's top secret recipe for chicken divan. So, it's not really top secret but it's a big family favorite that has been made for generations. I didn't plan on sharing it until later but I had some Instagram requests for it yesterday so here it is. 

Ingredients- 

5 chicken breasts 

2 16oz packages of frozen chopped broccoli 

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 cup of mayonnaise 

3/4 cup evaporated milk 

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 

4 cups of corn flakes

2 tbs melted butter 

Directions- 

Cook your chicken and then break it apart in small pieces.

Cook the broccoli. 

Mix all of the other ingredients (minus the broccoli, chicken, butter and corn flakes)

Place broccoli in the bottom of a 9x13 pan.  Top with the chicken. Pour the mixture over the chicken. 

Sprinkle the top with the cornflakes mixed with melted butter. 

Bake uncovered for 30-45 min in a 350 degree oven. 

DIY: Hoop Art Wall

So now that we have this big house, I have all these walls to hang things and all kinds of spaces to fill. Combine that with the fact that I've recently become obsessed with Pinterest, and the result is YOU GUYS seeing some DIY posts on this little blog of mine. 

Lets set one thing straight first, I am not a DIY type of gal and I'm really not crafty at all with the exception of ribbon wreaths. Ribbon wreaths I am the master of. 

So basically what I'm trying to say is that if I can do this, you can do this!

The total cost of this project was under $40 and it was really fun to do!

My original plan was to buy a bunch of different embroidered hoops but once I priced everything out, it would have cost me $40 for just ONE hoop and I wanted ten to cover a good chunk of my wall. I quickly scratched that idea and came up with my own plan. 

Supplies needed- 

-Hoops. You can find these at JoAnns, Hobby Lobby, or pretty much any craft store. 

-Fabric scraps, fabric, crochet doilies, anything you want to put in your hoops. Again, check craft stores, thrift stores, vintage stores, anywhere really! I collected these each time I found ones I really loved. Fabric stores sell their scraps for really cheap!

-Hot glue gun. 

Instructions- 

1. Open your fabric hoops and pull your fabric in it tightly. 

2. Cut the access fabric from all around the hoop. 

3. There will be a little bit of extra fabric around all of the edges so hot glue them to the back. 

4. Steam the fabric if there are any wrinkles or kinks. 

5. Hang them on your wall!

Here are some photos I took of my process-

And there they all are arranged nicely and hanging on one of my dining room walls!

This project took me less than an hour to complete and with my mom helping it was really fun, too!

I love the way it turned out and now I want to cover every empty space in my house with MORE HOOPS. 

I have lots more DIY projects to share with you guys in the next coming weeks so stay tuned!

I Guess You Could Call This An Outfit Post

This is a fashion blog, right? So I guess this could be called an outfit post.. Of sorts.

This is what I like to call a cas outfit. Sometimes you just gotta keep it casual. And casual for James means shorts, a cute tee, and some moccs. I like to put a spin on even the most casual of outfits. 

^^ So my grandpa insisted on putting this super old hammock up in my parents backyard. This thing is ancient. But I guess it really was a brilliant idea because James LOVES it. This kid wants to "swing swing" all day long. 

^^ Oh, and then there's this... Ya, my poor dog Sweet Lou puts up with a lot. He's qualified for sainthood as far as I'm concerned. 

See, this still qualifies as an outfit post right?? It does... Ok, hands up in the air, hooray!!

Outfit Details- 

 

Tee- Zara

Shorts- Target

Moccs- Freshly Picked
 

Recipe: Enchilada Pie

Today I wanted to share my recipe for super easy and delicious Enchilada Pie. Aka the white people version of enchiladas. My husband loves this stuff so I make it often. 

Ingredients- 

Corn tortillas

Ground beef

1 can of: enchilada sauce, tomato sauce, green chilies. 

2 packs of shredded cheddar cheese 

Directions- 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Brown your beef in a skillet. I use about one pound but it depends how "beefy" you want it. 

Mix the ground beef with the cans of tomato sauce, enchilada sauce and green chilies. Skip the chilies if you aren't a fan. 

Then you're going to layer your ingredients in a rectangular casserole dish in the following order- 

Tortillas on bottom. 

Cover with the meat mix. 

One pack of shredded cheese. 

Another layer or tortillas. I tear mine in halves to make covering easier. 

The second pack of shredded cheese. 

Then bake that baby in your oven for 30 minutes. 

Bam, you're done! Let it cool before serving it up and enjoying! 

The Tour

I was going to break my home tour into a different post for each room but I thought that might get boring real quick plus since I'm taking December off I really didn't have time for that- so today you are getting one big jumbo house tour! 

We've been in our home for almost three months and while I know I will always add things, I can confidently say that our home is complete. 

I've gathered together lots of photos that show off my favorite parts of the house. 

I've spent a lot of time moving furniture, doing DIY projects, decorating, and making everything the way I want it. During that process I realized that this is a never ending, ongoing process which will probably never be complete. That's because I will probably always be changing things and adding to this house. 

We rent our house and one thing I'm really looking forward to when we buy next year is PAINTING! Besides that I had total control on what I wanted to do with this space. No, this is not the coolest space you'll ever see and no it would never make it into a magazine like some of these AMAZING houses I see on Pinterest, but it's mine and I love it none the less. 

I've never really been too creative but I've been trying to put on that hat lately as I've  complete a total of FIVE do it yourself projects (which is a LOT for me). 

So many times I get envious of other people's homes when I see them online because WOW they are so nice. It's like every little corner is just perfect. Comparison is hard, and I try not to do it because when I get sucked into that mindset, it spirals out of control. I start thinking "my home isn't good enough" "my clothes aren't good enough" "I'm not good enough" and that's just not so. 

We feel so so richly blessed to call this house our home. We think God hand picked it just for us. The timing was perfect, the space is more than we need, and we feel blessed that we have a space big enough to host lots of people over at a time for church and get togethers. When we realized that our church may need a bigger space to hold mid week gatherings in the future, we felt called to offer up our space. God knew all along that this house should be ours and his, too. 

I hope you enjoy the photos and taking a little peek into where we live. I've been really excited to share. 

Living room- 

Dining room- 

James' room- 

Our room- 

The kitchen- 

^^ That is a really old picture of my grandma Erlene who passed away 12 years ago working at an old 50's coffee shop. It's so special to me so I wanted to point it out. 

There's a few other rooms and yes we do have bathrooms but like I said, I just wanted to showcase SOME of our home. 

Thanks for letting me share!