Stair Runners:

"What every set of stairs need."

Or, "The best dressed stairs are wearing them."

I'm such a carpet snob, I guess that comes with my job! But I always think stairways look better with a runner. It makes me sad to see a beautiful set of stairs left bare.

I love sisals and seagrass runners on stairs!

You can go neutral or bold.

Stair runners are a great place to make a "statement" with a lot of color or pattern. Since it's a small area that you're moving through, they don't seem to get too busy.

And, you can never go wrong with classic stripes!

Mrs. Blandings shows us that!

Happy Monday everyone!

*pictures from Flickr, ???, Head Over Heels , Flickr, and Mrs. Blandings

Butcher Block Counters

One of these days, we'll tackle and re-do our kitchen. The cabinets desperately need a new coat of paint, they need new hardware, our appliances (except for the dishwasher) have seen better days, and our countertops are older laminate. Boo.
Previously, we've purchased some tile on sale for the counters, but the longer we wait, the more I start to think about other options. Due to our teeny-tiny budget, things like marble and granite are out of our range, but butcher block counters are a surprisingly affordable option.

I love the gray-ed wash on the cabinets here.

These counters look like they've just been oiled, or maybe polyurethaned.

Black cabinets and worn butcher block.

If only my kitchen was this light and bright!

Ikea is awesome. You can get an 8' piece for $59.00! Granted, it's the thinner 1 1/8-inch thickness, but still. Solid beech wood, and totally within our budget. I'm liking butcher block more and more.

Happy Friday!

Glass Canisters

My new glass canisters from the Crate and Barrel outlet.
After I bought the ornaments, I used part of the gift card that was left to buy these. My old ones from Ikea were ready to retire, and I have had my eye out for some that were a bit larger and a little nicer.

Here is a better picture from their website:

Now my question is: Do I leave the tops as they are (silver), or should I paint them?

Black?

Or maybe a color? I like the red, but I'd probably choose dark green.

What do you think?

Trim-It-Down Tuesday: Steak and Cheese Sandwich with Mushrooms

Today's recipe IS low cal, I swear! But it doesn't taste like it at all. It's very good, filling, and easy to make. Great for a weekend lunch or a casual dinner.

Steak and Cheese Sandwich with Mushrooms

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 sandwich)

Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cups presliced onion
2 cups green bell pepper strips
2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
1 cup presliced mushrooms
3/4 pound top round steak, trimmed and cut into thin strips
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
4 (0.6-ounce) slices reduced-fat provolone cheese, cut in half
4 (2 1/2-ounce) hoagie rolls with sesame seeds

Preparation
1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic to pan; sauté 3 minutes. Add mushrooms to pan; sauté 4 minutes. Sprinkle beef with salt and black pepper. Add beef to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Stir in Worcestershire sauce; cook 1 minute.

2. Place 1 cheese slice half on bottom half of each roll, and top each serving with one-fourth of beef mixture. Top with remaining cheese slice halves and tops of rolls.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 384 (23% from fat)
Fat: 9.8g (sat 4.1g,mono 2.9g,poly 0.4g)
Protein: 32.9g
Carbohydrate: 44.9g
Fiber: 4.1g
Cholesterol: 43mg
Iron: 4.7mg
Sodium: 580mg
Calcium: 231mg

David Bonom, Cooking Light, MARCH 2008

Yay!!

One year ago today, right about this time, this was us walking back down the aisle as a married couple! Happy anniversary sweetheart!

*Image from Melanie Johnson Photography

On another note, I am now able to access all of my wedding pictures!! Recaps to be coming very soon....

Jacque's apartment: Before and After (but not finished)

This past summer, my sister Jacquelyn moved into a new apartment and "hired" me to help decorate it. By hired, I mean asked nicely. She is my sister (and probably has some really embarrassing stuff on me!).

Jacquelyn just graduated with her MBA and found a new job in Fort Worth. Since she moved from Houston to go to TCU (Yay!!) and lived with my parents for a year, she didn't have a lot of furniture, but the stuff she did have we needed to work with. Also, since she is just starting out in her new position, and there isn't already an existing pile of money to draw from, we are buying stuff along the way and not all at once.

Jacquelyn is a single 27 year old, and she chose a really fun part of town to live in, just west of downtown by some of the museums. Since she is still young, single, and is in a fun part of her life right now, we wanted her apartment to reflect that so we painted some of the walls a light shade of yellow (one of her favorite colors), and accented it with peacock blues and greens, with browns grounding the scheme.

Here are some "before" pics from moving day:

Your basic apartment.

Here we are after the walls have been painted. They turned out so well and really help to lighten and brighten the place up a bit!

And now for the latest pictures that I took earlier this week when I was at her place for dinner.

Some inspiration in the form of a feather wreath.

The sofa with some new throw pillows and one of her 2 new side chairs (which are really comfortable by the way!). The lamp is kind of temporary until we can find one that she likes and is in her budget. Also, eventually, she'd like to get a new coffee table (which normally isn't crooked like it is in the picture).

A shot of the other side chair and the long expanse of wall to the left (in the pictures) of the sofa area. We plan to fill this void with a large gallery wall....

... that will look kind of like this! James Dean will be replaced with another picture, and there are a few frames in need of repair.

Here is kind of a long shot from the sofa area towards the front door. In the niche, we set up a little bar area for her.

Here's a closer look at her bar. We chose a small bookshelf from Pier 1 that can be used someplace else in the future. We added a sparkly lamp and a big mirror to reflect more light into the dark apartment.

Sorry that it's kind of messy - these were from Wednesday night, so her saddle is not normally chilling on her chair like that. But I wanted to post these so you could follow along on the progress! We still have a few things to do, and then I'll share the "After/Finished" pics with you!

Have a great weekend!!!

Okay, one more...

via Melanie Johnson Photography