Shays Slow-Cooker Chili

So here is my new Friday go to deal...RAD RECIPE OF THE WEEK!  Why Friday you ask? Because Friday is the end of the week, when I want to go to fun crazy stuff and that does not include sitting at home blogging.  Don't get me wrong, I love you all buuut I do need a social life.

This is my no fault chili...heck who doesn't love chili?!  It is a nice and tangy recipe with a bit of a kick

INGREDIENTS

• 1 onion, chopped (I like to use half of a red and half of a white)
• 1 green or red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup of fresh sliced mushrooms (or one can)
• 1 cup of chopped carrot
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup of green olives, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 11oz of tomato-vegetable juice cocktail (I use V8 low sodium)
• 1 can condensed tomato soup
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 4 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon of cracked black pepper
• 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
• 1 can of chili beans, drained (optional, I don't care for beans so I don't always use them)

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the onion, bell pepper, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, and green olives in the oil for 5 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the beef and cook until brown. Transfer these ingredients to a slow cooker.
2. Then, to the slow cooker, add tomato-vegetable juice, soup, chili beans, cayenne pepper, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, garlic powder, cheese, and water.
3. Cover slow cooker and cook on low setting for at least 2 hours, you can cook longer for a thicker chili.
4. Serve hot! I recommend serving it with tortilla chips and some Zinfandel to compliment.   

 all that is left is to ENJOY!

 

Our new home in Jax

Since Spencer and I have moved to Jacksonville, a lot of people have been asking about our new apartment.  What does it look like, the surrounding area, how did I decorate, blah blah blah. So today I am here to sorta answer those questions (I am no where NEAR being done with this place).  Being the perfectionist that I am of course.  But here are a few 'before' photos to satisfy your cravings.  You don't quite get the 'afters' yet!

All of the walls were painted this pale yellow.  Don't get me wrong, its a nice yellow, but an entire house in yellow? I think not.  Even though we are only renting I HAD to do some painting.  I have always steered away from blue, so this time when choosing colors for our mater bedroom I decided to go with something different...blue. In the pictures it looks a bit purpley (?) but in real life we love it, it's just the right shade.  Not too girly, not too masculine.  Here is a photo of our MB looking towards the closet/on-suite bathroom.

When we were deciding what to do with the kitchen/living room/dining room of course I had to go with my favorite color, green.  It is a pale green with the coolest name, Margarita..of course I picked it!  Our ceilings are really high so we painted only about 2/3rds of the walls.  We would have needed to rent really big ladders for it all so we left them the pale yellow (you can see it on the breakfast bar in the picture)  Here is a picture of the Living room/Dining room and a teeny bit of the open-plan kitchen mid paint job, can you tell I'm short?  Just to the right (not shown) is the entrance to the MB.

The view from the Dining room towards the balcony/patio.  Saying its a patio is a bit of a stretch because it is quite small, but I did manage to fit perfectly a suuuuper cute vintage ice cream set that my mum and dad bought for us as a wedding gift.  I am sure there will be a photo of that on here in the future.

Our awesome open-floor plan kitchen, complete with breakfast bar, dishwasher, and of course wine rack.  Unfortunately the cupboard space is minimal but I did manage to fit all of those presents in there and keep them pretty organized.  Kudos to me!

And finally our master bathroom.  Not that exciting really.  I am planning on painting it a really pretty teal color, I already have the paint (I can hear my mom gagging, she despises 50's teal).  I think it will look nice with our sort of 'beachy' themed place.  Plus I need a little less pale yellow in my life.  Unfortunately I do not have any photos of the guest bedroom/guest bathroom but in reality they look exactly the same at the master so you're not really missing much.  I probably will put up 'after' photos of them anyway.

Keep checking back because I have a toats awesome tutorial coming up really soon!

Shaydes: Back In Business

SHAYDES IS BAAACK! And with a facelift to boot! A brand new look to go with all the brand new posts I have in store for you. I know, I know. I have been gone a while, and basically three words can sum that all up.

Planning. A. Wedding.

But now that is all said and done, Spencer and I are fully moved into our apartment here in Jacksonville, Florida and things are settling down.  Whew!

When I was thinking about what to write here as my "Welcome Back" post, honestly I was pretty much at a loss.  So since I have no cool project, don't feel like giving a recipe, or going into some philosophical discussion etc etc...I am going to just fill you in on what you missed over the 3 months with cool pics. Here's a hint...A LOT OF WEDDING JUNK

 MAY





Started with moving in to the new place in Jax and then I flew back up to Michigan to see my beautiful cousin Erin marry her man Zach.












After being in Michigan for about 4 days, I flew out to LA to visit my best friend from when I lived in Denmark, miss Kari.  We spent time in San Diego, Corona, Laguna, & Hollywood.












After a week there I took the train up to Sacramento, CA where I met my family to see another one of my beautiful cousins get hitched.  It was my first time meeting her fiance Will and we all had an awesome time.






JUNE



 After another week in Cali, my family and I all flew back home to Michigan together.  I spent the next month finishing up plans for my own wedding & spending time with my friends (whom I miss massively).













and of course going to more weddings! My old friend Allison and Spencer's bud Mike got hitched too.







JULY

Bachelorette parties ensued with almost all my closest girls corrupting me.

Annnd FINALLY it came time for Spencer and I's turn to tie the knot

 

So that's what'cha missed!  For the rest of this summer I have a lot of really cool tutorials, decorating ideas, yummy new recipes, and so much more in store for all of my lovely readers.  I can't wait to share them with you.

Spring Things

One simple word can pretty much sum up my life as of now... INSANE.

In the past two weeks, on top of my already crazy school schedule & planning my wedding in July,  my fiance Spencer was offered an amazing full time position with Southeast Toyota in Jacksonville, Florida.  For all of you who don't know, we currently reside on the opposite side of the country in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  In other words this means that our lives have been recently turned upside down.  (Not all bad though :) Spencer graduates on the 7th of May and we are moving two days after...UGH.  We had never been to Jacksonville before and needed to find a place to live ASAP. We flew down there this last weekend and did a ton of apartment hunting.  With the help from our awesome realtor we found a beautiful two bed/two bath apartment in Orange Park, Jax (Southern Jacksonville).   Now that it is all taken care of I can go back to my normal life of school and of course blogging!








Amid all of the insaneness (if that's a word) I did manage to finish a fun project.  I thought our quite bare apartment needed a little sprucing up so I whipped up this easy peasy little wreath:

For the finishing touch I crocheted circles and a strap then hot glued them to the wreath

Simple but I love it. 

My cousin just posted these cute pics of a fun project she finished, a Jewelry Organizer.  She has my brain turning now to come up with a cute way to organize my jewlery...hmmmm...we will see what I come up with later.

She went from this...

...to this!

She started with these supplies...

 Painted the frame blue, and then once again with a light blue lightly over top for a distressed look.  The stapled the chicken wire to the back.

She then covered the edges of the chicken wire with some felt fabric & glued it on to keep it from scratching the walls.

 And added some hooks.

           
and once again the awesome finished project.  LOVE IT.

Thanks Chelsea for the super cute project!

Get Inspired!

Curio Cabinet turned Chameleon Terrarium! Part 2

Hello bloggers!  First off I want to say that I am so sorry for being away for too long.  To say that life has been crazy these past couple weeks would be a serious understatement, for example about 3-4 hrs of sleep was a 'good' day...yuck.  Buuuuut this weekend I finally accomplished something other than my mounds of homework and "end of the semester" projects and I am SO excited about it!  Remember my earlier post about turning an ugly curio cabinet into a terrarium for the chameleon Spencer said I could get?  Well here is a little reminder:

 After a TON of work and elbow grease I turned it into this!!!

 Okay so not the greatest picture (its still living in the storage room until we move next month), I still have to find sticks/branches and such for chameleon climbing material but unfortunately it decided to FREEZING RAIN today so I wasn't about to trek outside in that nastiness.  I will have to post again when I do and I can introduce the little guy.  We still have to come up with a name...SUGGESTIONS?? (As long as its a boy name of course)

Spencer took pictures as the process went along.  To start I sanded and primed the entire thing.

Then I painted it this pale robins egg blue.  Its hard to tell in the pictures, the bright lighting makes it look pretty white but you can tell in this pic

 I just absolutely love the details at the top of the cabinet and the door of the cupboard at the bottom.

Since the cabinet didn't have a door Spencer helped me make one.  I went to the local hardware store and purchased wood to make the door frame, hinges, locks, screening and wood trim.  I forgot my camera the weekend I did all that so sorry for no documentation.  I measured for the door and Spencer cut the wood and nailed it together.  I used my staple gun to screen in the entire cabinet and door frame then used the wood trim to cover up the staples and frayed edges of the screen.  Once that was all done I screwed the door onto the cabinet with the hinges and locks I bought.

To finish it off I cut some terrarium green liner for the floor and added the CUTEST little door knob I found at World Market Cost Plus.

I am SO HAPPY it is finally finished and I can't wait until the new babies arrive and we can make this house a home