Happy Thanksgiving!

Today Michael and I are home and the goal was to get Thanksgiving preparations under control for tomorrow. I have already had a epic fail with a homemade cheeselog made out of goat cheese. (Never make this).

Looks good in the picture right? Wrong.

So anyway, a new game plan was planned. I will be making the following dishes and will be crossing my fingers the whole time I'm making them.

Crock pot meat balls (for my mom's get together later in the evening, we will be putting up the Christmas tree at her house tomorrow night :)

To make these you bascially throw all of the following in a crock pot and then cook on low for 7-8 hours:
1) Package of frozen meatballs
2) 1 bottle chili sauce
3) 1 small jar of grape jelly (werid I know)
Got the recipe off a food blog I found through pintrest.

Also on the list is these pumpkin goat cheese mini-pies.

These ones are a little more complicated, but I have high hopes. You can get the recipe from the food blog givemeflour

Also, I will be making a "cheesy squash bake", which is suprisingly healthy.

You can get the recipe from here.
AND last but not least, I will be attemping to make a cake from a recipe that will be adapted off of a cupcake blog. Its called the Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake. I made it with their strawberry frosting. I've made the cupcakes before will great reviews from Michael.

Looks pretty ultimate right?

A little off topic, but our kitchen is coming to a close! We still haven't painted anything, but our reclaimed wood island is in the works and I'm so excited. We actually found all the lumbar out in our old barn in the backyard. I can't wait.

Open Shelving

Ok, when I bought our house I had never thought or even considered a lot of the design elements that I'm obsessed with now. One of these elements is open shelving, especially in the kitchen. I knew when we finally got to our big kitchen project that this had to be incorporated somehow.

Freaking obsessed.

Anyway! Our open shelving wall is well on its way!

We did ours a little different with two smaller bottom shelves and then two long ones on top. That was we can add something decorative to the middle over top the stove or a little wall mounted pot rack or utensil rack. They are not painted yet (nor is anything else!) but omg I can't wait until they are painted and full of awesomeness!

Bianca Carrara

After weeks of searching, we bought our countertop today! I wanted to be sure about this purchase because its probably the biggest one we will make with our entire kitchen project as a whole. We saved a lot on the other things so we were going to splurge on the countertops. We really liked the quartz and granite styles, but I really was set on a white countertop, so we decided on quartz because it offered more white options.

Here is a picture of what it will look like, its called Bianca Carrara which is a Zodiaq brand quartz countertop. (I really want that sink too!)

I really liked how the speckled gray will go well with the gray tiled floor. yay!

We are currently working on the lighting and wiring, which is mostly done. I'm going to be putting an island int he middle with a chandelier overtop. Everyone I explain this to gives me a puzzled look, but I swear it will look right! Example:

BEAUTIFUL! I'm thinking of transfering our dining room light to the kitchen for this look and then getting a new dining room light.

Perfection. Although then the next problem is the dining room light.. ohhh welll.. guess that means I need to buy something else for it ;) Projects!

Will post more progress soon!

Alison