Home by Heidi

March 23, 2013

{Spagetti and a Plate Full of Projects!}

Hey Everyone!

Yes, I've been struggling with blogging lately:( I am right in the middle of trying to fine-tune small spaces in my home, plus I am designing a new pediatric dental office
(which by the way ALL you Utah people have to go check it out)!

It's going to be AMAZING, your kids will LOVE it!:)

The theme of the NEW building in Clearfield is a "Kids Town." It's going to look like a REAL miniature town, the perfect size for kids. You will see things like REAL lamp posts with street signs, a fire station, post office and even City Hall. And of course we couldn't leave out their little white dog mascot.
The office will be done by the end of April. We are right in the middle of a construction zone.

I will do a BIG long post on it once it's up and running :)

Here is the logo and website that my husband's company designed
for them!

www.kidstowndental.com

In the meantime..If you want to see my day to day design questions and posts,
I am a VERY good Instagramer! So check me out there.

One more thing...I PROMISED I would post my most FAVORITE homemade spaghetti recipe. I am a BIG homemade... "made from scratch" kind of cook. I have a hard time with processed ANYTHING. I think we really should eat more stuff with single or few ingredients vs. food full of stuff that I can't pronounce. How can I expect my body to know what the heck to do with it if I don't even know what it is??? Anyway, I could talk for HOURS on that subject...I will spare you:)
I do also know that we all have CRAZY busy lives. So I try to find recipes that are FAST and simple.

So...here you go, the next time you want something tasty that fills the kids' bellies, while maintaining a hectic schedule

"Spagetti Sauce"... Heidi's version

Start with these 4 ingredients...

1-2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1/3 cup chopped white onion

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

3 garlic cloves, minced

( I just buy my garlic already chopped in those plastic/glass jars...makes life easy!)

In a pan on medium heat....throw in chopped onion, minced garlic and 1-2 tablespoons of Olive Oil (let everything caramelize) takes a few minutes!

Then dump in the tomato paste and stir everything together for another minute or two.

Then take this paste mixture, and throw it in a crock pot...

Add the remaining ingredients...

3 cans of tomato sauce

1/2 cup water

2-3 tablespoons brown sugar (depends on how sweet you like your sauce)

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

Cook on low for an hour or two or whenever you are ready to eat!

The sauce is especially good the next day! Perfect for freezing or using in another Italian dish!

Notice there isn't any meat in the sauce! I'm not a huge red meat fan, but you can totally add a pound to the recipe. Just cook it first and add it to the tomato paste mixture in step #1

Voilà, your family will love it!!!
Bon appétit!

February 24, 2013

{Grout Dilemma!}

Hey Everyone...

I have been SUPER busy around the house! I am excited to post the before and after pictures.

But just so you didn't think I TOTALLY disappeared, I wanted to share a QUICK tip I found out about during this CRAZY remodeling/changing things up a bit journey.

When we built this house 7 years ago, let's just say I didn't know much about "grout color" as much as I do now.

So when the kitchen backsplash went up, I had the tile guy pick whatever he thought looked good with the tile. BIG MISTAKE!!! What I ended up with was a grout that looked PINK, Ahhhhh!

So for the past 7 years, I have HATED my tile in the kitchen. I have been telling Brett that I wanted to rip it out, but the tile itself wasn't bad and I REALLY like the 3x6 shape so......

I thought that if we were to re-grout it, I might like it a lot better.

I headed to my local tile store and asked what the BEST way to take out old grout knowing we were headed for a time-consuming, NOT VERY FUN project! and guess what I was told?!....

I didn't have to re-grout it!!

All I had to do was PAINT THE EXISTING GROUT!

WHAT???

You mean there is such a thing as Grout Paint?? Can I just tell you how that made my day!

The shop owner had me look at the grout deck of colors and I picked the perfect shade that coordinated with my existing tile!

Here are the Before and After pictures!

The Special Grout Paint

"Antique Linen"

BEFORE

AFTER

Yep...Looks like a TOTALLY different tile! I am pretty thrilled with the end result :)

Notice the wallpaper!!!

....This is me jumping up and down with excitement...

thats for a future post (wink)

January 21, 2013

{Inspiration!!!}

Inspiration can be found in so many places.
From stores, blogs, and magazines to fabric and furniture.
It's all around us!

I am one who LOVES to create and my living space seems to be what I focus on most. I tell my husband that my house is like an artist's canvas...always CHANGING!

I know it drives him CRAZY... I think I would go CRAZY if I didn't have a change of scenery ever so often!

Brett has said in past conversations that he believes there are very few NEW ideas, but a lot of old ideas people reinvent in a new and EXCITING way!
By adding your own twist on things you make an existing idea or design your very own.

And isn't that why we follow blogs in the first place?
To be inspired and to gather GREAT ideas from each other.

I personally feel copying is the BIGGEST form of flattery! :)

Here are some pictures I have gathered over the years that I have personally been inspired by!

I have LOVED this picture display for some time now and I thought it would go PERFECTLY in my baby's nursery!

{Theirs}

Source

{Mine}

{Theirs}

Source

{Mine}

{Theirs}

Source

{Mine}

{Theirs}

Source

{Mine}

{Theirs}

Source

{Mine}

{Theirs}

Source

{Mine}

Thank's to all the wonderfully talented people out there
that inspire me daily!!!

January 15, 2013

{ Nursery Accents }

Here are a few updated pictures of the nursery.

I still haven't found the right items for on top of the armoire,

but...I was able to get her pictures up on the wall, just in time for our little bundle's blessing day!

I just LOVE this space!!

The Robins egg blue walls are so soothing and inviting!!!

Me and Miss Maddie spent a lot of time together in this room :)

January 9, 2013

{ Birthdays, Baptism, & Blessings! }

Have I mentioned how intense life has been for me over the past 2 1/2 months?!

Since Maddie's birth (end of October) until this past weekend, life has been Wonderfully CRAZY!!!

Amongst all the NORMAL busy-ness of life,

we fit a lot into a small amout of time!

Here are a few bullet points of just some of our events:

* Maddie's Birth

* Halloween

* Thanksgiving

* Megan's Dance Festival

* Big B's Birthday

* Brett's Birthday
* Remodel of our living room
*Remodel of our Office

* Maddie's Blessing and Lunch-in

* Christmas

* New Years

* Little B's Birthday

* A Baptism and Lunch-in
. . . just to name a few:)

Just ONE of those events is a killer let alone doing it all at once. This girl is one tired Momma!

I don't know how I got through it?

Did I mention I had a NEWBORN through all of it! LOL :)

I thought that after it all, life might calm down a bit, but then I remember the wood floor guy is coming next week and that means life will be a bit upside down once again!

(but at least ONLY for a few days :)

Here are some pictures from Brock's Special Day! These pictures are from the night before, preparing for the Brunch the next morning.

His theme was....

It's GREAT to be 8!

I do have some pictures from Madeline's blessing day as well, but on CRAZY(special)days, sometimes we forget to take as many pictures as we'd like.

Thank goodness for my father-in-law who always has his

camera in hand.

I'll share those pictures once I get them from him!

In the meantime, here is a picture of "THE DRESS"!!!

(Source)

We had these pictures taken a few days after she was blessed.
Her Grandma (Brett's Mom) made the dress!

Isn't it AMAZING?!?
I just gave her an inspiration picture of what I wanted and she was able to take my vision and make it a reality!
So SUPER talented!!!

I feel like one blessed Daughter!

THANKS a Million KATHY!

January 5, 2013

{The Office... Take 2}

Remember This Room?

Its been the yellow and green for sometime now!

In truth the room looked fine, but I was REALLY ready for a CHANGE!!

So.... our NEXT project became the office.

I wanted to design a room that was different then anything I had ever done before.

I thought I would try this NEW look in a smaller space to see if I liked it!

Well...Brett and I both are IN LOVE with how it turned out. We now want to do the rest of the house with the same kind of feel!

I now just need to add a rug, curtains, an office chair, pillows furniture, lamps..you know all the fun stuff :)(wink)

Brett works from Home so I wanted to update the space

to make him feel cozy and a little bit not so girly!

Here are some before and after pictures!

...BEFORE...

And,

this is what it looks like now...

We added an extra trim piece to the crown to REALLY add some DRAMA!

I'll post more pics once we start adding the Fun Decor items! :)

December 28, 2012

{I'm BACK!}

I'm Back!!!

Life has been a bit CRAZY with a new baby and all the holidays in the last few months! PLUS in my little family we have 2 birthdays in December and another the first week of January, plus we blessed our sweet little addition a week before Christmas,

so you can imagine it's been an eventful month.

Life for me has slowed down a bit. I'm trying to ignore all the many distractions in life and take some time to smell the roses.

Our little Madeline is such a joy in our lives and I don't want to miss a moment of her sweet babyness! I really take to heart the inspirational words I was told by my sister, to take time to breath in the perfect moments in life. Perfection happens rarely in life, so always be aware of the golden moments!

With the birth of Maddie, Brett and I find ourselves staying up late at night just looking and whispering to this sweet baby girl. Hours seem like minutes when you're holding a perfect little bundle.

Other than Miss Maddie keeping us busy, we've been keeping up with projects on the home front. Brett's been up to more trim work (shocking I know)!

We added a planked-wall on both sides of our staircase from floor to ceiling, and also on the biggest wall in our home.

Here are some before and after pictures

I have BIG plans for this wall. I need to find the perfect sconces and I'm in the works of getting a custom frame made and adding a big family picture between the lights!

Next came adding MORE trim to the squared off, bumped out wall.

It's always a smart idea to sketch out your vision for the space before just jumping in. It really helps to see it on paper and can lead to even MORE inspiration.

Here was ours!