New DVD Storage

For a while I've wanting to update my DVD storage. Over the past 9 or so years we have been building our collection but it was getting out of hand with a lot that we didn't really like and probably would never watch again.  We bought a lot of movies instead of watching them in the theater (generally the price of the DVD was less than the price of one movie ticket); I got a lot when Blockbuster would have clearance on their previously viewed movies.  Here were our movies before:

9 years of collecting DVDs

I found these DVD sleeves that keep the cover intact yet allow 8 movies to fit in the same space as a standard DVD.  It was exactly what I needed so I bought a few packs and got started.

I learned that got a lot worse before it gets better.  The cases in the box are all the empty cases and the ones piled up are all the moves that we are going to get rid of. There are about 60 DVDs that we are getting rid of; I'm thinking of possibly saving up stuff for the next few months and having a garage sale but have to figure out where to store it in the mean time.  

The rejects

I LOVE these baskets that are currently at Target.  They have them in teal, lime, white and black.  I have bought a bunch of the teal ones to put throughout the house.  The DVDs fit perfectly inside and each easily holds 40 DVDs.

Lovely new DVD storage

I also made some labels for each basket (yes the DVDs are alphabetical in the baskets).  There is going to be a learning curve for printing these labels perfectly.  When they printed each label was a little off and so they weren't always centered on the label.  I made some to label stuff in my couponing stockpile as well, but that is for another post :)

Pretty little labels

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Easy Shredded Chicken

A few days ago I read about cooking shredded chicken in the crockpot over on the Coupon Project's website:  Cooking Chicken in Crockpot . I decided to try it out tonight and it turned out great (plus its SUPER easy).  I put the frozen chicken in the crock-pot before I left for work and turned it on low for 8 hours.  When I got home I put each breast in my kitchenaid mixer and turned it on for around 15 seconds.  Almost Instant Shredded Chicken!!

 I love these crock-pot liners - it makes cleanup so much easier

A couple chicken breasts in the crock-pot

Shredding in the mixer

4 chicken breasts all shredded

I cooked/shredded 4 chicken breasts for tonight's dinner of tacos.  After 4 people ate, we still have TONS left over.  Guess we are going to have shredded chicken in meals for a while.  Next time I make this I might try seasoning the meat while in the crock-pot so that I don't have to try and mix it in after its all shredded.

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Map Project

I've been wanting to update our picture wall for a while.  For each major trip we take, I print an 11x14 picture to hang on the wall.  We've been following the same pattern for a while and are starting to run out of space on the wall.  I also thought it would be cool to put up a map and label all the places that Brad & I have gone together. 

Original Photo Wall - 3 Pictures still need to be added

Brad helped me hang everything this evening.  I wish the doorbell was in a different location; maybe I'll find some sort of 8x10 or 5x7 picture to fill the empty space it creates.  I still need to put all of the pushpins for the locations.  The thing I like about the wall is that it can grow a lot easier.  I've accepted the fact that its not symmetrical (difficult thing for this engineer to do...I like symmetry). 

Final wall with map

 I'm looking forward to adding to this wall and growing the number of push-pins on the map :)

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More Snow

Finally on Friday the snow and ice began to melt.  The trees in our backyard kept dropping snow and all Princess wanted to do was chase this falling snow.  She would have done this all day if I had let yer.  When I was trying to get her to come back inside she wouldn't even come upstairs for a treat.

Pip could care less about the snow and is going to be thrilled when its all gone (he doesn't have much fat on him to keep him warm)

Pip just wants to be curled up in my North Face

All of my bushes are covered in ice.  The top of my rosebush was touching the ground and I was worried that it wouldn't come back; fortunately this morning its standing back up normal. Below are some pictures of my iced over bushes.

Poor Rose bush

View of the Valley

Normally the mountains could be seen in the distance

Hope everybody managed to stay warm and dry throughout this storm.  I've definitely had my snow fix for a while :)

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Sunset & Snow Storm

 

A few days ago we had an AMAZING sunset.  It painted the sky such wonderful colors (and I swear EVERYBODY posted their version of this sunset on facebook).  I figured I would share my version too :)

This past weekend we had the start of Snowmageddon 2012! Most of our snow had melted yesterday but then this morning we got ~4" and it snowed almost all day.  It turned to freezing rain later in the afternoon so now it is ALL iced over.  The dogs weren't so sure about the snow.  Pip & Princess kept falling through the snow and doing faceplants.   It was gorgeous watching all the snow fall in the valley.  I love the snow but only for a day or so....after that its just confinement.  I'm pretty sure the dogs will be happy when they can go outside and not worry about falling through.

Pip not so sure about the snow

Princess enjoying the snow....for a bit

Family Snow picture.  Pip wanted inside by this point

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Pinterest Menu Board

Many days I think Brad wishes that Mom had never introduced me to the lovely website Pinterest.  So far it has created many projects that I want to complete (and lots of them require Brad to do some sort of work for them).  Below is one of the first projects I attempted.  I created this menu board using a 12x12 frame (turns out the one I bought was 12.5x12.5), scrapbook paper, and vinyl letters cut from my cricut machine.

It works great; each Sunday I use dry erase marker to write what we are having each night for dinner and then pull out the appropriate items from the freezer.  A couple months ago we bought an upright freezer off craigslist and filled it with frozen fruit, Zaycon chicken and a bunch of other random beef/meat.  If you haven't heard of Zaycon before they sell various meats nationwide for great prices.  Their biggest event is their national chicken sale where you get 40 pounds for about $1.50/lb.  If you are interested in learning more, go here. 

Anyways, back to the menu board.  For the most part, I've been pretty good at following the schedule, this past week the only time it was different was when Brad's business partners came for dinner on Tuesday and on Thursday when Brad ended up working til 9PM.  It has helped plan our meals a lot so that I know what to pull out of the freezer and for evenings when Brad gets home before me he knows what to start cooking.  Now just to remember to marinate the food the night before :)

Stay tuned for other Pinterest creations...

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Cleaning up the tupperware cabinet

I'm beginning my year by organizing and simplifying my kitchen.  I decided that I had WAY too many tupperware items.  The picture below shows just about everything taken out of the cabinet (there are a few items still in the fridge with leftovers):

Pixel decided that all these items looked interesting and that she wanted to check it out as well.  After pulling everything out of the cabinet I worked on pairing lids and containers.  I have been trying to make it so that all of my containers are the same brand.  I'm slowly getting there and starting by getting rid of the "disposable" containers.  I am keeping a few of them that I use for the freezer; however, these are all the same size and brand so it makes finding lids easier.

I had a few lids that I couldn't match to containers so I rubber banded them together and game myself 2 months to find their matches before just throwing them out.

Below are the "after" results.  The pink and blue container are for salads and have a fork and dressing container which lock into the lid.  I originally had 8 of these container sets but the lids really don't stack well so I donated 6 of them. This drawer also contains the freezer containers and the little 1/2 cup ones I use for taking yogurt to work.

The second drawer contains a giant container to hold lids (unless its actually being used), and also the Rubbermaid Premier set.  I love my Rubbermaid containers; they are see through, stack nicely and also all the lids snap together.  I bought the starter kit at Costco and am definitely thinking of buying a second set to replace some of the other containers.

Here is the end result.  The glass and stainless steel mixing bowls fit nicely in this cabinet along with all of my Tupperware.  

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Its that time of year...

Every year around this time I start thinking about sandy beaches, fruity drinks and sun burns (or telling myself that THIS time I won't get burnt).  I can't decide where to go this year; every place that I look at looks interesting and makes me want to go there; at least until I look at the airfare price. 

It was about this time last year that I started planning our Aruba trip.  For those of you who haven't heard the story;we didn't actually make it to Aruba based off of a little mishap of not realizing Brad's passport was expired.  Instead, we spent a week in glorious Key West.  I will definitely go back to Key West and eventually to Aruba; but there are so many other beautiful beaches and cultures to experience as well. 

At this point I am considering the following places:

• St Maarten (Brad wants to see the airplanes take-off and land about 60' above the beach)
• Fiji with a few days in Auckland, New Zealand on the way there
• Paris, with a stopover in Iceland (yay Iceland Air having cheap direct flights!)
• Cruise to hit a bunch of Caribbean islands leaving from Puerto Rico
• Eventually I think it would be cool to Dubai, but probably not this year...
• Any other place that I see that looks interesting

Any suggestions or tips on traveling to these places?

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My First Post

Welcome to Adventures of Brad & Kendra.  In 2011 I started following multiple blogs (mostly due to the fact that I am currently addicted to pinterest).  I decided that it would be fun to start a blog around my exciting shopping excursions, DIY home projects and life in general.

I hope to update this blog somewhat regularly (lets start with weekly); and also make it more visually appealing (there has to be more customization options than what I was finding this evening).  So if you find this blog and know how to:

• Add additional fonts other than the 7 default ones
• Create a logo picture rather than just the Blog Title
• Any other cool features that you think I should utilize

then let me know.  I have a feeling that all this can be accomplished via the "Edit HTML" tab. 

I generally do not make New Year's Resolutions; however, I've been thinking of doing a couple for this year:

• Keep my kitchen counter less of a dumping ground and more of a nice, clean counter
• Continue to do my weekly meal planning and actually stick to the plan
• Save up money for and start the major home renovation we've wanted to do since buying our house...turning our giant crawlspace into a daylight basement

I'll start there for the year; I could probably add more but that would just be setting myself up for not keeping any of them.



-Kendra

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