Making Over Our Bathroom

As I have stated before, hubby and I are moving out of his mama's house and into our own!! And we have set a move-in date; August 4th!!! I am uber excited and we have been super busy for the past two weeks trying to "flip" the house. If you didn't follow me before, the house that we are moving into is a house that my grandmother owns and a house that has not been occupied for about 7 years. So of course there were some repairs needed and fresh coats of paint that needed to be applied.

So our 1st project was the bathroom. It had some ugly tan wallpaper on the walls that we decided to tear down and I wanted to paint the bathroom blue because I had this blue shower curtain set for years that I never used back in my college days...lol. Hubby and I worked on the paint job for about 2 days (would have taken us longer if we didn't get a paint that had a primer built in!).

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Hubby working hard painting the parts of the walls that I couldn't reach...lol

(Left) Walls are painted and now we were moving on to the doors.

(Right) Front and closet doors were painted white.

And in this picture, the paint work is fini (although you can't see it well because of the angles in the bathroom)!! We've actually done a thorough cleaning and put up the shower curtain and rugs. Once EVERYTHING is complete I will post a finished picture :)

Defining My Natural Curls!

Most Naturalistas out there understand the struggle of defining your curls and I am one of them!! I have still not quite figured out my hair type but I am in the 4th category which means that I have very tight curls that shrink a great deal. My curls sit so pretty when my hair is wet and full of conditioner but when it dries, don't even ask me what it looks like...lol. Let's just say a wash-and-go takes a goo amount of time for me to manage between washing and going out for the day. To get to the point, I defined my curls about 2 weeks ago and they turned out very nice! Here is what I did (below):

What You Will Need:

Eco Styler Gel (I use the gel with Olive Oil in it)

Spray Bottle

Denman Brush

1. I sectioned my hair off into very small sections as I worked through my hair.

2. Make sure that each section is very wet and apply a generous amount of gel (gel may make your hair a  

     bit crunchy).

3. Lastly, run the Denman brush through your hair (you may have to do it a few times). As you are doing so,

    your curls will begin to form.

4. Let your hair dry and voila, you will have a defined set of curls that will last for a few days (mine lasted 2

    days).

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait.

We have all heard that saying before at least once in our lives and I am writing about it because I am waiting....I have become a bit frustrated with life recently and I will share with you why that is. It mainly has to do with the root of all evil, Money! As I stated before, hubby and I are fixing to move very soon. We also just purchased a new car, fairly cheap from a family member. Anyways, we have spent a great deal of $$$ on things and I know this is just the beginning.

I have been working at my current job for 7 months now and I have grown tired of it. Not because I don't enjoy what I do (I work with kids), I just don't make enough money. I have a college degree but that means nothing to my job because it's in Therapeutic Recreation. I get paid the same amount as people who never went to college and I can tell you now that it's very frustrating!! I have friends who never went to college either and they make more money than I do as well. Not saying that having a college degree is everything but it should at least count for something.

 I'm waiting for my good things to come. Where is my wonderful job as a Recreation Therapist so that I can get a car note and but a down payment on a house?? I have been out of college for a year now (I know that's a short period of time) but I feel like I shouldn't be doing what I am doing. I am now at the point where I am forcing myself to look into graduate degree programs because it seems that just having a bachelors isn't enough anymore (sigh). Hubby & I have this discussion quite often and it's quite depressing for me. I just keep telling myself to wait and that it will all have been worth it in the end but I don't know if waiting is worth it....

Update

So, I am a horrible blogger....lol. I haven't created a post in over a month! I can admit that I have been a bit busy since I lasted posted. Hubby turned 26 and we celebrated that by going to a lounge with a few friends! We of course have still been going out, to dinner mostly. But, we have been putting a great deal of our time & MONEY into our newest project, OUR NEW HOUSE!!!
Well, the house isn't so new but it will be our 1st home together and that's definitely a new idea for us! I am of course a Philadelphian and the house isn't in the best of neighborhoods but I will tell you why that doesn't matter to us right now. The house belongs to my grandmother and it is where I lived with my mom & sister between the ages of 5 and 16. My granny isn't going to charge us rent to stay in the house, we do have to pay the bills of course. Sounds like a sweet deal for 2 young adults who have student loans to pay! The house has been sitting since we vacated so it needs some TLC. And this is our new project! Fixing ceilings and floors, paint jobs and the ever so fun task of decorating!
We are in progress already, well the people we hired are...lol. I will definitely be blogging our progress, room by room with pictures! We are so excited about moving and I am even more excited about decorating!!!!

The "B" Word......Baby!

    I am without a doubt certain that many newlyweds have experienced what I am about to talk about. I am talking about the big "B" question. "When are you guys you going to have a baby?" We have not been married for 2 months yet and I have been asked this question several times by people on both sides of the fence, those saying "go for it" and those wanting us to wait. The truth right now is, We do not know!

    Babies are the next big thing after walking down the aisle and finding a place to settle in to. So it isn't out of place or weird for people to want to know this information but I do find being asked quite annoying sometimes. While Aaron and I have "settled down", we are not quite ready to retire to our home 24/7 with a couple of little ones running around and driving us nuts! Not saying that being a parent means you can't do anything but it does limit some things. Our spontaneous nights of going to the movies, out to dinner or a bar without having to find a babysitter would of course be nonexistent as well as the future trips I am planning for us to take (he doesn't know anything about these trips yet....lol).

    Aaron and I have had this discussion and are excited about being parents in the near future. We both grew up in single households so we are really looking forward to raising our children together. Now don't get me wrong, there are some days when I come down with baby fever and I want to procreate right on the spot but there are a few things that snap me back. I work in childcare so I deal with screaming babies ALL day so that puts a damper on my baby dreams sometimes....lol. I also think about ALL of the costs; formula, car seats, crib, clothes, shoes, daycare and so on and while I am sure Aaron and I would make due with a little one, it would be beneficial to us to wait just a bit longer. So for those looking for a little baby girl or boy Dogan, not just yet, HOPEFULLY!!!

Tuesday Night Dinner: Italian Bread Pizza!!!

I didn't get home last night until almost 9pm and hubby wasn't home yet so I wanted to hurry up and make something for him to eat for dinner. We went to Wal-Mart on Monday night so I picked up a few things and one of them was a loaf of Italian bread (it was only $1.29). I had made these mini pizzas before for my mom, dad and sister and they were a hit so I was pretty sure he would like them. I really like making  them because they are extremely easy to make and in less than an hour they are ready to be served! These mini pizzas also make a great party dish as well. Here is what I used and how I made them.

Ingredients:
Italian or French bread
Pizza sauce (I used the Ragu brand last time)
Cheese (any flavor of course, hubby picked cheddar)
Toppings (we both love pepperoni pizza)

1. Cut bread into slices (as thin or thick as you would like them).

2. Spoon sauce onto each pizza. I made 21 pizzas and used the entire jar. If you want your pizza to be very saucy, it would be best to buy 2 jars.

3. Sprinkle as much cheese as you want! I love cheese...lol

4. Add toppings and set pizzas in the oven at 350 degrees.

**For a soft crust, cook pizzas for about 15 minutes. I like my crust a bit hard so I cook them for about 25-30 minutes

Cultural Dinner Night!

So, Aaron & I have been married for a little over a month now and we are finally settled back into our normal lives, only to be uprooted again when we move into our apartment next month...lol. Anyways, the first couple of weeks of our marriage I was brainstorming some date night ideas for the future (sounds a little silly, I know).  I wanted to find some things we could do outside of home as well as at home.  We literally went out every weekend for the 1st month of our marriage and dinner and show costs definitely add up so, I really wanted to find things that could be done at home. During my research I compiled a giant list and I will be posting them on a separate post.

There was one really cool idea that I did come up with that I wanted to share. Since I am now a wife, I have taken up the new hobby of cooking. I have always liked the idea of cooking dinner for myself and my family but I never really cooked at home, I am more of a baker. Anyways, I thought it would be cool if hubby and I could have a dinner date at home featuring food from a different culture (once a month). I decided that I will look up a dinner and dessert from a specific culture and prepare it as best as I can...lol and we will have a nice in home date night. I ran the idea by him and he of course said yes! We were trying to compile a list of different cultures/regions of foods that we would like to try. Now, I have book idea how these things should taste so that makes it a bit difficult but I think we will have fun with it anyway! We are waiting until we move into our own place to start up this date night and I cannot wait. I have no idea what will be on the menu for the 1st night but I will keep you posted!