Taco Stuffed Shells from Blog Chef

I strayed from the recipe just a bit and used a whole box of Barillla “large” pasta shells (instead of only 12) and a jar of Ortega taco sauce (rather than just a cup).

Yum. Jake approves. This one’s going in the rotation.

Photo via Blog Chef.

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A – http://abc.go.com/watch/general-hospital/SH559056/VD55136253/general-hospital-725
I like to catch up on General Hospital sometimes.

B – http://www.ballarddesigns.com/

C – http://www.crateandbarrel.com/

D – http://www.dafont.com/

E – http://www.etsy.com/

F – http://www.facebook.com/

G – http://www.gmail.com/

H – https://www.huntington.com/

I – http://www.indeed.com/

J – http://sendables.jibjab.com/

K – http://twitter.com/#!/teenystweeting (Kirsten Storms, aka Maxi on General Hospital)

L – http://www.linkedin.com/

M - http://www.marthastewart.com/

N – http://www.netflix.com

O – http://www.overstock.com/

P – http://pinterest.com/

Q - http://www.amazon.com/Content-Rules-Podcasts-Webinars-Customers/dp/0470648287/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294583696&sr=1-1

R – http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/horrible_bosses/

S – http://www.savevid.com/  (You can download videos from YouTube here…didn’t know this existed until recently.)

T – http://thishomebelongsto.com/

U – http://www.wunderground.com/

V – http://www.google.com/reader/view

W – http://www.facebook.com/devoschildrens

X – http://www.etsy.com/listing/75851498/yorkshire-terrier-5x7-print-of-original

Y – http://www.younghouselove.com/

Z – http://www.zgallerie.com/

Have you ever tried this fun little game?

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Next, I want to share the elevation drawings I completed during the six week interior design class I’m so glad I was able to take.

What is an elevation drawing? Basically, an elevation is a one dimensional (flat) drawing of the three dimensional space. It is seen ‘head on’ or as if you were facing the particular wall from the front.

The elevation takes the floor plan one step further. You use the same elements in a room, but this time you’re able to get an even better idea of what the final product will look like.

So here is each wall of our living room. For each wall I’ll show you how the wall looked the last time you saw it, the elevation drawing and what the room looks like with the drawing at least partially implemented.

North Wall

Before

Elevation Drawing

Elevation Drawing Partially Implemented

East Wall

Before

Right side of this photo:

Elevation Drawing

Elevation Drawing Partially Implemented

South and West Walls

Before

Elevation Drawings

(This drawing differs slightly from the floor plan in that I opted to use an existing table rather than purchase a new bench.)

Elevation Drawings Partially Implemented

As you can see, drawing elevations helps you see the possibilities for your room without having to make any commitments before you’re ready.

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Pencil and Paper Method

wikiHow – A great step-by-step guide to drawing a floor plan the same way I do it.

Apartment Therapy – Here is a slightly different method. This is a written tutorial with fewer pictures than the one above, but still good.

eHow – The tips at the end of this article are worth a read.

Books Can Help

The Space Planner: A Home Decorating Design Workbook (I have this workbook, it’s awesome.)

Quick Planner: Reusable, Peel & Stick Furniture & Architectural Symbols

Online Fun

floorplanner.com – The basic program is free and probably enough to get what you need. You can also upgrade to more, increasingly sophisticated options.You can also add color, texture and furniture to your design.

American Drew – It’s a simple tool, one where you can enter the size of the room then place simple pieces of furniture.

homestyler.com – Free “drag and drop” floor plan creating options.

Smart Draw – You can start with ready-made templates on this site. It’s free to try. If you like it you’ll have to purchase a subscription.

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Here’s where we left off…

As I said yesterday, progress had been made. But a finished room this was not.

And then I learned how to draw a floor plan. You probably don’t know this, but in January of this year I took at 6 week design class at Kendall College of Art and Design and it changed the was a look at designing a room. This class was one of the highlights of my year and I learned so many great things that I’ve been applying to our home since. I just haven’t blogged about it yet!

So, as a homework assignment for class, I measured every corner of the living room and all of the furniture we had in the room.

With the help of my instructor and class mates (including Megan and Laura), this is the floor plan we came up with.

Drawing a floor plan is easy. And even if it wasn’t, it would be worth it. I’m not expert (yet) so I won’t give you a tutorial. But I will post some resources later this week. Essentially what you need is a pencil and graph paper. Once you’ve measured your room you just draw it out to scale on the graph paper. Then, cut out furniture using sticky notes. In my floor plan, green represents existing furniture and purple represents furniture I would need to purchase.

What I like about this floor plan is that there is a good flow and it’s easy to walk through the room. Watching TV is comfortable, but the TV (inside the media cabinet/armoire) is not the focal point of the room.

Once the floor plan was just right on paper, it was time to actually move the furniture I had into place to make sure this layout would work before we made any more big purchases to fill in the missing pieces. The floor plan ended up looking just as good in real life as it did on paper. So it was time to take the next step…drawing elevations. More on that soon.

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The first time I showed you our living room, it looked like this:

At this point, we never used this room and the furniture was only thrown in so the room didn’t echo. And, we didn’t want our house to look abandoned. This is one of the only rooms you can see from the street.

Next, a few well placed accessories temporarily warmed up the space and made it at least a little more inviting.

I attempted to make the space look more “lived in” by adding a table cloth which Jake was not shy about hating.

He wasn’t wrong.

I fell in love with this huge painting from Pier One and brought it home immediately, even though I didn’t quite know where to put it.

Things started to look up when I got the itch to start rearranging furniture.

The room felt instantly cozier with the couch on an angle like this.We replaced the ugly green wing-backs with two hand-me-downs from my parents. At this point, I actually started using this room to read. Previously Moose was this room’s only occupant.

We invested in an armoire, a rug and a different chair…

At this point, things were looking pretty good. Except the other corner. That dang corner that I just could not figure out what to do with…

…and that’s when I learned the most important decorating lesson I’ve learned yet. “When in doubt, draw it out.”

More on that tomorrow.

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If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know I tried a new cookie recipe the other night. I promised to let you know if they were good or not. I have one word for you…YUM. This recipe is for soft/chewy cookie lovers and not those of you who like a crispier cookie. The recipe is by Kelsey at Apple a Day. She recommends using a stand mixer, but I didn’t feel like lugging mine up from the basement and a hand mixer seemed to work just fine.

Cookie photo by thepinkpeppercorn.

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While I’m sure my friends and family find Moose to be adorable, you can’t quite beat the looks on the faces of the kids in that video.

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I have no idea. But I’m glad they did.

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