Queso Soup

Okay, so technically it's called Santa Fe soup, but it really is like eating a big bowl of queso and calling it soup. And it is as delicious as it sounds. I got this wonderful recipe from my very best friend after I texted her for any good ground beef recipes-you can only make spaghetti and tacos so many times. I seriously cannot explain how delicious this is. And it made a TON. Like filled my Dutch oven and I've got lunch for the week! I changed a couple things from the original recipe based on what I had at home, but don't think I would change anything I did! And it was a one pot meal-can't beat that!

Queso Soup

Ingredients

-1lb ground beef

-onion powder

-garlic

-1 can diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted)

-1 can rotels (I used the spicy kind)

-1 can corn

-1 can ranch style beans (I used the kind with jalepenos)

-1 can refried beans

-1lb velveeta, cut into cubes (I used the sharp cheddar kind)

Directions

1. Brown ground beef in Dutch oven or large stock pot along with a clove of minced garlic and onion powder and drain off the fat. 
2. Dump all of the cans into the Dutch oven-no draining here, just dump the cans in. Stir it all up until it's mixed together. Then add the velveeta and turn the heat down and until everything gets hot and the cheese has melted. Make sure to stir occasionally. It takes about 20 minutes to get all melty and hot! Serve with chips

And because I can't remember to take a picture to save my life, here's my little cup of leftover soup that I brought to work with me! 

It is as good as it looks! And here's the original recipe! 

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/13430/santa-fe-soup

Girls weekends are the best weekends

This past weekend goes down as one of my top weekends since we've moved to Fort Worth. Two of my very best friends came to visit and we did all the things necessary to make a perfect girly weekend.

We girl-talked, and drank wine. Went shopping, introduced Meagan to Trader Joes- it's safe to say she's as obsessed as I am, got pedicures, ate delicious Thai food, took a ridiculous amount of selfies and had SO much fun.

I'm so thankful and lucky that my friendship with these girls has kept up after moving, and can't wait for more wonderful weekends to come. We missed you lots btan, and we'll make sure you can make it to the next one!

Redoing the living room continued!

I know that I want our living room to have lots of color and be a bright and happy place. Since we're renting and can't paint I have to find other ways to do that and knew pillows were the way to do it. Easier said than done. I was super particular about what I wanted, but didn't want to spend a lot of money to get it. Like with the stockings, I figured I was better off making what I wanted, than searching high and low to find it. I ended up using this tutorial and it was awesome!! I went back and forth about whether I wanted to mess with zippers or not and in the end decided as long as I could take it off to wash, I didn't need to deal with zippers. I found the perfect fabric and got to work

This is how the back ends up looking with the envelope style covers. 

The hardest part was measuring and cutting the fabric to the right size, the actual sewing was super easy and pretty foolproof. And now we have a happy couch, just the way I want it! 

On top of new pillows we also got a new dining table this weekend! We met Ross's parents for breakfast on Saturday and they were checking out some antique stores after and we tagged along. At the second store we found a table we loved. We already had a great table-it had been mine growing up and is an antique table from Scotland- but we don't have a very big dining area and something smaller would give us a little more room. It came with all the different chairs and looks perfect with the other cabinets we have in the dining room (the one on the right is where the bottles that had been on ground for months finally found a home).

I love our table and finally feel like we're starting to make this little apartment feel like our home! 

Redoing the living room

We were lucky enough to be given the majority of the furniture in our home from friends and family. And while it is all really great, solid pieces, it isn't exactly my style. I began to look around Pinterest and blogs for ideas and decided I wanted  to use some type of chalk/mineral paint to redo all the furniture. I HATE sanding. I'm not even sure I know how to do it, and the less coats of primer/paint I have to apply-the better. I researched and compared brands and decided on Cece Caldwell Paint. It had great reviews and there was a retailer less than a mile from where I work! I eventually want to work my way up to redoing our dresser but knew I should start small and decided to paint our end table for the living room in "Nantucket Spray"- a really pretty light mint/grey color. I forgot to take a before picture of the end table somewhere, but just picture the table in a normal wood color. Also disregard the giant pile of bottles. Those found a new home in all the decorating too!

I can not recommend this paint enough. It is not cheap. At all. Ross was not happy when I told him how much a quart was ($35) but it covers SOOO well and you don't need to sand or prime so that alone was worth it for me. And I barely used a cup of it to cover the whole table with 2 coats! Once the second coat had dried, I distressed the edges with super fine sandpaper and then I sealed it with a poly-acrylic varnish!

I LOVE how the table ended up and it really got me started on finishing our living/dining rooms!