I went to Ikea?

Oh yeah, I did!!  Hopefully my technology cooperates tonight.  Here are the goods:

I got this super cute salad bowl for $7.99 and also scored one for my mama cuz she loved it too :)

This is a duvet cover for Emma Jean's new purple bedroom.  I think this was only $29.99.  You can't really get the full effect but I knew if I took this out of the little package, I would NEVER get it back in there.  There is an Ikea ad on TV that has this on one of the beds if you pay close attention.

 Yup, I got this duvet cover "as is" for $9.99....couldn't pass it up!  It did NOT come in a fancy small package.  I had to buy a $0.57 Ikea bag to put it in.

Seriously, how cute is this?  This is a little tropical collapsible cooler that we can keep in our camper.  That way if we decide to take a trip to the beach at the campground, we can load it up with plenty of cold beer pop and water ;)

There ya have it!!

As for a house update???  Well we are THIS close to going to the bank.  We are literally waiting on one bid and one more piece that we need to price out....the electrical.  Soooooooo hopefully we will get a good idea of when we are REALLY going to be able to start :)

The Ikea Trip.....

Well I know some of you (ahem, Bebe) have been waiting to hear about the Ikea road trip.  Let me just start out by asking if Ikea is looking to adopt me!  To sum it up in 2 words....LOVES IT!  I really thought I had died and gone to heaven.  However me flopping my jaws is NOT doing any justice.  Let me share our trip via photos:

Yup look at the excitement on my face (oh and my "civil war" hat)!

I was so excited to be there.  So this picture reminded me of when we went to Mt. Rushmore and dad made us strategically place our hands to look like we were holding the Presidents in our hands!

Now check out this picture!

Yep, if you click on the picture you can see how much the birds like the Ikea sign.  They like it so much they left a "present" down the side of the building.

Whew we DID eventually make it out of the parking lot and into the actual store!  Yep we made it into the store and to this place!

Yep (turn your head) and you will see dad busting out the big breakfast plate.  Dad was starving once we got there so we got him some fuel so he could shop!  Just so you know...the breakfast was VERY reasonable!
Then we hit the store and I couldn't stop taking pictures!  I wanted all of the following:



Well I bet you thought you were going to get some pictures...HOWEVER I am having technical difficulties so you will have to come back tomorrow.  Sorry about that, but I will see ya'll tomorrow!

Back to the granite!

I told ya'll that the granite guy made a house call last weekend to show us some samples.  We found this guy through friends of ours that just had new granite installed.  His prices are indeed the cheapest that we have found around.  Now when I say cheaper, I mean cheaper.  He was 13 bucks per sq. foot cheaper than any place we had found! 

In case anybody else is looking for a good deal on granite,  here is the link to Trusted Improvement out of Novi!  The funny part?  He just jacked up the prices sooooooo maybe not quite as cheap.  He was $40 per sq. foot and now he is at $45.  Cheaper but not nearly as cheap anymore ;)

Trusted Improvement 

Here are the samples that you can choose from.

and another shot....

And the winner is.................

Giallo Ornamental

Fancy huh?  At least I can tell I am very consistent.  This was the same granite I picked out at American Cabinets & Countertops.  The difference you ask?  About 1,800 bucks!!

Now onto the cabinets.  Andy, from Trusted Improvement, also gave me a quote on cabinets.  His quote was great price-wise and it even included all the bells and whistles like soft close, etc.  Well when he showed me the choices I literally had FOUR to choose from.....four specific style doors with specific colors.  I KNEW there had to be a catch.  If I wanted to get the specific style and color that I REALLY want (and I do) it was going to be DOUBLE.  Needless to say, Andy will be referred to as the granite guy and NOT the granite and cabinet guy ;) 

Road Trip B*tches!!

Woohhhoooo, guess where we are going???  We are taking a road trip to the home goods mecca.....

 

Source 

Sweet baby jesus I have been perusing their website and something tells me that mama is gonna spend some money! Wooohhhooooo I am taking my camera (a.k.a. my dad's camera) to get plenty of photos of the shopping extravaganza.  Wooohhoooo!!!  Can't wait :)  

Something tells me I might look a little something like this.....

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Ok, so I gotta go eat my Wheaties so I have plenty of energy to get my power shoppin' on!!!!

Wok this way....

Ahhahhaaa I just crack myself up!  I am giggling like a little school girl over that title.  Eh, I am easily amused...what can I say???

Source

No, not THAT Walk This Way ;)  I meant this kinda WOK!

Yep that is the first wok I've ever owned and I am pretty excited about it!  I think I am going to put it in the storage unit and save it until I have a new kitchen to use it in!

Yup, picked it up at Menard's a couple weeks ago.  I believe it was regularly $24.99 and I got it for $5.99.  My kinda deal!  

The granite and cabinet dude came this past Saturday.  I am sold on the granite.  The cabinets?  Not so much!!  I'll show you some samples tomorrow night!

Speaking of meat....

this is what we had for dinner!

Mmmmmmm mom made shish ka-bobs tonight and they were sooooooo good!  Well until she served us the second batch that was undercooked.  Do you think maybe she was trying to knock us off?  Naawwwww!!  Not my mom.  Ya know, my mom that swears like a trucker while commuting to and from work (shhhhhh don't tell her I said that).  I really need to start uploading videos.  Believe me I threatened it today ;)

Ok back to my hurricanes.  Drum roll please......

Here is my cheap version!!

Yep, all three of those glass containers, the sand, the shells and the candles cost LESS than one of those hurricanes on Pottery Barn's website.  I think I have $26.50 wrapped up in all of that.  Let me also mention that I have about 6000 more shells to do SOMETHING with!

3 Words!

                                       CHELSEA LUMBER ROCKS!!!!!
                                                                                           
                                                                                           
                                                                                           
Yep I really meant that.  Look at all those caps and exclamation points up above ;)

As you can tell, we got some numbers back from Chelsea Lumber and they were much better than I expected.  And by much better I mean much SMALLER!!

Oh and go here and check this out:

Aegean Hurricanes 

These are what I really wanted from Pottery Barn.  Holy pricey!  Like I said I put together my very own cheap knock-off.  I will share my pictures tonight. 

Well that is unless the family and I get into some more heated meat discussions tonight!

So in the words of my honey....don't let your meatloaf!

Is a Ribeye Roast the Same as Prime Rib??

Soooooo there is a bit of an uprising going on at the LaRocca/Westrick Homestead tonight.  Mom bought what she thought was prime rib from Meijer:

Uhmmm is this prime rib once you cut it up??

Here are mom and dad doing their research!!

Big time debates tonight on what kind of meat that was!  Anybody have some inside scoop?  If so, let me know in the comments!! 
The boys are teaming up on the girls so we need all the help we can get :)  HELP!!!

Blame it on Ryan!

Yep, that is who I am going to blame my extended hiatus on.  Since Ryan has been wounded he has been working days.  In case you don't know Ryan very well....he can't sit still ;)  So we have been plenty busy every night.  I have plenty to get ya'll caught up on! 

Plenty of bids flowing in and I haven't had the big one yet so that is a GOOD THING!!  I have an ongoing talley sheet just trying to keep everything straight.  Things are coming along and I am soooo excited.  I really wished we could start tomorrow but it just ain't gonna happen!

So, I found these little beach accessories on Pottery Barn's website and I was dying to get them for the kids new bathroom, to go along with these:

Well I don't know if any of you purchase much from Pottery Barn or not but just let me tell you that they are NOT cheap!  Way too pricey for my stingy A double S!!

I was on a mission to recreate these but WAY cheaper than what they were going for at Pottery Barn:

I will do an entire blog on those things and how OUTRAGEOUS they were!  Theeennnn I will show you how I put together the exact same thing for 1/10th of the price! 

So anywho, based on my Pottery Barn talk I am sure you realized that we took a trip to the mall on Sunday.  Yep Emma, Mom and I decided to have a girl's day out.  Then we ran into these crazies!

Tommy was smiling but he was really saying hurry up and take this stupid picture before people see us!

I also decided to be cool like the younger generation and take some bathroom pictures:

Again, rotate your head for that one.  The moral of the story?  I need to leave bathroom self portraits to the young whipper snappers ;)

So stop back by tomorrow and I will put together my frugal aegean beach hurricanes just like those at Pottery Barn!

Oh also supposed to get a huge bid back from Chelsea Lumber tomorrow.  So if you don't hear from me tomorrow I may have really had the big one :P