DIY Return Air Grille {That's actually pretty!}

I've been pinning away on my home decor projects board. The problem is, for about 99% of them, I want to do the projects in our new house, so there's not a lot I can start on yet. But one pin I came across was perfect for our condo - this one. Our return air grille was all mangled, and most likely original to our mid-1980s building. It always looked ugly but I managed to ignore it... until we got our HVAC unit replaced. Now our air filters go directly behind the grille, so we have to unscrew the stupid/ugly/nasty thing every few months, then awkwardly try to replace it in the busted up drywall. Not fun. So, I decided to make a new one that would a) look a million times better, and b) be much more simple to remove and replace.

{House update} Visual Progress!

With all the delays we've been experiencing, I never would have guessed that our house would be moving faster than I'd post. I'm way overdue for this one! And not only have I not been keeping up, I've also been taking terrible phone pics of all the progress so far. Bad, bad blogger!

So the last news was that we got our building permit right around the beginning of February. Shortly afterward, we went over to the lot to check that the all the flagging around the trees marked for clearing was still up, and saw the first big sign of progress. Which was, literally, a sign.

First sign of progress - the builder's sign!

{Recipe} Healthy Crepes with Oats & Yogurt

I've always loved having special breakfasts on the weekend, ever since I was a kid. My mom and I would often make homemade waffles or pancakes or muffins. Now Bryan and I are generally most likely to go pick up bagels, but I've also been making crepes pretty often. I wasn't planning on having any crepes during my DietBet, but decided to experiment with a healthy version. These crepes are low cal, low fat, and high in protein.

Sorry for this sad excuse for food photography. I really just wanted to eat my breakfast.

{Mini-Getaway} West Virginia Ski Trip

Earlier in the winter I snatched up a Travelzoo deal for a night of lodging plus two lift tickets for $89 at Canaan Valley, West Virginia (yep, lodging and two lift tickets for $89 total - score!!), and we finally made use of it last weekend. It's definitely a small ski resort, but we had a great time checking out somewhere new to ski (for Bryan) and snowboard (for me). The snow conditions were amazing - so much fluffy powder to play in (something we're not used to on the east coast!), no crowds at all, and the lodge was pet friendly, so we got to bring Smokey along with us. Plus I was so excited to be on a snowboard again, since I hadn't been since we were in the Alps two years ago! Here are a few pics from the trip (please excuse the iPhone photo quality!).

{Recipe} Bread Love: The Naan Edition

Happy Saturday, all! I am oh-so-very excited for the weekend, and I hope you are too! If you have a little free time this weekend and are in the mood for some tasty bread, you might want to give making your own naan a try.

FMS Photo-A-Day February Wrap-up

Happy Friday & Happy March! I'm not exactly sure where February went. It was a pretty quiet month for us overall. Some of the highlights were watching the Ravens win the Super Bowl (hooray!!), learning how to make sushi at a friend's party (yum!), celebrating a simple Valentine's Day at home (so nice), and finally seeing some actual, visual progress on our home site (crazy exciting!! - more about that coming soon!).

I'm still enjoying keeping up with the #FMSphotoaday challenge by Fat Mum Slim (learn more about how to play here). Here's a collage of all my February pics, with the list of prompts below.

If you want to join in for March, you can grab the list here. And as always, I'd love for us to follow each other on Instagram - I'm @jdeares

Have a lovely weekend!