Turning our house into a home...

Our latest endeavor is to clear some of the clutter and make our almost 400-square-foot duplex a little more comfy, roomy, and inviting. We've just been living with all our extra things stacked in boxes in the living room and bedroom, but we've decided it's time to clear it all out. I decided to document the whole process with pictures so that those of you who have never seen our place can see it and so that those of you who have seen it can see what we're doing to improve.





We hung a shelf under our bedroom window so that we can set our box fan on it, instead of on a pile of boxes we had sitting there. We also got more shelves for in the kitchen. Up until now, I've only been able to keep some of my dishes in the kitchen and the rest have been sitting in the living room--not very attractive. So now I'm hoping to move all dishes into the kitchen (well, at the least all except for the ones in storage). In the bathroom, we hung up a real shower curtain--it's not just that shower curtain liner anymore! Needless to say, we have lots of fun at Ikea that day!
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Now, on anther note, I made a yummy, cheap and quick recipe the other day, so I thought I'd share the recipe:

Basil and Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup unsalted chicken broth
1 Tbsp finely chopped basil (or 1 tsp dried basil)
1 Tbsp sun-dried tomato paste*

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Whisk in the flour and cook until it turns a light tan, about 2 minutes. Add chicken broth and increase heat to medium, stirring until thick, about 5 minutes. Stir in basil and tomato paste. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes.

Coat cooked noodles with sauce and enjoy!

**I have neither heard of, nor seen sun-dried tomato paste, so I just used regular tomato paste and added some sun-dried tomatoes to the sauce.