Thanksgiving's over, Christmas full speed ahead

Well Thanksgiving is over and now we're all waiting for Christmas to come. I'm excited about Christmas this year because we both took 2 weeks off, so hopefully we'll get a few things done around the house and the rest of the time we can spend with our friends and family.

I don't have any pictures of the things we accomplished over the weekend. We were able to get a lot done (even if I beaded almost non-stop).  Here's a hint of what we worked on; laundry room, kitchen, bedroom, Christmas decor, family room, my studio, appliance hunting.  Yup, we did get a lot done.

And the best part, I made a pie.  A dutch top apple pie.  This was my first pie I ever made on my own with no one to help.  Okay, J helped.  But his help consisted of him eating half the stuff between pie making tasks.  And did I succeed at pie making?  You better believe it.  This baby was delicious.  I can't wait to make some more. 
 

That's really all I have for today.  A picture of a pie.  I'm hoping to get a few good pictures of the things we accomplished this weekend, because we really did get a lot done.  Now I just need to finish up my beading project in the next couple weeks and I can fully focus on home stuff.  Like maybe painting my studio or maybe the upstairs bathroom! :-)

Happy Monday!

New Appliances

The other night we went and looked at new appliances.  Now we weren't seriously looking, we just happen to be there and decided to take a peak at what they had.

bestbuy.com

We already know which brand we're looking at and even which line we want (maybe).  But we've been going back and forth to where to put the fridge and what kind we want. 

I would love a French door fridge, but I know they are kinda pricey and I've heard that they can have problems with the ice dispensers.  But look at that baby.  She's a beaut ain't she.  She's a Frigidaire Gallery.  She's smudge proof stainless steel.  And she's on sale (yes, she's a she), for a fantastic price.  But I've heard they can have problems with the ice makers. So do we roll the dice and take the chance of getting a fridge that the ice dispenser that might not work?  I'd be pretty sad (and angry) if I had to have ice trays.  I don't know.  We'll have to talk about it a little more.

We were just going to go with the side by side, because that's what we have now, but I love the room in this girl.  And did I mention she's beautiful.  The only complaint I've found is the ice maker, and I've read that almost all french door fridges have that problem.  So maybe we'll just go with a side by side.  I think we might go up to the appliance store this week sometime to look again and maybe ask some questions and get some more detailed answers. 

Then after a lengthy decision about a refrigerator, we'll have to make the same decisions over a dishwasher and a stove (the new one's going to be gas, there is no question about that).  But we need that dishwasher soon.  I feel ours might be on it's last leg.  Oh god, all these decisions are making me crazy.  But the sooner we decide on what we want, the sooner we can cross that off our list of things to do, YAY!  :-)      

House Update

morguefile.com

Unfortunately I don't have a whole bunch to update on house progress.  This weekend was full of yard work.  You know all that yard work you do before winter comes.  We raked the leaves (for the third time), cleaned the gutters, put all the flower pots away, planted garlic, put the snow tires on the cars, etc, etc.  And J did homework all day on Saturday.  So we didn't get too much done. 

Oh I did frost the bathroom window finally.  Now everyone that drives by can't see into our bathroom.  So I did get a project done. :-) 

Exhausted Kitty

But the good news is that next weekend we might actually get some stuff done.  J's uncle might come out and help us with re-plumbing our laundry room.  And the best part about his uncle coming to help, is he has a pickup truck, a big pickup truck.  So we can make one run to Menards and pick up all the stuff we couldn't fit into our car.  That means I can start the headboard, and put up the bead board in the kitchen, and we can finish drywalling the studio, and, well you get the point.

Now hopefully I will have the time to get some of these projects done.  I have a custom order for 10 beaded bookmarks that need to be done by mid December.  Oh my.  So I will probably be working on that for the next few weeks and the other projects will have to wait.  But at least I'll have the materials.  Now lets just hope I'm not too exhausted with this order and the upcoming holidays to be able to get house things done.  :-) 

Once our bedroom and the kitchen are done we can focus other rooms in the house.  Like the extra bedroom that has bright blue and purple walls (a teenager lived in this room previous) and the bathroom.  

So this is the list of things we would like to accomplish before the new year.  It's sort of long and probably won't all get done, but we're hoping to knock out as many of these things as possible.  Wish us luck.  


List of Things We Want to Accomplish Before The End of the Year

• Fix bathroom faucet
• Re-plumb the laundry room
• Install new fancy utility sink
• Paint laundry room
• Put in floor in laundry room
• Finish putting up trim in the kitchen
• Patch wall and ceiling in kitchen
• Finish the bookcase in kitchen
• Finish the cabinets in kitchen
• Move refrigerator
• Build/buy pantry
• Make roman shades for bedroom
• Make headboard

*My spell check wasn't working, and I'm terrible with spelling, so if you see any mistakes, kindly ignore them. :-)

Slat Board

Last weekend we made a little visit to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  We love going there.  We got all of our outside lights for under $50 (that's 5 lights), plenty of carpet for the studio, and a ton of other things.  And the best thing is they are located only 5 min up the road from us.  Dangerous.

And last trip we picked up some of this

I'f you don't know what it is, it's called slat board.  You see it in a lot of buisnesses, people put it up in garages and workshops.  It's like pegboard, but more heavy duty.  And we picked it up for $20 for a 4x8 sheet.  And if you're not in the know, we priced this as $44 at the local hardware store.  We got 4 sheets.

Now I own a small two door coupe.  I had no idea how J planned on getting this home, but where there is a will there is a way.

He brought the battery powered circular saw and cut it into 2x8 sections in the parking lot (he asked the manager of the ReStore before doing it).  Then we loaded them in my little car, tied down the hatch (we forgot the straps), and drove the 5 min home.  Thank goodness we live so close.  I wouldn't want to drive far like this.

J plans on putting them up in the garage next spring.  He's so excited about having slat board.  Who knew something like this would be so exciting.  Boys.  :-)

   
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  It's supposed to be nice here, probably the last nice weekend until spring.  Maybe Yoda will get some more leaf time. 

Another Kitchen Update

Good god, am I ever going to be done with the kitchen updates. Someday.

So I showed you a picture of our kitchen the other day and today I'll show you some of the other little things we've done.

We took out the shelves out on the side of the cabinets and plan on putting in a bookshelf for all my cook books.  We're about half done with it.  Right now Nacho thinks it's a little cat shelf.

We put up this ridiculous pantry.  It's not permanent, it's just until we get our built in one made.  Then it's going to go in the garage or basement.  But it beats keeping our food in a box.

  
This cabinet needs to be repaired and the door put back on.  Right now you can see our plastic glass collection.  We need to hide that stuff away.

We put up my wonderful pan rack.  Swoon.  And now I can look at my pretty pans all the time.  Even though I'm coking so much that this rack is usually empty.

And then this is the little counter/stand/shelves thing that J built.  He made this all on his own without plans.  I love it.  Right now I have old cabinet doors on top, but we're going to get a counter top that matches the rest of the kitchen.  And Yoda loves to hang out on her blankie in the sun.

So that's some of the stuff we've been working in.  It seems like we have so much to do still, but the big stuff is out of the way.  Hopefully the smaller stuff will be easy peasy!

Wordless Wednesday

Collage Wall

Lets deviate from kitchen updates for just a little bit today! 

Now I know that these are called Gallery Walls, but I just don't get it.  I've never been in a gallery that has had the art displayed this way.  Why are they called this?  I normally refer to the collection of picture frames on the wall as our collage.  I mean it is a mixture of picture frames and little wall chachka.  But I digress, I'm here to show our my gallery wall, not discuss why it's called that.    

Now don't get me wrong, I love this idea of hanging pictures together with a mixture of little things that make us smile.  I've been waiting to do this for a very long time, long before we bought the house.  So I was elated when we found a house that had a large wall begging for a large amount of art.

Here is my first attempt, and it wasn't even completed.  J had me take it down because it was to random for him.  He didn't like the large gaps and he didn't like the placement. That's an engineer for you.  I told him I wasn't done, that I had a lot more frames to add and more wall things.  But he didn't budge, and that's an only child for you  ;-)

So down those came. Then I patched and repainted. And I've been staring at a blank wall for months now. It was driving me insane. I just couldn't stand it any more. So this is what we've working on for the last couple days. Yes, you heard right, it took us days to finish this project. I put J in charge since his engineer mind would not be happy if there was not some sort of symmetry. He put up and took down the templates a few times. Then I suggested that we just start putting up a few frames we knew we would be happy with. Well that seemed to work and after a few hours we had accomplished this.

Sorry for the bad cell phone picture, but I was in a hurry last night.  I actually had to take some frames from other rooms to satisfy his picture frame arrangement demands.  I even took two small frames I planned on using for my beading, but it made him happy, which in turn made me happy. We're keeping an eye out for some small frames for the lower left hand side.  And maybe some more chachka.

But I'm not done yet.  I need some pictures in those there frames.  So after a quick download to the Walgreen's photo site, a few changes so everything would be black and white, a few clicks, and a quick run up the street, I had this.

Looks pretty good if you ask my (okay it's hard to tell because of the glare).  All of the pictures we've taken.  One of Nacho attacking the camera, one of Toonces with bubbles on her head, one of Yoda as "goat pug".  And a few of us on our many trips around the world (yeah you read that right).  It's the perfect collection of our lives.  And because it's so easy to get pictures printed out, we can change them out when ever we want.

Now I do have two frames that need mat board still, the store was out of this size.  But I think we might be close to being done with this project.

Now just to get that side table built.  Then this wall will be complete, for now.  Oh wait, J wants to add sconces to this wall as well.  Well someday it will be done.  :-)