Happy February!

Welcome February.

Tasks done today:

1.  Got the chalkboard updated.

2.  Took down the final Christmas decorations from the front porch and door and actually put it all away.

3.  Got the Valentine mantle done.

Next...Laundry.  F.U.N.

Christmas 2014

Finally getting around to sharing photos of my Christmas tree and mantel for 2014.

Took only a couple photos of the kids and they are all blurry.  Epic fail on Christmas photos this year.  Hoping Cait will send me a few.

Happy New Year everyone.

The Front Porch

One of the real perks of the new house is an enormous wrap around front porch.  It will take me a while to get it just the way I want it, but I am making progress.

So, here are some photos I like to call "Getting the front porch ready":

The last photo shows the newly installed wood screen door.  Still needs hardware and the trim painted, but I just love it.  It's sounds like summer when it closes, although I figure one day with the grandkids here and I'll be ready to scream.  But I still think it's perfect.

Happy Summer!

Hard Wood Floors

Don't you just love hard wood floors?  They look so beautiful.

WHEN CLEAN!

Now that I have them through the main section of the house I realize they are the ultimate dust collector and when the sun is setting and shining through the dining room window....whew boy.  It can be very scary.  I'm sure living on a dirt road doesn't help either.

Here is the a view from the side door.  The floors go from the back hall, through to the kitchen and dining room.  I don't know if this photo really shows the amount of hard wood properly.  Just know, it's a lot.

After a few weeks of sweeping, vaccuming with the hand vac and washing...I found the new way to clean my floors.

This is the Dyson Hard Floor cleaner.  It sweeps, vacuums and washes in one movement.  It's brilliant and as you can see from the above photo of my floors, it does a great job.  It is basically a Swifter on steroids.  Awesome.

Not that it doesn't have a few drawbacks.  Like any Dyson product, it's not cheap (order from Bed Bath & Beyond in the store and you can use a 20% coupon).

It also does collect dust bunnies in the corners of the vacuum sections.  Not a huge problem as you can easily pull them out and throw them away.

The first time I used it, I did not realize that I had the power boost setting on.  This caused the unit to  last for about 6 minutes only.  Not enough time to even finish the main floors.  But once I figured out the error of my ways, I now use the normal power setting which lasts for about 15 minutes.  Plenty of   time for me to do the floors in the kitchen, dining room, back hall, 3 baths and the front hallway.  (On advice from Caity...make sure you fully de-charge each time before plugging it back in.  Batteries can learn to charge less if you continually recharge before it is fully emptied.  This is easy to do with this unit.  If I have charge left when I'm done, I just put it on power boost and it empties very quickly.)

Hard wood floor owners...I really think you are going to love this.  It's a great gift as well (thank you Mom).

(I was just labeling this post and had to make a new label called "cleaning".  I wonder the likelihood of me ever writing a cleaning post ever again.)

New Beginning

I officially live out on the farm.  We have talking about this for so long, that it hardly feels real.  I keep asking my Sweetie if he ever thought this day would finally come.  He was pretty confident that it would.

So....out with the old,

Joey saying his good-bye to the old house

And in with the new,

View from the front porch

And just to let you know...I'm getting into cooking in my new kitchen.  Today, I'm making soup on my wonderful Wolf cooktop.

Once I get my kitchen organized I promise to share photos.

Have a great week.

Good Bye House

I officially send good-bye to my house yesterday.  This house provided me safe harbor when I needed it most.  It provided security, peace and happiness to my son and to me.  It was perfect for that time in my life.  I had great neighbors and enjoyed living in a great town.

I was surprised I didn't feel more sentimental about leaving it, but once we removed all the furniture, dishes, photos...it just became what it was; a house.  I realize that my home is where my family is and now that all my "stuff" is out at the farm, that now feels like home.

Time for me to start my fourth phase of my life.  "Oh life on the farm is kind of layback..."

My Latest Project

I actually got to do a project this week.  Felt great to do something creative.

Here is the finished project:

I used three Ikea frames to make the art work above the bed, which is just three pieces of fabric.  Pretty cool huh.

On the verge of listing my house.  Keep your fingers crossed.

And Finally...The Granite Counters

Hi friends.  I'm finally getting around to posting the photos of the new granite countertops we had installed at my house.

Here is the kitchen:

And the bathroom:

I also built this little Ikea thing:

First time in years that the dressers in the bedroom actually match.  You can also see the new carpet in this photo.  No more teal carpet.  Although it was high quality carpeting, I can't say that I miss it.

Sure hope all this stuff helps this house sell fast.

New Knobs

I'm cleaning my kitchen cupboards, one at a time and replacing the gold and white knobs with silver knobs.  I'm very happy with the results, but I hate to admit how gross my cupboards have become.  This is probably something I should do more often instead of once in a blue moon.

Here are the old knobs:

Here are the shiny new knobs:

Tomorrow...photos of the new granite countertops.  Yeah.

Fall Mantel

I wanted to share my finished Fall Mantel before it gets replaced by the Christmas version.

I added a few little things this year to help fill it up.  A couple of them were from the Target discount section.  You know, that little area right when you walk in with all the $1, $2 & $3 goodies.  (Try and tell me you don't love that little section.)

This is a close up of the left side.  The pumpkin on the end is a new addition to my Mod Podged pumpkins.  I got this pumpkin at Joann's for 70% off and applied layers of elegant tissue paper.  The little lantern next to it was one of my Target specials.  I think it was $1.99.  The picture next to that was purchased last year at Arts & Apples.  I have a thing for doors and windows.  The pitcher is one of my collection given to me by my dear sister.

Here is the right side close up.  I added more wheat to my tall square vase this year. Next are the three Mod Podged pumpkins from last year.  The simple wreath and star are from Target and finally another pitcher from my collection.

That's it.  Now on to the Christmas mantel.

Hope your Thanksgiving was warm and wonderful.

Farmhouse Update #1

I haven't mentioned this before, but at some point BW and I will be moving out to his house at the farm.  This move has been pending for at least...two years.  BW's work-life just keep getting in the way when he spent a year and half working in Georgia.

In addition, we were also doing some repairs and remodeling that got halted mid-way through.

Now, that he is back home and working for himself, we are finally making some progress on the kitchen. This week, the countertops are finally being installed and we have picked out our backsplash.

You are going to have to use your imagination a bit as these are all just samples, but here is the idea behind the backsplash:

The bottom square tile is the countertop. (It is actually a grey/taupe color of Silestone called Amazon Leather.)    The middle section of the backsplash will be an 11 inch wide section of the blue, green and taupe glass tiles.  There will be a border of white subway tiles below and above the glass tile, with the subway tiles going up behind the cooktop.

Can you squint your mind's eye and see it?  I really like it, although this is the first backsplash I've ever picked out.  There is only one wall needing a backsplash as the rest of the kitchen is very open.

What do you think?

 

July Garden Update

Despite the overwhelming heat we've had recently (which fortunately broke on Sunday), my container garden is growing into a small forest of deep green.  I was able to harvest (and eat) the first of the grape tomatoes yesterday with more on the way.

The garden started here:

It now looks like this:

I have my first strawberry peeping out.  Now I just have to keep Joey away from it.  Turns out the dog loves strawberries and tomatoes. (Turns out he loves anything that I drop while cooking...except garlic and onion.  He sniffs and walks away from those two.)

And here's my first yellow pear tomato getting ready to be picked.

And an early girl, just about right.

And this is my summer project.  I've had this table for years and it's slowly turned pinkish from years in the sun.  This year it needed to be sanded, cleaned and re-painted before I was going to let it out on the deck.  It's taken a few weeks, but I finally got it done.  I then went up to Pottery Barn and found the perfect umbrella (on sale...yeah).  I'm so happy with how it turned out. And along with my deck rugs from Lowe's, I now feel like I have another room on my tiny little house.

Off to make something with leftover pork tenderloin.  Maybe I'll do that hash again.

Bringing Some Spring Indoors

With delight, I would like to introduce you to a little bit of Spring that just came into my home this evening. Ahhhh!

I got the idea for the separate vases for each type of flower from my dear Ina.  I learn so much from her.

What a Difference a Shade Makes

I've been living in my house for over 11 years.  When I moved in, the master bedroom had pink carpet, pink walls and pink blinds.  A Pepto-Bismal nightmare.  Many years back, I painted the room a cream color, which helped a lot.   I can't afford to replace the carpeting, but for reason I can't even explain....I left the pink blinds up.

To make matters worse, over a year ago (or longer) I bought some cream colored shades at Ikea for the specific purpose of replacing the blinds.  I brought them home and conveniently stuck them behind a chair and left them there, undisturbed until....MONDAY.

I finally took down the pink blinds and put up the new shades and I am so happy with the results.

It felt so good to take down the dusty, grimy pink blinds and put up these lighter shades.  Gives the room such a bright feeling.

For reasons I can probably explain, I did not take a before picture.  (Just too disgusting to share I think.)

First Harvest of the Season

My little container garden has yielded its first little harvest of the season.  I've got some lettuce, spinach and basil which I used to make a couple "big" salads this week.

I also used the basil to make some pesto.  I marinated a couple chicken breasts in the pesto and broiled it (still out of propane for the grill).  I added the leftover chicken to the big salad, which made it all the more tasty.

Do you remember the rocking chair I painted?  Here it is up on my front porch.  I've been to several stores and I can't find the exact pillows to help set it off.  Originally, I was thinking about a green and white stripe.













Yesterday I was looking online and found these pillows at Target.  They are quite different from what I had in my minds eye, but that's what I think I like about them now.  Very different.

What do you think?

New pictures of Luke soon.  He's just a smiling fool.

Virginia, I'm not...

I have this absolutely wonderful mother. Her name is Virginia. She is a cleaning machine. She's been one my whole life and at 83, she still is. She passed on her cleaning gene to my daughter Caity. The gene completely skipped me.

You might be wondering, what made me think of this...

Well, I was just reaching into the spice cabinet to get the fennel, when my arm brushed up against the stove hood and my arm actually slide. I looked up and it was disgusting. It was covered with that yucky, greasy build up. It is now clean, but it got me thinking about the things I need to clean around here. So here's my top 10 list of things that need to be cleaned before the summer is over. (Maybe if I put it into writing...it will actually happen.)

1. The ceiling fan in the living room (I won't even tell you how disgusting it is.)
2. The ceiling fan in my bedroom
   
3. The window screens
4. The top of the fridge (Done...I did this the other day. I thought it would be good to make my list a little easier by including something I already did.)
5. The top of the TV armoire
6. The cool air vents
7. Vacuum underneath my bed
8. Dust the moldings, especially behind the furniture
9. Wipe down the kitchen cabinets
10. Turn the oven on to clean

Now...don't get me wrong, the house is usually pretty clean, it's just not that deep down clean that Virginia would love.

The Hunt for Dual Power!

Cait and I both love Spray and Wash Dual Power stain remover. Works great. Just squeeze it on to the spot and wash as normal. Considering the abnormal amount of stains Cait has to remove from EVERY shirt she EVER wears, she has become a stain product connoisseur and removal expert. She just managed to get mustard off my brand new white sweater.

Well, we are having trouble finding this magic product. It's not at the grocery store anymore. Cait emailed "Spray and Wash" and they even replied. (I kind of wonder how those green bottles manage to type...ha ha) They say it's still out there but in limited distribution. So, we need your help. Can you help us find Spray & Wash Dual Power? If you can tell us where to find it, we will buy you a bottle as well.

Good hunting!

Garage Sale Friday

Well, the big day is here. Cait and I have been working towards this event for so many months, I can't even say, but today we finally had our garage sale.

(Was that the a really long sentence, or just my imagination.)

We had a great day with lots of customers. Our main desire is to just empty out my garage. Cait moved out years ago, but I've still had bin upon bin of her "stuff". Add to that a whole lot of my stuff and Stinky's stuff. and what you have left is just way too much stuff for my
little house.

Here's the way things looked when we started out this morning.

We still haven't been able to sell the wicker headboard. Everyone tells me how pretty it is, but it seems no one has a double bed anymore. Heck, it's only $5.00. Make it work on a queen!


More then half of this table is gone now including 2 blenders.


And most of this stuff is gone too! Someone finally bought the U of M jersey, which is now thankfully out of this house of Sparty. (If you aren't from Michigan, you might not understand this one.) Sorry, Unca Ja, but Stinky just wouldn't wear it.


All in all a good day, but it does take a lot of work and preparation. I do have to admit though, that despite the cheeseburger, seasoned fries and beer I just consumed, I do feel immeasurably lighter.