Gardening!

We had such a fantastic clear Saturday this last weekend. So Steven and I decided to go out and do some yard work. He worked on trimming hedges and my hydrangea and I worked on weeding and cleaning up stray leaves and other crud in our yard.

I had been staring at our sad looking hydrangea plant since we moved in and I felt so bad for it. So when I saw it after Steven cut it back I was impressed. He was shocked that it was already blooming leaves and had green spots all over it. I've been warned that it might not produce flowers this year, but I'm ok with that. I am just happy to have it in the yard and that its being brought back to life! We shall see on the flowers.

Our yard debris container was overflowing with all the dead hydrangea bits and the hedge trimmings and I put it over the top with my weeding and stray dead leaves. It is a lot of hard work cleaning up the left over bits, but because we moved in in December it wasn't really a great time to get out and clean up the yard. Also, we were really concentrating on the inside of the house because I knew that I'd want to be outside as soon as it was nice. I was right.

There is a lined bed on the side of the house by the air conditioner unit and where we keep the garbage cans. We plan to level the area next to our fence and use it as storage for all the cans. Right now there is only a small area covered with stones and it is not level, which makes it difficult to move the cans out and back in. I discovered this when I had to put the cans out while Steven was out of town. Yuck! Well the whole area on the side of the house was full of weeds, the raised bed was weeds, leaves and garbage and the bark needs a new dusting. At least for now it is fully weeded and racked and it looks a lot brighter. The other side of the house had blackberry bushes that were SO overgrown. We took that on right away and now they are only stumps. We'll have to be careful about removing all of the pieces so that they don't come back. They are so hard to kill and so bad to have on the side of the house. Thankfully now they are gone.

I also removed a bunch of piled up leaves from the back of the porch area in the backyard. There are three rose bushes and a medium tree that is starting to bloom. I need to cut the roses back and make sure the tree isn't going to damage the siding. Then I'll have to start the area around the back of the yard. We have some ferns and mystery grasses to remove as well as decide our final plan for my raised beds for veggies and herbs. We have talked about removing a portion of the grass and creating a stone pathway and 3 large raised beds. We need to decide soon so that we can work on removing the grass and making the beds before planting season, which is going to be here before we know it.

Well after all this sunshine and yard work it went right to my head and I got so excited. I know it is WAY too early to plant outside, but I do have a garden window in the kitchen, so I cleaned out some of my old pots and we went to the store. It is too early for 'starts' of any herbs, so we tried planting seeds. This is my first seed plant and I'm excited to see what comes of it! I'll try to post pictures if they start seeding. Supposed to be in the next few weeks. Here's hoping. Photos of the yard to follow as well...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I LOVE Valentine's Day!

Here are some "Valentine-sy" Photos for you:

In Paris, the city of Love...

A kissy pic...
My funny valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day from us to you. Tonight we'll be making dinner in and enjoying some relaxing time.

Work in Progress...

Way back in 2007 we had about a week where we went without anything in our main room to sit on:A few days later we picked up our first large purchase as a "couple", a new couch, love seat and easy chair. Steven was so thankful to not have to enjoy TV night like this. I was too! How far we've come!

That's why it was a little easier waiting on our next sofa purchase...

I'm so thankful to have a little place of my own to read and enjoy my tea and relax. We still have our tv area and we love that too, but it is just so nice to have another place to relax. I am so excited to decorate this with softer touches. Our Family Room is all red/orange/green/yellow, such vibrant colors. I wanted this to be muted, soft blues and greens and feel really relaxing.

I found these chairs at Cost Plus on a whim. I went in just to look around and found this bar (the black piece on the wall):
I hadn't intended to really replace our old bar, at least not yet. This is mostly because all the new "bars" are huge and very expensive. It wasn't going to fit into my budget and I wasn't sure how I was going to make it work. Then I found this one. On clearance. I was amazed. So I asked if I could buy it and I got a run around about it. Finally I picked it up at another store, but it was SUCH a long day and a tiring experience. I thought it was at one store, but it ended up being at another and long story short- I finally got it. And I got it for an additional 10% off. Go me!

While I was investigating the bar, I tried to log on to their website to show Steven the bar I found. I couldn't find the bar, but I found this chair and loved it. So I looked at it while I was trying to buy the bar. I ended up telling the sales lady that if she could give me 10% off the chairs AND fit two of them into my car then I would buy the chairs and the bar. She did it. So I bought them. I love them! I'm also amazed that I got two chairs and the bar, all flat packed, into my little car. I found these pillows at Target in the bedding section. They are just the right size for the little slipper chairs. They also have a little bit of cashmere in them. So very soft.Did I mention that I also got 10% off my sofa? Pretty much every piece of furniture in this room has been purchased at 10% off. Including the dining table/chairs/buffet! I'm so awesome at rocking my budget.

I'm shocked at how unbelievable comfortable this sofa is. It doesn't even have any throw pillows on it yet and I'm already in love.
We pulled those chairs in to face the sofa, we just had to push them to the side so the delivery people could bring the couch in. They even took all their garbage with them. Score!

Here is how the space looked last Friday after putting furniture together:
Poor Steven had to help me with assembling the bar, chair and side table. The side table SHOULD have been the easiest (from Target), but when I opened the package, I got this:
FAIL! So I took it back and thankfully they had one left. I opened it and it was perfect, which is good because I love the look of it.

Finally, we have the dining table and chairs:
We can't forget about those. The matching buffet comes next week, so I'm looking forward to putting my china away and starting to host a bunch of dinner parties!

For anyone wondering, my living/dining room decorating to-do list still includes finding:
*coffee table
*console or buffet
*2 lamps
*curtains
*artwork for the walls
*new coat rack

Thankfully I already have ideas about each of them... That's all I know for now. Going to go relax on my fabulous new sofa and drink some tea.

Around the house...

First of all, it is already Valentine's Day here! I'm so excited that I have a whole house to decorate, so I'm going all out this year. I am starting to add to my holiday collections and I started with Holiday Tea Towels. I made these by using my serger around the edges. I'm going to cut some heart shapes with the cricut and applique them to the bottom for a fun finish! I couldn't resist putting them up right away though...Second, we've been busy around the house. Sunday has turned in to "paint" day! We are so close to finishing the main floor. The whole house needs fresh paint, inside and out, and we're becoming painting experts. Two weekends ago I did the powder bathroom. It went from dark green:
To "celery ice" green:
The green is a lot softer now and flows better from the Parisian taupe of the family room to the dark red of the laundry room. Added bonus- all three colors are in my new rug in the family room. I feel a little bit like a designer!

I found these adorable wall hooks at Cost Plus and I had to have them... They make a fantastic way to show off my aprons! Also- I love the "Fork, Spoon, Knife" art that is so popular right now and this is a great, affordable way for me to have some of it... And be practical at the same time. I also remember to use my apron a lot more!
Up close, the order is spoon, fork then knife. I have two aprons, both that I made on display:
Yesterday was "Paint the Dining Room/Living Room" area. Steven's aunt came over on Friday and brought her color wheel with her. We were able to pick a color called "Jute" and that's what we had color matched. At first we didn't have a ladder and we thought we'd only be able to get half of the room done- everything but the peaks. But then Steven came home with a paint extender and we thought we'd get everything but the trim on the peaks done.

Then Steven came up with this:
His 'gigantic poking device', which is a reference from "FRIENDS". With this he was able to use ONLY a step stool and this device (paint brush taped onto the extender) and NO TAPE and the trim work looks great. So he did a really good job on it. I'm really happy with how it dried because when we first put the paint on it looked GREEN. It is supposed to be a natural grey with green undertones, but the green was really coming through. Then it dried to the color we signed up for and we were happy.
Here's the dining room and living room after paint. The previous paint color had a lot of pink undertones and I'm so glad we got rid of that! Now the feel and look of the room will match up more with the rest of the main and lower floor.

One might think that this room is very... well, bare. It is. But we're working on it. Our new dining set is set to arrive this week and then I think we'll see a big improvement. I have a sofa picked out and a goal for the living room, but it will take me a while to put it all together. I hate that waiting, but I keep reminding myself that it is worth is to get it done the right way. At least now we don't have to worry about painting again.

With the exception of the front entry way- which I plan to paint in about two weeks- the entire main/lower floor is painted. This is music to my ears. Also- all the DVDs found a home in a new bookshelf down in the Family Room. No more huge boxes in my living room! Success! Nothing is left in boxes, except things that are meant to be. Pretty good for a month after moving in!

More house photos...

Here is our first photo with our keys. We had just signed the papers.More photos of the kitchen while it was a "work in progress"...


Someone's been painting cabinets! :)
I took all of these on my phone, so I just downloaded them. I love seeing how far we've come!

Our Holiday!

We took three days off of doing house stuff in order to enjoy some much needed relaxing and family time. Christmas was wonderful this year and just being able to enjoy with it with our families made it all the more special.

Here are two photos we took after one of our holiday parties.

I love this one! Maybe next year's Christmas card?We spent our first Christmas with Steven's family. I got some coffee accessories that I really wanted.Then we moved on to spending some time with my parents. It was lovely to see their house all decorated and have dinner with them. I also enjoyed the HOT TUB! Much needed after the first round of house stuff.Steven received a lot of "man" things for Christmas this year. He was very excited about the drill he wanted and was very surprised by the power washer and shop vac he got too. I'm sure he'll be putting them all to good use very soon.
Then we moved on to spending the day with my Sis and her family as well as my parents and Donna.

I made Shelly an apron and tea towels to match her kitchen. My friend Melissa also got a hand made apron that matched the tea towels I made her last year. My favorite details on the aprons are always the pockets. I never do the same thing twice, it is the most "custom" detail besides the fabric. I love that. Shelly's has some notions on it that belonged to our Aunt Jeannie, who has been gone for some time now. That makes it a lot more special.Steven got a present from Colin that was wrapped by Colin and had a tag done by Colin too. I thought it was about the cutest thing I had ever seen, so I snapped a pic.We have these lovely family photos now too. The table was SO pretty. I also loved that Shelly's chairs looked so good for the holiday. Helping recover them was part of my Christmas present to her.

Family Pic: Donna, Me, Mom, Colin and Shelly

New Year, New House!

Some people would call our last 15 days a "massive undertaking"... but I just call it life. We knew what we wanted to do and then we did it. However, sometimes when I look back at what we've accomplished in the last two weeks I almost can't believe it.

Here is our First Home Timeline:

We signed papers on a Thursday. I was sick with a cold. That night we got our keys and invited our friends Mel and Ryan over to see the house. We went out to dinner and that was our last "relaxing night" for a while!

The next day we waited impatiently for the paper work to go through and as soon as we got the call we started sanding the kitchen cabinets in order to paint. Meanwhile, I mowed the front yard and worked on unpacking bathrooms. My Dad was a total champ and helped Steven and I with everything! I have to say how amazing it was to have all his help. THANKS DAD! Later that night Larry and Marlene came over and we celebrated with Champagne, a tour and dinner out. We fell into bed that night. The first time of many!

The next day we had a holiday party at 4, but we still worked our butts off beforehand. Darren and Kali came over and the girls cleaned while the boys sanded and painted the cabinets. This house was so dirty, but it felt good to know that it got a nice deep clean before we moved our things in. The kitchen was starting to take shape!

Here are the before pictures that we took during the inspection:




Here are the 'during' photos that I snapped on my camera. I had my camera on me at all times, and yet I still should have taken more photos:Sunday we had another holiday party at 2, but still worked on the house, we painted more cabinets and put together some new furniture.

Monday we started painting the walls and the family room. At this point I was so glad that I had all my Christmas shopping done and wrapped, because we never would have been able to do any Christmas shopping and get everything done.

On Tuesday Melissa and Ryan came back over and helped us move a lot of smaller things that would not require a moving van. We did quite a few loads before Mel and I had to run to the edge of town to pick up my new family room rug. That was an adventure! Meanwhile, Ryan painted all our trim work in the family room while Steven and Dad worked on the kitchen. Donna worked to put down contact paper and keep us fed and going. Dad and Donna stayed the night at the house on Tuesday, which ended up being a good thing because bright and early on Wednesday Steven got a call from Home Depot at 6:15 AM! They were on their way to our house to deliver our washer/dryer!! He immediately got in the car and headed over. Apparently it was something of a crisis situation and my stuff almost didn't get installed, but thanks to Dad and Steven and a last minute Home Depot run, they got it figured out and set up. Thank goodness! By the time I showed up it was a well oiled machine and I put it to work on loads and loads of wash.

Mom and Donna helped me move a few more loads of small stuff and by the end of the day we had almost everything out of the house with the exception of large furniture that was going on the truck. Mom also painted trim work in the kitchen. She loves doing it and she is so good at it. It looks fantastic!

By the end of the day we were so tired and ready for our Christmas break. We took three days off and then on the 26th we were back in action with the moving van. By the end of the day we were totally moved in. I also have to say that we planned for an wanted to be done moving by Noon. We unpacked the last thing from the car at 12:30. I'd say that's pretty darnned good! We spent the last week cleaning both places and arranging our new house. We put up pictures and unpacked so many boxes and bags. Steven set up his office and our TVs. While he spent the last week working, I put things away and worked to get us all unpacked.

The final product was something to really be proud of! Our new kitchen looks so fresh and bright and we have really enjoyed working together in it. There is enough room for us both to be cooking and baking at once!We love this nook where we can put our small table and because of the cut out, we can watch tv at the same time. This is the room that we put the most thought in to. We wanted to be sure that it would be a super comfy and relaxing place to spend our quality time. I think we got exactly what we wanted. I'm really pleased with the turn out. The fireplace is so cozy and we've already had it on a few times.Downstairs has a Family Room, this Powder Room and my pride and joy Laundry Room!This Laundry Room has so much storage! There are more hidden cupboards that you can't see in this photo. I love all the places to put my cleaning supplies and my sewing projects. Dad made me all of these add ons. I wanted a place where I could put my sewing machines, or fold clothes or have people put coats and purses during parties. He also gave me a peg board, thread holder and ribbon holder that are wall mounted. I can't wait to get more moved in here and try out my machine set up. The washer and dryer were Black Friday Deals that we picked up and I have to say that I LOVE them. I would recommend LG to anyone. I do a lot of laundry, so that's a big statement.There is so much more to this house, but I will have to get to that later. We still have more painting to do and a bit more organzing. But for now, everything is unpacked and we are fully operational. To me, that's more than I should have hoped for, but I knew we could do it all. I'm so proud of Steven. He's really suprised me. I had no idea just how handy he really is- but he's been a wiz around this place. I think he's really going to enjoy this new house. We have small projects that we can work on together and that's going to lead to so many more memories for us.

2010 was an unpredictable year, but we really knew how to end it the right way. I couldn't have asked for anything more!