This and That

Frog Hooded Towel

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 02:03:00 +0000

I found a great tutorial for this super cute Frog Hooded Towel a few months back and finally made it tonight! If you have or know little ones, this would be a great gift idea!

Source

My version :)

I can't wait to give it to my nephew for Christmas!

Isn't he adorable!

Can you think of a little one you would make this for?

Time For A Change!

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 16:19:00 +0000

I'm a small woman - only 5'4". And I'm small boned. I like this about myself actually - I don't mind being 'tiny'. Even my feet are tiny, which usually means my size is available when it comes to shoes :)

My problem right now is that I've let myself gain weight over the past year. So much weight that I'm muffin topping over my jeans big time. I had to buy 2 new pairs in a bigger size to get me thru. I don't like this - at all!

Here is a recent family pic. (I'm the short one on the right ;)) I know, I know - I'm not huge or anything, but I'm certainly not happy with so much extra flab! Looking a little pear shaped for sure, and I need to lose about 20-25 lbs.

(We just got our family photos done for the first time in years - I absolutely love this one, so casual and modern!)

I have a friend who did the 17 Day Diet, by Dr. Mike Mereno, with some great results in the first cycle. I thought I'd check it out so I looked it up. Then I thought about if for a couple of weeks. Finally, I just ordered it, and the accompanying cookbook.

Over the past couple of nights I've read thru them and I'm pretty excited. I think this is going to be doable. After major cutbacks in the first 'cleansing' cycle, items are added back in during the next cycles to get you to a diet that's healthy and satisfying. This one doesn't feel overwhelming right at the start. And it's really about change in eating habits, not food deprivation, and I know that's what this body of mine needs!

Let's see how the first 17 days go! I'll be reporting back for sure...

How about you, any changes going on, diet or otherwise? Fill me in!

(Links are below for both books, on Amazon, as well as a freezer meal cookbook that I will take advantage of for feeding the rest of the family during my 17 day cycles (although I do plan on having the family follow the 17 day plan at least 3 dinners a week). LOTS of great recipes are in the Fix, Freeze, Feast book!)

Amazon.com Widgets

A Link For Ya

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 04:24:00 +0000

We got our family photos done yesterday. Here's a link to one :)

Family Pic

Monday tomorrow folks :( Back to the same old grind, and adding some studying into the schedule (going for CAPPA level 3 - 2 months until mid-term - yikes!).

Have a happy week!

I Soooo Want To Do This!

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:52:00 +0000

It's been so long since I've posted to this blog that it's complete format has changed and I have to relearn everything all over again! Apologies to my 3 followers, life took over and I let it.

Like the title says, I really do want to do this, and maybe this one little post of words will prompt things along? I even have drafts, waiting to be posted! And I never did the official before and after of the renovations, and I REALY want to do that! Especially now that the house is starting to come along personality wise.

Anyway, my daughter just arrived for Sunday brunch and I must go get started with the cooking, but I'll be back soon...

Food Friendly Friday - Week 5

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sat, 28 May 2011 02:13:00 +0000

I can't believe it's that time of the week already! Time is flying by lately, and I think it's due to this working full-time thing.

And having a menu this past week was kind of a waste of that precious time, really. Things were good until Tuesday, and then there was no way I was making the corn and ham chowder like I was supposed to (Monday was a holiday, so Tuesday was 4 days packed into 1 at work, that equalled wore out!)...ham sandwiches it was instead. Thursday was supposed to be roast beef, but was roast chicken instead, due to a stop at Costco last weekend and some major meat purchases! Whole raw chicken is expensive here (go figure - it's cheaper to buy a deli rotisserie chicken) so I rarely roast my own, but it was a good deal at Costco so we changed it up a bit - and boy was it yummy! That affected today, which was supposed to be roast beef sandwiches, and then chicken fried rice instead, due to the leftover chicken, but in the end I didn't get home from work until 6 and had a humongous headache. Thankfully my daughter had brought home some Gus' Pizza Dry Garlic Ribs from Hinton (our old home town, which is 45 minutes away from us), so I just put out some homemade pickles and salsa with veggies and dip to go with the ribs for supper instead. If you are ever in Hinton, you HAVE TO stop for their ribs - all their food is good, but the ribs are one of a kind. Anyway, not a very good week for following the plan!

On to a new week though, and a promise (to myself at least) to do better next week! I want to go off of what is in the house this week, and hopefully not have a very big grocery bill. Shouldn't be too hard, we are well stocked right now :)

Saturday - (kids) - Costco Lasagna - always handy to have in the freezer! I didn't want to use it up so soon, but my boy requested it - how can I say no? :)

Sunday - (kids) - Company's Coming Hamburger Soup - this is my all-time favorite soup, I don't even change the recipe.

Monday - (no kids next 4 days) - BBQ Pork Tenderloin - one of my man's favorites is pork tenderloin. He always throws together these super flavorful marinades for it and then cues it up for us. We usually have potatoes, onions, carrots, butter and various spices in tinfoil, also cooked on the barbie - easy clean-up!

Tuesday - Chicken Burgers and oven baked French Fries - there are a few burgers left in the freezer we have to use up.

Whatever Wednesday

Thursday - BBQ Beef Tenderloin Kabobs with salad - again, the man will be creating a flavorful marinade and will be in charge of the cookin'...my kind of night!

Friday - (kids) - most likely takeout. My daughter graduates from high school on Saturday (CONGRATULATIONS SWEETIE!!!), so my mom will be here from PEI (yay!), and my little sister, who lives in Hinton, will be here too. I think there will be too much excitement to cook!

Grad reminds me...I special ordered a cake from a gal - in Hinton (I know, there appears to be a theme here - I have to be there tomorrow for my son's soccer too!) I hope to feature her after grad is over, she does an amazing job decorating the most fabulous cakes! I gave her free reign on this one, with the only stipulation being that we wanted a topsy-turvy cake - I can't wait to see what she creates!

I hope you have a wonderful, sunny weekend, it's been rainy and gloomy around here. How is your spring weather?

- Marsha -

Homemade Hoody Pillows (and others)

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sat, 21 May 2011 03:30:00 +0000

I had a couple of old hoodies that were in good condition but I just don't wear anymore. I didn't really want to get rid of them so I thought I'd try making pillows out of them. This isn't really a 'tutorial', as I only took a few pics of the process of making these, but I'll file it under here anyway...isn't this one cute!

They were really easy to do actually (aside from my silly mistakes, but we'll discuss that later) - and I pretty much just wung it (I know, it's not a word, but I'm usin' it anyway!).

There are only a few pics of the 'making' process - I'll try to explain what I did as best as I can...

First I turned the hoody inside out and pinned the sleeve holes at the seams. I had grand ideas for the sleeves - part of that later discussion about mistakes!

I also pinned the bottom hem closed, but left an opening in the middle.

Next I pinned the neck, and this was the second of the mistakes.

I realized (before sewing thank goodness!) that then the hood wouldn't be able to be attached if I sewed it this way. Sooo, I repinned to allow the hood to stay - next mistake, but again, we'll talk about it later.

I then sewed up all these seams, with the exception of the opening in the bottom.

I trimmed off the sleeves and then flipped the hoody so it was right side out, thru the bottom opening. And this is where I stopped taking pics. When I turned the hoody out, I had sewn up part of the logo into the neck seam. I ended up pulling out the stitches and just sewing a topstitch to close up the neck hole while it was right side out - that worked fine. This took a bit of time though, so by the time I had that fixed and actually had a pillow to stuff, I didn't want to do anything with those sleeves, so I just stuffed! After stuffing the pillow I sewed up the hole in the bottom by hand.

I wish I had kept those sleeves though, because now I feel like attaching them so that they are on the front of the pillow - especially because the way I sewed the sleeves makes this pillow look a little funky, but whatever, it still works! Go Habs!

For the San Diego pillow pictured at the beginning of this post, I took a different approach - and sorry, no pics.

I layed the hoody on the table right side out and logo facing up. I had a long piece of cardboard that I laid on the sweater, giving me a straight line. I first lined it up along one side of the sweater and used a rotary cutter to cut from the bottom hem of the hoody all the way up to the shoulder, making sure I had left all of the logo and hood intact. I did the same thing up the other side of the sweater. This gave me a hood with two rectangles hanging from it. I squared up the bottom hem, using the cardboard and rotary cutter.

Next, I turned the pieces so the hoody was inside out. I pinned the bottom hem, leaving an opening, and pinned up the two sides, and also pinned the neck hole. Again, I pinned so that the hood would still be attached.

I sewed up all the seams, then turned the hoody right side out, stuffed and sewed up the bottom hole by hand - here is another pic of the finished product (I like this one best, I have to say - and it was easier!).

Here are a couple of pillow covers I did too - just squares - VERY easy!

Got any homemade pillow ideas? Please share!

- Marsha -

Food Friendly Friday - Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sat, 21 May 2011 02:38:00 +0000

Yes!! I planned my menu, AND - I'm here to blog about it. It may not be a big thing to you (and that's perfectly ok), but it's a good thing for me :)

This past week flew by, I can't believe it's Friday already! I was able to figure out before bed every night what we were going to eat the next day, so things weren't too hectic food-wise.

One night we had Subway, but had a good excuse...Our province has been hit by devastating wildfires, with whole communities and towns being evacuated from their homes. Specifically, many homes in the town of Slave Lake have been destroyed. 374 homes actually, according to CBC News, and 52 damaged.

You might ask 'what does that have to do with you, you are 4 hours away'. Well, we had a garage full of household items that were destined for a garage sale. We had dishes, sheets, towels, backpacks, toys, hair care items, a microwave, and a bed with a brand new mattress. Some people from work got together and arranged for a local drop off location for donations so that a trip to the evacuation areas could be made, and since these were all perfectly good items, we decided to donate them instead of doing the garage sale thing. So, that night we grabbed Subway so we could organize, correctly pack and get the items to the drop-off location - we deserved the break - and it's somewhat healthy :) The main point being though that the Slave Lake victims really need those items, so I'm really pleased we were able to help in some capacity. My heart goes out to the families whose lives have been affected by this devastating event.

If you are at all interested in helping the Slave Lake victims, I found a good list of options on the Global Edmonton site. This was dated May 19, so the specifics items required may have changed, but it also includes options for cash donations. And thanks so much.

Now, on to next week's menu. Nothing too fancy going on here at all. I'm still not quite used to having lost the extra couple hours after work, so supper has to be simple :) We won't be home for supper Saturday night (Kid Rock - here we come!), so I'll start with...

Sunday (no kids) - Snack food - (nachos and homemade salsa, variety of homemade pickles, veggies and dip).

Holiday Monday (no kids) - Shephard's Pie - fried hamburger with a can of mushroom soup layered in a pan, with corn and mashed potatoes over top, bake - so easy but we haven't had this in so long!

Tuesday (no kids) - Corn & Ham Chowder - I got a free issue of Food Network Magazine and this looked pretty tasty (and I still have ham in the freezer from Easter)...I'll let you know how it turns out.

Whatever Wednesday (no kids) - two big meals in a row with only two of us here means lots of leftovers!

Thursday (kids) - Slow Cooker Roast Beef - with McCain Purely Potatoes (have you tried these? - they are great in a pinch!), carrots and gravy.

Friday (kids) - Roast Beef Sandwiches - gotta use up that leftover roast beef! With veggies and dip too.

And that's it! Nothing too crazy. I wouldn't mind getting some baking done at some point too - but that's asking for a lot!

Have a great weekend!

- Marsha -

Save $$$ Shopping Online

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Tue, 17 May 2011 03:51:00 +0000

I wanted to post this really quick just 'cause I was thinking about it...

I am a huge online shopper. I have a bad habit of staying up late, surfing the net on my Ipad, and making impulse buys. Most of the time I'm not disappointed though, so it works out!

There is one site I usually go to first though, especially if I know what I'm looking to buy. It's called Great Canadian Rebates. For all my fellow Canadians who shop online, if you haven't checked this site out yet - you should!

How it works is you sign in to the GCR site, then go to any of the stores they have available (I don't know the exact count - well over 300 though). By clicking to the store through the GCR site, you are then eligible to receive the discount that particular store offers by shopping thru GCR. The rebate is not applied at the check out - you receive the money in your GCR account. After a period of time (there is payout schedule on the site) this money will be deposited in your Paypal account. It may seem like a lot of work, but you really just need to have a Paypal account, and then sign up for GCR. Easy!

There are a variety of stores to choose from, and the rebates range from 0 to 18% or higher. Each store has it's own rebate amount. Amazon.ca for example is a place you can shop, but you don't get a rebate really. The info says you can get free shipping, but with Amazon you don't have to go thru GCR to get free shipping most of the time anyway. I don't worry so much about going thru GCR when shopping there. Sears.ca, however, does offer a rebate of 2%. That may not seem like much, but it all adds up. Another store I have shopped from thru GCR is SteveMadden.com - the rebate there is 8% - it helps in justifying buying $180 booties :) I could go on and on with the list of stores I shopped at thru GCR - Dysoncanada.ca, BananaRepublic.ca, and even ebay.ca (which has a 2% rebate per winning bid by the way - sa-weet!).

Not all of the merchants are Canadian, but all offer shipping to Canada - and the dollar is better here right now so, it's really cheaper to shop American!

Anyway, I absolutely love a deal - and the $42 and change in my GCR account right now tells me a little does add up - that's only since March! Hmm, maybe I do have a problem!

I'm not the PR gal for GCR, but, there is something in this for me if you sign up thru the link below. If you sign up thru myself, I benefit from every rebate you receive from GCR for the next 2 years! Isn't that something! And, once you sign up, you get the same benefit for anyone you refer who signs up thru you (I don't benefit from them as well, only from you)! And you don't have to do a thing except send your friends an email. Once they sign up thru you they are linked to you automatically and GCR does all the figuring for you. How easy is that?

If I don't have you convinced, below is an email suggestion I took right from the website that explains a little (do you see the part about where you get $2 in your GCR account when you sign up?). It also has the referral link so you can sign up thru me.

Even if you don't want to sign up thru me, for whatever reason, it's still a good deal for all, so I had to share!

Greetings Friends,

You are invited to save!

I wanted to be one of the first to share with you a Canadian online shopping
website that pays you Cash Back Rebates on online purchases. The website is
called GreatCanadianRebates.ca.  Why not join us? Continue to shop online or
become an online shopper at many of your favourite merchants.  The expanding
list of merchants includes: Dell, Expedia, Chapters & Indigo, The Source
by Circuit City, Travelocity, The Apple Store and The Shopping Channel.
Savings and rebates are only a few clicks away.

GreatCanadianRebates.ca is extremely easy to use. To get started, register by
following the link below, shop as you currently do and your rebates will be
automatically credited to your Cash Back Rebate account.
GreatCanadianRebates.ca also has many great coupons, free shipping specials,
and sales directly from the stores.

As a bonus for registering GreatCanadianRebates.ca will give you a Toonie!
That's right, $2.00 will automatically be deposited into your account, just
for registering. GreatCanadianRebates.ca also has an incredible referral
program that will make you money. You will earn a 10% Referral Bonus on all
Cash Back Rebates earned by any new Member you refer.

Please register at:
http://www.GreatCanadianRebates.ca/register/118456/

Happy Shopping and Saving!

- Marsha -

I love yard sales!

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sun, 15 May 2011 22:39:00 +0000

Spring has finally hit in our part of the world, and you can tell by the fact that yard sales are back! I've always loved yard sales - I can remember going with my mom when I was young, and although in recent years I haven't gone that often, this year will be different!

With the new house must come new decor, right?! And although I've been a shoppin' fool on Etsy, Ebay, and even Beyond The Rack as of late, yard sales have been a great place to score some good finds too!

Yesterday the man and I headed out pretty early (if you want to catch the good stuff you should go early - and go on Friday evenings if the sellers are hosting at that time - you'll for sure see the best stuff then) and we found 7 just by looking at the local board where everybody posts their items for sale and such.

Below is a pic of the treasures I scored!

The picture frames will eventually be spray painted white for a photo wall I'm inspiring to make.

The Rod Stewart cassette set will hopefully become artwork, but I'm not sure how yet.

The glass pieces I think I will leave alone - I like all the colors just the way they are.

And the books. It was actually Kev who pointed them out. Good idea too because I think they make nice decorations. I liked the color of the blue one and then read the title...'The Assassination of President Kennedy' - I might even read this one some day.

And here is how some of the above pieces look now sitting on my mantle!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend - did you go to any yard sales?

- Marsha -

Easy Peasy Homemade Coasters

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sun, 15 May 2011 22:08:00 +0000

I guarantee that if you google homemade tile coasters you will find instructions exactly as shown below somewhere, but since I took the trouble to take some pics of my experience making these, I'll just give you a little tutorial on how I did it - and it's super easy - and super cheap!

Gather the following supplies.

4" x 4" ceramic tiles (as many as you want) - I bought mine at the local hardware store for 37 cents each

fabric or paper squares slightly smaller than your tiles - I used fabric for these and then paper for a set I made for a friend

ModPodge

Krylon Transparent Indoor-Outdoor Sealer

Small paint brush or paint sponge - I used one of the blue handled flat brushes

Felt squares for the bottom of the coaster

Start off by giving the (clean) tile a coat of modpodge.

Then center your fabric or paper on the tile. I used a ruler to smooth the fabric.

I let that dry for about 10 - 15 minutes, then I painted on another layer of modpodge, this time going over the fabric.

I gave each coaster 3 layers of modpodge, letting each coat dry for at least 15 minutes in between.

I let the last coat dry for 24 hours, then I sprayed each coaster with the transparent Krylon spray so that the coasters would be waterproof. Sorry, no pics of the spraying, but I gave each coaster 4 coats of the Krylon spray, letting them dry only 1 minute between coats. I let the last coat of Krylon dry for 1 hour before bringing them back in the house, where I left them for 24 hours before attaching the felt to the bottom. I had self adhesive felt, but you could easily use a little craft glue to adhere regular felt, or even fleece.

Here is the finished product!

For the set I made for a friend (again, sorry no pics), I painted the outside edges of each tile a dark purple and let that dry before I started the above steps. I then used a lighter purple, patterned paper square, instead of fabric, in the center of the tile.

So, what do you think? Easy and cheap right?! Have you seen this somewhere else, and more importantly, have you made these too? If so, please share!

- Marsha -

(I have got to get used to signing my blogs - even if I don't have a fancy font to use for it yet! Forgive the inconsistency!)

Food Friendly Friday - Week 3 (NOT!)

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sun, 15 May 2011 21:30:00 +0000

I'm sorry that I didn't get to this this week, and not just for you (I don't have many followers actually - hint, hint if you are reading this!), but for myself also. I know it's going to be tough on this household to not have a plan.

Here's the thing. I started full time at work last week, and come Thursday, I just did not have the energy or motivation to plan - for anything. No menu, no grocery list - nothing. I was just beat, let me tell you.

It wasn't really the hours at work that were hard, it was the not getting to bed (or to sleep, rather) that was the issue. I would go to bed on time (10 - 10:30pm), and tired as I was I just couldn't fall asleep. I would lay there thinking of what I would have to do at work in the morning, or of which DIY project I wanted to tackle next and how I would accomplish it. My mind just isn't used to shutting down until around 11:30 or midnight really.

I used to work 8:30am to 3pm Monday to Friday with no lunch break - I just ate while I worked. Now I work 7:30am to 4:30pm with a 1 hour lunch. I do enjoy the break - it's great to clear your mind that's for sure, especially since I started full time because I've taken on a bit more work (temporarily) on a daily basis. The downside is that it is about a 10 minute drive to and from work, and with the cost of gas right now ($1.27.9/L), it really hits the pocket book. I will be opting to stay at work during the lunch hour for 2 - 3 days per week due to mainly this fact, and the extra mileage it puts on my little Equinox. I'll just pack a lunch like I used to, and then go for walks now that the weather is nice. I can use my new snowshoes when the nasty winter hits again.

Anyway, I'll try to be better at the menu plans - as I said, this helps me too. This week should be interesting - I'll try to at least plan one meal a night in advance and let you know how I fare next Friday when I post the next week's menu - I promise!

Finishing Touches

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sun, 15 May 2011 21:15:00 +0000

I'm way behind on showing the last of the cabinet maker's fine work - heck, I'm way behind on blogging period! (Notice there was no 'Food Friendly Friday' this past week?? Will explain later...) Without further ado, here it is...

The TV stand.

The mantle...I love the simplicity of it :)

The back porch...so much more practical.

As you can see, this trim still needs to be painted the same color as the walls. There is some going around the ledge leading to the basement as well that I forgot to take pics of :(

That's it! Well, actually, ok, so, there is one or two small things.

1. In the quote there was two shelves I wanted built for my scrapbook space. I'm not sure if they were forgotten or were scrapped (no pun intended) because of the add-ons we ended up having. I have to talk to Alex about it still...

2. I asked him to build me a big mirror. One that just sits on the floor and leans on the wall. A big rectangle basically, framed the same as our bathroom mirrors are essentially. This is seperate from our house though...this was just me as a customer going to him to have him build me one thing. We'll see what happens with that.

It's such a relief to have this space come together so nicely. Our choices were good ones and we are very pleased with ourselves! It's also been fun to be able to start to decorate...I've been a shopping, yard saling, DIYing fool - but it's been so enjoyable! And to top it off, our house is clean (fine print states this applies only to the upstairs portion of this house)! There is a space for everything and it's so easy to maintain - I absolutely love it!!!! Ok, enough of that..

On to other things...

I'm going to try to do a few posts today to get caught up on some stuff...if you continue on, bless you and thank you!

Food Friendly Friday - Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:15:00 +0000

Ok, folks, this weeks menu is really nothing to write about, but since I want to get in the habit, I'll post it anyway.

I'm all by myself for Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so there is no plan for those days. My man is out of town for work, and kids aren't back until Monday night soooo, why make it hard on myself? I'll just eat what and when I want!

Tuesday (kids for next 4 days) - Pita Pizzas - no link or recipe for this one! Just put some pizza sauce, meat and cheese on a pita, bake at around 400F until cheese is melted. Easy and tasty!

Wednesday - I can't justify having Whatever Wednesday when I really haven't had to cook yet this week, so we are having spaghetti. Again, no link and no recipe. I cheat and just add a jar of our favorite sauce to a pound of browned hamburger (with onions and garlic of course!). We ALWAYS have angel hair pasta with our sauce, and we will have garlic bread of some sort too.

Thursday - Slow Cooker Pork Chops with Mashed Potatoes - Again, no link or recipe. I throw boneless pork chops, onions and garlic in the slow cooker with a can of mushroom soup over top and voila! Serve with mashed potatoes and the gravy from the cooker. YUM!

Friday - Dinner out - since it's just me and the kids, and it's Friday, I thought it would be nice if I took them out for supper this night - you know, spend some 'quality' time with my almost grown ups.

Saturday - Slow and Easy Barbecued Ribs - I know we just had pork 2 days ago, but my man will be home for supper for the first time in a week and he has been bugging me to try this recipe. It's from the Pillsbury Slow Cooker Recipes cook book. I haven't tried it yet, but if it turns out good I'll do a whole post on the recipe.

Which reminds me of last week. We tried some new stuff, but we weren't too thrilled. The Ham and Parmesan Potatoes might have been good if someone had not thrown away my fresh parmesan cheese without me knowing. We won't be trying it again with the cheese though - not worth it. The Shaker Tomato soup was actually good, but of course onions and celery didn't go over well with my picky daughter. I would maybe make this again, but probably not - tomato soup on it's own is just as good with less effort. And as for the Spicy Goulash - didn't make it. Was going to do that yesterday, but the kids complained it was too much new stuff so I did the chicken burgers we were supposed to have tonight instead. I don't have a plan for tonight, but my man will be heading out of town, so we will probably just grab take-out. I don't feel too bad about that, it's been a while since we had take-out. Plus, it's Friday - why not!

If anyone out there did try the Spicy Goulash, or is going to, please let me know if you liked it - I would like to put this one back on the menu to try eventually!

Have a great weekend - I hope the sun is shining wherever you are.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sew Cute IPad Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Mon, 02 May 2011 02:19:00 +0000

In my last reno update I said I would post about something I made, so here it is (and yay! I figured out how to make my links have the text I want, instead of the address!!! Go ahead, click where it says 'last reno update, and it will take you to my last reno update!)...

Check out this cute Ipad cover!

I was checking out some blogs one night and came across an awesome tutorial on how to sew them.

The next day I headed to Walmart to pick up some material I had spied earlier, but didn't buy because it wouldn't work in our home...but it is perfect for this, don't ya think?!

That night I hunkered down and made 3 of them! All 3 are the same material, so I personalized them with a blingy initial and a charm (please ignore my sloppy initials, they didn't turn out as planned - have a new strategy for next time!).

Sorry, I already gave one away, so no pics of that one, but it has an ice cream cone and a piece of candy on it. The lovely lady who received that one was actually the one to think of the charms, and since she happened to be in town visiting the day after I made them, she got to pick her own charms. I think her candy perfectly symbolizes what she and I do when we get together...eat junk!

The tutorial actually shows steps for two flaps at the top, and they fasten with buttons. I did cut two straps, but because the Ipad is so small (her instructions are for a laptop), I figured I could get away with one. Also, I'm not a good button-holer (I'll practice at that though :)), so I decided to just sew velcro on instead and it works well.

Here is a link to Lindsay over at The Cottage Home blog. She has lots of really good sewing tutorials if you are into sewing at all, and they are all very well explained (I only made the Ipad cover, but of course had to review all her tutorials to see if I would be at all capable of making anything else!). If you make an Ipad cover though, share a pic, I'd love to see what material you choose!

Today I finished some really cute coasters - next weekend I'll post the tutorial on how I did them - it was super easy!

How did you spend your weekend?

Marsha

Food Friendly Friday - Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:36:00 +0000

(haha - pretty cheesy title right!)

A lot of blogs have a 'Menu Plan Monday', and they all have great recipes and weekly menus to check out (some are listed on the right :)), and I do check them out and use them, but for my blogging purposes, I will post on Friday (because I plan on Thursday and shop on Saturday). Hence the cheesy title...gotta name it something!

A little background on our family food habits...the main point being that our (my) two kids are only with us 4 days out of 8, so it really plays a part on what will be eaten that night. Also, our 17 year old starts work at 5 generally and will just eat before us. Some nights are VERY laid back as far as meal prep goes, with only 2 or 3 of us to cook for, although that doesn't stop us from going all out if we feel like it!

Another thing is that we have whatever nights. Lately I've been scheduling this for Wednesday's, which makes for a nice break in the middle of the work week. Basically we all have whatever we want that is in the house. Leftovers, canned soup, cereal, sandwich, cheese and crackers...see, whatever! It's supposed to be a good way to eat up the leftovers, and can be, but we are picky about which leftovers we like, so I'm slack on that. I try not to succumb to takeout on this night based on principal...what principal I'm not exactly sure!

Lastly, we are far from perfect in the food category. Although I find it extremely helpful to plan our week's worth of dinners ahead of time, there are times when takeout is just too convenient. For the most part, it's lack of motivation that causes the need for convenience, but that's where having a plan is all the motivation I need to cook a healthy, home cooked meal most nights, so that's why I bother to plan in the first place. But I don't beat myself up either if I skip the plan one night every couple of weeks.

Okay, on to my first weekly menu post (yay!!!)

(I'm trying some new recipes this week, hope they turn out!):

Saturday - (no kids today and tomorrow)- (shopping day) - Whole cooked chicken from the deli and buns - believe it or not, it's generally cheaper to buy a whole cooked chicken over a raw one at my grocery store, so that's usually the way we go. We usually have it in chunks on tray buns with miracle whip.

Sunday - Chicken Stir Fry - (using leftover chicken from Saturday) - I just sauté whatever vegetables I have in EVOO and then toss in the cooked chicken, some sort of stir fry sauce and some Epicure stir fry spices and serve with rice. Easy Peasy!

Monday (kids for 4 days) - *Slow Cooker Ham and Parmesan Potatoes* - *new recipe* - I try to do slow cooker meals on Mondays 'cause it's a hectic day at work :) Here's a link to the recipe (oh, and the links do work now!):

http://southernfood.about.com/od/crockpothamrecipes/r/bl99c2.htm

Tuesday - *Shaker Village Tomato Soup* and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches - *new recipe* - a twist on an old standby. Again, the link:

http://eatathomecooks.com/2009/01/shaker-village-tomato-soup.html

Whatever Wednesday

Thursday - *Slow Cooker Spicy Goulash* - *new recipe - follow link* - I have my own goulash recipe that I will post some day, but this sounds good. I will be swapping the ground turkey for ground beef.

http://debbidoesdinnerhealthy.blogspot.com/2011/04/spicy-goulash.html

Friday - (no kids) - Chicken Burgers and Taters - not the best meal, but what the heck, when all white meat breaded burgers go on sale, you buy them! And I bake them of course, same with the frozen taters :)

Thoughts on Week 2's menu:

There is still ground beef, ham and pork chops in the freezer, so I'll be trying to use those up. Maybe a second try on a newly found recipe and also a couple of tried and true's to make up for all the new stuff this week!

Do you plan your meals? Post a comment and let me know!

Pssst, Amazon has some great calendars to help you plan. I've seen this one being used by a few bloggers out there..

Happy cooking, and have a great weekend!

Finally, some Renos pics...

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:57:00 +0000

I'm not sure exactly how many days it has been since the renos started, but the first day was January 31, and today is April 28, so let's just say 3 months. That's about how long it takes to do an entire upstairs reno. Of course, we are not exactly finished yet, BUT, the cabinet maker says he will be done by the end of next week, FOR SURE, and since everything else is done, that means it will all be over once he's finished!

All of the tiling and grouting was finally finished on Monday of this week, and it looks great! I'm so glad I made him rip the other stuff out in the kitchen. We used all the same colors, but mostly beige instead of gray. What do you think?

Also, the blinds were installed on Monday. You'll notice every window has the same blind. It's hard to tell in the pics, but there is a slight texture to the material, which is just a dark brown. Drapes to come soon in the living room I think.

The trim for the cabinets was installed today, and I think it really finishes off the cabinets nicely.

And the doors were installed on the cabinets in our small bathroom.

Some of the closet doors and drawers were installed in our bedroom as well.

LOVE these shoe drawers!!!

And how about this corner piece in the dining area? Isn't it beautiful? It still needs the glass up top, but that will go in tomorrow, along with the rest of the closet stuff.

That leaves Alex with still having to do the TV stand, the back porch and the mantle. Plus he's going to spruce up the always banged up ledge around the stairs to the basement (yet another add-on). Hmmm, next week for sure huh? I guess time will tell....

Here are some pics of the living room with the new furniture...

The dog's favorite spot to wait for kev...

As you can see, my scrap room is being put to good use! I already have a few projects on the go ;)

On a whim I decided to just decorate Cam's room as the guest room now, since that is what it will be when the basement is done, and since my mom is coming to visit for Taylor's graduation :) Cam is not too happy about what he calls a 'girly' room...I told him to pretend he was away on vacation to a spa-like destination :)

That's it for reno news. I'll do a before and after post next time so the changes can really be appreciated. We are very proud of how it has all come together and can't believe it's almost done, finally!

Oh, I almost forgot...I sewed the coolest thing together the other day for myself and a couple of friends...pics and a link to the tutorial to come on the weekend! Sorry, not telling what it is 'till then 'cause one friend doesn't know what I have for her yet!

On a different note, I'm gonna totally plug Amazon here and post this link to the Adele CD ...she's one of my new favs, so why not.

And just so you are aware, I do get a commission if you click thru and purchase it. That's not a hint or anything, I just want you to know :)

Have a great weekend!

Blogging...A Learning Curve

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 02:26:00 +0000

Last Thursday night I sat down and drafted my first menu plan post. Well, where is it you ask? It's still sitting there in the drafts folder, that's where it is. Why, you ask? Sitting here now, I'm not sure to be honest.

It was a fine post....up until I wanted to personalize the name of the link I wanted to embed. It wasn't good enough for me to just be able to link you directly to a recipe on the Kraft Canada site, but I wanted that link to show as just the recipe name to you, not as the whole address. You know, when you click on the word 'here' and it takes you to wherever you are supposed to be directed to?

WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME??? I completely gave up because I couldn't make it "perfect"! I searched around and I think I found the directions on how to do it, but the language was so foreign to me I'm still not sure I was reading the right instructions! I was defeated. I thought - maybe I'm not cut out for this...this is a lot of technical stuff I just don't get! And trust me, I'm decently knowledgeable on both the inside and outside of a computer! But this language I didn't know had me feeling on the dumb side and I've avoided the blog since then.

Today I came on just to rant a bit and say I was giving up, and when I went to bold a word I noticed the link button. I was even excited to see it. In my drive for perfection, I actually forgot that I could still helpfully direct you to where I wanted you to go, which was the whole point to begin with! Who cares if it isn't exactly what I wanted? I can't believe I gave up so easily!

There are a slew of pretty blogs out there, fantastically designed blogs actually, and I will say the women (and men, I know you're out there too) who are designing them are talented. But just because my blog isn't as fancy as theirs, it doesn't mean I should give up. Doing what I am able is enough. I will carry on with the tools I have, and hopefully expand on them...no pressure though :) I'll change the colors up here just to add interest and to at least feel a little bit better about myself in knowing I can do that at least ;)

And to impress you with what is a new skill to me (perfect or not), here are a couple of links to a some tasty dishes we had for supper last week...

I hope it's ok for me to link you to a blog recipe. I'm not up on the blog etiquette, but I know it's a good thing to give credit where credit is due, and this blogger deserves credit for her quick and tasty Creamy Potato Soup:

http://eatathomecooks.com/2011/01/creamy-potato-soup.html

And this was a fun take on meatloaf...the potatoes were sooo yummy:

http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/potato-topped-mini-meatloaves-119147.aspx

**ARGH!! As you can see, my linking skills still need some honing (not so impressive!) - I guess you will have to copy the address and paste it into the address bar if you want to view these recipes. If you need help with that, please let me know and I'd be more than willing to assist, although I'm sure the help is not required :) **ok, now they work :) not sure what I did different this time, but I'll take it!

RENOS UPDATE - the tile backsplash in the kitchen was started yesterday...buuuuut, they didn't order enough tile. And go figure, the grout color was wrong. Another delay. Other than that, the new sectional and chairs were delivered and that is it. No word from the cabinet

maker in a while...maybe tomorrow? Pics to come soon....

Oh - happy Hump Day tomorrow!

Hmmm, I kind of like this blogging thing...

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 04:18:00 +0000

It's been 72 days since we started our renovations, and although we aren't finished quite yet, we are so very, very close! Backsplash, grouting, cabinet doors, trim and crown moulding, 5 more pieces of cabinetry, and a bathroom fan. That's it and the upstairs is complete! Then I can start really personalizing the space. Right now we are living up here, but it will really start to feel like home when those last little things are finished and I can pull out the goodies!

I mentioned last time that I was becoming a little OCD, and some may agree. I decided (with a little help from the blogs I've linked to on the right) that a household binder might be for me. It started with the decision that since we were starting with basically a brand new house we weren't going to allow anything to come in unless it was a) clean, b) needed (ok, and just wanted too, but that's where c comes in), and c) had a designated spot. This lead to trying to find a way to keep our mail organized, as well as find a replacement for our old "message center", which was the side of our fridge, which is no longer magnetic or visible on the one side as it was before. This then lead to the blogs.....soooo many home organization and meal planning blogs! It's like heaven out there for me! Why had I never explored this resource before? From there came the household binder, and then a meal planning binder too, and then the idea that I have to keep blogging! It's fun, it's a great way to share things with family and friends, and it's a great way to keep track of all the great blogs I've found.

Over the next little while I'm just going to play with it a bit, so if you decide to follow along, or tune in once and awhile, please bear with me. Designing an interesting and organized :) blog is foreign to me...I've just followed the template thus far! I hope to post links to blogs and sites I enjoy, share more details on our household binder, post home decorating projects I hope to attempt, and maybe even share my meals as I plan them each week. Who knows really, I'm just gonna wing it for a while!

Most certainly though I will complete the original goal of blogging about our renos by posting before and after pics (together, so you don't have to link back to the beginning :) ), and by keeping you updated as the last things are finished upstairs. Then there will be the basement to report on. If I get things right, there should labels for the topics I'll be posting about, but I only think I know how to do that at this point, so wish me luck.

Happy blogging!

End of Day 65

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:59:00 +0000

It's true that diamonds are a girls best friend, but closets have got to be the next best thing. It's going to be so much easier being organized with all this storage space. Everything will have it's place, and be sure, everybody will know where that place is! I'm going to be a bit anal, I can tell. I already feel a little bit OCD while unpacking....labels out, straight lines, like with like, no clutter....I'm sure it took me 10 minutes to put the cat and dog food away, the cans had to be lined up just so. Oh well, being so organized and tidy will allow me to spend 10 minutes on putting cans away if I so wish to spend my time that way! And all because of closets! I'm sure you have figured out by now that the closets have been installed (well, most anyway), and after taking all these pics I have been busy filling some of them with our 'stuff'...there is sooo much room! Alex also installed the mirror/cabinet units in the bathrooms just today - OMG - they are perfect and he is awesome, what more can I say?

And lights, the last two were installed just today - love them!! The electrician did lots today actually...the outside light, the thermostat, and the doorbell. Well, she tried to do the doorbell, but apparently Kevin cut the wires on her...lol. She'll be back tomorrow anyway. We weren't really thinking when we installed the big wall of cabinets in the kitchen about there being a plug-in available at counter height. We knew the plug-in for the mixer cupboard had to be moved, but that's as far as that planning went, and since the backsplash won't be installed until next week now (insert sad face here) she's going to come and install 2 plugs so we can plug stuff in when it's on the counter. What a novel idea that is huh?!

All in all, still a couple of weeks left - feels like I've been saying that for a while now! But at least we are using the space now. I'm pretty much upstairs all the time, either cleaning, unpacking, puttering or chilling in the bedroom. My mood has improved - I think - but I still want it to be done. We are using the space, but it doesn't feel like ours yet, and won't until the code on the door has been changed I'm sure!

Hallway closet. Putting the french style doors on really allowed the shelves in the closet to be fully accessed, very glad we did that. Alex cut them at a slight angle so that when you open the doors they weren't so in your face, very glad he did that! Still a shelf to be installed on top and doohickeys put in to hang the broom and such in the middle section.

Scrap room closet. I don't like how these bifold doors cut off the shelves in this one, but not much we can do. I will be using the shelves for books and magazines anyway, so it won't be an issue.

Cam's/guestroom closet. So much space!

Front entry closet.

The best of all - our bedroom closet (doors to be installed at a later date)!

Check out the built in laundry hampers - his and hers of course! I get the left side of this unit. The far upper left will have 2 hanging rods for shorter items and the section above the laundry hamper will be for long hanging, and then 3 drawers to the left of the hamper. Kev gets the right side - the far upper right section will be 1 hanging section for short items with a couple of shelves below. The section above his hamper will be shelves, and then 3 drawers to the right of the hamper. The bottom middle section will be drawers for my shoes (insert super large grin here), there will be 2 small drawers directly above that, 1 for my jewelry, 1 for ???. The upper middle section will be shelves for my purses, but there will be a tonne of room left in there for ???. The ???'s don't bother me - empty space - I've never known that before and can't wait to experience it!

The hugeness of this closet isn't coming across in the pictures so I put the chair there, but I don't think that helps either. If I was standing in front of this, I am about as wide as the laundry hamper section (no jokes please) and my head comes to about the middle of the upper section. It's massive!

My scrap room light - so pretty! Even Kev likes it, suprisingly.

This is what we bought to replace the horrible chandelier in the dining room. I loved this light when we saw it in the store, then when we got it home I was worried because I didn't like it in the picture on the box. Now I know why - you can't take a good picture because of the way the wire twists, it looks crooked, but in 3D, it works. I love it again and think it will look even better when we get the kitchen table in the room.

I think it's time for the contractor to take a trip to the dump! I'm so tired of looking at my beautiful kitchen and then turning around and seeing this! But I think you can still tell that this light looks better.

Main bathroom. Hmm, I seem to recall a problem with gray tiles in here just last week, but now - what gray tile? I don't notice any gray tile...all I can see are the awesome cabinets in this room.

Our bathroom - more doors to be installed at a later date :) You can't really tell in this pic, but the space under the counter and to the right is open shelves.

End of Day 58

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 03:02:00 +0000

So it's been two whole weeks since I last updated...shame on me! It has been a busy couple of weeks though...

Last update I posted pics of the new cabinets, with no doors, and showed the new doors to all the rooms, without handles, both of which are done now. Also, I was begging for lighting advice and was very appreciative of all the responses and opinions people had...it helped! We did pick a new light fixture but I'll wait until it's up to post pics. The light fixture for my scrapbook room came in today (yay!!) so hopefully the electrician will be back soon to take care of those things, as well as get the fireplace ready, as that has now been tiled, just waiting for grout.

And talking about tile...that brought the drama queen out of me, let me tell you! Quite a while ago we went and picked out the backsplash for the kitchen/bathrooms, and since then I've had this picture in my head of what it will look like. Well, last Friday I came home to a shocker...the backsplash was done (only on one wall thank goodness), but it was not at all what I recall picking! I mean, the colors and tile were right, but the amount of each color was way off. Somehow the message got across that we wanted 3 colors, mostly gray with some beige and a little chocolate in there. I thought we were going with 4 colors, most of which was to be a very neutral light beige, with the other 3 other colors placed sparingly thru out. This is not what was on the walls when I got home. There was so much gray on the walls my jaw just dropped! Right away I called the flooring place and she said the guy would be right over. I felt so bad 'cause he showed up with his little boys :( I had to decide right away whether or not the tile was coming down, so I had him rip out the kitchen. Meanwhile, I hadn't realized the bathroom was done too, so I go look, and it's all gray. I cried. I didn't like it, but I knew I didn't have the heart to make him tear it down too. It was 6pm, and he had his little boys there. Plus, it was set already so the drywall would have had to have been redone too, and I was NOT prepared to have to deal with mudding and taping again. So, the gray tile stays in the bathroom and will go in our little bathroom too. I don't think it will be a big deal in the end. The problem with it in the kitchen is that it turned really blue. If not for that, I would have left it because I do like the pattern he put in, and although I was thinking the backsplash wouldn't be such a statement, I like that using the 3 darker colors instead of a neutral with little hits of color did make it a statement, and I liked it. In the end, it will be 3 colors, but mostly beige and chocolate with just a little bit of the gray. Hopefully it turns out good, or I'll just have to suck it up like the bathrooms!

The better side of the coin had us move into our bedroom a couple of nights ago...it's so nice to be up there! I even took the little table and mirror I was using in the hallway in the basement to get ready in the morning and put it in the bedroom, just because I can't stand to be down there at all! It won't be long now, that's for sure, although the tile mishap put us behind a bit. But it will go in next week, and then things upstairs should be pretty much rapped up, and it will be time to celebrate and show off our beautiful house! For now, you will have to make do with pics though :)

The kitchen still needs the bottom trim and crown molding for the cupboards, backsplash and new electrical outlets. After that it's complete! Oh, and the microwave needs to be installed above the stove too...

I should have taken the pics earlier, they are a little dark.

Rowan chasing the shadows on the wall :)

I am loving the stainless appliances with the dark cupboards.

This mixer cabinet is the coolest thing. The mixer sits here all nice and tucked away, and then...

...when you want to use it you just guide the shelf up and out and it stays at counter height until you release the lock and then it just drops back into place - much better than lifting this 50lb monster up above my head like I used to have to do! This handy contraption along with the 8 foot long counter will make for a happy Marsha when baking and canning!

The fireplace tile matches the new kitchen lino perfectly! I'm still hesitant about this reddish wood laminate, but I keep telling myself that once we have everything in the room, it won't look bad...most of it will be covered up really...

Yay - we are back in our bedroom - it's exciting even if I can't decorate it the way I want to just yet :) I'm not sure if I'll get a real vanity to replace the home jobby one shown here or not - there will be lots of room in our bathroom, but I've kind of enjoyed having a place to sit and get ready in the morning instead of standing in the bathroom...it looks kind of tight here, but we have the bed over as far as we can so the cabinet maker has room to install the closet on Friday. I've always envisioned a bench along that wall though, not a vanity - it will take some thought!

This TV will be in the living room eventually, but it's a treat to watch in bed over the little 13 incher we have for the bedroom! The stand it's on is the bottom of our armoire, but we decided we liked the openness of the room without the top part, so we'll just use the bottom - good storage for blankets and such...

Signs of life coming back to the upstairs in my scrapbook room!

Cam's room is just waiting for his new bed frame. There won't be much decorating in here as he will stay up here only while the basement is being done, and then he will move into a nice new room down there once that is all complete.

The door handles...the same pretty much on all the doors, inside and out....

The backsplash that no longer is...I know it doesn't look bad in this pic, but it really is way too much gray that turns blue in this kitchen....

The gray bathroom that I will suck up and learn to love :) But the beige and/or chocolate would have looked waaay better.

I almost forgot to mention the new kitchen faucet - who'd have thunk I'd be so happy about a faucet?!!

End of Day 44

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 03:06:00 +0000

Ok, first of all I need opinions, big time. Most of the lighting was installed yesterday, and we love all of it...except the dining room chandelier - of course the most important fixture. I need to know what you think...can we use the same fixture that is in the porch (because we love it), in the dining area? Check them out...

Love this one...

This one, not so much...can we use the same one as the porch in this dining area??

Now on to the good stuff!! CABINETS!!!!! Take a look, I think they are beautiful, perfect, awesome, gorgeous and a whole bunch more!!!! And that's with no doors on yet!

OMG - I can't tell you how excited I am about these cabinets!! The layout will be the same as before, with the sink under the window, the dishwasher in the open space on the right and the stove in the open space on the left, with the microwave above....although we see there is no plug in for the microwave anymore...interesting to see if that was planned or not!

The floor is perfect with these cabinets!!! So glad we splurged a bit for it...

I'm so glad I gave up a chunk of counter for this pantry - it will be well stocked!

If you see this Traci, you will totally get that I stole your idea from your last house in Hinton by putting this wall of cabinets here. This house is the exact same layout as that one, only you didn't have the opening in this wall. Great idea!!! Our garbage can and recycle bins always sat against this wall, so I am super stoked about all that crap being hidden now.

6 bins in 3 cabinets - plenty of room for all the recycling and garbage. If I find one empty pop can or juice box on what will eventually be my nice, new, CLEAN, counter, I will put the person responsible in one of these bins - be warned!

This is what the doors look like...

Lighting for Cam's room and our bedroom. I'm going with a blingy, girly one for the scrapbook room, but it isn't in yet...

Lighting for the main bathroom - of course one of the shades had to be broken...another waiting game for a replacement to come in....

Same style, only smaller for our little bathroom. I'm glad we did something different for the bathrooms - I like these.

Ahh, nice new doors all around.

Love, love, love the french style doors on this hallway closet.

Cam's closet is nowhere near being blue anymore!

The front entry is sooo much brighter!

I'm really liking the new baseboards - very plain and simple, and a good height too.

Day 41

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:46:00 +0000

Yay - we bought our new sectional today! The layout of the living room really relies on us having a sectional, so although I felt a tiny bit guilty buying our 3rd new couch in 7 years (that's a lot isn't it?), it was something that will really pull our ideas for the living room together.

It's such an oddly spaced room, and I think we need to create two seperate areas in the space. The sectional will create the space for the TV area, and then an area rug and an accent chair or two by the fireplace will create the second space....I hope! Regardless, buying the sectional was a must so I don't really feel guilty, just excited...it will be here April 8...perfect timing!

The couch color is slightly off, it looks charcoal gray (that's it's name actually) in some lights, and kind of browny in others. The pillows have a small stripe in them that is a yellowy beige color. Hopefully it will all look good together with everything else.

So, it's now a few hours after purchasing the couch, and I just got back from purchasing two chairs! I feel they are important to the space, so back I went to see if I could find something I wanted, and yep, sure did!

End of day 40

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 03:54:00 +0000

Wow, what a great way to end the week! A new ceiling and new flooring...and they both look great!

The cabinet install didn't start today as planned, but that's ok. It will begin on Tuesday for sure, and I found out today that the cabinet maker - Alex - has almost everything built, and the install should go fairly quickly, so I'm really pumped for next week...I should have a new kitchen by the end of it! We have added extra tasks to Alex's list, so overall it will take a bit longer to get our bedroom closet done, as well as another closet or two, but again, that's ok. We picked out a mantle that we only sorta liked, and it was going to take a while to come in, and also it would have been made of maple, so instead Alex will build it. This is great because then it will match everything exactly. Plus, we weren't going to do our little bathroom originally, but now we are, and we weren't going to do Cam's closet, but now we are, so he has those to contend with too. Lots of work for the cabinet maker...

Monday of next week the new lighting may get installed, as well as the electrical switches and outlets changed out. The new inside doors, the trim, and the baseboards are supposed to be done too. It will be nice to see the effect those have on the overall look...I think it will be pretty drastic. Plus, once those are done, we can move back into our bedroom! The closet won't be done, or our bathroom I don't think, but the toilet is still in there and at least we could be sleeping up there...I'll take it!

Not much longer now. I'm hoping the weather is nice this weekend so we can get all the windows washed, which is making me realize that we really are getting close. Being able to start to clean because the major dirty work is done is a good thing!

I took pics of the new ceiling, but you really can't see anything in them unless you are looking at it full screen, so I didn't post any, but I of course took some of the new flooring! There's a good story behind this lino first though...

We redid our little bathroom about 2 years ago. When we went to choose the flooring, I picked out what I wanted, but of course it was the expensive lino, and Kev said no way because we would have to buy a way bigger piece than we needed for that little bathroom. Well, he had to go to the city soon after and he went to the casino and won, so he called me up and said I could have my lino...yay for me!!! We knew our main bathroom had to be redone, so we figured we'd save the extra piece for when the time came, completely not knowing we'd be doing a whole home reno eventually! Anyway, when the time came to pick flooring for this reno, I knew I wanted the same lino (there was a pretty big allowance for flooring in the budget this time!), but I was afraid that because we were going to a different dealer, and because we didn't know the brand or anything, we wouldn't be able to find the same stuff. We went and looked, but after about 5 minutes realized we could be there for hours, so Kev went and got the extra piece and brought it to the store. The guy probably spent half an hour going thru the samples while we were going thru tile for the backsplash. We had finally picked the tile and I was standing looking at our piece thinking it was hopeless when suddenly he yanked a sample out, threw it on top of our piece, and it was a match! I literally teared up and wanted to hug him! I was so happy, and now that I see it I love it! My only concern is that I wonder if our wood laminate floor looks too red next to it...we'll have to see once it's all complete, but right now it's picking at me ever so slightly....

Very neutral carpet in my scrapbook room and our bedroom.

Eventually the sides of the stairs will be carpeted with whatever we pick for carpet in the basement. Once the upstairs is done and we are moved up, the basement portion of the renos will begin...I don't think that will be near as stressful!

Back porch.

Kitchen.

See what I'm gettin' at here...a little too much red maybe? Maybe not...hmmm. Regardless, I love the lino. The laminate will have to go before the lino does!

Main bathroom.

End of Day 30

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 04:33:00 +0000

1 month already! It has gone by pretty fast really, considering there was delay of 2 weeks. I haven't blogged lately because there really hasn't been much to say. I could have bitched and whined about the hold up, but really, who wants to come here and experience negativity (you got enough of that in my last blog)?! I'm just grateful we are past that stage and are now moving on....rapidly I hope!

The few things accomplished in the past 2 weeks were the mudding/taping/sanding of the walls and ceiling was completed, the gas fireplace was installed and the new screen doors were installed. Yesterday, the painters began and that should be complete by the end of tomorrow. Thursday the new interior doors are to be installed.

Things have to move somewhat quickly thru the end of next week because the cabinet maker doesn't have any more room in his shop. All of the cabinet boxes and doors are built already and are in the process of being stained. He needs to get them out of his way so he can start doing the countertop. Before he can start his install, the kitchen floor has to be installed...and that makes me super excited! The changes will start to be drastic again, and I can't wait to see it start to come together. There are still a ton of things left to do though, so patience is still the number one focus!

I love how the gas fireplace is turning out so far. The old brick was so dark, having wall space above the mantle will brighten the room I think.

I was hoping to get a better pic of the old paint against the new, but this is the best I could get...they did the first coat of the entire upstairs in 1 day! The old color is at the bottom of the wall. Taylor said the new color looks like a white where we have smoked in the place for 10 years! Too bad, I love it!

It has a slight yellow tinge to it, but only in certain lights, and that's ok...

I was surprised at how one coat of paint made such a positive impact on the look and feel of the space.

More of a browny tinge in this light, and that's ok too!

This screen door in the back porch is so cool! The screen is retracted at the top of the window, and when you pull the window down, the screen rolls down too, and then retracts back up when you roll the window up! It was too cold to bother getting a shot of it down :) The front door now has a phantom screen, and there are no pics of that either!

End of Day 15

noreply@blogger.com (Marsha) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 03:57:00 +0000

15 days - half a month. It feels like it's been longer. I'm missing the light that windows allow in during the day. This is definitely affecting my mood. It's hard to be motivated - not that I'm usually extra motivated, but I literally have to force myself to move.

Never mind that my bed has always been my favorite place to hang out (there's just something about all that room to spread out on with pillows around you and softness beneath you), but now it's just right there, smack dab in the middle of the room, waiting for me - how can I not climb on and sit back and enjoy? Plus, 1 of the TV's is set up at the end of it. Kev has his usual spot on the couch (he is used to hanging out down here), and he watches the other TV. Even if we are watching the same show, I still sit in bed and just turn down the volume on my TV! I'm going to have to learn to kick this habit pretty quickly - it's sucking the life out of me!

And it doesn't help that to move around down here you either have to move something out of your way, or ask someone to move. It's really bad when the kids are here! It used to be funny to watch the cat and dog chase each other around - now I'm just worried one of them is going to give themselves a concussion by hitting one of the many pieces of furniture!

But, I will have to suck it up and find some reasons to get up and out and moving (like the snowshoeing course I'm signed up for but missed this last Saturday for example! Yes, I was in bed.). I'm thinking we have at least another 6 weeks of this, if not more. Most of the mudding and taping looks like it was completed today. The cable guys were in here and they wired the two bedrooms and moved the living room outlet to the corner where the built in TV stand will be. The frame for the new gas fireplace was built in preparation for the install tomorrow (hopefully). And that's pretty much it. I was hoping we would be ready for paint by the end of this week, and it could still happen, but I'm not going to count on it. All the mudding and sanding will have to be done a couple of times and today was only the first round :(