Happy Valentine's Day!

I know, I know, I'm a few days late. But, honestly, did y'all really expect any different from me? :)

Husband and I celebrated on Saturday (the whole "holiday during the the week" thing should really be eradicated) by going to our traditional restaurant. He's brought me here every year since we were officially dating (he lucked out the first year as we were seeing each other, but not official on Valentine's Day). Dinner was, as always, delicious.

The actual day wasn't anything spectacular. I surprised him with cards and chocolate from both me and Mister. They were laying on our key table when he left for the morning. He had a card and chocolate for me when he got home from work. Curiously, we both exchanged chocolate with puppies on the boxes...I wonder why we were thinking dogs? ;)

As I mentioned last time (last month...same thing), not a lot of things are getting done around the house. We did spend a lot of time in the office last Saturday and started brainstorming. We're now going in a totally different direction.

Instead of building more bookshelves, we're taking two that we have and turning them on their sides. Before you scratch your head and say, "Huh?" allow me to explain. I've had these shelves since I was little. My daddy built them for my books and toys, so they have many different sized openings, most of which are perfect book-size, regardless of which way they're turned. As fate would have it, they also measure exactly the same for the wall we want to put them on (either side of the window). The plan now is to build a base drawer for them to sit on. The shelves will only rise about 4 feet, so I'm going to build 2 drawers (one for each side), about 1.5 feet high and just over a foot deep. One will house my picture albums and scrapbooks and the other will become the new file cabinet. The futon will either stay where it is, go where the shelves are now, or go away entirely. We're not quite ready to write up a post for Craigslist just yet, as the futon was handy during the holiday season. We'll see what it looks like when we make the other changes first.

The desk will most likely end up on Craigslist, though, in favor of a new, smaller one to be placed on the wall where our dedicated bookshelf is (which will also likely end up on Craigslist).

We plan to put up shelves over the desk to house my crafty stuff (now that it all has pretty storage anyway). I'd also like to build a table for my sewing machine, since it's a pain in the butt to drag out and put back. Husband has grand plans of getting a treadmill or exercise bike and work out in the mornings. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one ;)

Plans

Ugh! Has is really been over a month since I last updated? I would say 2011 will be different, but I've had this blog for over 2 years. It won't get better. There is a little bit of hope though, because I have several projects planned for 2011. Unfortunately, they won't really get started until early-spring.

Until that happens, I can share what I'm dreaming up FOR said projects ;) I've mentioned Ana White's website several times. So far I've built this headboard:

this console table:

and talked my dad into building me these nightstands:

(By the way, I added some curtains in this room, too! One day I'll actually take a picture of it!)

A few days ago, she had a post about Google's SketchUp, the software she uses to design her plans. Naturally, I had to play around with it! After my initial learning curve (and it was a pretty big curve. I had given up last night, but decided to try one more time today), I sketched up my plans for a workbench for the garage:

Ignore SketchUp Susan standing IN my workbench. I am still learning and literally figured out about 5 minutes ago that there were more than 4 template options :/

Anyway, my plans aren't nearly as informative as Ana's so I'll just have to explain them. I plan on an 8 ft. workbench. I know, it's crazy long, but since studs come in 8 ft. lengths, it's kind of perfect. Second, it's only going to be 21-22" deep. That's crazy shallow, but we just don't have the extra room in the garage for wider without sacrificing a parking space. And since it snowed about 2 inches last night, neither one of us are willing to give up our indoor parking spots. It should, however, be deep enough to hold my miter saw (which is all I cared about). I also plan to put casters on the bottom, so that when I am working (I do actually sacrifice my spot for that), I can pull it away from the wall for easy clean-up. I love the idea of the bottom shelves to hold my new circular saw and those other odds and ends that are too big for the pegboard and compressor shelf. I might end up just building the miter saw it's own bench and build a separate bench for clean work space...Winter is just beginning, so there's no telling what this will look like in a couple of months!

So that's my big plan for 2011. I've got a few other projects for the garage, including mounting pegboard for the smaller tools and building a shelf for the air compressor. I also plan to build these bookshelves for the office to give us a little more room in the garage. I have a few other smaller project hopes, which may or may not include a trip to Ikea (OK, probably, may or may not include a few gallons of paint (OK, probably), and possibly may involve me departing from my beloved Lowe's for it's big orange competitor because I REALLY want these chairs. We shall see how it all plays out!

Tis the Season

Brrr! It is super cold here. We actually had our second snowfall of the year the other day...when we normally don't see snow until at LEAST after Christmas!
Christmas season is fully upon us. Husband and I are going tree shopping this weekend and will decorate it next week. We've got lots of present shopping that needs to get done, cards to send, family to see, parties to attend (and host). A lesser person would be overwhelmed. However, I just survived the craziest month EVER, so I'm not stressed about it. It all gets done...usually on time.
I hosted Thanksgiving this year. What the heck was I thinking? It sounded like a great idea in September! We've never had that many people over period, let alone to sit down to a full dinner. I've never cooked a turkey...ever. On top of all the stuff I was responsible for doing at church, I had several evenings full of tears. Partly because of stress, partly because we were yet AGAIN eating take-out. Maybe I was stressed BECAUSE we were eating take-out. Yeah, that's good for my heart.
Life, obviously, hasn't exactly slowed down and eating out is on the menu at least Friday, possibly tonight because of a meeting I have after work (why do I bother meal planning?) I did, however, want to take a moment to share some pictures of our Thanksgiving.
Like I said, we hosted. This meant my parents, my sister, my grandmother, Husband's parents, Husband's brother, and Husband's grandparents. Luckily, his family is close enough to come in that morning and left that evening. My parents got a hotel room. So really, we only had my grandmother and sister actually stay with us. Mister loved all the attention. So many people to beg from!











The buffet ready for the food











Mister begging












Waiting on the food












More snacking and waiting















"Need any help, Mom?"















Carving the turkey and mashing potatoes












Will sit for food













How do you resist this face?














The food is done!













Almost everyone











Find the difference












Sweet potatoes and dressing












Turkey and mac and cheese











Me with my table. Breathe a sigh of relief!

Show Me Your Life - Laundry Room

I'm going to say something not many people say. I love my laundry room. No, I REALLY love my laundry room! It's one of the few rooms that actually has a color scheme and I selected it mostly to build from for when we get to the rest of the house. In short, actual THOUGHT went into decorating this room.
Now, you're probably wondering "Seriously? Who decorates a laundry room?" Most people want to get in, get out, and be done, right? Laundry is one of the few (and I mean FEW) household chores I don't mind doing. Do I wake up on laundry day and jump on Husband and say, "It's laundry day! Hooray!!"? No. But I also mind getting up every 35-50 minutes (depending on the wash or dry cycle) and switching things out, or bringing a load into the living room to fold while I watch TV. Ironing, well, that's another story.
Anyway, our laundry room is a pass through to get from the garage into our house, but we don't actually use anything in there as the "catch-all." Our keys, my purse, etc. all live somewhere else in the house, so it's actually fairly easy to keep clean.
The pictures are a little light, as we have a fluorescent fixture in the laundry room (which will be gone once I brush up on my electrical skillz). It looks like more yellow, than green, but I promise it's a pretty light apple green. When we paint the kitchen (which connects to the laundry room), it will be a shade darker and match accessories we have in there.










The washing machine, water heater, and cleaning organizer. The washing machine and dryer were a move-in gift from our parents (all 4 of them) when we got our first apartment, which conveniently had hook-ups :)









The "folding table," which as I've said, I don't fold there, so it's where Husband's work shirts live until I get around to ironing (see the board hanging on the wall?) The only difference between today and when this picture was taken is that the dog crate is no longer there. A Mister update is sorely needed, but suffice it to say that his crate in in our bedroom and the laundry baskets are in place of the crate.









The art I did over the folding table. On the far left says "Laundry schedule: sort...later, wash...tomorrow, fold...next week, iron...get real!" I made it (and it's counter-part on the right) out of scrapbook paper and a frame I ordered online (since 12x12 isn't really standard i.e. cheap). The one on the right says "Laundry today or naked tomorrow!" Teeheehee! In the middle is a print I ordered from Amazon.com. It cost a whopping $0 thanks to gift cards I had earned through Swagbucks (ask me how you can get Swagbucks, and yes, I promise it's NOT a scam!)













My biggest accomplishment in the laundry room was lowering the shelf that was above our washer and dryer. I stand at a statuesque 4'8" so reaching over the machines and getting the bins without anything falling on me just didn't happen. I can now get a good firm grip on the bins (or basket, which is what the detergent lives in) and lower it without getting a concussion...or breaking anything. It will most likely have to be raised whenever we move, but that won't be soon, so I'm making my house livable! Of course, now we have a huge open space OVER the shelf that I'm trying to figure out how to fill...

Show Me Your Life - Bathrooms

Today's installment of Kelly's Show Me Your Life is bathrooms. We have 2 full baths. Our first apartment together had 2 baths and that came in handy more than once (sometimes you just can't wait), so one requirement when we were shopping was at least 1.5 baths.















This is our guest bath. It's nothing super exciting, tub/shower combo, toilet, and single vanity. There is a small linen closet on the right side, hiding behind the door, which is pretty handy. This bathroom is outfitted with all the bathroom stuff we got for our wedding (basically because it's the bathroom that required a shower curtain and our wedding set was newer). Unfortunately, that meant the soft, fluffy towels went in there as well. We're slowly working on getting nice ones in the master though!















Speaking of the master, here it is!

















Double vanity, something our apartment didn't have and I now can't live without!
















Garden tub and stand-alone shower (to the right, just outside of the picture).














The neatest part about the master is that the toilet has its own little room. I can do my business in peace while Husband brushes his teeth or whatever. There is also a linen closet directly across from the toilet.


I have just one question. Can anyone give me a logical reason for the towel bar over the toilet? Clearly our sink is in the other section and I'm certainly not wiping my hands on a towel BEFORE they get washed (just ew). Why is it there? Whenever we get around to painting, it will come down and be donated to Habitat Restore or Goodwill or someplace unless I get one logical reason as to why I should keep it there.

Show Me Your Life-Guest Rooms

I've been on hiatus the past couple of weeks from Kelly's Show Me Your Life series. Mostly because it's been the office (which I'm not a huge fan of, decor wise. I'm just uninspired for it) and kids rooms (which we don't have any kids, therefore no kids rooms!). But this week is guest rooms and I LOVE ours! We've put a lot of work into it and I think it's turning out pretty special.












This is our guest bed. My dad built the night stands from this Knock-Off Wood design. I supervised one of them, mostly to learn about using a nail gun. My observations paid off because not only did I build the console table I shared a little while ago, but I also built the headboard! The headboard is from this Knock-Off Wood plan, except I ONLY built the headboard part. We have a frame already and I didn't really want the footboard.













Better look at the headboard

















And a close-up of the nightstand. Forgive the blurry, yellow tinge. I am NOT a photographer, so I don't know how to adjust for different lighting.













Opposite from the bed is a dresser and quilt with stand. The stand was a Christmas present last year, so I had a better way of displaying the quilt. This quilt is pretty special. My great-aunt's great aunt handmade this quilt when she was in her 80s. It laid on the bed of my great-aunt (who was more of my grandmother, but that's a long story) and was one of the things she brought from home to her nursing home. It was on our guest bed for a time, but I was always worried something would happen to it.
The dresser also has a story. My several-times-great grandmother used this as her suitcase. She had, I think, 6 kids that she lived with for 2 months at a time. She would just load her dresser on the back of the wagon and haul it to the next house. My parents held it in their guest room for a while and when I mentioned I'd like to have it "one day" they brought it up!

All that's left for this room is to hang curtains, get a duvet for our duvet cover (we did that a little bass-ackwards, but that's ok!), and I have a short list of small accessories (like an old fashioned alarm clock) to get.

Show Me Your Life - Kitchen

I've been caught now. The kitchen is one of a handful of rooms that I haven't done much of anything to. Actually, some of the photos I'm posting are from when we moved in! But that's OK. I have plans. I just need some cash-ola, then some time to actually do what I want.












Sink area (move-in picture--it hasn't changed and the sink is a disaster right now!)













Opposite of the sink











Breakfast nook. Please excuse the tape of the floor--our builder came through for a one-year inspection and we had some grout replaced. Also, excuse Mister's tail :)
















Butler's pantry, a.k.a. the bar. You'd think we drank a whole lot more than we actually do to see this picture (especially if I opened the cabinets!)


Being a new construction home, we got to pick pretty much everything except the cabinets (which had already been ordered when we came along). Luckily, we liked them! We got to pick the tile for our back splash, the sink faucet, and our appliances. We also got to pick all of our lighting fixtures, but we chose to save money and just go with the basic already included package. Mostly because we knew we could buy different fixtures for less and install ourselves (which is what we did with the ceiling fans). However, honestly, I don't really mind any of our light fixtures. I'd like to eventually get rid of the fluorescent light in the laundry room. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy. The one thing I WOULD like to do with the lights is change the shades over the table. Lowes sells what I want for pretty reasonable (compared the the cost of replacing the fixture itself).