Goals: Around the House

One of my perennial goals is to hang family pictures in our home.  When we first moved into this house ten years ago this week, I was stuck.  I wanted to badly to have this house feel like home, and yet we had just gone through the psychological trauma of de-personalizing our old home so that we could sell it.  I was afraid of nails!

I have improved over the years, and there are a couple of places in our home where I have put up a gallery wall.  Command adhesive strips have really helped--if I want to move the pictures, they don't leave any holes in the wall!

Last summer (as in 2014) we finished our basement.  We had some shelves built into one wall, and last year, I put in most of these pictures.

 

 It was a good start, but other than that, the walls were left blank.

 

And that's a lotta wall space!

 

On our California trip, I brought home cards to frame as souvenirs.  Once we got home, I chose some pictures and ordered enlargements from Snapfish.  I have used Snapfish since back when I used film in my camera--I have pictures from when my son was born on their cloud.  (That son just turned 12 over the weekend.)  And then I took advantage of all of the great coupons at Joann and Michael's last weekend.  And today I used every last command strip in the house for this--the start of our new basement gallery wall.

 

Here is how it looks next to the bookcase.  There is plenty of room to the left of the frames to add on as we go.  We have many years of past vacations I can add.  In fact, I ordered some prints from our 2014 vacation just today.

 

I am learning that "slow and steady" is the way to go when making a house into a home!

Kitchen Upgrade

I think this really all began in November.  We had a leaky faucet in the kitchen that we replaced.

 

 

By early January, we were picking out granite.  Then we painted and went to the tile store.

 We decided under-cabinet lights would be awesome, and they would also allow me to see as I stand at the stove and squint at the cookbook.

The stove was delivered today.  And now I can say that I absolutely love my kitchen!  Come over for dinner, won't you?

Pictures! And goals! But mostly, pictures!

Lo and behold, I can access pictures from my phone again!  I'm so excited it has almost thrown me off my plan for this post.  I wanted to update my new year's goals so far:

Honey does not like the Cone of Shame.  But now she's spayed.

Writing:  Be here more often.  Well, I have been here more often.  I like the style of the lightning round post.  The problem lately has been getting computer access.  I think I'm going to have to start posting from my kindle, because I am the last in line to the computer.


The best $.99 I've spent at Party City lately.  He really knows how to rock the 'stache.

Fitness:  Go to the Y; walk the dog.  Getting to the gym is tough when you're trying to bring the whole family.  I am looking at our schedule and finding places where I can sneak off by myself to get in a work out.  And that dog?  We had to curtail her activity for the week after she was spayed, but we're back making the laps around the neighborhood.  We also found a dog training facility that has a weekly "social hour" for puppies.  Yes, I know how ridiculous this all sounds.  But between the car rides there and back (she gets carsick) and the socializing, she was worn OUT.  Money well spent in my book.

And why not jump for joy in the church kitchen?

 Reading: Blurb what I read.  I only read about four books in January.  That's a slow month for me.  But I did write blurbs in my moleskine, so victory!

We are in the midst of a kitchen re-do.

 Home: Take pictures; print pictures. Plan the weekends.   Pictures...not so much.  I have been making dreamy/practical lists for each weekend.  I enjoy crossing things off the list.

Finished Object!  The Honey Cowl.

 Kitchen: Try one new recipe per month; let the kids help with the fun cooking.  I totally rocked the new recipes in January.  In January, we tried Coffee-Rubbed Rib Eye, Tuscan Lemon Chicken, Chicken Tacos, Straw & Hay with Gorgonzola, and Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage.  Several of these recipes were variations on things I've already made.  The chicken dishes will probably go into the regular rotation around here.  I did get lots of pushback from the kids over some of this month's dinners.  This week, I let each kid choose the dinner for one night.   They chose chicken and rice soup, calzones, and burgers.  I'm trying to keep it from being a chicken nugget buffet.

Here's Honey's finished object--a Kong genius toy. We're getting our money back.

So there was January.  I'm going to go make my dreamy/practical list next.  It's not snowing here yet, but I'm pretty sure that "shovel the sidewalk" will be on my practical list for the weekend.

Ten Things

It's Friday again, and I'm wondering if I can come up with ten things...it seems the delayed Spring is affecting my mood.  Here goes:

 1.  I feel like I've been in a creative funk.  Or rather, I am working on some things, but I feel like completing them is taking forever, or there are so many things I want to make, but I have limited time, I don't know.  It's sort of a rushed feeling--or a not-enough-time feeling--does that make sense? 

2. In general, I'm battling an overall crabby mood (mine) around the house.  And I feel like I'm nagging myself.  And nobody responds well to nagging.  I think it's time to give myself some grace.

3. Remember these pillows that I recovered recently?  Well, even all prettied up, they're still a thorn in my side because I'm still finding them all over the floor.  I am seriously contemplating following Larissa's lead and pitching them.  And I may also pare down the blanket collection in the family room too for the same reason.

 4.  Caitlin was sent home from school yesterday with a temperature of 101.5, so she's home again today.  I was on my way to Lowe's yesterday to buy garden soil so I could finally get started on our veggies when I got the call from the nurse.  I may take her over there today, but it's supposed to rain today...maybe I'll just do it tomorrow when the weather is supposed to improve.  Sigh.  Delayed gratification can be difficult.

 5.  We have one more Lenten supper to go.  This Wednesday night is a special night at our church.  It is the actual anniversary date of our church's founding--150 years!  I'm looking forward to the celebration, but I will also be very glad to have this year's suppers behind me.

 6.  We are planning our summer vacation already.  It looks like we're going to take a road trip to Niagara Falls and then over to Toronto.  This means passports for the kids.  Would you believe I have an appointment at the post office for the kids' passports for 8:30 on a Saturday morning?  I don't even want to think about how early that is!  I don't know the last time all five of us rolled out to be anywhere by 8:30 in the morning. 

 7.  Kristyn left a great comment last week about dinner recipes to help get through baseball season.  It's a great one to think over.  Right now, I'm stumped!  All of Bobby's weeknight games are scheduled for 6:00, and he probably has to be at the field by 5:45 at the latest.  I want the kids (and the adults, if we can) to eat before the game.  Eating dinner at 8:00 on a school night is not conducive to a peaceful bedtime.  So, that leaves us eating dinner around 5:00, 5:15 at the latest.  I'll let you know what we come up with.

 8.  I have not been taking pictures.  Maybe looking through the camera will help me see things in a more positive light.  Pulling up some of these old pictures has been a treat.  See how stinkin' cute Bobby was?

 9.  Hey--I'm all the way to nine!  That's kind of a cheat, isn't it?

10.  I'm going to take a deep breath and go plan something fun for all of us for tonight.

Bathroom Re-do

It's done!  Our downstairs bathroom is done!

This is Before.  The walls had a suede finish, and you can see where I tried to paint over the places where the kids pulled the toilet paper holder out of the wall.  The little ledges over the toilet have been empty since early January.  I used to put seasonal decorations on them, but I didn't really have enough to make it a go year-round.  Ditto with the pictures on the wall--they're still from fall.  This room needed a freshening up!

So here's a During picture.  I primed the walls.  This was taken after I was done with the cutting in.  I like to paint secret pictures on the walls before I go over them with the roller, besides, it's fun to hide hearts on the walls!

I applied two coats of paint.  This room is so tiny (like 5' x 5'), that it really took no time at all to paint.  The color is Morning Lake, and I bought it from Lowe's.

And here is the After:

I am trying again with a wall-mounted toilet paper holder.  The kids are older now, so I think I can trust them not to rip it out of the wall.  And I could go on for days about how much I love the new art on the walls.  They're reproductions of old WPA posters, and they were quite affordable.

I am hoping to purchase a small cabinet to put opposite the toilet so that I can keep spare towels and toilet paper in the bathroom.  The sink is a pedestal, so there's no storage.  Even without a cabinet, I love it!

Now it's time to start getting ready for the parties--I have to start baking cupcakes and cleaning this house!  At least I don't have to worry about the bathroom!