ahhh... progress

Well, if I have learned anything from the last 3 (almost) years of home ownership, it's that we will never be "finished."  I know that somewhere there is someone who feels like they are finished with their home, but I have never met them and probably wouldn't like them even if I did meet them.  So, in the effort to feel some sense of accomplishment, I present my newly refinished sideboard:

Not only does it look much better than it used to, but it now houses a pretty groovy wine rack where the bottom two drawers used to be.  I was actually more than a little bit ready to give up on the wine rack idea and just paint the drawers and return them to their previous home, but I decided to give it one more try.  I am certainly glad I didn't give up because I was able to snag this little diamond in the rough for only $1.50 thanks to a local thrift stores 50% off everything sale.

Once I heartlessly cut off the hearts with my handy jigsaw, the rack fit perfectly in the space left available when Iremoved the bottom two drawers.  After a few impatient coats of paint from that same old $5 oops paint can, the results were pretty amazing.  I love the new hardware-and it defnitely helped this old sideboard make the transition from early 70's to vintage-y 2010 status.  Here's a great shot of what the cabinet really holds (besides the wine)

The art supplies is this cabinet are all part of my "keep it where you use it" theory of organization (to use that word loosely).  My kids do the bulk of homework, art projects, coloring and creative stuff at the dining room table, so having their supplies on hand is key to both easy access for them and simple clean up (let's face it, that's mostly for me).  Having the storage double as an attractive buffet for parties is just a bonus for me.  And, before we move on, let's remember what it used to look like (about 2 weeks ago):

And, for an even more shudder-worthy retrospective, let's see the same wall just a few days after we moved in a mere 3 years ago:

This post is linked to:  between naps on the porch-metamorphosis monday

Thanks to the genius of Craigslist...

We are one step closer to putting our fence in out back.  Our little postage stamp (as I like to call it) yard is in need of a facelift.  After living here nearly 3 years and spending a ton of time on the interior of the house, it seems like it's about time to start improving the landscape.  Enter, Craigslist.  I got the idea for this from young house love quite a while ago, from reading about how they transformed their (much bigger) backyard.  So, with enthusiasm and only a little trepidation, I listed our unwanted shrubbery on Craigslist-free to whomever would like to come and dig it out. 

Thus, our yard went from this:

To this:

The people who came to dig in the blazing hot afternoon sun only wanted the forsythia, not the unnamed "shrubs" that are back there, but it's a start.  I am going to give it a few days and see if anyone else responds to the ad and wants the rest of the shrubs (keeping fingers crossed).

In other news, the sideboard is nearly finished.  I still have to get some more paint on the very bottom of the legs and work out one more idea and then it will be time to sort through all the art supplies and get them back into their proper home.  Here is a sneak peek of the cabinet still in progress:

Happy Monday-it's a hot and rainy one here!

Ten things

Today seems like the perfect kind of day to stop and be thankful, mindful and pick out just a few of the things I am enjoying right now.  Life around here is crazy-busy (I think that should be a word) and there's no end in sight, even more of a reason to stop for a minute and look, really look.

1.  Lilies of the valley (from my side yard)

These smell so amazing for some tiny little flowers.  Apparently some bunnies must like them, too, because the tips of the leaves have little bite marks. 

2.  Sunshine and warmth today-yesterday was too chilly and windy

3. The new vera bradley catalog, which came with these lovely paper dolls. I haven't decided yet if I am going to share them with my daughter or keep them for myself

4.  Yoga-oh look, there I am sitting poolside doing yoga.  Oh, wait-that's another page from that Vera Bradley catalog! 


5.  I have exactly one week left in my thirties.  I feel like that should have been written in ALL CAPS but I don't want to scare myself especially considering my advanced age.
 
6.  I have a lunch date
 
7.  I just found out that my iPod has a pedometer.  And, it's 1200 steps to walk my kiddos to school the short way.  When I pick them up this afternoon, I think I will go the long way.  I did accidentally end my "session" with the pedometer, but I did 3400 steps in two hours.  Not bad for an old lady.
 
8.  In addition to the numerous weeds that are flourishing while I can't really garden (tree pollen) I found a pretty purple columbine growing in my backyard this morning. 
 
9.  Naked juice-specifically red machine.  Love it!
 
10.  Sparkpeople-just started using their site again after a long hiatus.  I really like logging what I am eating.  In some weird way, I think it keeps me on track.
 
Hope you have 10 things time 10 today that make you happy and give you a moment to pause, reflect and be thankful-or just make you smile.  

time for a little makeover

We are still very much in the process of furnishing this house, nearly three years after signing away our money, time and quite possibly our sanity to purchase it.  When we moved here, we didn't even have to rent a truck, party because we only moved 1.3 miles and partly because I was bound and determined to leave all the hand-me-down and unwanted furniture behind.  My theory was that if we didn't bring it, we would be more likely to replace it.  The proof of exactly that is the futon that still lives in my basement, but that's a tale of woe for another day.

Today, I am turning my attention to this little beauty:

This thrift store gem only cost $30 and when I bought it almost 3 years ago, I thought I would have it for about 6 months and replace it with something taller, more interesting and, well, just better.  The only thing is, I haven't found anything that fit those criteria and my budget.  So, here it sits-on the side wall of my dining room. 

Because it's in my dining room, you would probably be thinking that it holds linens or china or maybe fancy dishes we only use at Christmas or Arbor Day-but, you would be wrong!  It holds every art supply and assorted piece of junk my children can collect until I force them to purge and get rid of at least some of it.  In fact, when I emptied it to get started on the refinishing, my son saw the bag that held the contents of just the top drawer and said "MOM!  what did you buy us???" 

Here's the progress so far:

I am quite pleased with the new look.  I bought the hardware and the legs at Lowe's and they were so simple to attach.  I just positioned the metal base at each corner of the bottom of the cabinet and screwed them in.  The, the legs just screw into the hardware.  Luckily, my husband helped with the jigsaw to cut off the front legs.  The back ones were attached with a peg and a few screws.   

Because I just happen to have a few gallons of "oops" paint lying around, I am thinking of painting it black with maybe distressed pale green over it.  But, I am not so sure.  I am sure, however, that I will get that kids out of the left cabinet before I paint it-or it could get messy!

the best soup ever

A few years ago, we were at Wegmans for lunch and I had the most wonderful southwestern chicken soup.  If you have never been to WEGMANS you should stop reading this immediately and go there-not the website, but the actual store.  If you have to drive several hours, don't worry-it will be worth it. 

Back to the soup-it was amazing.  I tried to track down the recipe on their website (because they do publish most of their prepared food recipes) and even asked my brother-in-law who was a chef there before moving on to his own restaurant.  No one, and I mean no one, could get me the recipe.  Thus began my quest for making the perfect soup. 

On top of being so crazy delicious I could eat this every day, this soup ends up being really healthy, too and it's simple to make. Line up your ingredients:

This is about as easy as it gets, because all you have to do is start dumping the ingredients into your soup pot.

Let's start with the onions.  I hate, hate, hate chopping onions, and thankfully someone at Wegmans knows this and they have packaged their chopped onions for me so I don't have to cry about how much I hate chopping them.  I also love how their food is called FYFGA (food you feel good about) because really, I do feel good about already chopped onions.  Put some olive oil in the pot and pour in the onions.  I use half of this bag.

Once you've got the onions nice and translucent, it's time to bring on the chicken.  I usually marinate the chicken overnight (at least) in the Wegman's Fajita marinade.  This marinade is tomato based and spicy without adding any heat.  I cook the chicken covered on low-medium heat till it's tender and ready to be chopped. 

Many people use two forks to shred chicken or meat in soups and other recipes-I prefer this tool, which is used for making cheesesteaks.  This way, I can chop the chicken right in the pot. 

Next, get your can opener ready, because you are going to add the canned goodies:

I use two cans of original ro-tel and a can or two of mexicorn-undrained for both.  The next step is the beans, and lots of them.  Don't forget to rinse the beans if you are using canned (or drain them if you are using dried and then soaked beans).  I use three cans of black beans, you could use more or less or even throw in some other beans if you want. 

At this point, the soup looks like this-try not to eat it yet. 

Sorry for the blurry photo-I think I was getting hungry!  Add 2-3 cans of vegetable broth and a few cups of water and simmer the soup for a few hours.  In the end, it comes out like this:

We eat it with shredded cheese (I like the jalapeno jack or cheddar for some kick) and a few crumbled tortilla chips.  I tried to figure this soup out roughly for Weight Watchers and I think a one cup serving (without the chips and cheese) is 3-4 points.  Enjoy!  If you end up making the soup, let me know how you liked it!

the joy (and horror) of picking paint

As much as I love color and thinking about colors and taking about 1,239 paint samples from Lowe's on every visit, the thought of actually selecting a color for any given room is incredibly stressful.  It's like having to pick a favorite ice cream; it honestly can't be done without at least a little bit of remorse.  Like, maybe I should have had black raspberry instead of the coffee... 

In the spirit of complete decisiveness, I present the new color for my kitchen (maybe)

I love the small samples you can buy just about everywhere now because they really help you get an idea how the color will look on the wall.  The paint is supposed to cover a 4' x 4' area, but I usually do what I did here in the kitchen-paint a small square on each wall.  That way, I can get an idea what the color will look like at all times of day on the different walls in the room. 

The wall color is fennel seed by Martha Stewart (home depot) and the ceiling is endive (also Martha by home depot).  I love the idea of painting the ceiling a light color because our new raised ceiling is a focal point in the room.  The cabinet color is called seal (Martha again), which is a rich charcoal.

So, this is it for the kitchen (I think!)

I live in zone 6....I live in zone 6

but today has me wondering.  It is a toasty 80 degrees right now, on April 5th.  I feel like I should be out in the garden, weeding, planting, something.  But, I do actually live in zone 6 and it's way too early for it to be this warm, or to really start planting anything of substance.  After all, we could actually still have frost, though it seems more than a little unlikely.  The temperatures around here are going to stay up in the 80's till about Thursday, then go back down to what will feel like a chilly 59! 

In the meantime, I will share some gorgeous pansies from one of my two very favorite places to buy plants. These beauties are from Renninger's Farm. 

What says spring better than pansies?  I actually love pansies-they are so bold and seem to really not care that winter might try to show up again.    Here are some more lovelies:

One (actually two) of the reasons my kids love to go to Renninger's with me are these guys

and this one:

I love the sign near the pig-pen.  Basically, it says to keep your fingers out because fingers look like tasty pretzels!  That's some good advice, especially when the owners of Renninger's give out baskets of pretzels for you to feed the pigs. 

Lastly, my son had his own personal chicken following him around the other day when we stopped in:

So, I will keep reminding myself all week that it's not time to plant yet, it's not time to plant yet...  even if it feels like June! 

Happy Easter!

Wishing everyone a very happy and blessed Easter.  I for one am ready to come out of the season of Lent, not only because I really miss eating cheese, but because I need to be an Easter person and not a Lent person. 

Thanks, also to everyone who stopped by thanks to my post on Hooked on Houses-your comments were wonderful and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing my own "visiting" thanks to Julia's blog party.  Oh, and don't you just love how I hid Easter eggs for you in that photo?   Happy Easter!

In honor of freaky (house) friday-my dining room

I fell in love with the blog hooked on houses at first sight.  It was like finding a 12 step program for house obsession and it made my heart warm to know I wasn't the only one who did this:

I think the best time to take a walk is at dusk–after people have started turning on their lights, but before they have closed their blinds!   (from Julia's quiz "are you hooked on houses")

She does all the snooping for you:  celebrity homes, movie homes, homes for sale.  So, when she announced her "freaky house friday" blog party, I thought I would jump in and share with my dining room. 

My house, just 3 short years ago, was decorated in early 90's mauve, colonial blue and floral overkill.  Just about every room had some sort of stencil or adornment to remind us that flowers are great, really great.  The dining room, though, was really something.  Here's a look at a few of the "befores"

I should also mention that the living room and dining room were covered in mauve carpeting, which we will discuss at another time.  For now, just check out that awesome paneling.  I don't really know which part of it caught my eye first, the irridescent floral  border that was only about 24" from the baseboard or the interesting choice to paint the upper part of it white, and leave the bottom in all its wooden glory. 

Whichever it was, the dining room was now mine.  Even before we had moved in, when I was imagining how I would decorate this house, I wanted a very traditional dining room.  I love toile-love it!  So, in my perfect dining room, it would be toile, chair rail and then a neutral color. 

Because we were very new at renovating and had just spent about every dollar we had on the house, I didn't want to rip out the paneling for fear of what was behind it.  Even now, I am glad I didn't take it out, because after ripping out the kitchen ceiling, I know what I would have been in for. 

So, I... filled in every groove in the paneling with joint compound
every groove
every one
with joint compound

during that process, it looked a little something like this:

I can't show you what I looked like while doing this, but I am pretty sure it was scary!  Even the hulk seems a little annoyed with the whole project. 

The process was time consuming and at times frustrating, but eventually, it looked something like this:

This was before we did the floors and got our new table.  And, judging from the china cabinet, it was also before I owned any dishes. 

Here is the dining room today-pretending to be ready for Easter:

And here is a blurry shot of that same wall and the closet door from the before picture.  That little blur is my son who just got a new scooter. 

I think my dining room has definitely come out of freakiness.  We eat every meal in this room, the kids do their homework, I spend many days working on the laptop at this table-it's our favorite spot to gather.

oreo truffle goodness

disguised as Easter eggs...yummy sweet, sugar and chocolate coated Easter eggs.

Can't wait till Sunday to have these

oh, and cheese which I gave up for Lent!

Thanks to Ana at Knock-off Wood

Just in case you are like the only person on earth who has not seen this website, Knock-Off Wood, you should leave here immediately and head over there.  Ana is seriously the most talented and prolific semi-professional, stay at home mom, living in Alaska (yes Alaska) carpenter you could ever cross paths with-even on the internet. 

From the first time I saw this website, I just knew I was going to become a master carpenter (mostly in my mind-the same way I can do pretty much all the gymnastics and ice skating I see on the Olympics) and complete all the projects on her site in record time.  While other people have pretty much done just that (check out her "bragging board" section for proof), I decided to start small.  My objective:  Gabe's room, which started out looking something like this:

Not much to look at, to be honest.   With this project in mind, I was happy to find that I had in my possession a few stray pices of wood, left over from a wall storage thing we bought when Cecilia was born (score one for reusing 13 year old wood).  I also got some new clothespins and painted them with the blue glazing paint I recently got at Ikea on clearance (score again).  Here is a photo of the tedious but worth it painting process:

I also stained the scrap wood with antique finish stain from Ikea that I got for 99 cents!!  I actually love the shade that the antique stain brings out in even cheap pine, so I got several cans just for good measure, yet another testament to my ongoing obsession with oops paint and the like. 

Next, I assembled the necessary tools:

Which included my new favorite: the staple/nail gun I purchased because apparently I lost the old one.  This one is superior anyway because it shoots small nails in addition to staples, which made attaching the clothespins really simple.  With Ana's design, she used glue to hold the clothespins on the boards.  Because I know my son, I went with the small nails to hold them on.

Here's a look at just the boards, all nice and level.   Well, except for the fact that the concept of "level" is relative when your whole house isn't level and your plaster walls aren't straight.  But, this is as good as it gets around here.  I had to stop short of both the wall and the frame of the window if I wanted the boards to look level, but that's the "charm" of a house that is nearly 100.

So, I used the staple gun/nailer to attach all the clothespins to the boards, and only nearly stapled my finger once, which I thought was really talented and amazing. 

After struggling for quite a while trying to hang two frames perfectly next to each other on the wall that isn't straight in a room that's not level, in my old house, I resorted to some old-school tactics to get the frames up.  I won't show you how I did it, but let's just say, it isn't pretty.  The end result, however is:

All, in all, I am pretty pleased with my first small project from Ana's amazing blog.  I can't wait to really build something big! 

a little perspective

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with all the big and little things I still want to do in this house that I forget how much we have really done in the 3 years since we moved in.  We were so fortunate to find this house because it really was very updated considering its age of almost 100 years.  The electrical was already updated; the kitchen was at least from the 90's and the basement was finished.  The finished basement was like a small miracle when we were looking for houses. 

So, in the interest of feeling a sense of accomplishment-I present the western wall of our kitchen (and our oldest child).  Here is how it (and she) looked 3 years ago when we bought the house:

Yes, that is a pink kitchen with pink countertops and pink knobs and pink rose stencil all over the wall. 

Here is the same space just a week ago!  Oh, and that's the same kid, too-just for shock value.  We still have to do the countertops, the backsplash, the ....oh, yeah, I am not supposed to be making lists, I am supposed to be basking in the glow of accomplishment. 

snow day bathroom

I've never been a fan of snow-not even when I was a kid.  Somewhere back in this blog, I detailed one of my many, many horrific snow stories.  In case you want to read it, go here.  I would much rather put this winter for the record books far behind me and get on with the business of Spring!!!!  Of course, once I start sneezing I will be ready to dump spring for its much better looking cousin, Summer, but that's another story altogether.

On snow day 9,876,856 this winter, I decided that it would be a good, no great, idea to re-do my downstairs bathroom commonly known as the boys' bathroom.  In this old house of ours there are no "facilities" on the main floor, so when you have to GO, you either go up or down to do so.  Our upstairs bathroom had already had a bit of a facelift, but downstairs was beige and boring:  Exhibit A:

Armed with $5 oops paint, some vinyl flooring that looks really, truly like wood and a good dose of invincibility, I started the process of getting rid of the boring boys' basement bathroom.   the first victim was the medicine cabinet, which the previous owners, thankfully only hung on the wall. Score one for no drywall repair!!

Next, came the paint-I have to admit that I have a problem with "oops" paint.  I cannot for the life of me resist a $5 can of paint-even if I have no use for the color-it's $5 for a GALLON!!!  Anyway, after some messing around, I came up with this color which seems to be somewhere between gray and deep plum. 

Thanks to Layla at The Lettered Cottage, I learned about this great and inexpensive vinyl flooring that goes down like wood planks and is perfect for this little bathroom makeover!  

I also put up a new light fixture (okay, my husband did that one), new mirror and hung cheap clearance curtain panels over the shower and the shelf area-more photos to follow! 

If you ask me, that's a good way to spend a snow day!

A little demolition is good for the soul

"Picnik Show"

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I never knew before we started this project, but I really like breaking stuff!  I am not sure what that says about my personality, but I felt really at home using the crowbar. 

You know I have always been in love with our house, from the moment I laid eyes on it just over 3 years ago.  In case you don't know, this is our first house and it took us a very long time to get here.  We were busy-going to school, having kids-you know, that kind of stuff.  When we finally bought our house, it was a dream come true. 

One thing that was anything but dreamy was the kitchen.  With pink walls, pink COUNTERTOPS and a lovely floral stencil lining the walls, it wasn't exactly what I wanted in a kitchen.  But it worked fine, and we painted it a shade of green I never quite settled on and got on with being busy. 

Until-the roof leaked. 
and leaked
and leaked
we patched and patched (and prayed)
but still, it leaked.

So, this demolition is the other side of the roof repair-the great ceiling renovation of 2010, which coincided with the snowpocalypse of 2010! 

a little snow never hurt anyone

Or did it? If you ask my kids, I have way too many "poor me-I grew up with too much snow" stories, but I did grow up where there was too much snow, at least for 5 very formative years of my life. We didn't always live in Southeastern PA, which gets minimal to moderate snowfall, or did before all this crazy warming started, but I digress. When I was in second grade, my very Brooklyn parents took my sister and I to the northern part of NY state, Albany to be exact. My first memory of our new home was looking for houses on my birthday and having to go to Sears to buy a Winter coat because it was SNOWING ON MY BIRTHDAY (May 6!).

So, fast forward several years later and we have all gotten as accustomed as possible to living in the land of snow. At this point, I owned long underwear, legwarmers and wore snow pants to school under my uniform skirt-that was a great look. We also used to sneak our saddle shoes out to recess in the armpits of our heavy coats. Once past the nuns' watchful eyes, we would pull off our boots, slip on the traction-less saddle shoes and basically ice skate on the front lawn of the school. Oh, and my neighbor down the street used to keep an ice rink of sorts for us in his side yard-he would use the garden hose every night to keep it going.

So, my snow story. I was about 9 and unlike my oldest daughter, was short. Our front yard was of course covered in about 4-5 feet of snow-as it would be till spring. The snow had an icy crust that you could walk on (do you see where this is going yet?). The lawn was actually a hill leading up to our house, but from the porch, with all the snow drifts, it was a straight shot out to the street and then about a 10 foot drop to the ground.

I decided to walk across the icy snow to go to the mailbox and about halfway there, hit a soft spot and fell in. Yes, I fell into the snow, with just my hand reaching up above me. If you ask my parents, I wasn't out there very long, but if you ask me it was just about a minute short of hypothermia. The only thing more horrifying and humiliating than being wedged into a snowbank for probably hours was listening to your parents and older sister laughing hysterically while they try to shovel toward you from the street!


so, my kids can have their Pennsylvania snow; I've had my fill. Occasionally, I will participate in a snowball fight and our whole family did walk a mile through the fresh snow to get sandwiches the other night. But, for the most part, I am counting till spring.

Have you seen this?

I rarely ever watch videos, always worried they will end badly or surprise me with unwelcome nudity, but this one is amazing and this woman is amazing. Watch it, believe me.