My Fridge

I have a love/hate relationship with my fridge.  While I love it because we did just get it over the summer when our other one bit the dust.  I am not a fan of the side by side at all.  It is a lot less room, the shelves are narrow leaving a lot of spaces for things to hide.  Yes that's right I said things hide in my fridge.

I actually woke up this morning thinking that I need to clean out my fridge and organize it, only to open up the blogs and find that there is not one but two blogs doing a giveaway about organizing the fridge.  :)

http://organizingmadefun.blogspot.com/

and

http://goodbyehousehellohome.blogspot.com/

both had a post about how to organize the fridge and the nifty containers used.  Since I'm not great at giveaways I will use them as a reference in time to get the fridge cleaned out and organized prior to Thanksgiving.  Yes that's right I'm giving myself the month to get it organized.

We are bound and determined to clean out the clutter by the end of this year.  Most will see it's way onto the thrift stores for donation.  I cannot wait to be clear of the clutter, it feels like it is taking over the house.

Happy Halloween!

I'm looking forward to seeing the little kids prancing down the driveway! Izzy has her outfit ready, painted a pumpkin today, made cookies too. We are definitely ready to have some fun!

Christmas is coming!

Before I know it Christmas will be here, so I've already gotten a jump on the holiday with some shopping.  A couple of people are already taken care of thanks to gifting my mother a dishwasher while we were visiting her in NY and my mother in law received a refrigerator.  Those are definitely gifts that will continue to keep giving for the years to come so I'm thrilled we were able to do that for them.  Now onto the rest of the gang and a couple of friends that are more like family now, I can't wait to get started on sewing some projects up.

What about  the rest of you?  Any big projects, crafts that you're anticipating doing for this holiday season?  I would love to hear.

Fan, loving the fan

We repurposed a fan from the family room to put in the computer room.  I liked it but didn't love the blade colors so they were spray painted a dark brown.

This room really needed a fan in both the summer and winter months, I'm so thankful to have it in here.

We have color on the walls

That's right we're moving right along with the computer/sewing room.  Happily I say that as we have color on the walls, baseboards are all in (even though they still need to be finished up with caulking the nail holes, etc.) and the doorways are almost complete with new trim.

I've learned that with miter cuts not to sweat the small stuff like the pros say on HGTV.  Watching Scott McGilvray who filled in a pretty good size gap in his molding that came out beautifully.  Before I would fuss and fuss until it was absolutely looking good, now not so much! LOL

We hung a shelf and a picture last night, yes the shelf is level however my skills at holding the camera level apparently aren't. :)

I just love this picture from the local art show that is held every year.  I have three prints from there and hope to one day get them all hung up in the house.

Progress continues!

This weekend we made great strides in the computer/sewing/craft room.

Dan was sanding all day on Saturday and finished up with a nice coat of primer.  Today we painted the walls together and finished the walls and ceiling.  I'm so excited.  New outlet and light switch covers went on.

Work will continue next weekend after a week in DC for the hubby.

We went from down to the studs!

To new insulation and new wiring!

 To pretty new flat walls with a nice grayish color on the walls.  It is so bright in here I can't wait for the trim to go up so all the fun of decorating can begin.

Back from NY!

We spent 5 days in Western NY visiting family/friends.  A day of travel up and a day of travel back home turns into 7 days away from home.

Oy!  The cost of kenneling 4 dogs is just outrageous.  We put them in the kennel in order to travel to DC to spend the day with my mother/sister and her two boys.  The total of dogs for 9 days of kenneling, and one to be updated on shots was over $700!  YIKES!  For that much money I could have been in a really nice hotel while in NY for 5 days.

enjoying the cool water in DC during the 100 temp days!

Returning home means unpacking the car where bags are mounted waiting for someone to put them away. Hmmmm wonder who that will be....

Dan leaves again for DC next week, we're no sooner home and he's off again making it hard to finish projects around here but progress will continue.

Fall semester starts for Bri soon, she will be taking 3 courses and adjusting her work schedule to accommodate for that.

Other news:  right after we returned home we learned that a gal that I went to school with (I was sandwiched in between her sister one grade below me and her one grade above me) was in a motorcycle accident.  This morning I awoke to a message from one of bestie classmate to tell me she had passed away last night.  Her family is in my thoughts and prayers!

Kids bored? or rainy day blues?

I saw this on another blog and thought this is an awesome idea.

Take a cereal box, cracker box, etc. and cut it up into squares and put it on the table for the kids to figure out how it goes back together. Instantly a puzzle!

Just a box that is hanging around our house waiting for recycle day.  I think this is an awesome idea and obviously a Mom that thought this up is old school like me, make due with what you have type of gal.  I love this.  Who doesn't have empty cardboard boxes laying around waiting to be recycled.  Put them to good use.

LOL backwards writing, makes me laugh.....

Here's the newest project!

This is the little woman enjoying her sanctuary!

I've been busy sewing!!!!

Disclaimer:  The pics aren't great due to the construction going on in the computer room and using photobooth....

This weekend the big 3rd birthday party!  So I've been sewing like a mad woman.

I forgot just how much I enjoy sewing, the instant gratification cause that's the kind of girl I am. :)

The first item was this pennant banner that I made to hang outside on one of the tents.

Then I moved onto making a pillowcase dress: (not a great shot of it but you get the idea)

Up  next was this sweet little dress:  I wish I had a better shot of it but the computer room as you can see is in the midst of a major reno....

While I was in the mood and going to take a trip shortly to NY to visit family/friends.  I decided to make this cape for a cute little guy who loves to play dress up:

Then I moved onto making a teepee aka tent is what the 3 year old calls it so that is what it is: teepee/tent

In the midst of all this I tried my hand at making a hair bow:

YES I've been busy.

I have one more outfit I'm making and just found a pattern for reversible grocery bags that I'm going to take a stab at.  Can't wait!

Pennant banner & Pillowcase dress for the little Ms.

I finally finished the first of several pillowcase dresses I'm making for the summer.

Front and back are coordinating fabrics so it can be used either way.

We have decided to keep the pennant banner without words so it can be used as decoration for anything.

I have leftover fabric that I'm thinking of making a top or some shorts up for the little Ms.

New find

I found this adorable chair and ottoman listed on craigslist.  I was excited to get it home and see what it is need of.  Definitely it needs a little help in the springs dept. and the cushions need a little boost, upholstery is a given but this chair is rock solid.  The bones it awesome on this piece and the ottoman.  I'm thrilled.  The little one in the house has claimed this as her own.  It is just the right size, Izzy size!  She climbs into it and all over it without a care in the world so for right now it will stay as it is until we come to a group decision on fabric.  Any thoughts?

switching gears

I purchased some fabric online the other day, it arrived super early today. Wow was that fast.  Now I have to get busy and make those little sundresses for my granddaughter.

Gotta love Etsy!

The computer/sewing room is going to be pushing things aside so I can set up my machine and get to work.  I am looking forward to this.  Simple easy pillow case dresses! woohoo...

Demolition of the computer room

It is a small room that houses the computer armoire and matching bookcases.  I use it for the computer, sewing room/craft room.  Right now it is piled with boxes, a filing cabinet and new insulation.  While the windows were installed a couple of years ago we never thought this room would be taken down to the studs, low and behold we are now doing it thanks to a huge draft that has been coming thru this room for years.  To our surprise we found when taking down the drywall one of the outside walls was actually missing insulation under one of the windows and the rest of the insulation that was on the wall literally fell apart in our hands upon removal.  While we're at it we are updating the wiring and putting in a ceiling fan into this room for a little more circulation during the summer.  I am so looking forward to this renovation.

Locating where wires were disappearing to in a oh so not direct route was interesting to follow the path.

Nella's One Year Birthday

A pop of color

For some reason I love this abstract art. I found it at Ollie's. It add just that right pop of color for the half bathroom downstairs.

Just Because.....

Half bathroom remodel

The half bathroom renovation is probably our favorite renovation to date. It is the one that we spent a lot of time figuring out all the electrical issues that needed to be addressed. I am not a fan of windowsills so we opted to just frame out the window. I love how it turned out.

The light was the choice of hubby since the overhead light (not pictured) was going to remain.

As for the vanity, well..... that was a major discussion. I have no photos of what we started with and believe you me it wasn't updated since the early 1970's. In fact what was in there was built in place at the time. It was a vanity that looked like there was much storage but there really wasn't. When it came time to decide on what to put in, we first went with a pedestal sink, kinda a mistake. Thinking that the bathroom was too small for anything else we soon realized we had no place for towels, toiletries, etc. The idea of the dresser/vanity sink has always been a dream of mine. So we went for it. This little beauty was found on craigslist. The sink was purchased on off from craigstlist. The faucet I found on Overstock.com. I absolutely love it all. While I realize that the dresser isn't exactly what someone would want in there it was rather inexpensively compared to buying a new vanity piece for $500+. The storage that we acquired is more than adequate.

Basement

When we moved the big thing we wanted was enough space. A basement would be ideal. In the south or the beginning of the south around here basements are unheard of. We were "lucky" we thought to find one. The first couple of years while renovating it was great. Excited to have a basement to lounge in play pool in and just relax. Then came the BIG STORM! With the big storm came us huddled in the basement waitingfor it to be over when all of a sudden the basement started FLOODING! Oh yeah that's right. We scrambled to save anything we could. Made the dogs, daughter relocate to the main floor in the hallway for the remainder of the hurricane coming thru. Category 1 was enough but not enough to make us leave.

This was the side of the basement that the previous owners had a pool table, we decided it would be the TV movie room:

Then there was the other side that went to the back yard. We decided to turn it into the pool table playing area. That was fine until the storm. After that and all the mess we decided that we would make it a shelter for the dogs and their kennels for now. We're still in the process of returning it back into some sort of play space but for now the dogs enjoy that room.