Skirts VS Dresses

Okay, I feel bad that I haven't posted ANYTHING in like two weeks, but we've both been sick and it's hard for me to blog without a picture. I desperately wanted to take a picture on our date last night, but it's no fun to take one of yourself and Adam DID NOT want to take a picture!

So instead of posting about our life now-a-days, I have a question. Which do you prefer? Dress or skirt? Now, you can have mixed feelings (you love the look of dresses, but skirts are more comfortable... or maybe like dresses for more fancy events and skirts for everyday) but it doesn't matter. I just want to know what you think. We've had this arguement in our house for a long time, because it's the only opinion Adam seems to have, and it's opposite of mine. So what will it be?

Dresses? Or skirts?

At a loss for words....

I'm already failing at my goal to post each week! I have no fun things to share this week. There have been big changes at work, causing me MAJOR stress, and Adam's granmother died last weekend, so needless to say we're having a hard time sleeping, let alone getting projects done! But we did build awesome shelves in the garage, built some little things for the house, finished painting the chairs, and started demo on the bathroom, so we've been doing a lot, but nothing complete to show pictures yet! But since I hate writing a post without a picture, here's one :)

Don't you just LOVE that chair? So classic, so neutral, so AWESOME! I'm loving the buttons too. What do you think? I'm thinking about building some just like it...that is if I can convince Adam to build the frame for it, but I think I could do it :) Wish me luck!

Always prewash your fabrics!

Yes, I'm a firm believer in always prewashing your fabrics. After about the gazillionth time that something shrunk after I spent hours of sewing, I learned that lesson. Always always. Before you sew anything, prewash, even if you think you'll never have to wash them, do it anyway.

Well, I broke my own rule with the dining room curtains, that cover your sliding glass door.

I wouldn't have had enough fabric if they shrunk and I was So anxious to have some privacy and color after we moved into our house!

Unfortunately, I remembered I hadn't prewashed them after I stopped laughing when a friends dog lifted his leg and pee'd on them. Oh, really, it was really funny, especially the reactions from his owner. But with a young dog, we're used to a lot worse then a little pee. Just to be safe, I threw the curtain in the washer on COLD, and took it out of the washer to hang dry. Surely they wouldn't shrink after I had taken such precautions to avoid it, right?

Wrong! After LOTS of laughs (especially once Kevin saw them) I finally took this picture. Meet my new "capri" curtains, all ready for summer! Good thing I know the lady who made them (me) and EXACTLY where I could find some more fabric just like it! So, I've now washed and dried BOTH curtains to make them equally short and also washed and dried the extra fabric that I bought so there should be NO MORE SUPRISES for the next time I wash them :)

Done with Appliances!

After spending lots of money (thousands! that sounds like so much!) we're finally finished with purchasing new appliances! Yay! As much as I love them, I'm so glad to not be spending so much cash. Now I get to replenish the savings account to be more comfortable, like it used to be :) Oh, but of course I wouldn't post about it without some pictures! So here's a before (after paint of course) and an after (more like a "during" since come spring everything will be moved around and look so different!)

Before: so much wasted space above the stove, and a vent that hardly worked.

Replaced our micro with a pretty shiny one, moved the cabinent up, and got our microwave off of the precious countertop!
Oh, did I mention we had an electric range and now we have gas? Yeah, the house didn't come like that, so Adam learned how to run a gas line :)

All done! Oh so pretty :) From blah to blown away!

Wow, look at all of those BTU's!!! (amount of heat being put out. It's a technical term) And five burners complete with a full grate, so no more tipping pots on the stove. Gotta love the heat happenin' here!

B-E-A-utiful! And just because we're so excited about our new stove, everyone's invited to our house, anytime, for some dinner and dessert (you just have to pick who "gets" to cook.)

PS, Adam's a really really really good cook :)

Custom Frames and Signs!

Okay, I know I'm very much a DIY kinda gal, but seriously? I would so buy one of these because they are so cute! It's a standing plaque with a bud vase built in so you can have a pretty flower in it. And it's so customizable! Plus they're also having a giveaway at The Nester's, so I'm crossing my fingers that I don't HAVE to buy one :) You should really check it out here.

Table for Two?

I hope I'm not the only one who has thought this, but have you ever had buyers regret? You think something is fabulous for the first two months you own it and then after that think of all of the ways to either get it out of your house or make it better without spending lots of money?

I have. Namely my bedding set, dining table, and TV stand. Each was purchased either right before we got married or right after. Before I had a style, let alone KNEW what that style was. The bedding set I took care of (see new bedding) and still love it (though I want to try something different for summer bedding). The TV stand we no longer use, due to the fact that our plasma hangs on the wall, so it's been repurposed and is about to get a makeover. But the dining room table...expensive to buy new..... couldn't find any I loved....oh bother! Well, better find a cheap one and FLIP it so that I love it! Oh dear, can't find a USED one either! So finally, after lots of time had passed, I convince Adam to ask his parents for their old one, that was sitting in the basement. Serious? They'd love for us to make good use of it? And they don't mind if I paint it to make it mine? It's Free?!? YIPEE!!!

So after much color diliberation, here we go!

Here's a half-before picture, since I had just started sanding. Just your standard pine table and chairs with white legs and yellow-y wood top. "Just like everyone else" is SO not my style!

Got rid of the yellowish top by sanding down the top FOREVER!!! Do you know how many coats of poly are on the top of those babies? TONS! I sanded with the palm sander until my arms got tired, then Adam finished up. Then we used more fine sand paper and hand sanded. Then even finer (more fine?) sandpaper by hand until my arms were numb.

Finally done with sanding, on to the stain. Oh, so much warmer and my style. Looks fabulous! About 5 gazillion coats of poly later (and two sanding sessions on the top) and the table top was done! Now just paint the legs--I don't have any pics, yet, but we painted them a barn red, added wood buttons (those little mushroom things on the post of your railings, tables, etc to cover screw holes) for some added character, and glazed it with stain, since our glaze didn't show.

Next, the chairs. We decided (and by we, I mean me) to paint the chairs black and then distress them. This was my attempt to bring some black in my house (of which I have nothing!). Bad mistake. It took 5 coats of paint, the distressing looked horrible, and I hated it!

And because I hated it (even after waiting for a week to see if I'd get used to them) you don't get to see After pictures...yet. Unfortunately, I'm in the process of REpriming and REpainting those chairs BACK to a light color. I'm hoping for two good coats or primer and one coat of BEAR paint/primer. Oh, plus a good rub down of glaze, before I give it a few coats of poly. Ha! Wish me luck! I may go crazy before the chairs are done, but so be it!

New Resident to Casa Peterson!

Hope you didn't think I was talking about a baby!


Just paid for this beauty :) She'll be moving in with us sometime next week, we don't know for sure. She sure is nice and sweet, and very efficient with her time. Yes, she is a girl. You mean you don't assign your appliances a gender? That's a shame...

New Goals

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Ours was a little too eventful, if you ask me. Christmas Eve started early, with both of us having to work a half day. Then I left early (yeah, early on a half day!) because it was so slow and I was SO sick I could hardly lift my head. And no, it wasn't morning sickness :) So we went home and I slept for three hours while Adam cleaned the house so it would be spotless when my parents came over that night. How cute, right? Well, luckily for me, after I woke up I felt MUCH better but still not 100%. But the parents came over, we had a yummy dinner and then watched Miracle on 34th Street, opened presents, played Apples to Apples, and ate some really tasty bread pudding. It was a really great Christmas Eve (except for the sickness)
The next morning, we woke up, opened presents (my big present was a carpet shampooer, and Adam's was a camcorder) and got ready for the Peterson's breakfast. We spent the whole day with Adam's family and came home exhausted to spend some time with the puppy.
All in all, it was a great Christmas. Didn't take many pictures, but oh well.
Anyhow, on to something else! As the title of this post states, I've been making some new goals recently. Life's been SO busy that I fell like I'm always bummed about not doing something or stressed out about something else so I decided I need to do more that I like to do and things that make me happy. A clean house is one of them :) Bloggin is another. So that's why I'm posting today. I promise to post at least once a week, and find something fun to actually post about.

Today's post? The kitchen. We've begun the painful process of changing up the kitchen and our first step was the appliances. With limited counter space, we REALLY needed to move our mammoth micro off of the counter and above the stove where it belongs. Before:

See all of the space that was wasted? Plus the vent hardly worked and neither did the light. OUT I SAY!!! So we took it out. And the cabinet above it. Well, actually just moved the cabinet up. Here's our poor kitchen during the process.
Old microwave on the island, toaster oven on the counter, missing cabinet somewhere, and dishes all over. Oh, and I know I'm the WORST person for not putting any pictures of the inside of our house up, but I promise I will, hence the goal to post more often.
We decided to lift the cabinet now, rather then wait until we added more cabinets, so we wouldn't have to install the micro twice.
See? Look how pretty :) All done and with only ONE trip to Home Depot. A 20 minutes job that turned into a few hours. Plus, we're so glad we raised the cabinet, since leaving it would have made the microwave WAY too low. Oh, this picture shows the color of the kitchen so much better then the one above it. Kind of a neutral green.

Oh, and we replaced the dishwasher! This one even works :) Now I don't have to handwash ANY MORE!!!
Oh so pretty! And quiet! And shiny! And no buttons in sight! We've since replace then fridge and due to a Christmas bonus and a surprise check from our escrow account, we'll be able to get our stove sooner then expected! But that'll be a challenge since we're upgrading from Electric to GAS!!! Yippee! I'm just glad I don't have to run the gas line. Love ya honey!

Living the crazy life!

So, I know I've been totally MIA with my blog lately, but it's hard to do since we haven't done much "picture worthy" things lately because we're busy busy busy! Now that most of my projects are winding down (almost done Amber!) I thought I'd take a second to upload some pictures. Not very exciting, but it's all I've got people!

Here's me and Brody, on a Saturday morning (aka, no makeup, sweats and crazy hair). We try to take lots of pictures with him so we can remember how little he was! He's not little anymore! Last vet appointment had him weighing at just under 30 lbs and that was two weeks ago! I can hardly pick him up anymore.

Okay next not-so-exciting picture... We got free tickets to go to the Jazz game on Thanksgiving. So much fun! And we had pretty good seats. Highlight of the game? The guys that were accross the aisle and down a few rows were dressed in vintage Jazz uniforms (itty bitty shorts) and dancing their hearts out!

Of course, we had to get a Christmas tree after Thankgiving! We only got it just down the street from our house, but can you say Griswold? Looks great! Little full, Lotta sap!!

This is the first year we got to have Christmas lights. I think Adam was pretty excited, no, more like giddy to get those lights up. We had some stuggles (like blowing a fuse when we connected all 10 strands together! Shouldn't an electrician know better?) but it came out b-e-a-utiful!

disclaimer: our light colors in no way affiliate us with any college football team, even though Adam would like to think so

We've been up to a whole lot more, but I'll save that for a different day. Hope ya'll have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Treats

Now that Christmas is almost here, I've been thinking of the infamous "Neighbor gifts." I don't like giving them, don't have time to make them, but boy do I love to receive them! With absolutely NO time this Christmas season, I'm heading to the good ol' reliable this year. Anyone in my family knows exactly what this is, right Cristl and Chantel? English Toffee!!! 15 minutes, not a lot of cost, and a big YUM factor! So, I'm letting you in on the family recipe so you can take advantage of this yummy, easy treat.

ENGLISH TOFFEE

1 cup whole almonds
2 sticks salted butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup semi-sweet choc. chips
Brown paper bag (just because)
large cookie sheet

You can make this with pecans or walnuts, but I think almonds are the best. You can also make a double batch, but don't risk doing more then two batches at the same time. It may not work.

Follow the directions TO A "T" or you'll have a hard time getting the right result.
Before you start, it's best to get everything out and measured, because once you get started, you won't be able to stop going. Melt the butter on low in a medium-large pot. While the butter is melting, chop up the almonds so that they are in small pieces. Once the butter is completely melted, stir in the sugar and water and turn up the heat to medium high. Take 3/4 of the almonds and add to the pot (leave the tiny bits and crumbs for the topping). Stir with a wooden spoon and oven mitt because it's going to get hot! Hope your arms are strong because you're going to be stirring, a lot! It's going to start boiling and you have to keep it moving, so stir constantly and quickly, going over every part of the bottom of the part to avoid any burnt spots. Remember that paper bag? Well, this is when you need it because it will make you PERFECT toffee every time. Keep stirring and the candy will slowly start to darken in color. Watch that paper bag, because as soon as the candy is the same color as the bag (and you'll suddenly see a bit of smoke coming up) it's done! Grab your pot and dump all of the candy onto your cookie sheet. It'll start to spread like hot lava, so don't touch, cause it feeling like hot lava too. If you want fewer, thicker pieces, let it spread itself, if you want more, thinner pieces, take your wooden spoon and spread it out a bit (like spreading tomato sauce on a pizza crust). Wait a few minues and sprinkle those chocolate chips on top (while it's still hot). Let the chocolate chips melt and then spread that good stuff all over the top of your toffee. Don't forget those almond bits and crumbs that you saved, because those get sprinkled on top. Let it cool COMPLETELY (you can stick it in the fridge or freezer to hurry it along) and break it up using your hands into bite size pieces. Stuff it in a cute holiday mug or add it to a plate of other treats and that's it! Seems like a lot of directions, but once you make it once, you'll get the hang of it.





(linked to Kelly's Korner)

Brody

Having no new pictures on my camera (and after a request from my sista) here's more of Brody. He's now 12 weeks old and LOVES to chew everything! Luckily, we close our doors and he's only out of his kennel while we're home so we haven't lost anything to his chewing yet. He's almost house trained (and when I say almost I mean he's perfect for a week and then he'll have an accident). His favorite treats are pig ears cause he can chew them until they're gone (our favs too because that's the only way we get him to leave us alone for more then two seconds!). He's learned to sit on command and we're working on stay. He loves to play and wrestle with Adam. He's learned that after he goes potty outside to go to his bed, because that's where we keep the treats. He bites all of the time, but has learned to be soft and knows not to bite when we say no (but still likes to try to see how much he can do before we say something, which is never very long). He always thinks we have treats in our hands right after work, so he'll jump to get them though we never have anything. Brody loves tummy scratches the most and will go right on back as soon as you pet him, ready for a belly rub. He's such a stinker but he's our stinker and we love him.

(Don't let the pictures fool you! he's already gotten so much bigger since I took these!)

What would you do with $4000?

Since we bought a house in 2009, we get $8000 back on our taxes at the beginning of the year! Hooray! As much as I'd love to go to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand with that money, I'm a bit too practical (bummer, right?). We've decided to put half of it towards our savings account (gotta save for a rainy day) and the other half toward our house, the best investment we could make. So, that gives me $4000 to play with :) So, what would you spend $4000 on for your house? We're thinking about kitchen improvements and our yard, but what would you do? You might have a suggestion that I never would have thought about, so please, GIVE YOUR IMPUT!!!

It's a boy!

Hope that title got your attention! Nope, I'm not preggo, but we do have a baby boy in our house.

Meet Brody.

He's our new puppy :) Golden lab and so cute, even though he pees on the carpet if I don't watch him, and whines when I'm trying to sleep. But he's so fun!

This picture of him is right after his first bath on the day we brought him home. He's such a snuggle bug and so cute and chubby.

See, isn't he cute? Luckily, since it was Adam's idea to get a puppy right now, he gets to wake up with him at night to take him out. Fair, right?

New Pics

Can't start off another year without pictures, can you? Not me! Think of these as our not-engagement-but-not-yet-family pictures. Here's just a little glimpse of some Brooke has already edited. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! Now, I just get to pick my favs for her to make perfecto!

2 already?

Yep, today is our two year anniversary! Can hardly believe it's already here and what we've gone through together to get here (the good and the bad). In two years, we've bost lost our jobs, both gotten new jobs, went on two cruises, lived in three places (including the parents house), bought our first house, bought four new pair of boots, gone to 6 rodeos, never have thrown up (love that), and have gained a combined 50 lbs! (wish it was just him that had added the pounds)
These have been the best years of my life and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us. It doesn't seem like it can get better then this, but I've said that before, so I can't wait to see what IS better then this :) Love you sweetheart to the moon! Thanks for choosing me :)

Oh, heck, we've gained some weight, but we still look good!