Who does not LOVE a good meal...

One of my passions is cooking and I have gotten out of it since we have been moving and remodeling our kitchen.  When we got hit with the storm I kind of went on a cooking rampage...then I thought to myself why not take your time and cooking the things we love.  Got to love Todd's effort :)  He is always willing to help me in the kitchen and the best part, he does the dishes!  Sometimes I do have to remember he is trying to help...like when I was making braised ribs for Vday.  Todd..."Can you get the strainer...oh and the bay leaves..."  A few minutes goes by and I was thinking damn boy get your head out of the frig and give me those bay leaves, they are in the bottom drawer!  He said, "I cannot find Baileys anywhere!"  HA HA!  Oh boy...like I said focus on the effort!

We haven't taken updated pictures of the house but I did want to share a few pics of my cooking.  I bought super cute dishes from Crate and Barrel and I just love making the plate look beautiful.  For Vday we started out with a ceasar salad with parmesan, dried cherries, garlic croutons, roasted pecans and more.  For the main course braised ribs with a wine reduction sauce, homemade creamy mashed potatoes and brown sugar sauteed carrots.  Dessert = a stomach ache...we should of split one brownie...opps!  Bottom layer was peanut butter cookie, then brownie, then peanut butter cups.  Okay I will stop teasing you...

Pork loin with yukon gold mashed and a rosemary sea salt roll

Stuff crust bloody amazing homemade pizza

Let it snow...

48 mph winds, inches and inches of snow and eating junk food for three days...what could be better.  Our first big snow storm in well...I cannot really remember the last time we got this much snow/drifts.  Kind of cool.  After all the snow had fallen we watched out our windows while all the neighbors got their shovels and snow blowers out.  Some of them were out at 8 a.m. or earlier...just sleep in!  Little did they know Todd brought home the sexy snow plow truck and backed it in the garage.  So I put on my Uggs, got the doggies ready and out we went!  O'Malley, Zara and I played in the snow while Todd plowed for about 20 minutes :)  Then I thought it would be cute to put the dogs in the plow truck and take some pics...little did I know they were flying all over the place while Todd was plowing!  So out they went.  I think our neighbors got a good laugh seeing Todd and two Dalmatians plowing snow :)  Now Spring please come...oh please come.

Odds and Ends...

I keep thinking when is WINTER going to be over.  Sick again...cough, sneeze, tissue...  Lets just agree everyone is sick of this cold weather and praying for spring.  This week was supposed to be some great before and after pictures of the house but we are both under the weather and moving slowly.  Here are some pictures of some progress, not quite before and after but getting there!  Here are some pictures of the living room.  We are getting close to being done.  We ripped up the shag carpet, painted all the wood white on both big windows and put new trim and new baseboard up.  Underneath the shag carpet = hardwood floors! Todd is starting to put up our hardware and curtains!  Our neighbors will be sad, now when they drive by they cannot see what we are working on or if we are playing wii :)

Remember the cute little cut out square on the wall in the kitchen/dining room.  We thought it would be a good home for our birds, so we trimmed it up with some chair rail that I painted for another project that we changed our minds on.

BOX BUDDIES

  

Wii wii wii all the way home...

So it was Todd's birthday!!!  YAY!!!  I hooked him up with a sweet pair of Nike and a Wii.  Little did wii know this might be interfering with our projects!!!  So this week has been 100 pin bowling non stop, sword fighting, tennis, basketball...well you get the idea.  One thing you need to know about me is when I am winning I must do something to let you know...like every time I get a strike it seemed like a good idea to kick my leg up in the air.  Todd said you are going to pull something...WHATEVER.  Well what do you know...something was straining by the end of the night...my kicks simmered down to some claps.  Oh well it was fun while it lasted.  So yes we love you Wii but we also want a beautiful home...so you might get put on the back burner...or we just might give in to your delightful entertainment!

Check out my hooter I found at Hobby Lobby...we got a cute house plant from Owen Nursery today for it.

On to the Kitchen...

Who knew the worlds smallest kitchen could take the longest time!  I guess when the previous owner did nothing to update the house EVER you find out how much crap you have to tear out to see some progress.  First we got rid of all the 80's appliances, four layers of floor, removed a few cabinets, took off the plastic pink tiles for the backsplash (yes there were plastic!) and ripped out the old sink.  We will be relocating the stove, frig and adding a 18" dishwasher.  We originally thought we wanted new countertops but the odd sizes and shapes would be very hard and very costly to get made out of Corian/Granite.  So what we came up with was to keep the existing countertops and lay salt and pepper granite squares on top.  We got 12" marble chair rail for the edges will update with pictures when we get that far!  Got a beautiful farm house sink with Venetian bronze finish for the faucet.  We painted the cabinets and Katie from "Impatiently Praying for Patience" redid the cabinet doors and added trim to them.  We had the cabinet door painted white so they would pop against the wine color.  Looks great!  We are adding Anthropologie knobs, I love all their knobs so I buy them on sale $2.95 and they will all be random!  Subway tile is on the backsplash.  Got a really pretty roll of wallpaper from Lowes that is going in all my cabinets.  Starting to look like a kitchen.  Soooo much detail and soooo little time!

Master Bedroom...

When we first started on our bedroom it was yellow walls with orange shag carpet, quite sexy.  We first started by taking all the trim off around the base and windows, next paint!  What color...what color.  Well we went with Martha Stewart, color dolphin.  Now before you bash Martha, first try her paint.  Pretty much exactly like Behr perfect in two coats.  This color looks grey, it looks blue, it is so creamy and beautiful.  Next we sanded the floors, wiped em' down and polyed them.  Cannot beat pulling up shag carpet and having hardwood floors throughout the house.  Todd put a closet organizer in my closet...I think I heard angels sing when I hung my first Juicy shirt.  Next I painted all the doorways white...man that took some coats.  Now I bet you all are staring at my beautiful chandelier!!!  Yes that was from Pottery Barn...it was a steal $99.  Todd trimmed out the whole room and we got a flat screen TV with a DVD player in it, he hung that baby on the wall!  We will be installing an outlet behind the TV so there will not be any cords running down the walls.  Like our bed!  Oh yes you do...it was from Pier 1, it is a canopy bed!  I will post pics when we get shears to go on the bed, it will be like living in a B&B everyday.  You have to make your bedroom cozy and of course sexy...because as well all know that IS where the magic happens, well one place ;)  Now I will leave you with a pic of O'Malley...he is in love with my closet so much he sleeps in it...in a cardboard box.  You buy a dog a $200 embroidered kuranda bed and he chooses a box.  Yes, I did just say embroidered dog bed...you know dogs can read!  I am the crazy dog lady...

Before and After...

I must say the outside of our home has come a long way.  It is looking like a different home.  We started out by getting all the trees trimmed which really opened up the large lot.

Next we painted all of the overhang, windows and anything that was beige to white.  That brightened up the place.  Then on to the hideous garage door.  This home was in much need of a carriage house garage door.  Next, shutters.  We originally picked out white shutters from Home Depot but they were off white...and the house was getting a bit too much white, we went with black.  Black shutters really popped and looked great. 

Now for the seventies brick wall...that baby had to go. 

Pondering on if we wanted pillars with brick platforms or if we wanted something else.  But what else could you do that would go with the brick or match?  This took me awhile.  Everything we brought back as an idea was taken back...nothing looked like I visualized it would.  We hit up a concrete business and found some decorative slate rock and had them cut limestone for the tops.  Our contractor built custom pillars, yay!

So after a few weeks he got them made, put up and walla!

NOW WAITING FOR SPRING = LANDSCAPING

Now any ideas on who to call to make some wrought iron covers instead of those damn tacky plastic covers!