blog bites

as opposed to sound bites...

• Tremont water is ok. It's not well water, but it's not bad. Except for when they add chlorine. Today it tastes like chlorine. ick.
• Tim and Melissa's wedding was good; the girls looked adorable, the guys didn't look too bored, definitely a success.
• Spending time with Bob's family was fun... Grace in the jacuzzi was hilarious.
• I haven't gotten enough sleep this week... and last night we ate supper with Mark and Ashley... good times, but another late night. :)
• There's a mystery flower in my flowerbed. Last week some random green stalks started growing from a plant that was already there when we moved in, yesterday they started blooming. They're pretty but I have no idea what they are.

Blessings.

*sigh*

It's been a busy week, I'm maybe a little bit glad it's Friday.

I picked beans twice... and did beans twice. I still should probably do some more. And there's fresh zucchini, which I love.

My trumpet is getting cleaned so I can sell it. Unless it comes back all pretty and shiny and I just can't bear to part with it. .... my precious.... um, anyway, it's a Silver Bach Strad and I haven't played it since high school and it's way too nice of a trumpet to be sitting in my closet. Somebody should be playing it.

We've been married 3 months-ish and I'm just now taking my dress to the cleaners.

My family went on vacation without us and they've been texting me pictures of Biltmore and rubbing it in that they went white-water rafting and hiking... *sigh* And I've been slaving away watching the garden and making sure all the flowers don't go to waste and keeping ornery boys out of their vehicles.... i do so much for them, they better appreciate it. *grin* I guess they did buy me a spoon.

Tim and Melissa's wedding is this weekend. Woot! We're going up early to spend time with Rustin and Sharon and Grace. Fun times.

Blessings.

our bedroom

So this is a random picture of the stairway... it looks about the same still... I need to hang some pictures or something. Our room before, looking into the bathroom. The walls were white, the ceiling was kind of ivory/yellowish nasty.

Small walk-in closet.

Not sure what's up with all the corner windows... and yards of cable again.

After: the walls are "Blissful Morn," aka, yellow, and the ceiling is white.


Our bedroom set was my Grandpa and Grandma Schlipf's... I love it. I just got new hardware for it, so it doesn't look quite so circa 1950's. :D This is the new stuff:

So, this would be the perfect spot for a cherry bookcase I think. Too bad we don't have one.

It's not usually this clean...

Hooray for pottery barn! And lots of pillows!

So that's all I've got for before and after pictures! Until I decide to redecorate... grin... poor Bob...

Blessings.

the second bedroom

This room was pale blue before... not too bad, but it desperately needed repainting. Check out the overabundance of cable.... seriously, I can vacuum the whole upstairs from one outlet, I don't understand why so much cable was necessary. :P


The closet was pale green inside. Ick. My dear little sister got to spend an afternoon on the shelf painting the closet.

After... It's neutral. And full of random things. *grin*

It's our computer room....

Bob playing computer games... there's another very full bookcase on the other side of the desk, and we still need another one badly!

Blessings.

potlucks and picnics

So we were pretty social this weekend...

Friday night we went to potluck at Brett and Laura's new house. They have a lake/ pond in their back yard and a row boat. Or a pontoon boat. It was amusing looking, whatever it is. :P Good times.

The transparent apples were ready at home so Mom and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening making applesauce. Woot. I'm not overly fond of picking apples... especially since no one thinned the tree this year and so there are lots that are dropping and rotting... and I was barefoot. ick. Thinning the fruit trees used to be my job (don't ask me why) so Shelly, you better start picking up the slack!

We went to Champaign for invite-a-guest on Sunday. Hooray for early mornings. :P O wait, I don't do mornings... I maybe fell asleep in the car on the way down. It was good to be in C-U again and see everyone and hang out with BDY and J-nell. The picnic was good, of course. And there was a playground- what more do you need? :) We got to see the girls' new place, which is pretty much a mansion. *grin* Or an ivory palace. Very much fun. So then we went home and it was late and I was super sleepy all day yesterday. But it was worth it.

ooooo, yesterday the new drawer pulls I ordered for our bedroom set came and I put them on!! yay!! I really like them and it makes grandma's furniture look less circa 1950 and more IKEA or something. :D

Blessings.

the bathroom

So the bathroom is small, and it has two doors.... and it had this nasty vanity with fluorescent lights on the sides. The electrical cord on the right went to a power strip that was zip-tied to the wall. um.... yeah.

Just lovely...

I almost painted it "Bullfrog" green, but went with "Crisp Sage" instead. I'm glad I did. And check out the cabinet, and the new outlet my brother wired for us. (We won't mention that he put a hole all the way through the wall in the process. haha)

So much better... oh, and we got rid of that awful storage shelf thing too...

Blessings.

the porch/laundry room

Hooray for Fridays! It's been a long week. :)

So this room is the reason I wanted to live here... it's kind of a three season porch, plus it had room for laundry and a freezer. Much nicer than a dinky apartment. :)

So it's only semi-organized. :)

There is lots of room for plants this winter!!

Blessings.

the kitchen

Yes, that is very nasty pink wallpaper. And the cabinets have scalloped trim. And the tile is brown with teal/aqua and tan. Quite lovely.

You can't tell, but the wall on the right was FULL of holes. Seriously, I spent at least an hour filling them with spackle, and we still ended up having to use wall cover on it.

And every room in the house is cable ready.... and there was about 10 ft of cable at every jack. um.... overkill??

So the paint kind of matches the blue in the tile... it looks brighter than it is in real life. :)

Yay for vintage apron curtains. They make me smile a lot.

And for tin signs!

Blessings.

Friends and Fireworks

I had Friday off for the 4th- hooray for my government job! It was great, I got to sleep in and get lots of stuff done. And I got to sit out in the sun and read.... one thing I don't like about living in town and having a very shaded back yard... I can't lay out. Unless of course I would in the front yard, but that would be super awkward. :) So I have tan lines. *sigh* O well.

Saturday some people came over for supper and games... good times. We skipped fireworks... nobody was very excited about going out in the cold and damp. We were hoping we could be outside... since our selection of games is so limited, but it was still fun. :) Mostly just good to hang out with cool people.

So I maybe insisted on going to watch fireworks on Sunday because I love them and it was super nice out and I was disappointed we didn't get to see them Saturday and it's kind of un-American to not partake! We went to Hopedale because it was close. I liked them. Even though we sat by some people with fluorescent hair (it seriously was still visible after dark) who insisted on smoking the entire time. I don't think I've ever been in front of buildings to watch fireworks, so the loud echoes were a new experience. :) maybe next year I'll get to go to Peoria's....

Blessings.

the living room

Before.... front door and very white walls.

After... front door... I'm still working on curtains. I just got some super cool fabric to make them because the only curtains that I've seen that I liked a lot were at Pottery Barn and therefore waaay too much money. Anyway, I digress.

Hooray for furniture! Direct from Klopfenstein HomeRooms in Ft. Wayne Indiana... it's nice to have connections.

Don't ask Bob about hanging these shelves... it was a pain... and the drywall anchors that came with them were worthless. I like how they look though!

ooo.... look, my orchid is blooming!

Blessings.

welcome...

So I'm sure you've all been dying to see what our duplex is like...
Check out the hanging basket and the festive windsock.

The back patio.

My flower beds- there would be more plants blooming if the stinking rabbits didn't eat them!

Sorry... no picture of the back yard and shed. *grin* You'll just have to come visit.

I have inside before and after pictures I'll post later.... wait for it...