Peekaboo!
Have a fantastic weekend :)
all photos, ours
Friday, October 12, 2012
Friendly Friday 10.12.12
I am away at a conference for work today, but I thought I'd leave you all with some pictures of Oliver from back-in-the-day when he was a fluffy puppy. Such the cutie-pie!
Peekaboo!
Have a fantastic weekend :)
all photos, ours
Peekaboo!
Have a fantastic weekend :)
all photos, ours
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Swingin' Seventies Kitchen Reno, Part 1
I have a blisters on my fingers. And not in a cool Ringo Starr way.
It was an EPIC weekend of demo, sheetrock and wallpaper guts. I absolutely hate change, especially where my childhood home is concerned. But no amount of mushy nostalgia for that dark, dreary hot mess of a kitchen/dining room could overcome the fact that it was Ugly and Dated. And since my parents WILL sell that house someday, I assume they won't want buyers running screaming from the faux butcherblock/brick/tile/harvest gold crazy.
So. Here's where we begin. My dad had already started demo by the time I got there, and after I lost my shit and hissed "But I need before pictures! This is going to be such a TRANSFORMATION! what do you MEAN you already tore the dishwasher out?!", I shoved the thing back in there and snapped away.
Here she is, in all her glory.
The doors came off pretty easily, and thankfully, the metal straps on the front were not attached to the hinges, so we could recycle instead of buying new. Hinges are SUPER pricey!
Cabinets out and the wall is coming down. What in God's name is that glow through the doorway, you ask?
Why it's the dining room wallpaper!
The wall is down, and instantly, the room looks AMAZINGLY huge.
Next morning...time to wash some cabinets.
And sand some cabinets. (After half an hour with my trusty new-to-me vintage sander, I felt as though I had gone 12 rounds with one of those as-seen-on-tv shake weights. Must have been good for at LEAST 200 calories, am I right?)
Then some oil-based Kilz we had left over from the house remodel. The cabinets soaked it up almost instantly.
Meanwhile, back inside...the wallpaper is coming down. This job was the most ridiculous, giant pain in the ass ever. Wallpaper is a b-word. My mom spent a good 16 hours peeling that shit off the walls.
Probably still by the side of the road.
all photos, ours
It was an EPIC weekend of demo, sheetrock and wallpaper guts. I absolutely hate change, especially where my childhood home is concerned. But no amount of mushy nostalgia for that dark, dreary hot mess of a kitchen/dining room could overcome the fact that it was Ugly and Dated. And since my parents WILL sell that house someday, I assume they won't want buyers running screaming from the faux butcherblock/brick/tile/harvest gold crazy.
So. Here's where we begin. My dad had already started demo by the time I got there, and after I lost my shit and hissed "But I need before pictures! This is going to be such a TRANSFORMATION! what do you MEAN you already tore the dishwasher out?!", I shoved the thing back in there and snapped away.
Here she is, in all her glory.
A nice look at the "brick" and the "butcherblock". The cabinets are okay, and in decent shape for 30 years old.
Cabinets out and the wall is coming down. What in God's name is that glow through the doorway, you ask?
Why it's the dining room wallpaper!
Let 's take a closer look, shall we? Bet you had no idea grapevines also grew kumquats and strange orange buttercups, did ya? Ha! Live and learn...
The wall is down, and instantly, the room looks AMAZINGLY huge.
Next morning...time to wash some cabinets.
And sand some cabinets. (After half an hour with my trusty new-to-me vintage sander, I felt as though I had gone 12 rounds with one of those as-seen-on-tv shake weights. Must have been good for at LEAST 200 calories, am I right?)
Then some oil-based Kilz we had left over from the house remodel. The cabinets soaked it up almost instantly.
And this is what the walls looked like afterwards. Not great, but not anything a little joint compound won't fix.
And the AMAZING dishwasher?
Probably still by the side of the road.
all photos, ours
Monday, October 8, 2012
Only 4 more Mondays...
...until we go here!
I do hope (in vain, I think) that it's not this crowded.
Guesses?
photo via Shawn Grindle
I do hope (in vain, I think) that it's not this crowded.
Guesses?
photo via Shawn Grindle
Friday, October 5, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Leaf Peeping
Whenever anybody says 'leaf-peeping' it makes me kind of cringe. I mean, doesn't it sound a little inappropriate?
Last weekend we packed Ollie-dog into the jeep and headed for my cousin's house in New Hampshire - she and her husband live in a log cabin on the side of a mountain. It's pretty gorgeous.
Oldest covered bridge in New Hampshire. Don't speed in your wagon.
My cousins were our tourguides to the aptly named Festival of Earthly Delights at the North Haverhill Fairgrounds. Twenty bucks got you a sampler of 30+ local food vendors, plus a glorified shot glass and 10 drink tickets. A good time was had by all.
This was our last drink of the evening - Angry Orchard by Sam Adams. Michael insisted there was a cider-foam deer traipsing around his shot glass. Maybe there was a high-alcohol content traipsing around in there as well.
We took the Kancamagus Highway back through the mountains to Maine. It was drizzly but the colors were still bright and cheerful.
Lower falls on the Swift River. We took a family camping trip here when I was a kid, and I have vivid memories of swimming for hours in this river. I had convinced myself that the cold stream currents were like a hot tub.
So pretty, even in the drizzle-turned-to-rain!
all photos, ours
Last weekend we packed Ollie-dog into the jeep and headed for my cousin's house in New Hampshire - she and her husband live in a log cabin on the side of a mountain. It's pretty gorgeous.
It was Homecoming weekend for the local high school - my cousin-in-law is the head coach of the soccer team. Not a bad view from the field.
Oldest covered bridge in New Hampshire. Don't speed in your wagon.
My cousins were our tourguides to the aptly named Festival of Earthly Delights at the North Haverhill Fairgrounds. Twenty bucks got you a sampler of 30+ local food vendors, plus a glorified shot glass and 10 drink tickets. A good time was had by all.
This was our last drink of the evening - Angry Orchard by Sam Adams. Michael insisted there was a cider-foam deer traipsing around his shot glass. Maybe there was a high-alcohol content traipsing around in there as well.
We took the Kancamagus Highway back through the mountains to Maine. It was drizzly but the colors were still bright and cheerful.
Lower falls on the Swift River. We took a family camping trip here when I was a kid, and I have vivid memories of swimming for hours in this river. I had convinced myself that the cold stream currents were like a hot tub.
So pretty, even in the drizzle-turned-to-rain!
all photos, ours
Monday, October 1, 2012
HTML whaaat?!
For someone who's had various personal blogs dating all the way back to the dark ages of 2002, I don't know very much about HTML. And by not much I mean nothing at all. Reading code makes my eyes cross and my brain squeal. When I grew tired of my amateruish tinkered-with blogger standard design-fare, I decided it was time for a wee change of scenery. Gulp. I saved my current code in about 50 different places and went for it.
I created little social media buttons, linked them to my accounts, and added them in as a new widget. I don't love them, because they look a little low-res, but for a first attempt, I'm okay with them.
I created a new header, because my old one took AGES to load and was frankly way too big and annoying. Now you can actually see part of my post from the homepage.
I also changed up the title - I was on a big no-caps bender a few months ago, but I kind of like the formality of the large F. I also love how it fit perfectly so the old rusty nail could function as a period. What I don't like is how limited I was on fonts (I made the new one in PicMonkey). I used Special Elite, and it is a little cluttered-looking for me. I'll probably change it again, but for now it's okay.
Then I added a background. Now. I am generally not a fan of backgrounds - I think they can be distracting, particularly when they are busy or have a seam. I prefer to look at super-clean blogs like this or this, but sometimes find that super-clean look a bit scandinavian minimalist, which I associate with freezing cold. (Weird, I know, but true. I reach for a blanket when I read the new issue of Dwell.)
So I'm trying out a background. It can be done really well, like here or here.
See how plain it looks? I might as well have ditched the murky green-ish gray for white and gone minimalist.
The bokeh lights add a bit of sparkle and interest.
So that's it! I added a simple search bar at the top, and switched up my side-bar. We shall see how long this version lasts. I will say it was surprisingly easy to change things up. I am enjoying PicMonkey's user-friendly interface, but I still miss Picnik. It was cute, simple to use, and included classic photo-editing options. I mean, I enjoy a Holga filter as much as the next person, but I don't want to look back at my pictures in 5 years and wonder why I was such a fucking hipster. I hear Snapseed is the photo-editing app du jour. It's $20, so not a huge investment, but still, I wonder...has anybody used it?
I created little social media buttons, linked them to my accounts, and added them in as a new widget. I don't love them, because they look a little low-res, but for a first attempt, I'm okay with them.
I created a new header, because my old one took AGES to load and was frankly way too big and annoying. Now you can actually see part of my post from the homepage.
I also changed up the title - I was on a big no-caps bender a few months ago, but I kind of like the formality of the large F. I also love how it fit perfectly so the old rusty nail could function as a period. What I don't like is how limited I was on fonts (I made the new one in PicMonkey). I used Special Elite, and it is a little cluttered-looking for me. I'll probably change it again, but for now it's okay.
Then I added a background. Now. I am generally not a fan of backgrounds - I think they can be distracting, particularly when they are busy or have a seam. I prefer to look at super-clean blogs like this or this, but sometimes find that super-clean look a bit scandinavian minimalist, which I associate with freezing cold. (Weird, I know, but true. I reach for a blanket when I read the new issue of Dwell.)
So I'm trying out a background. It can be done really well, like here or here.
See how plain it looks? I might as well have ditched the murky green-ish gray for white and gone minimalist.
The bokeh lights add a bit of sparkle and interest.
So that's it! I added a simple search bar at the top, and switched up my side-bar. We shall see how long this version lasts. I will say it was surprisingly easy to change things up. I am enjoying PicMonkey's user-friendly interface, but I still miss Picnik. It was cute, simple to use, and included classic photo-editing options. I mean, I enjoy a Holga filter as much as the next person, but I don't want to look back at my pictures in 5 years and wonder why I was such a fucking hipster. I hear Snapseed is the photo-editing app du jour. It's $20, so not a huge investment, but still, I wonder...has anybody used it?
Friday, September 28, 2012
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