Tonight

This was my night...

Here is the kitchen bulkhead gone and our ikea shelf up

I have been cleaning, decorating, staining since 5pm... I am done. good night :)

Not thinking

You know who isn't thinking? The grocery stores.
Brandon and I went to the store last night on our way home from the Christmas concert at church, which went well! We thought since we are there picking up little things we will pick up the food needed for our Saturday Christmas Dinner. Corn, Potatoes, Stuffing... that was easy. then came the Turkey. I have never purchased a turkey or cooked one. I want one that will feed everyone, is prestuffed-, easy to cook, maybe seasoned? Well we found one by Lily dale (whenever I say lily dale, I always have to say it like the guy on tv) The question is the price per lb? Well they say $0.89 per lb but the turkey's are weighed in kg not lbs.. does that make sense? not to me. We picked them up and guessed. We calculated it on the Internet when we got home, we bought a 16 lb turkey for 7 people. You think that's enough? ha I do. Brandon thought it was going to be too small according to the kg weight.

We are crazy busy this week with: Christmas concert (done), company Christmas dinner, shopping, family christmas', preparing food for my family Christmas Saturday, church... All in one week? you ask. Yes in the next 5 days we are doing all that.

Bran & I decided not to do gifts this year, we are just going to do stockings. Any small gift ideas you think he will like? He is hard to buy for because all he wants is nothing or things that cost a fortune.

I always want to squeeze somewhere between the craziness, time to watch "Miracle on 34th street" Its my favorite Christmas movie. Grandma and I would watch it every year while we would decorate the tree.

Anyways I sound like blah blah blah at this point...

Bye!

BBBbbbbbrrrrrrr!

This is at 4am, Ryder woke me up to go outside. This was our first snow fall and there is a lot of it!

I was sitting on the couch last night pondering on what to write to whomever is listening. I couldnt think of anything. I started writing about how on the weekend we did alot around the house. Its the same old stuff though, I think you are bored of it. We were painting because the painting never ends.

While doing a million things at once on Saturday I finally voiced my concern on a bulkhead in our kitchen. When we renovated the kitchen I didn't want cabinets on that side because we have two huge windows that I didn't want to close in. Well the bulkhead was left there where the old cupboards were and it didn't look right.

 Someone (Brandon) didn't notice it and didn't think it looked bad. I reassured him it looks horrible with the new layout and it will make a huge difference in the end. Being the person he is, he couldn't imagine the outcome but he believed in my vision and started knocking it down. He got the right side down and onto the left... EW gross I ran out of the kitchen and Brandon said "I don't want to do this anymore, I'm scared" haha there was a nest of many things, mainly 50-100 eaten pine cones. If you know what animal likes their home made of pine cones, please don't tell us, we don't want to know what was up there. We both assume this was before the roof was done because animals could get in before. *shivers*

This story is long but look at the transformation!

Did you notice I took the curtains off the window?

Tonight we painted the family room -much better then the pink :)

While the first coat was drying on that, we made a long shelf to display pictures on. It will be hung in the family room when its all back in order after painting. Our $6 home-made shelf beats a $100 shelf any day :)

We also had a surprise party for Paul on Friday night...

He had no idea. Good job Kry!

Presents are slowing accumulating under our tree :)

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas tree... this is our Christmas tree!

Mr. Ryder turned one years old on thurday!

My family gets together before Christmas to have dinner and watch a movie. We got together this weekend and we opted not to see a movie but go to the Blue Moutain Village.

It was beautiful and cold. I took more then a few pictures and Brandon waited patiently...

We went through the little shops and enjoyed the day there and then went back to Aunt Lisa's for dinner with a fire :)

and it's begun...

christmas wreaths, christmas lights, santa, reindeers on your lawn, trees decorated by the family... and the list goes on. I love ever single bit of it. I love the holiday for many reason, celebration of God's birth, his love is the reason we are alive today, families everywhere getting together, food, decorations. Everyone at this time just seems happier!

I wanted to post today about decorations. I am almost done decorating our house but cant show you yet! I wanted to ask all of you out there though. Do you have a colour theme? Colour(s) that you decorate with. It seems the 3 years I ahev been in this house I have done different colours every year.
First year was blue.
Second Year was all colours and ornaments.
Third year is a secret still. I will tell you soon, promise.

So what colours are you doing...

RED

SILVER



GOLD

BLUE

WHITE

So which colour theme do you do?
Are there family traditions of decorating you carry on?

Let me know!



Ranchwood

Many long awaited pictures!

The Foyer now painted...

 

     Before & After

And the living room.

I wasn't going to show you the other side of this room aka. our dining room because it is full of paint supplies and tools. You can see though! you can just look past it...

Also the chunky new coffee table. Ignore the accessories on top, they have already changed :)

The large garage sale find we call our dining table is huge and beautiful. However whoever stained it did a bad job because they didn't seal it and its sticky. very weird if you ask me. So I am sanding it down right now but its taking for-ev-er!

Brandon and some handy friends did the trim this week. They did around the front door on the outside and on the inside. Also around a kitchen doorway.Its too cold for me to go out and take a picture, so here is the interior trim they did.

Brandon picked up the trim but he didn't just buy trim. He got square corner pieces. I think he did a great job choosing them. They look great. They had an expensive feel without being expensive :) We like that around here.

Kitchen is next to be painted.

Completed back splash. Makes a huge difference!

Awhile ago I mentioned a dresser I got. Solid wood, ugly molding decals and perfect for our room. I have removed the decorative pieces but the process stopped there since I got busy. I haven't forgotten about the chunky thing and will paint it a antique yellow, eventually.

On a side note...

                       How cute is she wearing my shades!

Hernia

No I don't have a Hernia, thankfully. My mom always told me I was going to get a hernia because I move everything myself, pick up things that are way to heavy. I actually am surprised I haven't had one yet.

Last night I could just picture my mom watching me and saying "are you crazy! your going to get a hernia!"
I painted the livingroom & dining room last night while Brandon was out. In order to paint a room, you all know furniture has to be moved. Well I moved our large dining table, all 8 chairs, a very heavy hutch (decided to leave all glass/fancy dishes in it and nothing broke), 2 couches, a few side/coffe tables and another small but heavy dining table, which is in our front room waiting to be picked up off of kijiji.

I then proceeded to paint the rooms in the beautiful Ranchwood by Benjamin Moore. Then, taking the opportunity of the floor being empy, I vaccumed and scrubbed the floors. Then I (by myself again) moved all the furniture back. I know your thinking "HERNIA LADY!" or "where does she hide those muscles?"

I dont have an answer but I do have beautifully painted rooms that I will have to show you. Brandon came home just when I finished (good timing young sir!) He was surprised that I finished all the painting and more surprised I moved everything myself.

Also, we picked up a new coffee table last night that I am almost done refinishing. Its an octagon and its chunky, love it!

Christmas!

I know its not Christmas yet but if you want to do custom Christmas cards you gotta get on that sooner then later. I came across an amazing deal from Shutterfly (http://www.shutterfly.com/) Its for all bloggers out there, wherever you may be... The deal is to mention them in one of your posts and receive 50 free holiday cards! Yes I said 50. Pretty cool right?
I think its a perfect deal for us because we haven't done Christmas cards yet together. So this will be our first Christmas with cards, custom cards at that from Shutterfly.
There are so many to choose from but here are a few of my favorite...

I will have a very hard time choosing since there are so many choices. They also have some pretty cool calendars, photo albums etc. I have used them before and have family members who have used them. They ship quick and the picture quality is great. They are a great site to visit :)

Check up

We are not done any of the various projects we have on the go. Did I mention all the things we are trying to complete at once? Well let me tell ya!

Painting the majority of the house one room at a time -only have 1 done...5 to go. We are painting the main rooms all in Ranchwood by Benjamin Moore.. Its a grey taupe and its lovely :)

Brandon & Paul worked on the back splash last night. We did this back splash maybe a year ago? maybe longer ha. Never finished a few pieces and we never grouted it. Well the grout makes a HUGE difference. It looks amazing now.
Picture to come

We picked up new railings for our stairs since the ones we have are just a thin piece of wood on a few non-matching brackets. So I have to paint the new railings and then we will install them. I am sure it will make a huge difference to the stairs.

I am also painting the 2 ugly chairs. Remember from the last post? I always tell Brandon how much paint can make things beautiful. It is definitely true with these chairs.
pictures to come

We have the contractor coming today to finish every touch up in the house except the family room ceiling (that's a full day job)
Once he is done all the touch ups I can go around and paint the completed rooms with the paint listed above.

I am still working on Andy's mirror, I am so close I can taste it. Don't worry, that's just a figure of speech, I wont actually taste the mirror...
pictures to come

* I am sitting here trying to think of more projects we have on the go. Its sad we try to finish so many things at once. We need to work on that habit*

Oh right the dresser I got. I haven't even shared a picture of it. I will be painting it an antique yellow. I know it sounds scary but don't worry I have a vision.

That reminds me of every time I bring something home or pick a colour... Brandon's face makes a  I don't know about that? are you sure that will look ok? He then says to me "are you sure?" I speak my decor lingo about complimentary/analogous colour schemes and room balance etc. He then says "Ok, I guess. We will see" Happens all the time. He wants me to reassure him I have picked the right choice. He always ends up loving it, which is good because it would be a waste of money if we had to change things all the time. I found out he asks me these things because he cant envision things.
Show him a chip of paint..he doesn't know.
Show him a few spots on the wall... he doesn't know.
Paint the whole room... he now loves it!

Even though he is like this he seems to pick some pretty good furnishings. For example; our kitchen tap, our upper bathroom light fixture, the new railings.
I would say our mix of choices make a pretty good team and a beautiful house.

ok enough with the rambling! Bye!

A little bit of this...

a little bit of that...

Its saturday at 12pm and I have done alot today. Besides laundry & dishes I have painted some dining chairs, got some more chairs to redo, worked on Andys door...

Oh and I made the cookies!

They are SO good! thank you Connie :)











I completed 4 chairs for our dining room... Need to find and paint 4 more.

 

Here are two more (ugly) chairs that I got. I am going to give them TLC to make them beautiful.

 

Stay Tuned...