The one where we catch Kiri eating vegetables...

Okay, not really eating them. More like planning to grow them in our yard and THEN eat them. But I'd have to wash them first. (In homage to Lucy from Peanuts - UCK! Bug spit!) And drown them in 3 inches of Ranch dressing.

If you ever thought growing things in your yard was this benign, thoughtless process... well, let's just say you're wrong. There's all kinds of marketing ploys involved. Such as:
"Our seeds are better! You'll get more plants."
"Who cares about more plants? Ours don't taste like crap. Straight up, yo."
"Who cares what it tastes like? We can help you grow a carrot the size of a redwood tree... if you buy our really expensive organic seaweed fertilizer and this red plastic stuff to put around your plant after the seeds germinate in 14-26 days and the plant has been sown indoors for at least 60 days before setting outside after the frost-free date. Holidays not included."

Oh, and you haven't heard the worst of it. They all have fancy names. A radish can't just be a radish. It has to be something catchy, like a Fire and Ice Radish. Or the Thumbelina Carrot. ::sigh:: It was so much easier when I was planting stuff in plastic containers and drip watering them with Gatorade bottles.

Reveling on Ravelry

Got an invite tonight! WOO HOO! If you haven't already, come play. I'm glued to the computer now because it's JUST. TOO. INTERESTING. In that fiber nerd sort of way.

NYE! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

Here's what it looks like at our place:



Please excuse no makeup-ness and gratuitous belly shot ;) Have a happy happy.

Have a Holly Jolly!

Merry Christmas.

Found it!

Yeah, Dan found the camera cable up in the attic. So here goes nothing...

Us when we closed on the house:

On the front porch:

Front of the house with the first big snow on Sunday:

Dan shoveling (we bought a snow broom after this...):


Living room (post Turkey Day paint job):
Will show the rest after we get some work done on the bedrooms. Basement is already done though.

Homeowning Bliss

Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Well, maybe. So there has been no bloggy-bloggy because Dan and I were buried in boxes, then we were scrambling to get the house painted and dressed up to host our first Thanksgiving, and now I can't find the cable for my camera. Funny how that works out, huh?

Guess I can at least talk about what the house looks like if I can't pictures up. The very first thing we did was put up a nice storm door on the front of the house. It's a Pella full view in Cranberry color, which sets of the dark green door nicely. I know, it sounds like I have a Christmas house that's red and green... but it does look cool, I swear! Picture will go up when I find the cables. The door was a little bit of a hassle though - Dan's dad came over and we borrowed the neighbor's saws-all to get a piece of the overhang cut out so the door would open properly. But the guys got it up, it looks nice and it keeps the cold air out

Next we changed all of the locks and some of the doorknobs. And switched out some of the ugly gold light fixtures. Then we put compact fluorescent bulbs in everyplace so our electric bill won't be so huge. Every bulb in our house is between 9 and 14 watts each now, so hopefully that will help some. And now I can use my hairdryer without blowing a circuit. I'm sure the people at work will be thankful because I usually come in with wet hair and looking like a drowned rat. ;)

We painted the living room a deep reddish orange color called Brick Dust. It looks great and we even found a rug to match at Kohl's. Still getting into this decorating and furnishing thing, but we need another couch to sit on in there. We'll probably have to wait until the after Christmas sales at Macy's or something - they have a cool red couch that would work. But the leopard print chair looks awesome against the wall color!

We also peeled all the wallpaper out of the bedroom and most of it out of the spare room. There is ugly purple sponge paint in the bedroom and then pink/blue/lavender walls in the extra room - they need to go! My aunt and uncle kindly sent us a Lowe's gift card, so we'll probably buy paint and at least do the bedroom for now. We're kind of choosing between two dark colors and can't decide on one yet, but once we do we'll get cracking.

The basement is finished, so all we had to do was buy a couch and a TV. Hooray for flat panels :) We kind of went overboard on that part, but oh well.

In craftier news, I'll be sewing like mad this weekend while the snow flies. Have fleece socks and blankets to make!.

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Last, but not least... this is for John from work: A QUIZ!

(House) Inspector (and his) Gadget(s)

Our house passed inspection this time with flying colors! No active termites, no dead animals, no urns filled with the ashes of the previous owner, no suspicious dried puddles on the carpet next to a ratty recliner that looked like the previous owner died in it and melted to the floor...

YES, it was that bad at other houses we looked at. I'm sure our dear, sweet realtor was probably about to kill us after the one with the urn on the kitchen table... which was right before the old Victorian number from 1890 that had been abandoned for 25+ years, had stacks of mail from 1984 all the way up the staircase, along with peeling lead paint on the walls. Oh, and a 25 year old article about a murder laying on a table in one of the bedrooms (but there was spectacular woodwork, I tell you! har har). We are so lucky that she's really incredibly nice and didn't just give us the boot after that one. The first realtor we worked with earlier this year definitely would have.

If you thought I was kidding about the newspaper article, check this out:


Anyhow, if anybody in North Central Indiana needs a home inspector, do ask about the guy we had. He was great - incredibly thorough, explained everything well, squeezed into tiny spaces no normal human should be able to, and answered all the dumb questions I threw at him with a smile. We didn't even mind hiring him twice because he was well worth the money.