Easter Buffet

It's hard to believe that Easter will be here at the end of the week. Especailly with the snow that was covering the ground when I woke up this morning. What gives Mother Nature? It's spring no more snow! We are done with winter!

 After Christmas, Easter is my favorite holiday. And with the winter being so long and cold I wanted to welcome spring into our house even if I can't open the windows just yet. So this year I took the time to decorate our dinning room.

Take a look!

I have to give a big thank you to my mum for sending me some of her extra decorations. Especially all the eggs! I enjoy being able to have an Easter Egg Tree.

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For the table we still have the burlap runner and the primitive box that Mr. B made me last fall. This season it's filled with faux yellow flowers, the name of which are escaping me right now. But we have a shrub in our yard that gets those exact flowers. 

Autumn in the Dining Room

After three years in our house, I decided it was time to start decorating for the seasons. I started to to this last winter with my giant snow flakes and sweater pillows. But I haven't done anything seasonal since then. The Harvest Dinner this past weekend gave me some motivation. I decided to stick with one room, baby steps people. I can't go all out at once and have my entire house festive including the bathroom towels, you know who I'm talking about Mary. I decided to tackle the dinning room. It was a harvest dinner, the main event would be eating. 

With out further ado I give you the end result.

Fall vignette set up on the buffet, check.

Bunting banner over the mirror, check.

Handmade farmhouse table, check.

Restyled thrift store chairs, check.

Burlap table runner and rustic centerpiece, check. (more on this tomorrow)

Take that Pinterst!

Catching Up

It's been awhile. Like almost two weeks awhile. It's not that I have nothing to share with you. Oh there has been lots happening around here. Mr B and I have been busy turning our to do-list into a to-done list. I haven't had the camera out, nor the ambition to write something. It seems like we have been go go go from the time we get home till the time we go to bed. But now that the list is relatively small I think we shall be able to catch up on things.

You see my family was here Sunday for a 'Harvest Dinner' and I can get slightly neurotic about having people over. Let's just say I was barely holding it together on Friday night, then the drill slipped and I caught my finger. Full out sob fest. Like sitting on the floor balling my eyes out snot running out of my nose holding my wounded finger. All the while Mr. B is calmly sweeping up letting me cry it out. That man is my rock, I don't know what I would do without him. But let's keep that between you and me. OK. Don't worry I pulled my self together, almost to lose it Sunday morning frosting a cake, that in Mr. B's words we were just going to cut and eat any way. But I wanted it to look like the picture, not the corners crumbling in, barely held together by sticky gooey icing. I want everything to be perfect. I blame my mother, but mainly pinterest, and the create channel. 

While I sit here now eating my beets. (yes just a bowl of beets for dinner. I truly am becoming my mother) You know I had a nice pail of the last of the garden put together Saturday. It was sitting outside by the garden. All I could think about at work today was coming home and having fresh garden beets. While silly me I shouldn't have left it all outside. The geese got to it. Don't tell but I scavenged the pile to find a few beets that hadn't been chewed on. They are delicious. Now wonder the geese and probably the squirrels like them. 

But any way, sitting here eating by beets it all seems trivial. My family isn't going to care if my registers are painted oiled bronze including the screws, or my fall vignette is set up. Nope not one bit. So guys thanks for coming Sunday and not minding that I never got around to scrubbing the toilet!! 

Sneak Peak

I thought I would give you a little teaser while I prepare the grand photo tour of the newly completed crafty space at the Acres. I'm so excited to have this space to sew, create, and blog. Over the past few days I find my self standing in the door way just looking in. I still can't believe that it has happened and it's all mine!

More Watermelon and a Fence

Back with the baby geese were, well babies, we gave them their first taste of watermelon. Look at how cute and fuzzie-wuzzie they were. 

It happened to be on sale again on Sunday and I couldn't resist. I bought them one to share with Gus. 

Look at how grown up they are with their big feathers. 

Now more fuzzies.

In other goosie new, we have reclaimed our porch and patio. The birds like to hang out near the house. I like to think it's because they like to be close to their mama and they can hear me in the house and see me though the kitchen windows. Which probably isn't the case, it just happens to be shaded and safe, but the thought that they need their mama makes me feel better. There's this thing about geese, they poop. A LOT. And it doesn't matter were they are. They are birds there is no potty training them. And now that they are big, their poops are big. I finally had enough. I went and bought a fence. 

Screen Door Suprise

Ever since we 'finished' the mud room. I use the little quotes around finished cause well, it's not quite finished. It's more than usable we just need to install trim around the window and door and a base board. You know little things. I'm sure it will be done by Thanksgiving, of next year.

 

Any way, ever since it became a functional room I have been bugging Mr. B that we need a screen door for it. It has the exterior steal door, with no window. It would be nice to be able to leave it open to light in the light and the fresh air but not the bugs and geese. You see I have this bad habit of not shutting anything, drawers, cupboards, doors. I was always leaving it open. With a screen door I wouldn't have to worry about it.

 

 I had my heart set on one of the wooden full screen doors. You know the ones with the spring that just slam shut.My Granny had one in her house when I was growing up. The house that her and her father built. My sister and I would always get scolded, not by her, never by her, by our parents every time we visited not to slam the door. It was fitting that our house have one too.

 

Well when I came home from work on Saturday Mr.B had a surprise for me.

 

 

 

And I let it slam every time I open it. 

Patio

Remember when I told you how we 'deconstructed' our porch garden in preparation for a patio. Well it was finally dry enough for the concrete guy to do his thing.

We started with this.

Well after we moved all my flowers and the rocks and let the weeds take over.

Then this was dumped in our driveway.

Thanks Gus for helping me show the scale of the pile-o-gravel.

Then our guy came and moved some of the dirt and gravel. He framed it up and compacted. I insisted on leaving that shrub. It gets beautiful pink flowers and the humming birds love it. I also needed to have rounded corners. No square slab of concrete for me.No way Jose.

The following day he drilled the re-bar into our porch and laid the rest of it. Unfortunately, this step is not pictured. Once again I was distracted by the cuteness of geese.

Now we have this.

I'm off to start scheming and drawing up plans for Mr B. to build me a brick counter and grill.

Kitchen Island

Two weeks ago Mr. B built me an island for the kitchen.

And why am I just telling you about this now?

Well you see I wanted to wait until it was completely done, as in I painted the base of it. But then I got babies and was distracted by the cuteness. And then it got humid, not good for painting and I'm planing on using oil based paint so really not good. And now I have plans for most of the weekend. So it will be at least another week before I get it finished and I couldn't wait that long to show you. More specifically my mother has been bugging me to show her pictures. Luv ya mom!

I helped with the construction.

I measured and marked all the boards.

Gus helped too.

He supervised from the shade under the truck.

Mr. B got to use his "father's day" present. A Kreg Jig. It helps you make perfect pocket holes every time. It's an awesome little tool and made the building process that much easier. His furry and feathery kids got it for him. (in other words it he wanted it and I knew it would make his honey do that much more fun to build, so I used the pretence of father's day to get it.)

Yeah that's a butcher block top on it. We picked it up a few months ago when they were on sale. It is like having a giant cutting board. Although I still use a cutting board on top of it, I'm not ready to mar it up just yet. But let me tell you rolling out crusts and doughs is soooo much easier on this bad boy. The table and chairs we had, well lets just say we got it a few years ago at the Wal-mart and they've seen better days. It was a tad on the wobbly side. Like hold on to the table when we whip up frosting in the kitchen-aid for fear it will bounce of the table wobbly.

Very nice Mr. B. Very nice.

I'll show you some more after photos once I get it painted.

Promise.

Water, Water, Everywhere

It's been raining. A LOT. Everything is mushy and muddy and wet. There has been no yard work, the yard is a soggy mess.

Not only is it wet outside it is wet in the basement. According to Mr. B, the water table in our area is high and has been made worse by all the rain we have been getting. This was followed by a simple explanation of what the water table was, rather than having me try to explain it for those of you who were like me and don't know, I'll let National Geographic tell you.

Since the water table is rising the water isn't leaking through the walls, it is seeping up through the floor. It's coming along the seam between the concrete floor and field stone walls. But for those of you who know our house and our basement you know that it isn't all concrete floor. Half of it is still dirt. That side is a little soggier. No fear, this has happened once before, the first spring we were in the house. We were prepared this time. Everything a few inches off the floor and/or stored in plastic totes. We have a submersible pump that we have been using daily to run the water outside and down the hill. Now we just need it to stop raining so it can dry up and we can air out the basement and get the dehumidifier running.

Sorry no pictures it is dark down there and Mr. B didn't want our messy wet basement on the Internet for everyone to see.

We did it ourselves and I'm so proud of us

A few weeks ago we refinished the floor in the future crafty room. We were so pleased with the way it turned out that we decided to do our dining room and living room floors as well. We decided to do them both in one long weekend. Get it over and done with, only have to clean up the dust once.

We moved all of the furniture into the crafty room and sealed the door as well as we could to keep the dust out.

Like the crafty room these were the original floor boards, mainly unfinished with a painted boarder. These rooms had a much larger painted boarder, which meant more intense sanding.

 But before we got to that part we had to fix a few boards. Wes started at that while I ran to the hardware store to rent the sanders. I came home and he is trying to rig something up to hold a board steady while the glue dried. He was using my hand weights, string, and a screw hook.  He gave me that look when I asked him what he was doing. You know the this would be a hole lot easier if you just let me buy the expensive quick clamps that I wanted so this is all your fault and I'm going to by pissy for the rest of the day look. He forgot that I had some clamps hiding upstairs in my sewing room for the quilting frame. I felt really good being able to save the day. BTW: quick clamps have been added to the pick-up-at-the-home-improvement-store-when-we-have-some-extra-cash list. To avoid future looks while trying to glue the floor back together.

After the boards were fixed and most of the nails set, it was time for the sanding.

It took allot to get all that paint up off the floor.

Fourteen hours of sanding. Fourteen hours of back and forth with the drum sander and squatting down with the edger. I found that I couldn't kneel and do it so I had to be in a half squat. My poor tush and legs were so sore the next day.
And my back and my arms and my abs...

We did about an hour break in there. The edging sander took a poop. Turned it off to change out the paper and it wouldn’t turn back on. Off to the hardware store we went. I was crossing my fingers and toes that it could be fixed. They only had one at that store and the one at their other location was rented out for the weekend. I wanted this project to be done this weekend. I would probably would have gone into melt-down mode if they weren't able to get it up and running.

Before we went the boys took it apart, cleaned it, and did some trouble shooting. They thought it might be the switch. At the hardware store Mr. B changed it out and it started right up.  The clerk was busy with other customers so he set up Mr. B with the tools and the new part and let him go at it. It’s times like these that I’m so glad I married a handy man!

 

The next morning we drug our tired, sore asses out of bed and finished cleaning up the dust on the floor.

Then it was time for the polyurethane. Two coats on Saturday. Then we were off to my parents to escape the toxic fumes and celebrate Easter. Man does that stuff stink. Mr. B swears he was getting high off the fumes by the time we left.

 

Unfortunately two coats wasn't enough. When we got home there was some blotchy spots and bubbles. I cried. More work, more time that our house was turned upside down. I pulled it together and we sanded and ran to Menard's that night. The next morning we put a third coat of poly on the floor before we went into work. Poor Gus was confined to the mud room and didn't get any good naps in. He told me that he needs to sleep on the ottoman or the bed. He's an old man and the floors aren't comfortable.

The floors do look nice. I am glad that we did the extra work and put the third coat on.

Tonight we finally get to put our furniture back! Mr. B did hook up the TV in our room, so the past few nights we've had movie nights in bed. It's a nice treat but I'm ready for things to go back to normal.

Painted Trim and Curtains

Over the weekend Mr. B had to work, so I dug out my painting close and went to work on the trim. We finished scraping paint and sanding the weekend before and over the week we finished prepping for paint. We puttied the holes and calked along the seams. I started priming Friday night and was able to finish up with the touch-ups on Sunday afternoon.

I was going to wait for Mr. B to get home to help me hang the curtains. You see the week before I had tried to hang the curtains in the dining room, but there was an incident with the plaster. I was drilling a pilot hole before I put the screw in. It didn't want to go, so I applied more force. Well all of a sudden it went and I put the drill into the wall creating a large-ish hole in the plaster next to the window. We filled that hole and I touched up the paint this weekend. You can't even tell it happened. Sorry I "forgot" to take pictures of it. Taking pictures would leave evidence and the world would know. I suppose telling you does the same thing.

Like I said I was going to wait for him to get home to help me, but like most things I got impatient and decided to try it again. Success this time. I got a system down. Now drilling pilot holes, just start it by pounding in a nail. If it didn't hit a stud I put in one of the plastic dry wall support thingies. (I'm sure they have a proper name, but it escaping me right now.) I got every one right on the first time. The curtains are hung and the curtain rods are level. 

I suppose you want to see what they look like. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to take pictures of windows/window treatments and get the lighting right. There is probably a tutorial somewhere out there about it. I'll look for it when I invest in a nicer camera. Not much I can do with our old pocket size point and shoot model.

I can't believe it took me over two years to get this done. We spend so much time in this room, now that they are done I realize the globy green paint was bringing me down. The white trim makes the details on the woodwork stand out and compliments the tan walls in a way green could never do. 

We both agreed that it makes our living room cozier and more inviting. The sun blared through the windows most of the morning and afternoon. The new curtains still let in the light but defuse it. It's not as intense any more. 

Just in case you were wondering the curtains are from Target and the curtain rods are, get this, from none other than Wal-Mart. Would you believe that out of the big box department stores the Mart has the largest selection of curtain rods, and the most reasonable prices.

Guillermo update:

He is still limping no major improvement. Which isn't great but it's better than it getting worse. It is still painful, but seems less so. He's limping with more speed and seems surer on his feet. He is also back at sassing the dog, a good sign. 

Keeping Busy

We've been chipping away at a bunch of small projects using the supplies we stocked up on from our last trip to the hardware store. I say we, but in reality Mr. B has been keeping himself busy at night. .

Not that I've been sitting on my fanny doing nothing. We have had delicious home made dinners every night this week not to mention the chocolate cupcakes that I made Tuesday night, with peanut butter frosting. The kitchen is clean be fore we go to bed, apart from the floor. I've been meaning to scrub that for over a week now. I love the checkerboard floor but the white squares really show the dirt. Didn't think that one out to well.

Meanwhile his our project have taken over the dinning room table. The plates are more of a Maggie project which I am hoping to complete in the next few weeks. I still need to collect some more. See the curtain in the background? Very exciting update, but more on that later.

There seems a division of labor into "pink" chores and "blue" chores. Part of me thinks I should be upset that I am getting stuck with the domestic traditional housewify chores rather than playing with electricity and using power tools. (maybe not the playing with electricity I would rather not tempt fate, the thought of getting zapped is not appeasing for me.) But then I think OMG we are getting stuff done! Who cares that I'm in the kitchen every night. We like to eat good home cooked meals, and well I happen to be much better at cooking than Mr. B and he happens to be better at playing with electricity. Besides it's not like I can't do "blue chores." I am perfectly capable of taking care of things myself.

Scrapping Paint

We started a new house project last week. A boring, tedious, house project. But one that needs to get done. We are scrapping all the layers of old paint off the trim on our living room windows. There are ALOT of layers of paint on those. Several layers of the nasty green that covered most of the house, then brown, then turquoise, then white, then finally the bare wood.It was gobbed on to almost a half inch tick in some places. Yikes! With all that paint on the trim we were starting to loose some of the details in the molding.

We have been using a heat gun to remove most of the paint. It doesn't smell the best but works much better that trying to scrape it off unassisted or using harsh chemicals. Heat it up just so the paint starts to bubble and it comes off so easily. But don't heat it up to much or you scorch the wood. (we did do this in several places, shhhh you won't be able to tell once it is painted) From there we will fill in some of the old nail holes, sand them smooth, and prime and repaint.

I say we, but in all honesty it's been mainly Mr. B scrapping away. But to be fair I have made dinner and cleaned the kitchen every time he worked at it. And I will be the one doing all the painting. Mr. B only does the roller, no edging or trim.

The 'Sitting Room'

Hey there stranger!

I feel like I have been slacking lately and racking my brain with things to share with you. It's January and there really isn't much going on around here. There has been lots of snuggling on the couch with my boys, movie watching, and popcorn eating. Mr. B makes the best homemade popcorn. There has been no home improvement, no building projects, and no baking.

It's still January and the 'new year's resolutions' are still fresh in my mind. You know eat more vegetables and exercise more. Hence no cake. Although I've been seeing quite a few on pinterest. I think a chocolate cake might be in order for this weekend.

I took these pictures of while ago. I really didn't like how they turned out, I don't think the lighting is the best. But I thought I would share them any way.

Off of our bedroom is another smaller room. Since you have to walk through the master bedroom to get to it we thought we would make it part of the "master suite" rather than a guest bedroom.

I like to call it the "sitting room".

 

The curtains are one of my favorite things about this space. Nice and feminine with out being over the top. My mom helped me pick them out. Thanks mom!

The furinture is from my great granny. She bought it when she was first married. The bottom drawer of the dresser has the date the set was purchased and the price. She was always writting notes like that on things.  

The peacock feathers are left overs from our wedding. We hit the one year mark last week!

I think it would be the perfect spot to enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning while wearing a soft fluffy rob looking out over the back yard. I can dream right.

A Weekend of Curtains

This past weekend Mr. B had to work. Which means I was productive around the house and was able to cross some things off my crafty to do list.

I made curtains.

For the bathroom.

For the past two years I have had a nasty plain white curtain up in our bathroom. The location of the room and the fact that it is well a loo, demands some privacy. The curtain was hideous, therefore there is no before picture. For those of you who have been to the acres you know how horrible the curtain purchased from the big box store that will not be named (couch Wal-Mart) was. 

The new one is much nicer. So glad I finally got around to this project, I've only been sitting on the fabric since we bought the house. Better late than never.

I opted to go with a half curtain, more like two thirds. It lets in so much light. I am also able to open the window from the top and that will still allow for some nice airflow come the summer without blowing the curtain all over the place. 

I also got around to making the curtain for our bedroom closet. 

You heard that right a closet. For the fist two years, while our bedroom was on the fist story we had make shift closets that Mr. B built us. Not any more. The only down side is our current one didn't have a door. Well it had one of the nasty accordion vinyl doors. Needless to say that had to go. 

I found the fabric while with my mom and aunt. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it, it was a tad  on the expensive side. But that happens when you are with those two... Not saying that I don't like it because it is perfect.

It makes the room look that much more complete. When I bought it I was hoping to have enough to make a throw pillow or reupholster a rocking chair. Good thing I bought as much as I did after I finish the hem I will have only a few inches to spare. (Yes I still need to hem it.)

It was the weekend of sewing curtains. (and reading books I did spend most of Saturday reading). But really it was the weekend of sewing and baking sweet rolls.

Yummm. 

Lemon Blueberry Sweet Rolls. 

Those had to go to work before I devoured the whole pan. 

BTW (Mary, that means by the way) This is my 100th post!! Thanks for tagging along so far!

Blizzard Draco

Did you know they started giving names to blizzards? A few days ago we experienced the wrath of Draco. It wasn't fun, but the acres does look beautiful with a fresh layer of snow. 

We got over 14 inches of snow on Wednesday night into Thursday afternoon. It blanked everything. 

The snow was heavy and wet which was not nice for the We have some saggy pines and one of the oaks lost a limb. 

But it was the perfect snowman making snow. Instead of plowing out the drive on Thursday morning, we built a snow man. Our little ATV and plow wasn't making a dent. We decided to wait for the carvery and his John Deere. You can see Frosty in the bottom left of the picture. He is as tall as me. He still needs arms and a face though.

Thursday night it started to blow and drift. Our yard is very ascetically pleasing in the spring and summer. In the winter there is a wind tunnel effect by the drive way. It drifts, bad. I couldn't get out of the driveway Friday morning. They were up to the hood of the Jeep. 

  

Once again we had to wait for the carvery.  We have to have some of the nicest neighbors ever; I don't know what we would do with out them! Unfortunately since the ground was not frozen yet the blade on the tractor did a number on my yard. See that hunk of brown in the snow bank, yeah that's dirt and sod. 

That's just one pile. There are more all over the drive. Spring is going to be a lot of work next year. But I'll worry about it in a few months. For now we will enjoy the snow and a white Christmas. 

I Got My Craft On

A few weeks ago Mr. B was working nights. That meant I had the house to myself in the evening. I got to eat pineapple and tuna salad for dinner (two things he dislikes). Gus and I snuggled on the couch and watched chick flicks. I also got in touch with my inner craft goddess. I made somethings to make the living room feel more warm and cozy this winter. 

New covers for the pillows. 

I've been seeing sweater pillows all over pinterest. I knew they would be perfect in our living room. When I was at Target the other day I saw a small one in the holiday decor. For the price of one small pillow I made four huge ones for the couch.

I found some thrift store sweaters and hacked off the sleeves and sewed them up. I just covered the pillows we had on the couch. I figured in the spring I will just carefully open the seam and take out the pillow to reuse the sweater for next year.

I have also saw some giant snow flakes while perusing Pinterest. They make the perfect seasonal wall art for be hind the couch.

They were supper easy to make. Hot glue, Popsicle sticks aka craft sticks, paint and some ribbon. And I didn't even burn my fingers with the glue.