Home in Progress

So, my intention was to show before and after pictures of each room in our house as I finished it. Well, here are before and 'progress' pictures. It's just taking too long to do it all! We went on hiatus to start doing the gardening and landscaping, now we're putting it off to start on the basement. 

I painted the dining room and kitchen walls (our bedroom too, but I'm waiting for furniture and new carpet for the transformation pictures). The dining room and kitchen were two different colors, so I had to prime first. It took about 4 coats total! Quite the pain. Eventually I want to paint the living room (maybe!) and definitely the trim, but that will have to wait. I reused lots of our furniture, hiding all of it's falling apart flaws, but we did get to pick out a new leather double reclining sofa, glider/recliner chair and dining room table. I love them! We took forever to find exactly the right ones at the right price.

Haven't found my candles for my candlesticks yet....

Our first picture we've picked out together. We looked through hundreds, maybe even a thousand, prints before I settled on this one. I like it because it's not too realistic, but not too abstract. Perfect! It's called "Aspen Glow". I recycled a frame from a print I found at Salvation Army for $7, just cleaned it up and applied Old English stain to it. It looked so much better! Frames are so expensive, especially big ones like this!

The kitchen cabinets are a work in progress too...they are taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

Framed some prints from our photo shoot with Sam last October after she started up her photography business called Orange Photographie.

This bookshelf is really falling apart, but I rigged it and it doesn't look too bad...

Pixie wanted me to take some pictures of her with Perrin. We never did give him away and I want to keep him anyway. Put a bark collar on him and he's an angel outside, even with the 4 dogs next door.

She loves him and he's good with her, unlike Nova who wants to be alone and finally bit her last week. He's a good watch dog, even though he is a stubborn dummy at times. He's very loving. :)

Anyway, we are still loving our house and can't wait until we just have to maintain it!

My Little Garden Gnome

We had a few hot days in a row. I set up the kiddie pool and let Pixie try out her new rash guard suit from Old Navy that Becca snatched up for me for a great deal, now that I don't live near civilization!
I hauled lots of soil to make raised beds (hurt my lower back in the process!), Scott helped me make the boxes out of wood we recycled from the deck stairs we replaced.

Pixie decided she wanted to help. It was so cute, I had to run for the camera.

Pixie's First Zoo Visit

 We hadn't been to the zoo since we were first married. We hadn't taken Pixie yet because she wasn't really old enough to enjoy it and....she was not a good crowd/no nap handler.
Now that she's 3 and knows a lot about animals, we thought it was the perfect time to go.
Scott had a day off of work the 9th, so we planned for it for over a month. Since he works weekends, a day off at home doesn't come around too often. 

We had just gone through a cold spell of weather, but this day it turned to a steamy 90 degrees out. It was great. I dawned on my silly straw hat to keep the burn off my face and neck.
They were doing some construction on the zoo, so my favorite funny animals (giraffes) weren't on display.

Here are some pictures from the day!

I love the polar bear exhibit!

So sweet...

Due to the construction, you had to walk forever to the overlook to see the elephants. They were kinda far away, but it's the thing Pixie talks about the most!

This peacock......

...totally dissed us.

I'm not a fan of monkeys, but this one was adorable. I caught his attention when he was overhead and he had to pop down to see who was there.

Sheep. The naughty one on the left stole some food out of our bag.

Back at the polar bear. He was doing back flips, off of the glass, in the water.

We took a trip to Cold Stone Creamery, then headed home.

Pixie took a nap in the car, then woke up and was pretending to be asleep.

I love this picture. My face and Pixie's expression. It's so goofy!

Why I Went to a Tattoo Parlor

..to get my ears pierced.

Take a look at this video found here.

My Birthday Weekend

 My 27th birthday was on Saturday. There is no denying I am on my way to 30 now!

There was a first birthday party for a niece of mine in our old town, and since Scott was there working anyway, Pixie and I spent the day there. 

I got a few big presents early this year. I bought myself a KitchenAid Stand Mixer and Scott got me a digital antenna, so we now get an awesome fistful of free tv stations.

We dropped Pixie off at Becca's house on Saturday, then went on a date. That's all I wanted for my birthday!

Scott took me to the local miniature golfing range. It was a lot of fun. He won of course, by three strokes, but I was the one that won a free game at the end. 

It was so nice going out without Pixie for a change. It had been months since we've had a date by ourselves, out of the home! We went to Chili's afterward. They are the only place around here that will substitute any of the burgers on their menu with black bean burgers. It was so good. I gave my compliments to pass onto whomever was on the grill. They really knew how to cook a veggie burger. It wasn't dried out like they can be, it was moist and delicious. I got the mushroom swiss burger and Scott got some kind of bbq one. I saved almost all of my fries for Pixie. I'm not a big fry person. 

We got to hang out with Scott's siblings for a while. That was really fun. His sister is getting married in 2 weeks, so I took her shopping and we did some wedding talk. 

All day Scott had been trying to find a tattoo and piercing parlor to get my ears pierced. I haven't had it done, but have been seriously thinking about it for the last year. I didn't want to take Pixie into one of those places, so we dropped her back off at Becca's and went to get it done, before we came back and ate raspberry cheesecake she had made me. 

We found a place that was open. I was really hesitant to go in, thinking I'd look like a dork for just wanting my ears pierced when they looked like bikers, but they thanked me for being educated enough to go to them and not to the mall. I did my research on it and piercing guns in a store or mall are not sanitary at all. Plus they shove the earring through your ear and that can cause more issues with healing. At a piercing parlor, they are sanitary. The gal I had had been doing it for 15 years and had a medical background. They wash their hands, put on gloves and open a sterile hollow needle that will take a piece of your skin out, not just shove something through it. And I got small hoops, not studs. I didn't want studs. 

I think it hurts more this way, but I'm glad I had it done the right way. I said I'd rather have blood drawn and I was right, it did seem to hurt more than that. The sound is horrible, but at least it's done now! I bled quite a bit. It was great.

I got to open some more presents (along with eat some cheesecake! Thank you, Becca!) and scored a laptop bag and socks...with rock climbing instruction passes tucked into them. Those were more gifts from Scott, of course! Mom and Becca gave me money for another year membership to Sam's Club, which is such an awesome gift!

Pixie and I finally got home a little after 10pm. I wish I could have spent more time with my sister and her family, but it was over 1 1/2 hours to get home. I took the small country roads too, which thankfully, I didn't meet any critters on.

I got home and got a package of goodies from my mom. It was a wonderful birthday!

Here are a few cute pictures I took of Pixie while we were waiting for Scott to pick us up to go to church yesterday morning. Look how old my Pixie is! She's such a little lady. I can't believe she's 3!

Easter

 We had a very nice Easter this year. 

Here is a craft I made for the women I visit teach in church. 

While Daddy was at work on the weekend, Pixie and I did a little decorating. I snipped some branches off of our magnolia tree and we decorated them with sticky backed foam easter eggs. It was fun, easy and cute!

Since Scott doesn't get home from work on Sundays until just before church, we met him there and opened presents later. I found a wonderful Easter presentation on Christ's life and resurrection and showed it to my Young Women group for the lesson. There weren't a lot of dry eyes in there. :)
I also made these 'carrots' and filled them with good Easter candy. I mainly used orange paper, but ran out and used yellow instead. There are yellow carrots, and they are yummy!

Here are a few pictures of us opening the Easter box from Grandma Maridee and Grandpa Dennis. Thank you guys!

I start holiday shopping too early. I tend to forget how much stuff I have!

I gave Scott a little Easter bowl. :)

They decided to take a nap on the back porch, while I talked to my mom and prepared the dye for eggs.

Egg coloring!

We did a little egg hunt in the back yard, but I didn't get any pictures. It had gotten pretty chilly by that time. It was hilarious. Scott went out to hide them, then I took Pixie out. The first thing out of her mouth was "daddy made a mess!" She wasn't sure about putting eggs all over the lawn!

We had our old standard of eggs benedict, consisting of poached eggs, homemade bread toast (no english muffins this year), steamed asparagus and hollandaise sauce for brunch.

For dinner I baked a seitan roast in the crock pot, with tri-color fingerling potatoes and veggies. I also made some roasted asparagus. It was quite the delicious feast!