busy entertaining...

we have had a full house in the last week or so. first the hubs' friend rhode came up to visit. they worked on our lawn. im not 100% sure what they all did but i know that they filled a garbage can and about 5 large lawn paper bags.

then the hubs' aunt, uncle, grandma & grandpa came up to see our place. it was their first time seeing the place and they even helped out around the house. they helped finish changing all our dark brown outlets downstairs to white and they started to prime some window framing.

and then to finish off the visits (for a while) the hubs' mom and her friends & kids came up to go to the mall of america. we also ate at osaka, a hibachi place (our favorite type of restaurant)

all these visitors definitely kept us busy. but it was really good to see everyone. the only down side to this was the time with everyone flew by way too quickly.

next up on the docket is hosting a baby shower for a coworker and a girls night. so with all this entertaining there probably wont be a lot of house projects completed. so hopefully thats ok with you!

window treatments

well our seamstress tackled another window treatment for us and we couldn't thank her enough! (thanks again mom!) check out her latest project:

please ignore the tools all over. we had just gotten done hanging these curtains.

and i tackled the other set of windows downstairs via an idea i came across on pinterest. (have i mentioned pinterest before? its another one of my addictions. dont get me started!) starting out with a pair of inexpensive white roller shades, painters tape, a lot of patience with measuring and left over blue paint.



pardon the dead looking tree in the middle of the man cave. now theres an argument discussion im not winning.

corn maze

last weekend the hubs and i accomplished octobers resolution of going to my first ever (that i remember at least) corn maze. we went to severs corn maze and this years maze theme was out of this world. literally. check it out:

thankfully we didnt get lost. they made it pretty easy actually, they gave everyone an option of carrying along the map and had check points along the way to look at where you were at. it was ok to go through the maze, i just think it would have been a bit more fun to race other people through the maze maybe next year. but the activities didnt just stop there. we also got to see an exotic petting zoo. honestly i think this was more fun the maze.

the hubs pretty much immediately found the goats. not surprised one bit there. and we even saw a ze-donk. a what? a cross between a zebra and a donkey. who knew. you can also have a zeony (zebra & pony) and zorse (zebra and horse)

there were also ostriches, camels, water buffalo, and so much more. BUT let me tell you about the freakiest thing there. a bird area. something like a 10x10 caged area in which you can go in and put your arm out and these cute little birds will come land on your arm. yea. except for the fact that there are about 80 birds in this area and they all are fast. very fast. so in a matter of seconds i had about 8 fly towards me from every which way. FREAKY. unfortunately for you readers the hubs was in control of the camera so the pictures arent exactly shall we say perfect.

so we had the corn maze, the petting zoo and some pig races. yup pig races. nothing too exciting there. besides the fact they called it the pigtucky derby. no joke. we had some fun with some of the picture prop areas too.

all in all we had fun at this corn maze. it was a bit odd, id say about 98% of the other people there were couples with small children. i dont really know what i expected but it wasnt that. oh well. you live you learn. 

hope you have a great weekend. we will be busy... welcoming and visiting with some guests!

painted.

well last week was a pretty hectic week but it was productive. after having the basement beadboard primed i slowly started painting it all white. boy oh boy do i love white paint. the beadboard needed about 3 coats of white paint and some touch ups. ugh. turns out my mom was in the area this week so she came to help paint. and we were productive. we finished painting the entire basement. and i love it. and its not gray or tan. (pretty much the only colors in our house) so im sure you are dying to check it out. here goes:

the green office:

and the blue mancave:

(sorry the pictures arent the best...im saving for a new camera...)

did you notice anything else different? besides the colors? maybe. maybe not. we also did a little switcheroo. we flipped the office/computer area into the other room and moved the mancave into the bigger area where the computer used to be. we have fabric for some curtains and sent that with our seamstress :) and i have another semi-diy project in the works for the windows in the mancave. so stay tuned.

primed.

after a quick 4.5 hours the basement is primed. you dont even know how excited i am going to be to be done painting white. we are soooo close. (pardon the mess)

so now only things left is to: paint at least 2 coats of actual white paint, paint the ceiling and paint the upper parts of the walls. oh and convince the hubs to help too. not sure what will be more time consuming :) jk.

foto friday

heres a little something we have changed recently. nothing too crazy. and the most time consuming part was finding the pieces at the different stores. the mirrors are from target and the pieces on each end are from goodwill. they are supposed to be plant wall hangings but we made a bit of a modification since we all know how much i love plants.

saving energy...

two windows at a time.
we now have two new windows in our humble abode.

old nasty single paned window surrounded by "christmas joy"



and a quick view of the new energy saving window from the outside. thanks to my parents who lent a helping hand and some great advice. and for coming to help even when i was at work.

barstools

our kitchen is complete. finally! we have barstools! i can tell you are all excited about that.  turns out goodwill had a set of 3 just waiting for us. and they were $9 each. MUCH cheaper than the other options we were looking at. and that was the only cost of this project.

you see they started out as a reddish wood with black fabric colors. not exactly anything that matches our current kitchen. but nothing a little paint and some new fabric couldnt change. and that stuff was free. cuz we already had it. we have plenty of white paint and some leftover fabric from that kitchen curtain i made awhile back.

not too shabby right?

foto friday

any guesses as to our next project?

yup the basement. or the mancave/office combo. the holes are filled and are just waiting for paint. now to narrow down the choices on colors...

belated birthday update

so guess who turned 26 last week? this girl.
and guess whos a bad blogger and didnt take pictures? this girl.

we celebrated a bit early with the hubs side of the family when we were last in wi. just a little family get together for lunch. it was fun to see everyone again and of course there was a lot of delicious food there too! cant complain about that.

the hubs and i celebrated with supper at benihana. its delicious. they make the food right in front of you and is one of our favorite types of restaurants to eat at. and of course they give you a free meal for your birthday so why not? it was a lot of fun to hang out with the hubs.

(turns out benihana is a better blogger than i am and snapped this picture for us.)

on my actual birthday i was lucky enough to get to work. (at least thats what i have to keep telling myself) and that night the hubs and i watched some more how i met your mother. which was PERFECT :) i wouldnt have had it any other way. except that work thing. oh well.

the next day we got to celebrate with my parents and sister and had a great supper at don pablos. another one of my favorite places to eat :) gotta love free chips & salsa!

all in all it was a great 26th birthday. im hoping this is another year full of fun, new adventures, family, friends and some more house projects :)