Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Reality Check

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For those who have been thinking "Wow, look at those two go, crossing things off that list like crazy, I present to you this:




Damn it.

Monday, January 24, 2011

#17

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Yes, tackling the upstairs bathroom and it's holes. 

Technically, it didn't need painted.  The hand towel holder had fell off the wall, with little help I'm sure from three little kids, leaving a couple of screw holes behind.  The toilet tank was once screwed to the wall as well.  (Sounds weird I'm sure, but it's the style of the toilet).  Anyways, although the previous owners left behind the paint from the house, it's been really difficult to figure out which color went where, and the sheen seems to be different as well.  I don't know.  I figured I'd just repaint it instead of driving myself crazy with non-perfectly matching spot.

I had forgotten how much I hate painting bathrooms.  Listen, I don't want to smoosh my face up against my toilet at the best of times, let alone try and get an even coat behind it.

Bah.  That's all I have to say.

Here's the somewhat prepped before picture.


I gave up on the tape pretty quickly.  I mostly just taped off the side of the vanity and behind the door where the two different mouldings meet from the door and the closet, aka the worst part to paint in the bathroom.

After.
 
What? You can't tell a difference???!  Why yes, it is still beige.  We're painting for re-sale still people.
It's actually a much, much lighter brown. 
 
Heh.  This color has a story all to it's own.  See, I didn't want to buy Home Hardware paint again, since the last batch I had was so crappy.  So I went into our little tiny Benjamin Moore store to see if he could color match to my paint square.  Why, sure, yes they do color match.  Can they call me at this number when it's ready?  Huh? Can't you just do it in like 5 minutes??  Don't you have a little computer scanner??   Uh, no.  Apparently, according to him, he was going to 'eyeball' it.     ...
 
*crickets*
 
Let's say I was a wee bit unconvinced by his ability to eyeball it.  But in all honestly, when I came back, he had it pretty much color perfect.  You couldn't even see it on the paint paper?tab?thing?, what ever they are called. 
 
Here's it all back to normal, with a hand towel holder even!!
 
 

Ryan re-caulked the bathroom tub while we had it tore apart, so that's TWO things we get to cross off the list. 

Go us!

Call me crazy....

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Yeah, I went and bought another different one today.

I must be getting slightly tired of looking for coffee makers.  As you can see it is a) not black, b) the clock is on the top and c) it takes round filters.  I just don't care anymore! 

It has a clock and a timer/delay setting and so far it has not imploded on my countertop!

That folks, right there, is a winner.

...


Now what to do with 500 cone filters....

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Storm's Art Part 2

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Here's a couple better pictures of Storm's art in her room.


Storm's Art

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This:


has been kicking my butt this week.

I started it last Saturday, sorted out the right paint shades and painted the words.
I got about this far:


And there it sat for more than a few days, while I distracted myself with virtually anything that would allow me to not sit down and finish painting all that black around those teeny tiny swirly letters.

My original idea was to paint the sides black, the background a lighter pink with the black backed letters. Sorta like this:


Except...I really didn't like it.  For one thing, I made the pink too bright.  My Storm is not a pink girl.  It was just a bit disappointing.

So, I came up with another idea.  First, I painted the area that would remain pink, a much lighter, nicer pink.


Then I called in the husband to mark out the outline and tape it all off.



Thank goodness for him. 

ready to paint

Following advice on how to get picture perfect stripes, I painted over the tape with the light pink.


And then painted over the tape with black, and filled in the rest of the area.



Then I recruited the man again to take off the tape.


Here it is, all done and drying, waiting to be hung up in her room.



I'll have to take a better picture in the daylight when I hang it up.  Oh let's be honest.  When Ryan hangs it up!

Whew.  I'm glad this project is done.  I get to cross something off the list and Storm is extremely happy with it!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Perhaps it's a sign

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If you know us, you know we have the worst luck with coffee pots.

We've probably been through 7 in the last two or three years.

There was the one that just stopped working randomly, out of the blue.  The one that started making horrible sounds and sometimes refused to work.  The one that gained time.  The replacement for the one that gained time that gained time too, but I was too lazy to return.  The one whose warming burner didn't work.  The one whose steam messed up the clock and timer above the carafe.  The one who's carafe's plastic rim started leaking and Ryan siliconed it, and then was sure he poisoned himself when he found some at the bottom of his cup. 

When that happened, he dropped everything and went downtown and bought our current machine. 

The machine that takes 30 MINUTES to make one pot of coffee!

It's a little ridiculous.

Today, while out picking up paint, I thought maybe I'd grab a new machine.  I have a few requirements. 

The clock has to be at the bottom.  It has to have a clock.  It must take cone filters, as we have about a kabillion downstairs from Costco.  It must be black.

I found one at Extra Foods that I figured maybe wouldn't suck.  It looked at lot like this one.

not correct brand
Oh, did you notice the past tense?

Yeah.  I brought it in.  We set it up.  Filled it with water.  Turned it on.  About 6 drops of water landed on the bottom of the carafe and we heard this cracking sound.

Yep.  I broke another one.   The carafe cracked all the way across the bottom.

Damn it anyways.

Took it back and we are stuck with the 30 min coffee, yet again.


So, feel free to come over for coffee, but you might want to call ahead!!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

First Veto

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Saturday was Ryan's busy day.

He shovelled our sidewalks, shovelled out the gate to the back yard, chipped all the ice off the back sidewalk, walked down to Mom's and shovelled off and chipped all the ice off her back deck (since someone beat him to the front driveway).  By the way, it's like -25 with a windchill and Mother Nature decided we didn't nearly have enough rooms on our igloo and dumped like six more inches of snow on us.  He started laundry, cleaned the stove (!), went to the store, made supper, and vetoed one item off the list.

That's right.  One thing now has a notation beside it.

You see, I mentioned it's -30ish outside right?  Well, guess what.  It's about -20ish in the attic space.


Ha!

See that?!  #14.  spring job, above 0!!

Ah well.  I've lived with that weird light for almost 7 years.  I'm sure I can wait another 3 months.


Oh, and before you think I wasn't home or just sitting on my computer, I was getting started on #22.

That's right.  I'm in the painting zone.

Monday, January 17, 2011

The first

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I'm so happy to say that we Ryan managed to cross something off the dreaded list on Saturday!

Even better, it's a thing that I really didn't think we could ever fix.  We've lived with it for 6 years, unwillingly, as it was.

You see, back when Blade was a baby, and we had just moved into this house, with it's brand new appliances, Ryan was making the baby a bottle.  By the stove.  And in one of those freak things that happen, he accidentally smacked the open, full bottle of formula against the stove.  The formula went down through the vents and into the inside of the glass door.   ...  How the hell do you clean that?!? 

Obviously we didn't know.  We lived with it like this for 6 years.

The mess from under the sink.

I'm pretty sure everyone just thought our stove needed the front washed.  I usually "disguised" it by putting a towel in front of the drips.  Clever, I know.  I think it bothered my mom the most.  She was forever washing the front over and over again, and musing about how we could possibly clean inside the sealed glass front.

Well he did it.  The husband who can do anything, figured it out.






You see that Mom!!!  It's clean! Honestly, after living with it dirty for SIX years, (almost SEVEN as Blade's birthday is coming up soon), I can't stop glancing at it when I go into the kitchen.

This part was pretty nice too.

The first cross-off.


Sunday, January 16, 2011

Easily Forgotten

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It's pretty easy to "forget" all the stuff we need to get done this year.

Especially since the only place I had my list was on the blog.

So I re-wrote it, added a few things (!), and printed it out and stuck it on the fridge where I can't ignore it.


So far, it's working.  It's like those fat pictures you put on the fridge to stop yourself from opening it up and eating all the aerosol whip cream in a moment of weakness. Every time I go to the fridge, I see it.  The List. The one that says, no you shouldn't just go sit down at your computer, you should really get that painting and patching done.

Ryan says that it's early.  Only two weeks into the new year.  That we'll eventually get them all done and crossed off. Then it won't be there, taunting me.

Only problem is:  I looked at him and said "You know what will happen when I get this one almost done..."

He says "Write another one".

What can I say, I'm a list maker.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Easiest Play-Doh Ever

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One more day until Winter break is over!

The kids are not so excited, but Mom is!!

Today, we broke out the play-doh recipe and I had a solid two hour break from things that I just needed to be told about.

Here's the recipe for the easiest way to get a 2 hour break.

Kool-Aid Play-Doh

2 1/2 cup flour  
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 pkg Kool-Aid
2 cups boiling water
2-3 tbsp oil

  • Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar and kool-aid thoroughly in a medium sized bowl.
  • Add the oil to the flour mixture. Stir.
  • Add boiling water to mixture and stir until completely mixed
  • Knead together with hands, adding more oil if it seems sticky.
  • Let cool a bit in a plastic bag before using. Easily cut in half or doubled, we only made half batches today

This playdoh smells awesome, doesn't stick to anything, takes 5 minutes to make, is easy to mold and make shapes with and doesn't keep* 

Yes, that is a plus by the way.  That way you don't have it around so long that they want you to participate in making fabulous creations such as:

Happy kids

Hunter's "Shrek"

Storm's Cinnamon Buns

Blade's crab

*This actually keeps for 2-3 weeks in the fridge or a week or so on the counter, but let's not tell the kids okay.  You shoulda seen my carpet under the table! Oy!


Bonus Picture:


I don't have to tell you what I see when I look at this 'tank'..... LOL

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Near Arts and Crafts Fail

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It's hard to play Guess Who? when your boards look like this....


If you can't tell, the reason it's challenging to play is because there are missing people and missing holders on both player's boards.  Little hard to guess who when they don't even exist on your board!

Storm and I were playing today, even with the missing people, when I thought that just maybe I should fix this game.

So we gathered up some paper and supplies.

Coffee is a must.

Literally, my first thought when doing this, was that I could just draw out the missing people using the pictures we did have.  

I clearly did not have enough coffee in my system......


Justin looks like he might be on some sort of mind altering drugs.  Brandon is looking like he's not too sure about the guy beside him, and James seems to have seen better days. (Storm drew James and she was laughing the whole time saying he looked like Mr. Potato Head!)

The caffiene and sugar kicked in.  My brain started to function.  And I photocopied the pictures with my printer on to a plain piece of paper.

Oh sure, seems like such a simple, normal, um, common sense solution now......

Anyways, we are back in the game people!



 Still missing the yellow plastic holder for two of them, but at least these guys are recognizable now!!