Happy Birthday Jenny, here is to 32 wonderful years. Love Chris and Melissa
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
August 8, 2008 - New Fireplace!
Yay! For my birthday Kevin got me a new fireplace! The one you see here was originally wood burning, but it was in disrepair and needed a new liner to be safe. So- we converted it to a gas burning fireplace instead. Turn a key and you get fire! I am excited : )Christmas will be cozy...
Sorry it has been awhile - August 1st is a new leaf!
All right - I know it has been a few months since I posted anything. Life keeps getting in the way. The last entry is from May when I posted the library's parade float. Since then.......Gosh...........I turned 31 - god I am old now. This summer has truly made me feel like I have left all the carefree days of childhood behind.Kevin and I had our porch, driveway, sidewalk and part of our garage floor torn out and re-poured. If any of you heard our skunk story- that was part of why. If you haven't heard the skunk story - you should ask me about it sometime. It is almost to the point of being mildly amusing....almost.Next up we are having the columns replaced. I know, I know, I hear you all muttering to yourselves about how I must be off my rocker to get rid of those fine grecian fluted columns, but progress must be made and they will soon be replaced with a stone and wood arts and crafts type combo.The next week we are having our family room fireplace converted to a gas fireplace, maybe we will use it more if we don't have to chop wood : )I feel like I never got to see everyone over the summer - so if you are reading this and you live within 25 miles - let's get together!I will try to post photos of my new driveway/porch etc soon.Hugs!
We won 1st place!
The float that I built with our Teen Advisory Board won 1st place in its division in the Lombard Lilac Parade. Yay us!!
Don't Ask Me To Make You A Lamb Cake
So - Kevin had never had a lamb cake for Easter so I said I would make him one. He wanted chocolate, which is a little odd for a lamb cake, but I said ok. In this photo it looks kind of like a demented dog, maybe one of those ones from the 1st Ghostbuster movie. It was not a successful triumph in cake making.
Entry for April 24, 2008
Ok - So it has been awhile since I last updated. A LONG while. It has been 2008 for almost 4 months now and I haven't put up anything new. Sorry.
The picture is of the paint job we had done the day before Christmas Eve. We had all the shiny wallpaper removed, all the side walls painted an off white color and the top wall was painted the same red as the dining room. We are currently getting quotes to tear out our front porch (ask me about the resident skunk we had) and to repour our driveway with concrete (it is blacktop now) Yikes! We are also hoping to redo our kitchen sometime in the near future...oh and get the fireplaces fixed and knock down that wall, and paint the other bedrooms upstairs............
Finally - The Dining Room
We actually finished the dining room the day before Thanksgiving, but I have not had time to download the pictures. A BIG thank you to my Mom and Dad for helping us put up the chair rail, and of course Kevin did a super awesome job with the painting.
Never got to posting this
Here is the master bedroom. The green is a little brighter than we thought it would be, put I still like it.
The Dining Room is almost ready
Well, Thanksgiving is on Thursday, we are getting closer to the big dinner.
I will post again when it is actually finished.
Crazy Raccoon
Ok - so last night a raccoon felt it was a good idea to visit our second floor bedroom. This is what it did to the screen. Thank God we had the window closed or we would have had a crazed raccoon in the house. Scared us half to death. Then while fixing dinner a bird flies directly into the kitchen window. What is this Wild Kingdom?
This Can't Be Good
After the big winds last week, we found that we no longer have a support pillar on the right side of the garage. Anyone have any thoughts on re-attachment?
My new favorite website
Take a look and see what books I enjoy and recommend!http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/371267
Celebrate Banned Books Week
Celebrate Banned Books Week by exercising your right to read whatever you want !
http://www.ala.org/bbooks/
Entry for September 17, 2007
The Spontaneans are a high school improv group that comes to perform for our Teen Group. I just finished this poster for their upcoming performance today.Entry for September 17, 2007
I have been cultivating a relationship with Alchemy Theatre and even interviewed the Managing Director for the Library TV show. They are doing a series of staged reading with us starting next week. Should be fun. Here is the poster I did for Moon Over Buffalo.
Entry for September 17, 2007
I thought since I haven't had a chance to update with new house pictures, I would show everyone what I have been working on. Actually this first poster is an older one, but I thought it turned out cool. The others are for upcoming events.
Entry for August 27, 2007
I came up with the original photo of the guest bedroom from our walk through last winter. Compare to the photo of the guest room I just posted a few days ago. I guess ours is a little more sparse, but I like it better.
Entry for August 27, 2007
I thought Kevin and I should be on hand to guide our viewers through our blog, so I created these oh so accurate avatars for your enjoyment. Kevin looks a little more like the real Kevin, mine looks more like how I want to look.
The Guest Room
We still need to paint in here, but it has already served 3 guests! What color do you think is a good idea?
Update for the Living Room
It's not finished by any means, but it is as close to a real room as it has ever been since we moved in. We still need to wire in cable and set the furniture in a pleasing way and add all our accessories, but we're getting there. This proves it.
Finally updates!
All Right, I was a little late for work today because I stopped and took some pictures. I am putting together some before and after shots so you can get the true feeling of what was really done. Enjoy!
Entry for July 26, 2007
OK - I have been meaning to post more pictures, but time has gotten away from me! Going back to work after our trip and trying to get the house in some sort of order has been eating up all my time! We did finally get tile down in the 1st floor bathroom, then the toilet, sink and vanity got put in on Tuesday. Hopefully we'll get a new light fixture and backsplash in by Saturday. Wish us luck!
Entry for July 6, 2007
That is all the pics I have available for uploading right now. For the time being we will return you to the regularly scheduled program of watching us flounder about remodeling our house.
Italy Photos - Valley of the Temples
These are some of the oldest ruins in the world. We saw them while visiting Agrigento, Sicily. They were built by the Phoenicians around 582 B.C.
An important archeological site, and great for pictures....Look at that massive structure that has survived all these years!
Italy Photos - Monreale, Palermo
Cool cathedrals, great little piazza, yummy aroncini. Great little Italian town. Aroncini is like a hush-puppie stuffed with creamy rice and then filled with a variety of things like meat, peppers, mushrooms, cheese. Very good to eat. I have never seen such a thing here in the States.
Italy Photos - Pompeii
They have done a great job excavating Pompeii. Here you can see the cobble stone streets and in the back the awesome Mount Vesuvius!
It was about 112 degrees this day, and I had a cold, but it was great anyway!
Italy Photos - Mediterranean Sea
I think I am being very brave by posting this photo, but the water was so refreshing and the view was like a painted backdrop. This is the beach near Giardini di Naxos. This is in Southern Italy.
Italy Photos - Venice at Night
Here is a pic we took while on a dinner cruise on the Judaica Canal. This is the main canal that goes around Venice, while the Grand Canal is the one that goes through Venice. The sunsets were just out of this world.
Italy Photos - St. Marks Square, Venice
Here is another picture of me in Venice. I think it is kind of 40's movie star like. I'm no Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, but I can hold my own.
Italy Photos - Vatican
I think they bear a striking resemblance, don't you?
The Vatican Museums are really amazing. Everything is extremely ornate, and guilded in gold. Tons of statues and tapestries. You can't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but its beauty can bring you to tears. I highly recommend a stop there if you are touring in Italy. Michaelangelo was obviously a genius. The Pieta is next door in St. Peters Basilica, this also can be quite moving, (although during tourist season you will have to keep moving just to keep it in your line of sight)
Italy Photos - Colosseum
It was really, really, hot this day. It was really, really, hot on almost every day. The Colosseum is pretty awesome though. If you think about all the gladiators and the lions all roaming around the underground tunnels and the crowds were bigger than Wrigley Field! So neat to see history, and be able to touch it too.
Italy Photos - Assisi
This is the view from our hotel room in Assisi. The Hotel Giotto. It was on the top of a VERY big hill, I suppose you could call it a mountain, and right near the Basilica of St. Francis. Yes, St. Francis of Assisi. The view was like a storybook with the wooden shutters you open up and doves fly off the ledge and you can here the church bells ringing. I could live here. Well, maybe I could live here if they put in a Starbucks and an internet connection.
Italy Photos-Venice
Venice is outstanding! What a beautiful city. This is us on the Rialto Bridge overlooking the Grand Canal. Everything there is amazing. We visited the Murano Glass Factory there and saw a glass blowing demonstration (very cool, or hot as the case may be), we ate a lot of gelato, there are tons of shops, and St. Marks Square at night is absolutely magnificent. They have orchestras that play on the edge of the square to entice you to come and sit down for a capuccino. Just fabulous! I would have liked to stay a few more days to relax and wander around. We also saw the Doge's Palace, an architectural wonder, and strolled around the St. Marks Museum. Bellisimo!
Italy Photos - Pisa
Pisa is a very small town that basically contains, a church, some tourist shops, and a very famous leaning tower. You can go up to the top of the tower now that some of it has been refurbished, but it cost 15 euro which is about 20 American Dollars, so we just took pics from the ground. If you go there you only need about 2 hours at the most. The move on.
Italy photos - Trevi Fountain
I am trying to get all of our photos in order.
Here are a few, I will try to post more later.
This one is of Trevi Fountain which is stituated on a natural spring and there are spiggots from which you can drink from. The Fountain is in Rome not far from the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon (Et to Brute?) Rome is absolutely fabulous. We ate at the Piazza Navaro overlooking a beautiful fountain listening to street musicians and watching the people stroll by.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)