Weekend Wrap-Up

Tidbit syle:

- We celebrated two birthdays this weekend and first up was Grandma Alvie's. We all got together at Andy's grandma & grandpa's house around 2 on Sunday for cake and ice cream. I seriously adore Andy's grandparents -- both sets. My grandfathers both passed away when I was five, my maternal grandmother passed away when I was seven and my paternal grandmother moved down south shortly thereafter. I've never really grown up with "typical" grandparents and so I absolutely love going to see Andy's. They're kind, funny and tell the best stories. Andy's grandma turned 81 and she also shares her birthday with her younger sister, Judy, so there were two yummy, yummy cakes -- chocolate and banana. I got some really cute pictures of the two of them that I still need to edit, but I think I'll put them up here afterwards. :)

- Later Sunday night we met up with my mom & Mark at Cracker Barrel for her birthday dinner. I thought after all that cake at Andy's grandma's I wouldn't want to get breakfast for dinner, but I did. :) We went back to my mom's after so that she could open her gifts. Mark got her a Kindle (about which I am super jealous since I've wanted one for a while and have just never sprung for it, lol)! We did the same for her that we did for my dad this year -- one practical gift and one fun gift. (For my dad, it was a new electric razor and a giant sling shot that shoots metal ammo that he can plink at the little targets the boys make when we go camping in June & August. I'll let you pick the "fun" one, LOL.) My mom got a Hoover stick vacuum, hahaha. In my defense, she has been saying that she wants one for months now since her house has about 20 stairs from the first floor to the second and she currently lugs a vacuum that weighs more than me up and down them! Her fun gift was a gift card to DSW so she can buy a few pairs of fabulous shoes.

- After much debate, we've decided to put down tile in the kitchen. I'm a little "meh" about covering the hardwood but it's such a high traffic area that it will get absolutely DESTROYED if we don't. Thankfully we don't have to rip it out to lay the tile so eventually I'd like to uncover and refinish it but for now, the tile is definitely the more practical choice (especially with four sets of puppy paws running through it a few times a day to go outside).

- My vegetarianism is still going well! I spent a good chunk of time this weekend browsing recipes and found a bunch that I can't wait to try. I found a recipe for an asparagus sandwich that sounds AMAZING. I'm a huge fan of roasted vegetables (and asparagus in general!), though, so any time I can slather them in olive oil, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and let them get crispy in the oven, I'm in heaven. I also found a recipe for cabbage, potato and tomato soup which, after reading the ingredients, sounds a lot like the famous cabbage soup that my dad makes! It's more of a stew, really, but it is so, so delicious. Other than the beef he puts in his, this recipe seems almost identical though I can't say for sure since my dad is one of those "add as you go and it still ends up delicious" kind of people.

- I got the valances for my dining room on Saturday... Four days earlier than the previous email told me, but 8 days later than their original arrival date. They're pretty so I guess that makes up for it, lol. Now comes the fun part of hanging everything on my giant windows! I wanted to do that yesterday but we were gone from about 1:30 to 9:30 so, yeah... That didn't happen. :)

- I decided yesterday that this week I'll give my back hall a big scrub down so that I can start prepping to re-paint it. It's currently a big mud pit thanks to my puppies coming in and out from the backyard and shaking off / playing back there. Before I decided I wanted my kitchen that butternut squash color, I had already purchased two gallons of light, light blue paint (which was total overkill since one gallon of the squash color covered the walls and left 1/4 of the gallon!) and so I'm just going to use that back there. It has cream moldings, wainscoting and baseboards so it'll go well! Plus I have a lot of decor from when our master bedroom was a dark gold color (I did gold and pale blue in there... Told you I've painted and repainted a lot!) that I can re-use back there to. It'll be nice to get that stuff out of the basement!

- Speaking of paint, this weekend I taught myself how to effectively paint around trim and ceilings without having to tape everything off first. Oh. My. Land. I can't even begin to say how much of a timesaver cutting in is! I have a steady hand while holding paint brushes thanks to taking art classes every year I've ever been in school, lol, and it definitely takes one!

- This week I'm hoping to put glass mosaic tile in the open shelves above our cabinets in the kitchen. You can kind of see them in the pictures from this post... They're above the cabinets on either side of the sink, as close to the ceiling as they could possibly get and I thought they could use a pop of something! I keep adding project after project to our list. Andy is so thrilled. ;)