Welcome to my House

My sister and I were texting this afternoon back and forth. She was sharing pics of her new apartment and I told her I wished she could come see my house.... so her response was... Text them to me!!


Soooo I went around and took a few pics downstairs. Now I have to qualify these with ... the house is in a constant state of disaster... 2 kids, 4 pets and mama and daddy who work full time... but here goes.

This is one part of our "blue room" a formal living room... we have 2 rooms downstairs that are just huge... this is looking in the left of one doorway. There are 2 doors into the room. See the 6 ft tall windows? The bottom part opens. You can just see the fireplace (non working but we hope to put a gas insert in it) in the right of the pic... just the corner...

Here is my living room... opposite of the blue room, separated by the hallway... the 8 foot windows here as well and the ceiling in both rooms are 12 or 14 ft. We have a litte stove that looks like a shadow on the left.. we need to have it inspected to see if it is usable.... There is fireplace mantle on the left behind the stove... lots of pottery/antiques on there. I posted a few pics of that quite a while ago...

Dining room is next... table is pushed to the other side of the room as you can see... the door on the right goes into the hall for the blue room. The white door goes to the basement and the door on the left goes to the living room... Somebody please save me from the pink on the walls... ughhhhh

And last on this trip... the kitchen... small gally ish... with gray cabinets and ugly wallpaper.... sorry its a mess... just finished whipping up some food.... this is the room I want to redo first.... white cabinets with a barn red on the walls above the white beadboard.... so we shall see!!

Thats most of downstairs... didnt take you in the laundy, or the outporch room... maybe next time...
The house is 111 years old... built in 1900... In pretty darn good shape for her age....

thats it for now...
Hugs
Karen

Big Snow and Little Snow and a Stink Bug

Hello again folks. I guess like so many of you here on the East coast... we got snow again. I guess I really shouldnt complain as thus far its not been toooooo horrible (shhhh).

However, we still have February to go and that is typically when we get our largest snows. Thanks to my brother in law, I have not had to do much shoveling this year. He has done most of it for me and boy does my back ever appreciate it.
The snow we got the other night made driving home quite the activity. The snow was blowing straight toward the windshield making visiability just awful. However, once home it was beautfiul to watch... just looking up in the sky and seeing quarter sized flakes falling straight down and quieting the earth... just heavenly... So I wanted to share a pic of it with you... I had two.. but my phone/camera is not cooperating... (probably the user).

Shee how big the flakes were and how fast they were falling? Crazy.... See the tiny snowman on the right... My oldest daughter knows how much I LOVE snowmen so she made a baby one for me.... too cute!!!

Now... my headiing says.... Stink Bug... What the heck?
Did you know that the ugly stinky bug can sting? First of all... how the heck can those suckers be living in January... 2nd... oh yes... I found out the hard way... I was snuggling with my pillow the other night when all of a sudden I felt a sting on my chin... Dang it that stinker didnt sting me... or bite me or whatever it did... I have a dime sized mark on the side of my face... almost like a burn.... like you'd get with a curling iron.... but it also itches at the same time. I guess that stinker either didnt want to share my pillow or didnt want to cuddle. I tried to get a pic of it but the droid phone isnt user friendly to take self pics.. (or user error).

Either way, I will live... So... thats it for now... Watch out for those stink bugs and stay warm!!

Hugs
Karen

A New Year and a Re-Do

Now as many of you may know, over a year ago we moved into our new home. A 110 year old victorian type house. I love this house and the previous owner took fantastic care of this house and we still speak occassionally. Lovely lady...
Well now... There are a few cosmetic things I want to do... One of them is to repaint the top part of our dining room... Currently it is a pinkish/purple color with the white beadwork .. love the beadboard... the color above... ummm not so much... Pics later on that one...
Hubby and I cannot quite agree on a color as of yet... so it remains... ummm purkle...

Now the kitchen is what I dislike the most.... Gray whitewashed cabinets and old peeling (read... ugly) wallpaper... so instead of working on teh dining room, hubby and I actually agreed on what to start with in the kitchen...
The current plan is to paint the cabinets white and change the hardware... easy as pie... What to do with the walls is a bigger problem... There appears to be NO insulation in the outer walls... our glasses come out chilled from the cabinets but as I cannot afford someone to come blow insulation... its gotta wait... unless someone has a better option??

I started peeling wallpaper to see what Im dealing with and it appears there is just some paint under it... Okay... check... easy enough... Now I just need to decide what to paint it. I am thinking of going red... but have heard reds are hard to paint.... may end up red with some faux something so it doesnt look so bad... and I am thinking that with the kitchen cabinets white... the red wont make the kitchen tooooooo small. (Its small enough as is).. So i bought some white paint and will try it on one of the cabinet doors this week to see how it looks.

Now where my hutch is is where the old owners hutch was and her is a bit bigger... they apparently build a soffet thingy over it.. and as mine is shorter..... you can see under it... and talk about some reallllyyyyy old ugly wallpaper... will prob tear it down and put the molding with the rest... Here.. take a look

This is the current wallpaper... you can see where I am pulling it down and you can see on the left is the blue paint under it.

See the reallly ugly paper... and if you look on the very left you can see where the stovepiping for the cookstove used to be....
So... now its time to see what I can do... cheaply....

The countertop is a gray/white speckled counter..... will have to leave it or now... or use the counter paint to re-do it...

Keep watching for updates....
Hugs
Karen

Death of the Morning Brew

Alas dear friends.. there has been a death in the househould.... Last week, I noticed that a part of broken on my trusty Mr. Coffee.... But... it was still workable... just had to wiggle the top just right and it would close...
No problem... right?

Well, this morning, I had my dear friend ready to roll for an early 5:50 brew (heck normal is 6:10) and was sooooooo ready for my hugeeeee mug o joe this morning... ummmm I was drooling just thinking bout it... nothing better on a colddddd icy morning than a hot cup of coffee......

Staggering down the stairs in my slippers.... .hmmmm no smell of coffee... weird....
Hmmmm, pots not a brewing... hmmmm did I set the timer wrong (wouldnt be the first time).... so I just toddled on over and pressed the on button...

Staggered on into the living room to check on the road conditions... icy ya know.... when I hear a "CRRAACCKKK" from the kitchen....

Yep, you guessed it... NOOOOOOOOOO coffee and a broken coffee pot...

Soooo what to do.... ??? I need some advice folks...
Should I replace my Mr coffee with the current one.... or should I replace with???

Which uses the K cups? I am the only one who drinks coffee....
Help me out here folks... these are pricey.... are they worth it? Am I gonna feel really guilty if I buy something expensive...

All opinions welcome!!!

Hugs
Karen

Happy Farm Show Week

Here in central PA, its now Farm Show week. A very packed week of lots of people, food and farm animals. Today we decided to venture there with the kids and had a great time. I ate a powedered potato donut, 1/2 a milkshake, fried cheese cube and a fried mushroom. Now not the most nutritionous (is that a word?) and Im certain lots of folks broke their New Years resolutions but this is the Only time of the year I have milkshake and verrrrrrryyyyyy few times throughout the year do I have a donut or something deep fried.

But let me tell ya... it was YUMMMMYYYYY....

Also this weekend I was a busy bee making egg rolls Thanks to my wonderful mother in law I have taken her recipe and made it our own.. now again,  not the lowest calorie choices but I bet you could brush with egg wash and bake them and it would be just as good... so here we go...
8 oz mozerella cheese
2 - 16 oz bags of frozen veggies (carrots, brocolli, califlower, corn etc)
1 to 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey or beef
rice ( I use about 6 cups cooked)
I microwave my veggies while browning my turkey. i have my rice already cooked and ready to go.
I do season my meat/rice with adobo or any other spices you like.

I use a mini chopper to mince my veggies and mix all of the above together.
I take bout 2 tablespoons per eggroll wrapper and roll and seal.
I then take them and deep fry them in a frying pan on the stove until golden brown . This make about 40-45 egg rollls
The whole family loves these and except for the deep frying part are really healthy and great for those non veggie eaters.

So thats what I did this weekend.... I hear we are getting snow this week... happens quite often with Farm Show week... but I guess we are due.
Stay warm all....
Karen

Happy New Year 2011

Good morning folks... saw the New Year come in with some friends and family. Was a nice relaxing evening. Lots of food and fun.. Some of our guests had to go home early, but thats okay... the new year started anyway....

Hope this year is the best one ever. Still cant believe its 2011. Seems like just yesterday we were partying like its 1999... then the big "crash" of all the computers of 2000.... Wow...

Resolutions this year?? None really... just to send the time I have on this earth enjoying it with my family... watching my girls grow into women and spending time with friends... Sound great huh?

So my friends.... Happy New Year!!!

See you soon!!

Karen