design remix...

We have redone the redo on Hannah's room. What that means is that we took her existing animal print stuff, added some new things and put it all back in her room. No more blue butterflies. She is getting too old for that. Anyway we added a white comforter so it was not so dark and removed the white bed netting and replaced it with red shears. Here is the final version:

And over her bed - added a black framed bulletin board so she can change the print out as desired. Right now...one of grandads safari images.


Friday was furniture shopping day for us. Looking for chairs, tables, sideboards, lamps and washer/dryers. We went to broyhill, bernhardt, kincaid and lazyboy factory stores. Then to the furniture mart where there is about 350 stores. Then back to bernhardt and broyhill. Then to sears. We bought 2 chairs and 3 tables. Here is hannah trying out the chairs in Bernardt:

Then Sat. we went back to pick up our finds. We then proceeded to buy 2 nightstands for the spare room and 3 lamps for the living room.

And here is our schtuff in the living room:



Another view showing our gorgeous built ins (and a bunch of junk pulled from the old):

Next in line.....deciding on a washer/dryer.

i am a wuss...

Did I spell that right? Wuss? Hmmm....not woss, not wuzz.... must be right. Anyway, I freely admit that I no longer like the cold and am wussy.

It has cooled down here. It was in the 40's yesterday! Yikes, I just wanted to stay in the house by the fire.

I remember when we first moved here....I would laugh at everyone whining about how cold it was when the temperatures dropped below 50. Now I am one of them. And I readily admit it.

This morning when we woke up it was snowing. Well, when Chris got up. It turned to rain at 5am so by the time I got up, it was rain.

Hannah had a friend spend the night so I was relieved of the "lets go out and play in the snow and freezing rain" duty. They are out for the second time this morning and this is what it looks like out - and yes, it is that dreary looking out:

Right now they are mad because Chris and I will not let them shovel snow off the street. Too dangerous around here.

in other news....
Tomorrow we are going out again to look at living room chairs. To Hickory this time. If we cannot find anything we will order a couple of these which are super comfy and rather afordable. But they take 6 weeks to get:

And while we are there we'll look at washers and dryers too. Because that is really what is needed most right now.

And hannah has asked we re-do her room. She was tired of the butterfly decor - too little girl for her. She wanted to return to the animal print - just not so overwhelmingly printy.

We are calling it design remix. Using what we already have. We are getting good at it - so far she was butterfly, then animal print, then back to butterfly and now animal print again.

So I got a white comforter and some red sheers for accents. All done except she wants some sort of picture over her bed. Photos to come soon. After it is picked up from the sleepover last night.

And I have informed her that I am not longer sewing curtins for her room. I spend hours sewing them then she wants something new in 6 months. Tough luck girlie, I am done.

But I do understand the desire to change up your room and feel like it is more "you". So I am willing to change and redecorate as long as she does not expect to spend a ton each time. So far - the butterfly quilt was $25 and the zebra was $30 so we have been pretty conservative. With the new white comforter she can change the pillows, add a throw and it can change.

Off to heat up lunch for the artic explorers. Happy snow day all!

in the basement...

couple of pictures....the toe kick will go on after the cork is laid down..

...and a happy new year....

Goodness! It is 2008! Happy New Year to all!

Hannah and I met Julie halfway today -at a mall in south Charlotte. We did some shopping, gabbing, had a little lunch. Lots of fun but three hours is never enough. BTW, Julie is looking good!

Chris finished up with the basement kitchen today. Tile is grouted, sink is plumbed, appliances are installed, door hardware is on and the pendant lights are hung. Looks very very good. I will try to post a picture.....need to clean it up first.

Next in line is the cork floor for the basement. That means moving the couch and the air hockey table into the kitchen/rec area to open up one area completely. And the treadmill will probably be squeezed into the exercise room - ok as long as the tv goes too. Still diggin' watching my rented tv shows while on the treadmill. We are excited to be getting the basement close to finished. Of course, the cork floor will take a while. There is almost 2000 square feet to do. Adhesive in the floor, on the cork, dry to glazed, lay together, roll. Then seal when done. Lots to do.

Living room is now finished with construction....just need to finish purchasing furniture and getting the curtins sewn for it. Looking good.

So it sounds like 2008 is a year to finish house projects for Chris. He would like to get done and live in it/use it for a while.

happy new year to all!

merry christmas rundown,...

Warning! Long Post!

Christmas morning. Hannah negotiated a 6:30am wakeup allowance for Christmas morning. At 6:25 we hear her feet hit the floor and she waited at the top of the stairs till 6:30 and came running down. Santa had left a nice new bike for her and she was excited.


But at 6:30am it is still dark out and cold....so by 6:40 she was ready to open stockings! Stockings took till, oh, 6:50 then Chris and I slowly opened ours.


She then was allowed to open 3 presents ( some movies and a watch from us, a purse from jim & kris). We then decided to watch one of her movies then have breakfast and shower/get ready.


By now, she was really ready to open presents. We did the rest of the presents, one at a time. Hannah really loved everything she opened.


She saved the biggest (as in largest box) for last and it was the blue man keyboard from Nana & Grandad. It took about an hour just to get it out of the box then she had a blast playing on it.



We pulled her away from the keyboard to go for a bike ride. Up to the church, into Sailview then back home. She was doing pretty well by the end.

Now, we were back home. She got on the computer for a bit doing webkinz with a friend who was also online. Then we called her down, told her it wad time to clean up. While cleaning up, I said - Hey, there is a present missing. Chris tells her to look in the tree. Huh? He had placed it on a branch. Why, daddy, why? It was her Wii remote. Lets just say she jumped for joy.



So the rest of the afternoon was setting up the wii and playing games then dinner then another movie then bed. All in all a nice Christmas.

Oh yeah, the cat had fun too!

Fifteen Fritts and a partridge in a pear tree...

Saturday's dinner with the Fritts family. We really enjoyed the day. Good food (and I did not have to cook - Chris and his sisters did most of it), presents, family. A good day!

lookee what santa brought early...

We have jumped into the 21st century with a 50" plasma....


My washer is getting ready to go, my treadmill is acting up, my car has 110,00 miles on it, but this is what I wanted.

gingerbread church...

Our gingerbread church...why a church you ask? We wanted something different and something that I did not have to buy a ton of candy to decorate. Please notice the stained glass windows on the side - I am particularly proud of those....

too hot for Christmas...

Yes, it is 77 degrees out right now. That is almost 80. On December 10th!
Hot.
I am in short sleeves and am going to go put on shorts.

6:55 am....

We get the best sunrises in late october, november and early december. By mid month the angles of the sun/earth must change and they are gone.
This morning started off as a deep orange strip across the horizon. When I looked out and saw this, I had to grab the camera. I wish i was a better photographer - this does not quie capture the colors with the entire lake a reflecting orange and the sky a deep purply blue.