Girl Meets House

A few of my favorite things....

I thought I'd share a few of my favorite Christmas presents this year. I did notice how excited I got over "home" gifts this year (although I still LOVE my boots, Mom & Dad). Here's a few of the "grown up" gifts I got...

Beautiful blue goblets from Jen (my roomie & one of my best friends) - Hard to tell the color in the picture, but they are a gorgeous blue (and apparently I didn't wash them very well).

My first tool kit - from my parents. Now I can give my dad back all his tools that I've had at my house for the last 6 months! I'm excited to finally have my own!

The smallest, cutest, cordless drill I've ever seen (I know tools aren't supposed to be "cute," but this one totally is)! Technically, this wasn't a Christmas gift (my dad gave it to me this week), but was still a recent gift.

Hand-painted ornaments from my boss (thanks, Candace!) - they are the 12 days of Christmas...so each one has a number on it, the line from the song, and a picture of it. This picture doesn't do the colors justice - they are so vibrant and I can't wait to use them next Christmas!

"The first day of Christmas" one...

"Partridge in a pear tree..."

A cookbook from my best friend in Texas (thanks Bek!).

She even wrote out some recipes for me to get the cookbook started. I'm looking forward to trying some of these recipes, and also others that I can add to the book.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

8:16 PM Edit This 0 Comments »

Sunday was full of holiday cheer for our household. After going out to lunch, Jen and I headed over to World Market and JoAnns to buy our stockings, a bunch of lights, ornaments and the rest of the trimmings for a tree (all at 50-60% off I may add...we're smart shoppers). Next step was getting a tree, which I think took all of 2 minutes to pick out. Our tree is PERFECT! It's very full and the perfect shape (it's also a new kind of tree I haven't seen before - a Grand Fir). After stopping by Starbucks to pick up some hot chocolate, we went home, put on some Christmas music, rearranged the living room (to fit the tree) and set to trimming the tree. Below are pictures of the tree, ornaments, and our adorable stockings (with our Love and Peace stocking holders)...all in silver and gray tones to match the decor, of course. :)

I'm back....

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....from nowhere in particular...just back from my non-blogging hiatus. But thanks to some loving nudging, questions about what I've done on my house, and hearing lots of "you need update your blog" (thank you my VK-C ladies...the next post is for you), I'm going to try to make an effort to keep this more updated. So thanks to those of you who have so patiently been encouraging and waiting for me to post more... I can't guarantee that the posts will be super exciting, but I'll do my best! :)

Door casing

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Sorry for the delay in blog posts...I'll try to be better :)

A couple weekends ago my dad and I worked on casing doors. We completed the front door, front hallway, dining room French doors, and the French doors in my bedroom. We have one more door to do - the back door out to the patio - but first we have to replace that door. Here's a peek at a couple of the doors and what the casing looks like so far. (We still need to putty the nail holes and put a final layer of paint on before they're done.)

> Front closet

>Front door

>Dining room French doors

Mmmmore molding

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Over the long weekend, my dad and I cut and installed the molding that we had painted the weekend before. This is the "chair rail" molding that separates and distinguishes the wall color (and wallpaper) from the ceiling color, which was brought down onto the walls a bit. The molding is at the same height all the way around the living room, tv room, and kitchen (in the spots without cabinets). This molding helps to unify all the rooms as it ties them together despite their separate wall colors. I was really looking forward to seeing how my "vision" turned out, and I am more than please with the results.

The "cutting station":

An air compressor nail gun makes everything so much easier:

Molding

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My dad and I bought a bunch of molding last week - baseboards, the "chair rail," and some casing for the doors. I started painting the "chair rail" molding on Sunday and have completed 2 coats of paint. This molding will be going up on the walls where the wall color meets the ceiling color. The remaining painting, and then installing, of the molding is on the To-Do list for this coming weekend.

First Fruits...or, um...Veggies

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My first veggies finally ripened a few weeks ago. The first ones to be picked were a green bell pepper, a cucumber (it's yellow...don't know why, it just is) and a squash. I'm not sure what type of squash it is, but it's a squash none-the-less. Although I only ate the bell pepper from the first picks (the cucumber seeds were a little tough...and I just wasn't sure about the squash), I have since eaten another cucumber I've picked and a tomato. We just picked a few more tomatoes tonight as they are finally starting to ripen (there are a bunch more currently green)! I also have a basil plant that I have used a lot. It's so much fun to just go to the backyard to pick things to cook with!