OK, this is a bit sad, but I am kinda working between 3 computers at home:
So, rather than bookmark this, I’m blogging it so I’m sure not to lose the link! How stinking cute are these bracelets?! I think we all need a dozen or so.
Yep! For anyone who missed the news on Facebook, I celebrated my 31st birthday this past Saturday!!! So, how did I spend this most fabulous day birthday???
Well, first we had a great breakfast of Grands Cinnabun cinnamon rolls with our Nana! YUMMM!!! My Mom flew into town on Wednesday to spend my birthday weekend visiting, YAY! Also, I have officially declared birthdays to be calorie-free holidays!!! You can all thank me on your birthday!
So, then, we had PUPPY CLASS!!! We love going to puppy class!
Oh my, we love puppy class! We get crazy playtime and lots of treats!!!
Then we had a quick lunch at home and relaxed a little before going to see the new Harry Potter movie in IMAX 3D!! It was GREAT! My mom is officially caught up on all the Harry Potter’s. She hadn’t seen any of them, so we did a movie marathon from when she arrived until movie time on Saturday! After the movie we had dinner at Vinny T’s, my favorte Italian restaurant, and got canolli for desert. It was perfect!!
But that’s not all! Then on Sunday, Mom treated us out to a New England Whale Watch cruise!
It was great!! It was a 4 hour cruise and we went 24 miles out to Jeffery’s Ledge, which is evidently a big feeding ground/hang out for the whales!!
It was great and the naturalist on the boat did a great job explaining the feeding patterns and how to know when they were about to come out of the water. I think they said we saw about 20-23 Humpbacks and a Fin Whale. It was the best birthday present ever!! I will definitely be going back and if anyone is in the area and wants a fabulous time, definitely check out Capt. Bills!!
On Ravelry (aka the best knitter’s/crocheter’s website EVER!) I am a member and co-moderator of the Sha-Recipe swap group. Every month we do a sign-up and recipe swap with a certain theme. To celebrate summer, we did a Super Duper Swap, where we swapped a recipe with our partner, as well as a handmade kitchen item, a kitcheny gadget/goodie, and other fun stuff, with a price limit of $15-20. Now we all know, that when presented with a challenge like this, we all become super duper bargain hunters and I’m always amazed at the packages folks can put together!! So, here is my AWESOME package!!! I got three samples of Barney’s coffee (SO GOOD! LOVE the French vanilla!) in reusable screwtop freezer Bell jars (these are ingenious! Perfect for my lunches!!), a knitted blue and cream colored dishtowel (in use currently) a set of green kitchen towels that match my kitchen colors so awesomely!! Also, a produce drawer liner, which went into use immediately and I think it really is helping to extend my produce life!! Also, some brown cotton yarn, measuring spoons with a rubbery bottom so you can ‘pop out’ whatever you’re measuring. How cool is that?? I can’t wait to use them for brown sugar!! A Nail-Saver scrubbie sponge and not one, oh no, but a collection of recipes!!! Thank you so much for the awesome package Cheryl!!!!
I’m also including pictures of the front and back of the potholder that I made for my swap partner. It is in the mail, I sure hope she likes it!!
Wow, thanks for the all the great comments everyone!! It is so nice to have outside opinions!
So, if you check out the comments below, you will see that my good friend Kim (a DIY diva, fellow dog lover, and awesome remodeller….seriously, check out the pics on her blog!) has challenged me with helping to come up with a few ideas for getting her a porch too, because, let’s face it, everyone should have one.
Going on my first instincts/impressions and not thinking too hard, here is what I came up with:
(I don’t know why my pic is so tiny, SORRY! Hopefully you get the idea!)
First is a nice low-pitched peak with a good ole traditional porch. Put chairs and/or a swing on this baby and you are set! The bottom two are more of a covered stoop, which would provide weather protection in front of the door, but not the leisure hang-out space.
Why do I like these?? First, Kim’s house has repetitive shape because of the upstairs dormer so if given the chance I think I would add in a second shape. Hence my choices of typical pitched (triangle) roof or a covered stone archway. Also, the door of the house is off-centered both in relation to the house and windows. I’m a big symmetry fan (drives my husband crazy!! You should see the stress when I try to hang pictures perfectly, while he ‘eyeballs’ everything!) so I think that all of these options, which are more centered on the house, draw attention away from the offset of the door and lend a little more balance without hiding or blocking it.
I think the typical porch (top right option) is my favorite over the covered stoop though. I’m just a porchy kind of gal! Hope that gives you some ideas Kim!!!! Thanks for letting me play with your house design!!
So I mentioned in my August goals that we are trying to finalize plans for updating/remodeling the front of our house. A few things have prompted this, but mostly the fact that right now there is no overhang over the frontdoor. The door was never sealed properly and has water-damage to the frame. We must therefore replace the door. I would also like to add some kind of covering because right now if it’s raining, you basically get soaked while trying to wrestle the door open. Not to mention, our mail gets seriously soaked everytime it rains, because without an overhang, the water trickles off the roof right into the mailbox. Perfect.
While we’re at it adding a covering, I’d like to add a raising stoop/porch. I’m a Southern girl, and porches are just a requirement. I would especially like a covered porch with seating so we can sit and socialize with the neighbors. SO, big job!!!!!
All these are great ideas, but unfortunately the design of our house, which has a split level roof, makes a covered porch difficult to add on because where we would like the porch is where the two roof levels meet.
So, after much thought and consideration….here’s the ideas we came up with:
Out of these options, Idea 1 would be ‘easier’ because the frontdoor stays where it is (currently opens into dining room). Idea 2 is obviously more intensive because it involves moving the front door to the living room, closing in the dining room (which would be GREAT for giving us more space there!!) and adding dormers upstairs. I really prefer this design because I feel like it retains the ‘cape cod’ style of the house and looks intended…whereas idea 1 looks like an addition. My question for you is, well, what do you think? Are we crazy??
Wow, August already!! And what did August bring to me?? A bugged blog. I can’t log-in to my own stinking blog! Alas, I have this new shiny one all up and running, so if you are reading this, CONGRATS! You found me!!
So what does August bring us? Well we had puppy training class #2. Jasper and Mickey both did very well and we were happy to see a new student, a Doxie named Hunter, joined the class. So Mickey is now not the only tiny dog, YIPEE!!
Of course, trying to get back on track….August brings me a new monthly goal list!
I suppose that is ambitious enough for now. Some things, like planning the front of the house, requires a good bit of research, so we’ll see how that goes.
Kelliebelle's Karma 