Home!

Some people have requested more pictures of our little house, so here are a few from around the house at Christmas time...

Living Room with the tree. I made the wall hanging next to the tree!

The other side of the living room goes down the hallway and into the kitchen. 

Dining room area.

Old dresser and bookshelf that I refinished and made into a hutch! 

My tiny kitchen!

Kitchen Buffet I repainted and my mom made the drapes to match the window drapes I made!

Still working on the bathroom (paining and décor coming together) and our bedroom... :) More to come...

Reeses Cake!

When I asked Matt what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, his response was "the same as last year!"  Quite possibly his favorite things on this planet (aside from me, of course) are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.    Last year he got a triple layered chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting filling sprinkled with peanut butter chips, chocolate frosting on the outside and peanut butter cups.  This year, I made some alterations--same basic concept, skipped a few steps in the baking process and saved $ on supplies!

I started with a boxed cake mix--Triple Chocolate.  I ALWAYS add a box of pudding mix to my cakes...makes them moist and yummy.  There is nothing I hate more than dry cake.  I baked them up in 8" round pans.

I whipped up some peanut butter frosting.  To do this, you make a basic butter frosting recipe (from Betty Crocker Cookbook) and add peanut butter!

I put a layer of frosting on the first cake. Then I sprinkled a generous layer of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (cheaper than peanut butter chips and much more tasty).  In order to sprinkle, I ground them up in my food chopper!  Gotta love Kitchen Aid!

Then I placed the next layer on top of that and lathered frosting all over!  Does anyone have a tip on how to do that without making a huge mess and bringing up pieces of cake? 

After that, I poured some chocolate glaze around the edge...just because and then sprinkled the top with a bit of Reese's.

It looks delicious!  I am not sure if I will partake since I am trying to be gluten free.  It might be worth the cheat!  We will see.

I'm sure Matt will love it!  He licked the spoon from the frosting and he LOVED it!

Birthday Blessings...

Matt and I celebrate our birthdays a week apart in the cold month of January.  We all get some laughs out of this as both sides of our families already had A LOT of January birthdays and when we got married we added one more to each side!  (Maybe one day we will have some kid-os in January too!) 

Anyway, I am coming to grips with the fact that birthdays are just another day ticking past us in a busy world.  Sometimes, I wish birthdays as an adult were more special--like when we were kids with a party and special treatment and the whole shebang!  Besides a few phone calls and many facebook messages, it really was just like any other day. (Thank you for those messages and phone calls, by the way!)  I mean, if you have a job you still have to go to work, endure a commute, sit through meetings, etc...
it just isn't that exciting.

Still, I have a wonderful husband who kept saying..."I have something planned. Don't worry! It will be special."  So when I got home from externship on Tuesday, he had dinner mostly cooked and an ice cream cake waiting for me!  I consumed almost the whole thing in response to my uneventful day and in rebellion of my "gluten free diet".  It was lovely, aside from the fact that the # on top is not correct.  Matt said he knew it was wrong but he didn't want the cake to melt so he didn't go back to the store to fix it.  Oh well...I'll have them for his birthday next year!

Then, yesterday (Friday) he sent me some text messages indicating the time and place I was expected to arrive somewhere and that I would get further instructions upon my arrival.  All he told me was that it was something I wanted and NEEDED.  I had all kinds of ideas running through my head.  We have talked about going to a musical and West Side Story is in town?  He'd dropped hints about ball room dancing?!? But, then I found out I was going alone! What in the world?

I drove to his work and the gatekeeper handed me a note and Matt's GPS.  It said to go to the most recently found address in the GPS.  I drove down Elliot toward the Space Needle and turned up Mercer Street.  I crossed Highway 99 (phew!). I turned a couple times in there and found a spa when Betty Lou said "arriving at destination on right"--Banya 5, to be exact.  (Betty Lou is the GPS's name.) 

{EXCERPT FROM THEIR WEBSITE: Banya 5 is an urban spa and health facility offering a unique blend of old world wellness rituals in a friendly, contemporary environment. A series of relaxing dry and wet heat experiences coupled with exhilarating pool plunges produce a vivid circulatory experience with numerous mental and physical benefits. The experience is both personal and communal. It can be serene and detoxifying or invigorating, intense and rejuvenating. As a modern interpretation of old ideas, we are re-defining public bathing.} 

I was scheduled for an hour-long massage, but could enjoy the "heat experiences" and "pool plunges" if I wanted...I was not completely prepared for such activities (no wet suit on hand! and Betty Lou doesn't tell you what to wear!), so I slipped on the robe they gave me and read People Magazine while waiting for my masseur!  It's been tooooooo long since I have had a massage and it was divine!  Thank you, Matt!

His birthday is coming this week!  I have a few gifts for him!  Stay tooned!

Weekend Project #1: Canvas Pictures

So many projects, so little time...  I have been wanting to mount some portraits from our wedding picture session #2 (taken this past summer) to some canvases to hang on our bedroom wall.  There are many methods that I read about online and some I have seen in person but wasn't quite talented enough to pull them off so, I am going with the steps below:

Supplies:

Stretched Canvas Frames

Pictures to be photocopied

Printable/ Iron On Transfers (Iron and Parchment Paper)

Acrylic Paints in assorted colors

Other little things to decorate with, such as scrapbooking materials, lace, stamps, etc.

Mod Podge

   

1. I printed my 16X20 pictures onto four pieces of transfer paper.

2. Piecing the transfer paper together so that they match up, I begin to iron them onto the top of the canvases.  In some places it doesn't quite look like they stuck, but for what I'm doing this works ok.  And, I like my projects to have character.

3. I painted streaks of paint around the edges to give it depth and to cover up mistakes! (One of my pictures didn't piece together as nicely as I would have hoped, but I painted around the white edge that was left on the canvas and you would never have known the difference).

4. I laid out some other decorative baubles here and there to give it a little more character (although they probably would have been just lovely at step 3.

5. Then I Mod Podged over the additional pieces to make sure that they stuck.  After that layer dried, I added another complete layer over the entire canvas.  This step really helped bring out the texture from the canvas itself.

 

6. They turned out great and I spent WAY less than having a professional print a picture to canvas.  Costco charges $45.00 for a 16X20 canvas print.  I did two and paid about $25.00 for the supplies.
 

I think I might add a bunch more little sayings around the perimeter if I ever have time!

Enjoy!

Hot Water Heater Debacle

A brief history of the Hot Water Debacle:
12.26.11--No hot water, hit reset button, arrived home very late, no other action taken.
12.27.11--No hot water, hit reset button, warm water enough for showers.
12.28.11--No hot water, hit reset button, warm water enough for showers.
12.29.11--No hot water, hit reset button, warm water enough for showers.
12.30.11--No hot water, hit reset button, warm water enough for showers.
Note: It's possible we made it past one day in there somewhere I wasn't really keeping track. We were out of town and enjoyed lovely hot water in Vancouver.  Thank you McLean's!
1.2.12--No hot water, hit reset button, warm water enough for showers.
1.3.12--No hot water, Matt replaces elements in original water heater, warm water enough for showers.
1.4.12--No hot water, hit reset button, no warm water, not even enough for showers...:(
Note: Christina develops severe head cold.
1.5.12--No hot water, hit reset button, no hot water.  Note: Christina very sick.
1.6.12--No hot water, hit reset button, no hot water.  Note: Christina very sick.  Bathing with boiled water.

1.7.12--No hot water, hit reset button, no hot water.  Shopping for Hot Water Heater 9am-4pm-4 destinations, 5 stops, 3 purchases, 2 returns, many $ later...return home with new water heater and Matt installs...fill up with water, turn electricity on, wait many hours for water to heat...NO HOT WATER!

1.8.12--No hot water.  Wonderful neighbor, who is a miracle worker, inserts new wire nuts.  And, HOT WATER RETURNS! Not: Christina still sick but hopeful that hot steam will help!

The joys of home ownership!

Thanks for reading.

New Year's Eve and the Konrad Wedding...

Matt's cousin on his dad's side, Rhys Konrad married the beautiful Melissa on NYE 2011.  It was a lovely evening of meeting and visiting with family and watching many drunk people dance and play...  And, it was the first time I have ever seen my husband dressed up!  See, when we got married, we had a pretty casual wedding and we made a deal.  He said I could have WHATEVER I wanted in regards to colors, décor, etc. as long as he didn't have to wear a tux.  I was going for the casual feel so I didn't mind that compromise.  Thus, the most dressed up I have ever seen Matt was khakis and a button up shirt.  Never a dress pant nor a tie.  He looked so handsome and he even admitted that he liked it...Opera or Theater may be in my future!?!?!

(This is his cousin, Robert, and his brother, Adam)

 Cousin Rhys and his new wife, Melissa, the NEW Mr. and Mrs. Konrad!

It might be the longest wedding reception and I was thankful that big purses are in these days because I brought back-up shoes.  Knowing how my feet like or don't like high-heels rather, my $8 silver slippers came in handy indeed! 

Many blessings in 2012 everyone! 

Happiness is...

...a giant Rocky Rococo pizza with mom in Downtown Spokane! 

Thanks mom!