House progress

We've been our house for 2 months now and though our "to-do" list is still much longer than our "done" list, we've made some good progress in the living room, dining room, and extra bedrooms. The biggest change we made was refinishing our hardwood floors. We had hoped to paint right away too, but alas time has gotten away from us and we have yet to break out a brush. We'll get there eventually.

For now here are some progress pictures of 4 rooms in our place:

Living Room Before


Living Room Progress (still to-do: paint, hang pictures)



(curtains, friendship balls hanging in the living room, and extra/accent chairs in the dining room)

Dining Room Before


Dining Room Progress (still to-do: paint, hang pictures and clock)




Guest Bed/Laundry Before


Guest Bed/Laundry Progress (still to-do: paint, buy bed frame)




Front Bed Before


Front Bed Progress (still do-do: paint, hang pictures, get headboards for the beds, get a dresser)






Any suggestions for paint colors? We already bought gray for the main floor, but now are thinking that we might just paint the one "accent wall" (currently peach) to match the rest of the walls (taupe). What about the bedrooms?

Gardening

One week until my one-month-iversary with my garden! And things are actually growing!


Green pepper


Cucumber


Zucchini Squash



This is a huge accomplishment for me already. Especially since I went away for 10 days to visit my parents and didn't quite know what to expect when I came home. When I left there was lots of rain in the forecast, so when my parents asked me who was watering my garden I answered, "The sky."

The sky was not faithful to its promises, however. Or maybe the weather-person needs a new job. In any case, a friend was kind enough to water for me after 4 dry days and then it finally did rain.

When I got home the plants were all growing nicely in their designated rows, but some friends I did not recognize came to visit. So today I weeded my garden for the first time. Or I hope I weeded, at least, and not "vegetabled." I don't really know what a weed looks like versus what a vegetable plant looks like , so I just played a nice game of "guess which one of these doesn't belong??" with myself and pulled a bunch of crap out of there. We'll see in a few weeks whether I pulled the right things!

So far I can say one thing about my garden: I've learned a lot! Which is a nice way of saying I've made a lot of mistakes and hope to not repeat them next year. My parents are already doubting that I'll even have a vegetable garden next year. Those doubters (hi dad!). We'll see.

In any case, I already know my garden is way to big for how many plants I have. Next year: smaller garden. I'm also contemplating doing a raised square foot garden next year instead of a regular in-the-ground one. I *almost* did one of those this year, but some more experienced gardeners told me not to invest the money building one of those (lumber, soil, etc) until I knew whether I really liked gardening. Some of my friends have their square-foot gardens on facebook and I LOVE them. So lush and attractive. Since I planted right in the ground on a slope (only part of the yard that gets full sun), mine's a bit (okay a lot) of a crooked eyesore right now.



Don't tell it I said this, but I wince I little when I look at it. Next year will be prettier.

I'm also contemplating just going with container gardening next year. I had a few plants leftover (back when I thought my garden was "full"- yea right. Who wrote the spacing requirements on my seed packets??), so I planted them in some extra pots I had around. Look how pretty.



I *think* these are tomatoes. But I'm not entirely sure.

And my indoor herb pot looks pretty great too. Although in hindsight I wish I would have done one for cilantro and one for basil; this one has both and the cilantro is over-powering the basil. And although I love cilantro, I was more excited about the basil. I might just have to get another one of these pots and dedicate it to basil alone.



Basil in salad, basil on a sandwich, basil with goat cheese (on pizza?), basil in scrambled eggs. Mmmmmm. What else can I put basil on? ;)

Where I come from

I come from a family of five in a beautiful little city in the wonderful country of Canada. And I'm lucky that where I come from is only a six hour drive from where I am.

Which means that I get to visit fairly often. And I get to stay a long time when John goes out of town. Like this week: John is in India with some friends from church and I am in Ontario, visiting family and friends. (Am I allowed to say that we're an international couple this week?)

The best part of coming back to where I'm from is remembering the sweet routines, the daily traditions, that make our family what it is.

Like Saturday morning garage sale-ing (sailing?). Which as a child I was dragged to, hoping and praying there would be some good toys at the next one, and then staying in the van reading a library book when there weren't. And which, as a teenager, I stayed and bed and slept right through, only to be awoken by my mom barging in my room exclaiming, "Jillian! Look what I got for two bucks!" "Hmmmpfh. Looksgoodmom. *yawn.*"

Now that I'm all grown up I still hate waking up early, but I have a new found respect for anything that only costs two bucks. So I drug myself out of bed and joined my parents, brother and his girlfriend, on a garage sale hunt through the rain.





I got some pretty good deals, although I admit I mostly showed stuff to my mom and let her do the bartering (she's a pro. her moto is "Cut the price in half and go from there." Usually she gets it for her half-price offer too.)




I got this old trunk for only $7!


If I didn't have to lug it all the way back to Michigan I might have snatched this cute little set right up. I'm now thinking about what furniture in my own place I could paint this color!


My mom bartered this painting down to $5 for me! I everything about it. My dad then tried to sell it at the next yard sale when another lady fell in love with it like I did. I had to turn down her pleas. Sorry lady- this one's coming home with me!

Sunday means church, then cake and coffee, then lunch. Dessert before lunch might seem backwards, but that's how we roll. On Sundays at least.



In the summer we eat outside, moving our plastic adirondack around the yard, following the shade. And food always gets served on fancy crystal trays. Just because it's Sunday.







Sunday afternoons are for lazing around, taking naps, watching golf on TV (if you're my dad), fixing up old bikes that your mom found in the trash so you can re-sell them online (if you're my brother), and taking lots of pictures with your camera, wondering when you're going to "get good" at it (if you're me), and just generally being super cute (if you're Hugo).








Family traditions = good for the soul.