...to http://ellenjane.typepad.com/adventures_in_domesticity.
Sorry for the unwieldy URL, and for the weird formatting here. Hopefully everything will be pretty enough at the new place to make you forget about the address as soon as you put it in your favorites and/or update your links.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Christmas with Craig and Ellen
There's nothing like Christmas to make your house feel like a home. Especially if your house is small, so the Christmas tree seems to fill up all available space, winding around corners and surprising you in the shower.
I still love it, though, and wish I could show it off with better photography skills. Our tree is pre-lit with white lights, to which we add bubble lights and little red paper balls that make the white lights look red and warm. I've also been adding all the pictures that we receive in Christmas cards to the tree. I really like that, and will probably do it again. And to make it truly our tree, it's topped with a Minnesota Twins hat.
The house lit up at night. Note the appalling lack of snow. I wish we'd get just a little bit, so the boxwoods on the right didn't look so ghostly covered in their shrub protectors for winter.
A cautionary tale - beware the dangers of an unused room. It will be taken over by junk. The fact that it is junk of a holiday nature doesn't make it any better.
It's the baking that really ushers in the holiday season for me, though. It just doesn't feel like Christmas until I've slaved in front of the oven for a full weekend, stepping on Phoebe an average of 17 times per day. I don't know what this says about my character, other than the fact that I like cookies, and I like sharing them even more. Indeed, I have to share them, otherwise Craig would have to roll me into January.
Some of the fruits of my labor - gift baskets for co-workers.
So, Merry Christmas. Feel free come on over, have some cookies, and hang out with us. Help remind us that no matter how long our renovation list is, our home is still a home as long as it's cozy and welcoming and personal. Just don't expect Craig to share his prime spot on the couch.
I still love it, though, and wish I could show it off with better photography skills. Our tree is pre-lit with white lights, to which we add bubble lights and little red paper balls that make the white lights look red and warm. I've also been adding all the pictures that we receive in Christmas cards to the tree. I really like that, and will probably do it again. And to make it truly our tree, it's topped with a Minnesota Twins hat.
The house lit up at night. Note the appalling lack of snow. I wish we'd get just a little bit, so the boxwoods on the right didn't look so ghostly covered in their shrub protectors for winter.
A cautionary tale - beware the dangers of an unused room. It will be taken over by junk. The fact that it is junk of a holiday nature doesn't make it any better.
It's the baking that really ushers in the holiday season for me, though. It just doesn't feel like Christmas until I've slaved in front of the oven for a full weekend, stepping on Phoebe an average of 17 times per day. I don't know what this says about my character, other than the fact that I like cookies, and I like sharing them even more. Indeed, I have to share them, otherwise Craig would have to roll me into January.
Some of the fruits of my labor - gift baskets for co-workers.
So, Merry Christmas. Feel free come on over, have some cookies, and hang out with us. Help remind us that no matter how long our renovation list is, our home is still a home as long as it's cozy and welcoming and personal. Just don't expect Craig to share his prime spot on the couch.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
The Basement Chronicles, Part the Second
I feel like the first big step of the basement work is over with. With the help of Carl and Tenley's truck (thanks again, guys!) we picked the panels up from Menards on Friday night and installed them on Saturday. The installation went quite smoothly - it was just measuring, sawing, and fitting the panels together. Manual labor with very little high-level thought.
Craig lays down the first panel:
About a third of the way through. You can see what the bottom of the panels look like to Craig's right. We thought we'd have way too many, but ended up with only two panels left over. The panels have a tongue on two sides and a groove on the other two, so they could really only go in one direction, resulting in a lot of unusable trimmed pieces.
Ellen cleans up sawdust. The combination of the treated plywood and the vinyl on the bottom made for very slippery dust. Please note that I am leaning over, and do not always look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
All finished. I may just be imagining things, but it felt like having the panels on the floor took a bit of the chill off. Insulation will only improve matters.
In other news, Christmas season is crazy, work is a little slow, and I had my wallet stolen out of my office yesterday. Grrr.
In conclusion, here is a cute picture of Phoebe for no reason at all:
Craig lays down the first panel:
About a third of the way through. You can see what the bottom of the panels look like to Craig's right. We thought we'd have way too many, but ended up with only two panels left over. The panels have a tongue on two sides and a groove on the other two, so they could really only go in one direction, resulting in a lot of unusable trimmed pieces.
Ellen cleans up sawdust. The combination of the treated plywood and the vinyl on the bottom made for very slippery dust. Please note that I am leaning over, and do not always look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
All finished. I may just be imagining things, but it felt like having the panels on the floor took a bit of the chill off. Insulation will only improve matters.
In other news, Christmas season is crazy, work is a little slow, and I had my wallet stolen out of my office yesterday. Grrr.
In conclusion, here is a cute picture of Phoebe for no reason at all:
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