All Hallows Eve

A pictorial review of work's Halloween Costume Contest:

Mark was a gumball machine

Eric came as Edward Scissor-hands

Cassandra was Gilly from SNL and placed 3rd

Gilbert was Mitt Zombie, complete with his binder of Undead Women

Doreen was Honey Boo-Boo Badger and placed 2cd

We had a Baby Ladybug visitor too! 

I was Martha Stewart, complete with designer cupcakes

Taylor was an Aztec Mummy, complete with flashing eyes in the headdress. 

Taylor won 1st place

A close-up of the headdress that he carved, assembled and  lighted!

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Party!

This weekend Haley came up to visit from Boston and we all went to a Halloween Party at our friends Billy & Ashley's home.
Here are pics from baking, frosting and costumes!

hard to tell from this picture, but the cake batter is orange!

my new bundt pan worked like a charm!

the color mixer = Haley!

fun Halloween Tray

wax paper around the edges, just under the sides of the cake in order to keep the tray clean.
Thanks to Haley for the tip!!

frosting the bottom layer - LOVE her 'Happy Halloween' tee-shirt!

layer 1 all frosted

layer 2 plus frosting and 'stem'
A note for next time: I will cut the bottoms off the 2 bundt cakes so its more of a circle shape
 and less like a 2 layer cake look.  

Where's Waldo?

Minnie Mouse!!
ps - her shoes are covered in black sparkles!!!

Needless to say we all had a great time :-)

A Quiet Week

Matt was on vacation this week from work and I did give him a honey-do list. Reese helped him out as he did odd jobs around the house and yard :)

Covered the wood pile for the winter, was home for the electrician, had some car repairs done on his civic, called comcast and amex to let them know we aren't happy, etc. I promise it wasn't too long a list and he did get to sleep and relax too!!

Hidden Costs

Earlier this month, we had our vents and geothermal system cleaned. I had a coupon and we'd never had it done in the 2 plus years we've owned the house, so I thought it was about time.

It turned out to be pricier than we'd hoped for as they found mold under the fan in the geothermal system that had blown it up into the first floor vents. Luckily, it hadn't reached the second floor yet, but regardless we had them treat the entire system as breathing in mold while sleeping is never a good thing!

I will say that after the cleaning, the whole house not only smells fresher and cleaner, but the system doesn't run nearly as long to heat/cool which means it's not working as hard, ie a lower utility bill! Woot!

Yesterday, we had an electrician come in and install a dimmer switch for the dining room chandelier and flip around a few switches in the house so they make logical sense! No more thinking what would be logical and then choosing the other switch to turn on the light you want - now you just walk into the room and turn on the first switch and bingo! Light!

Of course, the pictures aren't exciting - who really wants to see pictures of vents and light switches?? - these are just some of the hidden costs of home ownership that neither one of us had really thought about (first time home owners!!). Of course, when you stop and think, we clean the house every week, so why wouldn't you clean your vents and heating/cooling system too? duh.
So, while it's nice to have the jobs done, (and I did stand there playing with the dimmer switch for the dining room for a while!) it's not nearly as exciting as a paint job, new furniture or decor for the upcoming holidays.
Yay house!

Crock Pot Pulled Pork

I found this recipe on Pinterest originally, but I put my own twist on it.

Ingredients:
thawed or room temp side of pork 4pds
Baby Ray's BBQ sauce 12oz bottle

Timeline:
1 day on low setting

I pulled out the crock pot, washed it (man, my basement gets dusty!), plugged it in and went to the freezer. Now the recipe states to start with a thawed side of pork, but I put it in there frozen (roughly 8pds) and poured the entire 12 oz bottle of BBQ sauce over the pork. My crock pot gets really hot, so instead of putting in on low, I kept it on keep warm, put the top on and walked away.

About 4 hours later I went back and while the pork was mostly thawed, I didn't like the lack of coverage by the BBQ sauce. I s'pose if you had a smaller crock pot, it would have covered the pork better - but I don't - so I put another 8oz (roughly) BBQ sauce and was standing there looking at it when Matt spoke up and said he thought it needed a little extra something. We didn't have any coke, which was the first thing I though of, so I put in a can of Dr Pepper and covered it again.

I let it go overnight and in the morning (overall cook time was 24hrs) it easily pulled apart and shredded. I used a dinner fork and a serving fork to shred the meant and once I made sure everything was all mixed in with the sauce, I took it off the heat.

I will say that it made enough for Matt and I to have several meals as well as give some to my parents who enjoyed theirs over mashed potatoes! Matt and I ate ours with corn or green beans and potato salad or a veggie salad. Re-heating it was easy to do and it lasted well in the fridge!

Note: not sure if I would keep the Dr Pepper in there - might try it again with coke to see if I like the flavor better. It will absolutely be repeated though as it was SUPER easy and tasty!!

Little Touch-Ups!

This weekend I tried to tie up some loose ends - project wise in the house. Unfortunately, since I also had a phone issue, I have no pictures of the paint touch-ups I did in both the master and the guest bathrooms. But, also knowing how hard the tinted shades are to photograph, maybe that's a good thing.

The master bath had those 2 spots where the shower curtain had pulled the paint off straight down to the green board. I had sealed it with Kilz, left over from the garage stairs project and then put 2 coats of matching paint right on over.

In the guest bath, I filled in about 6 picture nail holes and painted over the spackle in preparation to hang a new, smaller and different sized painting. I also did the usual grocery shopping, library run, laundry, etc.

I am currently trying out another crock pot recipe which I will share with you once I know if it's worth sharing! :-) I'm a bit behind on my food posts.....

I also tried the infamous Trader Joe's 2 buck chuck - which is really more like $4, but still! Not bad for a dinner wine!

The trick-or-treat bowl is still empty and after a conversation with my neighbors this weekend, it might stay that way since we won't be getting any trick-or-treaters this year. We haven't gotten any since we moved in - I'm sure it's because most people drive right by us at 50mph!

Friday = Movie Night!

Ask me when the last time I went to the movies and I would have to say The Avengers. ie, we don't go that often. why? it's expensive! and, honestly? most movies do not need to be seen on the big screen. They aren't epic or made for a big screen viewing. Most can easily be enjoyed on a regular sized screen at home. So we wait and see them on Netflix. All that being said, what happens if I find a coupon for a buy 1 ticket, get 1 free? we go to the movies! :-)

We saw Hotel Transylvania - thank you H for making me watch the trailer! - which was total fun and hilarious from beginning to end.

I loved the backgrounds

Hotel Transylvania characters

It doesn't need to be seen on the big screen. But if you have a coupon (we saw this movie for a total of $6!), I recommend it :-)

It only took two years...

... to get all the roller shades up in the windows. At first when I thought about that timeline I was upset that it took so long. BUT, when I remember that we started with roman shades that didn't work right and had to be taken down and returned after living with them for 4 months, then a new solution found and ordered (not to mention these last two roller shades I ordered 9 months ago but the salesperson never actually ordered them - so they had to be ordered (for real) 3 months ago - two years doesn't really seem all that long! And one thing I have learned with having a house, is that things ALWAYS take longer than you want them to!!

roller shade in my study

roller shade in dining room window

Now all the first floor windows match! 

WHEW! Light control on the first floor is huge in the afternoon and these shades come in SUPER handy!

Holy Earthquake!

Last night at around 7.15pm, New England was hit with an earthquake. At first they said it was a 4.5 or 4.6 but it has been downgraded to a 4.2 and the epicenter was moved to Hollis, ME. New England hasn't had an earthquake of that magnitude in decades! Needless to say, Reese and I were a bit freaked out! But all is well - as is family! WHEW!

Chair Update

PSSSTT!
 UPDATE!
here are pics of the four finished chairs done and back at the house:

aren't they puur-ty? :-) 

Dining Room Chairs Recovered

PART 1:
A story in pictures of the saga that started many moons ago:

the perfect fabric found in Baltimore that I didn't buy but should have.

trying to find something similar to what I found in Baltimore. 

no dice. While it matched the house ok - fabric would not have held up.

edge of chair while measuring.

Totally NOT making it up that they need to be re-done! They are worn out!

with a seat

without a seat. painters tape (so as not to mark the chairs) hold a ziplock bag with each chairs screws so the same screws go back into the same chair and seat once recovered.

I labeled the bottom of each seat.

These dining chairs also needed new seat covers, so they will be done in the same matching fabric to try and bring them all together instead of showing how we use 2 sets of chairs!

When I filled them over - SURPRISE!! They were originally caned seats, not upholstered!

Original paper sticker: PAINE Furniture Company, Boston MA

without it's seat

end chair without it's seat

close-up of seat on end chair

The holes for the cane are in great shape! Which means, we could have them re-done!!
Not happening this time around, but maybe next time!

Matt making a funny face behind the stack of seats that will go to RI so I have help re-doing them

Chairs lining the walls with Reese on the floor :-)

Seats cleaned, all loose tacks redone and ready for extra cushioning and new cover!

We got these four done. Then the staple gun broke.

To be continued.........