Kitchen Backsplash Project

This past weekend Brice and I decided to install a tile backsplash in the kitchen. I couldn't decide what tile to use, so I ended up posting lots of pictures of the samples on facebook to get some feedback from my friends. We ended up settling on a 1x1 glass mosaic tile with different shades of brown and a hint of a reddish tone. I liked the way the reddish tone was picked up by the cherry colored cabinets.

We got started on Saturday morning with fairly high spirits. Frustration working with the tiles quickly set in. I had suggested cutting the mats down, but Brice didn't approve initially until his dad recommended it :-) When we had to cut the tiles frustration hit an all time high for the day, we were ready to be finished and cutting these tiny tiles was a huge pain. We had glass nippers that broke immediately, an angle grinder (which we were too afriad to cut our fingers off with it), and a tile saw (which we were also afraid of cutting off our fingers). By this point the dogs were feeling pretty neglected, so while I ran to Home Depot to buy another pair of glass nippers and a couple other things Brice gave the puppies some attention. One the way home a cute tiny puppy ran out in front of my car and it was almost dark. I stopped and she came right up to me. I looked around and no one was looking for her. So I took her home with me. I brought her in and the stuff I bought then headed back out to try and find her owner. Bailey thought that she was a new toy to play with. After about 35 minutes of so, I was able to locate her home and headed back to finish tiling. After a little more frustration and another trip to home depot we had cutting the tiles down. The solution: a large sacrificial tile and really strong double stick tape. Then Brice was able to cut the tiles on the tile saw.

Sunday it was time to grout. I didn't think about how much grout we were going to have with these tiles, so grouting took longer than expected too. I suggested that after I got a portion done, that Brice should follow behind me cleaning up the grout on the tiles. He didn't think it was necessary, because he was certain he would catch me. Some how I ended up being the one who was cleaning the side of the kitchen that was done first. It was hard to get the grout off, and Brice was sitting on the other side of the kitchen breezing through his section giving me a hard time about still being in the same spot. He then admitted that I was right and that he should have followed behind me cleaning up the grout.

Surprisingly we didn't get too annoyed with each other during the project. We were just ready to have it finished. We are happy with how it turned out, but I don't know if I will be working with glass mosaic tiles again anytime soon.

Tile...you can also see that our blinds are way too long (12 slats to be exact) which we finally fixed this weekend too

Right side of the kitchen

Looking into the kitchen

Left side of the kitchen

Christmas

We has a good Christmas in Amarillo with the family. We were surprised with snow on Christmas day. We also got to meet up with some good friends, Jason and Rachel, and finally got to meet Kennedy.

Bailey with Grandma sledding on Christmas

I had a little accident on the sled and ended up in a ditch. Brice and I didn't bring proper snow gear, because it wasn't originally in forecast, but we found some awesome stuff to wear

Tractor sledding/tubing.

Everyone enjoying one of Bailey's presents

I didn't take any pictures when we met up with Jason, Rachel, and Kennedy. We got Kennedy the singing dog in the video below, Rusty was not a fan of her toy :-)

Almost Christmas

We've (read Lindsey) have been getting ready for Christmas. Lindsey insisted on putting out some Christmas lights, so she wrapped the tree. If we are still in this house next year I have plans of lining the roof :-)

The decorated tree, without any presents.

For some crazy idea I felt the need to make candies and give to the neighbors and people I work with. After dipping a pound of pretzels, a double batch of oreo truffles, peanut butter balls and 8 dozen cookies, I was ready to pull my hair out

Oreo truffles and peanut butter balls

This was the winning self portrait for the Christmas card. My new camera has a setting where I can set a timer for it to take pictures as well as having it take multiple images too. We had to try a couple times and always had it set to take ten pictures, but we were able to get a couple of good pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's been a while since I've posted anything. This year we ended up staying in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. Finnis and Penni came out and Finnis helped us rebuild the terrible sunroom addition on our house. When we bought the house it was covered with honeysuckle and we didn't know how poorly it was build. We still have to some work to do, but it is much better now. We had a non-tradtional dinner. We smoked a pork shoulder all day, and I also made a green bean casserole, party potatoes, corn casserole, and sopapilla cheesecake. The neighbor kids brought over a pumpkin pie, so I'll make one this week with the ingredients that I bought.

This is sort of a 'before' picture. We had actually already torn down quite a bit of the honeysuckle at this point
Behind all the honeysuckle. The wall wasn't sealed very well and they did a terrible job insulating it. Also, the smaller windows on the right side of the picture didn't even go through the wall, they were covered with dry wall

New window. Brice and his dad sealing up the joints. Siding is up now and we need to prime and paint as well as texture the dry wall on the interior wall

Worst Idea ever

This was quite possibly my worst idea I've had. I had seen these wreathes around and saw how to make them, so I thought I'd give it a try. Before I even started tying the fabric on the wreath form I was regretting my decision. It takes forever to cut all the little strips of fabric. Each strip is about 2 inches wide and 8 inches long...and it seems like a cut a million pieces. I only tied the fabric on the inner two wires of the form, because I was getting impatient, It still looks nice and full, If I had done all four rows I'd still be cutting fabric. Now that it is finished it looks good, but I doubt I will be making another one of these anytime soon.

Added the word Boo in the middle. I think I may eventually paint them green and figure out a better way to attach them

Final ProductMy Bow needs a lot of help, but I ran out of patience.

Dessert and Cute Animals

I made sopapilla cheesecake today. It was super easy

Ingredients:
-3 cans pillsbury butter crescent rolls
-2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (softened)
-1 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1/4 cup butter (melted)
-Cinnamon & sugar

Instructions:
Unrolled and spread 1 & 1/2 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

You could probably get by with only using two cans of crescent rolls and just spread the dough a little thinner.





And now a few cute animal pictures

Jack in a very small box

Rusty and Bailey 'killing' their bottle toy

Riley in her giant box

This is my ankle...2 weeks after it happened. The bruising goes all the way to the bottom of my foot. Now it's been 3 weeks and it is starting to look better.

Front Yard

The house next door to us is unfortunately a rental house and they drive me slightly crazy. The parents are fine, but they have kids that are around my age that are pieces of crap... The other day I came home to a ton of cigarette butts on the ground in front of my house, complements of their son. They also have a large gate with a paved area in the back yard. The son has been moving cars in and out and you can see tire tracks and the weed barrier fabric is getting shredded in their yard. The little brat was also cutting the corner and driving though our yard, so I did a little passive aggressive xeriscaping. I moved some of the rocks from the back yard to the front the make it so they can't easily cut the corner.

I bought pumpkins, but I'm still on the fence on whether I'm going to hand out candy to the little brats this year. Some stupid kid/parent stole one of my lights last year.

I saw a version of this online with stickers and loved it. For a while it seemed like people were always coming around wanting to sell us junk. I found the sign hilarious, but I don't think Brice is amused by it :-) I just printed it and stuck it in an old picture frame.

My mums I planted a few weeks ago are getting bigger. We had a windy day shortly after I planted them and I thought one of them wasn't going to survive, but they seem to be doing well.