Tuesday, May 31, 2011

busting open basement windows

The other day I left the house in a frenzy as a friend was picking me up and I woke up late. Fast forward a couple hours and the lightbulb above my head went off, "I forgot my keys on the table at home!?" I checked my purse and sure enough, no keys. I called Aaron in a panic and was told to get dropped off and check all the windows and doors in case they were left open (I never leave windows and doors open as I am paranoid about robbers).

I got dropped off (did I mention it was pouring rain?) and proceeded to start checking all the main level openings into our home. Nothing was open and I was getting soggy and grumpy. Aaron had informed me when I called him that I NEEDED to get inside as I had stuff to do! See, we had company coming for the weekend in two days and well, you know what we do for company. So I had a couple more coats of paint to put on a wall, another room to prime, drywall dust to sweep up, papers to organize, a house to clean and tidy, laundry to do..... Yah.

So I checked the upstairs window (that Aaron put a chair through a couple of months ago so it was already busted). I thought it was latched good and hard and it was scary up there waaay above the ground. I seriously thought my ladder was going to come crashing down and that I would meet my untimely end. So down the ladder I went to inspect the basement windows.

SCORE!!!! A lose pane of plexiglass (our house is ghetto)! I gleefully rip off the metal screen into tiny little pieces (there are holes in it anyway) and re-inspect the pane. Yup, very, very lose. "BAM", my foot enters the house. "BAM", again and again until our poor little window is a hole. My heart swells with pride, only there is a cloud on the horizon, how on earth am I going to fit in the hole?! This basement window has a slat down the middle of it making it about half the size of a normal one and most definitely smaller than my hips. I know that Aaron will not be please if I bust the frame too so I figure I have nothing to lose by trying. I drop down to the muddy ground and shove my legs into the house wiggling myself till my hips are pried between the edges of the frame. I carefully place my sweatshirt covered forearms on the glass shard covered sill (from the last break window pane) and tilt my loser body at a 45 degree angle. My hips are now inside the house, I furiously kick my legs attempting to determine what is below me in the dark, unknown depths. I grip the sill with my finger tips as I lower myself downwards. My adrenaline is pumping and my heart is beating. This is the most thrilling thing I have done since riding the roller coaster at tinker town when I was 12. My tippy toes scrape concrete and I let go of the sill....

Amazingly enough there were no boards with nails poking out right below me, there was no unknown hole, there were no tools to cause me to lurch and fall flat on my back knocking me out, I was alive!!! I ran exuberantly up the stairs and unlocked my front door.

I am woman, hear me roar.

Then Aaron came home. He did not congratulate me on my amazing entrance into our locked house! Instead I was lectured on not:
1. trying all the basement windows for one with that would open with no breakage
2. going through the open, broken upstairs window (oops)
3. moving the ladder where I left it leaning up against the house under the aforementioned window
4. covering the window I broke (bugs/rodents/animals)
5. phoning him for advice before I broke the window
6. calling my father-in-law who can get into a house in 5 minutes with a credit card.

My Aaron, I promise I will never break into my house again (unless it is absolutely necessary).

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

what laying slate does to a marriage

Aaron laid our kitchen tile last night and guess what's happening on June 2? OUR KITCHEN CABINETS ARE ARRIVING!!!!!!

I am over the moon excited. I can organize my food stuff. Right now it's all piled on 4 plastic shelving units. I have to rewash items before using them because the dust/sanding/sawdust is drawn to that little corner in piles. I've given up on trying to maintain cleanliness and orderliness. Frustrating. But this too shall pass. It's funny though- as frustrating as it has been I don't think I'll ever look back at this phase of our lives and be horrified. It's been so special and the no kitchen thing is kinda part of the charm. We've spent our first year working on something big together and the sense of accomplishment and togetherness is... special.

Can you tell our one year anniversary is coming up:P:P haha:) May 22:) Time has flown.

Anyway- sap is done.

Aaron left for work one day and told me to take off the hardwood in the kitchen. End of directive. "DUHHHHHHHHHH, howd I do dat?" says I. After being shown (abruptly and efficiently) I proceeded to not so efficiently do what I was shown. I kinda liked it. Reminded me of punching and kicking a bag. Have a mentioned that I now have biceps? Yup. Who'd a thunk. So floor was removed. Floor was sent to in-law's to be burned three weeks before they have a wedding where the burning pile is. Aaron laid cement board. I nailed it down. Apparently I hammer like Aaron hammered when he was 5. I was impressed that I was that good. I did get better (apparently). Two nights ago we figured how we'd be laying it out (interpretation: Aaron told me how he wanted it and then I argued with him:P) Then last night *drum roll* Aaron laid the tile with me digging through boxes and boxes of the stuff looking for just the perfect colours. There was a ton more purple in those boxes that expected. Ha- hello purple kitchen floor! The end.



Wednesday, May 11, 2011

homemade skirt for ME!

I had a mid calf length white skirt with gold beads along the waistband that I had bought on sale at superstore a loooong while ago. Yes, beads. I decided the beads had to go as I'm not really a bead kinda person ya know?! It took me hours to take them all off and they had stained the white fabric black wherever the beads had touched the fabric. So time to remake the skirt. I had a pattern that I wanted to try out so I took apart the skirt and saved the zipper and hook thingy and recut it. TADA! And then the cut out pieces sat on our bedroom chair for about a month as my sewing things are in disarray. Like massive disarray. Yesterday I figured it was time to bring orderliness to the sewing stuff so I organized while listening to an audio book of grace livingston hill (lame, I know). Then I went to work sewing the pieces together. WOOT a new skirt!!!!! (I also had to tear apart all my newly organized stuff looking for things like a very specific piece of interfacing that I couldn't remember where I had put. So now I need to reorganize everything. Poor Aaron. He comes home and the living room is covered from head to toe in sewing junk!)

Also. I did NOT miss my calling as a model (or a hairdresser). BAHAHAHA:P


This is made from a Simplicity 2451 view D which I tossed the pockets, added some length and adjusted the waist larger in order for the skirt to sit lower. There's some things I'd change but it went together pretty well. AND my first zipper! It pulls a little bit to one side but I don't care enough to fix it for THE MILLIONTH TIME.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Raspberry Cream Cheese Bars

My female in-laws are all awesome bakers (hehe).

Aaron is constantly saying, "can you make *blank* like mom/my sister makes?!". Fortunately they have this handy dandy little cookbook they made with a whole wack of family recipe's so I don't need to be calling them up constantly looking for recipe's. Because that's embarrassing. So Bec had made these. They. are. amazing. Like cheesecake/cookie for those of us who have a phobia for making cheesecake because it always flops.

I baked two pans of these over the weekend for some events and had at least one person ask for the recipe. In my books that means it goes up here. See- that don't happen all that often so it gets me rather excited.


Raspberry Cream Cheese Bars

-3/4 cup butter or marg., softened
-1 cup packed brown sugar
-1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2t. baking soda
-1/2t. salt
-11 oz. cream cheese
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 eggs
-1 t. vanilla extract
-1 jar red raspberry preserves
-1/3 cup slivered almonds

1. In a bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar. Combine the oats, flour, baking soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Press 3/4 of the mixture into a greased 13x9 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes or until set and edges begin to brown.

2. Meanwhile in a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.

3. Spread cream cheese mixture over crust. Drop preserves by spoonfuls over cream cheese mixture; carefully spread evenly. Combine almonds and remaining oat mixture; sprinkle over preserves.

4. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set and edges are golden brown. Cool before cutting. Store in refrigerator.

TIPS: Of course I never do it the way it says to right! Make sure you soften the butter and cream cheese, it makes it so much more pleasant to mix. You can use any type of preserves in it. The ones Becca made she used half raspberries and half cranberries (like, for dipping turkey) and it was really good- kind of a mix of sweet and tart. I don't use the nuts because Aaron doesn't like nuts. And ta da!!! CREAM CHEESE GOODNESS!!!!