From 78 to 30

Last weekend was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It was in the high 70's and I had the windows open all weekend long. I somewhat regretted not having screen doors (I took the olds ones off when I bought the house cause they were UGLY and haven't got new ones on yet). Then in the middle of the week the temp started dropping, I enjoyed last weekends weather much better.

I've been painting in the kitchen/dining room all day - I'll share pictures of what I've been up to either later today or tomorrow. Mom bought me a new gadget today and brought it over. A red tea infuser to match my red themed kitchen, isn't it cute!
Earlier today the sky was rumbling with thunderstorms (didn't rain much just made a lot of noise). A little after noon this is what I walked out to when I headed out to feed the cat my lunch leftovers......a lovely sleet/snow mixture. Mother nature is a little confused, she must have forgot that it's spring now.
After going out in the snow/sleet mix I decided to carry in a several armloads of wood and get a fire going, put on a pot of tea and rest for a few minutes.
My new tea infuser made a wonderful cup of tea - actually it made three cups before I got back to doing something. I was just so cozy with my blueberry vanilla tea sitting in front of the fire typing out this post that I didn't want to get back to physical labor.

While I should be getting going again on painting, it'll have to have to wait until tomorrow. A friend just called and I now have dinner plans with several high school friends. We're heading to a Japenese bar & grill (we'll sit at the grill enjoying old friendships while they cook our dinner for us), should be fun and my home improvement projects will be waiting here for me tomorrow - they always are.

I'm BACK!

Hello Maude, it's me again! I know I've been a terrible blogger recently, I just been so busy.....this is going to be a long post. I'll get pictures up soon of my progress and a recap of sports I've been shooting.

After Christmas it felt like I was at a basketball game 3-4 times a week, wait a minute I WAS at basketball games 3-4 times a week. I made custom storyboards in different sizes for each of the 8th grade boys that their parents presented them on the last home game. I also made an album for the coach that the boys presented to him that same night. Once junior high ball ended I was at the high school games and then volleyball began. Volleyball ended last night, track practice started yesterday with the first meet in 2 weeks - it never ends!

One weekend toward the end of basketball I had a 3 hour session with the junior high cheerleaders, it was a lot of fun. The junior high boys won regional and competed in state (didn't place but we're still proud of them) and the junior high cheerleaders also competed at their state (6th place but deserved 2nd at the very least in my opinion). I had a fun weekend in Springfield watching the cheerleaders, reliving high school memories.

I was hired by a couple other schools to shoot some of their sporting events - that's exciting! I didn't intend to become a sports photographer but always loved participating and attending sporting events of all types plus I understand the rules and flow of the events for the most part which I think is necessary to capture good sports pictures.

In addition I've done several newborns, toddlers and a few family sessions. I've also shot 2 birthday parties (80 & 90 year old folks) with extended family group pic's. So that's what I've been up to the last 2-3 months.......sports and pictures.

On the house renovation:

I'm having a love/hate relationship with red paint. I can't get it on without showing brush strokes and I've painted many a room, inexperience isn't the issue. I purchased an additive a few days ago on a friends recommendation that's suppose to reduce/eliminate brush strokes from showing. Repainting again this weekend and will let you know.

I'm 75% done with my kitchen/dining room ceiling! WooHoo!! I only restarted it 5 times, Sunday I tore half of what I had done down and kept going until I was done with that part of it (my neck and shoulders weren't happy with me Monday morning). Tonight I'm going to buy the cabinets & supplies necessary to build my kitchen island. Tomorrow Michael is coming over to move my light (it's about a foot off from being centered over the island which will bug the heck out of me if I don't get moved). Once he moves the light I can do the last step of the ceiling and it will be DONE.

I'm also purchasing the crown molding tonight. Hope to find time this weekend to at least get it painted and maybe hung next week if I get the red paint to cooperate.

Once the ceiling & walls are done and the island is semi built, I can finally lay my kitchen floor. Am I ever ready to have an actual floor and not a wood sub-floor. The only major thing remaining in the kitchen/dining room is the deck door (it's a window right now). I still have to find the one I want at a price I'm willing to pay. It'll be a May/June project.

I still need to remove the bottom cabinet doors (again), sand them this time and repaint them. I also need to paint the shadow box area by the ceiling - I'll have to show you a picture to explain it. I think I've narrowed down my fabric for curtains.

Hopefully by Easter I can start to decorate this area - hopefully.
I think that's enough of a 'catching-up' post for now.

Reunited with a past love....

I hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year's Eve! I enjoyed my little Christmas vacation/break from work. At the start of my vacation I had a few photo sessions and a lot of picture edits to get done and all the hoopla with Christmas activities. But for the last couple of days I'll have to admit I've been pretty darn lazy. I've had plenty I should have been doing, I just couldn't get motivated to do it. Now I have to return to work tomorrow - not looking forward to that in the least. In fact, I've come to the conclusion I'd make a pretty good house wife! If you know a good guy looking for one let me know!! LOL

Reunited.....

If you've been out late in Carbondale in the past 30 years or so you'll know who Winston is, one of the best parts of going out on the strip in Carbondale was Winston's bagels. You'd smell them toasting on an open fire the minute you walked outside.

I always ordered mine with cream cheese, cinnamon, bacon and apple slices. Here recently I found bagel tops (basically it takes all the thickness out of the middle which just gives you the top and bottom of the bagel)and decided to make my own Winston bagels at home. I toast mine in a toaster but the end result is still pretty darn good. In fact they've become a recent obsession of mine....

Back to work tomorrow. Not only is it the beginning of the month, but also the beginning of our fiscal year which means I'll be working, working, working. To top the week off, Johnathon has 3 ballgames this week. Joy!

I hope everyone has a great start to the New Year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Recent picture I took of my cousin's daughter - Savannah

The fire is cracking in the fireplace, the snow is gently falling outside, the presents are wrapped, the cookies are baked and I just boiled the potatoes for Grandma's potato salad.

We're going to have a WHITE CHRISTMAS this year!!

My nieces and nephews - Johnathon, Brittany, Katelyn & Matthew

Well, I need to cut up the rest of the potato salad ingredients and make a cheese ball and then carry everything out in the snow. Shurtz's are gathering at mom & dad's tonight.

I hope everyone in blogland has a Very Merry Christmas!

Thankful for Friends

"We wish you a Merry Christmas" is the song they sang at my back door Saturday night. Two of my grade school friends stopped by with a few house warming gifts and to visit for a while.

I hung the new pot holders on the cabinet already. Love SNOWMEN!
They checked out the progress on the house, we told a few stories and had a few laughs. I didn't think to get the camera out while they were here, not that they'd have let me take their picture anyway.


They also gave me this cute t-shirt! I'm getting ready to put the flannel snowmen sheets in the washer and get them on the bed.
Thanks Deb and Sherry - hope you both have a very Merry Christmas!

Snow, Fireplace and Christmas Decorations

Well it doesn't show signs of stoppin'
and I brought some corn for poppin'
and since we've no place to go (tadada)
Let it Snow
Let it Snow
LET IT SNOW

Sunday morning here in SoIL and we finally have our first SNOW! I love the snow!
I really need to be at work today since I have a board meeting tomorrow in which I was given the shortest amount of time possible to get the financials done and then on top of it have to forecast the rest of the year to determine bonus checks. But instead I think I'll sit at home in front of my fireplace and enjoy the scenery. Big thanks to Dad for getting firewood out of the woods out back and starting a fire yesterday while I was at a photo session.

My thermostat is set on 60 and didn't kick on until around 6:30 this morning. Of course I didn't carry wood in last night and had to treck out in the snow early this morning to keep the fire going - well worth it though, I love the feel and smell of wood burning.

Oh forgot to mention, I am officially living in my house now!!

Moved in the day my first house guests arrived (day before Thanksgiving), well truth be told I had to pack an overnight bag with clothes in it after my house guests were here because I only had enough moved for it to be liveable (didn't get around to clothes) and it rained that entire week.

My first Christmas tree.

I'm not ready to show you pictures yet as NO room in my house is done. I've been super duper busy this fall with pictures and have worked 60 hours plus the last two weeks and expect about that many hours this week too so 'things' at the house have been put off. But on a good note, come Thursday afternoon......I'm on vacation until the new year! That vacation isn't going to be a relaxing time but rather a "I'm getting stuff done at the house" vacation. I"ll relax some, but I'm ready to get a few projects marked off as complete. I won't really be able to relax until I get things done.

On the agenda for Christmas break:
*build kitchen island
*faux tin tile ceiling in kitchen
*molding on kitchen shadow boxes
*lay flooring in kitchen
*seal basement floor
*paint basement walls
*maybe build a few shelves in basement
*do a funky treatment on north wall in living room (knocking it out in spring so as of right now it's totally unfinished and ugly - have an idea on cheap treatment to mask look until remodel)
*hang blinds and window treatments in bedrooms and kitchen
*fix paint on kitchen cabinet doors
*hopefully get my handy-men to finish the tile in my bathroom, run electrical hookups to rest of outlets and move my satelitte connection
*re-arrange living room

*lay flooring in closet
*get bed set-up and bedroom put together (matress is on the floor right now), the room is painted but that's about all I can say about it
*maybe if I have time and weather permits, get crown molding installed in two bathrooms

I think that sounds like enough work for a vacation. Here are a few of my Christmas ornaments......well, it's time for me to design a few photo albums and then start working on company financials spreadsheets so I don't have to go into work at 3am tomorrow morning to get them done in time!

Quick Update....

Just a quick post to let you'll know where things are.....the drywall is getting finished this weekend!!! I can't explain how excited I am - this means that next week I can start to:

Clean, clean, CLEAN
Prime and Paint - the entire house
Install my fridge, microwave and stove
Apply the back splash in the kitchen
Get all the light fixtures installed
Tile the shower in both bathrooms
Install the stool and sink cabinets in both bathrooms
Install the kitchen/dining room ceiling - excited about this can't wait to share pics
Clean, clean, CLEAN some more
Wash all my dishes and put them in the cabinets
Remove the last of the carpeting and try to clean the hard wood (sanding it in the spring) - any suggests to remove carpet/padding marks without sanding are appreciated
Clean out the fireplace and haul a couple loads of wood - starting to get cool here
and then start MOVING IN!!

Time left before my first house guest arrives: 20 days
In that time I also have to get 5 more sessions already shot edited (one of which is a wedding with LOTS of pictures), attend and take a few pic's of a friends wedding next week, 7 photo sessions to shoot(which of course all need to be edited for possible Christmas gifts) and I'm decorating a wedding Nov 20th with fresh flower arrangements- only 40 tables, no biggie! Plus basketball has begun so I 'have' to attempt to attend as many games as possible every Tuesday and Thursday night.

This post isn't meant as a complaint in any way, shape or form - I'm LOVING life!