Staycation - A Glimpse

I had to burn a week of vacation before the end of the year. So, this past week, I took a staycation. Here's a glimpse of what I did this week (most of these pictures are from my camera phone):

Zumba! My class is on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week. So, naturally I didn't skip them this week. My trusty puma's I got before my last Europe trip.

Up front is our instructor, Larissa. It's so nice for her to be on the stage as we can all see her well to follow along to the routines.

I spent a lot of time working on this door. A lot. And it's nowhere close to being finished. I'm stripping the laundry room door. This is the hallway side and as far as I can tell it had 5-6 layers of paint on it. I've almost got all the paint off this side... almost. I had to improvise a new attachment to my sander so I could get into all those tiny cracks and crevasse's. And let me tell you... GENIUS!! It's working and working very well... WAY better then doing all those tiny details by hand.

I spent a little bit of time in this ground blind. I have been trying to get a close up picture of some deer. Unfortunetly, they have been coming through too late in the day when it is too dark out already. I tell you, the habits of wildlife are going to drive me nuts... probably especially next April when I'm on safari in Kenya!

I did snag this picture of the sunset from my perch though...

I insulated the outer wall of the to-be laundry room...

Saturday we had the first snow of the season. NOT ready for it yet.... at all. I am so a wuss for the cold and blowing right now, I was much enjoying the snowless winter we were having so far.

I did a little late-for-the-season Thanksgiving decorating. We aren't having anyone over for Thanksgiving, so it's just for us now. Can't wait to break out the Xmas decorations next. I need to find a new (or a couple) tablecloth.

Also this week: lots and lots of laundry, organized the basement & finally put some of our totes down there, Chris and I worked on cleaning out the working shop, a Menards run, some scrapbooking, a few new recipies, finished destructing the to-be laundry room, new closet shelving and rods in 2 closets, River City Eatery & the fall high school musical (Singing in the Rain) with Amy, her mom, and her grandma, and chicken foot dominoes afterwards.

All in all, I'd say I had a pretty productive week!

Studio Calico's Field Guide - October 2011

Here's what I've done so far with Studio Calico's October kit, Field Guide.

That ice cream die cut came from a previous kit, I believe, but I thought it was so perfect for a LO about ice cream. It actually inspired this LO. And I finally got a chance to use my Studio Calico cow stamp. So fun!

I've been trying to document our long summer remodeling... and one of the first things we did this spring was to shingle the house. Dreadful job, but one that had to be done. So, I made sure that it will also be documented in my scrapbooking pages. I used a Heidi Swapp mask for the background and misted in a few different colors.

**Removed for Publishing

I finally did a 2 pager again! I don't often feel like I have enough pictures to warrent a 2 page spread, but I took a ton during our hike up Harney Peak this fall. I Love the pictures from this trip! LOVE! I also added in the pass for our windshield to enter Custer State Park in the bottom right corner. Topped off with some washi tape and it's perfect!



I also love that we were able to get some awesome Fab 4 pics when Anne was back in country for Jen's wedding. I went a little punch crazy on this one... but love the result. And the fact that it's on a gray patterned paper? Even better! I can't seem to get enough of gray these days (i.e. see last LO above).

For this next LO, I broke out my Crafter's Workshop template I got at a going out of business sale last year. I knew when I bought it, it would have some great creative application, but never did I think it would be this spectacular! I love how by just moving the template slightly around the page, I ended up with all this wonderful color and movement. I'm thinking I need to get my hands on a few more of these puppies!

I used a few different kits for this LO, and at the moment I'm not sure of which ones I all used here. I did however, play with my brand new Silhouette Cameo (see that awesome Mt. Rushmore diecut!) {Squeel!} . I sold my Cricut that I never use, and invested in a new Cameo instead. LOVE LOVE this thing! Love that it's based mostly on the computer. but, also Love that I can use an SD card on the go. Love that I don't have to buy whole cartridges for 1 design, and I can instead buy image by image. Still thinking about getting a subscription to the store (you get a discount on prices), but I want to see for sure how much I am actually going to use this before comitting to a whole year. I set up it's very own shelf in my scrap studio and all I have to do is plug my computer into the cameo with a usb cord and I am good to go.

Master Bedroom Project

OK, so I'm finally getting around to posting photos of our Master Bedroom makeover. This project started mid summer last year so we could move in with Grandma and Grandpa G while we fixed up our old place and got it ready for them to move into.

So the first part is what the room looked like before we started the project. Blue. Very very blue... including all the trim in the room. Please notice the matching blue radiatior in the far corner. Also notice the ONLY outlet in this room (well practically the only one upstairs at all) in the far left hand corner of this picture. I will call all the walls by the same consistent name for this whole post. Here you see the window wall and the bed wall. We inherited most of the furniture in the picture, but used most of it in the second spare bedroom. Jake was trying to be very helpful here...



Here is the other side of the room from the corner shown in the pic above. That door is to the hallway, please note there is no closet in this room. I will refer to these walls as the door wall and the closet wall (there will be a closet on that wall eventually, I promise).

And here is a close-up of the radiator. We ripped out the boiler system that was a gagillion years old (seriously, Chris always joked it came over on the Mayflower) and replaced it with a forced air system complete with a heat pump and air conditioning. Best thing ever. (Plus, we didn't have to work around them in the house anymore.) So we had a bunch of radiators to get rid of. I placed them on craigslist and they sold last fall. Also, notice in this picture and the pictures above the oak hardwood floor.


And goodbye blue paint!

And the first coat goes on. I repainted the ceiling (it hadn't been painted in ages, so it sucked up the paint) in Chalk from ACE Hardware. The far wall is the bed wall and the one to the left is the door wall. The yellow is Banana Creme, also from ACE. (It was a little bit yellower that what I was originally planning on, but I like the way the finished project turned out. That blue was a bugger to cover up, as seen through the white trim. I also painted the trim Chalk white (which took a few coats, but that blue did dissapear eventually).

Here is the window wall and the closet wall in progress. The 'dips in the ceiling', as Chris just decided they would be called, were a pain to paint a straight line agross. They are actually where the ceiling vaults through our wall... very typical of a house 121 years old.

And again... my little helper, Jake, thinking he needs to help me paint.

And here is were the finished room pictures start.

We replaced the 121 year old windows with a new custom sized one piece Jeld Wen window. So nice, and they eliminated any drafts.

The window treatments I found from Target a couple years ago. I love how graphic they are.

The curtain rods and tie backs are from Walmart, The Better Homes and Garden collection.

The ceiling fan is from Menards (a favorite place to shop, where the slogan should be 'Spend Big Money at Menards'). It's an LED lighted fan, and let me tell you, do NOT put LED lights on a dimmer. It does not work.

The cedar chest is a hand me down from Gma and Gpa G. (It's still halfway full of thier stuff). Jake loves to sleep on this... instead of 1 of the 2 dog beds in the room.

On the wall to the right of the window is a lovely picture from Stonehenge. I love it!
The empty wall to the left of the window is still looking for that perfect piece of art.

Here is the before picture of the mirror I found on Craigslist. Hidious coloring, but I saw the potential.

In progress: I painted it first with a flat black spray paint, the used a silver paint marker to highlight all the ridges.

And here it is all done on the door wall.

Remember that door? It used to be blue... and it took HOURS, upon hours (like 40 hours) to strip it down to bare wood. The plan is to eventually stain it the color of the doors in the rest of the house. We are waiting until the house it completely jacked up first so the doorway straightens itself back out and the door can be plained to fit properly. Maybe then we can also install an old crystal class doorknob as well...

The dresser is the Hemnes 8-drawer dresser from IKEA in black-brown.
The laundry basket on the right is from Pamida.

And here is a close up of the mirror.

And here is how I solved the closet problem.... A closet system from IKEA! Absolutely LOVE! It's the Pax system in black-brown with Uggdal Gray sliding glass doors. I had to go with the 59" system, as the 78" would fit everywhere except for the afore mentioned 'dips in the ceiling'. Boo... and that is why I have shoes on top of my closet (and for some strange reason Chris' old childhood train set). All this black and gray is why I knew I had to paint the walls a light light color...

My other favorite part of the room? Our bed. I fell in love the moment I saw it. It is the Young Classics Queen Bed with Storage made by Aspenhome from Hom Furniture. It's a platform bed, so we didn't have to use the 'box spring' that came with our Sleep Number bed. And, it has underbed storage with 4 cedar lined drawers.

The nightstands are the Hemnes Chest with 2 drawers from IKEA in black-brown.

The lights are from Target a few years ago.

The bedding I went with is European style. I came back with the idea and the duvet's themselves after my second trip to see Anne in Germany with Amy. It's 2 twin sized duvets, and then you change out the sheets covering them and your pillow and you get a different look for your room everytime. There are no other sheets besides the fitted sheet on the mattress. This duvet set was a wedding gift from Anne and her family, Jutta and Alu. Having the 2 twin sized duvets is such a nice thing, as we never have to fight for blankets, we each can cuddle up in our own. (Going to a hotel now is a completely different story...)

Another view of of the Closet side of the room. Have I said how much I LOVE my closet. Yep, i do!

Here is one of the drawers under our bed opened up. Cedar lined and pretty dang big. Here are 2 of the other sets of duvets I have for our bed. I purposely choose yellow as a paint color for our walls as I view it kind of as a neutral color so I can change up the bedding whenever I feel like it.
Also, please please notice our gorgeous hardwood floors in our bedroom. They were really dull when we first moved in (see one of the first before pictures above), but we had Gino come and refinish it. It's about the only thing we haven't/won't attempt ourselves in our little adventure. We are so happy with the way it turned out, we will have him come and do all our hardwood floors.

Another view of our awesome drawers and floors.

And an open view of my closets. My side of the closet. I love how this is so customizable to whatever you want.... and you may just realize how MANY clothes I actually have here.

And the other side... I must say that I like the actually drawers from IKEA better than the wire baskets. I choose to try both styles out, but definetly more happy with the drawers.

And that is it! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Halloween Shenanigans

Saturday was the night to celebrate Halloween in this neck of the woods for adults. So... on Saturday night I put on my awesome Rainbow Brite costume. Michelle and Miranda came over and we headed out for the night.


We stopped at the Windom Country club first. They had some big prizes, food included in the admission, and it was lots of fun! Michelle and I both won door prizes (I got some free tanning and she got some wine supplies) and my Dad won a big flat screen TV. Michelle went as Betty Rubble.

Then we headed out to PJ's. They had a DJ and a mechanical bull. Miranda decided to take a stab at the bull since some of the girls decided to ride the bull backwords. She had to show them how it's done.

Nurse Miranda and me.


And another one of me and Michelle.

What a fun night!

Jennie & Jason Tie the Knot

Jennie & Jason got marriend on September 24, 2011. Anne flew in on Friday morning so she could be in the wedding. I picked her up from the airport (actually she was supposed to fly in on Thursday night, but because of some plane problems she was delayed) and then we spent some time at the Mall of American before heading home to Windom. Friday night was rehersal and the Groom's Supper at the Windom Country Club. I was asked to be Jen's photographer for the rehersal.


Saturday morning we were all up bright and early for hair and make-up. We went down to Jennie's mom's hair shop in Jackson. I didn't want my hair down like normal, so Anne did my hair for me. It turned out wonderful! Here are all the girls: Me, Molly, Amy, Sarah, Jennie, Chelsey, Alicia, and Anne.

Then, we got Jennie all gussied up in her wedding dress and I performed by Personal Attendant duties. Isn't she lovely?

After I sent her down the aisle at the church with Nate, I grabbed my camera and headed to the balcony to grab some shots of the wedding from above. I loved how the pictures turned out!

And you may kiss the bride. The new Mr. and Mrs. Sykora!

Picture time after the wedding. Waiting for the bridal party to board the limo-bus for the trip up to Jackpot Junction for the reception.

Quick pit stop at the Phat Pheasant for a drink.

The photographer had the bus stop in Springfield for some more photos of the bridal party. We grabbed a quick girls shot.

And I of course grabbed my camera too to grab some shots of the happy couple.

And I may have taken a few of the shots the photographer set up as well.

I had to take the opportunity to take a pic with Chris in a suit again... not sure how many more times I'll get him in a suit.

We took the Corvette up to Jackpot - I love this car :)

All in all it was a wonderful night!

The next day we all traveled back to Windom, and before we knew it, it was time for Anne to return to Germany already. Of course I couldn't let her leave without a fearsome foursome picture. Miss you already Anne!