I'm a slacker.

Hi everyone.

Yes, I know... I am a slacker. BUT, in my defense, I did say we'd be MIA for a little while.

Not much has happened since September. But here is a little somethin' somethin'.

In chronological order:

AUGUST:

Adam got me *new* Crate & Barrel coffee table (*new* to us from Craigslist!) for my birthday:

(Thank you Joann for the bee-yoo-ti-ful birthday flowers!)

SEPTEMBER:

Our less-than-one-week-old-super-expensive fence mysteriously gets a hole in it (?!?!). Thank heavens for warranties.


We finally mowed our lawn. See how pretty the new fence is?



OCTOBER:

Fall came. Barry changed color. Pretty.


Our fence gets ANOTHER hole in it. Good golly miss molly. Again: bless you warranty. (Is any one suspicious of the hoodlums? I am.)


NOVEMBER:

Our front door -- which we purchased in the summer of 2006 -- is finally installed! Praise the Lord! And Adam's dad too! (BTW, have no idea if this happened in November. Just trying to follow the pattern here).



Here it is, though unpainted (I picked an olive green paint for it. Just waiting for a warm day to paint.)


Adam's dad passed down to Adam his prized Christmas train. Here the proud men are with their handy work:


While trimming the tree, I dropped Spider-man on the ground and broke off his feet. :( It's okay though, he'll hitch a ride in the train. (And, Adam's got about 23 other Spider-man ornaments).


I know you are jealous of my snazzy Las Vegas sweatshirt. AHHHHH YEAH!

DECEMBER:

For one of Adam's Christmas gifts, I decided to commission an artist off Etsy to create a portrait of him as a boy.

The story:
. When Adam was small, he liked to chase birds.
. Adam's mom would require him to wear mittens when trying to catch said birds -- so as to not catch a bird disease, of course.
. So, it would be summer -- Adam in his shorts and all -- walking around the backyard, trying to catch birds with his mittens on.
. Said mittens have been displayed in our house, unceremoniously, until now:

Framed and hung:


Adam checks it out:



Ready for bird catching:


Find the artist brighthousegal at Etsy.com


In terms of gifts, a close second was the Spider-man alarm clock I got Adam as my yearly contribution to the comic room. Spidey's head projects the time on the ceiling (so you can tell time, in the dark, without getting up). Here he is setting up Spidey:


And testing out Spidey (this is just after he ripped off the wrapping paper):


Adam got another snowman item for the house. Thanks Aunt Karen and Uncle Frank. He loves it so!


Here it is, blocking the draft in our bedroom that comes out of Adam's closet (old house, little to no insullation). They look so happy and now Adam's feet do not freeze when he gets out of bed!



Adam and his bro Joey put up some lights. Adam fell off a ladder while doing this. I had just pulled in the drive and screamed really loud. He was okay, thankfully :)



On Christmas, we saw reindeer at Adam's parents, in the front yard!




And lastly, Adam and his mom Sue enjoyed a Christmas sword fight (WARNING: wrapping paper tubes can cause big paper cuts. Try at home, but with caution!):



I know. I know. Not too exciting.

What can I say. It is cold in Chicago, so we are not doing much around the house except for making "heat tents" (blanket. heat vent. bliss.) and watching TV.

We are managing to escape for a long weekend in Cabo next week. So we'll post some pics of that soon after. As for the house, we are saving, dreaming of how we might spend our tax return, and sketching our basement renovation plans out on a napkin while out for pancakes (don't get too excited. That project is YEARS away. A girl can dream, right?).

Until next time. Aruba, Jamaica, ooo I wanna take you to... Oh wait. That is the Carribean. Uhhh... Mexico... Mexico... oh yeah!



C+A

Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

Wow! It has been over a month since my last post. I didn't realize it had been so long. I guess I was waiting for something noteworthy to post. I finally have a couple of things!

First, we are fresh off a plane from our vacation to Oahu and Maui. It was great! The picture above was taken by my sister Christine who just moved to Oahu with her hubby and two kids -- who needs a better reason to visit our favorite vacation spot?

We spent one week in Oahu where I managed to catch a wave at Bellows Beach:


And Adam was a daredevil (he is that speck on the cliffs):


And then, we spent the next week in Maui, where we had this beautiful view from our room at the hotel:


It was glorious! But, now we are back home and did not waste anytime getting back to business.

But first, another update:

I turned 30 last month. Whooptydoo! Here we are, on my birthday :)


And, Adam made me a birthday cake with homemade icing! AND... we even were fancy and put it in a cake dome. Lovely! Made me feel like a real adult! (Please excuse our wonky hair... must have been humid that day)


For my birthday, Adam got me a great house related gift! He powerwashed and stained the deck! We didn't have a great picture at press time, but I did find this one:

A giant praying mantis on the back door screen -- newly stained deck in the background!

I also got a coffee table (pic to come) and -- every girl from the 80s dream -- tickets to see Dirty Dancing the musical when it comes to Chicago. Hootie hoo!

Anywho --
As I mentioned, we flew home yesterday and promptly got back to business:
I literally got back to business by returning to work.
Adam had one more day off -- so he supervised two house adventures today.

Window Repair
We've finally repaired the window in the front. Hopefully tomorrow I am not posting a sad story about how it is broken again. *Fingers crossed*

Here's the window guy assessing the damage from the inside:



And in goes the new glass! Only 15 minutes to fix! We saved the receipt in case the hoodlums come back and want to pony up for the damage. Ha.


Fence
In more exciting news, today the back yard fence went up! We ended up going with Cedar Rustic Fence Co. So far, we are pleased with the job. Our yard looks a little trashed because of all the rain and the fact that we've been gone, so we need to weed and mow.

Here are some pics:





Note: ever since we cut down our original tree, little baby trees sprout up from the old roots (that's what all those little green guys are on the ground). Since we were gone, they are everywhere outside. Couldn't do any yard work yesterday with all the rain...

And, our flower beds need weeding badly.... Here is the gate:


Gate next to the garage:


Gate open!

Another big project checked off the list!

Lastly, we just realized this evening that, while we were gone, the Home Repair Fairy visited our house and installed motion sensor lights near our front door and garage! Wow!



Wow! Thank you Home Repair Fairy!

Now what? I think we done with projects for now. It might be a while before you hear from us next... so, here is a cute picture to remember us by. Enjoy!


Aloha! Mahalo!
C&A

A Misadventure in Homeowning

The yellow circle above indicates a hole in our front bow window.
A hole that was caused by a rock.
A rock that was thrown by an angry teenager.

Yes, C & A had a misadventure in homeowning.

Good Lord.

Summary:

1. C & A come home from the gym to find a swarm of rowdy kids fighting in the neighbors front yard. The boys proceed to move into the other yards, the street, C & A's yard... A tries to break up the fight but this only angers the boys -- who threaten A, C and to "break the house" if we call the cops.
   
2. One boy is getting severely roughed up, so C calls the cops.
3. Cops come. Boys run. Cops can't find anything and leave.
4. A minute after the cops leave, one rock hits the window. Then another. C calls the cops again. Two more rocks hit the window.
5. Later, when the cops show up we find out that one of our neighbors was heading to his car to grab something when he saw a boy in our drive getting ready to throw a landscaping brick -- either at our house or car. Yeah, real nice. Thanks to the neighbor for stopping that one. Ugh.

Anyway, there are more details to this story, but all in all, at the end of the night, we were left paranoid and with a broken window. Awesome.

Lesson learned: If you see a situation, quietly go inside and call the cops.

Here is a zoomed out pictures of where the window is broken:


After our misadventure, we decided it was time to take some protective measures with our home sweet home. Thanks to A's Dad, we now have motion-sensored lights...

One behind the garage:


And one on our deck:


Up next: time for a fence... we must protect Barry!

We got our first estimate Saturday and will be talking to a couple of other vendors. Anyone have any good fence advice? I was just talking to my sister, who advised that a 6' privacy fence isn't always a good idea, since it makes it so no one can see who is in your yard, if you are not there. I never would have thought of that.

Oh, the drama.

In other news:

We finally hung some of the art/mirrors that I've been collecting. It's not perfect, there are some holes, but it is looking better, me thinks:

View from the front of the front room:


Blue/brown/white bird is from a thrift shop. $8. The blue matte was tan, and the frame was gold. I spray painted them both. The birds on the sides are from my sister, Christine. Another vintage find.

Another view:



Dining room:


"Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining" print matted on Martha Stewart wrapping paper and in a frame from Michael's. Surrounded by vintage metal frames, spray painted silver.

Another view:


Entry way mirror:


Salvation Army. $25 and some change [ for spray paint :) ]

View from front door:

New mirror over buffet:



Another Salvation Army find. $40 (yes, it is spray painted too).

Also, A and I now know how to hang a 100 lb. mirror if anyone needs lessons. It only took us 2 hours and 2 trips to Home Depot to figure out.

More adventures soon...
C + A