Happy Anniversary, Part II

No, you didn't miss Part I to our Anniversary this year. I never wrote it. I'm so behind on postings, I never posted a follow up to our anniversary post from last year about the gift I made for Lawrence. It's already made it's appearance on the blog in background photos, but I thought you might still be interested in seeing it. Well, my friend Lacretia will be interested in seeing it. And I'm convinced she's the only one who reads this thing on a regular basis anyway, so here you go, L!

Last year was our fifth (!) wedding anniversary, but with a baby on the way and a basement in the middle of finishing, we decided we didn't want to spend a lot of money on gifts so I figured I would make something meaningful for Lawrence instead of buying something. After much deliberation, I decided to make some artwork for our livingroom with a quote from the lyrics of our first dance at our wedding reception (which incidently was Bon Jovi's "You Had Me From Hello").

I got some thin (1/4") wood vaneered plywood and had the friendly folks at Lowe's cut it down to 3'x4'. Then I took some 2" vinyl letters (note: I also bought 3" but they were way too big by the time I laid it all out) and spelled out the lyrics on the plywood once I had marked off the lines with painters tape. I did do a mock-up on the computer with a similar font so I could try to figure out the line breaks, but it ended up being trial and error as I decided to move around the break between two of the lines once the letters were all on.

After the letters were in place I took off the painters tape and took the whole thing outside to give it a coat of spray paint. Actually, I used two colors of spray paint, one darker blue and one lighter blue/aqua, to give it some variation. I could have given the whole thing a base coat first, but I wanted the wood grain to show through the letters.

Once it was dry, I pulled off the vinyl letters and TA DA.

I didn't give it a clear coat over it or finish off the edges with trim, but those are certainly some options if you're wanting to achieve a similar but different look.

It's found a home on the mantel and I love it. Better yet, Lawrence loves it, too. At least that's what he told me on our anniversary when I gave it to him.

I made GRASS!

This must have been how the first caveman felt who made fire. I'm sure of it. I feel like running out into the street and shouting it into the air for all to hear (however I think our neighbors would be doubtful since we haven't made *any* grass in the front yard to speak of... yet). I potted a little potful of grass and an egg carton full and both are sprouting beautifully just in time for Easter. I had them in the kitchen getting a bit of morning light each day but this morning Lawrence surprised me by putting the pot on my desk which was a happy little Good Friday surprise. However, I'm finding it a bit distracting because all I want to do is reach out and spin the pinwheel.

Doesn't it just scream "Wheeeeeeee.... spring is here!"? Maybe you have to see it in person to get the full effect... (Bailey doesn't seem too impressed in the background)

PS- the gass is doing double duty also because it's wheat grass, so once we're done looking at we can juice it. Bottoms up!

Some Like it Hot!

I've been threatening for a while now (basically this entire dreary, cold, snowy winter) to turn our guest bedroom into a sauna. I LOVE saunas- it's like a warm beach without the sand getting into your drawers. Silly me, turns out I don't have to sacrifice a lot of space for a sauna. So we can have a sauna AND a guest room. Although, I don't know how much time I'll have on my hands to entertain guests once I have a sauna. I guess just bring your suit! The more the merrier, right?

Check out this link to see 5 compact home saunas. Anyone will do just fine. My birthday is in May, but early presents are welcome, too. Although the Trendir Cube Sauna 'from northern Europe includes chromotherapy, a shower and "vibromassage."' I'm not quite sure what a vibromassage is, but I don't think I want it in my guest room. Then again...

Help Yourself

What's that, little squirrel? You're hungry? Need to fatten up for winter? Oh, well let us help you out with that! After all, Halloween is over and I'm so anxious to get on with Christmas that Lawrence will probably think that I paid you to come and distroy our front door display.  But no, you did it for free.

I'm really glad that you didn't let the location of the pumpkins deter you in any way. In fact, with this little guy you just decided to up and move it to the center of our leaf-filled yard. Very resourceful!

Oh, and when the good stuff was just a little too out of reach, you just dove right in and decided to eat from the inside out. Genius, really. Why eat through the tough stuff when you've already created an opening even the fattest of squirrel could fit through?

And it's great to see you all sharing together, too. I mean, after all, there is enough to go around, at least for another hour or two at the rate you're going.

Feast away, my little furry friends. Christmas is right around the corner!

Little Doors for Big Dreamers

Where have I been? What the heck have I been doing? Standing with my head in the sand like an awkward ostrich? (try saying that 10 times fast!) Too consumed with my own little life dramas to hear about the amazingness that is happening in Michigan?

I just ran across this blog today which in turn directed me to this NPR story which in turn made me determined to run out to the nearest dollhouse supply store and build a fairy door for my very own!

I think I will put one in my office in hopes that a little office fairy will visit in the wee morning hours and complete a few of those not-so-fun tasks on my to-do list. I do live in Iowa, after all. Our unofficial state motto is "If you build it, they will come." Don't you worry, little fairies- I'll build it really soon!  After all, the not-so-fun tasks on my to-do list are really starting to pile up.

Splish, splash, WTF?!?

Um, it's 10:45pm and Lawrence and I just discovered 2 inches of water in our basement. It's like a long-winded Groundhog's Day at this point. Am I right? Do you remember LC's blog months ago about the flooded basement? Full circle, folks, that's what this is. It's a full circle sort of day. Actually, before we even discovered the water it was already a two bottle of wine sort of night. Now we're on to three and I just don't think it's going to help anymore. Thank goodness I have a cute pair of golashes- I might just want to walk off the roof otherwise.

I quit. If you could see me, you'd see I was waving my little white flag in surrender. While standing in a basement-sized puddle. In cute golashes. I QUIT.

Christmas in ... August?

I know this will probably solicit groans from everyone reading this (including my husband), but I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Christmas season already! I think it's because we didn't get to decorate for the holidays last year since we were mid-move. I had one lowly vase of candy canes on the mantle and that was it. For a girl who owns four Christmas trees, that's just not acceptable. So, just like when you deprive yourself of chocolate and then you crave it even more, I'm craving Christmas. I listen to Christmas music every chance I get on Pandora while I'm working (Bing Crosby's Happy Holidays is jingling away in the background as I type) and I find myself visually laying out all of our holiday decorations in our new house in my mind when I walk around. I can't wait! I've already decided November 8th is D-Day for us this year (Decorate for Christmas- Day, that is). It's after Halloween (don't want to scare off any trick-or-treaters with Christmas bows or anything) but before Thanksgiving. I don't really get into the whole turkey or cornucopia decorations (if Thanksgiving would come up with cuter decorations, I might re-evaluate my timeline) so I think it's free reign after Halloween. Lawrence thinks otherwise, but one of these days he'll realize he only has 49.9% of the voting stock when it comes to decorating decisions.

Hurry up, Christmas, don't be late!

Surprise Revealed

Thanks to Lawrence's mom, Patti, we are now the proud new owners of a vintage tandem banana yellow Schwin bike! It's a beaut, and after a little air in the tires, it rides like a dream (as long as the ride is very flat and smooth- this baby only has two gears!).

Here's a close up pic but click below to see some more of it in action - if you scroll through really fast it'll be like we're whizzing by your screen! Wheeeee.......

Tandem Banana

Newest Addition to the Cunningham Casa- Clue #1

Okay, everyone- we have had a recent addition to Casa de Cunningham in the past few weeks. Here's a sneak peek...

The Back Story of the Screen Door

So yes, Brandy is correct. I've been putting off some of my need-to-do's in favor of some of my want-to-get-it-done's. If you've been to our neighborhood you can appreciate the fact that we have meticulous neighbors who mow their grass two to three times a week. They also clean out their gutters ROUTINELY! And, we can't forget the fact that many of them can be seen hand weeding their front yards or power washing the sidewalks...yes all of this on any given day.

Soooooo you can see why I'm trying to get the roost up to snuff. Our corner lot is not only an intersection but it seems to be the only street in Beaverdale that EVERY SINGLE PERSON uses! I know this because anytime I'm in the front yard neighbors are stopping by to give input on what would "make that house look nice". I mean seriously folks it's a time versus money issue and I've got little of both.

Anyway...the real purpose of this post is to explain the turbulations of the storm door project. For reasons we may choose to share with you sometime in the future, I am quite partial to the Pella brand storm doors. I spent the better part of 60 minutes (a mear 43 simple steps) from carton to install. Not bad considering that's how much time the instructions say it will take. I'm careful not to get false notions of my abilities but I do love the fact that Lowe's makes you feel like you are the second coming of Bob Vila!

Maybe I need to grow a beard. Yes, that would make me more handy.

A beard...and flannel!

Anyway, what Lowe's failed to tell me was that I should plan in advance for a house full of animals and a new screen door. Not two minutes after installation was complete I stepped out front to admire my work and take a picture and what happened? Docker saw me from inside the foyer and came barreling right through my brand new screen! No kidding...pulled the fiberglass right out of the seam and was sitting at my feet lickety-split and happier than a mole in soft dirt (not sure where that analogy just came from but it was a long night so bear with me!).








Thank goodness Lowe's has a don't ask policy because 45 minutes and one little-white-lie later I had a fresh screen back in the door. This time however the Bob Vila in me found a way to position a puppy gate between the foyer and the second brand new screen of the night!

My Husband - Handyman Extrordinaire!

Introducing our new screen door, courtesy of one over-ambitious and loving husband who is agressively tackling our new house to-do list while I'm away. I love it AND I love you, honey!

Isn't it pretty? Can't you just feel the cool cross-breeze now that we have screens on the front and back doors? Ahhhh...

Sorry for the blurry cell phone photos, but also note the awesome new planters and plants (Rex Begonias, in case you are interested) on our front stoop- thanks to Marty and Patti for the birthday money that helped to buy said plans and planters! Now on to tackle the off-center mailbox and that gaudy lit doorbell. What is the purpose of that anyway? In case of complete darkness, vacuum salesmen can still find their way to harass us on our doorstep?!? No, thank you.

Introducing... OUR BACKYARD!

Remember the post a few months ago about the tree limbs we had cut off??? Well, since that post all of the broken branches and limbs have taken up residence in our backyard. But thanks to Donna and Bernardo, LC's birth parents, his sister Lauren(sorry about the nails, little LC!), and our friend Scott, we finally have a backyard once again!!! The dogs don't know quite what to do with themselves!

After an on-again, off-again plan to do some yard work this weekend, the Wichita gang came up on Friday afternoon with work clothes in tow to help us out. We took advantage of the Des Moines SCRUB Day on Saturday to get rid of mulchable items for free and with Scott's arrangement of a flatbed trailer and the use of my dad's chain saw (that was a bad idea that we'll save for another post- never let a father/son team determine what branches need cutting down- it's amazing we have any tree left!!) we managed to haul THREE THOUSAND POUNDS of tree paraphernalia to the mulching place. Yes, that would be a 3 with three 0's after it. That's A LOT of wood. And leaves. And bark. And whatever else comes with 3,000 pounds of tree. PLUS, we had an additional sixteen bags of leaves and twigs to leave on the curb this morning.

We never could have done it without everyone's help! To celebrate, we got ice cream twist cones with crunch from our newfound favorite ice cream & malt shop, Snookie's.


One of the TWO loads of tree we took to the mulcher!


One of the many limbs that suffered from the manly affection of power tools that overtook Lawrence and Bernardo.


The 'finished' product, sans landscaping! Isn't it so pretty and limb-free?

One room at a time...

We've had a lot of requests for pictures of our new house and while it's not quite "unveil" worthy yet, the living room is finally *almost* done, with the exception of the lovely light fixture circa 1952 hanging from the middle of the room that needs replacing.

Here's a few pics of our living room/dining room - Enjoy!



Note: I'm trying out the slideshow method in Picasa, so I sure hope it works! If you click on a photo above it should take you to the whole album.

Welcome!

New year, new house, new blog... Enjoy!