basement update

So, our basement is coming along nicely! 

The daddy bird, his dad, and my dad have had several good days of work and have managed to complete almost all the framing in the bedroom/office and the bathroom.

We now have some walls!

It's kind of hard to get your bearings with these pictures because I can't get the entire room in the picture at once, but, you can kind of tell where the bathroom is located.  This next shot shows where Josh has added some closets for the bedroom:

We've chosen a vanity for the bathroom too.  Actually we decided to go the custom cabinet route since daddy bird and mama bird couldn't seem to agree on ANYTHING already made (imagine that) and when we started pricing things, it really wasn't much more to just have something made for us.  Plus, the whole piece will be solid wood, instead of the fabricated stuff, and Chino (the cabinet guy) will come install the whole thing for us, and we wouldn't have gotten that with Lowes.  Sorry Lowes.

We chose hickory for our wood, and went with a plain, shaker style door:

We're still not sure of the stain color yet.  This photo is of a natural hickory with no stain at all, but you can see how much variation the wood has.  Ours will probably be stained a darker color, but we both like the rustic look that hickory provides.

Here's where I need your help.  We need to pick some tile!  We are going with a slate tile for the floor, and the tub surround, but we need to choose which color.  I have it narrowed down to 4 choices, so give me your opinion!  Here are the options:

autumn lilac

desert raja

golden sun

china apricot

So, what do you think?  I'm not even going to tell you which choice I'm leaning toward because I want your opinions.

More updates coming soon....

a list

1. I'm making beef stew for dinner tonight and it smells really, really, good.

2.  It's snowing right now.

3.  I hope the weatherman is wrong and we get 10 inches of snow.  I love snow.

4. Why is it when men get a cold it is always so much worse than the cold their wife gave to them?

5.  I'm tired today.

6.  I think it's because I woke up at 3:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep until 4:30.  During that time I managed to go to the bathroom 5 times and pee on myself once.

7.  My son named our male horse "Girl".  We let him.  In fact, we just call him Girl ourselves.  It's easier than trying to fix that mess.  He's for sale anyway.

8.  The horse, not my son.

9.  At my last Dr.'s visit, my OB politely said I may want to "watch out for the bad carbs" that I may be eating.  It could be because I've already gained 28 pounds and I'm only 26 weeks pregnant.  My OB is way too nice to tell me I'm getting too fat.

10.  What exactly is a "bad carb"?  Is cheese a bad carb?  If it is, I'm not going to "watch out" for it.  I'm going to eat it.

11.  I really need to clean my kitchen floor, but there are Thomas the Train tracks all over it.  I should probably take them down and clean the floor, but then I'd have to put them back together, and that's too much trouble right now.  Oh, what to do?

12.  I think I'm going to take a nap.



strawberry butter

Our couple's group met last night at our friends the Burnettes' house, and the menu theme was "breakfast for supper."  Yummy.  I love breakfast, anytime of day.  I was asked to bring bread (biscuits, croissants, etc.) which is great, but what is good breakfast bread without something yummy to spread on it?

Our family has a special fondness for strawberry butter.  There is a great place to eat not too far away from Murray State called Patti's, where they serve strawberry butter to spread on this warm, yummy bread baked in flower pots.  It is unbelievable.  It will change your life.  Check out Patti's if you're ever in west KY.  The daddy bird and I shared a few dates there back in the good old days.

I found this recipe in my well used copy of the Cotton Country Collection, a cookbook put out by the Junior League of Monroe, LA in 1972.  I made a couple of changes, and this is what I ended up with:

You will need:

1 pint of fresh strawberries (washed and hulled) or 10 oz frozen, thawed and drained

(I usually use frozen)

1/2 lb unsalted butter

1 cup powdered sugar; if using frozen berries use 1/2 cup

Make sure all ingredients are at WARM ROOM TEMPERATURE!  This is crucial to your success.

Beat all ingredients together with an electric mixer, starting at medium speed and increasing to high speed, until combined and fluffy.

If your mixture looks curdled, keep blending, it takes quite a while to get everything combined well, especially if the butter or strawberries are cool at all.  The ingredients must be at room temp to combine well.

Chill, and serve with biscuits, rolls, muffins, toast, waffles, pancakes, pretzels, or just eat it straight out of the bowl, ha!

Makes 2 1/2 cups

This may be just as good with margerine.  I usually use butter when I cook, but I could see margerine being substituted here with great results.

Enjoy it ya'll!

thankful thursday

I am so thankful that when it's snowing and cold out, I don't have to haul hay,

feed hay (most of the time),

and especially break the ice in the water trough.  I've litarally only had to do this like, three times this winter - that's a record for sure.

And that makes me really, really thankful.

before and after

Happy 2011 everyone! 

I've been gone a long time!  The holidays kept us really busy and I just didn't make blogging a priority.  That will hopefully change with the addition of this little beauty to our nest:

WOOHOOO!!!  Josh and I are now the proud parents of a Canon Rebel T2i, and we are loving it.  I'm hoping it will encourage me to post more pics for you, my blog buddies, and also to take more photos of the baby bird.

Ok.  Down to business.  I have a terrible secret to share with you.  (Cue dramatic music here...)  My pantry and linen closet are a MESS!!!! 

By nature, I'm just not a very organized person, but I think I'm nesting.  Maybe it's just that it's January and I'm wanting to get our house organized for the new year, but I think it probably has more to do with the little bun I've got in my oven.

Whatever the reason, I had to get this:

and this (yes, that is nair, and gas ex you may notice):

under control.  It was driving me crazy.  I may not be organized by nature, but I cannot function for long in a mess where I don't even realize I have 3 exra deoderants, and I can't find my self-rising conrmeal.  So, I took a couple of days and those before pictures became this:

I realize this does not appear to be that much better on this blog, but let me tell you folks, it is a HUGE difference!  I purged a ton of stuff, found stuff I didn't know I had, and just feel so much better knowing my stuff has a place.

How have you been inspired to get organized lately?  Do you have any organizing tips to share?

Here's another before I want to share with you:

We have finally started the process of finishing our basement!!!  Yay!  I can't tell you how excited I am to see actual walls go up downstairs, and to be picking out things like tile for the bathroom, vanities, tubs, flooring, etc.  We're a LONG way from the "after" shots, but I wanted to get up the before.  We (I use the term "we" loosely here) are doing most of the work ourselves, so I'm going to be asking for lots of advice and help.  I can't wait to document this process!