Stay-Cation

Sparky and I took some well needed time off from work last week.  We decided not to travel anywhere this past vacation week, but instead stay home and relax.

yeah right.

If you know us, relaxation is normally not at the top of our list of "to-do's"...and we normally have quite a lengthy list of "to-do's".

So far this week, we have changed out two outside lights, put up some pretty shnazzy house numbers, painted the front door bright red, made ANOTHER compost bin, changed out all the hardware on all the interior doors, replaced two circular windows on the front of the house, purchased a NEW vehicle, purchased two new big planters for the front porch (but are waiting on soil from the new compost bin to plant something in them), removed all the guttering from around the house due to damage from the hail storm, removed our aluminum back porch patio cover that was also damaged from the hail storm, and painted a closet wall.

What else?

and we went to the zoo for a few hours for some down time.

whew.

I'm tired...  And we have to go back to work tomorrow.

I'll recap with photos on just a few things at a time in order to not overwhelm myself.

This is a picture is of the old numbers and fog light that were set above and between our two garage doors.  They were definitely not anything special to look at and probably not ever really noticed.

This is where they once used to be located.  Sparky removed them quicker than I could remember to grab my camera!  You can still see the plate where the fog light used to be connected.  You can still also see the indented stain those awful poop colored numbers left on the brick above where the fog light used to be located.  ew.

This is what we put in place of the fog light.  So much better in our opinion.  Silver and clean lines is more our style.  We also purchased it's mini version to replace the front porch light.

Below is a picture of the first coat of paint of our front door.  It was previously white.  I would go take a picture of the finished front door...but I'm too tired right now.  This is what you get.  Sorry.  Also, you can see the mini version of the garage light we changed out (in the upper right hand side), and one of the new big planters.

Below are the two big planters we got for the front porch.  They were such a good steal at TJ Maxx!  They were only $50 each!  woot woot!

And my most favorite item change for the front of the house is...our house numbers!  We re-located them from above the garage light to the side of the garage leading to our front porch.  We also decided to change them from reading left-to-right to reading up-and-down.  I love their silver and sleek straight lines and how they float away from the house.

That is all for now.  I'll share our other projects very soon!

Keep on Keepin on.

How to Make an Asian Drool

So I was perusing through blogs and stumbled upon this huge wok of rice! (from Lisa & Drew's Outdoor Wedding via Green Wedding Shoes.) 

Well, it looks more jumbalaya-ish...but let's just appease my asian jealousy right now.

Huge wok. (where did they even get that thing??)
Rice cooked in huge wok.
I'm drooling.

Just sayin

Keep on Keepin on.

Clean Up - Hail Storm Style

Stupid hail storm.

The OKC area was severely hit with a definitely memorable hail storm this past Sunday late afternoon.  I am unable to put into words the experience and damage it caused to homes, vehicles...and

our VEGETABLE GARDEN.

Stupid hail storm.

Many people are definitely grateful for home owners, renters, and auto insurance this week.  My car got some damage but other people got far worse damage.  I keep telling Sparky we are pretty lucky since we didn't have any broken windows on our home or our vehicles.  We will need a new roof, back storm door, and patio cover.  We are actually glad about these items though so it kind of works out for us.  The only annoyance really is that we will definitely have to start over on our little garden... and I know we are more than lucky that's our biggest dilemma at this point.

But these little banana peppers survived!!!  I told Sparky..."un-ba-reev-able" (like an Asian)

So, there is a lot of clean up but nothing that can't handled and paid for by great insurance.   Our back patio is covered in leaves.  There is a brick patio underneath there somewhere.

 We are grateful since we do know that there are many that are not so fortunate.


But if you want to see it in action (and you haven't already seen this), here is a cool and popular video of the storm in action.  You have to at least watch about 2 minutes into it...that's when the hail got really strong.  This video was taken just a few block from our home.


Keep on Keepin on.