there's no place like gnome.

I still owe you a post on HIS space – also known as the basement pinball lair. Soon.

In the meantime, here’s what’s new —

Dave loves a good bagel. A good NEW YORK style bagel. He used to live in NJ and I suppose became spoiled by the good stuff. Last weekend, we attempted to make our own bagels. Our own GOOD bagels – according to Dave’s standards. Thanks to the water bagel recipe from King Arthur Flour, I dare say we did it. Dave’s pleased as punch to have a stockpile of bagels in the freezer.

I have a new job. A new job at the same place. Back in January, the principal of the elementary school sent me an email and this is all it said: Please stop by my office when you can. Uhhh. CUE PANIC! I stopped by and that’s when he told me that they were hiring a new instructional paraprofessional to close out the school year and he thought I should apply. What’s the difference from my former position as a special education para? As an instructional para, I basically teach small groups as opposed to being in the classroom assisting a specific student(s). I pull groups of kiddos (mostly first graders) and we do math/writing learning for a half hour to 45 minutes. It’s definitely different and more difficult but I’m finding the groove.

February was a bit of a whirlwind with trips back home. First, to celebrate a cousin’s baby shower and then, the next weekend, a bridal shower for my soon-to-be (but-really-now-since-they-are-already-legally-married) sister. Now that I live close enough, a.) I could actually attend (Not to mention they were both held on Sundays.) and b.) I could help.

I made scones, meringue mushrooms, and Hershey kiss acorns for the baby shower’s woodland theme. (Meringue mushrooms = so fun. Let me know if you need any. I’d love a reason to make them again.) For the bridal shower, my cooking ability was challenged with lobster-stuffed mushrooms and curry chicken salad sandwiches – both the bride-to-be requests. Thankfully, Dave tackled the raw lobster tails for me. (green sick-looking emoji inserted here)

I made this soup for supper (with added/extra veggies). Five stars. Would recommend.

We’re currently casually couch shopping for our living room. Shall we talk about how absolutely overwhelming that venture is? Oy. We’re also planning a vacation to the Smokey Mountains in April with Dave’s brother & co. Let’s talk about how exciting that is instead.

This is the HERS post. HIS will come shortly.

His and hers what?

This is the tale of a sewing room and a pinball lair.

The sewing room received a major overhaul a couple weeks ago and I am absolutely pleased as punch about it. Here is the before realtor photo –

Wallpaper – yuck. Wallpaper border – double yuck. Blue blinds – ick. Light fixture – eh. Boring.

I stripped the wallpaper over the course of a messy, sticky weekend and continued with primer and paint. Dave removed the trim which then also got a coat of paint. (Or many coats of paint.) With Dave’s help, the trim was put back and a new BRIGHT light fixture installed. (We’re talking SIX lightbulbs. Perfect for sewing.)

With the room back in order and furniture in place, it was time to measure and create a quilt design wall. My dream. In the parsonage, I had a sort-of design wall; a place where I could lay out and arrange the pieces in a quilt. My sewing room now has a legit design wall, one which has already helped me put together a baby quilt. (In reality, it’s super simple. Pieces of Styrofoam insulation covered in a flannel sheet, screwed to the wall. Viola.)

A few fun furniture facts:
+ The table in the middle of the room? The one on which the sewing machine sits? It sat on the porch of the farm when I was growing up. It’s where we would eat during tobacco harvest when we were too dirty to go inside the house. It was a table originally purchased by my grandparents. (I have the chairs too.)
+ The blue dresser on which sits my ironing table? Dave and I picked it up at Goodwill for $10. Dave shaped it up with sanding and paint; it’s perfect. (Maybe a change of pulls is in its future.)
+ The stained wood cabinet? It’s a gun cabinet my dad built when he was in high school. We added shelves for my fabric stash (which is stored in metal bins from my dad’s shop).
+ The vintage green ironing board on the wall? It was my grandma’s.
+ The blue cubby piece? Originally my mom’s and perfect for all sorts of sewing storage.

With the wallpaper gone and white walls, it feels like a completely different room.  It’s now a lovely bright space with yellow – YELLOW – window trim. I couldn’t help myself.

Today is Doctor Emmett Brown’s birthday. He’s three and living his best life.

He got a new collar last weekend. It’s Mario themed. Like the video game. Because Dave hosted a pinball league Saturday night and Emmett needed to fit in. (Pinball league: We opened our door to 16 people we literally didn’t know and 1 person that Dave knows – the organizer. They hung out in our basement for hours, played pinball, gave Emmett belly rubs, and ate our popcorn.)

He goes to daycare once in a while.  He has some long days at home alone so in the midst of a full week, he’ll go down the road and play with his friends for a day. At first, he kind of hated it. Dave had to push him through the door. Now? Now we say, “Do you want to go play with your friends today?” and he won’t leave Dave’s side until they are in the truck. He runs inside the play area and doesn’t look back.

On the days he doesn’t go to daycare, I try to take him for a walk before I leave. Depending on how I budget my morning time, it’s sometimes a very short walk.  It doesn’t seem to matter to Emmett. About a half hour before I have to leave for work, he will lay by the front door and just stare at me. Waiting. For his walk. So he can pee on all the spots the other dogs peed on last night because Emmett had peed there the morning before.

He makes himself comfortable wherever and can hear the peanut butter jar opening when he’s rooms away from the kitchen. Best life indeed. Happy birthday, Doc.

Let’s go back to November. Thanksgiving weekend. My mom, sister, sister-in-law, and I went on a little trip to New Glarus. See, my younger brother (the Alaska one) got married. (Yay.) They did the courthouse deal and are having a ceremony/party in April. My mom needed to shop for a dress; hence a little day trip to a dress shop in New Glarus.

After a mother-of-the-groom dress was secured, we explored the town a bit, including a stop at a local coffee shop. This coffee shop had THE CUTEST hoosier cabinet coffee station. All vintage looking with the enamel top. Then and there, I decided that I wanted a hoosier cabinet coffee station in my house.

Turns out hoosier cabinets are a bit hard to come by and, when you do, they’re a bit pricey. And Lindsay is not in the habit of spending any too much for furniture. So Lindsay found a hutch on Facebook marketplace for $30 and figured it would be a great Christmas break project. Right? Are we in agreement?

As with every DIY adventure, it proved to be a bit more of a challenge than anticipated. We discovered the hutch to be painted with an enamel-like paint. You think new paint likes to stick to that? Nope. Scratch pads/sandpaper did nothing to breech its surface so we relied on the magic of spray paint primer. We followed that with a chalk spray paint in coastal blue to matchy-match our wallpaper backsplash. A million coats later and three runs to Menards, it was a lovely coastal blue.

So we applied the matte top coat the chalk paint manufacturer recommends.

And it streaked the heck out of our newly blue hutch. Insert angry emoji.

Two more coats of blue and one more trip to Menards and we were done.

Ish.

We moved it into the house and then it was new hardware, placement, and arguing about how the coffee station would work. It still needs a shelf cut for the bottom but otherwise, the hutch is in, right around the corner from the screen door pantry.

It’s no hoosier cabinet but we love it. With the volume of spray paint I had to buy, we probably could have just sprung for the hoosier to begin but then what kind of story would that be?

I started work and then I disappeared from blogging. I promise it has nothing to do with you. Really. It’s me.

To ease back in, how about some (rambling) Friday Favorites?

This past fall, I was drinking – let’s be honest – A LOT of sparkling water. A lot equaled three – sometimes FOUR – cans a day. I know. *shaking head* It was becoming a bit much.  It wasn’t necessarily an issue of cost as off-brand LaCroix is totally my thing but the cans were piling up in the recycling bin and there was the whole hauling it home from the store, taking up space in the fridge, etc. I bought a SodaStream (on the cheap from a lovely woman who posted her still-in-the-box one on Facebook marketplace) and haven’t looked back. SodaStream = super favorite thing.

Christmas break. You guys. As I work at a school, I had a Christmas break. It was super lovely and super weird. What was normally for me a busy, stressful time with the planning of Christmas services and events was strangely relaxing this year. And weird. Did I mention weird? Dave’s company shuts down the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s so we actually had Christmas break together.  Weird.

A pantry door. It’s hard to photograph because it’s in the hallway but this is our pantry. With a screen door. A BLUE screen door. And it’s my absolute favorite. Why does our pantry have a blue screen door? Perhaps the better question is why does your pantry not? It was a boring door in a short hallway of seven (7!) doors; it needed color and character.  The door was $18 at a flea market; after (a lot) of effort on the husband’s part, it totally brightens the hall and makes me smile when I turn the corner. (It’s also perfect motivation to keep the pantry organized and neat – a project completed after this photograph was taken.)

The movies. Over break, I went to two movies in the theater and it felt like such a luxury. First of all, we hardly go to the movies. Second of all, at our local theater, the seats recline. RECLINE. They are huge, leather, and you can put your feet up. Did you know some theaters also start showing movies in the morning? Like 9am? Call me a country chicken in the big city but this is all new to me!

Meatloaf. Specifically, the meatloaf from Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Table. If you know me super well, you know that beef is not my favorite. I don’t order it at restaurants particularly often (or ever),  and I hardly buy it because I dislike cooking with it.  I don’t know if it’s the color or texture or the fact that I grew up with a freezer stocked to the brim with cow. Whatever it is, I sucked it up to make the meatloaf on page 259 of this cookbook. It earned me eight wife points* and was delicious. I’m sure there are other miraculous meatloaf recipes out there belonging to you or Grandma Susie; this is just the one I made because I’m bound and determined to actually use the cookbook. (Opposed to other cookbooks which tend to sit idle and sad.)

Marie Kondo.  I’ve had the book forever (The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up) and I know this isn’t new or rocket science. Over break, I pulled the book out again and started re-reading. And then I emptied the contents of my closet and dresser onto the bed. I touched each article, determined it it brought me joy, and put it accordingly back in the closet or in a donation pile. The resale store received four garbage bags of clothes from me that week and my closet since has never stayed so organized. I’m a classic throw-it-on-the-floor and don’t-put-laundry-away-right-away kind of girl. The space in front of and floor of my closet was constantly a mess until I painstakingly took a half hour on the weekend to clean it up. I realize my closet makeover was only two and a half weeks ago but so far, it’s worked. No mess on my floor. Every item has a home and that’s where I put it. The husband/pessimist says it’s just because I’m currently motivated; I think it’s the magic of tidying. Time will tell.

To sum up it up: SodaStream, Christmas break, pantry door, movies, meatloaf, and Marie.

(Hi, Marilyn. This blog post was for you.)

* Points are arbitrary and make little numerical sense/have unknown redemption value. I asked if I could trade in my eight meatloaf points for the new Instant Pot air fryer lid. Waiting to hear back. Fingers crossed.

I painted the front room blue. Now, before you think I’m super crazy, it’s a blue I pulled from the fabric wall just past the kitchen. (Wait, what? Fabric wall. Did you know you can turn fabric into wallpaper by applying it to the wall with liquid starch? Suuuuper easy and effective.) So I pulled a blue from the fabric and painted a couple walls in the front room/dining room that blue. And you know what? We like it. I also spruced up the rest of the walls with white, covering the dirty cream that was there to begin. There was also the matter of dying the existing curtains and painting the rods black as a manner of updating.  (Empty house photos are from the house listing.)

And now for the big one. The kitchen island. The project I’ve been waiting for since we moved in and lived with the silly oddly-shaped island with built-in indoor grill. We shopped around for cabinets and found that Klearvue cabinets from Menards fit our budget best. They’re cabinets you (*ahem* Dave) assemble yourself with bunches of options for combos. We also knew we wanted butcher block and – again- after shopping around, ordered a piece of butcher block actually marketed as a workshop table top.  It saved us hundreds of dollars (even more so because Dave was able to pick it up from a local warehouse to avoid shipping costs) and came in just the right size. And so a couple weekends ago, we demolished (and found a newspaper clipping from 1981) and assembled.

We have the toe kicks left to do and the shiplap to paint and more stools arrive tomorrow but it is usable and we are in love. Our neighbors stopped over the other night to see it and mentioned how – despite the island itself being huge – 3 x 8 feet – it actually makes our kitchen look bigger to be rid of the kidney bean formica island.

This past weekend we welcomed Dave’s sister and her family – two adults and three kids. We had to pull in extra stools but we all ate meals around the island. It was lovely. We also went to the Milwaukee County Zoo where we especially lingered with the flamingos, tiger, and elephants (real and shrubbery).

No post since the end of July? Uffda.

Things have been a bit crazy.

Let me catch you up on our whereabouts.

I mowed the lawn bunches of times. We fell in love with a cauliflower rice stir fry mix from Costco and have ate it three times in the last two weeks. Our bedroom has been (and still is) a disaster. I’ve binge-watched Veronica Mars whenever I’ve had a chance. More significantly —

I volunteered at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee for a couple days in August. I got to see some of my favorite SEMN synod friends who invited me to worship with them as if I had never left. 

We camped. We pulled the camper to Waupaca where we were able to stay AND also attend our niece’s birthday party in Stevens Point.  We had a wonderful weekend, weather-wise. Coffee on our campsite deck. Playground fun and s’mores when Dave’s sister and kids came to visit one evening. Sleeping with the windows open. A great visit with my Aunt Janice on the way home. All around lovely. We do love camping.

Four days later, we packed the car (+ dog) and headed for North Carolina to visit Dave’s brother and family. They have a backyard oasis complete with pool so we chilled (literally) there for a couple days (picture #4 below). We also set out to do some exploring in Greensboro and Roanoke (pictures #5 + 6). Super fun. Emmett met his cousin, mini golden doodle Marty, (picture #1) and had loads of fun playing in the backyard. Emmett also explored his first two arcades. We’ll definitely be back.

Let’s see … what else?

Oh, right. I GOT A JOB. Maybe you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to, not working and all. It was the agreement that upon moving I would take my own little sabbatical. I left church pretty tired and, really, I didn’t know the extent of how tired until I had said goodbye to Austin. This past summer was all about taking the dog for walks, spending time with Dave exploring our new place, and progressing projects around the house. But, alas, summer came to an end and it was time. I had applied for a few positions – mostly non-profits, a few I really hoped I’d at least get an interview – with no luck.

And then Thursday happened. I had an interview to be an elementary special education paraprofessional in a local school district and they hired me on the spot. (School has started, alas. They need their slots filled!) It’s part-time (9-3) and a good fit (fingers crossed) for this fall. Starting Monday, Emmett won’t get his lunch-time walk as I hang out with elementary schoolers instead of him. Sorry, bud.

Let’s throw a craft show in there too, shall we? I’ve been sewing up a storm because today I had my first show of the fall. It was just down the road at a pumpkin patch that was hosting a watermelon festival. (Follow? Me neither.) It was my first outdoor show and besides being a bit sunburned and suuuuper tired, we had a good day.  (Can you believe the adorable BOO pillow didn’t sell? I thought it’d be the first to go!)

And so that, my friends, is why I haven’t been great at blogging.

Chances of it improving in the weeks to come? Slim. Starting a job, demolishing a kitchen island (It’s almost new-kitchen-island time! New-kitchen-island time! Everything is ready to go, waiting in our garage. We just need to be home for a weekend!), prepping for a weekend of visitors with whom we will visit the Milwaukee Zoo, another craft show around the corner …

I guess I’ll see you when I see you. *shrugging emoji*

We had visitors a few weeks ago. Dave’s sister & kids, along with his parents, came to stay with us for a night. We played outside. We ate pizza. We visited the lighthouse and the park. There was a movie projected on the ceiling while laying on an air mattress and there were water beads. It was fun to show them around and let them explore the place we now call home.

Top left: Sidewalk chalk.
Top right: The nephews enjoy Dave’s latest game.

Bottom left: Niece E. crafting in the sunroom. A gal after my own heart.
Bottom right: Enjoying a snack while at the park.

Please be warned that what you’re about to see may shock you. It may hurt your eyes. You may feel dizzy. This is what the stairway to our basement looks like now, in addition to much of the basement floor —

It’s been Dave’s dream to have black light bowling alley carpet in his pinball lair. This is his dream come true. After they finished installing the carpet, Dave was just giddy. He continues work with lighting and electrical and then – hopefully soon – the arcade will materialize.

On the first floor of the house, this is the current state of our full bathroom. The new vanity and counter is in the garage; tile is stacked in the hall. Light fixture and faucet arriving this week. Here we go!

Emmett’s had bunches of fun lately. We’ll begin with his destructive side.

Many week ago now, Emmett and I got home from our typical lunchtime walk. I fixed myself lunch and sat down to eat up. The windows were open and both of our ears perk up to a ruckus outside. Emmett takes off at doggy speed; I follow at human speed. I come to the front door to find this —

Emmett had literally jumped through the screen door. To be fair, the screen was old and already pushed out. Apparently, Emmett had no trouble finding a new route outside where he found another dog – IN HIS YARD – running away from his owner up the street. It took a moment before I was able to grab Emmett but, thankfully, both dogs – as they frolicked around each other – didn’t leave the yard. Inside we went and to Ace Hardware went the screen door to be repaired.

On a less destructive note, Emmett has a new ride. Dave and I had always joked about getting a bike trailer – you know, the ones made for kids – for Emmett to ride around in while we went for bike rides. Lo and behold, a bike trailer – one actually designed for dogs – popped up on the Facebook marketplace. On a whim, not knowing if he would even like it, I jumped on it and had it in the back of my car by that evening.

There was an adjustment period but now HE LOVES IT. He is most certainly living his best life, head hanging out, breeze in his mustache. We find ourselves on many more bike rides now.

We camped this last weekend in Edgerton. It was super hot so we basically hung out in the air conditioned camper and in air conditioned relatives’ houses. We did go to A&W for the classic drive-up eating experience where Emmett got ice cream. ICE CREAM. We also went to my friend Krissy’s house for a pool party. He decided to jump in and then was terrified. Can you see how he is almost on top of Dave out of fear? (We think he might like swimming if he has a way out of the water. Not so much in a pool.)