An ending summer weekend.

I had an eventful three days this weekend. Friday evening, the museum where I manage the event rentals had a grand opening/annual meeting for all of its members to unveil a huge addition of their museum that includes a “Carousel of Innovation.” We had about 550 people show up to the event, and while I had to leave to go to a wedding rehearsal at my church, I heard it went really well. It’s not surprising that people were impressed with this beautiful, new, handcrafted carousel full of figures of innovation from our region.

I’m also the wedding coordinator for my church, so as I mentioned above, I had a wedding to assist with this weekend. It was a simple, yet beautifully reverent wedding. {And I loved the dark blue with the pop of yellow & grey colors too.}

Then Saturday night we had a wonderful evening with my parents and my friend Sarah. They came to see our new windows & painted floor. We cooked hamburgers on the grill, fresh tomatoes & corn on the cob from my parents’ garden, baked beans, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was a perfect Summer meal to enjoy the weekend before my mom & Eugene head back to school to teach.

Sunday was a great sermon on trusting the Lord {Proverbs 3:5-6}, and just plain being lazy all afternoon. So peaceful. I relish weekends like these. Next week is back to school/work for Eugene & the craziness of being at a new school teaching all new classes starts. I’m sure it’ll get hectic and stressful, but I’m thankful for the rest this weekend has provided us.

New windows.

Did you guess it from my hint picture the other day?

See the beauty in the background? That’s our brand spankin’ new picture window. And the nice thing about it – it matches the rest of our 13 other brand new windows in the house. :)

Oooh la la!

Our windows were the house’s original windows…FIFTY-SIX years old.

After a ton of estimates and demos that poor Eugene endured, we decided to go Windows Depot because they offered the best window for the best deal. I like to keep track of what things are costing on this blog, and I find it helpful to budget my own home renovations when I can see/read how much it cost for someone else. So our 14 total windows with the front half having the decorative grids came to a total of $4,848.00. We’re pretty pleased with the price especially since the quality of windows, and the service and installation were great.

How about some more pictures?

The original windows were disgusting – no matter how much I cleaned them. They were dusty, mildewed {is that a word?}, broken panes in a couple rooms, needed a piece of wood to hold them open, and had countless broken screens. {We’ll miss the fireflies that hung out in our bedroom at night thanks to the broken screens.}  The new windows make the house feel so much cleaner, safer, newer, and open. It’s crazy how much larger the picture window in the living room seems, even though it’s about 1/2 inch smaller than the original! We’re absolutely trilled with them & how they hugely improve the house. :)

Name that flower.

These odd flowers just showed up one day in our back yard. I’m too tired/lazy to google it, so if anyone knows the name of these flowers pass it on to me, will ya?

They’re super pretty, smell sweet, and are pretty common around our neighborhood.  They’re odd little things though – no leaves at all.

Oh, and my mom asked me to post pics of her house so my sister can see her flowers {my sister lives 16 hours away from us.} I’ve talked about it on here plenty, but my mom does such a great job with her flowers. My sister would love to see how pretty it looks, so here’s a few pictures to share the happy blooms with ya, Casey!

My mom’s got a natural gift for landscaping. :) Big post coming on Saturday showing the house improvements. Maybe she’ll know the name of the odd flowers in my backyard that popped up as a happy surprise from the previous owners?

Humming bird, brownie twist, and a hint.

I’ve been so so so busy lately – mainly with my new job. I’ve been pushing 55 hour weeks and driving 45 minutes there & back has been sucking lots of my time. But I’m very thankful for a job, and each day it seems to get a bit better and I get a bit less overwhelmed. In fact, today I took a break for lunch {my first in the 2 1/2 week’s I’ve been there.} It’s not that they don’t let me take breaks, I just feel like I have so much to accomplish that I’d rather just work through.

All that to say that the blog’s been a suffering because all of my time’s been spent at work which equates to no time to work on house projects and no life updates and no time to edit pics or write a blog post. I’m alright with it though. I’m sure it’ll get better.

Okay, so here’s a random, short, weird post for ya though.

Here’s a pic of a humming bird at Eugene’s parents’ place, through their sliding glass door. I tried to get closer pics, but once I stepped outside they were no where to be found.

And I made a creative twist on some boxed brownies last night. I had to lead a full staff meeting for the employees I manage at work, and these chocolate peanut butter brownies were a pretty big hit.

Super complicated recipe. Not.

Make the boxed brownies, melt about 1/2 cup of peanut butter in the microwave, drizzle the peanut butter into the brownie batter in straightish lines, use a knife to marble the batter/peanut butter, bake like normal, and enjoy. It’s that easy.

I lined the brownie pan with foil that I sprayed with cooking oil. I learned this baking the America’s Test Kitchen Blondies. Makes it super easy to lift the brownies out of the pan, slice & serve.

Lastly, I have a huge, uber exciting post on a big house update coming soon. Here’s your hint. :)

Nope, it’s not about the pup. {He’s still the same goofy dog that he’s always been}. Much more on that big ol’ happy update in a day or so!

Road rescue.

Check this out.

Eugene & I were on a bike ride when we found these huge, solid wood benches on the side of the road. I knocked on the door of the house just to make sure they were free for the taking, and sure enough they were! We quickly biked back, hopped in the car & rescued this great find.

Here’s my brainstorm. I’m not sure if it’ll be too big for the kitchen, but it’s at least worth a try!

{Please don’t judge the messy garage in the background!}

Here’s some of my inspiration pics…

{source: http://theinspiredroom.net/diy/banquette-idea-use-ikea-cabinets/}

{source: http://saltwaterwishes.tumblr.com/page/6}

{source: http://frugaldesigngirl.com/2009/11/05/diy-built-in-kitchen-banquette-seating/}

{source: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/97121/list/kitchen-ideas}

It’s low on the list of things to do just cause what we have works just fine, but I’m pretty pumped about the FREE road rescue! :)

Clydesdales.

My new job is located at a historical outdoor museum, so I’m experiencing all new types of events now. For example, we had the Budweiser Clydesdales on display this entire week. I happened to catch them bright and early one morning when their trainers were just starting to take them on a walk before the crowds came to admire the huge horses. I snapped a few picture to share…

I love morning the morning sun. Hope ya’ll have a happy Monday. :)