Letters

Dear Target,

I hate you.

What's up with you always being out of the items I want or need? Cat food. Black cotton socks. Nutrigrain waffles. Organic 1% milk. Corn Flakes. Furnace Filter. Frozen mixed vegetables.

Get it together or I'm gone.

Martha



Dear Guy at our Arkansas office,

Sorry I walked into the men's bathroom while you were peeing.

I don't know where my head was....I really don't. I mean, I was heading straight toward the ladies bathroom and then took that fateful right turn into the men's. What was I thinking?? I don't know. My bad.

Nice shirt, though.

My apologies,
Martha

p.s. I totally changed out of my shocking pink sweater and into my white jacket after that....so you wouldn't recognize me. Did it work?



Dear Guy sitting next to me on the flight to Atlanta,

How nice were you?? Thanks for all of your help at the airport. Not many people will go out ieof their way to show us to the gate we needed. Especially at 10pm!
We had to run to the gate, but all 12 us made to our connecting flight. Then? after we were settled and ready to go? 10 more were let on the plane. Whew, huh?

And, yes, you were right: my luggage didn't make it with me.....
Which means that after getting in at 1 am, and then sleeping for a mere 4 hours, I had to truck it to my Mom's house and borrow her hair dryer and make-up.
And then? I used the wrong makeup brush and ended up with bronzer all over my face instead of the BareMinerals foundation I was using. So my FACE looked like it had been to the Caribbean? But my NECK looked like I stayed in Minnesota.

Good times.

Thanks again!!
Love,
Mart

Happy Halloween!

Hope you had a good one!

We went 'round and 'round about a costume this year. Noodle always wants some store-bought costume like this one:

As it got closer to Halloween, I finally told her we could think of something a little more zany and original.


I always want her to dress up as a food item.
Because it's all about me.

I especially liked this one from the Food Network website:


She was horrified. She hates the food idea.

Well, how about this one? (I pull this photo out every year. It's from Ladies Home Journal)

I mean come ON!! What's not to love about a fortune cookie on your noggin, huh??

HUH???




So we went here and explored and she finally found one she liked:



It's hard to take a photo of something so shiny, but she was an iPod. With a glowing screen courtesy of many blue glow sticks taped inside her costume. Zuddy was so into it that he did the whole thing. All we had to do was show him a photo.


Later on, our neighbor Jenny came over before going to her Halloween party, dressed up as guess who?

Screamin' Deal House Tour

How 'bout a little fixer-upper, huh?

I just know my Internets will love this house. It's in a great neighborhood super close to one of the lakes.

SUPER close.

It's also SUPER close to the airport, but it's been sound-proofed.

It's got 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and 1700 square feet of living space. Built in 1937, it's listed at $269,900.

I look at this house and all I can see is possibilities. Starting with the front of the house:


Isn't it cute? I think a little landscaping and a new paint color could make it downright perfect!





The dining room. 13x11.






The kitchen:

Dang. I hate it when this happens with the photos. I have no idea why they are so small! I even tried making it larger with tricks from Sarah at Clover Lane, but I just can't get it to work.

Anyway, it's a nice size and just needs a little updating. Slap some paint on those cupboards and Viola!!

You'd have painted cupboards and harvest gold countertops and appliances!

Ha!

Okay, you'd still need to replace the flooring, countertops and appliances, but that wouldn't be too hard.

Unless you were me.

And then it would take you 3 or 4 years.

Anyhoo...the kitchen is 14x10.



The living room...it's 21x13. In my world, that's a nice-sized living room.

Aaaah. The fireplace. So cute. I'd love one of those. And don't you love the doors going out to the 3 season porch?




The "Master" bedroom....it's 21x14:




The patio.




The rear view of the house.

She needs a little badunkadunk in her trunk, don't you think? I think a pergola would give her what she needs.


So, what do you think, Internets?

The Real Tragedy Of An Early Snowfall....

The half-painted garage. Tragic.

Don't worry...it's supposed to be nice on Sunday and I'm buying more paint today. I SWEAR we will be finishing this project.
Swear.
Pinkie-swear.

I just typed SWEAR so many times that it looks kind of funny now......



Anyway, here's another shot of the snow looking out at our neighbor's house:





Click on the photo to enlarge it and see if you can tell what's different about the flag.


So, yeah. That kitchen was totally depressing wasn't it?

Well, don't worry. Your old pal Marty here was searching the Finished Kitchens blog for a fabulous kitchen makeover.

Oh - there are tons of them on that site. Total kitchen love.

But I wanted to find one that was realistic. A normal everyday kitchen that was given JUST a facelift.
No $10,000 ranges from France.
No kitchen designer.
NO custom cabinets.

A facelift that could've been performed on that sweet little Dutch colonial's kitchen that was RUINED by that horrid circa 1992 makeover.

Maybe the person that buys that cute little Dutch colonial will want to do what these people have done.



See here? Do you see the ugly cabinets and the icky blue countertops?

And Hello? Look at that floor.....my kitchen floor exactly (except darker).



Well, paint is a powerful thing, isn't it?












Here's another shot. The lighting isn't as good, but you can still see how the floor disappears......


And did you see Rue's makeover? Check it. Awesome.

House Flip!

Guess what?

One of the houses that I've put on this blog has been flipped!!

Oooo, this is so much fun! Now you get to see what was done to it!

Ready? Oohh-KAY! (I was a cheerleader in HS...and not the good kind that does impressive flips...I just stood there, ignored the game, clapped, gossiped and applied lip gloss. Hey - at least I'm honest about it. Don't judge.)


Okay, first of all, I showed this one as a fixer-upper here. The asking price was 164k.
This was last December. Well, it's been on the market for a couple of months (I think...I saw it a while ago and just got around to posting about it today.) and now the price is 232k. Still low, but what they've done to the kitchen. Oh boy.

I think whoever did the kitchen is from 1992. I think they hopped out of the Way-Back Machine, worked on the kitchen and went back to 1992. You'll see in a second.

So here's the before photo of the front:




And the after.


Much better, don't you think?




The living room before:




And after....






Okay, here it is. The kitchen, before:






And after.

See what I mean? 1992.



Here's another shot:


I'm really sad about it.



Here's the rear of the house before:



And after....sorry, I can't seem to make this image larger. But you can see they've moved the door and removed a couple of windows.




Tell me what you think, Internets!

By the way? Snowing again today! I'll take a photo and post it later.

Still Nesting.....

Yep.

Can't help it, because it snowed here today.

And I got the new Pottery Barn catalog....which is never a good cure for a case of the "gimmes", is it?

Let's review the most up-to-date wants and gimmes, shall we?




Look at this fun little compact buffet! How cute is that? What, with it's distressed finish and sparkly mirror? Love it.




Here's the same thing in a bigger version without the hutch.









Storage and lighting is my theme today...did I mention that?

No?

Okay, well.....Storage and lighting is my theme today.





I would love one of these in my dining room. You know what I'd use it for?


I'd take whatever is sitting on top of it - which would most likely be papers, pens, stray pencils, bobby pins, hair elastics - could be anything. Anyway, I'd take that stuff, open the drawer and swipe it all into the drawer.

Viola! Ready for company!




I'm keeping my eyes open for lighting above my kitchen sink.

Actually, I'm fine with what we've currently got there except for one thing: it's not easy to change the light bulb. I got a cheapitty-cheap-mccheaperton light fixture from Target and it's so low quality that the whole thing twists and turns when I try to unscrew the light bulb.


So, I'm loving this one, but something tells me it won't be a total joy to change the light bulb in this one, either.





Or this one:





This one looks like it would be okay:




And wouldn't one (or two or three) of these fun to have?



You can just pop it on a bookshelf or perhaps on top of your piano? Which, incidentally, is covered in contact paper.

Momma's Got A New Slipcover....,

My Mommy made it for me! For free!

The fabric is a cotton duck and it cost $27....can't beat that!




Now all of the furniture is getting a new cover! Woo Hoo!

.....But then I'll have to paint the walls....
and the woodwork, of course.

And I'm going to need new silk curtains, I'm afraid.

You know how it goes, don't you internets?

Yes, you do.