From Blue to Neutral Purple

There are two empty bedrooms in the front of the house. The other one we stripped the wallpaper down to the drywall and had to start from there. This is the bedroom on the left, and was once a very ugly pink (I think). The previous owners painted over the wallpaper, so I painted over that with a dark peacock blue and a light blue over it. The texture hid a lot of the problems with the painted wallpaper

Apple Carrot Slaw

Lots of things are going on here. I'm working on a fairly large research project, we're getting the house finalized to list, Pete's settling into his job, and the animals continue their routines. While all of that goes on, we still cook almost every night. Cooking provides me a creative outlet. This slaw was inspired by a very complicated slaw recipe, but I wanted something super simple but also sweet. I pair this with tuna cakes (think crab cakes but with canned tuna), but it would be really great with anything grilled or brought to a BBQ.

I am a hockey fan

Dear NHL (and Mr. Bettmen),

I am a hockey fan, an actual, real-life hockey fan. I grew up going to Rochester Americans games. My parents were season ticket holders. My dad and his best friend would take me to games and we'd go to Nick Tahoes for garbage plates. I grew up with stories of Olie the Goalie, Jody Gage, and Wayne Gretzky. My dad is a die-hard Blackhawks fan. When they won the cup, he asked me to reach out to friends in Illinois to get the regional Sports Illustrated with the Blackhawks on the cover.

White Chocolate Peppermint Bark

First, I want to apologize for the lack of pictures. I've been asked a few times this holiday-prep season for the recipe for my White Chocolate Peppermint Bark, but I haven't made any myself yet. So, the few pictures I have from last year will have to do until I get around to making some in 2015 (which will be soon anyway).

Primer to Paint and Curtains

After we finished patching, sanding, patching, sanding, and patching and sanding some more, both sets of parents came over while I was out of town and primed the bedroom!

Painting Popcorn Ceilings

Two summers ago, we installed some window air conditioners. Yay for cool, dry air!

Did you know that when you install a window unit, it needs to be angled, ever-so-slightly so that it drains to the outside? Small, tiny detail. Super, duper important.

Ok, so water drained onto the wooden floor. It then dripped onto the ceiling in our dining room and then the ceiling looked like this.

From Wallpaper to Patched Drywall

We have two guest bedrooms on our second floor. They have always been ugly, and we knew they needed some love. So, in our effort to get our house ready to sell, we decided to tackle the guest bedroom on the right.

When we started, we thought "oh, removing the wallpaper will be easy! It should only take a couple of hours!"

We started with some ugly wallpaper, ugly trim, and seriously ugly drapes.