whatever

answers.

first thing.....

apparently the awesome quote came from the show How I Met Your Mother.
i have only seen that show twice so i googled it.
here it is.

i want to say that i know OF COURSE it's not easy to just overcome being sad.
and i wasn't sad.
just feeling BLAH.

it's january.
that is what i do.

but i do really like the idea of BEING AWESOME.
:)
i mean just say it out loud  "today i will be awesome"
you will feel it.
it's helpful.
i dare you to try it.

OK.
great questions girls...i love to answer questions.

question one:
what is your favorite NON-disney movie?

i have a bunch.   
i will share by category:
   
suspense - Signs 
                The Fugitive 

drama -  i can't think of any!!! i am blank.

chick flick - Julie & Julia.
   
i love so much about this movie.
i love the blogging.
i love the acting....meryl streep is just....amazing.
what i love the most....the love between paul and julia.  it's beautiful.
"it was julia.  it was julia all along"
makes me tear up.

i also love...You've Got Mail 
                  Sleepless in Seattle 

romance -  The Holiday
                 The Family Man
                 anything where i get to look at Mr. Clooney 

comedy -  Parenthood is a CLASSIC.
               The Money Pit also a CLASSIC. 
               and to me....anything with Vince Vaughn or Will Ferrell...

action - Bourne Identity...Bourne Supremecy....Bourne Ultimatum
             Mr and Mrs. smith....they are both just so easy on the EYES!!!

question two:
what's going on in the dining room?!! 

well whenever i take pictures i don't like them much....so i have been waiting.
but i am just going to show you.
the light is funky until like 20 minutes before sunset and then i'm making dinner.
so these are from this morning. 





print is from the wheat field....matte is micheal miller fabric.




print from studio mela....matte is an old map.

all my frames are from the thrift shop or antique store....i have been collecting for years.
the yellow lamps were silver from a garage sale 10 years ago.


now the red box is across the room and i asked sean to display his lego space shuttle in that space.  :)
it's perfect size and pretty safe from being knocked over and it's in view instead of in a box.


pool table....from a friend's garage.  foos ball table...from a friend.  and now a ping pong (dining room) table for $10.

dining room twice a year....game room the other 363 days.


 

that caricature is of lauren when she was little made at Six Flags.  i found it again...i love it.
also her octopus art made in first grade.

the chandelier is from the kane county flea market in may of 2010.



bird canvas is from Pier One....in a antique store frame.
craig's chairs are from craigslist.  
now his friends can sit down inbetween turns playing pool.  :)




my sister painted this for me for my birthday.  
SIGH.
i told you i love cow paintings.....and this.....i LOVE.
also in an identical frame from the antique store. 

the paint color on the walls is antique white.
the trim is done in Kilz primer first then Ultra Bright Behr semi-gloss paint. 

question three:
does your hairstyle have a name for me to tell my stylist?

i am pretty sure it's called a wedge haircut....amy please speak up if i am wrong.

 

 

 

 

question four:
where in the world would you like to visit?

i think anywhere tropical is where i would want to spend time with craig...all alone for a long time.
this was in google images....don't you just feel GOOD when you look at it?
i can practically smell the ocean.
mr. duerksen.....are you looking?  can you feel it???


but i also really want to see more of Africa.
all over Africa.
i want to see it...experience it....meet people....open my eyes...help where i can....love who i can....
ALL OF IT.

i want to have africa in my heart forever.

question five:
when did you decide to start charging for photography?
when people started asking me to take their family pictures.
they encouraged me and built up my confidence with compliments and telling their friends about me.
i charged a small amount at first so i could get experience and decide if i even enjoyed it as work.
when i realized i did then i just went for it.
it was scary.  and vulnerable.
but worth it.


question six:
what do you do all day with the kids in school?
enjoy a quiet house.
i spend a lot of time on the computer....blogging, answering email and reading blogs.
i do laundry, i pick up the house (a little), i go to the grocery store (UGH...this is so old to me....i am over it).
i workout a few times a week.
i edit photos from may - november and then hopefully sew from january - april for my etsy shop.
i read my bible study stuff or a book to help me cope for that given day
(Crazy Love....Praying the Sriptures for your Children...Love and Logic...5 Love Languages....)
i make dinner.  
if i am tired i take a nap.
this next few weeks i will be purging all the closets and rooms of all the JUNK.
bags and bags i am sure.
i am not a schedule kind of girl.
i am the opposite.  
so i just do what i need to for that day...and what i feel like doing....schedules make me crazy.
and i like to go to lunch if my friend asks or run to target in wichita on a whim.


question seven:
where do you find inspriation?
blogs.  
blogs are so cool.
anything you could want....it's there!  

occasionally i go to B&N and get a BIG pile of books and magazines i want to look at...a coffee...and i sit.

but knowing i will sound like an old lady....
it's usually too loud in there.
the music is ok but someone is ALWAYS blabbing away on their cell phone.
i cannot stand that.
and with my ADD brain i can't focus on anything but that person on the phone...driving me crazy.
i bring my iPod now and try my very best to tune them out.
 

question eight:
how do you take indoor pictures with out a flash?

i usually shoot in P because years ago Karen Russell said that is what she shoots in (or did at the time).
and i change my ISO to a higher number because you need more light in when you're inside.
i also change my White Balance to whichever setting we are using....Sun symbol if it's lit well from the windows...
or AWB it's just overheard lighting.
i honestly do not like my inside photos...but if you do....that is how i get them.
i feel i need to learn a LOT about my camera still....every day.
indoor pictures are hard for everyone....i think. 

our house has lots of big windows so in the day we have good light but i think you were asking about at night?
 

this is at night.
all the lights are on...chandliers and recessed lighting...brightly lit...my ISO was probably 1600...on AWB.
did i answer your question?

question nine:
what do you use to edit your pictures?

every photo that has been on this blog has been edited in iPhoto or Picnik.
i did buy Photoshop but STILL haven't loaded it.
who has time for this?!!
i need to do it but i just feel overwhelmed and don't want to fail.
soon.
soon.
soon.  

question ten:
what kind of make-up do you use?
in june 2010 my friend Kimberlee took me for a MAC-over. 

it was fabulous.
i was hooked.
i love using grown up make-up....i feel pretty (oh so pretty...i feel pretty and witty and...ok i will stop now).
i want to do a whole post about it sometime....with video.  :)    
would you like that?
but my mascara that was asked about specifically....Maybeline Great Lash.
cheapy in the green and pink package.
love it.
use it everyday. 
************************************************************************************************* 

ok...more questions to be answered tomorrow.
THANKS for asking.  
now i will return to my cleaning binge.

much better.

oh how it helps to exercise!!!

it's totally part of the making of the AWESOME-ness in a day.

YAY for treadmills in assisted living facilities that no one is in at noon so i can watch what i want guilt free.

*******************************************************************************************

right now i am watching my favorite disney movie with my two little girls.


 
it is so funny.....david spade....so sarcastic.  
i love this movie.

my favorite.

"cheese me no likey"

*******************************************************************************************

 

SO...i seem to have nothing to tell you about.

do you have any questions you have been dying to ask me?

 

answers

it was so nice to hear that you all agreed the afters were better than the befores
of our kitchen remodel.
ha ha ha.

you had lots of questions and i have lots of answers.

how long did the remodel take?  

3 months...november - january.

how did you survive?  

we moved the refrigerator into the living room...set up a folding table also with throw away utensils
and the microwave...and that was what we used.  
it was kind of crazy but so much changed in the new kitchen everyday that it was exciting.

how did you decide what you wanted? 

we remodeled our kitchen LAST in our home in illinois and then we moved.
all that work and money and we didn't even get to enjoy it.  so when we bought this house we decided
we would do the kitchen FIRST because it is the most important room to us.
i knew i wanted the exact same cabinets i had in my IL. kitchen.
i had a baby at home so i spent hours and hours sitting and dreaming up what to do.
and i had years of magazines pictures in a file that i used to put it together.

did you design it?

yes.  i designed it all.  i like to draw so i gave my detailed drawings to the cabinet guy brad and our contractor bernie and said " do it like this".  
i wonder where those are now???

can we move in?
 
that depends...are you good at laundry?  cooking? cleaning?  i may consider it if you are....

is that a real chalkboard or just chalkboard paint?

it is an old school chalkboard...running the other way...from a garage sale.
(sarah has the paint on the wall and it looks great too...so if you can't find a huge chalkboard at a  
garage sale...do what she did!)
the kids' dinnertime chores are written way at the top.

what kind of dog is that?

waffle is a golden doodle...half poodle/half golden retreiver.  and he needs a haircut.
they do shed and i don't know if they are hypoallergenic.
but if his hair is short...there is practically no shedding at all.
our friends had one liter of these in 2008.
this entire liter of puppies is the happiest bunch of dogs i have ever seen!
but they aren't having anymore puppies unfortunately...and i don't know anyone else to find one for you.
check your classifieds or google golden doodles in your area.
(those are the most frequent questions i am asked about waffler)
 
how did you have the patience for a kitchen remodel?

craig and i are a good team.  
he likes my designs (at least he says he does)...he is very flexible and encouraging with my vision/ideas.
i really like how hard of a worker he is.
we both like to get good deals.
and we take our time figuring out what we want.
and he is such a good painter!  he is so detailed.
so much so that he's asked me to stop painting a few times...because i was so messy he wanted me to go.
 
working with all men (contractors, electricians, plumbers, carpenters) can be a challenge because i don't like confrontation and i really don't like being treated like a dumb girl.
and that happens every once in awhile...but not too much.
i know what i want when it comes to my home down to the last detail.
so that caused some tension for me sometimes...and of course...tears because i am a girl.
but other than that...it doesn't take too much patience when you are so excited.
bernie, our contractor, showed up EVERYDAY and worked all day till the job was finished.
he rocks.
he never made me cry.  :)

and i have a few kids around here to distract me...helping with the patience. 

what made you decide to put in the wall of windows?

that side of the room was previously a porch.
in the 70's or 80's the homeowners enclosed it with 12 skinny tall windows and a door.
none of them worked anymore.  
we decided to use 6 big windows and closing up the space where the door had been...
gaining 3 more feet of counter space in the process.


the wall with wood slats is gone and a steel support beam is in it's place.
the door on the left is now a wall (with the red EAT letters)
the floor was cement on this half and slanted because it was a porch.
it had to be leveled and then the wood floor laid down across both rooms. 

stop looking at my dirty dishes!  
   
do your wood floors stand up well to high traffic?

yes.
i am in love with wood floors.
we have no carpet i our entire house...and only 2 rugs.  one of them came with the house!
they are scratched in a few places but i don't mind.  
and i HATE to vaccuum.

how should i paint my cabinets?

these are all new cabinets painted by the cabinet makers....so i can't help you with that.

where did you get your slipcoverd sofas?

the white ones are from world market.  the blue is an old couch from our IL. days...

what color is the paint on your walls?

you know...in the mess of the remodel we threw out the can.
after we'd used literally every single drop and we don't know what color it is!  
that is BAD.      
it is a creamy off white...just different enough from the bright white cabinets to show a difference.
it's not yellow.

where did you get your chandeliers?

chicago jenny gave me one for our IL kitchen.
she had taken it out of her house and it was sitting in her garage!!
she walked into our new kitchen and started laughing and called her husband in to show him
my new light i had bought at the flea market.  identical to hers...that she was getting rid of.
so when we moved to kansas she gave it to me as a going away gift. :)

best gift ever.
so i had two chandeliers that were nearly the same.  
yes...i took my light from my IL. house.  we put in a different one though...

some of my friends were here yesterday baking for their friends fundraiser...it was a blast.
but you can see the chandelier.
(and i need some more globes...any one have one they don't want anymore   :) 

i find chandeliers at antique stores and flea markets.  
my friend diana gave me one from her dining room and it's in my bathroom.
they were all brass and i spray paint them white.
  
should i take my cherry cabinets out and put in white?

that quesiton is too big for me.
it's a personal preference.  you want to be happy in your home...so you have to decide that for you.
i like cherry too...they are pretty. 

where did you get your roman shades?

a little place called the home depot. 

how do you keep the white cabinets so clean?

ha ha ha.
now that is just funny.
right now i can see spaghetti sauce...footprints...hot cocoa splatters...all kinds of gunk on them.
you just have to wipe them off like everything else.
but you can use clorox clean up at least.  
and annie loves to use cleaning wipes...often the cabinet cleaning job goes to her on saturday mornings.

what kind of appliances do you have?

the dishwasher is a kitchenaid from best buy.  it's great!  it get used every single day 365 days a year.
(except i guess you aren't supposed to put pieces of broken glass or bobby pins in them...who knew?)
the cooktop and double oven are Jenn-Air and we bought them off ebay.
one was a floor model with a scratch and one was an older model...but still looked great to us.
the refridgertor is GE and we got it at sears.
the microwave is GE from home depot.

do you help people with decorating dilemmas?

no one has ever done what i suggest.
ever.
so i will say no.  

can we see the rest of your house?

no..it's too messy.
just kidding.  there is a photo album in the left sidebar...if you haven't seen that.
but i do have a few more before and afters to show sometime. 
but the afters are too messy to show you today.     

so that is that.
any other questions?