Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you and yours a very merry holiday season and a happy new year!

:)

Fireplace update

We have fire!

This is really, really fun!

Can't wait to snuggle up to the fire and geek out with a Battlestar Galactica marathon this weekend ;)

De-skeeving

This is a small thing, but it's not so bad for 15 minutes of work...

We have this butcher block counter top on just a small section of our kitchen cabinets. I have scrubbed this gross crud to death and usually have a huge glass cutting board covering as much of the counter top as possible.

So John got his inner-Norm-Abrams on and sanded this sucker down with our beloved power sander:

Then I broke out my beeswax furniture polish I had been saving for such an occasion:

There are still some marks, but it is really so much better than before. 

Lessons learned - 1) existing butcher blocks can be sanded and refinished pretty easily and 2) don't put butcher block counters in if you can avoid it...

Firenze prints

In Firenze, in June, John and I purchased a couple of prints of antique measuring instruments. 5 months later, we ventured over to Michaels, coupon in hand, to get these items framed:

I was hesitant when we got there because most of their frames are, like, really ornate and ostentatious. But we wanted something modern and simple and I had a moment of ugghhhhhh!!

But John found this brushed bronze metal frame and the incredibly helpful and patient women who was running the framing department picked out this dark taupe silky linen fabric matte:

The print is "over-matted" so the loose threads around the perimeter are visible. And the mix of textures and shine - it's just really awesome.

We put the prints on either side of the doorway. Also, it seems that you don't actually need the physical coupon to get the discount at Michaels, they'll give it to you if you are breathing and in their store. However, with the discount you will still be paying about one arm and one leg to get a few things framed.

Now we need to get serious about a chandelier and dining table and chairs! Gah!