Weekend Wrap Up

This lovely-three-day-weekend was something of a circus at our house. Not surprisingly, we worked on a myriad of random projects and didn't finish a-one-of-'em. Apparently, we are just not a "one-room-at-a-time" type of couple. I've decided that we work in phases, and that we are in the process of finishing Phase One; a metaphorical [and somewhat literal] sweep of the entire house.

Since I have no final reveals to share, I thought I would just give an overview of some of the projects we worked on over the last three days. The one I'm most excited about is my office; Jeff painted the ceiling "Persimmon Red" -- it's not finished, but here's a sneak peek:

Jeff also gave an extra coat of "Powered Brick" to the formal room, and I continued to work on the trim-that-never-ends:

I also painted the front door gray one night when Jeff was at work. It's just a first coat, but I kind of love it. In the coming weeks, I'll take the door off of the hinges, paint the final coat, add new hardware, and photograph it properly -- but for now, here's a shot to give you an idea of where we're at:

Oh, and perhaps my favorite project from this weekend is the guest bedroom curtains. We found them in the attic when we moved in, and I was this close to throwing them out -- but Mom encourage me to save them. They look to be from the late 50s or early 60s, and I'm pretty sure they were custom made for the guest bedroom windows specifically. Mom and Dad surprised us by having them dry cleaned as a Christmas gift, and I finally got around to finding some hardware that would allow them to hang properly. The only problem is, I underestimated how much hardware I would need - so, er, I was only able to complete one window this weekend. Here's a peek at the fabric and the rigged hardware: 

Custom curtains are no joke, people.

In other-more-nerdier-news, Jeff is knee deep into his aquarium adventure. This weekend, he started the process of cleaning and assembling the tank:

Oh, what is that you say, you didn't know Jeff was into this sort of thing? Well, he is, and we are about to have a 90-gallon-salt-water-reef-tank in the man-cave to prove it.

To be fair, underneath all of my eye rolling, I am super impressed that Jeff even knows what any of this stuff is; no less, how to make an entire ecosystem grow inside of it. 

Random fact: Jeff also served as my muse for a project that I'm working on for school:

So yeah, on top of painting and hanging curtains and cleaning out a pump system in our carport, Jeff also did some hand modeling this weekend. What a trooper. 

More on all of these projects to come. Happy MLK Day, all!

Ryan

Tradition

Traditions are a funny thing.

This may or may not come as a surprise to you, but I am a sucker for a cause; and if you think about it, traditions are all just a bunch of little causes trying to make it. They're all just trying to stay relevant; and I have to be honest, I am rooting for them. I even considered putting a menorah up in our window this year (bring on the latkah, am I right?!), and I really want to do the whole Elf on a Shelf thing and I don't even have a kid. I just want to make memories, people.

Anyhow, this week, I started to take notice of all of the traditions Jeff and I adhere to. For one, we had our first spaghetti cook-off in the new house this week, which is what really got me thinking.

Let me explain.

A little over a year ago, Shelley and I were discussing the culinary nuances of Prego versus Ragu. I cook my spaghetti with Prego and she uses the lesser of the two Ragu. We debated the matter in detail and could not [by any means] come to an amicable end. Therefore, we did what sisters do, and decided to let our spaghetti do the talking. We had a good ol' fashioned cook-off. (While I knew this would end in tears for my Ragu-cooking-sister, I thought it was only fair.)

We have had a spaghetti cook-off about once a month ever since (save the months our kitchen was packed in a storage unit). On Wednesday of this week, we had our inaugural dinner at the house. Mom, Dad, and all of the kids were here. It was a particularly special night as it was also the day before Autumn's 12th birthday.

It was our first real family dinner at the house; and it was also the first time I looked around the kitchen and wished that Maw Maw was there to see everyone at the table.

It's funny, I don't know how old I was when I stopped spending the night at this house. I suppose I was probably around Autumn's age, but sometimes I have really vivid flashbacks of spending time here when I was little. They always hit me at the oddest times; like when I wake up to get some water in the middle of the night, or when I am about to go to bed. (There has never been a lot of overhead lighting in this house, so it must be something about the lamp-light that brings back these memories.) Anyhow, this picture of Autumn made me particularly nostalgic. She is sitting in what used to be her great grandmother's house. How is that for some tradition?

And then there's this guy:

 

The person with whom I have so many traditions. The guy who comes from a beautifully nuclear and normal family, yet didn't bat an eye the day I pulled out the flow chart to explain how I'm related to my siblings. The guy who doesn't even let out a sigh when I say that we're having everyone over for spaghetti and cake (on his one night off) -- and oh yeah, can you please pick up some garlic bread and buy some balloons. The guy who took on a second job, so that we could remodel the house while I'm in grad school, and then lights the candles on my niece's birthday cake. For me, this guy is what family is about; and just look at him -- he's gorgeous, too.

Honestly, I love all of our weird-spaghetti-cooking-traditions, and this time of year always gets me sappy about my family even if I know they all secretly prefer Shelley's spaghetti because it has meat in it. So what if I'm not Jewish and don't have any kids; I'm putting up a menorah tomorrow -- and that elf is going to be on my shelf by morning.

Happy merry everything, all. Here's to making ridiculous traditions with the ones you love.

Ryan