Where did my husband go!

I hate August! It always brings the season of farm shows here in the Mid West and with my husbands job he gets swept away never to be seen again until after the shows are broken down.

This week is the National Farm Progress show in Boone, Iowa. People from all over the country come to view machinery and watch all the demos provided by the farm equipment corporations. Usually when these occur I go about a week with out him, this time there was a week of set up and them a week for the show itself. He would leave at 7am an not return until 10/11pm :( it even went through this past weekend which completely cut out our time.

This week I am thankful that I will be leaving as well while this is all going on. Did I mention my best friend is getting married!!! Wahoo! I am headed to Ithaca,NY for a few days of wedding prep and some quality time with the BFF before she ties the knot.

It's going to be such a lovely weekend with great people and beautiful surroundings in upstate NY. I will miss G but am really looking forward to this day.

Can't wait to post photos!

Don’t skimp on good tape

I learned my lesson this weekend when repainting the trim in our mud room.

 

I wish I were the type of person that could let little nicks in edging go un-noticed but I can not. It makes it look unfinished and even though it’s tiny if you have this go all the way around the room like it did for me a little thing can become a big thing.

My project was to repaint the trim in the entire mud room, if you read my rant last week about “Why would they do that” meaning, why would the previous owners paint the trim the same color as the wall, then you would know my frustration with this room.

To save money I bought masking tape to tape the edges of the room. It seemed like the same stickiness to me and pulled off without being too sticky. But after all the time taping I was left with an entire room of blotchy paint edges due to the paint leaking under the tape.

HOW FRUSTRATING! It’s even more frustrating when you have a husband even pickier then you that will point out every little spot.

Instead of re-taping and touching up I bought a little thing I like to call “Magic”.

This isn’t the exact one I purchased but close enough. It had two refill pads and cost $2.98. With a steady hand it will do wonders to paint perfect edges or clean up those blotchy messes created by taping.

                               {Before}                                                             {After}

The great thing is you only have to hit the spots that NEED touched up without having to paint everything else.

Cutting in all the edges was super easy as well and actually made this quite fun. Bye Bye Fugly!

Almost there!

Finished!

{Before}

{After}

I will probably paint this door white as well to go with the other three doors to this mudroom but the white trim looks much better breaking up the trim from the wall color and wood floors.

{Before}

{After}

G still REALLY hated the periwinkle on the surrounding three walls and would like to eventually paint the rest of them khaki as well but I kind of like the off set walls. I would always love to create a little place for shoes to go under the coat & hat rack. There are so many great ideas on Pinterest but it will take a little time. For now I am just glad to have this room completed.

Now if I could only have the mental strength to tackle the guest bathrooms sponge mania…

along with the master bath….

Iowa State Fair: Deep Fried Smorgusbord & Fair Squares

If you are from the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area then you most likely have been to a Smorgusbord restaurant meaning; a plethora of various foods served buffet style. It’s an all you can eat, don’t stop til your pants pop, experience that you probably only want to participate in on special occasions.

This past week I experienced my first Iowa State Fair! I knew that it would be big since it’s rank in the top 5 state fairs that you must experience but I wasn’t sure what to expect. G and I headed down last Sunday for the day to see what it was all about. Immediately I was amazed by the grounds of the fair. Paved pathways, show and livestock building that look like museums from the outside, and food vendors in every corner. 

{ Grand Avenue}

{ John Deere Agriculture Building }

On Sunday we stay about 3.5 hours and saw as much as we could before calling it quits to head home. 3.5 hours is nothing at this scale, we missed so much but my husband does not do crowds well and so it’s better to leave then stay since he wouldn’t have enjoyed it.

We did get the chance to see the livestock barns and to my surprise met Reggie the 1,334lbs boar! Seriously this picture does no justice to the size of this guy.

After this we felt a need to go eat some pork so we stopped for lunch and got two pork sandwiches at $7 bucks a piece.

The next thing we ventured onto was the “Arm Wrestling” tournament… G’s favorite part of the fairs are watching these types of events. When we lived in South Dakota we always had to go watch the “Strongest Man” competition, now it’s the arm wrestling. This may sound awful but the reason he loves these events it because they come with PRIME people watching real-estate. We get up front and center to watch these people who think that are the worlds strongest man, weighing in at 140lbs, walk around psyching themselves up only to come in dead last. Mean??? I think not, they put themselves in these positions and we kindly just sit and watch. No heckling, name calling, or gestures are sent in their direction. It’s just another conversation we can laugh at later in our own private time. This was a packed audience and I highly doubt that there weren’t others in the crowd with the same ideas as G and I.

On Friday evening we went back to the fair grounds. G volunteered to work at the New Holland tent and we had also been gifted Hank Williams Jr. concert tickets for that night. I was happy to go and walk the fair grounds alone that evening because sometimes you just got to ditch the husband to experience the things you want to see. I guess that seems weird to some ladies out there but really I am quite comfortable doing things on my own whether it be shopping, eating in a restaurant, or even riding the sky ride by myself at the state fair!

 

As soon as I saw this I knew I HAD to go on it. I pointed it out Sunday and G said he didn’t want to so on Friday I spent the $6 bucks on my own and rode the sky ride! It’s way neater to see the fair from above. The one thing I was dumb to forget was that I HATE heights… I’m actually quite terrified and as the lift started going higher and higher I was holding on for dear life. Once I got my bearings down I took some great photos from above.

{Looking out to the Midway area}

{Farm Bureau Building}

{Des Moines, Iowa skyline}

{Bud Tent}

{Grand Avenue}

{Food Anyone}

Speaking of food…There’s an App for that! Seriously! There is an Iowa State Fair Food app that is free that tells you all the food, where to can find it on the grounds, and the nutritional value of all the items! I had to show some self control because EVERYTHING smelled heavenly. There were lots of traditional fair foods but lots that were re-invented!

Instead of just a corn dog you could get a corn dog dipped in bacon bits, then dumped, fried, and wrapped in bacon!

Why have a deep fried pickle when you can devour a pickle coated with sour cream, deep fried, and wrapped in bacon.

Speaking of bacon… how about bacon coated in chocolate in a stick?

Deep fried oreos, twinkies, BUTTER, icecream, twix, mac n cheese!

I could’ve seriously have tried it all but I didn’t try any of it. The one thing I had to buy though was a Fair Square! How cute is that name! It’s a rice crispy treat on a stick and let me tell you for $2 bucks it was WELL worth it. It had to have been a 4”x5” square of pure joy that I ate. YUM

G and I stuck to pulled pork sandwiches and before the concert shared a steak tip dinner with green beans and mashed tators. I know.. I know… “but you’re at the fair, you should eat the junk”…I wish I could’ve but I just don’t know how people do it. I ate a blooming onion and a fair square and just felt sick after eating it. My body was begging me to eat something wholesome and less greaser. That dinner hit the spot and was just enough for both G and I.

At 8pm we went to our concert and watched George Throughgood open for Hank Williams Jr. We were a little hesitant with Hank since his track record of performing a full set was on the negative side. The man can drink.

All I can say is Hank brought his A game to the Iowa State Fair and we were blown away by his talent. In the first 30 mins he played the guitar, fiddle, and piano! It’s also neat to see the performers swag on stage, Hank change his hat after every song… Why? I don’t know maybe he doesn’t like to wear sweaty hats? Maybe it’s a good luck charm? Maybe it’s a marketing thing?

Anyway, I completely support anyone buying tickets to go see this concert. You WILL get your moneys worth and will enjoy watching him perform and not just sit there and sing.

Thank you Iowa State Fair for being over the top! I can’t wait until next year… maybe then I will venture out to trying some unique fried food.

* I also just want to mention quickly that it’s pretty pricey. It was $10 per adult, $10 parking, and almost $7 per meal. This is without kids going on all the Midway rides as well. Plan to stay all day and sneak in some healthier snacks and a refillable water bottle. You will not regret it!

Quilting… not just for traditionalist with bad taste

Ever since I started my beginners quilting class I have become obsessed with the quilting community. I’m sure that there are many of you, like myself, that view quilting as a hobby that our grandmothers participate in. When I use to think of quilting I pictured something like this:

Yes, it’s pretty but its soooo traditional. Where would a 26 year old have something like this in her house? The answer is most of us wouldn’t. Every week I learn more about the art of quilting and holy cow do I respect the ladies that put together a piece like shown above. When it comes down to it, it’s just not my style. I don’t want to put all of that work into having a quilt that I wouldn’t want to put on my own bed or hang on my wall, so what do I do now?

Well after looking into quilting much further I am actually super surprised that I am not the only one that feels this way. There are actual “modern” quilters out there and make pieces that look more like modern art then a bed spread gone bad.

The movement is called :Modern Minimal. Let me say though, it takes a lot of hard work and vision ( along with great math skills which I will need to correct ) in making a design like this. The hardest part is making in actually look simple.

I’m in love, aren’t you?  I can’t wait to finish my class so that I can make a quilt to fit more of my style. I am learning the basics right now but once I get the fundamentals down I will be ecstatic to try something with a little more ME in it!

I’m hooked.. or in the case I’m “sewl’ed :)

What were they thinking?

Seriously… Look!

 

I sincerely hope that I an not offending anyone when I say this… scratch that… you need to hear this if you still have a room that has UGLY sponge decor as show here.

This style is OUT... has been out… and hopefully will not return. I have to be some what careful of what I say here because I know my parent’s house still has the kids bathroom sponge painted. I will confess though that I loved this method when I helped my mom paint that bathroom… but how many years ago was that… I was still in middle school! That is 12 years ago! Mom it’s time to update ( I only say this because she knows it as well and has told me on a number of occasions) ;)

I also have to be cautious of the matter that I’m not sure when this wall was painted in this style by the previous owner. Was it there when they bought the house 7 years ago and they just never changed it or was this a recent in the past 5 or so years? Either way it is BUTT and needs to go.

Another issue I have about this room, which is my mudroom, is that all of the trim is painted the same color of the walls.

WHO DOES THAT!

I really don’t even mind the periwinkle-est color but there needs to be a divide between Trim and wall color.

Even the poor baseboards are painted in the wall color… that’s just LAZY in my book.

The mud room is not the only culprit, this horrible decor leads into the kitchen as well.

Beige on Beige…

Maybe it’s just me but I just really think that when the trim stands out it shows a cleaner and more sophisticated look. As you can see from all of my photos I had enough and decided to get into painting mode.

So far it took my 3 coats on the two doorways above. I haven’t made it to the mudroom with paint yet but it’s taped and ready to go!

Here is what a little clean white paint will do.

Ah I just love it! If I could paint all the wood trim in the house and around the windows I would as well! There is usually a wooden door in this doorway to shut off the path to the mud room and basement but I’m kind of liking it without the door. It frees up the wall to the left for some hanging art or pictures and lets light in from the mudroom. We’ll have to see what G thinks as well, but I’m pushing for the doorway to stay open.

The other  WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS moment that I have found is the laminate coverings in the Kitchen.

 

I hate the cabinet doors but that my friends is another day. What really erks me is if you look at the laminate board running horizontal over the kitchen window. There is a small light hanging behind it. Well you will never guess what else is behind it.

Yeah, this was a serious WTF moment for me to see that someone covered  up a cute cookie cutter design like this. Again, what were they thinking. The charm of living in the country is having these adorable touches throughout the house, why would you choose to cover them?

I of course do love it so I filled the screw holes and painted it white to match the adjoining shelves up top. I would really like to remove the laminate square above it to open it like the rest but I found a problem that I am not sure how to resolve… The light' hanging below it has cords that run straight up behind the laminate square, If I remove the square then I am left with ugly cords showing.

Any ideas?

I am really loving this house and loving how it is coming together. I finally feel like I can do whatever I want to it whereas the Mitchell house was already decorated and lived in by my husband before we were marriage. I never felt like I could just go ahead and decorate without upsetting him. Now I feel like I have free range and maybe that’s why I love this house so!

Until next time!

Stepping Out – Another New Experience

I have really been focusing on forcing myself to try new experiences. If you read my last post you know that I started a beginners quilting class & am looking to play on a pick up soccer team this fall.

Today I decided to get off my butt and see what one of Iowa’s state parks has to offer. Don William’s State Park is exactly 5 miles east of my house. I have been there to kayak and for the “Beach” but I never really knew if they had trails to walk/run. I got Winston in the car with his new harness and we were off! I ended up finding a trail that went around the lake and really wasn’t expecting much from it. Sure enough has we were walking there were bridges and nicely groomed trails that went through the woods keeping us nice a cool. The trails weren’t just flat there were lots of hills to work through as well.

Soon enough we were on the other side of the lake looking off a dock to where I parked at.

Winston REALLY wanted to jump in the water.

At that point I remembered I have an app called MyFitnessApp that is great when walking/running new areas to see how far and time your work outs. I decided on the way back I would track it so I would know how far we went that day.

Once I got back to the jeep I looked at my app and it said 1.2miles which means it was a 2.4 mile trail! Whoop Whoop! This is so exciting because I HATE running on roads, tracks in circles, and on treadmills. This trail system reminds me so much of the parks back in DE that I use to run when I was younger and I am seriously pumped to have taken the time today to discover another part of Iowa that I will grow to love.

There was a boat ramp by where I parked to I let Winston cool off before we headed back to the house. He was also in LOVE.

I had a great workout and plan to try and take Winston with my every other day for a nice early morning walk at the park. I want to work up to running again but have had such a big problem with my left knee. It seems to be getting worse and even long walks seem to kill it.

Back to Icing like I did in the old college days

By the way… Did you watch?

USA #1 GOLD against Japan #2 Bronze

This was such a great game to watch today, both teams played well and with compassion and respect for each other.  So proud of these girls, especially Lloyd and how she was benched for the first part of the tourney and came out to score the 2 winning goals proving that she could still perform. (Been there before)

I love all of the athletes on this team & can’t wait to see more to come from them in the future. I haven’t been this pumped about USA soccer since the 1999 team when they won the shoot out against China. This team just made millions of little girls around the world learn to dream big.

Go USA !!!