Families Are Like Fudge...

Remember on my 'to do list' (here) I wanted to do a photo project in the hallway. Well I finally got around to it. This is what my hallway was looking like. Now the small 5 photos just weren't doing it for me.

I had originally wanted to tackle something like what Sherry and John over at Young House Love had done. See below.

However after starring at my wall and humming and haaing... and most importantly realizing that all the pictures frames we had in the basement we had JUST recently gotten rid of because I had decided we didn't need to keep them around. In my own words "we haven't used them yet lets just get rid of them". ARGH I shouldn't listen to myself. SO long thought process short... I realized I would have to go buy a bunch of frames to accomplish what I 'thought' I had wanted. I started to look at alternatives to just using the few frames I had on hand. I forgot about this awesome frame my friend had given me a long time ago and pulled it out. During one of Norah's naps I came up with this...

I like that it is a little more than 5 tiny photos. Here is a close up. I found this quote and it just summed up our family. Families are like fudge, mostly sweet with a few nuts! I knew I wanted to use it and when I found the frame behind a dresser in the kitchen it was just perfect! I pulled out all the fun photos of our family I could find. I know its hard to see but believe me most of these pictures aren't your 'typical' family photo! haahaa. And just because we love her so much, I added 2 8 by 10's on either side of it with photos of Me, Ryan and Norah.

Nothing special but it definitely makes me smile to walk down the hall now!

That is ONE thing checked off our 'to do list'. Actually we have checked off a few things on our old to do list... but added MANY more!! Here is the most up to date to do list (red items have been completed):

1) Make brother and sister in law pillows - COMPLETED!!!

2) Photo project in hall - COMPLETED!!!!

3)Spring Cleaning - COMPLETED!!!!

4)Paint behind toilet in upstairs bathroom

5)Clean Basement

6)Install Carpet

7)Make curtains for kitchen window - COMPLETED (post this week)

8)Fix Kitchen cabinet chips

9)Clean up closets - HALF COMPLETED... needs to be done again..... booo!

10)Organize Kitchen Cupboards

11)Install laminate flooring upstairs

12)Finish painting basement

13)Panel the entrance to basement bathroom

14)Paint back stairway

15) Finish Norah's door (when we flipped Norah's door around we never finished putting the hardware on so there is a doorknob but no place for it to lock into)
16)Fix upstairs shower tiles... they are coming loose

17) Fix upstairs bathroom cabinet mirror

18)drywall under window in spare room (never finished this because we didn't have a piece of drywall big enough but we have leftovers from the basement that we plan on using!)

19)Seal the stones on the outside of the house

That's a LOOOOOONG list!!!!!

Looooong To Do List

I sat down the other day while Norah was napping and started to make a 'to do' list of projects I would like to get to. Lets just say I started to get overwhelmed and it didn't help my lack of motivation lately. I thought maybe if I share my to do list with everyone I will be more inclined to get up off my butt and finish some of them!

Here goes:

1) Make my brother and sister in law pillow covers

My brother and sister in law bought some pillows that they plan on using for floor cushions for extra seating in their apartment. They asked me to maked removeable covers for them. This is a super easy project I just have to find the time to make them.

2) Photo Project in Hallway

Now that Norah is around I have decided I need to update some of the pictures in the house. I would love to create a 'Family and Friends' photo wall and the perfect wall is in our hallway. It currently has 5 measily picture frames hanging in it and after starring at it for awhile I can't believe I left that wall like that for so long!!!!! Now I don't want to overdo it and make it look cluttered since it is a small wall. BUT I do plan on spicing it up a bit! This will take some planning but sooner or later I'll get around to updating it!

3) Spring Cleaning
This is a little harder with a 9 week old around... BUT seeing as it is supposed to rain tomorrow I would like to lift up the carpets and vaccuum everything and mop floors etc etc. Its that time of the year when the house needs to be aired out and cleaned thoroughly!!!


4) Paint behind the toilet in the upstairs bathroom
Remember this post about installing our new toilet way back in August. The old toilet was huge and covered the wall... the new toilet being a LOT smaller shows the unpainted wood panelling and ripped wallpaper behind the toilet. Now I STILL haven't bothered to paint it but its about time I did something about it... thats a task that can be easily completed during Norah's afternoon nap!!


5) Clean Basement
Now that the dust has settled from the basement bathroom renos its time to actually get to work cleaning the basement! On the weekend we worked on decluttering it and got rid of a TONNE of stuff!! But now I need to clean it top to bottom... that is a HUGE job and I'm not excited about it. One of these rainy days I'll get around to it!!


6) Install carpet in the basement
We need to finally install the carpeting in the basement. We got the carpet from my parents as they were getting new carpeting and this one was perfectly fine. We may just get around to installing it this weekend depending on the weather (don't want to be stuck indoors if its nice outside!!)


7) Make curtains for the kitchen
I STILL haven't finished making the curtains for the kitchen!! The material has been bought for SOOO long I just need to sew them... the material is already cut to the right size I'm just being lazy!!! Next time I pull out my sewing machine I'll have to do all of my sewing projects!!


8)Fix Kitchen Cabinet Chips
One of our cabinet doors has chipped in a few spots. I just need to sand it down and reprime and paint the bottom edge of it. Easy task... but its just actually getting the motivation to do it!


9)Clean up Closets
Our closets (we only have 3) are a disaster! I need to go through them and purge a bunch of stuff! I started with my closet and managed to get rid of a few garbage bags worth of stuff but I have lots more to go through!!! I have to do this when Ryan is not around because he ALWAYS wants to keep his crappy hole ridden painted up shirts... shhh he'll never know they are gone!!! Just an update on this one... I purged 10 pairs of shoes today!!!


10) Organize Kitchen Cupboards
For those who know Ryan you know his organization is non existant!!! Needless to say I have plates where the cups are and cups where the utensils are!!


11)Install flooring
The flooring we bought for the upstairs needs to be installed and I keep starring at it desperately wanting to tackle that job but it is soooo much work!!! Maybe it will be a job my dad and I can tackle over a week while Ryan is at work.

I know there are about a million other things I would like to complete but that is the list at the moment!