Laura's Famous

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/12820876/laura

Cavalier & Christmas

Yesterday, after work, Ike and I took a quick trip down to Cavalier, ND for some groceries. It's a small town about 20min away and I needed some baking goods which are less than half the price they are here! Of course we get distracted...my shopping list only contained two items: Butter and Cream Cheese...the cart, however, contained: 3x Butter, 4x Cream Cheese, Cheese, 2x Flavored Coffee Creamers, 4x Flavored Coffee in mini packets, and somehow 3x candybars magically appeared at the checkout. We should have eaten before the grocery store instead of after but we weren't sure how late they'd be open until. For a mid afternoon meal we stopped in at what looked like a good greasy diner. Turned out to be a bizarre restaurant with 3 different sections to it, no ambient music, hand written self-advertisement posters, and a decor you only find at thrift shops. The food however was great and as it turns out not greasy at all! In fact I think they baked my american fries in an oven (as opposed to deep fried and left in a warmer all day) and the burger was homemade (not a pre-formed wet dog smelling frozen one)! After our leisurely meal we headed out to our vehicle for the short trip home. The street was decorated for Christmas much like ones you see in movies; with glittery garland stretched across the street every ten feet all lit up with giant bulbed festive lights. The decorations weren't what stopped me dead in my tracks before crossing the street to our van... What did was when I noticed that the whole town resounded with Christmas music....incredible...they play music over loud speakers for the whole town to hear! I literally looked around to see if I was walking through a cheesy made-for-tv motion picture in action! Such a cute town! Oh and great coffee...mmmm...Chocolate Caramel Brownie Coffee....how can you go wrong.

P.S. I'm not apologizing for my 3 month absence from blogging....you know how it goes!

TaDaaaa!

The siding is dark grey with a hint of green...hmmm looks kinda blue in the picture. This is what Ike and I accomplished in two weeks...Just have the back of the house to do now.

We went to Menard's in Grand Forks and bought these retaining wall blocks for super cheap...sure made a wonderful flowerbed in the front of the house and is making another nice one along the side of the garage and around the back!

Here's my young Evans Cherry Tree...It had fruit on it this year already but either the birds ate it or some kids picked them off...I got an owl from my mom so if it was the birds they won't bother it next year!



My concrete countertop was installed today....oh so worth the wait and oh sooooo beautiful! Yep two toned concrete...so amazing what you can do nowadays.

These are our old kitchen cabinets. Ike wanted to use some of them in the garage for storage, so for Father's Day I spray painted them fire engine red and hammered chrome.

And I replaced the old handles with all different tool handles :)

Whoa a Post!

Apparently I am a very boring person as I haven't posted since May and I don't even have anything too exciting to post about! What have I been up to? Work, Work, Work...and when I'm not working I've been working on the house (we've got the insulation and house wrap on...now to find time and not such hot weather to put on the siding!), and harassing my husband for a flower bed! This last weekend I finally wore him down and we went down to Grand Forks for some retaining wall blocks that were on sale! Now for some dirt and plants! I've also planted a young cherry tree...it already had a few fruits on it...so exciting...now if the birds don't eat them all I can try some soon!
And finally as Auntie requested....here's my Hoops Salad recipe (It'll be Jackie's favorite for sure...ha ha ha)
3-4 Peppers (Green/Yellow/Red/Orange), chopped
1 Can Black Beans, drained & rinsed
1 Can Corn, drained
1/4 Onion (White or Purple), finely chopped
1/4-1/2 cup Marble or Tex Mex Cheese, shredded (optional)
1/2 Bag Frito BBQ Hoops
French Dressing
Toss all together and enjoy! (Obviously don't add the hoops until you're ready to serve or they'll be soggy)

Two Stories

Not much has been happening in my sleepy town...thus the long empty blog these last couple of months. Alas, I have not one but two stories for you today!(and pictures too)

Easter...sadly there were no gatherings planned on either side of the family soooo....I planned my own...My parents were nice enough to drive all the way to Winnipeg and pick up my grandma & grandpa Klassen as well as Laura! Grandma & grandpa Baldwin were also invited and never having been to our new home they followed mom & dad to town. Of course Dave & Char along with Charlie and Davien made it out too! We were very lucky that they all found a safe route to make it out to our island with all of the flooding going on! We had a wonderful huge lunch with ham, meatballs, veggies, scalloped potatoes, salads, and a very wonderful cheesecake for dessert. For Faspa(light supper) we had toasted cheese & salami buns, chips, and leftover ham!

Check out this picture...typical...Laura showing off her favorite food...mom looking over in disgust wondering where she went wrong...and dad's encouraging laugh egging us on.

Monday, Monday...

This morning began with a bang! I was a tiny bit slower getting up and getting ready for work...still on time though as I always aim to be 15min early for work so no biggy if I'm only 10min early! I got stuck behind every slow-assed old person driving 10km/hr...who by the way were ALL out early this morning (election day). When I got to work I began to make dough....a very large batch of dough so as to start fresh for today! The water/yeast mixture was bubbling away and it was time to add the flour and mix 'er up. BANG...BANG....ahhhh hit the stop button...the dough hook slid off....How is that possible? I tried to put it back on but it just kept sliding off. My boss came out of the walk-in to see what was going on and tried to help me. The hook had been causing us problems all week...we decided to try some duct tape :)... We thought it worked...the hook was staying on...and sitting straight...Press START. One swirl, two swirl, threeeeeeee ahhhhh dough flying everywhere BANG! Press STOP!

(this picture doesn't do the mess justice...plus the meat slicer is half in the way...but you get the idea)

The hook slid off again...great now what...try putting it back on again....Uh Oh...or not. We broke it in half....lol oops...now what? Well we had to dump that large batch of unmixed dough liquid...it filled a giant garbage can...one of those ones that you wheel to the street with several bags of garbage in it...yeah. We remembered that we had a whisk attachment and started again....great idea up until all the dough clumped INTO the whisk and refused to be mixed...sigh...guess I'm mixing by hand today! What a workout....That should count as my 30min of daily exercise for today! Luckily my boss had ordered a new hook on saturday and guess what!? It arrived this afternoon...phew....Good thing cause I was not looking forward to mixing by hand tomorrow!Yep broken...giant solid piece of metal...just like that! We're pretty lucky that nothing flew out and hit us!

Crafty Winters 2

I knew that I had forgotten to share something with you and then I remembered what had taken up most of my time before Christmas! This is the weighted blanket that I made for Nicole with hand-embroidered vintage pictures on each of the corners, her name and a Mary Contrary in the center.

The blanket is probably the size of a double and weighs over 10lbs.

You can't tell by the picture but Nicole and Mary were done in sparkly pink thread while the rest of them were just regular pink thread.

Mary Contrary is my favorite...sorry this is such a crappy picture of her! I used to have bed sheets with her on them....:)

The kitty is one of my favorites...so cute!

WooWoo Getting Closer!

Check out our new favorite room...the living room on the main floor!!!! Ooooh I LOVE it!!!!...Not quite done yet though we still have a portion to drywall and paint on the window wall but it's liveable and waaaaaaaaaaaay better than the basement!

Also noteworthy....a couple of weekends ago my parents came down and helped install our kitchen cabinets! They look gorgeous...we still have to install the mouldings and are meeting with the counter guy tonight....so pictures will be up relatively soon!

Crafty Winters

Here's my sewing project...A 'london shade'! It works perfectly with my kitchen but I have a problem with it wanting to slide "in" on the rod...guess I'll have to find some double sided tape to hold it in place. :) I have some of the cute flowery material left and so for my next project I am going to make one of those picture holder boards (the ones with the criss cross ribbons). I don't know what I'd do with myself during these winter months if I weren't so crafty!

Garage and Stuff

I just realized that I've been talking about building our garage and installing windows and such but I have not shown any proof of such work....Well prepare your eyes for this feast of practical happinesses! :)

If you ignore the snow and the fact that half of our house doesn't have siding...you can see the beauty of it all!

Oh such pretty new windows....I love the decision to go with this style of grill in between the panes.

This pride and joy leads out to the deck from the dining room/kitchen. Take that you doubters who thought I couldn't find a prettier door than the one at the old house!

Matching front door...

And a missing photo from yesterday's entry....Ugly pantry...gone!

What Happened????

Kitchen before....

This was the day we moved in...thus the huge mess...ha mess...

Kitchen now....ahhhh...where did it go?

The pink on the walls, by the way, is actually the insulation inside the walls...we removed 4feet all around to get rid of the gross glass tile backslpash. We also had to peel off a layer of "white" linoleum and then pry up the subfloor it was glued to and then again peel off a layer of "gold" linoleum! Annnd...the best part...I got to swing a hammer and destroy the old gross built in pantry...so much fun!

All of my kitchen?....It went right into this spare bedroom....I hope not for too long! And the old cabinets? We tossed them off the deck into the snow! Haha ugly cupboards!

And here's a taste of the master bedroom just because you've been so patient with me! :)

Soooo much nicer than the basement!