Ok, not really. It’s a dirty job any way you slice it, but wouldn’t that be nice if home projects were a little more glamorous? A few weeks ago we installed a dual flush converter on our basement toilet, and as you may recall, we vowed to replace the toilet (in this post) upon seeing the condition of the old beast up close and personal. So Dain put on his handy man pants over the weekend and got it done. Talk about a fun Friday night. You may know you are getting old when you actually spend a Friday night doing home projects and a weekend is not complete without a trip to the Home Depot. But it had to be done.
All posts in Topics
Homemade Has Never Tasted So Good
At least to us. Which is not really much of a feat since we have very few recipes in our repertoire. Until now that is. As we told you on Monday in this post, we have vowed to make more homemade meals. We actually got a head start a few weeks ago with the meal we made to reveal our chalkboard bottles. Sad that we only made that meal since we wanted to be able to write the menu on our bottles. But anyway, it was INCREDIBLE. Hands down the best meal we have ever made. We actually loved it so much that we had it for about four dinners in the span of a week. So we thought we’d share how two non-chefs put together a simple and delicious meal of fish burgers, grilled corn, and a strawberry-balsamic mixed green salad.
B-I-N-G-O-C-O-A-S-T-E-R-S
As you probably now if you’re following our adventures, we spent an abnormal amount of time perusing the games section at Goodwill last weekend in hopes of finding a Scrabble game for our Pinterest Challenge art. Of course we did not find Scrabble, but we managed to come home with two Bingo games. TWO. At the bargain price of $1.99 each. While it is certainly not as fun as the live version (since there are no daubers or jackpots or screaming ladies in glittery tops involved), Bingo does come in a boxed edition. Were we just delirious from all of our shopping and the lack of working air conditioning in our car? We definitely were, but that doesn’t explain our purchases. While suffering from heat stroke, Dain actually had the brilliant and crafty idea to take the little Bingo cards and turn them into coasters. He is an art major you know.
Pack it Out, Pack it In.
Let me begin. Can you guess what we packed out and packed in? The contents of our garage of course. One of the compromises we made when choosing our house was the fact that we do not have an attached garage. Which is kind of a bummer for us in Minnesota, where we have to brave below zero temps and biting wind just to get in our car (which may or may not start) during the winter. However, we are lucky enough to have A garage even if we do have to walk ten feet to get there. It is a small space. We call it a one and a quarter. Since we are still saving up for our mopeds or smart car, we currently use that spare quarter as our dumping ground for our growing crap heap. It is not actually all crap, but it sure looks like it when you store like we have been doing for….oh….a year and a half. As in the whole time we’ve owned said dumping ground. I finally snapped last weekend after tripping over one too many things getting in and out of the garage. And Dain was obviously obligated to join in. Marriage code or something. Since I certainly did not put it all in there myself.
A Pinterest Challenge? Why,Yes. We Accept.
Not only are we bloggers (albeit newbies), but we also follow a few other blogs. One of our favorites is Young House Love, which is how we found out about this challenge. Sherry (and John by proxy) over at YHL teamed up with Katie from Bower Power, Lana from Making a House a Home, and Emily from Style by Emily Henderson, and the ladies threw down a challenge. A Pinterest Challenge. And we have accepted. The parameters were pretty wide open to let the creative juices flow. The idea is to act on all of that eye candy we peruse for hours on end by creating something inspired by Pinterest. In full disclosure, this is only our second attempt at making something that we’ve seen on Pinterest (the first being our brickends). So thank you to our fellow bloggers for giving us a much needed kick in the pants. We owe our crafty new wall candy to them.
A New Month, A New M.O.
We are welcoming in August with a new plan of action. To save money. And be healthier in the process. We actually live fairly frugally by having the economy internet, the very basic cable (10 channels), no home phone, and one old car. We also do a good job of keeping our other bills (electric, gas, water…) low by trying to conserve. What is our downfall? The fact that we enjoy eating and drinking. A lot. Especially when other people prepare it. So we are throwing our normal routine a curveball by changing it up. Here’s what’s going to go down. And hopefully not in flames.
Swedish Fooditure
You know that place where you get the cheap Swedish furniture? Well, it doubles as one of Dain’s favorite places to grab lunch. Seriously. Swedish furniture. Swedish meatballs. Welcome to the Dainiverse. The rest of us just happen to be living in it. Dain brings up Ikea’s food every time we are within a five mile radius, and he intentionally plans our trips around a mealtime. All for a plate of 15 teeny tiny meatballs with lingonberries and mashed potatoes. Where else can you get all that for $3.99? Probably nowhere. Which is why we thought the Ikea restaurant was worthy of Foodie Friday.
Custom Art to Cover the T.V.
We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to have a t.v. in our living room. Which is laughable because we currently get 10 channels. By choice (or at least that’s what we tell ourselves in our quest to be more productive and less Bravo obsessed). As we mentioned yesterday, the first problem was the lack of a working cable outlet which necessitated the installation of a cable hanging out the side of our house (which we finally disguised here). Another obstacle was where to put the t.v. in our relatively small dining room/living room since we did not have room for a console. We ended up hanging it on the wall thanks to an affordable wall mount from Monoprice. That only left a need to hide the black beast. Not really a need. More of a desire. Of mine. That Dain indulged. The end result being a custom piece of art perfectly sized to disguise our television.
Disappearing (Cable) Act
You may recall an unsightly black cable sticking out of the left side of our house on the yard tour we posted a few months ago. It kind of fit in with that whole side of our house since we have done nothing over there in anticipation of a big tree removing, retaining wall installing, and fence building party that we hope to plan this fall. Well, thanks to Dain being bred for his skills in magic, he made it disappear. It is an incredible improvement that came in at a grand total of under 2 dollars. Holla.
Toilet Talk
We can’t help from sharing our latest bathroom addition. Don’t worry, it is nothing gross or unpleasant. It is actually very green. A dual flush converter. Say what? A dual flush converter. Or a d.f.c. for those in the know (slash those of us who just assume others use that acronym for the sake of blog brevity). A d.f.c. is essentially a kit that transforms your normal toilet into a dual flush dynamo. With the installation of it, your toilet has two flush modes: one quick flush for liquids and one for solids. This allows you to use up to 70% less water on the quick flush and to save thousands of gallons of water every year. Let us introduce you to ours.
Chrissy: Just read your post after checking out a friend's facebook page & ...
Paula in MN: Hoping and praying that your little family is well!...
weheartmn: I don't recall other sizes when I bought it, but the one I got is abou...
Laury: I went to target and saw these jars, they had three sizes (small, medi...
Laura @ House Of Joyful Noise: Olive is beautiful!! I found your news, and request for prayers, thro...
