The Backyard and Agility Equipment

So it's been a while since I showed you anything we've been doing outside.

I thought you could better appreciate why it's taken us so long to whip it into shape out there if I showed you what the previous owners left us with.

Bring on the before and after!!

Before..this was taken a day or two after we closed on the house. As you can tell, they did nothing that entire spring. We bought the house in March, but didn't close on it until May. There are actually 3 stumps there..under the weeds.

After. There are no stumps. And no weeds. Jonathan built a wonderful cover for our basement window wells...to keep out the leaves, and critters. You can sort of see in the before picture that it was mostly mud in front of the bed, and moss had sort of taken over there...but we took a little effort and planted some grass...and it's taking off as you can see.

Before. This makes me cry! This is a hodgepodge of trashy rock, and that is blue rug juniper planted on top of that dirt pile...yes, it's dead. That pile of rock and dirt the previous people were trying to pass as landscaping goes all the way around the back stoop.

After! Oh my God I can't believe how much better this is! We just finished this today. It's been a terribly long process. My sister and I pulled out all the dead weeds and plant life last fall. This spring Jonathan loaded up all the rock and dirt (2 truck loads full!) and got rid of it. We leveled it off and edged it in. Today we put down the pebbles. We're not done yet, but we could leave it just the way it is and no one would complain. We want to put in a water fountain and some semi-large boulders, and maybe a gazing ball or something.

And don't worry, we're going to put something over the stoop to make it pretty, probably a retaining wall sort of deal...but it's just such an improvement I couldn't wait to share.

We've been busy on the agility front as well. We just finished the A-frame today. Jonathan built it perfectly!

We've started our Weaves class, here's our weave poles. Oliver is pretty good at doing it with a treat lead, he hasn't quite got the concept of doing it on his own..but we'll get there in no time.

I've got a few things in the wings, a birthday card, well actually 2 of them, and I'm kicking up Halloween card production, so stick around there's a lot more going on.

Jessica

Updating on the Home Front Part 2

I'm not dead, I swear. We've been busy though.

Removing carpet, removing paint from the floor, making 40 graduation invitations...more on that later.

So here's our hallway...taken from my room looking into our master bedroom. You can see that they had some sort of runner thing and the floor is worn, but that's ok with us. I don't want to cover it up. I think it's silly to have hardwoods and completely cover them. If you're gonna do that you might as well install carpet. I love the look of hardwoods, and I'm so happy we finally got rid of the carpet. We'll definitely have to refinish them, but that's for a later time.
(Can you see the OliverDog Butt? Isn't it cute? I'm hoping to get some video of him soon.)

Down the stairs. They are actually in worse shape than the rest of the floor..as far as we know. We haven't pulled up the carpet in our guest room, or in my room...why? well because there is furniture in those rooms...

Working on removing the paint from the floor...we taped the trim off (like they should have done in the first place...On the bright side, the paint comes right off. Jonathan is almost finished with our room..which is good because our new furniture comes on Saturday!!

It was pretty hot in the house this night. We don't turn on the air until July 4th...because I'm cheap. Shame on those of you who already have it on!
Chippy is not pleased with this arrangement.

It's too hot for him. Poor Chippy.

I've been busy in the studio. I've all but finished the 40 invites for my sister. All I need is the wording for the inside (hint hint!) Then I can be finished completely. It will be up to her to address the envelopes and such...the worst part.

I've got an Easter card completed that needs to be posted. I've got another card of top secret origin you can look forward to in the coming weeks. As soon as I'm done here I'm going to start on a wedding card for a friend of mine who is getting married in May. We can't attend the wedding because I have to work that weekend, I'm sad about that, but I'm still going to send her a card.

I'm working this weekend, but maybe I'll have some time to post the dishwasher (yay!) and our new bedroom furniture (double YAY!!)

Jessica

Updating on the Home Front

Team Rodgers has been busy on the home front...well mostly Jon, but who would take the pictures?

We've been after some under cabinet lighting for a long time now. Our kitchen is a dark hole. Even though we lightened up the cabinets and the walls, still a hole. So finally it happened.

Jon installed this lighting, one under each door on the top. It's great for now. You can't see the wires, unless you're severely vertically challenged. At some point we'll have to replace the cabinets, then we'll have a professional job, but that day is not today.

They're really simple lights. He wired them into the light switch that controls the light above the sink. It's wonderful! So much brighter.


We finally got our hutch. IT. IS. BEAUTIFUL! and I love it.

It came assembled, and that's how you know you have grown up furniture. We were a bit concerned about it matching everything we already have, but it does, perfectly. The molding, the table, all matching...I love matchy matchy.

It has a light in the upper part. The glass looks distressed. It's from the Attic Heirlooms collection.

But perhaps the best part, is to turn on the light you tap the top hinge. AWESOME!

And the dishwasher...
Oh, no wait, it still sucks. And I'm angry.

We're going to Lowe's tonight to see what we can do about it. Jon's also working on the upstairs carpet removal. I'm going to wait until it's finished to show you, but it's awesome too!

I hope everyone had a great weekend, I'm currently in my studio, working away...sort of. I just got a new bunch of stamps that I had to cut out, so I'm taking a break to blog..but now I'll get back to it...

Jessica

The Hole Incident

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you "The Hole Incident".

I mentioned that the studio could benefit from some more lighting, and inquired about how difficult it would be. The electrical engineer jumped on this..and said that he'd check but didn't think it'd be a problem. He wanted to drill in the attic to see if there was an open space above my desk (which has its own roof line..it sort of juts out the back of the house..like a bay window..but not.) Ok so this should have been my first red flag..but I said ok (like an idiot.)

My sister was over and we were working on a project of hers (read: working at the desk) Jonathan was drilling in the attic. It was sounding horrible. Just as I had the thought "Hmm that drilling is sounding awfully close..." CRASH..or something like it...

This happened. I didn't think to get a picture of just the hole before it was patched, but you can see the problem...a random hole in the ceiling. Oh yeah, and all sorts of plaster on my desk.
There were words exchanged (not nice ones) and lots of cleaning on his part. He decided that he shouldn't have done whatever he was doing up there (really?) But that there is in fact a space above the desk and that we could install some lighting.

He could hardly wait to get started. So on Sunday we went and picked out a fixture and got the tools to do the job.

This is a room that has too much stuff in it...
Oh yeah, and it's night time..and we didn't have any power. Which I suppose is a blessing because electrocution doesn't sound like a good time.

That's the beginnings of a 5 inch hole for the fixture...the first hole was almost right...almost. The anxiety was at an all time high here...you can't come back from a 5 inch hole in a plaster ceiling...you just can't.

At least this story has a happy ending. Except for the patching that needs to be finished on the first "mistake" hole.

JRo Productions now has a kick ass light fixture above the desk.

Yes, admiring his work.

But it beats the pants off the light that was available before..crafting after hours was miserable.

I do have a few more things to bring you, and we'll return to your regular programming tomorrow.

Jessica

Our First Look at Our New Baby!

Geeze I hope I didn't scare you, no, not pregnant, we're getting a new furbaby!

I've been waiting a very very long time for him. This wonderful woman in Iowa breeds pomeranians, every single one of them adorable.

This is our Oliver. He was born June 16th. These pictures are from when he was about 4 weeks old. We can hardly wait to go pick him up. We're driving all the way to the top of Iowa Labor Day weekend, and I'm taking some time off work so we can get him off on the right foot and adjusted. Plus our other boys won't be very happy.

He's black and tan. At 6 weeks old he weighed 1.8 pounds...tiny tiny. She estimates he'll be about 7 pounds full grown. Which is at least 3 pounds less than our lightest cat, and 10 pounds lighter than our heaviest. So don't let them ever make you think they're starving!

He's so cute.

So adorable. I sort of wish this woman at Gifford's Poms was a little more technically inclined. I'd love to have some video or more pictures or something of him.

He's got places to go! He's ready to come live in Kansas City.

These are his litter mates. The little cream one is a girl, the rest are boys. Oliver is the one on the far left (away from the flowers) His brother that looks like him is a little bigger.

Anyway, this brings me to what I spent my day yesterday doing. In preparation for Oliver we are repainting our wrought iron fence. The plan is to put up chickwire so he can't get out through the bars. Well this fence is very rusted and must be sanded down and then painted. You can see the project here at my husband's blog.

You've Got to Break a Few Eggs...

We've been busy, but we don't have as much to show for it. The unpacking process is both a slow and painful one.
The last of the large projects was painting the master bedroom. The original plan was a light green, to match the sheets, to keep it light and "zen-ish"...

I'd just like to say that, we all make mistakes. This color was pretty much neon snot green, and I apologize for attempting to put it on my walls.

We went with an ivory color, which is much better, and not at all like an Easter egg.

Our room is pretty big, but now it feels bigger, and lighter and I love it.

So today they delivered our Tempur-pedic bed. We've upgraded to a king size, so there's more room for our furbabies to sleep with us. We got the Tempur-pedic cloud, so tomorrow you can ask me what it's like to sleep on a cloud. I'm already in love with it.

I've been collecting pieces from this bed set for probably a year and a half..I love it that much. And now seeing it on my bed, I love it more.

The duvet cover also has chrysanthemums on it. The background is a cream color like the walls. I'll probably have pictures of the duvet later, but right now since I'm the energy nazi and we don't have the AC on, it's way too hot to even think about using a duvet.

Did I mention I have the best male model in the business?


Now I'd like to bring you a warning. Beware the Cardinal Ninja. They may strike at any moment, and before you notice it is too late, and you are stuck with exhibit A.

You never know when an attack will occur. You have been warned.

Jessica

Delayed Projects-The Story of My Life

So I feel really bad I haven't been able to scrap very much lately. We got all of our stuff moved (thanks Russell!!) and it's a total mess around here.
We've decided to have an open house in June, I was thinking that would give us plenty of time to get everything organized..now I'm not so sure. But anyway, I had intended for these invites to go out last week..but they're going out now..which is better than never.

I think the final total was 32 of these..which is A LOT! The stamp is from The Greeting Farm, and it sort of looks like our house.
The edge punch is Martha Stewart. The blue edge we cut by scissors..Jon helped with that part. Some of them have bows, and some don't. It's not because I wanted them to be different, it's because I ran out of ribbon..so sad.

It doesn't look that complicated but it took forever to color all the houses.

Once everything was done gluing them together was a piece of cake.

Also, I have a before and after for today...
I finally got the upstairs bathroom painted, which is so nice because now we can actually use it.

It was a not very nice brown..

And now it's a very dark blue.

With bright green accents..as if you couldn't guess.
It was the color scheme we had at the apartment, just without the wall paint. I really like it. It is really dark, it was suggested that we'll be needing flashlights..it might be the truth.

We're well on our way to unpacking this place. The cabinets are still in limbo..I'm told they'll be up when I get home from work today..not sure if I believe it..but if they are that will be the next round of photos...the white cabinets look so great I can't wait. And I need my kitchen back so I can do some cooking!

Jessica

We Are Weekend Warriors!

Oh my oh my!
We closed on our house Friday morning! I am so ready to be out of this apartment!
We've been busy all weekend getting the new house ready for the move in. So I've got a pretty big post for the day.

Here's the living room, we're not painting it right now. The previous owner left us these chocolate colored curtains..lucky me!

This is our dining roon, we're not painting it either..I love the chandelier, and the doors.

Our basement..it will be unfurnished for a while, our current furniture will go down there eventually. It will be our TV room too.

Now for some Before & After...

This room is my new scrap room (yay!) and it was this very ugly orange..

It has wonderful windows.

And now it is a beautiful Caribbean blue...this is my new happy place and I can't wait to get all my stuff moved in.

So much better.

This is our guest bedroom..it was the nursery.


I don't have a finished shot..but I have one of me working..and one of Katie doing nothing.

Still doing nothing.

This was perhaps the biggest project of the weekend..the ugly ugly kitchen. The counter top is green..and the walls are red..and I'm not really sure what they were thinking.

That space is where my brand new refrigerator is going to go..on Wednesday!

It was a very long process..and we're still not completely done...but we're getting there.

We painted all the cabinets white, Jonathan is still working on the fronts of the doors, but already it looks so much better.

And we painted the walls light green. Next year when we get our tax credit we're going to replace the green counter tops with probably dark gray ones.

It looks 100% better, and we only have 2 rooms left to paint. We couldn't have gotten as far as we did without my mom and sister helping.
I can't say how tired I am, so we're hopefully calling it an early night. More updates soon I hope.

Jessica