All The Things!

We've done a few things over the past week that are worth mentioning. Like I said before, we aren't tackling any huge projects for a bit, but are continuing to do a few small things. Most of what we've been doing lately is decoration, but it's amazing what a few things hung on the walls does to a space. We've done a few more home improvement-ish things too.

I'm really dumb and forgot to mention that we finally got our furniture a few weeks ago (so much for mid June). The first floor looks so much more complete now. We got a sofa, big ole chair, and two end tables. They're big, comfy, and Jeremy-nap certified.

Ellie Approved

Perfectly Positioned for Jeopardy! Watching

It's an End Table

Another thing that we've done is remedy a problem that apparently comes when a cat discovers how fun box springs can be. Yep... Ellie decided she likes to rip holes in the underside of our beds' box springs and climb around in them. So, since we don't think that's a great place for a kitty to hang out (and it's annoying to hear a cat messing around under you while you try to sleep), we put a stop to it. My original thought was to put a layer of cardboard between the box springs and the bed frame, but then a stroke of brilliance lead me to fitted sheets. We bought some cheap fitted sheets from Target and put them on the bottom side of the springs. We haven't had a problem since.

Destroyed by Cat

Fixed by Man

We've also started putting up some pretty things in the house. We've added some decor to the fireplace mantel, but haven't finished yet (getting some artwork for up there in the next few weeks). And the little wooden bird is from our honeymoon in Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge, TN.

The walls are no longer bare as we've hung a few canvases - one is a print of a picture I took of the Grand Canyon in 2010 and the other is one of two pieces that I brought back from Brazil when I was there in 2009. I took the paintings off their frames so they'd fit in my suitcase (along with other souvenirs including, I think, four hammocks), so we had to get them re-stretched onto frames. Leslie found a place in town that did the work for a pretty reasonable price and we finally got around to taking them in. It's nice to have at least one of these hanging up after bringing it back so long ago. We also hung up something that Leslie brought back from Ireland in 2009. It means "One hundred thousand welcomes" in Gaelic. We put it above the bank of light switches just inside the front door.

We also got the bookcase in our bedroom all put together. Well, it was assembled awhile ago, but didn't have books and things arranged all nicely on it like it does now. It's nothing too fancy, but it works well and it's nice to have some (ok, lots) of reading material close at hand.

And yay for summer food! We got some blueberries from Leslie's mom and put them to good use. We made brinner with blueberry pancakes, spicy sausage patties, and hash browns a few days ago. I didn't take pictures of that one because I was too busy eating the delicious brinner! (Hashtag "Murica" maybe?) We also made a bunch of blueberry orange muffins. We made more than enough to fill up our two larger muffin tins, so we decided to use what was left of the batter to fill some mini-muffin tins. Bite sized baked goods - it doesn't get much better than that.

Since it's summer, we decided to try out a recipe that sounded summer-ish and fun (seems logical). We recently got our first issue of the All Recipes magazine and found something in there that sounded perfect - zucchini pie. I'm not usually much of a zucchini person, but this was goooood. We made this along with some tomato soup and wow, I think I want to grow zucchini once we have a garden just so we can make this dish. Now, I'm probably building this recipe up too much, but it really hit the spot for us and we really enjoyed it. If you try it and hate it, well... I guess that's too bad. But you should try it. Fo real.

And last but not least, we've added a member to the family! Ellie now has a little brother named Bernard. We got him from the same place we got Ellie. He's a little over two months old and is just a little bundle of energy. I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this little guy in the future. Well, you know... unless Ellie decides to eat him.

Thanks for reading!