Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I probably won't be blogging again until next week. I'm having eight adults and seven kids for Thanksgiving so I'm busy preparing! Here's a shot of my living room mantel. I love the stoneware pumpkins I found at a local craft store. The antique silver lanterns were inherited from my grandfather and the map is a map (print) of Boston from 1722.

Nora's Grasshopper

I love this picture of a grasshopper that Nora drew. It so simple but very recognizable.

Pumpkin Bread

I made pumpkin bread the other day and the kids gobbled it up so Jack helped me make more yesterday. Here's a great recipe that the kids seemed to love:

3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs lightly bean
16 ounces canned unsweetened pumpkin
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2/3 cup water

Makes two loaves. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 9 by 5 loaf pans. Stir together sugar and oil. Stir in eggs and pumpkin. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. Blend dry ingredients and water into wet mixture, alternating. Divide batter between two loaf pans. Bake for 40 minutes (or a little longer depending on your oven) or until cake tester comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool.

Baby Gifts

A friend of mine knows a woman who had twin boys and wanted a gift for them so she asked me to create two bibs for her. This is what I came up with. She said her friend didn't want them to be identical so I made them out of similar material. She was really happy with them so of course I'm happy!

My friend just had a baby boy in October so I ended up giving her all of Ben's clothes and baby stuff because they were born at the same time of year. So when it came time for a gift I knew that I couldn't give her any clothes or typical baby stuff because she has most of it since I'd just given it to her. So I decided to do some boyish paintings for her nursery. This is what I came up with. A little rustic but I thought they were cute.

I need a new camera. I'm noticing that my camera doesn't capture my paintings or drawings very well.

Old Sketchbook

I've been trying to get more organized because we are having a few people over for the Thanksgiving Holiday. While doing so I came across an old sketchbook of mine and found these two pencil drawings. Most of the drawings in the book are incomplete but these ones are actually finished. I haven't done many pencil drawings lately, just watercolors. I might pick up the pencils again. I like the control I can get with the pencils...

Illustration Attempt

I usually paint and draw things from photographs or from real life. I rarely, if ever, try to create something of my own. This is my most recent attempt. It is so difficult! I have a deep respect for all those illustrators and abstract artists out there.

Hi There

Kitchen Remodel

For those of you who enjoyed seeing the pictures of our porch remodel here are some of the kitchen. We did the kitchen in January and February of 2006 when Jack was only 8 months old. Sometimes I wonder if we were crazy but when I see the before pictures I remember why we were so eager!

Before pictures. Note the faux brick wall, the robin's egg blue laminate counters and the 70's style vinyl floor.

The view of the wall where the oven and stove-top were. You can still see some of the faux brick on the wall to the right of the image.

An image of the area where the sink was and the bay window in the eat-in area of the kitchen. You can see the window to the left was originally in a different position and Jim had to move it again.

This is the view into the old porch. The opening to the left is where the door went (Jim had to move this too) and the opening to the right is where the refrigerator went. Jim bumped out the refrigerator out into the porch so that we could have a full sized refrigerator that didn't jut out into the kitchen.

Here's an image of my brother helping to install the new window in the middle of January...brr...

The drywall is up and prepped.

Now to tackle the floors. The whole center portion of the kitchen dipped down so we had to remove the sub floor and pulled up the joists to level out the entire floor.

Here's Jim fixing the joists. What you can see is actually the ceiling of our laundry room.

The hardwood floor goes in finally. What a valentine's day gift!

The cabinets arrive. The one thing that we decided to have done professionally. The cabinets were a costly investment so we didn't want to risk installing them incorrectly.

Cabinets going up.

Granite going in.

The sink and appliances go in.

Jim put in the picture frame molding that I wanted in the eat-in area of the kitchen and a new light fixture.

And here it is finished!

Cardinal

Cat and Mouse

It's a rainy fall day so I decided it is perfect weather to work on some of my drawings and paintings. These are a couple that I did recently...

Porch Project

I wanted to share some images of the conversion of our three season porch to our family room. We started in the spring of 2007 and finished in the spring of 2008. It was a long process but well worth it.

First we had to tear down and rebuild the fireplace. The opening was not centered and the hearth stuck out too far into the room. It was constructed of antique brick recycled from a nearby church (our 80 year old neighbor told us this) so a lot of the brick was in bad shape and had cracked.

The rebuilt fireplace.

The porch when were just getting started. Pretty 70's looking.

After we had ripped off the back windows.

Jim framing up the new windows. My poor plants took a beating during this project.

The sheathing goes up...

Then the house wrap and the windows...

Jim put in a beam so that we could have a higher, angled ceiling in the room.

Jim made sure to insulate the floor very well because it was going to be over a concrete slab.

Drywall goes up...
Windows are trimmed out and the floor goes in...

And heat goes in just in time for Christmas...

Jim took out the door to the kitchen and replaced it with an arched opening that matches the arches in our living room.

We modeled the fireplace after my friend's sister's fireplace. Jim designed and built it up himself.

The finished masterpiece!!

And again...

Jim designed and put in these built-ins.

The completed built-ins with desk on the left and a storage closet on the right.

Antique Store Find

I found this at a local antique store. I've been looking for some side tables for our new couch in the family room and haven't really found any that I like. They need to be pretty tall because our couch is tall and the arms are pretty high. I found this one but the finish is in pretty tough shape. I cleaned it up and I'm considering trying to refinish it because I really like the color. If it's too much work I might just paint it. I guess I'll have to decide when I get going.