Painting the kitchen

We've had paint swatches up for months, it was finally time to chose and start clearing out the kitchen

Edging the ceiling and outlets

We chose the green, think it's going to look great!

And where is miss Barkley? Hanging out on the new couch....she hates home improvement....:)

Just a little bit of snow

With moving plans for China and some other things that came up, Brandon and I decided to stay home rather than go to Hawaii - we'll get there one day, for a nice long vacation, rather than a squeezed 10 days. So we decided to have a bit of a staycation instead, painting the kitchen (maybe even the living rooms.....but i'm skeptical that will get done too!), playing in the snow. We've had quite the snow dumping the last few days, there's barely anyplace to put the snow at the end of the driveway today! 

Barkley for scale!

Digging out! 

The sunshine helped clear the cars

We have a beautiful christmas tree at the end of the street, so pretty in the snow. 

Our drive into town. 

Snow day!

That Nor-easter hit with a vengeance! We probably had around 10 inches come down, followed by rain and ice which packed it down to a solid, and heavy, 6 inches....but it's still snowing! There is a respite today, then tomorrow afternoon we're set for another 6-8 inches - weeeeeee!

The best part too is we bought a new couch with some left over Xmas money! My first ever 'grown-up' couch (i.e. one that isn't a futon). Our friends spotted it at a local place in their bargain basement, so we went and checked it out on monday, and yes, it's perfect! A corner couch....finally enough room for both me and the Barkley! Brandon could even possibly fit too.....

Hiatus

Sorry for the long hiatus - I can't believe Jan 1st was the last time I posted! Really, it's because there's not been too much to share. Lots of work, lots of snow (yay!) and lots of sitting in front of the fireplace (some of us closer than others). Everyone has been well, Barkley Bear has had a few wobbles here and there, but some tweaks in her medication have sorted it through. Brandon twisted his knee last weekend when we went with our friends to Lost Valley, a ski area just an hour away. He's healing, but the snow shoveling isn't helping him....:)

And in just over a week we're off to Hawaii, mostly for a vacation, but I do have a day or two of work to do as well. We'll stay on Oahu with our friends Jenny and Doug for most of the time, but will do a 5 day hop around the Big Island. From there though Brandon flies home and I fly to China on a ten day work trip. I'll be choosing next years Chinese students to come to our Semester by the Sea at the Darling Center. So exciting, i've never been to China ever and our school director found a day in the schedule for me to take a tour of Xiamen and of Shanghai!

So lots of things coming up, including a big Nor-Easter on Thursday threatening even more snow! We're just about out of places on the driveway to put it at this point!

Happy New Year!

Lets hope 2014 brings everything you wish for! A quiet one around the house and garden today for us. Enjoying the sunny Maine day, even though it's in single digits out there. I love the snow, so fresh and clean looking. With all the ice we've had though some of our trees are looking a little worse for wear, particularly the Dr. Suess looking firs by the deck! 

Christmas!

No one can say this wasn't an interesting Christmas this year! A quiet one was planned, and a 'quiet' one we got - forced home time, no power, no water, no net, meant for some fireside monopoly and quality book time! Christmas was on a Wednesday this year, and sunday night into Monday day we had a massive ice-storm come through that knocked out our power. 

We were relatively prepared - we're on a well, so can't get water in a power out, and had plenty of oil lamps and candles. Alongside the propane fireplace and stove, and a small generator to keep the fridge cold every few hours - we did pretty well considering. The power went out sunday, but had come back on Monday morning. By 10am it had gone out again, and didn't come back on until late Christmas Eve. I have to say, it was super nice to take a hot shower Christmas morning! 

So the rest can be said with pictures - I hope everyone had a Great Christmas too, we sure did! 

Christmas Eve

Venturing outside to look a the crazy ice sculptures from the storm! 

We decided to sleep in the living room rather than upstairs for two nights - mainly so we could run the generator every 4-6 hrs to keep the fridge going without having to move too far, but also because it's pretty darn cozy in the living room and we wouldn't have to worry about having to heat upstairs so much with the fireplace (though we know from before we can keep the whole house pretty warm with just the fireplace if we need to!). 

The ice had shut up both cars completely, we had to pour a little water over the doors to be able to open them, then crack away at the ice on the windows. You couldn't just pour water everywhere, as it'd freeze right back up! 

The driveway, after plowing and moving the cars around. 

Zoe actually ventured out to see what we were doing. We had around 12 inches of snow on the ground prior to the storm, all was now covered over in an icy crust! 

Burning bush, encased in ice. 

Icy furs. 

I've said it before, and i'll say it again. One of the main things I love about Maine winters is that it is rarely grey. The amazing blue skies, the white landscape, punctuated by the most amazingly red and orange sunsets and sunrises. It's hard to be down on the weather when it's just so darn sunny.....even when it is below freezing! 

Christmas Day

A new Christmas tradition - orange cinnamon rolls from scratch! This was actually taken on Christmas eve - the dough rising on the fireplace. 

Before cooking on Christmas morning.

And the finished result! No, we didn't eat it all......some went in the freezer. Yum yum though, definitely a new tradition! 

Christmas morning sunrise.....just beautiful! 

Opening presents. Barkley likes pork butt apparently....and has a very firm grip on the piggies head! 

Brody tucking into a squeaky snake. It didn't last ten minutes, but he does love them so. The snake-skin also hangs around for months being played with, so they're worth it. 

Brandon making a survival bracelet....for the next time he decides to climb Mt Washington with his buddies (that's for another story....). 

Too icy for a long walk, we decided to check out the garden instead. 

We had to dig channels for Barkley - she gets pretty wobbly on ice these days, and with her stitches still in her belly she needed to be careful around the garden and not sink up to her belly. 

We had a couple of large fallen tree limbs. Barkley for scale. 

Frozen buds....the last of the season. 

Brody loves to rub himself up and down in the ice. Who knows why, but it's pretty cute. 

Even Zoe came out to see what we were doing. 

A little tree clean up and poop-patrol and we headed inside to hot chocolate, mince pies and movies on DVD....as we didn't get cable back until today, so had no netflix....or the queens speech, which is a first for me missing. 

The goings on

Firstly, we finished the kitchen cabinets! Complete with hardware even. They look awesome, and really brighten up the space! The next step, choosing a wall colour. It's proving pretty hard to chose, having the cabinets done really helps, but this colour will go all the way into the hall, so it has to be a colour that does both bright and dark spaces. You can almost see all the colour swatches we have up on the wall. This may be one of those rare occasions for me where we might actually have to get a bunch of small paint samples and paint a few patches here and there. 

Miss Barkley says Merry Christmas! Poor girl had to have a lump removed from her chest this week, so has 12 staples that don't come out until just after new year. After a scare where they were almost certain it was cancer, when they pulled it out they're now not so sure. Given her age we decided not to biopsy to know for sure, it wouldn't change our plan for her - which is just to give her an awesome and comfortable retirement - so we decided not to spend the extra. Our vet is extremely awesome though and agreed with our decision, so on her own poked and prodded the tumor a lot more than she would normally and is now thinking it might just be a hard lipoma. Either way, it's now out and Barkley Bear is enjoying all the extra attention....and cookies....! 

And there has been snow! This is my major road to get to work! So pretty! 

Lots of snow! We've actually had nearly 2ft already, which is a lot for December! 

We woke up one morning to snow at the bedroom windows! 

I love this time of year - bright blue skies and shiny white snow. Just makes everything look clean and fresh. So pretty.