Weekend Recap: Painting + MN Swarm Game

We had a busy and productive weekend! On Friday after work we ran to Home Depot to get me my first ever power tool - a detail sander! I can't believe I didn't take a photo with it! Then we were off to Sam's Club for a few things before heading home.

At home, I did some spackling in the new guest room upstairs, and then made Sriracha caramel corn. Delicious!!! I was a little nervous how it would taste, but we both loved it. It wasn't too spicy either; just really great flavor. Recipe here

Saturday, we slept in and then started our upstairs project. I used the sander on the walls - there were lots of random bumps and of course, all my spackle to smooth out.

I even uncovered some hideous bright blue paint. Can you imagine this room was once that color?

After a quick lunch, it was time to get painting. Goodbye lovely (NOT) rose / orangey-in-certain-light walls!

Chester was a good boy and hung out in the hallway.

BEFORE

AFTER

I love the light grey in there, it really brightens up the room and has a calming effect!

We got cleaned up, discovering paint in interesting places like my hair and Adam's elbow, and then we were off downtown for the Swarm game. First, we picked up our tickets at Will Call. I bought them BOGO through a CrowdCut, so I was really surprised to find that we were fourth row off the glass (only lower level seats were promised).

Our original plan was to go to Cossetta's for dinner, but it was packed, so we went to Burger Moe's instead. The service wasn't the best because it was super crowded, but the burgers were great! I had a yummy bison burger with onion straws and BBQ, while Adam had a jucy lucy (not as good as his own, of course).

We got to the game 20 minutes before it started, and made our way down to our seats.

 They were excellent, but we were surrounded by a lot of season ticket holder crazies. I had no idea professional lacrosse had such a following?

There was even a grown man wearing face paint and a dyed beard (far right). Scary.

And then there were the three loud obnoxious guys behind us. Who for as big of fans as they seemed to be, would not shut up the entire game.
It was a fun night out though, and we didn't even care that the Swarm lost!

Sunday morning we headed to Target for a few things. Poor Adam got dragged along because they were handing out a free sample bag for Earth Day (and so he could restrain me from my random Target purchases).

We watched a movie, Anna Karenina, and then rearranged upstairs. Adam did an excellent job taking apart the futon and moving it into the new Guest Room #2 while I took photos of Chester.

When the futon was put back together, I had fun putting on all the accessories I bought for it. Like a new (wrinkly) comforter, throw, and lots of throw pillows.

The walls look bare (I have ideas to help that), but it's coming along. Also, I'm waiting to paint the radiator until I decide what I want to do. Probably white so it doesn't have to be repainted again if we (or future owners) ever repaint the room.

Yes, that's a pug pillow. I ordered the cover online! It's from the same artist (Gemma Carroll) as my favorite "Pugs Not Drugs" shirt from John, Nicolle & Carolina.

My new office across the hall needs some work though... It'll get there!

Weekend Recap: Painting Upstairs

We had a busy weekend full of painting upstairs. On Friday we painted, on Saturday we painted, and on Sunday we rested.

I was at a convention for work on Friday, so I got home at a decent time. Adam ended up working later than planned though. So by the time we felt like painting, it was dark out. Our original plan was start on the main guest room. However, surveying the walls I noticed a lot of bumps that I wanted to sand along with scratches and tiny little holes. I grabbed some spackle and my little tool and went to town on those walls.

Since the guest room wasn't going to be ready, we decided to tackle the hallway. The hallway was still painted yellow from when our main floor was yellow. I think we ran out of steam originally, so it's remained yellow for a few years - out of sight, out of mind.

Since we had paint supplies spread out in the guest room, the only way Chester could be up by us was if he was in his kennel. He actually was very well behaved and napped in there while we painted.

Here's the before,

during,

and after.

On Saturday, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of corned beef hash + runny egg courtesy of Adam. Then I sanded down the spackle, we got Chester's run ready in the hallway, and we were ready to paint.

This fun project took most of the day. As usual, I did all the cutting in and Adam did the rolling.

We had painted this room right before moving in, but I wanted to move in a different direction. Here's what it looked like before -

and after -

The color turned out a bit different than I thought, but I like it. And obviously I still need to style the room! I have a new comforter and other things to put in there.

We got done around 3, so relaxed a bit before we got ready and went out to a movie. We went to 42 which just hit theaters and is about Jackie Robinson. It was a little cheesy at times, but we both enjoyed it. And we stuffed our faces with popcorn. Okay maybe it was just me... Yum!

By the time it was Sunday, we were over painting, so we decided to finish the rest next weekend and spent a lot of time on the couch/man chair. I did do some touch-ups on the guest room though so it wasn't a completely paint-free day. We also watched Trouble with the Curve that came in the mail from Netflix. Again, it was a bit cheesy but cute. I got our meal plan and grocery list done for the week, so I wasn't completely worthless. It was a miserable day outside with rain and sleet, this I discovered firsthand walking Chester around the block, so I didn't feel too bad that we did nothing.

Weekend Recap: House Projects + Food

This recap is a bit delayed as I stayed home from work yesterday (for the first time in my 5 years there) with a migraine. It was pretty horrible and my medicine didn't work. Fortunately, Chester was very well behaved even though he was a little confused as to why his mom was in bed all day and not interested in playing. And it wasn't for lack of trying - he kept jumping up onto the bed with different toys.

Our weekend was full of good food and house projects, with some relaxation mixed in. Friday night, we made the delicious mahi dish I blogged about a few weeks back, and had it with kale and ciabatta rolls. Yum. Then I spent a few hours organizing and going through things upstairs, while Adam and Chester watched some Gophers hockey.

On Saturday morning, I was up bright and early to take Chester around the block. It was a beautiful morning! I also made some chocolate crêpes filled with Nutella and cookie butter. Delicious! Adam claimed they were too sweet, but I think he liked them! 

I'm still working on my crêpe technique. This is my second time making them (Adam usually does), and I didn't make a huge mess this time. Note my giant jar of Nutella from Sam's Club.

I spent some more time upstairs, but then developed a headache and had to lay down for a few hours. I still didn't feel the greatest, but we had plans to go out to dinner at La Fonda's for date night since we had a Groupon, so off we went. I thought the food was pretty mediocre and wouldn't go back, but Adam enjoyed it. There are so many good Mexican restaurants closer to home though, so I think we'll stick with those. I did enjoy my giant peach margarita though!

After dinner, we made a brief stop at Trader Joe's where we picked up a bunch of random things like kale, artichoke hearts, plantain chips, daffodils, and edamame crackers. I love Trader Joe's!

Adam got up with Chester on Sunday, so I got to sleep in for a bit. I was feeling motivated to get stuff done, so we dragged down all the empty cardboard boxes from upstairs, and Adam broke them down to put out for recycling.

Then we tackled the tiling of the space behind the stove. I was sick of it just being a gaping hole, and the piece that came with the stove to put back there wasn't wide or long enough. We still have to caulk, but it looks much better already!

Once all our chores were done, we relaxed and watched the movie we had from Netflix; Act of Valor. It was decent even though there wasn't much of a storyline and some pretty bad acting in my opinion. Lots of action though. Adam said it was like one of his videogames, Call of Duty, brought to life.

We all took a nap out in the living room, which was delightful. I'm pretty sure that getting to snuggle with us is one of Chester's favorite parts about "stay home days." I love this photo Adam took of Chester snuggling in my arms!

For dinner, we made mini gnocchi with red sauce, lemon kale, and more ciabatta rolls. We're really loving kale lately!

Weekend Recap: Movies + New TV Stand

I won't get into what a selfish jerk I think Percy Harvin is (demanding to be traded and all), but do I wish bad things for him with Seattle? Why yes, actually I do.

Onward to the weekend recap...

After work on Friday we went over to Sam's Club to get our new membership. There was a great deal on LivingSocial, so I took advantage of it. I would much rather be a Costco member, but there's not one really convenient to us and there's a Sam's right across the street from my work. Getting our member cards was a painful 20 minute + process, but otherwise it was fine. And it'll be nice to not have to bug my mom to take me over there every once in a while when I'm visiting them.

We've been trying a 2 week low-carb diet (last day is next Monday, I'm definitely counting down the seconds), so Friday night we each allowed ourselves one drink. Otherwise I think we would have snapped and abandoned said diet. It seems to be going okay so far, but I'm hating it. Pretty sick of veggies and meat by this point... and it's only been a week.

That night we watched a movie and relaxed with Chester. We grabbed American History X  from our stash. I had never seen it before and really enjoyed it. It was sad and messed up, but good.

Adam was restless on Saturday, so we ventured out of the house in the rain to do some errands. We've been looking for a different TV stand for a while now, and decided to intensify the search. We even drove the Terrain, so we meant business! We did some measurements of the space before we left and brought the tape measure along.

First, we stopped briefly at Target so I could get pick up some on sale totes/tubs for my upstairs cleaning project. Three to be exact. Remember that as I would be regretting it later. Next, we stopped at the Slumberland Outlet and looked around. They had a few TV stands, and one we kind of liked and loved the price of, but we decided to keep looking.

Next, we drove up to Dock86. This is where we found our leather couches. It's a discount furniture store, but their prices aren't that great in my opinion. They do have a large selection though. There we found one! It's a corner stand, so we thought that would work really well with the space we were thinking. It's about 53" at it's widest, and our TV is 50" so we knew it would work well. Our old one was really long, something like 72". We checked out and then waited in the loading dock for our name to be called. Adam back up the Terrain and they loaded her in. Except they had to take out the 3 tubs to do so. And those three 18 gallon tubs found a home on my lap. For the 15 minute ride home. Not so special.

We got it home and dragged it inside, which was an adventure in itself as it was heavy and I am not strong. But we made it.

And then Adam started his long afternoon project of moving the cable and ethernet lines from one end of the room to the other. This involved cutting a hole in our wall, digging through the walls, and a trip to Home Depot for supplies. He did great though and it looks so much better than our old cords did coming up from a hole in the floor by the radiators!

Then it was time to move over all our equipment and power cords and cables which was pretty time consuming as well. Chester was helpful, as always.

When we were done, we made a delicious dinner of Lemon Chicken with Artichoke Hearts. Recipe here.
I would definitely make it again; next time with some egg noodles (when we're finally off this stupid diet).

After dinner I played around more with the furniture placement before settling on this layout for now.
This is the angle from the front entry (ignore the junk in the dining room, I was still organizing)-

And from the dining room -

 I would like to find a big square ottoman and then have the two couches perpendicular to each other so they can share the ottoman (so basically switch the loveseat with the man chair).
 
I really LOVE the new TV stand and layout! I find myself gazing at it and marveling at how much bigger it feels. I can't believe we didn't do it sooner.

I'm totally kicking myself for not taking a full room before shot. I found this old photo and edited it to show where everything was. I love how it really opens up the space!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Here's a comparison of the set-up-

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I'm really glad we went for one with doors to hide all the junk and keep it less dusty.

Even Chester seems to like it! And now it's too high for him to scratch at the TV when there are dogs/horses/cartoons/cats/bunnies, etc on.

Finally, it was time to settle in and watch a movie on the new set-up - the new Total Recall. Adam fell asleep halfway through, but I actually enjoyed it.

Sunday morning I enjoyed lounging with the pug while Adam cleaned up a bit downstairs and prepared to smoke a pork loin.

Then I did some picking up around the house and spent some time organizing downstairs. Someday it will get done. I just need to keep chipping away at it.

That afternoon, we watched another movie. Reservoir Dogs, which was also from our collection. I thought it was pretty boring for most of it, but got good at the end.

The rest of the evening was for lounging and watching The Walking Dead. Such a good show. It was a pretty laid back weekend, which was nice as I had battled migraines off and on all week. The first 8 days of March I had a headache every.single.day. It was rough.