Friday, January 22, 2010

Some things I've discovered...



This is by far the best stainless steel cleaner in the world! I have tried several different brands of spray cleaners and wipes and they always leave me frustrated and our appliances streaky and worse off than before I cleaned them. So I had to share this wonderful discovery given to me by my dear godmother Judy Daniels. :) I bought it at Home Depot.



Here you have another miracle-worker. Last Monday I had the day off for Martin Luther King Day. So I decided to deep clean our kitchen. I thought this was a good idea, but I managed to cause a bigger problem. I scrubbed and cleaned the tray from our toaster oven in our sink with brillo pads. Sounds like a great idea, right?

Well little did I know that while I was cleaning the tray I was bringing much harm to the bottom of our beautiful new white porcelain sink. When I rinsed everything and thought I had accomplished a great task, I looked and saw black scratches all over the bottom of our sink. And oh man did I panic. I tried all of the cleaners and scrubbers we had to no avail and thought I had ruined our sink. So what did I do, I went straight to google and typed in my problem. And of course there was a blog to help my very dilemma. I am forever grateful to those fine blogging people for their help. So here you have the best porcelain sink cleaner in the world. Cerama Bryte. This also can be found at your local Home Depot. It takes out the scratches pots and pans can leave, too!



And lastly, we just discovered this carpet cleaner...again, a miracle worker. It got up stains in our carpet that seemed like they would never come out. Like paint, yes paint! Good stuff! (And again, purchased at Home Depot.)

I hope I have made somebody's cleaning efforts a little easier today. For all other cleaning needs I am a huge fan of Windex for which TL always makes fun of me. I learned from my Grandad that Windex can clean anything! One time I walked out into his driveway and he was cleaning my cloth seats in my car with Windex! And they had never looked better! :) But I cannot give this as an official recommendation so please do not try this at home with your cloth car seats. :)

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmastime

Well it's been forever since I have updated our blog..from the busyness of moving in and getting settled to the craziness of the holidays, it has been quite a few months! phew! Here are a few pictures from the holidays! :)



TL did a lovely job of putting up Christmas lights... a little more Griswold-esque than I had in mind, but very festive none-the-less :)







Picking out our Christmas tree!



TL's parents helped us get our tree! That's us with TL's mom, Susan, and stepdad, Roger :)






It has brightened our living room for the last month...










Goldie tragically doesn't really care about Christmas decorating...










One of my favorite things to put out each year... jolly Mr. & Mrs. Clause






Christmas decor on our green cupboard in the kitchen...



Arrangement my dad did for us... very creative!



Our new antique piano..it's my dream piano :) We bought it from a family who lives in an beautiful historic home in north Knoxville...after some work and tuning, its the perfect piano for us!



Below is the large brick wall in our den off the kitchen that was transformed last week...so this is before:





And this is after!!! :) It totally changed the feel of the room and makes the hugest difference! We are so thrilled!!





Our new coffee table made from old wood...a Christmas gift from my parents!










My favorite kitchen sink in the world :)













Hayley and I made a gingerbread house on Christmas Eve.. a tradition I am loving













Ta da!


A few pictures from Christmas morning at my parents house:



Stockings! And Callie, our reeeally old calico kitty :) She's not really that old..16probably..but its a joke in our family



Everybody was excited about TL's Keurig coffee maker!



Emma was very interested in everything Buddy opened :)












This is SO Emma... she's our Eeyore











My favorite gift... beautiful old pictures of NaNa and Grandad... they were so classy and so in love... I miss them so much







Hayley, Hayley :)











I got a garden sign for my daisies that will someday bloom in our yard :)





What could it be?! P.S. Please notice his houseshoes. Yep. They're rabbits.



The next day we were off to Bristol to see family there...



Oh you better believe it! TL got P90-X!









And I got Rachel Ashwell's new book! and a beautiful necklace! :) And yes we were wearing antlers. :) That's our brother in law, Jeff, sporting his antlers too





TL and sister, April :)













Who is so cute at 8 months pregnant!!!









The girls! (From left to right) TL's mom, sister, grandmother, wife, and aunt... we are t-r-o-u-b-l-e when we get together! :)



TL and his cousin Adam, who is moving to Florida this week to be an art curator... such a cool job






Me and our sweet nephew Ryan!



The sunset last Saturday night...



And lastly, our family group picture in Memphis of all of us cousins on my dad's side of the family! :)

Happy New Year to you!!! :)

Monday, September 28, 2009

Home At Last!

We are officially moved in! It's so surreal and so wonderful to finally be in our house! Here are some pictures I took on Saturday before all the chaos of boxes and furniture set in. :)



Our new kitchen!!!





We have a huge island which we have already been living around this weekend! :)









TL, my mom, and my sister Hayley cleaned the new house all day Saturday while my dad and I packed up our rental house...



TL cleaning paint off of the floors...



The finished sunroom! I think it's my favorite spot in the house...



View of the sunroom from the living room...



Finished living room...





Entryway...



TL put down our new stairs on Friday.. just in time for moving!



Downstairs hallway from the front door to the kitchen...



Half-bath downstairs...





Dining room...



Guest bathroom upstairs...





Upstairs office...



Upstairs hallway... view from office...



Upstairs hallway...



Blue guestroom...





Grey guestroom...







Master bedroom...



Master bathroom...









Master closet...still needing shelving...



Laundry room with brick flooring and we added a window!



Back entryway with pantry on left and laundry room on right...



New mailbox!



Our house :)



Sunset on Saturday night... :)