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Archive for Around the House

DIY Entryway Project – Finito!

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Happy Thursday everyone. Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful week. My sister and her husband are here visiting from Montana, but I wanted to take a few minutes to blog about our finished project. This posting is coming to you in between snacking, and chatting. We finally have our entryway project completed, and wanted to share some pictures with all of you.

First of all a little history on why this project is such a milestone for Travel Man and myself. We will be celebrating our 10th anniversary this year and we have this little list of projects around the house to get done this year. You know the projects I’m talking about the one’s that you have left until you can get “around to it”. Well we’re working on our “around to it” list, and this is one of the projects to get completed. We are ecstatic that this one is coming off of the list. And the reward of the results when this one got done have just been great. It’s like a weight lifted off of your shoulders, because you’ve been wanting to get it done for such a long time.

The before pictures – tile removal, and pre-painting.

Mid Process- Painting Done & flooring in the Works.

Grandma’s Assistant Flooring Complete

The Finish Trim Work

The Finished Product. All done.

The painting technique that I did on the walls was a two-step process. First I rolled on some texture paint, sort of thick, and then got the swirls in the paint with a big 4″ brush. Once that dried for 24 hours I painted over the texturing with a semi-gloss paint. The color is a sea salt blue, and the sheen changes during the day with the light coming into the house. It was a fun process figuring out how I wanted to do the texturing, and I am pleased with how it turned out.

As I told you earlier it’s great to have this project off of our list. Next job we’re tackling is landscaping our front yard. Hopefully we can get this one done before the heat of summer arrives. Happy DIYing to all. What’s the next project on your “around to it” list?

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Taco Salad for a Crowd

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Renee Spindle

For the past two or three days it has been over 90 degrees here in So Cal, just a hint of summertime coming our way. The hot weather calls for some lighter and yummy dinners. Tonight I made the gang a Taco Salad. I called my Mom to find out the origin of this recipe, and we came to the conclusion that I was a recipe that was passed around the neighborhood when we were growing up. However, I have put my own twist on the recipe, with the help of my daughter Naomi.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground turkey or ground beef (whichever you prefer)
1 can of kidney beans (15 oz)
1 pkg of taco seasoning
1 bag of fritos (10½ oz)
shredded cheese (we like the cheddar & monterey jack combo)
shredded cabbage
tomatoes
green onion

Directions:

Brown the meat, and drain off the grease.
Drain the beans and add them to the browned meat. I like to do this to heat up the beans.
Mix in the taco seasoning and the amount of water that is called for on the package.
Simmer this mixture until you have cooked off almost all of the liquid.
While the meat is simmering;
Chop up the tomatoes
Chop up some green onions.
Chop the shredded cabbage into smaller bite size pieces.
Crush the fritos, in the bag, with a rolling-pin. Open the bag a bit first though to let out the air.
Salad Layers

For the salad assembly:

The layering effect is Naomi’s twist on the recipe.
In a large glass bowl layer the ingredients like this:
Fritos
Meat and beans
Cheese
Shredded cabbage
Tomatoes
Green Onion
Then repeat the layers for a second time.
You can either serve the salad layered, or if your adventurous like me you can toss the whole salad and serve.
For garnishments put out your favorite salsa, sour cream, and black olives (that’s ones for you Hilary!)

Variations:

This recipe can easily be made with shredded chicken or beef.
You could add additional cans of different types of beans (black or pinto).
You could flavor the meat with your favorite salsa instead of taco seasoning.
Any garnishments that you like can easily be put on top or served with your salad on the side.

This is truly a yummy recipe, and so easy to throw together. Oh and I like using the shredded cabbage because it does not get soggy at all. I put out the cabbage when we have just plain old tacos in the shell too. For this twenty-something household, this salad makes a great big meal and is great for staying on budget. If you’ve never made this before it’s a real treat. If you haven’t made it in a while you’ve been missing out like me. I’m definitely mixing this recipe in with my weekly summertime meal planning.

Please stay tuned for my Mom’s Taco Salad recipe for Two.

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11 Things I was Reminded of During our Home Improvement Week

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Renee Spindle

If you are a follower of my stories you know that Travel Man and are near the end of a project remodeling the entryway of our home. After a few marathon work sessions last week it reminded me that we almost always have a great time together with our projects, and here’s a few reasons why we do:

1. Projects with my Travel Man are fun.

2. We work well together.

3. It is important that I pay attention and know when to leave Travel Man alone to let him think and work. It can be all fun and laughter.

4. Working a project and meeting our deadline is like a well orchestrated dance.

5. I’m a great “sous” carpenter- clean up is my specialty.

6. Planning is everything.

7. Changing the plan when you are actually in the middle of the project can be important. Be flexible.

8. It’s ok with me if Travel Man doesn’t like to paint, because I love to paint!

9. Finishing all of the detail work gives you the greatest sense of accomplishment.

10. The detail work is what makes your project spectacular. This one is still in the works as I am typing this post.

11. I need more exercise, I am seriously out of shape.

As our entryway project comes to a successful close I have to give a big shout out to my wonderful husband. He worked by hard to get a lot of work done in a short period of time. And of course, this week he is back on the road. That’s our life, planning and executing, and trying to get things done on short notice. I will have pictures a little later this week, remember patience is a virtue my friends.

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Home Improvement Projects

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Renee Spindle

My wonderful Travel Man has had a few days at home in a row which has been a rarity since the beginning of the year. We decided to take advantage of this week, with him at home to get some home improvement projects rolling along.

For most of this week we have been texturing and painting the walls in our entryway, installing new flooring, and getting all of the trim work completed. We are down to the wire and will be finishing up tomorrow morning. Travel man is off to Canada on Sunday. This project has been a long time coming, and it is just delightful to see it all coming together. I will post a slide show of pictures once we are completely done.

We have also been putting together a plan to landscape our front yard. Our house sits on a corner lot, the first house on the south side of our street. So we have a lot of front yard going on. We had the front yard graded probably two years ago now, and have just been keeping the dirt free of weeds and in check since then. Putting a plan together with a blank slate is somewhat of a daunting task. You want the grass and plants to look nice, and you don’t want to make a mistake with your plan. This is why we have waited to spend any money on our front yard. We had to have the time to get a vision, agree on that vision, and put a plan in place to execute. That sounds so “Corporate world” doesn’t it?

Anyway, we have been doing so much planning for the front yard, and supply purchasing for the entryway I told my husband one morning this week that I had a dream we were planting in our entryway!! My thoughts were a little mixed up don’t you think? All of this planning an executing has been making my head spin.

The entryway project is coming along so beautifully it is already creating “the domino effect”. You know what I’m talking about. You make an improvement in one area of your home, and it pushes the domino into the next room that needs to be painted or remodeled, which in our case is our living room. And we all know the “domino effect” creates a never-ending “to-do” list. But I love lists so that’s ok.

Watch for my entryway pictures in the next few days. I’m excited to get this project off of the “to-do” list and work on the front yard before it starts to get too hot. Happy home improvement weekend everyone. How’s your “to-do” list going?

No comments Posted in Around the House, DIY Projects, Family, Travel Man

Does your family have any birthday traditions?

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Renee Spindle

I am a traditionalist. I love traditions, and creating memories for family members. There are a few birthday traditions that we have so much fun with I thought I should share them with you.

The traditions that go with the birthdays at our house are numerous and fun. We try to have a theme for the birthday parties, whether you are young or old. Iron Man, Batman, Transformers are some of the recent favorites. My oldest son works at Party City so we get great discounts on the party decorations. This makes for lots of fun decorating the house, which is at the top of my “I love to do this” list. We always hang up some sort of “Happy Birthday” banner. Last summer Evan and I made a pretty cool birthday banner that had lots of construction paper and glitter. We are still using this one for some of the birthday celebrations. Once in a while we get some funky birthday hats to wear. This is mostly for the girls in the family. Lots of fun to wear a crown and be the queen for the day. Oh wait that’s right I’m the queen of my house everyday!!!

Once our theme is in place then it’s just a matter of planning the menu. The birthday person gets to pick their favorite dinner, and what kind of cake they like. A few years ago we had quite a few “Taco Bar” birthdays right in a row. Everyone wanted tacos and nachos for their birthday dinner!!

For my own kids, I have always had some fun traditions. On your birthday morning we wake everyone up early to rush into the birthday boy or girls bedroom for a rousing wake you up rendition of “Happy Birthday to you”, sung as loud as we possibly can.

For a few years Travel Man and I would take all of our kids out on the birthday persons’ actual birthday, and then we came to our senses because it was getting way too expensive. After that we started taking out just the birthday honoree by themselves. That was a fun thing to do. It was great to get some alone time with just the birthday boy or girl.

On my kids’ sixteenth birthdays I gave each of them a journal, and in the first few pages of the journal I wrote my memories to them of the day they were born. I think this tradition started because the kids would always ask about the day they were born, either on or around their birthdays every year. I wanted them to have the memories to last a lifetime.

For the 21st birthdays I make a picture collage for the kids. This is a birth to adulthood collage, a wonderful walk down memory lane. And this year will mark my last collage, as Zach will be turning 21 in July. Oh boo!

We have so much fun when the whole family is together singing happy birthday at the Party House. First we sing a chorus of happy birthday, and there’s always some sort of harmonizing going on. Then we do a second verse where we sing like this;

Happy Birthday to you cha, cha, ca (with synchronized clapping)”, “Happy Birthday to you cha,cha, cha. Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you, cha, cha, cha! The cha, cha’s are always accompanied by hand clapping.

I have to check with my mom or my brother and find out how we started singing this way as I just don’t remember. We’ve been doing it this way since my kids were very young. It’s just so much fun. If you’re a newbie at one of our family birthday parties, when we start on the second chorus it’s definitely a surprise!!

Lot and lots of fun traditions can always be expected at the Party House. I have always loved starting up traditions new and old, and look forward to keeping them going strong. The traditions are a great thing to be able to share with your kids, and now the grandson too. And as any Mom would, I hope that the traditions that I have started with my kids are handed down for generations to come.