Wonderful

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have a husband who is super handy. Especially when you own a house and are very picky about how things turn out. :) Over the last few years we have lived in our house Steve's skills have been put to the test by himself and by me. He's built some window treatments off of little direction from my aunts and I. Made an awesome brick patio and re-did most of it after my criticism. He has done countless other projects, but his latest tops them all. We have redone our basement, it was livable when we bought the house....if you wanted to hang out in what looked like a crappy barn. The whole room is amazing, thanks to Steve. You can read all about his amazing work here. I want to talk about one part of the room...the mantel. He took this drawing I made and turned it into reality.

Now I know nothing about building, nothing about how wood goes together, dimensions or anything. I just knew what I wanted it to look like. This poses a very big challenge to Steve. He now has to take my drawing and make it look as great as the picture in my mind. Minus one mini blow out at home depot (I am sure the Home Depot workers have seen greater arguments), I think it went quite well. I am sure Steve might say differently, as he had to actually put it together. I must say though that I LOVE how it turned out, it definitely met and even exceeded all my expectations. It looks better than it did in my mind even, but you should just see for yourself!

Thank you Steve!

Pumking Carving!

So we had gone and picked pumpkins, that means we must carve pumpkins! This is a James' family tradition and I try to get Steve into it. He's not a huge fan of it though, so we seem to do it every other year so far. I tell him he better start enjoying it before we have kids cause then we are for sure carving them every year. Growing up we always went to Eckart's to pick pumpkins, then we would design what we wanted and help dad carve them. He would have out all kinds of tools, each year figuring out which ones worked best perfecting the art of pumpkin carving.

Me digging into one of the pumpkins. Got to get it cleaned out really well! This is the part Steve hates the most.

Steve helping me draw out the design for my pumpkin.

Our creations! Mine is the SK2 one and Steve's is the birds and the moon.

Our front deck stairs were perfect to display them on.

We also sprayed them with a concoction of jalapeños and hot sauce we blended to keep the squirrels away from them. Don't breath near it though or it will burn your nose! It worked though, no squirrels eating our pumpkins this year!