Like a s'more you can take a shower with.

We cleaned out our fireplace this weekend, the first time in four years. After we had babies, we shoved a furni pad into the chimney. Since our house is older than Jesus, we don't have a damper and when the winds picked up stuff blew into our living room. And that did not work with crawling babies.

So our Sunday project was to get the fireplace going. We went to Home Depot and bought a new fireplace screen. And John swept out the fireplace and removed the furni pad. Which only had a thin layer of soot on it.

After John got a fire started Hartwell exclaimed,"This is like camping!"

So we made s'mores. But like, lazy s'mores. With marshmallows and milano cookies.

After roasting the marshmallows and placing it between the cookies, the boys just ate the cookies and left the roasted marshmallows on the cutting board.

What do you do all day?

I build Lego objects for a 3 year old. Today he requested a boat for that pirate figurine. On the boat, behind the mast is Pirate Pingu. I had to make him because the first penguin I made was dubbed Pingu's mom. I was then instructed to build another penguin, Pingu. So he ended up with an eyepatch.

We need more legos. I think I'm gonna try buying bulk legos on ebay.

Candy Corn Season!

My MOMS Club is having a big Halloween Party/Open House and I thought I'd make another raffle prize. Just a little trick-or-treat bag for a toddler. It took me about 2 hours because I had to iron. Iron!
And I was watching Romancing the Stone from start to finish.

Okay, Joan Wilder, write us out of this one.

Chocolate Cake Island

My mom told me that she used to have a portable dishwasher with a butcherblock top that she used like an island. I thought it was possible to convert ours. If you squint, you can see the top of our dishwasher has a weird gray formica top. Which we topped with a cutting board. (I would've taken a before picture, but I heard machinery and went to the backyard to discover the top was removed for measuring). I was using it as a prep station before we got our giant cabinet. Maybe now Rachel Ray's recipes will actually take 30 minutes.

We've had this table forever. We found it on the street when we first moved here. Solid oak table. Round. A little too big for our kitchen so we cut it down. When I found a new table at the thrift store, (Heywood-Wakefield, dream come true), I put the top in the garage for future use.

And a coat of food safe oil...

 And I get my very own butcher block island. I'm so glad I don't have to pay John. Wait...I made him a chocolate cake. Small price to pay.

Cabinet Fever.

I recently received $250 from the universe and set about to get my IKEA on. I knew the piece I wanted and was all ready for Saturday, when John and I would head to IKEA to get the giant butcher block cabinet. It was $329, but with my free extra money, it was now affordable. I went to the website to see if it was in stock, the last time I was there I didn't see any assembled. And there were none. Not at any of the 4 IKEA's in Southern California. Ratsass.

We decided to go anyway and see if something else would work. Thank gods for the drop-in play area! John and I wandered around, me feeling like NOTHING else would work, and John trying to figure out how to make me happy. We ended up with this:

Which is like what I wanted but without the drawers. (It was $249. Coincidence? I think the universe knew what I needed better than I did). It's actually pretty roomy. I had trouble filling it. Now it houses Lego and puzzles and stuff. So it's in easy reach for the boys.

John put it together last night. He's an IKEA expert because the TV show he works on uses a ton of it. He's put together entire closets. Here's what I found in the kitchen when I went to help:

 

Virgos. You can't live with 'em.

So now I have miles of counter space.

I don't know if you can see in the photo, but our dishwasher is at the end with a butcher block on top. We're actually going to remove the Formica top on the dishwasher and replace it with an old oak table top piece to make a butcher block island. It'll be cut to size and routed to fit. 

John didn't want to keep the table top. But I said, "NO! We can cut it down for something in the future!" He thought I was crazy. Who's crazy now?

Still me.