I Must Be Dreaming

Please Observe with your eyeballs and share with someone I beg of you...and I thank you.

A BoringVlog update - "Working on House Excuse Video"

A BoringVlog update - "Working on House Excuse Video"

The Next Morning - Johnny Noir Ep 2

Second Episode of Johnny Noir served up hot and fresh...Thanks for watching!

Johnny Noir and The Mysterious Hat!

For Your Entertainment..

Autumn Vlog

Nyssa has a day off so we go do some fall stuff

Check Out My Channel!
http://www.youtube.com/user/Jon0fAllTrades

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==Socialize!==

The Website: http://www.JonOfAllTrades.blogspot.com

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McDonalds, Car Wreck, Special Guest Javier - DashCamVlog #2

Good times...Bad food!

Haircut, New Iphone Rant - JonOfAllTrades First DashCamVlog

I think I'll do some more of these..hmm

Return of the Boring VLog!

Hello World. I'm Back.

A Week of Manual Labor! - The Great Basement Flood part 2

Sump Pumps Suck! - The Great Basement Flood part 1

This is what happens when you put off something that need to be worked on!

Hummingbird Garden Vlog Excuse Update

Hottest Vlog of the Month!

Yea it was pretty HOT!

Genevlog on the Lake Date!

just some bad footage from our good weekend, no wait, was it the other way around?!

Vloggin Weeds And Pills For My Dinner!!!

New Vlog, mowing grass, eating weeds for dinner. etc

Guy Loses His Mind In Backyard!!!

Cheers for barely relevant Video Titles and Thumbnails! Leave a comment telling me how annoyed you were when you clicked this...

Of course I can't choose a barely relevant thumbnail because I'm not a partner yet...

also who notices when people say something funny or relevant to the video in the tags? leave a comment!

Colorado Vacation Vlog #2 - Hiking!

Now With More Zombies!!!

Colorado Vacation Vlog #1

Kinda Shaky.....meh

Surviving a Long Road Trip...

Hi thanks for watching, please comment on your favorite part and rate the video if you liked it! thanks alot!!

Vacation Is My Excuse

Westward Ho!

We are headed to Denver, CO for vacation, woooo!

Pallet Burning Mob Ate My Kabobs!

Hey I was saving those!!! not really...

Nyssa Graduates from OCPM! Congratulations to My Wife the Doctor!

This is a Big DEAL PEOPLE! :)

Cleveland Marathon 2011 !!!

Nyssa ran a half Marathon in Cleveland and she loved it, good times!

Check out her stats here: results.active.com

5-hour energy dance fest!

Crack your glowsticks people!
Please Like if you do and share it with someone you Love, or hate?! A
lso your SUBscriptions give me power to forge ahead, each bad video gives strength to make the next better! Grow with me!

Nyssa's Mom comes to stay with us for a while, Commence hijinks !

The BVloggestness...in the World!!

I drop things far far too much...

Bvlog Biker gang(not really) and some other boringness

I think it must have been the Louie Run or something...

Osama Bin Laden Found and Killed!

Big News tonight, Osama Was Found and Killed recently. Did you sit up and first wait for an hour after it was scheduled and then watch the news happen? I did.

When Trees Attack, Storming Gas Prices & a Cute Fluffy Puppy

Please comment rate and subscribe on YouTube, there are lots of other good things to watch on there besides me, I mean better than me...

Mini Bvlog of Randomness!

1 minute vlog! How Boring !

Bvlog Birthday Bonfire setup

I didn't get any video of the bonfire, duh!

Good Friday 2011 Bvlog

Bvlog My Windy Barbecue Brakes

Getaway Garden

Hey everyone!

My sister who has a very nice, ( and growing every year ) garden is starting a blog about all the stuff she does. Gardening, planting, flower beds, greenhouse, canning, storing things, crafts, etc etc etc...

So you should definitely subscribe/follow her at www.GetawayGarden.blogspot.com !

I helped her literally today to sign up and open the blog so it isn't much to look at, with your support and encouragement though I'm sure she will have lots of good content soon!

Thats all for now, don't forget to check out my videos on youtube, comment, rate and subscriiiibe!

later!

Bvlog at the Park and Apple Store

Anyone else running this summer? How about Iphone problems, love em hate em?

Get in the Attic and stay there !

No mice were caught....

My sisters birthday, garden, and shopping

Bvloggin Angry Birds

Bvlog # 2

Bvlog #1 - Boringvlog for your viewing pleasure!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Didn't have a birthday card on hand so I made this one with some help from the ladies over at www.eighteen25.blogspot.com.

                       Front                                                           Inside

Look at this fabulous print they put together http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/11/gift-for-grandma.html. Instead of framing it I used it to make a birthday card. Best part is the colors are some of my grandma's favorites. Not sure if the colors were suppose to be brown and green from the download but it turned out perfect! 

Ya know how it is when scanners and printers act up...

2011 St. Patrick's Day Party on a Budget!

On March 19th Jon and I had our friends over for a St. Patty’s celebration! I wanted to put together games and decorations that didn’t cost a lot of money so I decided I’d show you just how affordable a party can be.

The Décor and Games

First things first: Don’t get intimidated or convince yourself you need expensive decorations! Decoration should be simple and some of the best things can be found around the house. Since I wanted my St. Patty’s decorations to be classic and to give an essence of Ireland this is what I came up with for my table decoration.

1.       I bought two packs of moss covered stones at the Dollar Store - $2

2.       The beautiful candle holders were given to me by Jon’s sister awhile ago – FREE

3.       The Cider scented candles I had bought for Jon’s Birthday Party last year so I guess maybe you could count that I spent 25¢/ each last year – $0.75

      Total spent on table decorations: $2.75

Keep it simple, if you don’t have free candle holders from your sister-in-law look for something you do have!  For instance a vase or bowl could be used for Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, 4^th of July . . . by simply filling it with celebration colors! For Christmas I filled a vase with silver kisses but you could also put some colored stones (which you can get at the Dollar Store), or you could place the moss covered stones I bought for my St. Patty’s table decorations and place them in a vase or bowl.

My favorite part of the decoration of the party was the napkins with these name tags! I loved bringing the stripes alongside the green nature of St. Patrick’s Day!!!

My mantel was decorated with this simple green/blue paper garland.

I forgot to take a picture before the party because I incorporated the words/phrases from our Fast Irish Charades into this decoration. I rolled up each word/phrase and sandwiched it in between the two circles.

Here is what one of them looked like (I didn’t feel like re-rolling all them after the party just to take a picture)!


It was a fun twist to charades! For our Irish charades we battled boys versus girls and had the teams compete for the best time, the BOYS won! However, the prize was given to the person who guessed the most correctly and the winner . . . was not on the boy’s team, go girls!

The best thing about this decoration was I had everything on hand so no money was spent!

Around the fireplace I set up this Blarney Stone decoration . . . it was even was kissed once!

Guess Me Lucky Beans
Here was my living room table décor/game!

Pretty self explanatory: taste a Jelly Belly and match it to its flavor name! This served as my h’orderves and the entertaining game to kick off the fun!  This game had mixed participation as some were overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices (I should have cut the number from 34 to 15 flavors) while other were very determined and seemed to enjoy the challenge. Overall those who participated had a great time and those who didn’t get into it as much enjoyed conversing and taunting others! One flavor everyone seemed to get was licorice and one funny flavor name was Tutti-fruity!  The winner ended with 25 of the 34 flavors correct, guess that’s what happens when you’re an awesome female with a knack for Jelly-Beans!!

Cost for this game/décor was:  $6.50

1.       Two bags of Jelly Belly beans - $6.50

2.       Minimal cost for paper/ink to make:

·          7 Game sheets  and game title

·          Fabulous Irish sayings printout (I used a frame I owned)

·         34 Paper boxes from 9 sheets of paper (Jon and I spent about 1 ½ hours folding these. . . Jon was such a good sport)

The Irish Stealing Sticker Game
The 3^rd game that actually began as soon as everyone was in the door! Each person placed or had someone else place 7 stickers on their back. Everyone tried to steal stickers without being caught and the person with the most stickers stolen plus the number remaining on their back WON!  The game was so funny! Some people were attacked while others were preyed upon by the stealthy. Most of the time, however, people were caught red handed!  Some were heard yelling “Give me my sticker back, NOW” and “I can’t get up I’ll expose myself”.  The cooks yelled “I’ll burn you” and “I will cut the next person who touches my back.”   No one was injured but many laughs were had! The winner once again was a female and a very stealthy one at that! Looking over the party video footage I couldn’t believe how many times she went for those stickers, she sure earned them! Congrats to another talented female! Maybe next party will be the boys turn to win!

Speaking of winning I put together a simple little prize packs of two different ciders (Woodchuck and Magners) and a Guinness. I taped all 3 together and tied a paper shamrock with the story surrounding how the shamrock represented the Trinity. Since it was a set of three drinks I called it the Trinity Party Pack or the Shamrock Party Pack! Of ‘course I forgot to take a picture of these cute party packs sitting in my fridge.

Cost for drinks (including the drink prizes): This was the most expensive part of the party but I choose to include the following as more of a food expense.  One frugal idea is to inform your guests to BYOB then you don’t have to worry about this expense!

1 six pack of Magners Cider - $11

1 six pack of Woodchuck Cider - $8

2 – 8 packs of Guinness in cans - $22

Drink Total: $ 41

In my opinion I did not go overboard on trying to provide a myriad of choices but just bought the staples. In fact I restrained myself from purchasing Irish whiskey and to my surprise one of the couples brought a bottle! Another couple also brought a six pack of Magners so we were stocked for the night! We even had some left over! Here is a picture of a name tag being used as a Magners drink tag. Jon decided to use his as a rock tag.

Dinner Time

No St. Patty’s Day party would be complete without some classic corned beef and cabbage along with potatoes and carrots. Jon was the cook for the evening and everything turned out so very good, great job cutie! Our guests brought delicious cheesy garlic bread from Great Harvest, homemade Irish Cream Bunt Cake and Ice cream! Yummy!

The party was a great success and we had fun planning it!

Grand Total Cost

The cost for everything excluding food (including the jelly beans): $9.25. Who said you can’t entertain on a budget!

It is true that what I saved in cost I made up for in time, especially the jelly bean game.

 It took 3 hours to sort the jelly beans, 1 ½ hours to make 34 jelly bean boxes, and at least 2 hours to make the garland on the mantle, not to mention all the time I spent creatively birthing these projects into existence (whew I’m tired). I figure, though, at this point in my life I defiantly have more time than money! Plus creating something is just plain fun!

Just a little vlog update on what I was doing this week

My wonderful wife got a residency program and stops making dinner for me.

Beautiful Snowy Day and some Nutburger walking down the snowy main road !

Secret Underground Kirtland Railroad !

Hey I'm Vlogging HERE!!!!

Second half of video is at Kirtland High School band concert, both of my younger brothers are in it.

Grocery Shopping Again?! This Is Ridiculous!

Yeah we are grocery shopping again in this vlog...What do you want from me I haven't had alot of daylight to record things in!!!

Mrs. JonOfAllTrades Dinner Clip !

Mrs. JonOfAllTrades recorded a short video while I was showering. She is very proud of her freebies she gets in the mail.

Thanks for making Dinner Lovey!

A Bit of Grocery and a Free Coffeeeee !

This is where I should put a description but there isn't much to say on this one. Except that the transition got messed up near the end, was supposed to say later that evening over the black screen..oh well!!

Thumbs up DUDE!

Whats the deal with 'pocket camcorders' ?

As Jerry Seinfield might say, "Whats the deaaal with pocket camcorders?"

Seriously though what is the deal. They are meant to be pulled out and used in hand primarily, but that is when they perform the worst. Take the Sony MHS-PM5 bloggie I got recently for example. It claims to shoot 720p as Well as 1080p.

Really?

Why do they claim those numbers when real world use involves moving the camera. I'm pretty sure its not really that high quality even when holding still. I mean it is close. But c'mon.
It reminds me of the old toshiba rear projection 'HDTV' I had a few years ago. And I use the term HDTV lightly.  Sure it looked pretty good for video games. But you could clearly see the color beams separating at many different points on the screen. So how does that count as 720p (HD)? High Def to me is pretty simple...A VERY CLEAR PICTURE . PERIOD

Don't get me wrong, I only payed $50 for my Sony MHS-PM5 bloggie , so what could I really expect? Well from the specifications they boast I expect much, and $50 is the most I'd ever pay for something that most cell phones are now capable of. Except for my cell phone that is. If I had something like a Motorola Atrix or an Iphone even I would sell the bloggie in a second. Until then I am looking to trade up to a Flip UltraHD as I watched some comparison videos and it seems to outperform the bloggie by a noticeable degree. I also noticed when watching a YouTuber who I knew was using a flip and realized how clear his video was on 480p whereas mine looked Nasty!

February Flooding Fun !

Don't forget to give me a thumbs up and subscribe if you enjoy!

Speedy Dinner Vid !

Don't forget to give me a thumbs up and subscribe!!

Iced Coffee from Cold Brew Method

Don't forget to give me a thumbs up and subscribe!!

Treadmill Hurt Me So I Attack My Wife For A Snickers!

ChristieBirds Goin for a Wintry Walk!

Posted a Video even though I'm not sold on ChristieBirds name. Anyways just for fun and to get a feel for the video editing process.




p.s. I make some odd sounding words because of A. the cold and B. my swollen wisdomtoothless mouth.

Crafting in January - By Nyssa

This past January I had the entire month off! As most of you know I’m finishing my last year of podiatry school and I had the option to have one month off before February! I opted to have January off so I could study for interviews and enjoy a break from driving in the snow! I was able to catch up on my sleep, do a lot of running and be creative! I’ve always loved creating things especially with fabric (surprise, surprise I love Project Runway) but it has sadly been over a year since I’ve had time to make anything. This past month I was able to create several things! First a tutu outfit for my only niece who turned one in January! She is such an adorable girl and since I know she loves prancing around in tutus I decided to make her one!

Here is the onesie portion of the outfit. I bought a plain white onesie from Walmart and then added the appliquéd number one and a felt owl. The owl took some time to put together but it was worth it!

Here is the tutu. . . I just love how it turned out! I had never made a tutu before but it was super easy! Angie Neil on her blog http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/ had the best tutorials on how to cut and put together your tutu.

How to cut tutu so you don’t end up with all different lengths:

http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/2009/10/cut-tulle-for-tutu-using-quick-and-easy.html

How to put the tutu together:

http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/2009/11/easy-no-sew-tutu-tutorial-giveaway.html

For my tutus I decided to use elastic since it seemed more durable and higher quality, but you can also use ribbon as your waistband.

I bought crocheted ribbon headbands from walmart and attached a rose made of the same fabric as the number 1 on the onesie. Here is where I found how to make the rose: http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/08/make-fabric-flower-and-flower-tutorial.html. I just love the name of the blog: “Little Birdie Secrets” how cute is that!

Finished Project #1:

My second project was also a tutu, but a tutu for a newborn! It is so tiny and adorable! I made it for Jon’s cousin’s baby shower! 

Finished Project #2

This onesie was similar but simpler with only an owl on the front.

This tutu was constructed the same way but I satin wrapped the waist band to make it less scratchy for baby! This tutorial was also found on Treasures for Tots at:

  http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/2009/10/diy-satin-wrap-tutu.html. 

See:

The headband has felt brown and pink pedals formed into a flower and attached to the headband (sorry, blurry).

To top it all off I had been thinking how I could wrap this gift for the shower and being frugal and not wanting to buy anything I creatively reused a Victoria Secret bag by covering up the “Victoria’s Secret” with “Baby’s secret” and gluing scrunched up pink tissue paper around the boarder.

 I love reusing these quality bags, just remember to save the tissue paper too! I think I got more compliments on the bag than the tutu, pregnant mom even had to pause to have a picture taken (it wasn’t me, seriously)! Hooray for creativity! Jon’s cousin loved it; she said she couldn’t wait to doll up her baby girl!

The last couple projects I worked on were baby blankets! I made one for a good friend from school whose wife just had a little boy and one for a baby girl (Jon’s cousin’s baby). I have yet to finish the one for Jon’s cousin's baby since I need to monograph it with her name and birth date once she is  born. I recently heard that this baby girl was born but didn’t hear an official name so I guess I’ll wait a little longer J. 

One of my favorite parts of making a baby blanket is picking out the fabric! Since I fell in love with this blanket by Joel Dewberry (http://joeldewberry.blogspot.com/2010/07/project-idea-and-giveaway.html) I went in search of some fabric like it at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store. Disappointment, nothing was as handsome and modern as Joel Dewberry’s fabric so I found it for a good price from fabric.com! This is my favorite fabric right now! For the back I like to use dotted minky which is always so soft perfect for baby blankets.

Finished Project #3

On the minky side I appliquéd an “L” for Lucas and down the long side of the “L” I monogrammed with embroidery thread baby’s name using this technique: http://www.needlenthread.com/2006/10/embroidery-stitch-video-tutorial-stem.html.

 Along the bottom I put baby’s birth date!

With all my blankets I try to create a not-so-baby blanket with fabric that doesn’t have animals, blocks or other baby type patterns so if the blanket lasts till they are grown it doesn’t look dated! I still have a blanket with my name on it but the pattern screams “I was born in the 80’s.” Maybe my blankets will seem that way in 20 years but here’s to trying!

or how about this part 2 = Coming Soon-ish? to a YouFace Box Near You !

Or how about I don't fuss about so much and just do both. ChristieBirds and JonOfAllTradesVlog as separate. I just feel a cohesive brand would be better.. aaaaaah my mind is my own enemy!!!

Coming Soon-ish? to a YouFace Box Near You !

So I've been kicking around some more ideas about the blog and YouTube while I've been laying low from having my wise-dumb teeth all yanked out. And I'm not sure if JonOfAllTradesBlog is going to be the way I want to go. I mean it is, and it isn't. It isn't in that I couldn't actually get JonOfAllTrades on YouTube, it is taken. So no biggie right? I just added blog or vlog to it, I have both of those now. But it does matter when I look at it from the tiered perspective that I'm thinking about insomuch that I'd like to have a kind of brand, with Jonofalltrades under it not on top of it. I'm really not 100% sure and its kind of hard to explain it all out in writing.   Only because What names can fall under Jon of all trades. This will make sense further down.
Also JonOfAllTrades while possible to have videos that are not just howto etc, it still feels like too complex or specific a name (brand) to be about random other stuff which brings me to ..

So because I'd like to do alot of videos that are not just 'how-to' , 'heres my bathroom', heres how to scrape mortar.. (because quite frankly there needs to be something unique there) I've come up with a few names so far that I'd like some input on.

First I had TheChristieClan or just ChristieClan. This left something to be desire still. Becuase how do I add more personalities under that.. I dunno it just doesn't feel right. Might still be ...more likely this next one though.

Then based on my xbox halo nickname 'Dirty6ird' of days gone by I thought up of TheChristieBirds, or more likely ChristieBirds. Because dirtybird just doesn't ring up positive to anyone but our close friends or family that may know it.

So taking ChristieBirds as a top tier or main brand. There are options under that  JBird for me, BabyBird someday etc... But I could also just be JonOfAllTradesBlog or JonOfAllTradesVlog under ChristieBirds.

I know alot of this isn't making sense but it just might be helping me make a decision so there. You probably wonder what does it all matter, what is your POINT?!  Shaycarl and the ShayTards for example.

ok give me some input here..

Jon

Coming Soon to a Computer Near You !

We just picked up a Sony Bloggie (MHS-PM5), it's a 'Pocket Camcorder' and all the rage with the crazy 'FaceTuber's out there.. <--my attempt at humor

So anyways my plan is to get back into this with some more focused intensity, therealso (made-up word) including YouTube as a part of my newfound Venture!

user: JonOfAllTradesBlog is the hot ticket (currently empty?) to watch....

With much goal setting and perseverance-ly yours,

Jon

Our First Trip To Ikea

In light of the fact that Jon and I had the entire week off in between Christmas and New Year's day we decided to take a day trip, something I had always wanted to do. The night before our day trip I browsed over the Ikea website so I would know some of the things to look for when I got there! We really didn't have a long list of things we wanted to get, but we were looking forward to seeing the quality of the furniture we commonly see on craigslist and spending time together! The only things I decided I wanted to buy prior to the trip were this drying rack http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10177178 and this magnetic knife holder for our kitchen http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00136621 .

The closest Ikea to us was a little over a 2 hour drive so we arrived anxiously around noon and after a quick lunch at Chipotle we were ready to shop, shop, shop! Let's just say I was Excited! Some of the things we fell in love with included:

This white double bathroom cabinet/sinks, including the faucets and the drawer knobs!

And this large mirror! I guess I have a fetish for mirrors or maybe just large ones because I found three that I loved! This one was my favorite!

After a cinnamon roll and Mr. Pibb break we tackled the kitchen section and the rest of the store!

The cinnamon roll was delicious!

Here is one of the heart throb kitchens, I love the backsplash and hope to find some tile like that in a different color for my kitchen, someday!

Some of the things we purchased included two different types of hooks. One type was neat because when not in use they snapped up against the wall (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60152590). These other ones are simple but I thought they would be perfect to mount on the inside of my closet to hang necklaces on (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30061247)! The sadness was that somehow these ones didn't make it home with us! We paid for them but couldn’t find them when we got home, guess we left them in the cart (sad face)!

We had been looking for some matching small whiskey glasses and we loved these plus they were only $4 for 6! We’ll take'em!

Amongst the many other lovely things, we didn’t buy, like bins of soft lamb’s skin, beautiful curtains, and tons of colorful pillows we found the drying rack and magnetic knife holder that I was hoping to find and tossed them into our cart! We also happened to find the perfect shade for the lonely kitchen nook that now only needs some leather chairs and a table!

After spending about 7 hours looking around we were tired and hungry! With a Christmas gift card in hand we headed over Olive Garden to enjoy a nice meal before we started our 2 hour drive home! We decided we didn’t want to take the tollway home so our trip home ended up taking about 3 hours since it was mostly obscure roads. Probably not the best idea we ever had but we made it home safely before midnight!

This is a picture of our finds, notice the lovely napkins Jon said I could buy and the wok Jon just had to have!

Here is the lovely nook shade, I can’t wait to get some chairs to go under it! Jon and I had a lovely time and we can't wait for our next day trip together!

2010 Christie Christmas Party

As mentioned Jon and I hosted our annual friends Christmas Party this year and boy did we have a great time! We both felt rewarded by having accomplished many of the things on our “List of thing to do before the Christmas Party.”

My List:

#1. Paint and decorate the dining room. See my previous post about how that all worked out!

#2 Plan and Prepare the main meal:

Jon had mentioned he would like some kind of meat that wasn’t turkey or ham (since ya know everyone has had plenty of that between Thanksgiving and Christmas), and after some thought I decided to make a brisket. Along with the brisket I decided to have mashed potatoes, salad, bread and of course brisket gravy, yummy! Everything went according to plan except maybe I should have bought the brisket a week in advance instead of the two days before the party since when I went to the store to buy it they didn’t have the big ones but only little ones for double the price, GREAT! So, when Jon called me after getting out of work I told him the situation and he suggested that we get his sister to go with us to Sam’s Club (since we don’t have a membership) and pick one up there. Unfortunately, his sister was not home but within moments Jon’s dad drove up in his truck to save the day!! You see Jon’s dad was on his way to Sam’s Club and he had a truck which meant Jon could check “Pick up firewood from Jon’s sister’s house” off his list. Check, Check! I cooked the brisket the way my mother had always done by cooking it overnight at a low temperature, it was so delicious!

#3 Clean, Clean, Clean – a very necessary part of party preparation

#4 Prepare h’ordeuvres

I prepared a simple cheese and cracker platter along with a bowl of white chocolate covered pretzels and a bowl of Hershey’s kisses. Since I had always wanted to serve wine and cheese we bought one white and one red wine to enjoy with the h’ordeuvres.

#5 Entertainment: I was hesitant to plan games at first but I’m glad I did as all 3 were a hit!

First game was something along the lines of the newlywed game (I think) where you have one spouse write down answers to questions about themselves and then you ask these same questions to their spouse to see how well they know each other. Here are Jon and my papers typed out, the yellow highlighted answers means the opposite spouse guessed the answer that was written down. Jon and I came in 2^nd place loosing 1^st place by one point! There were some funny and intense moments when easy questions were missed but as far as we know no one went home crying!

Second game of the night came at the dining room table. While I was getting the food set up for buffet style serving the guest sat down and well, you can guess from the picture!

Winner took home the Kisses!

Third game involved two themes: A Christmas Story (the movie) and Christmas Carols. I found a quiz with questions about A Christmas Story movie and then another with carol lyrics with missing words! Jon was on his own playing this one since I had looked up all the answers but Jon did so well on his own I’m sure I wouldn’t have contributed much!

Each couple with the most points at the end of each game got to choose one of the lovely wines under the Christmas tree to take home! Each couple ended up taking something home, how perfect!

Jon’s List

#1 Install outlets and light switch in dining room. Done!

#2 Get the fireplace/chimney ready for a fire!

This was an idea that we were not sure would be able to come to fruition since Jon had to see what all it involved! Of course my husband is amazing so you know a fire was part of our party! First, Jon had to put a chimney cap on top, however, at the time we thought the flue liner was busted so Jon fabricated steel mesh to set over top the chimney outlet. Next, he had to open the damper (which was stuck) and clean out the chimney. This was a gross project because we had had birds (chimney swifts) in the chimney in the past.

To our surprise though, there was only one measly nest! With all the noise those birds made I thought for sure there would be a dozen or more nests up there. Jon even found a “zombie bird” as he called it. . . nasty! Last thing that needed to be tackled was filling in some of the mortar that was missing in between the fire bricks. After finding some fire approved mortar Jon quickly patched it all up! Yippy, now to steal some firewood from his sister’s house!

#3 Pickup firewood from Jon’s sister’s house. Check, two birds with one stone remember.

#4 Salt the steps and walkway – a must if you want happy, unbroken friends!

#5 Miscellaneous stuff like installing air vent covers and a bedroom door: Jon installed air vent covers so our guest would not cut their feet on our potholes and needless to say heat was distributed better throughout the house. Installing a bedroom door was something we had wanted to do but hey with just us two living in the house all we needed was a bathroom door! The door wasn’t the easiest to install since neither the door nor the old house door jamb was perfect but I was so pleased to have a warmer bedroom and some privacy.

The party was a success! Between the games and food we conversed, laughed, enjoyed the fire, and even danced to the Christmas music playing in the background! It was a blast and we hope our friends had as much fun as we did!

Evolution of the Dining Room Part 2

Remember a couple months ago when we showed you what our dining room area looked like when we first started working on our house? Crazy to think all that home improvement junk. . . ehemm I mean stuff fits down in the basement! Anyhow, since this is the first Christmas that our nice flooring has been down (Jon put it down this past summer) our house defiantly feels more homey! In the past we have always gotten together for a friend Christmas party at every house except ours . . . not anymore! Jon and I decided to host the Christmas Part this year! Of course now this meant I had to pick out a color and paint the dining room!!! Jon, prior to November had asked me (several times) to paint the dining room but with much indecisiveness I just couldn’t make up my mind on the color and direction I wanted to go. Decision time came but I wasn’t the only one formulating a plan! Jon, had his own little list of things to do including the idea of toying around with getting the fireplace working (more on this later) so we could enjoy it during our party. . . woohooo!

Having used SW paint in the past I was a bit disappointed that we decided to use Behr paint. We decided to use it partly because we thought it would be cheaper and partly because we live at either orange or blue and it is frankly more convenient! After finding a color on my SW color wheel “Honeydew” we headed over to the Behr paint to find one similar. After spending a good 30-45 minutes checking and re-checking for a color that didn’t exist close to “Honeydew” Jon and I turned around to find yet another display of Behr paint colors (duh, those weren’t there 15 minutes ago). This new found section was for the Behr primer/paint combo type paint that apparently comes in a ton more colors. . . yippy for me! We found 2 colors within minutes that were very close (as far as we could tell) to Honeydew and after much contemplation I choose Pale Cucumber UL200-13. We soon learned that 1 gallon was not enough for 2 coats and Jon ran back to get another gallon another day. Here are some progress pictures and the finished product with 3 coats.

Cutting In

Notice the outlets Jon quickly put in while the paint was barely dry! I just love how the green turned out. . .heart heart! Once our dining room set was moved back in I put together my table decorations! I was going to find a nice classic modern tablecloth but Jon commented that he never really like tablecloths so we went in search of some placemats. I found a cute cheap option from Walmart, double border, rich black, vinyl placemats. They surprisingly don't look vinyl but more like a silvery metal material! The theme for the rest of the table decorations was: A Bright Christmas. This inspiration came from the December Family Circle magazine (heart, heart to my mother for the subscription). All the glittery decor came from Marcs. The stems I placed in a vase and used silver Hersheys kisses as the filler to keep them up. It was funny to see people's reaction when they realized there were chocolate kisses in the vase!