Monday, November 17, 2008

Kitchen Before & Afters

First, some before shots. We hated pretty much everything about it.




And now.. the big reveal!





The lowdown on what changed:


- The floor on that entire side of the house was ripped up and re-tiled, including the kitchen, back hallway, half bath, pantry, and laundry room. This was the biggest expense, and the most sorely-needed. I hated that black and white linoleum with the power of a thousand suns.


- The dented laminate counter tops were replaced with granite tops. Oh baby. This was the second biggest expense.


- The sink and fixtures were replaced. Here is the before shot of the sink:




And the after..


Here's a detail of the backsplash:





- The original fluourescent light fixture was removed and replaced with 4 canned lights. We also had two pendant lights installed over the bar, as well as undercabinet lights along the counter tops:


Halloween 2008



The deco during the day



Porch. We were far too lazy to carve the pumpkins.



Since it's been colder, my old girl has been sleeping on the laptop we keep downstairs. The heat is therapeutic for her old bones, so we pretty much just let her do it. I took this one cause she actually looked like she was USING it. She's 15 and a half years old. I want her to live forever. :-(




Recycled RenFaire '05 pirate outfit. He sewed this from scratch using patterns. I married a gay man. You're jealous!




Before I put on my real costume.




I found these in Hilton Head and knew I had to wear them on Halloween!




Good for nothing pirate!




Drinking all the rum




.. and passing out on the driveway! What will the neighbors think??


Side note for photographers: to get the sun to minimize into a starburst, close your aperture (usually all the way to f/22) and adjust ISO and shutter accordingly until you get the desired effect.




Recycled Gypsy costume, updated with devil horns.



We put on Nightmare Before Christmas while we waited for Trick or Treaters. We LOVE this movie and will randomly burst into song throughout the year. Here we are singing "This is Halloween"




Then we started crazy dancing/twirling while singing so I just held the camera up and shot randomly, missing focus on about 98% of the shots.




Our dessert, the pumpkin pie we baked yesterday and crock pot apple cider that Matt made. We realize this is Christmas food more than Halloween.. but.. it's pumpkin.. and.. it's good. So.. nyah.




Symmetrical kittehs are symmetrical




Le casa at night. We had a flickering strobe light on the porch that made the doorway and webs flickers. We also had a cd player hidden in the window playing spooky sound effects all night. We got tons of compliments and scared a few kids. It was great.




skeery hidden pumpkin head up on the porch.




What's he doing? Pirating software, perhaps?

Happy Halloween everyone!

Night before Halloween

Just some fun shots we took while getting ready for Halloween.




Treat bags for the candiez.




Treats for us while we work




He's.. special.




candy candy everywhere.. but nothing for Matty to eat.



I really hope the turnout is good this year, or I don't know what we're going to do with all of this candy



All is well in the world as long as Matt has his Blackberry close by.




Our whole stash.




You stealin' my candy?




Perfect timing.. taken just as the egg timer buzzed for the pumpkin pie we were baking!




Don't ask.





Who loves daddy?




Dex loves daddy.. wes he duz!




Meet Sprinkle Ball.. Dex's present for his 2nd birthday on October 15th. It is the MOST obnoxious squeaking ball I've ever heard.. so of course, Dex adores it.




Waiting for the pie to cook is not easy.




might as well just eat the whole thing.




This is pretty much how we act. Note the dog has folded ears. We call them his Princess Leia look.




Matt calls this boom-boxing the cat.. but he can only do it with Ham, because he enjoys being messed with, haha.




halp!


Hilton Head 2008



We took Dex for a walk, but being as he is not an outdoorsy type of fella, we had to make frequent water breaks.




He LOVES his portable canvas bowl. His favorite thing is to plop down next to it and bury his whole face in it until every drop of water has been consumed.




I don't know who this dog is, but it cracks me up!! That face!




Walkin the dawg.




He is so lazy when he goes for walks, and will often sit himself down on the sidewalk and refuse to move!



Our view of the marsh at dinner that night




Old Oyster Factory, where we ate. My personal favorite from all of our meals there.




Readin' the menu.




Two minutes after this shot was taken, I returned to the car to get my sunglasses.




Hushpuppies! I hadn't eaten all day so when there was actual food put on our table, I was pretty excited.




These scallops were divine, and don't even get me started on the sauce. Omg.




Self portrait outside in the good light before leaving.




Cool statue at Shelter Cove, where we hung out for a couple of hours after dinner





Matt being silly.




Coldstone for dessert. That has peanut butter ice cream, swirls of real peanut butter, chocolate syrup, and crushed up peanut butter cups. Mmmmmmmmm.






After dinner, we headed down to the beach just after the sun set.




My beach hair is not the prettiest.





But the dusk light? Oh my lord..







Dexter's evening treat was a fresh rawhide. He's giving daddy his best "pls don't take this from me" look.




Trying to come up with a plan for the remaining days.





Our hotel wasn't the greatest. But it was relatively cheap, pet-friendly, and within walking distance to the beach, so what else could we ask for? We did like to make fun of its 1970's decor and "stationery" that lacked any kind of hotel logo, so we made our own.








This is tabby, a type of foundation made using sea shells. This was from the crumbling ruins of an old house. Very, very cool stuff.




One reason I love HIlton Head Island so much.. there's more oak trees and Spanish Moss than there are palm trees! It feels like Savannah!








When you wave at these macaws.. they wave back!!