Thursday, October 28, 2010

Oh No They Didn't!!

I have to share something with you that happened last week...and I would like to hear what you think.
We had 4 showings last week which was great. The house stayed clean and looked great. 
I found this great tiered basket at HomeGoods and filled it with Gala & Granny Smith apples. I bought the apples in anticipation of Mr. F baking me a pie.
When we left the house before the showing, it looked like this:

When we came back, it looked like this:

Take a closer look:
Yes, that's right one Granny Smith apple is missing. Neither my girls or Mr. F ate one.
You might think that I might have put them out for the potential homebuyers to eat.
But, the apples were in the corner. See them wayyyy over there?
 No mistaking they were put out to be eaten. Surely I would have put some napkins out...or some cheese or Carmel!

I could see if I had put them on the bar or on the counter next to the refrigerator that they might mistake them for being offered. Brochures were left on the bar opposite the sink, so food if offered would have been put here. This wasn't an Open House, just a showing.
What would you think? Would this bother you, or is it just me???

Thanks for stopping by.

Pam

P.S. I have another funny embarrassing story from one of the showings, but I'm not sure Mr. F would like me to share it.


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"Worthy Of A Blog Post"

I've had a hankerin' for apple pie ever since I caught Mad Hungry with Lucinda's show on apple pie! I kept hinting to Mr. Fanatic that I'd like him to make me one. I sent him the recipe on a Facebook message. I even bought the apples & arranged them nicely in a pretty basket.(more on this later)
Saturday, I made an apple cake... Yummy, but not an apple pie.
Finally Saturday night Mr. Fanatic said he'd make me an apple pie on Sunday...


....and he did. We didn't have a large enough pie pan, so he made it in one of his cake pans. Y'all know he used to be a pastry chef, right? 
Look at this beauty!
 As Mr. F put it in the oven, he said "this is worthy of a blog post"...so I went & got my camera to share it with you.

Here it is right out of the oven....it smelled SOOOOOO good!


It was so yummy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

Had to give you one more look!

Life is good! (and so is my husband!)
Oh, here's the recipe link for Lucinda's recipe on  

A few days ago I caught Mad Hungry again & she was making bbq pork ribs, potato salad & cole slaw... I think I'll send the hubs another message on Facebook and this time I think I should invite a few friends over!


Pam


Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Fall Colors

Hope everyone is enjoying the colors of Fall...
Just wanted to show you the fall colors around our yard.... 
This photo was taken through the dining room window. Good thing our windows are clean!

The view from our front door... new grass has sprung up : )

View from the deck looking toward the neighbors

Another view from the deck looking out toward the path to the creek.

The side yard with lots of new grass.










Happy Tuesday everyone!
Pam


Sunday, October 17, 2010

Stuck On The Empty Shelves...


Awhile back I made these two items for the empty shelves upstairs.

If you recall, we have 3 shelves that were filled with family photos, but were taken down when we put our house on the market.

It left us with this...


So far, this is what I've put on the empty shelves...the two frames, some birds and a couple of tile coasters.
I've walked past these shelves a lot this past week as I was cleaning out and organizing the attic, guest room closet, armoire, office closet and feel bad for procrastinating and not making anything for the other two shelves!
We were able to work on cleaning out one of our basement rooms this weekend : )  but this week I don't have any excuses for finishing this project!
Anyone else have unfinished project that have been bugging you lately?



Pam


Friday, October 15, 2010

Cleaning Up and Clearing Out!

I am seriously excited about cleaning out this space...SERIOUSLY!!! It took me two "sessions" to do the attic off of our office/bonus room. I think it looks BETTER than the bonus room :)  I should have taken a before photo, but just picture junk thrown in here on both sides...empty boxes(I might need one someday), cell phone chargers, cords, printers, bags, just plain old CRAP!
I tell ya, I am so excited about the attic being cleaned out, sometimes I go upstairs just to open the door & look in!


On the left:
Birthday & Christmas bags in the container &  wrapping paper. Tissue paper on the top,  gift tags, & little wrapping paper stuff. Two of the drawers are empty. 
In the bins on the right:
gifts, manuals, school supplies, office supplies, 2 drawers of recycled gift wrapping stuff. The cardboard boxes hold gift boxes and shipping boxes and packaging materials.

This is the guest room closet. You're going to have to take my word for it, but it was full. I still had some of my girls pretty dresses from when they were 2 in there. (they are 18 and 17 now). I still kept them, but I was breaking my own rule and using PRIME closet real estate for long term storage... Definitely a no-no. I packaged those lovely keepsakes up and put them in 2 Sterilite storage boxes and put them in the basement. I also sent some things to our giveaway/sell room in the basement, too. Some things I just threw away. This is the only bedroom closet that still has that lovely wire organizer. That blue box is my wedding dress...Do you still have yours?


You can see I still kept my girls Prom dresses-- they are on the right...my girls wouldn't let me sell them. What do you do with Prom dresses when daughters move out???

I am finished with cleaning out all of the bedrooms and storage spaces on the two main floors of the house. Now it's on to the basement!
Hope you have something fun or productive planned for the weekend!


Pam

Do Your Closets Look Like This?

I finally got tired of opening the door to my office closet and seeing this:

I would cringe every time I'd open the door and see it looking so unorganized and messy & just knowing that people are seeing this mess when they come to view our house. :(

I finally cleaned it up! Yay!!! Definitely ready to be seen. Now I don't have to be embarrassed about people opening up the closet door!
Pretty!!!
 After organizing this closet, I went on to clean the guest closet, the armoire downstairs (which I showed you yesterday) and the attic...
Are your closets organized, an organized mess, or is it dangerous just to open the doors? C'mon, be honest!!!
Happy Friday everyone!
Pam

Thursday, October 14, 2010

One Thing Leads To Another...

Do you have a catch all space that everyone seems to just throw things in and shut the doors?
Well, that's the armoire in our Family Room. These shelves are suppose to be for holding books and my 200+ magazine library.  I think there's a few more items that don't belong in there. I really wanted to clean things out, so I started by taking everything out except the books on the bottom shelf.


I love my Southern Living and Traditional Home magazines from several years ago. But, since we are going to be moving to a smaller house, I really needed to get rid of some of them.

So.......I got rid of.......................101 of my magazines!!! The ones below were just the ones from a basket and were my girls magazines.

See...I don't even have one full shelf of them anymore :)
But, now I had a bunch of empty space in there...

what to do, what to do.....hmmmmm

Well,  I have these books, er cookbooks that I personally NEVER use!  Mr. Fanatic, who worked as a chef for many years and loves to cook, on the other hand, uses them often.    (ok, I look at the cookbooks with the pictures, then ask Mr. Fanatic to make the recipes that look good!)  

The armoire is on the wall next to the breakfast room, so they are still close by when Mr. F needs gets a hankerin' to cook or bake something.
They fit perfectly!


Now, I had all this space in the wall cabinet & I knew just what to do.....

Ever since we put in the under counter lights in our kitchen, I've had to keep my vitamins in a box in the pantry.  They were in the wall cabinet next to this one, but they had to be moved because the bottom got warm when the lights were on and heat and vitamins don't mix. So, I moved them to the pantry. Problem is... I never took them because it was such a hassle digging through the box and the pantry(another story).


Perfect!
Now, if I can just remember to take them!

Thanks for stopping by

Pam

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Tablescape for Thursday

This week, I changed up my breakfast table a little.

I borrowed the "centerpiece" from my Master Bedroom and the candle holders from my formal dining room.


The salt & pepper shakers were my grandmother's & I really love them.



I'm still lovin' my fall chargers from Walmart!

Joining Between Naps On The Porch for Tablescape Thursday! Go on over and see some fabulous tablescapes!

Pam