I think this is home....

They are comfy!

Joe documented our move!

Click here for Joe's blog:  http://joelovespkg.blogspot.com/2012/02/ericacarter-moving-day.html

Moving day success!

Lots of people came to help, thanks everyone!! One big load almost did it all, and I could still park in the garage with all the stuff  :-) now we're headed back to Broomfield for one more small load and the animals.

Home is where you keep your Fiestaware!

We moved almost all of the kitchen stuff yesterday and today, and we unpacked it all this morning! Plenty of room, this kitchen is a bit bigger than our last.

We're hoping to get most everything else in one big uhaul load tomorrow morning. Wish us luck!

Have I ever told you I hate packing?

We've been taking loads to the new house every day, this morning was plants. The craft room is now a jungle!

The old house is looking very sparse. We walked around the neighborhood today and said goodbye to neighbors, that was sad! Moving is bittersweet, lately I can't stop thinking about things I'll miss here.....

But obviously I'm really excited for the big move! We're getting the uhaul Saturday morning and hope to get all the big stuff done that day, then finish with everything else later in the weekend. Wish us luck!

My first house!

Last Thursday, Carter and I closed on a new house! This is his 2nd house but my first house (I was just renting from him in Broomfield). We spent all afternoon Thursday, all day Friday, and all morning Saturday at the new house, just cleaning, fixing things, painting, etc. I'm so proud to be a homeowner!!!!!

Below are some photos I snapped while we were there--there are lots here but scroll to the bottom to see the video-tours!

Taken from the road

Taken from half-way through the driveway. Ignore the shingles on the roof--we had roofers working on the new roof all weekend, but it's finally done!

Our new front door! Our porch swing will go here, and that makes me happy. (I love porch swings)

Kitchen, as seen from the fireplace-room. We hope to save up  enough to completely remodel the kitchen in 2 years or so. For now it's functional, just outdated.

other end of kitchen (stove in bottom right)

looking from the fridge, at the window above sink.

this is a small half-bath off the mud-room, off the entrance to garage

This is the "mud room" which is a small room between garage and kitchen and 1/2 bath. laundry here and space for boots, coathooks, etc.

 

From kitchen, looking into fireplace room

we don't know what else to call this besides fireplace room. I don't think our dining table will go here, at least not for now. maybe just a couple comfy chairs?

from carpetted living area, kitchen on left, fireplace on right, glass doors to back yard.

carpetted living room--this is where the couch and TV will.

another view of entertainment system/cabinets--I love this!

same room, different view

from the hallway looking back into the rest of the house--I love the exposed beam! Carter wants to add more but I don't quite know how that will look. What do you think of the pillars?

from the carpet, looking at front door and what will be the dining area (at least for now!)

front door. 

hallway to bedrooms

utility room--water heater in here, and door to crawl space on the ground (silver hook). We will put the kitty stuff in here, with a special door so the dog can't get in!

guest bedroom--this is the nicest of the extra bedrooms and we plan on leaving it just for guests. So come visit! Now!

closet in guest bedroom

guest bathroom--this also needs some work! luckily we are pros at bathroom remodel now.

rest of guest bath

guest bath looking from shower at the door. not shown is the linen closet, which I am entirely too excited about!!!! (I've never had a linen closet before! (in my adult life))

office (see more photos below for new wall color!)

office looking out

 

CRAFT ROOM!!!!!!!!! (see more photos of new paint color)

craft room looking out

Carter's work--repairing a crack in the drywall seam in one corner. He ripped off the old drywall tape, sanded and cleaned it up, put down new drywall tape, spackled over it a few times (letting it dry and sanding in between layers), then primer, then he applied knock-down. It's currently drying and we'll prime it later this week to be painted.

new wall color in the office!! What do you think?

new wall color in craft room, what do you think? As you see, we picked fairly bold colors for these two rooms, which I like (I'm a bold person!). The other rooms in the house are very neutral, and if we paint them they'll stay rather neutral since they are main living areas and need to look nice/professional/etc. But these two rooms are our "play" rooms so I felt OK being more crazy. I'm thinking about commissioning Justin to paint a crazy sun on one wall in my craft room! What do you think, Justin?

Superbowl goodies

I promised a post about superbowl desserts,so here it goes! Carter made this dessert: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/new-recipes/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookie-n-oreo-fudge-brownie-bar.html 

start with a full batch of any cookie dough on the bottom

next a layer of oreos (!!!!!!!!!!)

next a layer of brownie batter (we used from a box)

Unfortunately we don't have any "after" pictures, but go to the website above to see their after pictures. Ours didn't look as good as theirs, but it tasted AMAZING, very heavy, very rich, not something we'll probably make often but good to bring to parties because people things it's really cool :-)

I made Joe's spinach/artichoke dip (I call it Joe's but it's really from allrecipes, its reeeally good, very basic but yummy), and another dessert: homemade girl scout Samoas!!!!  http://bakingbites.com/2009/02/homemade-girl-scout-cookies-samoas-bars/ Unfortunately I don't have any photos. The recipe was easy to follow but had so many steps that it took a long time. I read the comments below and saw that some people had suggestions of how to make the shortbread type cookie base differently, and I took those suggestions. Again, it turned out super  yummy but didn't look as beautiful in the picture on the website. Also the coconut/caramel layer didn't stick to the cookie base very well, so usually after one bit it would fall off. Also messy to eat because the chocolate melts on your fingers as soon as you pick it up. Still, they were soooooo yummy! 

Painting

What do you think of our colors? Orange is craft room, teal is office.

I'm a homeowner!

Carter and I closed on our new house today! We moved one load of stuff over today, and spent the whole day unpacking, cleaning, shovelling snow, etc. I even scrubbed the walls to prepare for painting, grandma hubicz would be so proud :-) we just bought paint from home depot and we'll start painting tonight! Tomorrow we're getting a new roof and we'll hopefully finish painting and cleaning.

We're so happy and the house is just wonderful! I took some videos and Ill post them sat or Sun when we're back home and have WiFi again. (Sat is cirque de soleil and Sun is grey's party, so we'll stay in Broomfield for the weekend). Can't wait to have you all visit to see the new house!!

Should I start a new blog for my yarn-related hobbies?

I need your advice!!

Ive been thinking for awhile about starting a new blog JUST for my yarn-related posts. The benefit would be that I could it all in one place, which would be good for looking back on in the future to see all of my yarn crafts. It could be like a project journal, I could write more details and use it to document EVERYTHING I spin and knit. Also it wouldnt "clog up" my normal blog. The downside would be that I would be worried that some of you wouldn't have time or desire to visit yet ANOTHER blog, and therefore would miss out on seeing my yarn creations!

 So I'm asking your advice. Scroll allllll the way to the bottom to see the poll questions (for some reason it wouldn't let me put it at top...!) and vote honestly!

Snow Day!

 We really got dumped on with snow on Friday, and finally they CANCELLED work for me! Yayyy! The last few storms I was really wishing they would have cancelled, so I'm glad it finally happened. We got about  14 inches or so Thursday night and into Friday morning. It stopped snowing for a little bit in the middle of the day Friday, then kept snowing. After shovelling, we only left the house once, to go to the grocery store, and when we got back there was another 1.5 inches! Friday night we probably got an additional 4 inches or so. So all together, we might have gotten around 20 inches? It was hard to measure because it was kinda drifty.

After lounging most of Friday, we decided to do something fun and went for a snowshoe hike on Saturday! We were gonna go up into the mountains further but the roads looked bad, and I think it was still coming down up there, so instead we just stayed close to town. We parked on the side of Hwy 93 at the Flatirons Vista Trailhead--despite being only a quick 15 min drive from our house, neither of us had ever been on these trails before! 

The area is BEAUTIFUL, I highly recommend it (Mary/Justin/Joe, etc.).  There's a small uphill to get to the top of  the hill, but then once you're up there it's fairly flat, rolling hills in a sparse ponderosa pine forest. Just beautiful, right at the base of the Flatirons and Eldorado Canyon. Looks like the trails connect to a lot of other trails, so we'll definitely need to come back here to explore more (now that we are moving up north! haha)

There were only 4 other cars when we arrived, and we weren't even really sure where the trail was, so we just off-roaded it and explored on our own. I think I like it better that way!

So much snow everywhere, and I love how it was still sitting on the branches, not very windy today.

Snow was really deep, up to our knees in some areas even with the snowshoes! All three of us had to take turns leading because it was so tiring.

Flatrons

So beautiful!

Emma had a great time, she was itching to get out for a hike, I could tell. When she walked she just plowed right through the snow, her chest like a bull-dozer. We let her off leash a few times so she could run, which was really more like a leap-gallop--so cute!! She was in heaven, ears and tongue flapping! 

 

happy dog, jumping in the air!

You know it's a good day when she's THIS tired at the end :-) She just might be more out of shape than Carter and I, she's EXHAUSTED! A tired Emma is a happy Emma!

Now we're cooking and baking goodies for the Superbowl Party we'll be attending tomorrow. Stay tuned for more photos of our creations....... (thanks, Pinterest!)