Recipes, bath room finishing touches and tissue box love

 I have finally given into Pinterest , mostly for recipes , amazing recipes. We had a couple over for dinner a little while back and I used all Pinterest recipes, they all turned out delicious.
We are going away on what I am going to call our second honeymoon in a few months, and I need to get back down to my fighting weight. I've been working on it , very very hard , but I'm stuck ....I guess the older you get the more that is fighting against you ? Oh well I won't give up because if I am going to have to spend a week in a bathing suit I need to be in the best shape I can get into. Moving and reno'ing this house has side tracked my weight loss efforts that is sad but true.
I am back on track and I am been enjoying healthy meals , shakes , workouts and counting calories, I really need to learn how to maintain  my weight losses, I hate starting over, thankfully I didn't gain all my loss back, but 18 lbs creeped back, darn it.
I saw this recipe and had to try it , I love avocados , Amazing! It's a baked avocado with lime juice salt pepper hot sauce , Franks, and grated parm, bake for 5 min at 400 then broil till brown. You can check out my Pinterest here  http://pinterest.com/chriskauf/

 The stair project is slowly moving forward.

 I officially finished painting the spindles , I dragged that out for way too long. Then yesterday I added the proper trim to the upstairs post. It makes such a big difference.

 I also completed the bathtub tiling and grouting, I hate grouting, it's messy and awful.Glad that's done and I love it . A little bit of wall touch ups still to do.

 I need to make time to enjoy the tub now.It looks pretty now and it makes me happy just to look at it .

Remember how it started ?

 I am going to confess I hate tissue boxes , they are ugly, I think they are so ugly I rarely but tissue , silly right? But I have found a perfect solution I found a pretty tissue box , I loved them so much I bought 4. I found them at Urban Barn. They were on clearance marked down to $6.99, I don't mind at all having this type of tissue box around. No more shortage of tissue in this house. I buy tissue and remove it from the box and place the tissue's right into the wicker box.

Much much better looking that the tissue boxes I've seen.

outside is looking up

 For a couple of weeks we have been enjoying a little more outside time, its not much but it  and is ours. We still are waiting for grass but the lot is now mostly graded and ready for sod, but it has been very hot and very dry so we have had to wait and live with dirt. We were fortunate to have this larger than normal patio which has made the wait much easier to tolerate. The reason for that was that we were supposed to have a side walk across the yard to the driveway but I didn't see that as a good thing , I didn't want a sidewalk in the middle of our yard.

 I picked up these new oh so comfy chairs recently , they perfectly match the shutters on the house .

 I planted couple of trees last week, I have always wanted a birch, this one will be within the backyard/side yard fence. We went out last week for a dental appointment and we came back to a maple tree in our front yard a nice tall one too, I was so excited. Then Friday we got our landscaping package......dreary at best . It is included in the purchase price of our home, but I wish we had some say in the type of plants we were getting ... but that is the way it goes and we just get what we get. I do at least like sand cherry's so that was fine. I was able to choose their placement and they will fill in nicely, but then the rest was strange . What you now see is after I moved things around , replanted ripped out what I didn't like and made the best of what I didn't mind. I was able to give the offending plants to a neighbour who has just built a cottage so they went to good use. I went out and picked up 6 hostas to add to the sand cherry's and I moved the cotton asters along the walkway to the door , they are al right for now , but they will be replaced with yews eventually. I love hydrangea's so I added one on each side of the front steps, but there will so many more to come.

 I have such a hard time with gardening patience, but there is no choice I have to just sit back and wait to see how things develop over time. Don't even talk to me about the walkway , we will just pretend we don't see those. Maybe we can come up with a nicer look there next spring , but then again we will have to start the fence then....oh so much to be done .

 I'm crossing my fingers this will all be sodded this coming week.....

I'm looking forward to after shot of this with a lush green lawn , because this dirt is making me crazy , the house is getting pretty dirty inside with two dogs tracking it all in with them . The kids are longing for a trampoline so badly ....considering it !!! I know they are ugly but wouldn't that we so fun for them ...?

living room lighting

 I have been searching for a few new pieces for our new built ins. They are a whole lot less empty now.

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 Can't wait to get this carpet out and get the wood installed, but I'm waiting until we have grass to work on . Still no grass for us.

 I was shopping for shelf decor when I came across this lovely light fixture, I thought it might be just what we need for the living room. Simple and interesting, love. I found the light at Homesense , it was $99.00 and it also come in a lovely chrome, if the family room didn't need a fan I would have bought a chrome one also.

 There is still so much work to be done in this room , floors , drapes??maybe, wall treatment , I'm thinking horizontal planks behind the sofa. Those two chairs are going to have to go . But these things in time.

 I have definitely decided I am going to built bookcases here, the chair will go and that little wall will be beautiful bookcases.

This is the sofa I am considering for this living room. It is a new Ikea sofa called Harnosand , I think it is just great, I should probably go see it in person of course. I have lots of Ikea upholstered pieces and love them , but it is time for some new. The chaise would work better on the right and it is moveable so its perfect. Maybe Ikea would like to let me give them a go????? of course it is slipcovered, a must in our house,

Normally I wouldn't choose matching chairs but these just look so very comfy. 

Bookcases like this please. Slowly but surely things move forward.