Year in Review: Nest Tour, Part Two

Next year I want someone to remind me to do my year in review starting in November.  Ideally, the day after Thanksgiving, before all the shopping ,parties, and gift making starts to get into full swing.  I had every intention of posting three days last week for the house tour and then one or two this week on our wedding.  That’s when I got run over by Christmas.  With all the baking, wrapping, and eating I was doing, Spring Dog This! got the short end of the stick.  So I will try to write again tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday.  We can start the New Year with a final year in review post right?  You can’t see where you are going without knowing where you have been.

I want to apologize right off the top for the picture quality.  My good camera is broken and you can see how much I miss it in low light conditions.  My cheap point and shoot just doesn’t cut it even on a tripod.  Let’s continue on our nest tour, our next stop will be the kitchen.  This was the room in the house that probably grabbed our attention the most when we first saw the house.  The new flooring, bright white cabinets with open glass fronts up top, and dark counters were eye catching.  The space is not ideal, but it definitely gets the job done.

First up, we changed the curtains and wall color in the kitchen.  The original color was green, more of a gray-green and definitely not as green as what we chose.  We went with True Value Easy Care in Shamrock which brightened and modernized the kitchen.  The curtains that were in the kitchen were a bit too country cottage for our style so we chose a black damask type print which we love against the bright white trim and green walls.

The appliances came with the house but we swapped Alyssa’s great grandma’s black stove for the white one that was there.  In the future we may upgrade to stainless and a gas range, but so far we haven’t had an issue to make us want to spend money on new appliances.  The paint on the cabinets is in need of a freshening up.  We have started doing the base cabinets but haven’t got to the cabinet faces yet or the upper cabinets.  We also need to paint the ceiling in here, but it’s a popcorn ceiling so not something easy to paint well.

Our kitchen table.  This was actually the first piece of furniture we bought, even before we had financing for the house.  We loved the bench that came with the table, it let us get a bigger table and still have space in the smaller kitchen.  Someday we will have little tykes to sit back there, but for now the table anchors our eat in kitchen.

This is looking from the kitchen to the living room.  This is our newsed couch.  For awhile, we had one couch and a recliner, which  meant seating was limited when we had guests.  Alyssa’s parents donated this couch to our cause and it makes life much easier.  Again the camera doesn’t do it justice.

There is the other couch.  We are getting another newsed couch and a love seat in February and that one is moving to the basement.   The curtains are a recent upgrade for us.  The original ones, like the kitchen, didn’t fit our style and we searched high and low before finding ones we liked.  The cheap Ikea lamp behind the couch is on its way out after we got a new lamp for Christmas.  We both love the built-in book shelf, it makes us look studious.

Here’s looking at the tv and up the stairs.  We love our little fireplace even if it can be moved from room to room.  The previous owners had one and I tried to get that in negotiations, but lost out so Alyssa’s parents bought her one as a graduation present.  It adds to the atmosphere and adds some warmth to the room.  The major project for the living room is going to be carpeting.  Right now, the color is a gray-green and the color on the stairs is different from the living room which you can see on the picture.  Someday we will switch that out for sure.

This picture is awful but it’s the  best I could get.  This is Ellie’s temporary home while the Christmas tree is up.  I am going to build a shelf of some sort next to the fireplace with the new Kreg Jig I got for Christmas.  We added our own flair to the walls in here as well.  The original color was a neutral tan, but we stepped it up and went with this rich color.  It reminds me of a comfy leather chair, again it’s True Value Easy Care in Loggins.  Another project on our list in here is to repaint the trim, it needs some work and will polish the look of the living room.

Tomorrow will be a longer tour with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a basement.  Don’t forget to come back.

 

Krapsua and Spring Dog Coffee: Our weekend

This weekend we were supposed to go to Milwaukee to spend a “cousin’s weekend” with Korey, Amy, Elina, Angela, and Alison, but we had things to get done around the house that we would have had to put off almost til Christmas if we went.    When we moved in there was a pedestal sink and no electrical outlets or storage in the bathroom.  This was fine when I was the only one living here all summer; I don’t need to blow dry my hair or set my makeup anywhere.  Alyssa didn’t want to go with this set up for long.  A few weeks ago we installed electrical outlets throughout the 2nd floor and I had built a towel rack earlier this fall so next up was a place for Alyssa to set her stuff.  We had ordered a vanity from True Value and Alyssa’s dad was free on Saturday to help put it in.  With Thanksgiving and a few other trips coming up in the coming weekends, cousin’s weekend was switched to vanity installation weekend.  Before we installed the vanity I had to fuel up.  I love breakfast food and one of my favorite breakfasts is krapsua.  It’s a Finnish oven pancake that is a mix between crepes, Swedish pancakes, and a souffle.  I remember we used to have it on Christmas morning every year growing up after opening presents.  I think it has been a couple years since we had kropsua on Christmas morning and I had never made it on my own until a recently, maybe a couple weeks after the wedding.  One night I was flipping through Fantastically Finnish , a cookbook my grandma had given me for Christmas a couple years ago when I came across a few recipes for Finnish Oven Pancakes.  I decided to make it the next morning and surprise Alyssa.  I wasn’t sure if she would like it but took the chance anyway. Turns out she loves it and has requested it almost every Saturday morning since.  It’s extremely easy and tastes fantastic, probably even better if you have memories of it like me, but Alyssa thinks so too.  Every kitchen I know has all the ingredients on hand so you can try it next weekend and thank me later.

Gather all of your ingredients together and preheat your oven.

Put your pan in the oven and throw some butter in while they are heating. Whisk together a couple  of beaten eggs, milk, flour, sugar, and salt until the batter is smooth.  You can use 2 cups of regular milk or one cup of milk and one cup evaporated milk or half and half.  Evaporated milk gives it more flavor I think, but use what you have.

Pour the batter into your sizzling pan and bake for 30-40 minutes.

When you pull it out it will be airy and bubbly, but it collapses on itself out of the oven.  Cut a big hunk and spread some strawberry or raspberry jam on it and slather maple syrup on top.  The only thing that makes them better is a cup of hot Spring Dog coffee to wash it down, which as promised, will make its appearance here in a few weeks.

After fueling up with krapsua and coffee we got the vanity installed with only one minor mishap.  I will post pictures of the finished bathroom once we get the new medicine cabinet installed soon.  Alyssa is very happy to have somewhere to set her stuff while she gets ready now.

 

Krapsua (Finnish Oven Pancake)

• 1/4 Cup Butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups milk or 1 cup milk and 1 cup evaporated milk or half and half
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375.  Melt butter in 2 8-inch round metal pans or a 13×9 pan (I use 2 8-inch square pans usually).  In a large bowl, with wire whisk, beat eggs and add milk, flour, sugar, and salt, beating until mixture is very smooth.  Pour batter into sizzling hot pans and bake for 30-40 minutes.  Remove from pans as soon as possible to avoid sticking.  Makes 3 large or 6 regular servings.

Developing our personal style.

Since we have a number of house projects and decorating ideas to post about in the next few weeks I thought I would write about our decorating style.  I guess the best way to describe it is a work in progress.  Since this is our first house, (watch for a tour coming up soon) we are new to the decorating game.  Living in rental apartments while we were in school we could do some personalizing, but it wasn’t the same as decorating a whole house.  For one, painting wasn’t an option and second, why put much effort into something that is very temporary.  As a result, we had a hodgepodge of “college” furniture and a select few pieces of art on the walls.  After buying our house we were very excited to put our own touch on it.  We were fortunate that the major renovations were already done when we bought it.  The kitchen, furnace, siding, windows, and air conditioner were updated in the past 3 years.  Since we didn’t have big projects staring at us we could put more of our efforts into decorating and window dressing type things.  This doesn’t mean we went hog wild, spending lots of money on furniture and accessories.  We are on a tight budget so we have had to be creative.  Plus, we didn’t necessarily know what we wanted to do with our “canvas” in many rooms.  As I said before our style is a work in progress.  This is actually a blessing.  Because we are operating on a budget we couldn’t go out and buy a coordinating set from Pottery Barn in each room to make our house look like their catalog; no matter how much we might like that.  Instead we have had to be creative and thoughtful which has allowed us to start to realize our own style rather than steal from corporate designers.  Perusing blogs has definitely helped us see what type of rooms we like and find common denominators in each of our styles.  Our work in progress style is starting to shape up and become defined.  If you HAD to pin us down I would say that we like clean, classic, but comfortable rooms with a few thoughtful uses of bright color and funky patterns.  We seem to like lots of rough textures like barnwood and burlap.  We like things that look like they are durable, mainly because they have a aged patina, some of you would call them antiques or vintage.  These pieces from older times are usually the focal point in rooms we like.  I’m not saying we want to live in an antique shop, but there are lots of things we like that you can only find at a flea market, garage sale, or thrift store.  Here are a few pictures of rooms we like.  Check out their blogs because they were our inspiration for starting Spring Dog This!

1. We love the reclaimed wood, vintage inspired lighting, and clean colors.

2. We LOVE the Petersiks, the colors, the art, the comfy chair, everything in this room

3. Shannan is Alyssa's favorite blogger and we love her style, this ladder is awesome

4. Another from Shannan. The lamp, the pillow, the blanket, the comfy chair. A great cozy spot to hang out and drink coffee.

5. Another from the Petersiks again we love the colors and the coziness. Someday I will have a space like this in my bedroom

 

Pictures courtesy of:

1. The Lettered Cottage

2.  Young House Love

3.  Flower Patch Farmgirl

4.  Flower Patch Farmgirl

5.  Young House Love

My backup career as a furniture maker

Alyssa and I are in the market for some furniture for our living room, but we run into a few problems whenever we look. We see all kinds of cool vintage pieces that people find at rummage sales or thrift stores on our favorite blogs, but there is never anything good at the Re-Store or Goodwill and Craigslist in the UP is full of people wanting to make a fortune on absolute junk. Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, and Crate and Barrel make stuff that we would love, but it’s way out of our price range at this point. Ikea has styles we like and can afford, but the closest one is 6 hours away and their stuff is not durable. So what’s a newlywed, thrifty couple to do? Well, most of our living room is second hand. In fact we just picked up a second couch today from Alyssa parents and have another one on the way when their new set comes in. Our other option is to build our own. Maybe I am a little too ambitious, but I am going to give it a shot. With the help of a blog I found last week I am going to attempt to build a few pieces for our living room. No, I am not going to build a recliner or sectional, though Ana White does have plans for numerous sofas. I am going to start with a few easier pieces. Here’s what I am going try to build. I will post some pictures as the work comes along. Keep your eyes peeled, you might see Maki Furniture popping up in your nearest Slumberland soon if things go well.  Even the Spring Dog has something to look forward to.

Photos from ana-white.com, click to go to site.

 

Photos from ana-white.com, click to go to site.

Photos from ana-white.com, click to go to site.