You asked for it..........

Voila.......

The Mess!

Tearing the kitchen apart.........

Ripped up that carpet......

Knock down a bunch of walls, remove toilet, 3 sinks, kitchen tiles.

Result = one inch of dust on every surface throughout the house. Oh Yah!!!

The last of that wall removed, steel H bar inserted to brace the upper floor, all plumbing moved, cut, re-directed.

Burly men, grunting and admiring their work.

Man in hole - standing on, who knows what in the basement, to finish off the plumbing changes. So, we're 5 days into this insane project and hoping to be done by.......April??!! (Oh help!)

Now....just in case you wanted a peek at our current kitchen...

well....

brace yourself

Ain't it sweet!

Come on back on Monday - March 1st - for my give-away.

Enter one and all!

Black and White Wednesday

Time to play around with some black and white conversions. I picked three of my favorite shots of a fun little session I had with a boa and my darlin'.

I just can't get enough of that face!!! (That face that very soon will be missing a front tooth......sniff..........that's me sniffing.)

Update: At 2:30 in the morning, an excited, bouncing Dahlia jumped on our bed shouting....Mommy,Daddy,Mommy....my tooth came out. She was euphoric and we were all up for at least an hour after that!!

It's funny, I think I mentioned in my first post of Lisa's black and white challenge that I had never really been a fan of black and white photography. I've had a 180 degree turn-around. These pictures are in a soft pink, which is so pretty, but in blk&wh they just feel so different. I love the contrast and how the white just pops.

And here are some more pics of our China trip.



Daddy and his two darlings..........

....and the girlies.

Don't miss all the other black and white fun at Lisa's blog here.

And come on back here on Monday, March 1st, for my 1 year blogiversary give-away. If you missed them, the hints are here and here.

Oh....just this and that......

....and some random silliness!

With all the toys (and toys and toys) and gadgets....a basket or a box is still the favorite toy. Especially with a little sissy to drag around.

And guess what we have here?

Oh, yes.......any day now!

Any guesses on when this baby will pop out? (She's been sticking it out all week-end and coming up to me saying "kiss the fang"!

And, of course, mother obliges.

Caught Zizi in a sweet moment.

Poor thing. We started our re-no TODAY! Oh my, the noise, the mess, my nerves.....will we survive? Poor Zizi has been closed up all day in our bedroom - and not very happy about it. We are "camping" - that's what we're calling it - in the loft with a makeshift kitchen. Stay tuned to see the level of our sanity. (Well....Mommy's anyway.)

I took some pictures today of the demolition and will do a post when I see some improvement. Nobody wants to see a mess without some hope of resolve. Well....especially me!

And so finally, below is another clue (gee, I'm subtle) to my 1 year blogiversary give-away coming up on March 1st. (Which btw.....is my birthday too.)

Happy Monday!

Friday's finds

What with packing and getting ready to have my house torn apart, I didn't think I'd have time to play with Colleen today, but....

well......

I just had to!

This sweet little figurine sits on a shelf in Dahlia's room with many (ahem.....not all) of her Cinderella collection.

Here's that shelf.



And here's where we found her. Now, you can't tell, but the little pumpkin she is sitting on is of course - orange....because pumpkins ARE orange, right? Wrong....in my house they're silver (and with sparkles too).

We don't do orange here so I painted it.

And speaking of paint........I have an anniversary coming up. March 1st marks one year since I opened my blog and I'll be doing a give-away and all I'll say is it has something to do with paint.

You'll have to check back for more clues.

:)

Black and White Wednesday

A couple of weeks ago, the sun was finally shining enough in the livingroom window so I whipped out my camera, a little dress-up dress and a compliant Dahlia (ok....there may have been some chocolate involved) and snapped a few pics.

I thought they would convert well to black and white for Lisa's Wednesday exercise and I like the way they turned out. Of course, I have about 200 from that shoot (yeah....I'm a little crazy) but I just chose two.

And so as not to break with tradition - here are 2 snaps from our China trip last August. We happened upon a little sidewalk sales stall, selling these sweet little parasols. I didn't end up buying any there as I waited till Beijing to spend all my money (!#$??!) but they were so cute all lined up like that. I feel kind of quilty not buying any from the little stand but only taking a picture. (My bad.)

And this is an upwards shot of our hotel in Hangzhou. These tiered parasols were bright red but look kind of cool in black and white too. ( I remember thinking that if my foyer was large enough (haha) this would really look great.)

That's all for today. I'm hitting the hay early 'cause tomorrow I'm packing up the library (soon to be our family room).

Yah, groan, puff, yah!!

Recipe Monday

Yesterday being Valentines day called for something a little decadent.

(these are dark, almost burnt 'cause the man likes 'em that way!)

I rarely make these crepes (really flat pancakes) because to make them really, really good - they have to be loaded with stuff we try to rarely put into our mouths. (Note: the word try......the intent not always matching the result.....ahem).

And the reason is because of the lard shortening and corn syrup.

But....ooooo....they're

sooooooo good!

Again (sorry) this is not really a recipe but something I watched my MIL make many times so you just have to get a feel for it.

But

yesterday I measured everything (aren't I good?) so here is the recipe.

And don't forget to check out the other yummy offerings at Colleens place.

Crepes (for 3....or 2 bigguns, 2 smalluns)

3 eggs

3/4 tsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

pinch of vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

shortening for frying

corn syrup or maple syrup

Beat up the eggs with mixer.

Add the baking powder, salt and keep mixing. Slowly add some flour, some milk till all is mixed.

See how thin this is? That makes for a very thin and crispy crepe.


I use about 1-2 TB shortening per pan. The more the crispier. The way the batter goes in the pan is the key to the crispiness. I pour it slowly while rolling the pan so it is not even or pretty at all but it is crispy.





Flip it.

I use a pretty hot pan so it gets done quite quickly.


Smother it in corn syrup (or maple syrup).

Yum.........

:)

H.A.P.P.Y...........

VALENTINES DAY !!!

....and

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR !!!

Last night, my big girl and I went to a New Year's celebration. Chinese ballet, dance and music to ring in the new lunar year of the tiger.

Xin Nian Kuai Le

Last week, before we left for our New Year's party, I snapped a few pics of the girls in their little dresses bought at the Silk Factory in Beijing.

Gong Xi Fa Cai !!!