Friday, October 8, 2010

Blog, Interrupted

October has arrived, which means I've been hauling out my orange plastic totes full of Harvest-themed doodads and trying to clean and decorate the house for fall. This process is more complicated than it sounds, due to a couple of 4-year-old girls who like to "help" their mother.

To whom it may concern:
pumpkins are not toys.

This week also officially marks the October Changing of the Plates in my kitchen.

 Good-bye, summer dishes with flowers on them . . . 


Hello, winter dishes with ack! moose on them.

I've spent much of the week on the computer; unfortunately, it hasn't involved posting. I've been selecting photographs, enlarging them, and sending them off to be printed.

I bought a bunch of 12x18 frames that were on sale last month, wondering at the time why such perfectly good frames were so cheap. Then I discovered this week that nobody around here sells pre-cut matting to fit a 12x18 frame. Who knew it wasn't a standard size? Me, that's who. So I've had fun using my x-acto knife to cut out my own mats. And by "fun," I mean "a good old-fashioned crying jag." Thank goodness for grosgain ribbon . . . I placed it around the pictures to accent the colors and add a touch of charm. How dare you suggest I did it to hide my horrid matting skillz.

I've also started painting our home office nook, which required pulling out the computer desk in the corner. The twins, of course, promptly raced over and dove into the mass of cables and blinking lights. They must have disassembled a hard drive or detached an important cord, because the Internet was knocked out for an entire day, and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I fretted and fumed about how we're going to have to call a highly-trained specialist with fancy computer tools to restore the delicate balance between fiber optic wires and, um, nanomolecules or something. My husband arrived home from work, walked over to the mess, took one look, and switched on the power strip. Internet restored.

But can he make a chocolate cake from scratch?



Dinner last night: salmon patties with creamed peas

Exactly one year ago:




9 comments:

Heather~sheaaa6 said...

Beautiful table Kim. :-)
Love the idea of changing dishes, too. :-)
I wish I had your motivation......then I might be out of boxes or those sealed paint cans would be open and the paint on the walls....lol
Have a wonderful weekend. :-)

Kathy G said...

I change up my bedroom twice a year, but I never thought about seasonal dishes for the kitchen!

Denise said...

Love it...."Can he make a chocolate cake from scratch?" hahahahhaha!!!!! I still have to finish getting my fall stuff out, but your pictures in mats? Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Cosmic coincidence! I also bought a bunch of 12x18 frames cheap (from Amazon), then realised my pictures (also flowers) would need some adjustments to fit properly in these non-standard frames. Looks like you got a great result - they look fab :o)

Unknown said...

I love your table runner. I wish I could change dishes every now and then. We need so many that it would cost me an arm and a leg to have more than one set. So I'm stuck with plain white plates with a silver rim. Oh well, I'll just have to make prettier food.

Katherine said...

Beautiful decorations. I had never thought about seasonal dishes. I have plain white dishes that seem to work for every season.

Cutting mats is a pain! We had our family pictures taken a couple of years ago, and I asked for a 11x13 (or something like that.) They instead ordered us a 14X16. This is a non-standard size, and we couldn't find a frame or mat that would work. Why would a national chain produce a non-standard size?

Karen Mortensen said...

I love all the stuff you have done. Good job.

Dianna@KennedyAdventures said...

Oh, only you would have Moose plates!

I'm super jealous of your table runner -- brat!

Anonymous said...

You are so funny! I love the pumpkins on the table. I'm not a technical kinda girl either. Hubby has to do something around the house!