Spice Rack Re-do

We received a spice rack from our wedding registry. I have liked it for years, but only used a fourth of the spices in the rack. I thought it was time to change that. So, I dumped all the unused spices and washed all the jars. Then I re-filled up the empties with our many spices in our huge spice box.

I love that I now have all the spices I actually use next to the stove. Small improvement, but a great one.

Now I just need to find a better way to label them, this is sorta tacky.


I saw on another blog where she spray painted the lids with chalkboard paint and labeled with a chalk pen. I love the idea, but cannot find chalkboard spray paint in our teeny town!

Trying to make progress

My efforts around the house came to a halt. Joe graduated academy and then nothing happened. While renovating is much more fun, we are making do with what we have.

This morning I decided to clean up the "backyard". It's in quotes because there really isn't a back or front yard, just where we've fenced in for the pups.

This is the bird house/feeder Joe made for me using scraps he found in the garage. Talk about inventive! Also, sweet because he was seriously listening to me when I mentioned in passing that it'd be nice to have a feeder since we have so many pretty birds. Love.

It's not perfect. I'm not terribly fond of the paint color, but it's all I had on hand.

But I love it because he made it. For me.

Doors Opening

The very boring, light blocking OLD door. My wonderful new door.

Bedroom # 2

I finished this in June, but here's the photos!

I'm posting these because I'm about to change the spare bedroom again. We got a new bed (previously posted) so we are switching out bed sets. Once I work it out I'll take pictures!

Master Bedroom Update

We have been working hard on the house. Joe is becoming great with electrical work. To date he has removed two ceiling fans, installed one ceiling fan, changed three ceiling lights although I give him credit for four since I changed my mind and he had to remove and install one twice. (opps) While he gets all credit for electrical work, I get credit for the other stuff.

I have painted another room. I’m doing a happy dance, this is the largest room in the house and it’s almost done. I just need to clean up the corner where two different colors meet. I picked Valspar’s Polished Silver as our lighter color and Stone Mason as the darker accent wall. It definitely has a blue base to it, which is exactly what I wanted. We are now the proud owners of a king size bed, which is so so nice. The thing is so tall that I feel like a little girl crawling up into it. Here are some pictures of what we were working with before and now. This is seriously my new favorite place in the whole house. If I could get my DVR up in the room, I might not ever leave!

Little Kitchen revamp

While I was working on something else, hubby said he was bored and wanted to knock one of our mini projects off our list. So we did.

We ripped out the long counter in the kitchen and I love it. New flooring has moved up on my list though.

The hubs has requested that I start a blog devoted to just our house. I wasn't sure but have agreed. If he doesn’t think that crazy couple adventures should include our home reno then I suppose I’ll go along with it in hopes that he’ll blog too. Maybe? Yeah right. I dream.

Now I am stuck with what to name the new blog and should it still be on blogspot or wordpress or some other unknown [to me at this time] hosting website. A few friends use wordpress and I definitely like the ability they have to personalize their blogs. I’m certainly too cheap to be buying a domain .. that is unless they are cheaper than I imagine. Who knows. But really, my free blog currently does the job of recording our stories and really you may be surprised to hear how many times I ask Joe “Can we reuse that?” Really I’m just thrifty, cheap, whatever you want to call it I’m a girl trying to make it happen on ONE INCOME.

Renovating our house should give me more blog material and I am hopeful that I will blog more than I have in the past year. I am even considering bringing the laptop with me to work to blog on my lunch break since our internet is less than friendly at home. I cannot load ANY pictures at home, I’ve tried many times. Still thinking that one through.

Any suggestions from the few people still out there? We have gone from Our Adventures Overseas to Crazy Couple Adventures. Would the next logical blog be Crazy Couple House? Or just Crazy House? Doesn’t that sound a bit too much like an insane asylum? Should I go in a different direction entirely? Ugly House? Cute little old run down house? Gosh that’s boring. I’m just not sure. I know from reading younghouselove.com that we can’t go with anything resembling “This Old House” which um, hello is so appropriate for our little place.

I follow quite a few blogs through my Google reader; perhaps I need to go to each actual website to view the different options out there and to get some ideas. Ugh, but that sounds time consuming. Especially with uber-slow internet.

After a quick Google search, these are the top 31 (oh my gosh, there are 31!)

1. WordPress (http://wordpress.com) - this one is number one for one main reason, it does not have ads on your blog
2. Blogger/BlogSpot (http://blogger.com) – this is one of the most commonly used blogs, it is user friendly.
3. LiveJournal (http://livejournal.com) - this is a great tool for writers.
4. Vox (http://vox.com) - a personal blogging service.
5. BlogSome (blogsome.com) - fastest growing blog host.
6. Xanga (www.xanga.com) – community centric.
7. Facebook (www.myspace.com) - community centric, many options
8. Myspace (www.myspace.com) - community centric, many options
9. Insane Journal (InsaneJournal.com) –same software as LiveJournal
10. Journal Fen (JournalFen.net) – same platform as LiveJournal
11. BlogABond (Blogabond.com) – A site dedicated to travel blogs with map integration and more.
12. Blog Cheese (BlogCheese.com) – A video blogging website. Nothing to do with cheese.
13. Busy Thumbs (BusyThumbs.com)- A blog site specifically for your text messages and camera phone images.
14. FreeVlog (Freevlog) – Designed for video blogging and completely free.
15. Trippert (Trippert.com) – Create and share blogs of your travels.
16. Word Count Journal (http://www.wordcountjournal.com) – A new blogging format that is also part challenge.
17. Blogetery (Blogetery.com) – Offers multiple templates, anti-spam, free sub-domain and more.
18. EduBlogs (Edublogs.com) – WordPress powered blogging for educators and students alike.
19. Blog (Blog.com) – Offers free blog hosting with unlimited bandwidth for their free package, more benefits for paid members.
20. Blogr (Blogr.com) – Allows you to blog, host photos & videos, and podcasts.
21. Blogster (Blogster.com) – Offers free image hosting in addition to free blogs.
22. Bravenet (Bravenet.com) – Free blog hosting with RSS feeds and more.
23. ClearBlogs (ClearBlogs.com) – Free blog hosting and offers templates, friends only posts, IP-Banning and more.
24. Multiply (Multiply.com) – Mixes blogging and social networking, with photo galleries and more.
25. Netcipia (Netcipia.com) – Free blog and wiki for private or public display with 2GB of storage.
26. Open Diary (Open Diary.com) – Offers unlimited storage and posts.
27. ShoutPost (ShoutPost.com) – A platform for creating blogs with a focus on generating traffic.
28. Soul Cast (SoulCast.com) – Anonymous blogging.
29. Tumblr (Tumblr.com) – A blog platform with a focus on allowing media-rich posts.
30. Weebly (Weebly.com) – Allows you to create a site and blog, free hosting and change designs on the fly.
31. ZoomShare (Zoomshare.com) – Free blog hosting with 250MB of free storage

I can’t say knowing the top 31 helps me any, I might actually be more confused.