Category Archives: house

Jul24

Get Your Jam On

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Get Your Jam On

Our raspberry bush is insane this year.  I’m not sure what we did differently last year (maybe all this rain was a good thing?  Ack!  I can’t believe that just came out of my mouth.) but we’ve got berries coming out of our ears!  What to do with cups and cups of berries?  Jam!

I’ve never tried canning before but it’s kind of fun.  Kind of fun after the stressful parts.  What if I cook it too long?  What if the lids don’t seal?  What ? How?  Why?  Bah!  Stressful! 

Then you hear a “pop” of the lid being sealed and all is well.  And after that you get to eat it.  Then it’s fun.

I tried this recipe because I like vanilla.  Needless to say, I didn’t use mixed berries.  It’s all raspberries, all the time in the Charboneau backyard.  The jam turned out really yummy!  One batch down, another on the way and who knows how many more after that.  Don’t be surprised if you get jam for Christmas!

 

Dec20

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

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O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

As mentioned in a previous post, we started a new tradition with the Dhara’s to find and chop down our Christmas tree.

We wanted to share the finished product and a little story of lessons learned in hopes  that next years “trim the tree” goes a bit smoother.

My Mom had given us a really cool, old retro tree stand that we were excited to use.  It took a few tries but we finally got the tree to stick to the pokey things in the stand and stand on its own.  We were ready to decorate and naturally, started with lights – but only half of them worked!  Luckily we tested them before we put them on the tree but lesson learned was test them the day before so you don’t have to run out to buy more at 7pm, mid-trimming.

The tree was all decorated and looking lovely, we were ooing and aweing at “our first tree together.”  We remembered we needed to water it and learned all too quickly there was a hole in our cool tree stand.  So now, there was water all over the floor.  And sadly, this was not a slow leak.  We ran out again to buy a new tree stand.  I wasn’t excited to take the tree apart to move it to the new stand so convinced Kevin we could carefully transport.  It worked and then we ooed and awed, a little less excitedly, all over again.

It took a little longer than we expected but next year we’ll be professionals for sure!  And, in the end we laughed a whole lot more than we probably would have without the silly mishaps.

Nov23

Arctic Blast 2010

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Arctic Blast 2010

This is what we came home to after our 4.5 hour commute during “Arctic Blast 2010.”  My favorite story to tell is we were driving on Westlake Avenue and I needed to go to the bathroom really badly.  I ran into Jimmy Johns, went potty and got us dinner and Kevin hadn’t moved an inch.  Yikes!  I caught up on a bunch of phone calls, we listened to the husky bball game, it got us two snow days and it was pretty gorgeous to look at.  Worth it! 

Oct31

Halloween!

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Halloween!

I think everything is going to be fun this year because it’ll be our “firsts” of everything.  Our first jack-o-lanterns on our new porch and our first trick-or-treaters in our new house and our first fall in our new house (holy crap, we have a lot leaves.).

So, for our first Halloween in our new house, we carved pumpkins and eagerly awaited trick-or-treaters.  We weren’t really sure how many kiddo’s we’d have so we started out with big handfuls….figuring it wouldn’t be too many.  Turns out that was a mistake as we ran out of candy!  I was pleased to see that kids still trick-or-treat, just like we used to.   There’s something about dressing in costume, running from house to house in the dark, rain and cold asking for candy.  Best idea ever!

Jack-o-lanterns!

Kevin's crazy shower costume - he won a prize at his work!

Kevin's crazy shower costume - he won a prize at his work!

Aug22

Full House

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Full House

“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love this quote (found on one of our housewarming cards – thanks Nins!).  It’s so simple and so sweet and so true.  At our open house last week I felt like I was running around, speaking to everyone while speaking to no one.  I was exhausted the next day.  Totally, 100%, beat.  While swapping stories with Kevin, our shared sentiment was that we are very lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives (that and how our wedding will be housewarming times three and it’s a good thing we’re hopeful to take a long honeymoon – details on that to come soon, I hope!).

It’s funny, as most of you saw, our house is barely furnished.  And surprisingly, neither one of us really care.  We aren’t in a hurry to buy stuff just to buy stuff.  We want permanent stuff.  Stuff that’s “us” and stuff that will be us for a while.  Which is why, Ralph is right.  We don’t need no stinkin’ furniture!

We’ll be better than fine with a house full of good people and good times.
Jul31

Garden Party

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Garden Party
One of the things we were super excited about in our new house were the ready-made garden beds outside and the abundance of herbs scattered about the yard.  We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, squash and tried a cantaloupe.  Admittedly, we cheated this year with starters but we are still very proud of our blooming little guys!
 
We had our first taste of garden love when we made this light, yummy summer dinner.  We used our own mint and basil…but the zucchini isn’t ready yet and we don’t have peas.  With or without your own garden goods, there will be a party in your mouth!
 

Peppers!


Tomatoes!