Sunday, December 26, 2010
christmas lights
We went to see a movie in Manhattan on Saturday and after the show was over we strolled down 5th Avenue to check out the Christmas decorations and lights. The star above the intersection of 5th Ave and 57th street is my favourite.
christmas presents
The summer of 2009 we visited Chicago for a weekend. Of course we had to go to the Skydeck of Willis Tower (Sears Tower) to check out the view. They were selling Lego models at the gift store and of course I was to cheap to spend $20 on it. But guess what Santa brought me this year? Yes, the Lego model! It took about 5 minutes to build because it only has 69 pieces.
For whatever reasons I didn't take a picture of the tower itself but here you can enjoy the view from the glass ledge 1,353 feet above the ground. So scary!
For whatever reasons I didn't take a picture of the tower itself but here you can enjoy the view from the glass ledge 1,353 feet above the ground. So scary!
Friday, December 24, 2010
o tannenbaum
Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten!
This year we decided not to fly to Germany to spend the holidays with our family so we got our very first christmas tree. Most of our decoration we bought on our last trip to IKEA but we also had a bunch of ornaments from our first attempt to decorate a tree which got foiled after we both came down with the flu. We still need more ornaments maybe even in a bright color but our collection will hopefully grow over the years.
This year we decided not to fly to Germany to spend the holidays with our family so we got our very first christmas tree. Most of our decoration we bought on our last trip to IKEA but we also had a bunch of ornaments from our first attempt to decorate a tree which got foiled after we both came down with the flu. We still need more ornaments maybe even in a bright color but our collection will hopefully grow over the years.
Yes, I do love my hometown...
Saturday, December 11, 2010
fireplace mantel update
We had a friend who is also a contractor built a fireplace mantel for us and put the marble mosaic down. I used the long Thanksgiving weekend to paint it and all the other moulding in the living room. I like the crisp white against the brick. Now I have to finish working on the cast iron fireplace door, will post an update on the progress on that soon...It is starting to come together and we started with this mess which doesn't look as bad in pictures as it was in real life.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
happy thanksgiving!
Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving!
Although I'm more than a week late I still want to show you some pictures of our table. We were a total of nine people and had to put an extra table next to our dining table to fit everone. That's why I didn't have a table cloth that fits. Not that I have a lot of table cloths to choose from, I own 3. So off we went to Ikea to get a matching one for one that we already have. But we found out that they didn't carry that one anymore. Bummer! Waiting in line to pay for the other stuff we bought we passed the christmas wrapping paper and I just bought three rolls of brown packing paper to use it as my table cloth. To add some color I used colored paper as my placemats with a little Happy Thanksgiving stamp in one corner. I'm no Martha Stewart but I still like the outcome of my first Thanksgiving table.
Although I'm more than a week late I still want to show you some pictures of our table. We were a total of nine people and had to put an extra table next to our dining table to fit everone. That's why I didn't have a table cloth that fits. Not that I have a lot of table cloths to choose from, I own 3. So off we went to Ikea to get a matching one for one that we already have. But we found out that they didn't carry that one anymore. Bummer! Waiting in line to pay for the other stuff we bought we passed the christmas wrapping paper and I just bought three rolls of brown packing paper to use it as my table cloth. To add some color I used colored paper as my placemats with a little Happy Thanksgiving stamp in one corner. I'm no Martha Stewart but I still like the outcome of my first Thanksgiving table.
Monday, November 22, 2010
dining room
The dining room is almost finished. On the other hand will anything ever be finished? At least everything is painted and all the random pieces that were floating around are stowed away. Just in time to host our first Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.
We still have to hang some artwork and I would like to change the glass in the cabinet doors to clear glass so you can see my china collection.
We still have to hang some artwork and I would like to change the glass in the cabinet doors to clear glass so you can see my china collection.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
small progress
Phew...I feel like we didn't finish any of the projects we started so far. There is progress but everything gets finished in baby steps even though we work on the house each weekend. It's probably just my impatient self and working on a hundred things at once.
One of the projects we started is working on our living room fireplace which was bricked up and also had a raised stone hearth. We already thought it would look nice to open it up when we looked at the house for the second time. The first time it was covered under bags, furniture and all kinds of other stuff so we didn't really see what it looked like and assumed it is open like the one in the dining room. The brick and the stone was removed and surprise! we found some kind of vent (?) for our heating system in it. That was probably the reason why it was bricked up in the first place. Bummer! We also discovered the original marble plate underneath the raised stone but unfortunately it was not in the best condition and it is too small as well. It even showed the floorplan of the old mantel. Immediately we thought about what we could do to make it look nice and somewhat original to the house...I found a cast iron fireplace door/summer cover on ebay for 30$. And the best part of it was that the seller was local and we were able to pick it up. We also picked out this black and white marble mosaic to go on top of the old marble piece. The fireplace will hopefully finished over Thanksgiving weekend.
On the pictures you can also see that we got rid of the door opening on the left side of the fireplace. The opening didn't make sense to us and led to a small hallway from which you enter the guest bathroom and bedroom. You can still access the small hallway from the main hallway which is sufficient for us.
One of the projects we started is working on our living room fireplace which was bricked up and also had a raised stone hearth. We already thought it would look nice to open it up when we looked at the house for the second time. The first time it was covered under bags, furniture and all kinds of other stuff so we didn't really see what it looked like and assumed it is open like the one in the dining room. The brick and the stone was removed and surprise! we found some kind of vent (?) for our heating system in it. That was probably the reason why it was bricked up in the first place. Bummer! We also discovered the original marble plate underneath the raised stone but unfortunately it was not in the best condition and it is too small as well. It even showed the floorplan of the old mantel. Immediately we thought about what we could do to make it look nice and somewhat original to the house...I found a cast iron fireplace door/summer cover on ebay for 30$. And the best part of it was that the seller was local and we were able to pick it up. We also picked out this black and white marble mosaic to go on top of the old marble piece. The fireplace will hopefully finished over Thanksgiving weekend.
On the pictures you can also see that we got rid of the door opening on the left side of the fireplace. The opening didn't make sense to us and led to a small hallway from which you enter the guest bathroom and bedroom. You can still access the small hallway from the main hallway which is sufficient for us.
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