Put up some new blinds and drapes in the Dining Room. Went with a sage that has a shimmer to it. Insulated, of course....if you have been to the house this winter, you will know that it is a little chilly!
Eventually we need to rip down this awful wallpaper border (not our style at all!) and paint the walls and trim. For some reason the sellers thought pink trim around the doors and windows was smart. No, it wasn't.  Long term goal is to convert this room into a study/play room and convert the Pink Living Room into a dining room.  Money and time are the recipe for accomplishing such goals.
Anyway, Bailey says "HI"...he loves to help out with these projects!

The Bread Maker

http://picasaweb.google.com/allisonm129/2010025BreadMaker?feat=directlink

Our new breadmaker.  So, we went and gathered two jars of coins to take to the grocery store to use in the Coin Star machine.  We selected the option to get a gift card to Amazon.com rather than getting cash in order to get 100% of our money.  (apparently when you select "cash", you lose a percentage as a fee for using the machine).  So, we must have had a lot of quarters because we had over $170 by the end!  woohoo!  And, this beautiful loaf of bread is one of many more to come from our wonderful new bread maker.  Delicious!

Happy Birthday!!

Wearing some birthday presents:  New grey cashmere sweater and new purple fleece (all designed to keep me warm in the house!!) and new necklace.  So fun!

Had a wonderful time celebrating my birthday with family!Photos:http://picasaweb.google.com/allisonm129/20100131Allisons33rdBday?feat=directlink

Loungin at home!

Pumpkin cuddling on Bailey's front paws

Christmas as the Hemphills

Caitlyn and I getting warm in front of the fire!

Photos:  http://picasaweb.google.com/allisonm129/20091225ChristmasAtHemphills?feat=directlink

Christmas at the Fullers

Christmas morning in Niskayuna! Lots and lot of food!!!

Photos:  http://picasaweb.google.com/allisonm129/20091225ChristmasAtFullers?feat=directlink

Christmas Morning in our new home!

Before the stockings were opened....Bailey kind of posing in front of the tree!

After the presents were opened...Pumpkin enjoying the wrapping paper.

Nancy's Birthday

We celebrated Nancy's birthday on Dec. 20th.  Caitlyn was very helpful to Nancy when it came to opening presents!

http://picasaweb.google.com/allisonm129/20091220NancySBday?feat=directlink

Trees: Before and After

When we bought the house we anticipated we would be removing a couple of trees (crab apple and spruce), but we had no idea that we would decide to also remove a very large pine tree next to the driveway.  Turns out the pine tree was significantly damaged in the ice storm 2008 and now saps all over the driveway preventing anyone from parking there. It's pretty sad when you buy a house with a lovely large driveway and your guests have to park in the street. And then there are those guests who parked there for 5 minutes and 6 months later are still trying to remove the sap from their cars.  Ugh! 
Well, no more!  On, 12/15/2009, we forked over the dough & remedied this situation.  I finally took pictures of the "after" on 2/15/2010.

check out the album....P.S. I am still getting used to using a Blog and didn't realize that the captions I typed for the photos do not get posted on the Blog, so because I'm lazy and didn't feel like uploading all the photos and retyping their captions, I'm directing you to view the album!  (I have high expectations of technology that sometimes are superior to it's capabilities!)

Regardless, the album takes you thru the before and after of our property with the removal of 3 trees.
Photos:http://picasaweb.google.com/allisonm129/20091215TreesBeforeAndAfter?feat=directlink

Our lovely new artificial tree!

Ornament courtesy of Sarah!

Awww...!

And here is the reason we had to purchase a new tree this year. Cats decided to eat the cord that plugs into the wall....and then they must have hid it, cuz it's NO WHERE to be found! We have an extension cord plugged into the middle section of the tree to get it to work. And, upon plugging it in, we discovered that the top third also does not work. So much for an easy pre-lit tree!

First Snow at the New House!

Let it snow! This is one of the last pictures of the crab apple near the front walkway.  Bye Bye tree! 

Thanksgiving....table is set!

We are ready for the guests to arrive!
We use our living room for feasting since it's giant size....and it's PINK...the best combination for eating, really.  Long term goal is to convert this room into the official Dining Room---yes, that means we will also be painting it a very different color.  There is no way we will ever need a formal living room in this house, but we love eating and hosting parties, so it makes more sense to call it a Dining Room.  It will be a grand space. 

It was a real treat to break out our china and use it for this very special occasion.  So elegant; love it!

We had room for 7 at the table we just built and then room for 5 more at the real dining room table that we moved into this room for the day!

We decided to use a separate table near the window for the food to rest on warming trays.  Buffet-style I guess you call it.  Worked out well for those who wanted hot seconds.

our delicious turkey....yum yum!....

Me and my niece Caitlyn...stunning red coat!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

We decided we needed to build a table with scraps from the garage.  The sellers left behind old closet doors that they actually used as shelving in the garage.  Then we had some 2x4's laying around that we put to good use as legs.  A couple of hours of labor for construction, throw on a table cloth and voila!  we have a table big enough for the big family!

Our house

Welcome to Turkey Day....the countdown is on...

Apple PIe....YUMMMMM

Brian made this from scratch....it looked perfect and it tasted amazing!

Using the fireplace

Bailey enjoying the morning fire.
We had the first fire last night after a long day of working around the house.
All the pets love a hot fire! And, so do we.

Bags of leaves!

There are 3 rows of bags here...it's neverending.

RED!

Love the bright red color!

Raking...the neverending saga!

So, we raked and mowed the back yard and it looks fantastic...until the wind blows again!

Now, to the front.  There are way too many leaves from the huge tree here.  We did about half the front lawn, maybe a little less, and filled 10 bags!  It started to rain, so we were done with that for the day. 

3rd beam installed under deck

Deck was slightly sagging, so we installed a 3rd beam in the middle.
All better now!

Firewood: a full cord!

so, we hope we have enough..!! Thanks to Brian and our brother-in-law Brian H, we have a lovely stack of a full cord of wood.  Very happy now.

For Sale on craigslist-Cast Iron Radiators & Random Oven parts

http://albany.craigslist.org/atq/1435188734.html

http://albany.craigslist.org/atq/1435184958.html

http://albany.craigslist.org/atq/1435182230.html

Fall Foliage!

Fall foliage in the backyard.

Free Garbage Pickup

Purging all the leftover stuff from the sellers.  Townwide pick up for free--perfect!

Bye Bye pool cover

Drying out the pool cover before it gets stored away in the garage for the winter.

Pine needle driveway clean up

Sliding Glass Door & Winterizing the Pool

Beautiful new door and winterizing the pool!

Photos: Sliding Glass Door & Pool Winterizing

Stay-cation Sept-Oct 2009

We took a week "vacation" from work and renovated our office.
It was a big job, but totally worth it!
Check out the pictures from the week on Picasa:
Photos: SeptOct2009 StayCation

Photos of The Office Renovation

Our wonderful new Energy Star water heater.

Front Steps

After Allison fell down these steps twice, we decided they needed some attention.
Most likely the steps were slippery from algae (or whatever natural substance feels slimey!) from all the rain we've had this summer and poor upkeep over the years.
So we bought a power washer and cleaned the steps and then primed them.
Painting is yet to be complete....haven't had enough successive days without rain when we are actually free and able to paint outside!
Soon..
Photos: Front Steps Outside Sept 2009...