B is for... Part 2

After shoveling out our cars before the over-night freeze makes it very hard & icy, B is also for the Bucket Brigade (we have no snow shovel, so we used a bucket and a dust pan), blisters (dust pans chafe!), and yes, my Batman Band-Aid.  :)

B is for...

B is for BLIZZARD of 2010!  Eek! The Snowy Death is upon us once again!

Soooo I might be a little late in my B posting, but I was having difficulty thinking of a good topic.  Then the Snowy Death came for our faces, and all my problems were solved.  I <3 snow because I am from the beach and never see it, and also because I don't have a full driveway to shovel out!  Yay, for townhouses and maintenance crews to shovel the sidewalks for us!!   :)

That is my little pot of mint (that was totally buried and killed in the last snow, back in December).  I think we will get about as much snow, if not more, than we did before Christmas because that mint was buried back then... but today (this picture was taken 1.5 hrs ago) the pot is pretty much buried, and the snow is still coming down pretty hard.  I scampered out to put bags over my window boxes of herbs and the snow is so light and fluffy... and coming down sideways blowing into your face!  This will be a great weekend to snuggle up and be happily snowed-in watching Netflix movies and catching up on our TiVoed shows.   :)

 

John is eagerly watching the snow come down from the comfort of his snuggly blankie.  

The only bad part about this weekend is that our annual Girl Scout caving workshop, Cracks, Crevices, & Crawlways, was canceled.  I was undecided about driving back to Williamsburg to help staff the event, and as much as I no longer feel guilty about not going, I am sad that the event had to be canceled altogether.  Apparently, Tidewater is going to get about as much snow as we are getting out here in the hills, and they are even more easily spooked by snow.

Completed Island!

Woohoo!  Mark came by today and brought our island top!  Yes, those previous pictures were purposefully like that.  He wanted to bring the base by ASAP so that they wouldn't get scratched in his warehouse, even though the top was not ready yet.  But now we are complete!  It is sooooo awesome!  :)  Mark says that the wooden top is unstained, but will darken with use & time, so it will become a closer match to our existing cabinets.  He gave us a treatment/ polishing oil to use when it becomes scuffed up and funky.

 

And to increase the beach-dork humor, we are calling it "Greenland" because it is now the biggest island in the world!

The top is six inches wider than the base; we were planning on making an over-hang on the side away from the sink.  We haven't officially decided if we want small bar stools on that side, but we have talked about it.  We kinda like the idea of making a "breakfast perch" area where you could talk to the person in the kitchen, but be out of the way, or to rest a moment and stuff food in your face before leaving.  That, though, will wait while we test out the new placement of the island in the kitchen and see if we really want/ need stools.

A is for ...

A  is for arrivals!  Arrival of the new kitchen island!  When we were looking at the townhouses in this neighborhood last summer, one up the road had an kitchen island, and I just fell in love.  It immediately went on our "to do" list for the new house when we moved in.  We put our tiny side table from the old apartment in the middle of the kitchen as a pretend kitchen island (we called it the "sandbar" because it was not quite a full island, haha, a little beach dorky humor there), but I have been longing for the day when we could get a full island of our very own....

John's parents were so nice to us this Christmas: they ordered us an island from a friend, and it has been so exciting!  Mark came by a few weeks ago to measure our space and talk to us about what we wanted, but he delivered the monstrosity today.  It's so huge and awesome!  He made us a wine rack on the one short end, even though I am still not sold on the idea of it (we really don't go through that much wine!), and a spice rack on the other short end by the stove (above L & R). 

And the far, long side is just swing-open doors with adjustable shelves inside (above).  We are thinking that may be a good place to put all my baking supplies, but we haven't decided yet.

But the "piece de resistance" is the long side nearest the sink:  While planning with Mark, we talked about making the island a place to stash our recycling bins so that they are out of the way.  Well, what I was thinking and what happened were worlds apart... in a good way!

We had three tiny bins for the recycling, but Mark totally up-graded the bins and made custom-designed spaces for them in a big drawer!  How cool is this?!  They are as big as our regular trash can (13gal) and are organized and awesome.  :D  Though, the first time I went to put bags in the bins, I was struggling with a way to balance the bin without having to pull it all the way out.  I laughingly told John that we need to go back and request a pneumatic lift system that would elevate the bins 6-12inches so I could bag them and then lower them back down into the drawer.  John said that if we told Mark... he would probably do it!  He makes fancy (FANCY!) motor coaches and uses a lot of lifts for TVs hiding in cabinets and bunk beds.  John said that Mark would think the idea awesome and most likely put one in for us!  (Mark has a tendency to make things bigger & better than originally expected.) 

16 degrees in my car this morning! Happy frigid New Year! ... brrrrrr ...

New Year, New Alphabet!

Yay! It's a new year and I am proud to say that I made it all the way through 2009's ABC-along.  I dropped off in 2008 around V, but 2009 was the strong finisher!  Woot woot for me!  (Unlike my sister, I did not hook up with a "Zach" to make the end of my alphabet any easier. She cheated!)

So, if you are unfamiliar with this ABC thing, it started on Flickr and Ravelry when someone realized that there are 52 weeks in the year and 26 letters in the alphabet - making for an easy 2weeks per letter.  The original design is that the blogger / photographer / knitter takes a picture of something relating to that letter (A is for animals, B is for Batman, C is for College, etc.) and posts it every 2 weeks throughout the year.  It's harder than it looks, especially with the time constraint of posting during the appropriate two week period!  Besides, how many things start with X or Q?  A real brain-buster sometimes.

Well, I'm not doing a "theme" this year like some, but I am aiming to make it through the year again.  So let's get started!

Jan 3 - A                 July 4 - N

Jan 17 - B                July 18 - O

Jan 31 - C               Aug 1 - P

Feb 14 - D               Aug 15 - Q

Feb 28 - E               Aug 29 - R

March 14 - F            Sept 12 - S

March 28 - G            Sept 26 - T

April 11 - H              Oct 10 - U

April 25 - I              Oct 24 - V

May 9 - J                Nov 7 - W

May 23 - K               Nov 21 - X

June 6 - L               Dec 5 - Y

June 20 - M              Dec 19 - Z