Drinks, Dressings, & Dishes

Drinks

So for the last week, this sippy has been missing its blue lid. Missing a lid makes it quite a bit less useful. I was convinced the dishwasher (which I heart) ate it. Turns out I was right.

This morning I came out to the kitchen after getting ready for a super fun fabric shopping trip with my mom and smelled something hot and smoky. I rushed to check the dryer. Whites were still tumbling just fine. Next I checked the dishwasher, which was at the very end of the heat dry cycle. Sure enough, as I opened it up smoky steam poured out. I have no idea how old our dishwasher was, so I assumed the heating element was going out. I turned off the heat dry cycle and finished getting ready. Late this afternoon I got home and emptied the dishwasher. This is what I found in the very back.

Mystery solved, but I think that lid is shot.

Dressings

Window dressings, that is.

As we were planning the move, I knew I wanted to do something completely different with our living room furniture. The couch is a gray-green and we have a khaki chair and chocolate leather recliner. I wanted to mix a bunch of different greens with some blue thrown in, making it a brighter, happier room. A few months ago, I found this fantastic Michael Miller fabric at Prairie Quilts.

Then we found this house. This furniture fit perfectly in the family room....well, it will as soon as the carpet is changed. The family room has 5 tall narrow windows plus a sliding door. The blinds in the room were, well, less than my taste. Remember this?

MMMmmmm...mint green. However, they're really nice blinds that we can't afford to replace. I thought about just taking them down, but again, they're very well functioning blinds.

Then I pulled out my fabric. The other day I picked up simple cream-colored curtain panels for $8 a piece at Target. My plan is to sew on a narrow strip of the small green print and a wide strip of the aqua and green print on the inner side of each panel for semi-custom curtains. I think I'll be able to do the windows for around $100. Not bad for a room full of windows. And look!

It's as though we planned it that way. And people say God doesn't deal in the small stuff. I don't believe it!

Dishes

Washing dishes has never been my favorite chore (did I mention that I super puffy heart my dishwasher?). Since we've moved to this house, I've disliked it even more....because of this beauty of a sink.

1) It's porcelain and doesn't clean up well. 2) It's super small - I can't find a dish drainer any smaller than this one and it doesn't fit in the sink at all! 3) The faucet is really low, so rinsing anything larger than a spoon is a pain. 4) It has a huge lip around the edge, so cleaning up around it is .... a pain.

I'm usually a pretty contented person, but I wash dishes thinking, "I hate this sink, I hate this sink."

Tuesday night though we took a trip to Lowes. One of our 10% off coupons was about to expire, so we picked up this true beauty and the faucet (to the left). Saturday my sweet hubs, who really, strongly dislikes plumbing is taking on the mess. There's a garbage disposal and a reverse osmosis system under the sink. I have a feeling the RO system may not make it.

Ahhh....so close to peaceful chores.