Nesting

After three days inside, I guess I'm feeling better and maybe just a bit stir crazy! J will come home to several small changes!

This morning, I sanded down the blistered parts of the bathroom wall and got a first coat of paint on the two walls that were still white (back story: I painted the two "easy" walls of that bathroom three years ago). Two interesting observations--first, the room doesn't look as dark as I was afraid it would with all four walls that color, and second, the new color matches the existing color. I was afraid that the color on the walls would have faded and/or that the paint still in the can would have changed somehow, too. I will definitely have to do a second coat, but am pleased so far. Next up, finishing the floor, then the magical call to the plumbers that J is waiting so eagerly for!

After cleaning up from the bathroom job, I decided I was hungry. Which eventually led to whipping up some spaghetti sauce (seriously, the most delicious sauce ever!) to use in a yummy pizza. I've mentioned before how very brand loyal I am and generally (almost always!) we have a jar or three of Ragu Traditional on hand. Unfortunately, I emptied the last jar last night, and didn't bother to look for another until I'd prepped the pizza crust. So I did a quick recipe search, decided I had everything needed, and went to work. Thank goodness for our food processor!


Want to make your own? Here you go:
One can Hunts diced tomatoes
One can Hunts tomato paste
handful of chopped onions
a couple small handfulls of brown sugar
a dash of chopped pizza pepper
a couple of dashes of Mrs. Dash tomato basil seasoning
two tablespoons or so of chopped garlic
two tablespoons or so of olive oil


After putting in every couple of ingredients I stopped, ran the food processor for 30 seconds or so, then stopped, added a couple more, ran the processor, etc. Obviously, I wasn't measuring anything. I think that's okay and it obviously didn't hurt the end product. I'm totally looking forward to some pasta tonight!


I did some DAR work for a while, then decided I was itching to do something else. What could I do? Oh wait, there's that spot in the drywall downstairs that needs to be primed and painted (what, you thought we finished that a year ago? Yeah...We started it December 2009, but the drywall work just got finished a couple months ago...). So off I went to the family room, can of primer and paint roller in hand. Now, we cross our fingers that the paint in the family room matches as well as the bathroom paint did.

So, thinking that I was done for the day, I curled up with my laptop and a few favorite blogs. Then I came across the Winter Mantel linky party that Beth at the Stories of A to Z is hosting. Of course! I hadn't decorated my mantel for winter! And off I went in search of a garland and wreaths I picked up at Hobby Lobby at an after-Christmas sale a couple of years ago. The wreaths and garland are a kind of grapevine base with feaux crystals, like ice tipping the edges. They are perfect for this time of year--icy and cold and still beautiful!! One went up on the front door, replacing the sleigh bells I put up for Christmas; the other I hung in front of the Paul Sawyier hanging over our mantel. The grapevine trees I put out for Christmas still fit in and the garland looks great draped across the mantel itself. I tried other things on the mantel, too, but edited it back to just the garland. I like its simplicity. So anyhow, here you go!



Lucky for me (and you, if you're still reading!), J came in just as I finished taking pictures, so I think that's all the nesting you'll get from me today. Tomorrow, I'll be braving the cold to run errands and go to meetings!