A Job Begun is Half Done!

Isn’t there a Mary Poppins song … and snap the job’s a game… Last weekend and the weekend before we made some great progress in the wine cellar painting the bricks. The wall tween the laundry room door & the ‘arch way’ dark brown took us about 5.5 hours working together. So 11 hours of painting… To create our bricks- I am using a sponge mop head. It was ‘thin’ enough and longer than a typical sponge. For the smaller edge bricks- we cut a second mop head sponge in half. Then I bought a large lot of foam brushes … Continue reading A Job Begun is Half Done!

Creating a Cream City Double Look – Brick that is

So four weeks ago now- with the ceiling double coated, the walls double coated with the ‘grout’ color, I set out to make my bricks. I started with mixing some colors- but the effect was very washed out / blended into the grout, crappy nasty bricks. I didn’t like it and was able to quickly enough determine to use our ‘brick’ color solid- no mixing no color effect. You can see several to the right that are faded and then the left is the pure brick color. I went back and touched up those first several bricks and painted for … Continue reading Creating a Cream City Double Look – Brick that is

Beer… clearly it was the Beer.

So after some discussions over that beer release beer… and more at home. We decided to EXPAND the wine cellar. I have a craft room- that I never use. It’s too cold and I will make up every other excuse. If I really want to use my sewing (and embroidery) machine I have carried it upstairs and set up shop on the dining table for the day. So… goodby craft room. All my stuff got moved to a corner of the laundry room except for one rack that we’ll move later. We almost triple the wine room space and then … Continue reading Beer… clearly it was the Beer.

Paint or Beer Babe- Which Is It?

So the floor was scrapped and pressure washed. I had picked out- but NOT finalized some paint colors…. but my fake hubby decided a few Saturday’s ago that he wanted to get paint. A bit baffled but ok we worked hard so maybe this would be a nice break. We left like 3p ish and headed to Sherwin Williams. But not the Sherwin Williams he would normally go too- we went towards the 3rd Ward. I have a few things saved on Pinterest. Fancy wine cellars with light brick like manlikemarvinsparks below- but I envisioned cream city brick. But I … Continue reading Paint or Beer Babe- Which Is It?

Wine Cellar DIY

So we started another basement remodel, technically back in December, but had some minor delays…. like the entire basement flooding and having to go rent one of them industrial drain augers to clear out the main drain pipes. And holidays. And some hair that was put down a bathroom sink and clogged it, and…. Needless to say projects had to wait. But mid January we really got a jump start on things again. Our partial beginning became some huge demolition progress. So first up was scraping the floor. The paint – sucks! Half of it was fairly easy to scrape … Continue reading Wine Cellar DIY

And So It Begins…2020 Marathon Training

Started myself off slow in December after taking 6 weeks really to try to heal from last season. Started with a mile on the treadmill and then quickly two… Next thing you know I was able to log a nice slow and easy 5 miles. The long runs I really prefer outside, but as you can tell Mother Nature had other ideas so every other week I am stuck inside on the treadmill. At least I get to see outside while having breakfast! This last weekend I am up to 7 miles. A little sore today- mostly in my ankles, … Continue reading And So It Begins…2020 Marathon Training

Not Quite My Grandma’s Chili soup

So my Gma is an amazing cook. She can make soup out of anything. But one of the soups she used to routinely make was actually chili. But thinner/more broth and she would toss in some noodles. I make a similar Chili soup- but with two real differences. I add squash or pumpkin purée and I do NOT use ground beef- sorry GmaG. One or two onions, chopped into large pieces. A little butter or oil- maybe a teaspoon or two to sauté the onions. I use garlic infused olive oil. One normal can- like the 10 or 11oz- of … Continue reading Not Quite My Grandma’s Chili soup

Salmon and Sprouts over Butternut Purée

Salmon, Brussel sprouts and butternut purée. Yum. I baked a butternut squash during the day and set it on top of the stove to cool. When dinner time came I began to sauté Brussel sprouts and onions in a garlic infused olive oil until they were lightly brown. Once they were about half way done I put three salmon fillets on our George Foreman grill for about 8 minutes. If they were thicker I would have left them for another minute or two. While both the Brussels and salmon were going, I put the squash in our blender and puréed … Continue reading Salmon and Sprouts over Butternut Purée

Squash Stir-Fry

So just before Thanksgiving I went to the farmers market in West Allis. We all went 4 generations, 4 gals. We wanted one last market before the season ended and wanted to stock up on Squash. Squash normally stays good in a milk crate or bushel basket in my basement for 2 to 3 months and it’s a nice ‘fresh’ veggie to have on cold weather days. So I do normally grab a few. This trip however was a bit of disastrous fun. Bags of squash for $5. Mom and I looked at each other- want half. YES! Another bag- … Continue reading Squash Stir-Fry

Wine Madness

Everyone knows what March Madness is. Many of us participate and fill out a bracket each year selecting teams to move to the next round. But has anyone done this with wine? I invited several coworkers over a few weeks ago – a little behind in getting this awesome party out there. We had 10 place settings, some cheese boards and 8 wines on the bracket. Below you can see the bottles lines up, wrapped in black paper and numbered- all ready to go! For the party. Grab bottles 1 & 2 and pour a small sample. No more than … Continue reading Wine Madness