anyone have any suggestions?

I really, really, really, really want to put plantation shutters on the front/main windows of the house....in total it would be 13 windows and 1 double window. However, I know they are uber expensive. Lowes and Menards has them, as well as JC Penney. Does ANYONE have any suggestions on where to get a "deal" on them. Obviously at the end of the construction process there is little left in the budget for "decorating". We could wait to do the shutters after the first of the year, however I hate to "waste" money putting a temporary fix in them. So I am sending this out to all my bloggie friends.....please let me know if you all have any suggestions. Even if you never comment, now is the time!!

closer

these days at "the house" have been a lot of finish work...notice the trim that makes up the "feet" of the bathroom cabinets.......also please notice the fine layer of dust on EVERY drawer
our appliances were delivered..they are ALL here waiting to be installed

doors are being hung as well...and trimmed out (except this one), this one is waiting for the hardwood to be down before they trim it out (upstairs).

i (we) are getting so so so so ancy!

birthdays

So, not to bore you about my birthday, i will spare you all the details BUT ONE!! Sean had some cupcakes from our fun NYC trip sent in for my birthday. He had to order a dozen...so we froze 6 and have been picking at 6 now for almost a week. The Key Lime and the Coconut so far from the first 1/2 have been fan-tas-tic!!

there was a ton of dry ice in there...too bad I didn't have a Halloween party to go to...

"first day of school, first day of school"

So today was the first day of school...Braden is now a 1st grader and Finley started 3-4yr old Preschool. The preschool Fin attends is M-F from 830-11 so I am childless for a few hours every day and today was day 1. One would think I would be JUMPING for joy, but I was lost. My mom called to see what I was gonna do and I had NO idea. Mind you, today was a 1/2 day for the graders (9-1130) so I couldn't have planned much. I was a little teary, which surprised me too. We will see how tomorrow goes....HERE is the first day of school last year. The kids dont look like they have aged much.

Headin' in. He was a little hesitant, however came out smiling, so that is good....right?

yet another craft

so out of sheeeeeer boredom friday night, I whipped up a fluffy headband that I saw on another blog. what do you think?

might be kinda fluffy...but with a little tweaking, it just might be that fun thing to add to the outfit. definately need to make a mini one for finley and go that route!!

dragonfly

look what I found in the backyard..............

ta da....

pardon the mess.....


all the cabinets that can be set are set.
they are hanging lights/setting can lights/installing the oh so fancy fluorescent lights/setting switches and plug in thingys
notice the fab purple chandelier...yes that is my craft room!!

a glimpse of Sean and I's shower (not quite finished)

base moulding and window/door casement is being installed....as well as the doors!! All the upstairs doors are in. There aren't many downstairs doors so that wont take as long.

Appliances come next week, we meet with the landscaper tomorrow, the closet company is coming next week. The shutters and colums were delivered today and all the remainder of the lighting (except dining...I can't decide) was ordered today....lots of decisions made in the last 3 days....im exhausted.

backyardigans

while reading a story to the kids (yes, I read to them) we heard a LOUD thud in the back of the house. I knew a bird had to have hit the window, they do it often. Anyway, we ran to the window and yes, a poor dove hit the window to its demise...buuuut you could totally see where the poor thing crashed into the window, midflight.

the kids watched the poor deceased bird....hoping he would just be "knocked out"

we think this HUGE hawk that was lingering maybe was chasing said bird which caused the crash

never a dull moment at the Kane house

the birthday brigade has begun

Except for the first four grandkids, emily and kari...my remaining family members birthdays fall from August 15 thru Jan 15....Meme, me, shannon, steve, mallory, luke, sean, rock, my grandma, nana, grandad, papa....so when Memes birthday arrives, I know that it is a lot of birthday cake for awhile, which is OK, because I love me some cake and icing. Meme had her birthday last weekend and we had a little celebration. It was great because all the grandkids were there to help her blow out her candles....hopefully they will all be there next year because she has a lot to blow out!!

Shannon, with the creative genius of Kane, made this 4 layer cake, complete with 3 different frostings....

now here is a motley crew

Shannon and Steve got a new camera that they were playing with...it has smile recognition so we were seeing how long it would take to recognize peoples smiles.....think Sean or Mark Reed

A weekend at Meme's wouldnt be comlete without a bath....

Mallory obviously was here for the festivities and Shannon and I tried out a new do...

a splurge

A few weeks back, I splurged and purchased these Ugg boots. I have some of the "regulation" Ugg boots, but always thought these looked super comfy. Let me just say....if you have a few extra unaccounted for dollars, or a birthday coming soon, or leftover birthday/tax/Christmas/whatever money, these are worth it. I did find a website that has them like 40 % off the list price. I wear mine all the time in the house. It is great right now to kick off your flip flops and put these on while inside....nobody likes cold feet and with the air conditioning on they are perfect. Now I cant wait till fall so I can wear them outside and not get people looking at me cross-eyed for wearing them in August...in Galesburg.

the future

On a recommendation from Caroline and Mike, we ventured to Clo in the Time Warner building our last night in New York. It is a virtual reality bar where you can scroll through their "wine list" and read all about it.
It is all by a virtual "mouse"....you can search by region, color, grape, cost, etc.

Once you choose, it tells you which bin and which bottle. You put your card in, put your glass under the spout and hit the button. Voila, 4 oz of your chosen wine.

Can you imagine Mc Donalds in 10 years??

15 innings....

68,000 fans...98% in blue

If you click on the below pic....the grey haired man in a light blue shirt to the right is Mayor Bloomberg. The blond to the left leaning into the dark haired guy is Kate Hudson and her brother Oliver Hudson

i need to go on a diet!!

We have returned from our Annual Trek to NYC. We, again, had a wonderful time. Not many people are fond of the craziness that is New York City, but Sean and I have decided we looooove going out there for a few days. The food, the scenery, the people watching and of course the food. Here are some shots of our trip.....

We spent a few mornings having bagels w/cream cheese from the street vendors. Some birds in Central Park wanted to partake as well.
In our hotel, Le Parker Meridian, they have a restaurant called "The Burger Joint". It is hidden behind a curtain, you wouldnt know it was there except for the smell of grilling burgers. There is no signage, no advertising. GOOD burgers.....we went there as soon as we checked in and saw Fred Savage (wonder years fame) right off the bat...he was just sitting there eating a burger, no one was bothering him at all.

Thursday evening, we had our "annual meet up" with my cousin Caroline and her hubby Mike. This year we went to Centro Vinoteca....they have a website, look it up....yummy!! We had "piccolini" otherwise known as "small plates" or the spanish version of "tapas". Such a good dinner, however the company was even better!! Oddly enough, LEAH COHEN, is the head chef there and she was in the exposed kitchen (tv personality #2).

After dinner we headed into a Mexican place for one last drink......can you guess who had what???

My only request was cupcakes....we hit 2 spots....Crumbs on Broadway and Magnolia in Rockerfeller Center....we went a little overboard at Crumbs, but they had toooo many to choose just one!! My choices were the top two, Seans were the bottom two.

We got lunch from the Hello Deli next to The Ed Sullivan Theatre....Yes, Rupert was there, yes he took our order and yes we have the reciept he wrote it on.....best of all it was a great sandwich.

Oh yeah, the cupcake was yummy too!!

Shopping at Saks Fifth Ave makes one thirsty....so we had a rest stop. The bag on the counter is my birthday gift....I have NO idea what is in there, which is good. I HATE knowing what I am getting...HATE it!!

So here is the lone cupcake from Magnolia....it was FAN - TAS - TIC!! If you are ever, ever, ever near a Magnolia Bakery, get one. This one happened to be pumpkin...I should have gotten a vanilla to compare. But Sean and I both agreed that it was better than Crumbs....

We killed a pizza.......fresh basil on the coal oven baked pizza....uh, im drooling right now!!

Had to try Thai from the restaurant next door.....again, yummy!!

Sunday morning, flying out the door to the airport, I decided to dig into the "Devil Dog" cupcake remaining....it had the same type of twinkie/hoho/dingdong filling in it. OK, so it was tasty too. By now I was uber sick from all the food I only had ONE bite.....but it was worth it!