We Started a New Project...

Tom and I started a new home project. After finishing the intense upstairs bathroom project we took a long break from doing any remodeling through December and the holidays. Last weekend we had ants in our pants and decided to start another remodel project on our home. The kitchen was our next victim.

We are keeping all of our cabinets, counter tops  furniture and sink in the kitchen - so we had to make sure to protect all of this before we began. Our kitchen is in the middle of our home so we had to tape off with plastic the entries to the front door, bathroom, living room, bedroom and basement. You can imagine the frustration and mess that came along with not being able to get to any of these rooms.

Our kitchen project includes:

1. removal of popcorn ceiling
2. smoothing out ceiling and any dings in walls
3. new light fixtures
4. under cabinet lighting
5. new stove top 
6. painting 
7. new backsplash 
8. built in shelving for wine and speakers by the table

This actually seemed like a relatively easy project compared to some of our other remodels. (Mistaken!) We put plastic around all the cabinets and counter tops to protect everything. About halfway through our popcorn removal (which involves a lot of water and a huge mess) the plastic started to fall down from the moisture in the room. WHAT.A.DISASTER. We were really concerned that the cabinets would get scratched and dinged and the rest of the house would be covered in dust if we didn't reevaluate our plan.

We had someone come in and quote the kitchen for the sheetrock and painting. To our disbelief it wasn't ridiculously expensive and they were willing to cut us a deal on the great room, (living room to the left of the kitchen) hallway to the bathroom, and stairwell if we did it all at once. We went for it, and thought it would be nice to have all the mess made at once!


At first I felt a little guilty about hiring it out to have someone to help us, since we are capable of doing this on our own. Then... I saw and realized how much work it really was and how long it would take us to do this. It is a BIG project and if we did it we wouldn't have been able to cook for about 2 months. I think it was a smart decision for sanity reasons. We also have PLENTY more remodeling to do, so I can't feel too guilty about hiring this one project out.

They are about 50% of the way done after 3 days of working. Can't wait to see the end results and share them with you! More photos to come!

Homemade Granola

Last weekend we had a lot of random fruit leftover from a cleanse that we did. (Totally awful, don't try it). I decided that it would be fun to try and make homemade granola and dehydrate the fruit to use in it.

I think it turned out fairly well for my first try. I didn't know there was more to dehydrating fruit besides stinking them on the dehydrator for a day and walking away. That is the case with bananas, just not blueberries and cranberries.

For the fruit... You have to boil water then pour the hot water into another bowl and add the fruit to the hot water. This causes the skin on the fruit to break and let the water out. Then you can put them on the dehydrator after they have cooled. I left the fruit on the racks for almost 36 hours before adding it to the granola. Better directions than mine here.

Recipe for the Granola came from Alton Brown on the Food Network.


Ingredients

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup cashews
• 3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 
  
• Directions

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
• In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar.
• In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.
• Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed.

Recipe. 

Our Trip to Nashville

I haven't blogged in so long. I know that I have so many faithful followers, like hundreds that cry themselves to sleep every night when they don't see a new blog post from me. How could I let hundreds of millions of people down like that?

kidding.

Tom and I went to Nashville over the holidays to spend time with our family and explore this amazing city. We had so. much. fun. Too much fun, probably. Nashville is an amazing city, and we will definitely be going back soon.

We got to do and see so much stuff - and we owe a HUGE THANK YOU to my Aunt Nicki for planning such a fun vacation for us. We are so blessed to take this trip every year and spend time with our cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings and my sweet grandma. There was 20 of us on the trip this year.

These are just a few things that we got to do and would recommend:

Jack Daniels tour - so interesting and educational. It is a dry county so we didn't get to try any whiskey on the tour, but drank plenty on the trip.

Miss Mary BoBos - Amazing southern style dining experience, and delicious food. We bought the Jack Daniels cookbook and I am going to attempt Chess Pie! (details to come!)

NashTrash Tour Bus - These ladies were hilarious, raunchy, and entertaining. Poor Peter was assaulted the whole trip. They do a song/skit around Nashville and poke fun at everyone on the bus the whole tour.

Broadway Street - bar, after bar, after bar. There is live music from 9am - 3am with no covers at the bar. We had so much fun just hanging out and listening to good music.

The Grand Ol' Opry at the Ryman - I feel so lucky to have seen a show here. How cool and what a special venue!

Wild Horse Saloon - We country line danced until our thighs were burning.

Overall this trip to Nashville was top-notch. We rang in the New Year listening to The Fray with Molly and Preston on Broadway Street in the pouring rain. We had such a fun time with our family - and feel so lucky to have them. I loved having Tom there with me on this trip, and am so glad he is a part of our family now. We didn't come back with any cowboy boots or guitars, but we have some amazing memories and stories!

Lots of bloody mary's were in order.

Rick and Jessie! 

Boots for miles! 

Our view from our room in the hotel. 

Grand Ol Opry at the Ryman. 

Great entertainment and so cool to see this venue!

You can see that all of the seats are church pews.

The Nash Trash Tour!!! So raunchy and fun. 

Peter made a new friend. 

We line danced all night at the Wildhorse Saloon. Even my grandma got out there. 

Tom and I at Miss Mary BoBos 

All of the cousins at Miss Mary BoBos. 

We took the tour at Jack Daniels. So interesting! 

Amazing southern pecan pie. 

And to Nashville we go...

We are so excited to head to Nashville today for the Sanford/Mulally/Connell/Riley/Fry reunion. Even more excited Tom is with me!!! :)

Yehaaw. Boots are shined.

Merry Christmas from the Sanford's.

Our stockings are hung, and presents are wrapped. We even had some snow this week to get us in the mood. We are so thankful and blessed to have had such a wonderful year and we are excited to spend our first Christmas together.

We've been very busy leading up to Christmas. Here's what we've been up to:

Tom's Christmas party was last weekend at the Marriott hotel in Briar Cliff. A group of our friends took a limo and we had a blast! Tradebot gave all the employees mini iPad's and Tom and I have already used it a lot.

The next night we went to a concert at the Midland. It was an amazing concert with one of my faves, Of Monsters and Men. Tom and I were beat that Sunday!

We went down to El Dorado to see my grandma, dad, Emily, and Tristan on Saturday. It was a fun day and we got some very nice gifts to take back with us to Kansas City! - including a new bread bowl from the bread master himself. (Thanks guys!!)

We made Christmas candy to take around to our neighbors and had a delicious holiday meal with our neighbors Doug and Tish.

We went ice skating with Katherine and her boyfriend at Crown Center. All of the lights down there are amazing. I remember always going to this rink when I was little with our dad.

Tom and I are delivering meals to families through the Salvation Army on Christmas Day. They assign you five houses, and we figured it would be a good opportunity since we are both in Kansas City on Christmas. Other than that we plan to sleep in, enjoy biscuits and sausage gravy (from the Local Pig), open presents, go to the movies, and relax.

We have the best friends and family and loved receiving everyone's Christmas cards! It's on my to-do list to find a clever way to display them next year. Ideas?!

We leave the day after Christmas for Nashville to spend time with the best family. Ever. I think there are 20 of us going this year! Can't wait for lots of laughter, good eats and country dancing! Yeahaaawww! (Photos and stories to follow!)

Merry Christmas to all!

Presents are all wrapped under our tree - ready for Christmas. 

Local Pig

Our first snow of winter. I think our Christmas decor got frozen to our porch pillars. oops!

This has nothing to do with this blog post, I just wanted to post this cute picture of Tom. Love him. :)

At the Of Monsters and Men concert. 

The concert was at the Midland in downtown KC - a very old beautiful theater. 

Of Monsters and Men! 

Tradebot Christmas Party.

All of the treats lined up ready to take to the neighbors. 

Lots of Christmas cards from friends and family 

Crowne Center at Christmas time

Loved getting mail like this during the holidays. Made my heart smile!

Tom and I ate brunch at Union Station. 

Holiday Homes Tour

Tom and I went on the KKG holiday homes tour a couple weeks ago. I have been meaning to blog about thsi. The holiday season escaped me. I only got a few photos from the night because it was a little awkward to get photos with people around inside someone else's home. ;)

We got some fun ideas for decorating that we will use on a much smaller scale. A florist was assigned to each house, and one house even had flowers flown in from HOLLAND. What?! What in the world is wrong with our flowers? Gesh.

It. was. amazing. Not only did it put us in the Christmas spirit, but all of the decor and history in the homes were amazing. The houses were all over KC and each had a different style. We went to Nelly Don's home - the first self made millionaire. History: www.nellydon.com/story.html

More holiday updates to come!

It's Begining to Look a lot Like Christmas!

The Sanford house is in Christmas mode. Tom and I have had a lot of fun beginning our collection of Christmas decorations and establishing our own Christmas traditions.

So far we have...

• Peppmermint ice cream - have it. eat it. it puts you in the holiday mood. 
• Christopher Elbow hot chocolate - if you haven't tried it, it's a must. Christmas explosion in your mouth. 
• National Lampoons Christmas vacation - watched it, along with 2341 other cheezy Christmas movies leading up to Christmas.  
• Church- going to church during Advent is the best! Especially with the gorgeous decorations at Old Mission. 
• Decorating - We are collecting lots of cute, rustic, Christmas decor for our home. Must decorate while listening to Christmas music. 
• Holiday homes tour - there are so many awesome tours in KC. This year we are going on the KKG Holiday Homes tour. It's going to be amazing. 
• Emmet Otters Jugband Christmas- One of Tom's holiday traditions from when he was younger that we have kept going. 
• Christmas lights - there are some serious Christmas light enthusiasts in Kansas City. Anyone have a favorite neighborhood?

Manford the Sanford holiday moose. 

Gingerbread cookies - yummy!

After. ohhhh ahhhh

Ornament of 2012!

Before

We are going to this tomorrow- photos to follow!