Head to Head: Birthday Edition

What's the coolest gift you've ever received?

Cass: By far, the vow art Philip made for Christmas this year. A homemade gift that will be treasured in our home forever.

Philip: When I was in my teens I got the Adobe Creative Suite of design programs, which set me on a pretty solid path of design and creativity. I used to design logos and jerseys, and now I still use it when planning out plans for our home, creating our blog banner (don't worry, I'll try and produce a June one this time), I even designed our wedding stationary. 

What's your favourite birthday dessert?

Cass: Ice cream cake! Hands down. The most refreshing and delicious cake, can be made in a bajillion flavours, and even shapes! Mm I want a heartshaped strawberry ice cream cake right now. Never had it but picturing it is beautiful in my head. 

Philip: Cheesecake is my answer, no matter what the occasion. 

Invent a party game and explain how it works.

Cass: For our Christmas gift exchange one year we had to make homemade gifts. I crafted a family trivia game, which is a great idea for anyone on a budget who needs a neat birthday/Christmas/other event gift. Think up some categories, questions, and print them out on cards to play at your next family gathering.

Philip: Pin the insulation in our ceiling. It's like pin the tail on the donkey, except you take down old insulation and reinsulate our attic while blindfolded. Great for all ages.

Would You Tues: Head to Head

We're going to be switching up the Would You Tues series a bit this month. Philip and I have come up with a few random questions which we'll answer each week, and we'd love if you'd share your own insights in the comments or on Facebook (also as a note to this, we've been working on some behind the scenes blog work for a few months, and soon we'll hopefully have some new features that will make it easier for people on different devices to comment). 

Q1: If you found yourself in a back-lane, looking at an old bathtub, what would be your motivation for thievery?

Cass: We heard that some friends from our church used their old bath tub as a fire pit by burying it and having an inset place for bonfires. We couldn't do that in the city, but I love the idea!

Philip: I would be trying to recreate that Cialis ad picture of the two bathtubs overlooking the cliff. Of course, in that case it's acquiring the bathtubs that's the easy part; getting the plumbing to the edge of the cliff is the tougher piece of the puzzle. That, or having a few servants carting hot water over to the cliff; they'd have to be blind, of course--no peeking!--and that would further complicate matters...

Q2: What's the weirdest item on your birthday list?

Cass: It's a tie between Sim City 6 and a body pillow. Sim City 6 looks incredible, but I'm a grown woman who should probably embrace adulthood at some point. Still want it though peeps. Secondly, I sleep on my side with a pillow between my knees. Philip used to hate it and think it was weird, but now almost every night he curls up behind me and says, "Can I have some knee pillow?" I want a new body pillow so we can share easier! 

Philip: It's a weird fact about me that I'm a fan of novelty ice-cube trays. It's not that I'm such a big fan of having ice in my drink--as a kid growing up, we never seemed to have fresh ice cubes on hand--but I just think they're cool. They're one of the few kitchen implements that exhibits real creativity. To that end, I've put a Fred and Friends "Gin and Titonic" ice cube tray on my birthday list, so I can memorialize the loss of Jack Dawson and his 2,223 shipmates every time I want to cool a beverage. (Note: Philip's birthday is this upcoming Monday the 20th!)

Q3: What color do you want to paint the bathroom and why?

Cass: We already purchased glossy grey vanity, and white accessories galore, so we have a pretty neutral palette so far. Of the two rooms we've painted in this house, both have been hues of blue. Our bedroom is light blue-grey paired with a darker grey and dark accents along with our green and cream duvet. Our office is light blue and a darker blue. However, there's a reason - blue is really calming, it goes with most colors, and we both like it. I'm tempted to go with a blue/grey tone again in the bathroom. It would be really soothing and monochromatic in some ways with the grey and white. I've also debated black. That's me being a rebel. I think we could pull it off because there isn't a lot of paintable wall space when you take into account that one wall is almost all bath/shower, we have a window on another wall, a door on another, and the last wall has vanity, mirror, medicine cabinet, storage tower, etc. Almost all of those things are white. A dark color like black, charcoal, or even a really dark green or navy might just work. I think before I'm ready to decide I kind of want to draw it out from the looking at the vanity view and plan out our tile work and play with some colors once we've chosen floor and tile. 

Philip: You ready for a big surprise? I want to paint the bathroom....

Banana Yellow. It's bright! It's fun! It looks great with gloss gray (our vanity) and white (our cabinets, tub and shower)! I'd be willing to even fake-board and batten the walls (like John & Sherry over at YoungHouseLove did) to get a two-tone look with a little more white into the room! But how can you not go bananas for yellow? Here's another sentence with an exclamation mark!

Who did you agree/disagree with? Have any thoughts on our questions this week? I knew Philip wanted yellow, I could potentially be talked into something mustardier (add that word to the dictionary). Last week we sat down and planned a month of blog posts, so while we haven't been as consistent lately, there are some home events that you have to thank for that so we have lots to share!

Would You Tues: Seasonal Clothes

Well, Winnipeg just made the sudden transition to Summer after an epically long Winter. Our closets aren't huge, so we put our Summer clothes in bins when we moved into our bedroom last Fall, making our closet a bit more spacious. We want to know...

Do you store your clothes seasonally?
a) Yes. 
b) No, I have a big enough closet to fit everything.


If you do store your clothes seasonally...
Have you made the switch to Summer clothes yet?
a) Nope, I wasn't sure what this weather was going to throw at us next so I've been holding off.
b) Yep, I switch at the first sign of melting.

As for us, I think I'll switch them this week. It's nice enough that Philip might want to wear some golf shirts to work, and I'm definitely ready for Summer dresses!

Would You Tues: About You

Out of curiosity...

How old are you?



Do you wear dresses or pants? (traditional gender roles FTW)


Do you live in Winnipeg?

Would You Tues: Earth Day

After a strep throat-induced sabbatical, we're back in action. The throat is still a bit sore, but I'm officially on no pain killers right now after my first night without them in a week. Strep throat is for sure the worst non-lethal sickness I've had. 

Anyway...moving on! 

Yesterday was Earth Day, and so I thought an Earth Day themed Would You Tues would be in order. 

What will you implement this year to take better care of the Earth?
a) Homemade or natural house cleaners
b) Recycling - behind the times a little
c) Plant a tree
d) Bike to work once the snow melts

As for us:
- Philip takes the bus to work
- We recycle, and with the DIY trend that's coming up, lots of us are searching thrift stores for great finds instead of buying a new product. 
- I'm hoping to keep up a small vegetable garden
- I'd really like to try some natural cleaners

Happy Earth Day!

Would You Tues: Destress

We're about to dive head first back into our bathroom renovation after a very long break, and we're wondering...

What do you do to unwind during/after a major renovation project?

a) When I'm planning a renovation, I save enough to do the project, and to go on a vacation afterwards.
b) Watching Baby Mama with a bowl of popcorn is all I need.
c) I start my next project because I'm not tired at all.
d) Get outside for a jog, or if it's too cold do 100 push ups. Get the blood pumping to give energy for my next feat. 
e) I hire people to do all of my projects so that I don't need to destress. 
f) Fill in the blank with your own creative/unique answer.

This question got me thinking, so I have one more for you...

How long is a good "unwinding" period between major projects?

a) One Week
b) One Hour
c) One Month
d) One Year

Philip & I have learned to prioritize and ignore some of the pressure that comes our way when it comes to renovating. Anyone who has ever delayed a project knows how frustrating it can be when everyone and their talking kitchen sink is asking about your progress. Sometimes we decide to put social activity or church commitments ahead of our renovation, sometimes we make a lot of head way in a week, it just depends on where we're at. Our bathroom took a long break firstly because of Philip's commitment to our church dinner theatre, and then because of the snow causing issues that forced us to wait for warmer weather. To be honest, I'm a little bit glad we got to wait because it gave us some downtime to plan out the project better and to take a break because before the bathroom we'd been working on a lot of things at once. After the bathroom, there's talk of us tackling the kitchen - one of the biggest renovation projects people tackle. The second question here was birthed out of my thinking of how long we should wait between bathroom and kitchen. I suppose we'll decide based on how crazy the rest of our bathroom renovation is and how long it takes, how tired we are, and what our Summer looks like. 

Give us your feedback in the comments, Facebook, or even by shooting us an email (cassondra.wiebe@gmail.com). We love to hear from you and hope that these weekly questions can help us to learn more about our readership, and for you to get to know us a little bit more personally also. Have a happy Tuesday!

Would You Tues: Finances

Tying in with our new blog series that we launched yesterday, we're wondering:

What's the biggest obstacle you face when it comes to your finances?

a) Saving for retirement; it seems pretty far away and is kind of hard to make a priority right now.
b) Creating a budget; numbers aren't my thing and it seems like too much work. 
c) Giving; I would really like to be giving more to the church/my community but can't make it work in my budget. 
d) Entertainment/Personal spending is out of control. 
e) I am overwhelmed by debt. 
f) I don't know what all of you people are talking about, I have more money than I could ever ask for and my problem is that the stores don't carry enough shoes to fill my closet. 

There are a lot of options there, because people face a lot of different financial obstacles. While we aren't experts, we are a couple of people who think it's important to be open and take on our finances head on - depending on the responses, we may add on or delve further into these topics in order to provide some resources or a discussion forum for them. While we are a DIY blog, and will remain that way, learning to take care of your own finances is a great tool and something we're slowly learning to be more responsible for since getting married and moving out. 

We'd love to hear your feedback, whether it be by email (cassondra.wiebe@gmail.com), Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments. 

As for us, right now we converse a lot about whether to invest extra money when we have it, or to put it into our house (which at some level can also be considered an investment). Philip was forward-thinking enough to have invested a fair amount before we got married, and now  we've taken a year or two off from putting any significant sum away because of our renovations. While we walk through this budgeting exercise over the next couple of weeks along with you we'll be talking as a couple about if we should put our money into saving for a kitchen, or put away more money for our future. 

Would You Tues: Favourite Daily Reads

To tie in with our Sparks and Recreation posts we do each Saturday, we thought we'd ask you what your favourite daily reads are. In the comments or on Facebook, let us know about an article or blog we should be in the loop on. The Sparks and Recreation posts are really fun or me so far, as I read blogs throughout the week if there's something especially useful I'll save the link and then on Saturday I put it all together (for example, this week I already have 2 links saved for Saturday). It makes browsing a bit more productive, and it's always good to share another bloggers work to help them out. They don't ask to be posted on our Saturday posts, we just like what they did and want to share it. Have you read anything interesting lately? Answer one or all of the below questions to join the conversation and help us to learn more about each other.

How many blogs do you read each day? 
I read about 5 daily, and if I have time there are a few more that I browse a couple times a week. 

What is your favourite blog? 
Hands down mine would be Young House Love. I'm an addict.

Which types of articles interest you? 
I like articles about home improvement, and have lately been more interested in some of the simple living articles. I'm certainly not as domesticated as a lot of those bloggers are, but since I don't work full time I feel like it might be a good idea to use some time each day to implement some of the greener and more frugal alternatives to some products. You've been seeing examples of these in the Sparks and Recreation posts lately.

Thanks again for reading, Happy Tuesday! 

Would You Tues: It's Back!

This Tuesday we welcome back our regular "Would You Tues?" feature, where we ask you probing, intellectual question (not really) and you answer it. 

This week, we're wondering: How have you made your current home as beautiful as it is? 

a) We had it built!

b) We bought a new home (built on spec)!

c) We bought an existing home and have primarily hired renovators since!

d) We bought an existing home and have primarily renovated it ourselves!

e) We bought an existing home and have learned to love it as it is!

f) We aren't homeowners yet, but someday we plan to (choose from above).

...and don't forget to tell us why you've chosen to go the direction you've taken!

Answer the question in the comments or on our Facebook page, we'd love to hear from you.

Most of you will know that we bought an existing home, and I'm not sure what the second half of the answer should be. We're fumbling our way through renovations, hiring out the tasks when we need to, learning some of it ourselves, and learning to love a lot of it as is until we can save up time and money to tackle them. 

So far we've ripped out our previous boiler system (ourselves), gutted our basement (ourselves), put in a new HVAC system and hot water tank (hired), new windows (hired), gutted our bathroom (ourselves), put in a new bathroom, learned to love the empty room at the end of the hall as is until warmer weather comes and we can deal with some of the insulation issues, redecorated our office and bedroom (ourselves with help), and a few other touches around our new to us house. Check out our Take the Tour page for before pictures, and we'll be adding progress photos one of these days when our house is clean (maybe when the bathroom is done?). 

It's all in the journey, and while it's taking us a lot longer than it would take someone handier, or someone who is more able to dedicate all of their time to the project, we're learning as we go and are sure our house will be beautiful when we're done with it in a few years. 

Today is about you though, tell us about your house adventures, whether they are buying a new house that is ready for paint and furniture, or have bought a huge project that is going to take years to complete. 

Our Favourite Holiday Treats

Yum, we love a food poll almost as much as we love holiday food. Philip is a huge dessert guy (although maybe not as much as his brother Jonathan - they'll have to have a head-to-head sometime), and I love the different foods we get to eat at this time of year, learning a new recipe to share with family and friends is always great.

My mouth is watering as I think about it all! Only one food was not so loved in this week's poll, and that was fruit cake. I can't defend it or side with you, I've never tried it, maybe this year I'll give it a go (but probably not).

I don't even know which food to choose as my favourite, I think I might have to go with egg nog. I haven't bought any yet this year, holding out until the week of Christmas just so we don't drink too much of it as it's certainly not the healthiest of beverages.

One of our favourite foods to craft at Christmas time, a tradition we started last year was making homemade Christmas flavoured ice creams in our ice cream maker. We thought they would make nice gifts for some of the acquaintances that you'd like to give a little something to.

They are worth the judgmental looks and inner shame that I feel every time buying whole milk and heavy cream in large quantities to make these tasty treats.

Mm homemade ice cream

Last year we made egg nog, gingerbread, peppermint, reindeer (chocolate with cherry noses in it), and Bethlehem Sky (blueberry with yellow stars). They were a bit hit, my favourite probably being egg nog. This year we're in charge of dessert at our Wiebe family gathering so we're planning to make 4 or 5 kinds again to share with our relatives.

We're thinking of making:

• Egg Nog again - it's a classic for this time of year
• Salted Caramel - we tried it at Thanksgiving and it might be my favourite homemade ice cream so far (besides rhubarb ice cream which I mentioned a while back). 
• Sugar Cookie - a twist on the traditional cookie dough
• Cranberry - found this recipe that sounds incredible
• Maple Walnut Ice Cream - one of my favourite flavours to get at an ice cream shop, found this recipe when looking for a photo to put in this post

We might also need some accompanying treats, maybe these chocolate hazelnut tarts (my in-laws go crazy for anything hazelnut), or some classic Christmas cookies.

What are you planning to cook up this Christmas? Anyone taking on way more than us and hosting their family gathering this year? Tomorrow I'll tell you about our Christmas tree set-up, so answer our Christmas tree related poll!

What We Want for Christmas

This past week, we asked what you wanted for Christmas. A majority actually wanted practical things, which is surprising, and certainly is not how Philip makes his Christmas list most of the time. I do like things of a more practical nature, but prefer if they're things I may not have bought myself or didn't want to spend the money on.

This Christmas, we're definitely hoping for some practical items as we've been dropping a lot of money lately and every little thing helps! Some tools for Philip would be great as we've been borrowing a lot of them from our parents, and any decor items are top on my list so we can keep accessorizing this place!

Now, on to our Christmas lists! 

Cassondra 3 Christmas Wishes

I have a lot of trouble making Christmas lists, my mom never bought us things off of them so putting things on a list was basically asking to not get those things. She always gets us amazing gifts, just thinks of them herself. So from there stems my aversion to Christmas list making. I did make a list this year, but I can't even think of how to rank them. 

1. Personalized Artwork

One of the projects I'm really excited about in this house is getting more personalized artwork up, I really want our house to be ours and show all the things we love. Philip is handy at computer artwork and things like that, so we'll probably end up making a lot of our own, but here are some artwork pieces that have really been inspiring me lately!

Jenna Sue Design will create a custom sketch of your house! 

This personalized love art totally floats my boat, from Silhouette Blue. 

2. Raclette

At Philip's parents house on New Years Day we always have Raclette. It's a great tradition and I love that kind of eating, where you sit around talking eating a bit at a time, sort of like fondue. I'm hoping to get my own someday soon so we can invite friends over and enjoy that tradition on more than the first day of the 2013. 

You melt cheese on the bottom and then put it over the grilled potatoes, meat, etc. 

3. Tickets to Something/Going Out Gifts

Since working on the house has taken up a lot of our extra cash, one of the gifts that I appreciate is restaurant gift cards, tickets to an event, etc. that Philip and I can enjoy without worrying about our wallets. We've definitely been low on date nights and so a night out is always a great treat.

 

Philip's 3 Christmas Wishes

In our relationship, Cassondra is definitely the Chief Listmaker. Her lists have lists. (“The 5 Lists in my Purse Right Now.” “The 8 Best Things About Lists.” “212 Ways I will get revenge on Philip for making fun of my love of lists on the blog.”) But at Christmastime, I take the lead.

In my family, my Christmas List is an annual event. I typically put an inordinate amount of time into them, cataloguing items by category, listing prices and places where you can purchase the items, and even theming the lists. (Most memorable was the Da Vinci Code-themed list from 2007.) I go beyond the typical list and research, catalogue, curate, and publish a veritable Christmas buying guide for me.

And then, this year, I scaled back. There are categories, but it’s all straightforward. There are no prices. No Amazon links. Just the basics. I grew up found a new passion, my very own castle to manage, repair, and upgrade.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t submit a list. Oh no. Can’t leave something as important as my Christmas gifts up to chance. So without further ado, these are the top 3 things I asked for, in countdown fashion:

3. Sunglasses

If you’ve ever met me in the summertime, you’ve seen my sunglasses. Winnipeg is one of the sunniest cities in Canada, and for whatever reason (perhaps the Lasik I had done a few years ago?) my eyes are particularly sensitive, so I wear my sunglasses almost incessantly; if they’re not over my eyes, they’re temporarily flipped atop my head like a real cool dude poser dork (hahahaha! Revenge #1 complete. –Cass)

Problem is, the lenses on my Oakley Fives 2.0 that I Love with a capital “L” are scratched like crazy, and that model has long been discontinued. It soon will be time to send them up to the great, ummm, underside-of-a-ball-cap-visor (?) in the sky. And so as a pre-emptive strike, I’m hoping for some new shades under the tree.

2. Blue Like Jazz: The RELEVANT Special Edition on DVD

Blue Like Jazz is probably my second-favourite non-fiction book of all time. (I may have a list for that too.) And I knew author Donald Miller and Steve Taylor were working on a movie of it thanks to Miller’s excellent follow up book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (which may also be in my non-fiction top ten).

But then, the funding didn’t come through. And the film was dead.

Except it wasn’t. Thanks to two enterprising fans and Kickstarter, the movie crowdsourced over a third of a million dollars, and I was one of the contributors to that effort who thus have their names among the credits as “Associate Producers.” (I have the t-shirt to prove it.)

Only problem is, Blue Like Jazz (The Movie) never opened in theatres in my city. And so I still haven’t been able to see the movie.

And to top it all off, my favourite magazine (RELEVANT) helped promote the movie, and as such has a special edition of the movie for sale in its store with exclusive features which may or may not have Donald Miller reading snippets of Christian romance novels aloud while wearing a snuggie.

And now that you know that Movies+Donald Miller+RELEVANT Magazine=my sweet spot, and it could only be theoretically topped if the movie starred my wife and/or the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, what could possibly be #1?

1. Tools

This one’s for you, folks. Well, technically it’s for me. But as this blog has become our way of sharing this renovation process with you, it’s also for you.

So far, most of the work that we’ve done has been done with the use of the graciously-lent-and-gratefully-borrowed tools our parents or friends own. And while that can work for a while, there comes a time for a man to step up and get his own power drill and drill bits, 7¼” circular saw, random orbital sander, electronic stud finder, staple gun, and more.

This is in direct violation of my one-time distaste for practical gifts. As recently as a year or two ago, I rejected the idea of getting such items as gifts. Practical gifts didn’t send me giggling with fits of glee because I was going to have to buy them myself anyway, so unwrapping them was just preventing me from having to go to the store myself.

In fact, I still see some of the logic in that. However, something has changed.

It’s called a mortgage. They’re called bills. They’re called “not having unlimited resources with which to buy everything you might purport to need.”

So now, I’m all on the practical gift train. Tools? Yes, please! Clothes? I’ll wear ‘em with a smile! A 4-litre jug of milk? Sure, why not, I’ll pour that on my cereal. Rolls of toilet paper? Okay, let’s not get ridiculous. But you get my drift. I’m hoping that, over the next few birthdays/Christmases, I can accumulate my own personal arsenal of tools and the skills to put them to use, making Grandpa Joe’s House into everything it can be.

Share your Christmas wishlist in the comments! We'd love to get some inspiration for the birthday lists we'll soon have to make (okay not that soon). 

This week we'll ask about your favourite holiday food, you know our mouths are watering already waiting for some of the delicacies we're going to feast on. 

Would You "Tues"?

As you know, the poll was extended after last Thursday's post. This is because I remembered a fun tradition my friend and I had, which was that every Tuesday we would ask each other a poll-type question and call it "Would you Tues" (pronounced to sound like choose - or in this case something like Tch-yooze). 

The results are in, and most of you are further than we are in holiday preparedness, but there are a few procrastinators out there.

Here's where we're at in our decking of the halls:

Tree: 
Last year we didn't have one, we'll see what happens this year! I'm a "real tree" person, but I do have a hand-me-down fake tree in the basement that we might use this year. As of right now every nook and cranny of our living room is filled with books/gift wrap/wall art/etc. that is meant for the two rooms that are being reno'd right now; as soon as those are gone I'm getting that tree up! Boxes of books everywhere doesn't exactly scream beautiful Christmas party decoration.

As for other decorations, they really add up so I've been trying to slowly accumulate them this year. Last year I got a few ornaments from relatives, this year I've made my pine cone craft, and I just purchased this cute light up white tree decoration from Ikea (I don't know the scientific name for it which is why it ended up with that long run-on name), hopefully I can keep building on that until I have a proper Christmas collection!

For this year, our tree will likely look something like the below, with a variety of homemade when we were in elementary school ornaments, and no general theme of any kind. Definitely homey and much like what I grew up with at home, although as soon as I moved out my mom was ready for a beautifully put-together tree with ornaments that all came in a set together. Stay tuned for a beautiful tree photo, hopefully it happens this week!

Probably still better than how our last-minute Christmas Tree will look.

Gifts:
We have 20 gifts to buy this year, and so far I am completely done 6 of them, with 2 others started and 12 with no progress whatsoever. Hopefully after we're done these bedrooms and have the bathroom underway I can focus on shopping. I do love Christmas shopping and thinking of things for each person, but 20 people is a doozy! Also no idea what to get for Philip this year (we greatly lowered our budgets since we've been buying a lot of new things lately) so if anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate them!

Events: 
This past weekend was our last weekend of freedom before we commence 2 parties a weekend for the entire month of December...ay caramba. I'm really looking forward to the festivities and all the parties will be fun - but it also means 4 weekends of not a lot of house productivity. The other main event planned for Christmas (we have to reevaluate this plan as some things may need to be ordered and not come on time) is completely gutting and renovating our bathroom. My parents have work off over Christmas and offered their labour over the week, so we're really pushing to be ready for them while we have the help. This coming weekend we start with my mom's side of the family and our church young adults group (this is the one we're hosting), followed next weekend by my friends and my dad's side of the family, followed by the real deal Christmas Eve and Christmas immediate family celebrations. In amongst that we'll also have our church services for Christmas Eve, which Philip is pretty involved in on the drama side so there are a lot of practices and things like that added into the mix. 

General Christmas Cheer Levels/Emotional Preparedness: 
Cassondra: As far as being stoked for Christmas, I'd say that my level of Christmas cheer is moderate. I'm really excited to put up decorations and for all of the events that we have planned, but that is being slightly crushed by the lists and pressure to finish these two bedrooms and get the bathroom planning into high gear. I'm just hoping that we can get this all under control to some extent by the end of this week so that we can focus on family time and relaxing a little bit over the Christmas break. Luckily Philip gets a week off at Christmas so that will be really nice, as long as it doesn't get totally taken away by bathroom gutting. 

Philip: Philip is busy caulking in the bedroom right now so I'm taking the liberty to write this for him after walking over there and asking how excited he is for Christmas. He is primarily in denial, as house stuff and church drama production things are sort of stressing him out. I asked him what he's most excited for though and - Cass family shout out - he said my family gathering on Saturday. That shows you how great my family is, that a gathering at the in-laws is the thing he's most excited for at Christmas time so far. We'll have to tell you a bit about our gatherings sometime, they are definitely unorthodox - and as a sneak preview you should know that this Saturday at our family gathering we are to come dressed in '80s workout attire (add going to Value Village for neon coloured spandex to the Christmas to-do list). 


In case you're one of the procrastinators out there, just remember, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear." Try it out sometime, I imagine it's effective. 

This week, tell us what you'd like to receive for Christmas! I have to admit so selfishly that I am looking forward to getting gifts more than ever this year. I know this sounds terrible...but it's just the truth. We've been so busy with house stuff and constantly on a budget that being able to bask in some free treats that I may not have been able to buy for myself sounds glorious. Next Tuesday when we wrap this poll up we'll share a few of the things on our Christmas lists too, Philip is a very in-depth Christmas list maker so it should be pretty easy for him. Make your votes people - and as a reminder, we've learned that iPads don't allow comments or poll votes, so get your computer out!

Poll Results 2 (Must think of a more clever title)

This past week we asked you to let us know what kind of blog reader you are. The results are in, and most of you love reading blogs, and some of you have your own (for those of you that do, share your link! We'd love to share our readers with you and add your blog to our own Google Reader). 

In the spirit of blog reading and sharing, we thought we'd each share our top three blogs to read with a little bit about why we like them. 

Philip's Picks

Since I’m sure Cass has covered the renovation/decor beat off pretty well (and, honestly, she’s the one who monitors the daily goings-on in that world for me), I’ll cover three of my favourite blogs from the non-renosphere.

Grandland's Hollywood Prospectus - Philip's top blog choice

1. Grantland’s Hollywood Prospectus and The Triangle blogs

These aren’t typical blogs as I like to think of them, because their authorship is so diverse and so similar to the more traditional journalistic endeavours of Grantland’s main oeuvre. But I’m a sports-and-pop culture-oholic, and this is where those passions intersect. Shane Ryan’s daily “About Last Night” piece is a daily must-read on The Triangle side; it’s like a brief version of The Daily Show or SNL Weekend Update; I get the top headlines along with a comedic take on said headlines. On the Hollywood Prospectus side, Dave Jacoby’s “Reality TV Fantasy League” infotains me by providing überanalysis of shows I don’t even watch (or would otherwise care about whatsoever).

2. Donald Miller’s Storyline blog

Donald Miller is my alltime favourite author. His blend of memoir narrative, his authentic take on the struggles and discoveries of faith, and his wry sense of humour hooked me a few years ago when I really needed it. It can be a bit dry sometimes; I worry sometimes that Miller’s losing the humour aspect of his voice. But as far as challenging content and understanding the nature of leading and living a great story, Miller can’t be beat. And if you’re looking for more humour with your daily dose of inspiration, check out this honourable mention for Jon Acuff’s blog (author of the also-good Stuff Christians Like blog).

3. All the others I read infrequently.

I don’t read that many blogs regularly in large part because of the house this site is dedicated to and, you know, the need for gainful employment. But I’ll send a quick shout-out to the following occupants of my Google Reader:

Battleship Pretension: Cinema podcast with infrequent articles

Bryan Allain: Author, blogging coach, and resident of Intercourse, Pennsylvania

Chad Gibbs: Author of “God and Football,” which would only be more perfect if the football it talked about would be Canadian and not college.

Cory Edwards: Hollywood director of the first “Hoodwinked” and a hilarious guy I found through the Steelehouse Podcast (R.I.P.).

Hyperbole and a Half: Allie Brosh doesn’t update this anymore , but the archive of her crudely-in-MS Paint life experiences is worth it alone.

Rachel Held Evans: Rachel Held Evans is the author of a couple books that make conservative Christians upset, and that’s a calling in itself.

Seth Godin: Because I’m in Marketing and this is required reading.

The Big Picture: Boston.com’s amazing curated galleries of large photographs from around the world.

The Oatmeal: Matthew Inman is the hilarious (albeit oft-crude) illustrator behind this comic and the book 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Face.

XKCD: I don’t always get it, but XKCD is an imaginative comic lampooning science, geek culture, and everyday life.

Cassondra's Picks

Young House Love - Cass' favourite blog by far.

1. Young House Love

I've talked about this blog in the past, and it's because it began my love for blogs, as well as really helping us to gain confidence in our DIYbilities. John & Sherry explain things really well and come up with really fun projects, plus Clara & Burger make my day. Their blog is definitely what inspired this blog and we only hope to one day be as cool as them (although our friend Brittany said one day we'll be as famous as Oprah & Tyra combined - not sure if we'd need the Tyra boost if we were as famous as Oprah...but we'll take it!) Through this blog I also learned about Katie Bower and her blog is also a great light read.

2. The Faux Martha
This is the most beautiful food blog I've come across. Wonderful recipes, but the presentation of them is what really gets me. The photography is outstanding and the way that she describes food is delicious. I've made a couple of things from her site already, including rhubarb ice cream and definitely recommend it! 

3. Ditto.
I'm in the same boat as Philip as far as picking a third blog, I read a lot of blogs but they are all equal in my heart! Here are some more blogs I love:
Making it Lovely
Cape 27 Blog
East Coast Creative
iHeart Organizing
Ugly Duckling House
7th House on the Left
Our Fifth House

We hope that you'll enjoy reading these blogs as much as we do! If you visit any of these blogs leave them a comment letting them know and maybe even tell them where you heard of them :). Philip has been a long time blog reader, and I am more new to the whole concept but was a quick learner. Definitely a blog addict now and talk about the bloggers as though they are my real friends...

On another note, Christmas is coming fast! With December beginning this week, we'll start chatting about Christmas a little bit more and the decor/renos we have in store for that time of year. You've already seen my pine cone craft which was a bit of an early Christmas decor project, and you have lots of that to look forward to. Answer our poll this week about how prepared you are for Christmas - I'm sure you're beating us.

A Monday Morning Lesson in Blogging

Good Monday morning to you all! Today we have a short post, followed by the introduction of a new feature (we'll make you wait with breathless anticipation for that, realizing you can at any time scroll down to find out what it is).

But first, on behalf of Cass and myself, as relative blogging newbies ourselves, allow us to share a quick tip for all those who aspire to write a blog themselves, something we learned this morning the hard way:

Save your posts in more than one place.

Sound basic enough? Well, it isn't always. Sites like Blogger/Blogspot seduce you into using their own word processing utilities by making them so darn simple and being not-always-that-awesome at importing formatting from other word processors like Word.
But then you may run into a scenario where, just maybe, you send the post you spent time refining over to your husband for some last-minute editing, and perhaps he makes an edit and--realizing that he doesn't want to make edits to the original--attempts to undo the edit he just made by using the Microsoft Word shortcut CTRL+Z. And, who knows, what if he mis-hits (I realized this word needed a hyphen when spellcheck suggested something rather rude) the Z and somehow delete all the text.
And, you never know, maybe he doesn't realize that Blogger has its own built in Undo button. And maybe he'll try and close the document before Blogger autosaves, not knowing Blogger autosaves anyway when you hit "Close". And then you get a panicky phone call from your aforementioned husband with the fateful words "It's gone."
Not that that happened to us this morning. Noooo. That would be something that would happen to less experienced computer users than us.
In totally unrelated news, today's planned introduction of Cass' delightful system of organizing our household chores and scheduling regular maintenance here at Grandpa Joe's House will have to wait for the afternoon. We promise it'll be good.

And now, the new feature you've been waiting for... POLLS.

We know that now that U.S. election season is over, everyone's wondering where they'll get their weekly dose of statistics that mean oh-so-much to your daily life, right?
Leave it to GJH to fill the void with--to the right of this post--a new polling gadget.
Actually, we've put it up because we love to hear from our readers in the comments and this will be a great way to get even more interaction with you guys.
This week we're asking what your personal decorating style is. (As you may know from our About Us page, I had a lot of no trouble answering this question.) 
Then, alongside my regular Friday post (for which Cass is still hoping you suggest a better name than TGIP),  Cass will do her best Nate Silver impression and break down the stats and discussing our own answer to the poll question, so we're hoping to get lots of responses from you before then! If the four options available don't dangle your chad (yes, we're stuck in 2000), feel free to add your own individual response to the comments!

On a side note, we've heard some people have had trouble with commenting, if you can tell me what the issue is I'd love to get that figured out because we really like to hear from you! (For instance, let us know what you're using to access our page--PC, Mac, iPad, etc.--and whether you were logged in using a Google account, other account, or posting anonymously.) Thanks everyone, and have a great start to your week!