Curb Appeal at Little Brother’s House

How was your weekend?  Ours was good. If waking up sore on Monday is good.  I’m not sure if I’m more sore from physical labor or sleeping with a bed hogging dog.  Something about dogs don’t sleep at the end of the bed. That’s for animals.

We headed North to help my little brother do some work on his house. (We had previously helped him here and here.)

Baby brother wanted some help with the exterior of his house.  Something about dudes don’t like purple houses.  Or flood lights as exterior lights.  Or decks that look sad.  Or houses that lack landscaping.  Please note Ike in the window above. He quite enjoyed his time at his uncle’s house. How could he not?  Uncle bought him a new toy and bandana.  Spoiled much?

Brother had previously put down some black mulch and installed black shutters.  Otherwise the exterior of the house hadn’t been touched in a long while.

Brother cleaned the front deck.  My mom, brother and I scraped and painted the purple trim.  I’m pretty sure the previous owner used interior paint.  Awesome. Tasks to add to my “I hate this” list: scraping paint and painting decks.

Nate installed landscape edging.  It also decided to actually be Summer in Iowa this weekend as well.  We missed the 90+ degrees with 7000% humidity.  That’s not a typo.  That’s how humid it gets in Iowa in Summer.  You think I’m joking. 

Brother bought some bushes and more mulch.  Magically the house looked like a grown-up lived there.

I told him that I bet the neighbors thought someone new bought the house.  And then he sucker punched me.  I threatened to never come back.  And then he bought me Perkins.  My work here is done.

How was your weekend? Any curb appeal projects?  Who thinks my brother has the best sister and brother-in-law ever?  Don’t worry.  We remind him often.

How to Create a GIF in Google+

Happy Friday!  I’m currently in the middle of a four day week-end. I swear I do work.  Sometimes.  The rest of the time I waste time on the internet and read books.  And people wonder why I don’t have kids.

Last week I posted a GIF of Ike as part of a post for Method’s Cute Pet Contest.  (There’s still time to enter.  Read more about it here!)  I got a lot of comments about the fancy GIF.  You all think I’m a computer whiz. 

It’s a front.  I really don’t know how I’ve survived being a blogger with my lack of computer skills.  Wait, The Google helps me.  (Thanks, Google.)

I’m going to share with you all my lazy GIF secret.  Any of you can do this.  It involves Awesome and Google+.  See, Google now has this system called “Awesome”.  (How awesome is that?)  If you take at least 5 photos within 10 seconds and then upload them to Google+, “Awesome” will automatically turn it into a GIF for you.  You only have to take the photos.  Bam. GIF.  AWESOME!

For the photos above, Nate shot in continuous mode with the DSLR.  For the photo below, I just snapped a bunch of photos.  Either way will work.  The continuous mode is obviously a little more fluid.  But I also like the animated effect on the one below.

That’s it.  Super simple.

Feel free to follow me on Google+.  I’ve been using it for the past few months and I really like it.  Like want to kick bookface to the curb like it.  A lot.  bookface doesn’t have an Awesome system.  And they like to only show my posts to a certain percentage of readers.  Lame.  Google+ for the win.  #teamgoogle

Are you using Google+?  Did you know about Awesome and GIFs?  Who is going to create their very own GIF right now?  Or maybe this weekend?

DIY Beer Tasting Flight Carrier

This post is for the dudes. And the beer drinking chicks.  Which doesn’t include me.  Unless it’s in the form of a straw-ber-ita. I’m that girl.  I wish I was cool enough to be one of those beer drinking girls. But beer is gross.  And I’m obnoxious enough without alcohol.

Last week, Nate was all like “Hey Girl.  I’m going to make this beer tasting thing.  Wanna blog about it?”  I’d make a dorky Ryan Gosling-esque picture but he may divorce me.  Or not build me stuff.  Equally bad.

Nate likes beer.  Different varieties of beer.  It takes him at least 10 minutes in the freezing cold Target beer aisle to make his selection.  After about two minutes I threaten to head to the clothes department if he doesn’t hurry up. Grocery trips with us are fun.  Don’t even get me started on the trips to Hy-Vee Wine and Spirits when my brother comes to town.  At least TJMaxx is next door.

Back to the beer.

We like to host beer tastings on occasion.  Everyone brings a six pack to share. I drink Sangria that I don’t share.  (I am one heck of a host.)  We usually serve some kind of easy to prepare food like tacos or burgers.  It’s a super easy party to throw because the entertainment is discussing the many varieties of beer everyone brought.  Bam.  Party hosted.

Nate thought it would be fun to make fancy beer flights. 

Because beer tastings totally need to be fancy. This would make a great gift for the dudes in your life!

Here is Nate’s tutorial. He’s a man of many words.

Materials

• 1 x 4 - Need about 18" (I had a scrap piece laying around from other projects.)
• 2 1/8" drill bit
• 5 oz beer glasses (we bought ours from the dollar spot at Target) that are 2" at the bottom and flare out at the top
• wood glue
• clamps

Cut List

• 1 - 13.5"
• 2 - 2"

On the 13.5" board, put marks in the middle of the board at 2.25", 5.25", 8.25" and 11.25

Using the marks, drill the holes using the 2 1/8" drill bit

Glue the 2" pieces to the outside bottom of the long board.  Clamp overnight.

Sand smooth. Make sure to sand out the excess glue if you are staining as the stain will not absorb into the glue.

Stain and poly or paint.

Drink beer.

Have you hosted a beer tasting?  Or do you prefer to consume your calories in cupcake form?