Our Piece of Split House: May 2014

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Memorial Week(end)

Thank God for one more day off, I tell ya. This past weekend was jam packed with house projects, family time, down time, and dog time. Still have no clue where three solid days off went, but judging by the length of this blog post, I think I have a pretty good idea...

We kicked off our weekend after celebrating Gretzky's big 0-2 birthday! TWO!!!! We can't believe it either. He can officially be welcomed into doggy adulthood. We are very excited to see what being two brings for our favorite champ.

On Friday, Shane managed to get the day off. Lucky shit. I am going to take the fact that he, without a doubt, deserved that day off out of the equation and be jealous of it anyway. On Friday afternoon I had to head to the Post Bulletin to get a photo taken for the "Your Style" section. I am actually pretty elated about this opportunity. I know I am a fashion risk-taker, because I don't put too much thought into what I am wearing. I really just put on what I feel like, and try to own the outfit to the best of my ability. Fashion is just another opportunity to set yourself apart from the rest. Tune into the Post Bulletin!

...Meanwhile back on Harvest Court, Shane decided to step into a mole hill in Essex park and sprained his ankle pretty bad. At this point we have both become experts on putting on an Ace bandage with a cold pack. Even with a sprain, Shane wouldn't let that hold him back, and accomplished 15,000 steps on his FitBit in one day. Damn son!

**If you are on the fence about buying a FitBit, I'll just say how much we love ours, and you should probably just get one. We are always graciously accepting FitBit friend requests.

As I was saying before in recent blogs, we are really focusing on the outside of our home this summer. That, and our master bedroom downstairs. Last fall I sold our black wire patio table. I am sure I could have refurbished it, but the look wasn't very inviting. Last week we snagged a great deal on patio furniture. Turns out it was from Ikea. The thing I love most about Ikea furniture is there is absolutely no end in sight with all of the creative bits you can come up with. I took a special trip up there to check out some patio cushions... lucky for me they were SOLD OUT. I wasn't going to walk away with nothing, dammit, so I picked up two of these Applaro Folding Chairs to add to our set. With the folding chairs, the Applaro bench, two recliners, and the Gateleg folding table, we now have six places to sit on our deck. SIX places! I don't know about you, but I get a bit of a thrill realizing that I have places for people to sit at our house. You know you're a grown up when...

So here is the rundown, or at least the start of, our patio furniture overhaul--

Painting the Door Red

The weather this past weekend was something we all really needed, because damn, people were grumpy. Could you believe I was one of them? Yeah, I can too. By noon last Friday I was spittin' cuss words like it was my job, yo.

Thanks for finally visiting our great state, sunshine. It was about fricken time.

So, I bet you have been dying, DYING to see what the outside of our house looks like if you have been following our lovely splitty blog. Without further adieu, I give you Our Piece of Split House--

Sexy sunshine rays.

Art Exhibit (Always Ever, Never After)

Throughout my lifetime I have had the privilege of trying on, and wearing, multiple hats. I do have an issue of filtering through my "hats." If I get sick of wearing one for too long, I toss it aside. That being said, there is one "hat" that I refuse to take off. I've been wearing it since I can remember, and even when I can't. Okay, enough with the hat reference already. Art has been the center of my existence throughout my life so far. I have never been unsure about it, never been angry with it, I have always trusted in it, and found ways to express my emotions when I otherwise couldn't.

When I was approached by a dear friend a couple of months ago who works as a curator at the Rochester Art Center to see if I would be interested in closing out the RAC2 exhibit for the year, I was thrilled to say the least! Now, I have never been one for bragging rights, I actually keep my artwork on the more private side, but this opportunity has launched me into a different dimension. Instead of being worried about what people think about my personal innovation, I decided to not fricken care anymore. Why hide something you are that passionate about because you're afraid of a few negative comments? Lame. Plus, the amount of inconceivable support I receive(d) only makes me that much more determined.

So here it is: An explosion of my personal artwork and because I have to-- I do custom orders, and all original and printed artwork will be available for purchase on June 14th, 2014. I hope you enjoy browsing as much I enjoyed creating.

Press Release: Rochester Art Center

The Local Experiment is an uncensored media outlet that looks to bring artists, businesses, and the community together, one episode at a time. It allows individuals and companies who are passionate about what they do to have a voice, and an impressive video to go along with it. Please click the link to view Jennalee Grassle Whiting-- Always Ever, Never After- RAC2 Exhibit (The Local Experiment Episode 30).

The Local Experiment Posse, starting from right: Tyler Aug- The ever talented film and media wizard; Chelsee Jean- The ever beautiful hostess with the mostess; Issac Hunt- Guest Host, best laugh; and Jennalee (me)- The artist.

Bright Lights

We're back in the saddle again!

Before we majorly neglected our blog, I mentioned that there was this crazy-awesome opportunity that came up. I was approached to showcase my personal artwork in my very own exhibit at the Rochester Art Center! Needless to say, life was put on hold as I attempted to create around 30 bodies of artwork in about two months. My heart rate was certainly not normal for a month there. When people say "panic mode," I more or less thought it was a figure of speech. Nope.

Anyway, if you feel like checking out the exhibit, like I said it is at the Rochester Art Center (here) through June 8th. There are some rather incredible exhibits going on at this time so I highly suggest you culture yourself, if art is something that is important to you, and see it.

Culture Me

A couple of weeks ago I went to Las Vegas for a dear friends bachelorette party. It was divinely tame, but a once in a lifetime experience at that. Needless to say, after being in a city filled with pretty twinkle lights and then coming home to a house that clearly needed some updated lights, we knew it was time for a little DIY action.

The first light I am going to talk about it our new ceiling fan. Ceiling fan? Say what? Aren't people trying to get away from ceiling fans you ask? Probably. However, common sense trumps all design. Living in a split level home, the airflow in the upstairs is close to nonexistent, so as much as I would love a pretty chandelier, it just ain't gonna happen. It would be easy to come up with 20 different reasons why the ceiling fan had to go, but the main reason is the fan had an uncanny ability to drive people insane. We weren't aware of our ceiling fans talent until my mom and dad came to stay with us. My momma, bless her heart, said that she would lay awake at night, eyes wide open, singing along with the tap dancing fan. Du dun du dun du dun. Misery.

So here we go! Out with the old:

Dust = Neglect. Whatevs.

Complete with track lighting!

In with the new:

We ended up getting the Ashton ceiling fan from Menards. They were having a sale on it, plus our precious rebate coupons = under $100.00 bucks, including tax. Hell yeah! This new little gem is modern enough for Shane, and unique enough for me. Plus it is supposed to save on energy costs. We will see...

The process was relatively easy. Then again, I was the one taking the pictures while the hubs did the dirty work. We discovered that this room did not have a ground wire, which kinda freaked us out. For future ceiling fan/light installers, it is okay to not have a ground wire.

So long dirty garbage fan.

When it was time to actually put the fan up, there were a few very important instructions left out of the steps. This particular fan comes with a remote control to adjust it's settings. When placing the remote box in the ceiling fan, it was supposed to go a certain way. If we knew this, we would have saved 20 minutes trying to figure out why the cap wasn't flush with the ceiling, and don't even get me on the wires. Why are there so many wires? Can't you just feel the frustration in Shane's face? Being the wife it was my duty to leave the room so Shane could cuss up a storm. He succeeded. The fan was indeed a piece of shit at the time.