Believe it or not -

There is painting in progress around here!

It's looking like my striped bathroom 

won't get done before the baby comes, 

but who would've guessed we'd get after the master bedroom

and get that thing painted? 

Not me!

I'm pleasantly surprised. 

Ever since we built this place and went with 

orange peel ceilings instead of popcorn ceilings,

I knew I wanted to paint the ceiling in a room or two.

 No better place to start than in the master bedroom.

 So while I was at work today,

Adam started taping -

 and painting the ceiling.

For paint, we went with

Behr Premium Plus Ultra in Indulgent Mocha.

It went on quickly and smoothly - 

  and covered in only one coat.

 So here's the finished ceiling.

Adam plans to tackle the walls in a different color tomorrow, 

but I decided to hit the back of this little inlet 

with the same color as the ceiling.

I've got big plans for this area I designed myself

between the door to our room on the left

and the bathroom door on the right.

 The model home didn't have this little bump in area,

 but instead it had a flush wall straight across with a door into the 

closet opening about where the TV is sitting.

I thought it looked ridiculous having that door 

and the door to the bathroom right 

next to each other on the same wall. 

So I asked them to do this instead 

and we access our walk-in closet through the bathroom.

I'll tell you more about my plan for this little space later,

but for now let's see it painted!

  Adam taped the trim and took off the outlet covers, 

before painting around the edges with a small brush.

Then he rolled on the same color as the ceiling,

and now it looks like this -

 And here's a view where the painted ceiling 

and the painted wall meet up.

I'm so excited to get the main color on the walls tomorrow!

Stay tuned.

Ravioli

After making Gnocchi,
we took advantage of Mary Kay's knowledge
and started in on ravioli lessons.

First we browned meat and onions for the filling.

Then some garlic went in -

Followed by spinach and basil -

While things were still warm, we stirred in some cheese 

and after things cooled down, some eggs.

Then we set it aside and started working on the noodles.

In went eggs -

 

Water,

Salt,

And flour.

 Once the batter was ready,

I took a turn kneading in some flour.

And then both me,

and the dough took a little rest.

Before long, the noodle-making lessons got underway.

 

Woody gave it a shot -

 But Ann became the noodle-making queen,

under Mary Kay's watchful eye.

 

After we got one good noodle made, we laid it out -

 and put a spoonful of filling on the end.

Then we used a little water to seal the edges

and folded the noodle over.

All that was left to do was cut the stuffed ravioli noodle out,

with this cool little tool.

Then we repeated the process, 

lining up spoonfuls of filling -

and folding the noodle over,

 to make these sweet little packages.

Once Ann mastered making these wider noodles,

 We doubled our production 

and lined up two rows of filling on one noodle,

before placing another noodle on top.

Then all that was left to do was push the air out of each ravioli,

 and seal and slice them up.

Then repeat,

repeat, 

repeat,

 repeat,

and repeat some more.

 

Eventually even Adam came by to lend a hand -

 Believe me -

 If he can do it - you can do it.

When you're all done, boil the ravioli -

 dump them in a bowl,

 and cover them with sauce.

 As you can see from this photo -

 we also made these skinny noodles and hung them to dry.

But I'm not going to blog that process because they were simply

made with the same egg pasta recipe below,

but just a different attachment on the Kitchenaid mixer.

Oh what a feast!

All of that homemade pasta was delicious

and so worth all of the time and effort!

Basic Egg Pasta
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp water
3 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Place all ingredients in a mixer bowl. Beat on low for 30 seconds. Attach a dough hook and need for approximately 2 minutes. Remove dough from bowl and knead by hand for approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Let it rest for 20 minutes under a moist cloth. 

Ravioli Filling
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic
Salt & Pepper
1 tsp. basil
1 box frozen spinach, squeezed dry
1 1/2 c. Mozzarella  cheese
1/2 c. Romano cheese
2 eggs


Brown the meat, onion and garlic. Add in salt, pepper & basil. Squeeze dry and add in frozen spinach. While still warm, stir in both cheeses. Allow to cool before adding eggs. Stuff into ravioli noodles. To cook, boil for 12 to 15 minutes.

We made 1 and a half batches of the basic egg pasta and 1 batch of the filling and still had filling left over, so you can half the filling recipe above and just make 1 batch of basic egg pasta if you want things to even out and not be so much work.

Belly Update - By Popular Demand

Here's the latest:

I was up with lower back pain

in the middle of the night on Tuesday,

and by Wednesday I was carrying the baby noticeably lower.

I'm feeling like there's a lot to get done

before this baby comes.

After all, we've only got -

But I couldn't be more excited to meet our new daughter or son!

Primed 2 Paint

I was pretty excited 

to get this shade up in our room the other day.

 But it didn't last long, 

as this is what the master bedroom looks like today -

 

Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with the shade.

We've just had some people in this week working on our trim,

so we had to move some things and take the shade down.

Since our room is already a disaster,

 

 And everything is already away from the walls -

It seems like a great time to paint!

Here are some of the colors we've been looking at.