Wednesday, February 29, 2012

How they turned out!


This morning I made cinnamon buns for breakfast. It was a little bit of an adventure today. I usually prep everything the night before. So that usually includes setting the table, cutting up fruit or premixing anything that can be premixed. However last night I ended up being really busy getting some contest details worked out for Ben. He is throwing a big contest for his team for the next 2 months, so I was helping out a little bit with that. And after I had done that I felt alot more like sleeping then I did setting a table, so I went to bed. However this morning I regretted that decision as soon as I woke up. I didn't give myself enough time to prepare anything so I was really rushed, the table was not set on time, and it just wasn't as relaxing as it usually is. That was lesson number one for me today. Always prep the night before!



I have made cinnamon buns many times before so I wasn't too worried, they generally take me about 1/2 hour to make; in total. However this morningI tried to cook them in a 9 X 13 pan, and make them really nice and thick. They looked great, but they didn't cook 100%. They were still way too sticky the first time that I tried to take them out of the pan, so I ended up having to cook them longer, and we had a 2 course breakfast this morning. We served yogurt and granola first thing with some fruit, and while we ate that our cinnamon buns cooked.


Once the cinnamon buns were cooked they were delicious!!! Next time I just have to remember to cook them a little longer. It's a good thing that I am testing these things out now!


Monday, February 27, 2012

Open House - Sunday March 4 from 12-2pm

This upcoming Sunday we are going to be having an open house to show off the bed and breakfast. It will be from 12-2pm. We will be giving a tour of the bed and breakfast, and there will be some yummy breakfast foods to sample.

If you would like to join us please let me know by March 1, 2012. Hope to see you there!
613-608-0565
lstenfert@gmail.com

Wednesday February 29 - Cinnamon Buns

If you are free Wednesday morning at 8am you are welcome to come on over for some Cinnamon buns! They will be served with some yogurt, fruit and granola. Please let me know if you are coming by Tuesday night. 613-608-0565 or lstenfert@gmail.com

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

So close to being done....and some other random thoughts

Almost done.....here's a little preview






The Bed and breakfast addition is nearly complete! We just have the finishing touches left to do. Which always end up taking a lot longer than I think,,, Things like the last coat of paint on the trim and doors, sanding, the stairwell needs to be complete, last minute paint touch ups and decorating! Today I had a moment where I couldn't believe that I was actually doing this, my thought was oh man now I will actually have to have the house cleaned up during the day! I am not sure how I am going to manage that fully with the boys at home. It's clean one minute and then the next it's like a tornado came through the house...somehow it will work out. Oh and this week our dishwasher decided that it would be a good time to break down. I have been cleaning the dishes by hand, and my hatred for dishes has returned with a vengeance. Growing up we never had a dishwasher, and we would all try and hide really quickly after supper so we wouldn't have to do the dishes, or we all suddenly would have to go pee and not come out of the washroom for a really long time in hopes of the dishes being complete when we came out,, it rarely worked! Anyways I am hoping that our dishwasher can be a quick and easy fix.


We have just over a week before we are going to be having an open house for the bed and breakfast. I thought that it would be a good idea to invite neighbours and close friends out to our place for a tour of the addition and a tasting of some breakfast goodies. I have the invitations made up and will be sending those out this week. That means there is an actual deadline on the b and b! We need to have everything set up and done by March 4! It can be done!


A few weeks ago we went to church and Andy Stanley was preaching, via video, and his message was about praying for big things in your life and expecting that God will answer them. This sermon really hit both Ben and I. Putting the addition on our house and getting the bed and breakfast started has been a challenge. But it's always been one that I have taken on knowing that God is in it with me and he is going to bless our efforts. I was not entirely sure what this all meant, but after hearing Andy's message I started praying big that the B and B would be abundant for Ben and I. This means for me both financially and on a more emotional level. I am praying that the income will replace Ben's old electrician's salary and pay off the debt we took on in building it. I am praying that it will allow us to meet some really great people. I am praying that I will learn more about people and how to be compassionate and loving towards anyone who happens to walk through our doors. I am praying that my family and I will be able to bless people who walk through our doors in whatever way God sees fit, and that we will also be blessed by those who come into our home. I am learning more and more about God and his love for us and am realizing more and more that God will provide us with these things that we ask him for. All of our hard work in building the addition and setting up this small business will totally be worth it because God is at the helm. He will see to it that our prayers are answered, and through his grace I now truly believe that. Anyways I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I really wanted to share with everyone what has been going on and some of our thoughts behind our craziness!!


Here are some pictures of one of the rooms. There is now a bed in it and you can see the window seat. It is all coming together. Ben and I stayed in this room over the weekend and it was great. The fireplace is so relaxing and the view from the bed is of the huge tree in our backyard; it was really peaceful and restful for us. I truly hope that anyone who stays with us will leave with that same sense of rest and peace. Enjoy the pictures!


The cozy fireplace. This room has so far been named Laurie's room on our website.. it's not very creative I know, any suggestions????




This corner is the window seat, where there will be a table and people can have breakfast served in their rooms.


Wednesday, February 15, 2012

PICTURES

It has been a really long time since I have added any pictures of the B and B! So I took some this morning. The B and B is really messy right now because there are a lot of things in it, like mattresses and vanities, but the construction is still going on. Bear with me, I promise it will look awesome when the construction is complete. The addition is coming along really well. It's looking like all of the major things will be done by the end of the week. That means the trim is done, the doors are up, the tiling is done in the bathroom, the Murphy bed is made and the stairs and the entrance into our house will be complete. The electrical has come a long way as well. There are a couple of fixtures up, and some pot lights in. And it's all starting to look really good. Everyday I go up into the addition and there is something new completed! Clayton our 2 year old loves to go and look at the B and B as well. He will come over to Ben or myself, grab our hands and say "Look??" with this really cute look on his face. Here's the stairway entrance from our living room into the additon.



Here's some pictures first and then some stories about how the addition has been going. This is one of the doors. I splurged a little on this, but it looks just a little different than the regular old white 6 panel doors.



This is the bathroom tiling in the larger bathroom. There is going to be glass blocks in the square where the plywood is currently.








The doors are on the closet!







These next 2 pictures are the second bathroom. The colors didn't quite work out on the pictures, in real life it's a little bit darker. But it gives you a good idea of what it's going to look like.







A beautiful ceiling fan, door and fireplace!




I think I took this picture to show off the hardwood floors as best as I could. But they are mostly covered right now to protect them.





The beginnings of the murphy bed.




In the last couple of weeks I have gotten a bunch of other things done for the B and B as well. I got business cards made. It was a lot of fun getting those in the mail. I ordered them online, so I wasn't exactly sure how they would look, but they are fantastic. I put some in my wallet and am really excited to start handing them out to anyone and everyone! We are also planning on having an open house for our neighbours at the beginning of March, so I had postcards made up as invitations. These also came in the mail this week and look great! I will start handing those out next week.



Let's see, what else has been happening. I ordered all of the bedding that we need. I am really hoping to see that this week! I bought a lot of it from ebay, new of course. But since I have been home with the boys, I have started to love, love , LOVE shopping online. Both of the kids generally sleep for at least an hour at the same time in the afternoon so that's when I am able to get some of these things done! Clayton used to love shopping with me. He would sleep in his car seat and he would be good to go for a couple of hours, however now that he can walk, and talk he hates having to be in a stroller in stores for any length of time... I guess I can't blame him.



I vowed that I would never get a Costco membership. There were a variety of reasons for this. I don't have space to store large quantities of anything. We only have a fridge freezer for food, so I would have been able to any buy one package of meat from Costco and my fridge would have been full. I get overwhelmed every time that I go into Costco because it's just so big and I have no idea where anything is, and everything looks like such a good price that I want to buy it all and the couple of times that I have gone, I spend way too much money! It's always, and I mean always busy there. I went in on a Tuesday afternoon to get the membership and it was a zoo! And you have to buy a membership to go, and you can't use master card or visa,,, so ya I just didn't think it was worth it. However this past week I got a membership. The main reason for this was because they partner with a company called Elavon that does credit card processing. And through Costco you can get some really good rates and discounts. As I was needing a way to process people's money for the B and B I thought that I would give in, and get a membership. I haven't yet ventured to actually shop for anything,,,someday...But as for the B and B I will soon be able to accept credit cards!!



There are going to be window seats in each of the bedrooms, so we had to get custom window cushions made. It's going to look good, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Thankfully Sharon Gehrels is awesome and knows her way around Fabricland. I am not a sewer nor do I know anything about sewing, so it was quite the experience going into Fabricland trying to buy everything that I needed for the cushions. Sharon had given me the list, and so I thought I would be fine.. and it was pretty good. I got the foam, the fabric, some zippers, and then I had to call to Sharon and ask her where the cording that she had told me about was. She had mentioned that it was only 25 cents a metre, but I could only find stuff that was $2.50 a metre. I looked around the store a good 3 times, before I gave up and had to call Sharon. Anyways I called her and she literally directed me through the store and was able to get me to find the cording that she needed!! It was pretty funny. Yesterday I got to see one of the cushions,, and they look fabulous! I can't wait to put them into the benches!! You can't really see it, but this picture shows the corner that the window seat will be going into, and you can also see the beautiful ceiling fan that Ben has installed.




That's what I have been up to. This week my plan is to get a menu made and a pamphlet made up for the B and B. And then next week I get to start moving in furniture!!

Egg Strata - Second time around!



Since my first egg strata didn't really work out I decided to try a second, different recipe. This time I asked my mother in law for a recipe because the one that she makes is really, really good. And it turned out great!! Thanks Mom! This recipe has all sorts of yummy things in it. There was sausage, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, eggs, milk and some bread. Oh and of course some cheese. You basically layer all of the ingredients into a 9X13 pan, then you let it sit in the refrigerator overnight, and then cook it for an hour in the morning. It worked out wonderfully. And then I also served some fruit and yogurt on the side. This morning Cooper had a doctor's appointment so we had to be out of the house by 9am. It was really great having something that I could just throw into the oven and cook. It gave me time to have a shower (something that doesn't always happen with 2 kids and a B and B) and get ready for the day!

We did have some vistors this morning as well. It was an entertaining breakfast. Steve, one of our friends since grade school came over and was our conversationalist for the morning! I asked him if he wanted to come over every morning to entertain our B and B guests! He is just very easy going, funny, and there is never a dull moment with him! It was a good time. Thanks Steve!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Wednesday February 15 7:30am - Egg and Sausage Casserole

This week I am going to try an egg and sausage bake. The last egg casserole that I tried didn't work out quite the way that I wanted so this is round 2! It's a recipe from my mother in law, she has baked it and it's excellent when she makes it! Hopefully it will taste the same when I cook it!!

Again I am inviting anyone who is interested in testing my recipes to come on out on Wednesday morning. I will be serving the meal at around 7:30. Let me know by Tuesday night if you would like to join us!

lstenfert@gmail.com
613-608-0565

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Delicious Pancakes and great company!!



This morning I cooked up some tangy and fluffy pancakes. And if I do say so myself they were absolutely fantastic! I made them from scratch, with a little bit of ricotta cheese and a lot of eggs! the eggs for the fluffy and the ricotta cheese for the tangy. I also made sure that I had some real maple syrup, and then I topped the pancakes with fruit and voila, delicious!


My Aunt Grace, Uncle Hub and my Dad came over for breakfast, and it was a really great time. The sun was shining, the conversation was easy and interesting,, if anyone wants to learn about kite boarding my uncle Hub is just starting to learn it! How cool is that,, he is over 50,, and he is learning to kite board!! It was an absolute pleasure cooking and having guests over this morning.


The B and B is planned to open March 1, and mornings like this get me really excited to have the B and B open and having more people coming over. It's really neat talking to people and hearing their stories. You learn so much! Again if anyone is interested in staying in the bed and breakfast you can book online at www.bbcanada.com/greentruck. You can always call me or e-mail me as well. greentruckbandb@gmail.com, or 613-608-0565

Monday, February 6, 2012

Wednesday February 8 - Pancakes, Sausages and Real Maple syrup

I am making pancakes, from scratch on Wednesday morning. They will be ready for 8 am. We would love it if you would like to join us! Oh, and there will be real maple syrup!
Please RSVP by Tuesday night!!
lstenfert@gmail.com or 613-608-0565