What's cookin'?

Day One:Katybug showed up today to start painting my kitchen cabinets. This project was started quite some time ago and only now have I felt well enough to finish what I started. It helps that Mom volunteered to help me paint.
My porch is now covered in drawers and cabinet fronts all primed and ready for paint. We took off hardware and emptied drawers and stacked things precariously.

This is where it all began and before I started painting.. two years ago. We remodeled the kitchen cabinets and installed granite countertops when we purchased our home and before moving in. Our ceilings are ten feet high on the main level, and after taking down some decorative beams, I was able to reconfigure the existing cabinets into a new formation and stack them to the ceiling and add crown molding.
Currently: I painted all the upper cabinets antique white and installed lighting inside. This picture below is after moving the cabinets, but before painting and tile work. We also installed plate racks to fill in the gaps that moving the cabinets created.
After painting them, they looked very nice. I loved the transformation, but at about this time I started to have trouble with my foot and thought I might leave the lower cabinets unpainted.
The time has finally come, though, to paint the lower cabinets. Today was the day!
Right now it looks like chaos run amuck. And again it is a sandwich night. Looking at these pictures does allow me to see that we have progressed, even if at a painfully slow pace. Funny, husband did not know when he left for work that I was going to tear the living heck out of the joint and slap some primer around. His response? "Oh, good, another project". End of discussion.

Day Two: I have painted the first coat of off white base paint and it already looks so much better. The fact is that I have been living in denial so long, I didn't know how awful this kitchen looked until I started to paint it! I am guessing I will work through the weekend before I have the project completed. More updates with the finished results.

Make Over!

We have lived in our present home for four years, I would estimate. And I have purchased, traded or otherwise maneuvered into this small kitchen dining area about six different dining sets. We have a pantry that I also keep moving, depending on which dining set is in use at the time. There are about four other tables strung through the house that I have banned from the kitchen as useless.Finally, I think I might be on to something here. My mom bought this outdoor patio sectional last year and it was originally a plain tan colored indoor/outdoor fabric. There is one more chair piece and two ottomans as well. But I had been contemplating building a bench seat in this area and remembered that Mom wanted to sell this set. Using a leftover foam piece from another reupholstery job, I replaced the multiple cushions (3) with one single one and recovered all the back pillows all in the same wonderful black and white Waverly fabric from JoAnn's. The two dining chairs came with the table I am using as a desk in the living room, and I covered two of them with a beautiful black and white toile and two with a cream and black pillow ticking. So, I have lots more seating and have used the otherwise dead corner of our kitchen.
In all the chaos of pillows being moved, cushions being swapped and traded, Tipsy tried to find a spot to watch. I love when she tucks her nose in like this. She just looks like she can't stand to watch for one more second!
She says hi to Mom and Dad, or Cindy and Bruce. Have a safe trip home.

Pretty Fabulous!

A few weeks ago I ordered something awesome from Lotta's Etsy shop. I love reading her blog, check her out if you haven't already.. Mom-o-Matic.blogspot.com. I check in anytime I am on the web and have never left her site without laughing out loud, and sometimes spending some dough.
I ordered two of these darling charms. I told her I was giving a charm as a gift and that I didn't need the necklace, just the charm.. so she sent me the fantastic ring to make the price fair and then gift wrapped all my items! I love the packaging, all the details. What a fun way to shop! I know it's hard work, but I so appreciate it!


And, unrelated, but still exciting to me.. I found this fun retro malt mixer at (guess) the Goodwill when I was shopping with my mom quite a while ago. She fell in love with it and bought it and has since decided she has no room for it in her kitchen. So, it has come to live in my kitchen for a while. I love looking at it. I have yet to make a milk shake, but have promised my kids to have all the ingredients for some awesome recipes!

$1.50 pastel set

Months ago I was rummaging at one of my favorite thrift stores and found an oil pastel set that was water soluble. I had never used pastels or chalks, but have seen some wonderful art done with them. Since I do enjoy water color painting and acrylic painting, I thought this might be up my alley.
I had watercolor paper already and sketched a few things that I like to paint and gave the oil pastels a try. I loved how fast I could complete a "painting" because I didn't have to keep mixing different shades of the same color to get variation. You just apply water to blend and you remove color to obtain your shading. Awesome!
So, then I wanted more colors and went to Hobby Lobby where I had seen an inexpensive pastel set.. but it wasn't water soluble. So this piece looks less polished to me. I am still experimenting, but think the water soluble product is the way to go.
I had no more than finished these three experiments when my friend Lori, who is a talented faux painting artist called and asked me if I was interested in a small job. This picture of the airplane mural is NOT my work or Lori's.. it is in the home of one of Lori's clients and was painted in a child's room when Lori's client purchased the home. There are also two banners that had the previous child's name personalized on them. I was asked to remove the old name and replace with the name of the boy who's room this is now.
My part in this room was very small. Just the name change here on this sign and on another banner that I can't show as it has the child's full name. But I wanted to show this great mural that I spent the past two days oogling and which I helped give a new life to. I looked, but could not find a place where the artist signed or dated their work (it might have been behind the bed?) If you are doing work like this, you should sign it somewhere! Funny how long it had been since I had painted, and all of a sudden, I was doing a lot of it. I forgot how much I enjoy it.

Goodie Bag

I love this lavender floral print! This used to be a size 2 women's skirt.. the fabric drew me to it at a thrift store quite some time ago. The style (and the size) didn't work for me, but I couldn't walk away. So I bought it and it has hung in my sewing room closet waiting for me to become inspired enough to do something with it. One day last week it came up in conversation with a fellow crafter/sewer that she had been thinking of making a purse from a skirt. That was all the inspiration I needed. I have so many because they are an excellet source of fabric for a sewing project. I have an entire closet full of clothing that is waiting to be turned into a pillow, a bag, a crazy quilt. I just can't part with certain pretties, even if they are impractical - a use will be found, I know it.
Over the past three weeks I have been moving my daughter's room from our basement back to her old room (my most recent craft location) and relocating all my sewing and crafting supplies down two flights of stairs. I have lost count of how many times I have traded spots with a child, but just feel grateful at this point that I still have a spot to call my own. So, to celebrate the relocation efforts and to finally call my new room my own, I spent all afternoon sewing this sweet little purse. Prior to my celebratory sewing, I did sort and put away the towering pile of folded laundry that had lingered too long in the basket. I also sorted my closet and came up with a huge pile of rejected clothing to add to the donation pile I've been driving around in my car. The back of my Jeep look as if I might be living out of it, and many days I have considered it, but I can't plug in the sewing machine.

I love junk, I love to look at junk!

I have been making a lot of photo collages and slide shows because I love to look at my junk! I can't decide what photo to use, so I use as many as possible. I repeat some of the photos now and then, I realize, but that is because they are my favorites, like a comfortable pair of jeans. I usually feel inspired to play with my digital photos after I have rifled through a dozen or so magazines.. I can't help but want to create something pretty to look at with my own images. It is dawning on me that I need more images to choose from now!

When you can't part with it..

I'm a sucker for a clearance aisle. Last year after school started, Target had one of my favorite things on sale, composition notebooks for $0.12 each. COME ON! You know I stocked up.
And then, there they sat in a pile for the longest time. I was blogging, not journaling and if I was going to journal, one knows it wouldn't be in a plain composition notebook. Don't be ridiculous!
So this weekend I had the absolute joy of digging out all my magazine clippings and stash of left-over scrap supplies and made some pretty journals. Once I laid out the covers, I applied DIY laminating sheets, so they look smooth and glossy. Inside the covers I also put pretty scraps and fun sayings. I keep a little zip bag full of things I can't part with (torn from magazines and the like) and when I start to journal in my pretty book, I use some double sided tape to add color and pictures and words to my writing. I love recycling in this way. It makes me happy!

Have a fun and safe holiday!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Things of Comfort

I love this cow creamer. It belongs to my mother and sits on her what-not shelf (one of many).
This is a collage piece with pictures of Mom's grand kids, their hand prints and keepsakes. I gave it to her for Christmas a few years ago.
This stash of children's books has been on Mom's bookshelves since I was 5 or 6. I remember loving how small they were, how clever, how perfectly they fit inside a box that kept the collection together. The stories were silly, but the illustrations were memorable.
I love how sentimental my mother is. I never thought much about it growing up, but now I see how many things she has held onto over the years that hold such strong memories and meaning to her. She was never one to take photos or make photo albums or even consider scrapbooking, but she kept track of special times and noted special memories in her own way. Sometimes I want some comfort, and then walking by a shelf or opening a drawer, something kept with love suddenly jumps out at me and practically gives me a hug.. much more so than a photo album ever could.