The Kitchen

I wanted to finally share the kitchen with you! I'm so happy with how it turned out. Not that I hated our old colors but the new, white color scheme seems to flow so much better with the rest of the house. We still have some trim and finishing details to do. I need to decide on curtains, etc......but if you've been following my blog you know how completely impatient I am, and I couldn't wait any longer to show you!




To see photos of how the kitchen looked before, click HERE !

And here is the after:

I'm linking up for Met Monday. Go visit Susan's place for some great Before and Afters!

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

I'm also linking up to the Before and After party at Thrifty Decor Chick! Lots of other great projects to be seen over there.....

http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2010/01/before-and-after-party.html

The Ugly Truth

Having an almost 8 and 9 year old in the house, the real ugly truth for us is whether or not to believe in Santa. The other day my 9 year old asked me if the Tooth Fairy was real....she asked this in the middle of Sears Hardware. I just wanted some sandpaper! But there we were, in the middle of a store, having this important conversation.

She went on to tell me that a friend of hers at school asked HER mom about the Tooth Fairy and she not only told her the truth, she showed her all of her teeth. First off....gross. Do you save the teeth? We toss them here, it skeeves me out beyond belief. I have only one that was saved, my daughter's chipped tooth since it was "special." And don't even get me started on hair. I saved their first clippings but it wasn't my idea, trust me.

Okay, anyway....there I am in the middle of Sears between a rock and a hard place. If I say, "OF COURSE there is a Tooth Fairy" well then, I've called her friend's mom a liar! If I tell her the truth, I go home and cry over how big my babies have gotten. So I did what I thought was best and told her that yes, her friend was right.....we put the money under their pillow and take their tooth. This is the part where she gets very quiet. I can see her moving this around in her already very intelligent 9 year old brain.

Guess what comes next?? You betcha! The Santa/Easter Bunny conversation. It went something like this.....

Hailey: But the Easter Bunny and Santa are real? I think those have to be real!

Ella: Duh Hailey, of course they are real. Where would all that stuff come from?

(turns to me) You would NEVER lie to us, right Mommy??

Me: Of course not sweetie, Santa brings you all the presents! Santa is definitely real and if you don't believe, he won't bring you gifts!

And then there's the kicker....

Hailey: Yeah, Santa has to be real. It's not like Mommy and Daddy could give us all those presents, where would they get all that money?!?!

So I'm either a liar or I'm poor. *sigh* Thanks kids.

How old were your kids when they stopped believing? We want to keep the spirit alive for as long as we possibly can. And I told the girls that their younger brother is only 4 and we want him to believe in the Tooth Fairy so they have to keep this conversation hush hush.

I wonder if they will listen. I didn't. When I found out about Santa, I couldn't wait to ruin it for all my friends. Yup, I was that kid. I'm a lot nicer now I swear!

A Floor and a Fire

Wow, it has been a long time since I've posted. I've been neglecting my blog and I've been neglecting visiting YOU and I apologize. It's been a crazy few weeks here with working on the kitchen. It turned out to be a much bigger project than we had anticipated! The floor is done and the room is almost put back together. I want to put some finishing touches on it and then I'll show you the whole thing. There is a sneak peek at the bottom of this post along with a story about it. Wait, wait! Don't go to the bottom yet....I want to show you our bedroom trees first!!

This is the only Christmas decorating I have been able to do so far......

Hailey's tree, pink and sweet.....

Ella wanted a purple tree to go with her room. She has a very small space so we chose a mini tree for in here to go on her dresser...

Her room is on the list for some attention this coming year. Her mouldings will be painted, the carpet replaced....well, I'll save that for another time. Here's a close up of her tree with its crazy colors. She loves it!

And Emidio's green tree. Green is his favorite color ever. Everything is green recently. Too bad I can't get him to eat any green vegetables. The green obsession ends there.....

His tree is filled with puzzle ornaments. Very easy to do. I just used a needle to make a hole and put them on ornament hooks....

And last but not least, our gold and silver tree......

The tree "skirt" is brown toile fabric that I folded under and wrapped around the tree. No sewing, no fuss. And now if I want to use the fabric for something else in the future, I can.

Now onto the floor. The adhesive that was on the floor was so thick and stubborn it took 5 days of sanding to get it off. Then there was the green paint around the edges, most likely oil based, that was also extremely stubborn. Once all the sanding was completed, we were so excited to be able to put some stain on there.

My husband was almost done with the stain last Friday night when he realized there were some spots on the floor. Upon closer inspection we realized they were......paw prints! The dogs must have run through the kitchen with damp paws while it was bare wood. These stains were showing right through the stain. We were so upset. No....make that extremely upset. We realized the only way to get these marks out would be to re-sand the entire floor. If we sanded just the marks, the stain would then be uneven.

We went to bed that night feeling completely defeated. It had been two weeks without a stove, the house a complete disaster, no holiday fun going on.....

We swore there would never be a project done right before Christmas again....never again.

The next morning we got up and dressed right away to head out to Lowes for more sandpaper and more stain. As we drove away from our house, my husband whipped the car around and said, "Oh my God, the house is on fire." I thought I heard him wrong. A fire, what? Sure enough, a few homes down from us, smoke was pouring from the roof of a twin home. He pulled over, and ran to the side of the twin that wasn't on fire to tell the couple living there to get out. They had smelled the smoke but at that point had no idea it was coming from the home attached to them. I called 911 with a shaking voice and we heard the sirens in town right away. At this point my husband went to the side that was on fire and kicked the door open to yell inside. No one was home. Windows started to break near the fire....it was a devastating sight.

We watched in horror as neighbors lost their home and a crowd gathered to see the firefighters work.

The day was heavy on our hearts.....



We couldn't imagine losing our home, the precious things we hold dear....our photos, special items passed down from family. All the things that can't be replaced.

What if this had been our home?

(Photo Credit: Here )

After this experience we realized our problems were small. A few paw prints, oh well. We left them alone. We sealed right over them. A reminder of a day we won't forget, a reminder of how lucky we are to have our home and our family.

I think the floor is beautiful and I can't wait to show you the rest of it!

Have a safe and happy Sunday!

Are you ready?

There's no denying it, Christmas will be here soon.

I'm ready. Are you?

I'm ready for gingerbread houses, baking (errr...making messes) with my kids, the glow of the tree as we watch TV at night, sugar cookie candles, Christmas songs (I've updated my playlist), romps in the snow and happy times with family and friends.

I'm not ready for the gifts. Oh boy, am I not ready. I'm only about half done with shopping.

Did you go out on Black Friday? My dad was brave enough to come stand with me at 10:30 waiting for Toys R Us to open at Midnight. Good thing we had that great turkey dinner in our bellies, it was a long wait. I didn't get what I wanted (darn Zhu Zhu hamsters) but we did get some other things. And we got to spend a few hours alone....just us.

I don't get many times like that with my dad.

I'm hoping I can talk him into it again next year. It was fun...even though I didn't get to bed until 4 a.m. and my middle child was at the side of my bed at 7.

Christmas is coming soon. So, are you ready?

P.S. ~ The first two images were from Cottage Living (gosh I miss that magazine) and the others are from Country Living.

A Little Of This, A Little of That....

Hi everyone, it's been too long since my last post but we've been deep into the kitchen project. The powder room is also moving along but a bit slower. It's difficult to live without a kitchen so that has taken priority. It's about 3/4 done, I can't wait to show it to you all!


That said, I have a few things I wanted to share with you today....

You may have noticed the link in my sidebar for Bags Of Love. They are a wonderful company to work with, it's a great place to go for some special gifts. The canvas wall hanging of my daughter was a gift from them and I couldn't be happier with it. I just sent them my photo and they did the rest.

I'm still deciding where to hang it. She wants it in her room but I want to be able to see it all the time. We'll see who wins that one......

I also like to share my good Etsy experiences and Peppercorns 2 was no exception. I purchased the marquee letters you see on top of the mirror. The shipping was fast and I would certainly go back to the store again. Excellent service.

Now on to a project from Jamie at Something To Do . Look at this hutch they made from mostly scrap pieces! It's incredible and just goes to show what beautiful things can be created with a little bit of imagination and a few tools as well. You can go over to her blog for the before pictures and the story of this sweet hutch.

I'll keep you posted on the kitchen. So far the cabinets are painted, the walls are almost done and we'll be sanding the floor after Thanksgiving. I'm so excited to get to that part!

My one year blogging anniversary was this month. I can't believe an entire year has gone by, surprisingly (or not if you ask my family) I've had a lot to say. I want to thank you all for coming here and reading my ramblings. I'm so glad to have found the blogging community, one filled with creative and amazing people. I'm awed every day by the talented people here.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. May you have much to be thankful for, a belly full of warm food and people to share it with.

We've been busy...

I figured I would start off with a pretty picture because the rest are....well....not so pretty. In addition to the powder room, we're now working on the kitchen too. I asked my husband to finally take up the vinyl floor in the kitchen that has been driving me mad for two years now. Lucky for me he happily obliged.

We knew there was wood to be had underneath, we took a peek behind the basement door about a month ago. See it under the green paint?

Two layers of vinyl, a layer of plywood and a ton of staples, all of it had to go. My hand is blistered from taking up staples, ouch!

But after all that work, we sanded a small spot and look what is there! Beautiful yellow pine! Just like getting to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop, we found the prize.....

The black is all old adhesive that luckily comes off with a bit of sanding.

Soon the kitchen floor will match the dining room and it will all be beautiful. I can't wait! It will definitely have more "character" than the other floors in the house but that's okay. I'm just thrilled we found it all intact after being covered for so long.

So since the floor is being done, I decided why not do the whole kitchen?! As of today the cabinet doors are all off, sanding done and priming started. I'll be changing the look of the kitchen with a lot of elbow grease and paint. While I do that, hubby will continue working on the bathroom.

We're determined to have all this done by Christmas. Hopefully in enough time to do all my regular holiday decorating. I'm not sure what I was thinking starting a project like this so close to the holidays but I'm excited....blisters and all. Still excited.

Please forgive me if I don't get around to visit you for a bit, doing two rooms at once is taking time away from blogging right now. I need to hurry up and finish so I don't come down with blogger withdrawal!

Did I mention I was having Thanksgiving here? Yikes!

Sebastian Photo Shoot

I wanted to put a picture of this guy on my sidebar and realized I didn't have a good photo on my computer. What a perfect excuse for a photo shoot. This is our Sebastian.....

He's a 5 year old Sheltie, isn't he pretty?

We've had him since he was only 12 weeks old and so small.

Sebastian has some anxiety issues....

Which means his face often looks like this...

But as long as he has a cozy corner to sleep in....

And his kids to give him hugs.....

He is perfectly content.