We're seeing...stripes!

Who knew yesterday when we woke up, we'd have stripes painted on the wall in our bedroom by the end of the day?!?

Because hubby had to work a bit on Saturday, I really didn't intend for it to be a "work day" at home.

We did some shopping with the kiddos. Had some lunch. I managed to get him to pull into Lowes so I could get a new paint brush for some furniture I'm painting. Pretty sure he was wondering why I was carrying the empty can of BM Manchester Tan. Or..maybe he wasn't? Pretty sure he was on to me from the start of my "accent wall" googling earlier in the day.

I'd been toying with wallpaper..or maybe a nice stencil pattern on the wall where the bed is?

None of which I could get much of a reaction from him. And knowing he's been a long time hater of stripes, I wasn't sure this would be accepted any better.

After showing him some great inspiration pics, I knew we were in business. Only poor hubby thought the business wouldn't start till maybe NEXT weekend :)

Young House Love

The Lettered Cottage



After I sweetly convinced him "it won't take that long. It's just a few stripes" HA! We proceeded to the paint counter.
I asked them to mix me up a quart of our Manchester Tan, and cut it down to about 60% strength (if that makes any sense. We wanted it lighter, but not so light it was white)

After a few hours of taping off, and my sweet husband handling all the painting himself

We have stripes! And I couldn't love it any more! It came out EXACTLY as I hoped it would!
Thank you, honey... for all your hard work!!!

Now on to finishing painting the bedroom furniture. Getting my lamps, and other accessories moving along. And this room will be done!!

Painted and added a couple night stands and lamps in there

2010 Christmas mantel...working with what I have!

Every year I say I'm going to do all white candles on the mantel. Maybe throw in some silver and glass. But one things leads to another and I end up with just the sad garland. I really didn't want to spend the money this year on extra Christmas decor, so I just used what I had. Took the apothecary jars off the sofa table. Left the shells in, just to mix it up a bit. Took the balls from a tragic Christmas ball wreath I made last season. Dug out some mason jars, votives, and no..I didn't have Epsom salt laying around. So, a quick trip to the store was needed.
I don't feel completely "done" with it. But, I know I'll never get around to doing anything else. So, it'll have to do.

Gettin' our decorating on!

And now that I've finally worked out some of the glitches on this blog, I'm going to once AGAIN..try to get back here and update more often.
Wanted to start it off with a few pics of our holiday decorating.

 This was Kyle's year to do the angel.

 Wish I knew what the little guy was laughing about.

 Taking a break for some popcorn and juice (and a little football on the tube)

 Yes, I know I have a few here in short sleeves, and one completely sleeveless. It's bitter cold outside, but the inside is pretty toasty.

Our pretty little tree in all it's glory.

mini make over...DONE!

Ok, not really. But...we're burned out!!! Yes, we have some touch up painting to do where the old molding was. Yes, we have under cabinet lighting to install, and a light rail molding to put up. New dish washer to purchase and install. And a couple other little custom touches I wanted to do.

All in all, we're pleased. How I'd love to change out the floor and get all new stainless steel appliances. But, who are we kidding? We don't want to invest THAT much into this little, cookie cutter kitchen. Just to be rid of the horrid honey oak makes me happy!

and a pic of the beadboard dh added behind the bar

Small break down in what changes we've made
New counter tops about 1.5 yrs ago.
David put in subway tile backsplash last yr.
Had the four doors over dishwasher routed out, and added glass (my fav in the whole kitchen)
Beefed up the molding (oh wait, maybe that's my favorite? lol) We were inspired by Layla and Kevin's kitchen over at The Lettered Cottage. http://www.theletteredcottage.net/ Kevin gave a great tutorial, and we just had to try it!
Threw some beadboard behind bar, and on the ends of cab.
New knobs and drawer pulls.
Oh, and paint!! We did the cabinet frames ourselves, but hired out the doors and drawers. We opted for Ben Moore White Dove on top, and Ben Moore Baby Fawn on the bottom. Can you tell the difference? Yea, me either!  In person you can. It's warmer. Goes well with counter, and the floor. But, not the look I was REALLY after. I think we'll go ahead and re shoot those doors a darker color in the near future. For now..have I mentioned..we're done!!?

My baby started school !

Well, the day I'd been dreading forEVER finally came on Wednesday. Sending my 5 yr old off to school. I remember last yr, when I walked my 1st grader in, and left sobbing. Not because he was going back to school. But, because I couldn't get the picture out of my head that it was going to be Asher in a year.
Man, was I a MESS!!! When I opened doors in the morning to yell "good morning" and get everyone up, a huge lump hit my throat and I couldn't say a word. Just started to cry..right there, first thing in the morning!
We made it through getting dressed, breakfast, and outside for pictures before my next breakdown. Cried driving there, cried walking to the building, cried every time someone would make eye contact with me. Although most my friends knew enough to look away and not say a WORD!
We were rushed to get him to class after walking Micah down to his class. Which was for the best. That way, I didn't hang around..sobbing. I walked him in, kissed him goodbye, snapped a pic and ducked out. Shoulder shaking, snorting, UGLY cry all the way to the car.
Got home, grabbed his pillow and teddy bear and watched cartoons on the couch most of the morning. Crying, of course.
Day two wasn't as bad, but I was still a slight mess.
Friday I pulled it together not to cry at ALL when I dropped him off. In fact, I think the only tears I shed that day were at Wal-mart when I saw a mother yelling at her 4 yr old. I kept thinking, man..I wish that was me. Just ONE more year at home with my little buddy. I'm going to miss shopping with him. Naps, lunch at the coffee table, picnics, playdates, special days at Chuck E Cheese and Fun City.
Sigh!

I made a little video tribute...the sap that I am.

Tomorrow is a whole week, where last week was only 3 days. Hope it goes well for us BOTH.

kitchen update!

Ok, this is totally the forgotten blog. That's what happens when you take off for a WONDERFUL Ca vacation, and all your computer time is spent on Face Book.

I'll get some vacation pics posted soon. For now, here's some quick pics of the new paint job the kitchen got this weekend. I'll miss the red. But, I think it lightens the space. Makes the cabinets MUCH more tolerable (still not a fan of builder honey oak..blech) I may be able to get another...oh, 2 months out of the kitchen before I'm demanding more changes. Sooner or later, those cabinets WILL be painted :) I was also starting to feel the red was kind of dated. Not a single kitchen picture I've clipped in the last year has red walls. So, I think like always..my taste is changing.
Still trying to figure out tops of cabs. If we paint, we'll beef up the molding so I won't have to feel compelled to put dust collectors up there.

half way there!

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted an update on my husband's WONDERFUL handy work.
Ah, perhaps it's because it took him forEVER a day to get it done. Seriously, those with OCD and are completely anal..should not attempt such a job.
I joked with others that he not only back buttered every piece. He toasted it, slapped on some jelly and scrambled an egg to go with it!!
I ended up doing the grouting on day FIVE. Yes, I said day five. He started late on Friday. Worked about 12 hours on Sat, I kid you not. I thought we'd be done on Saturday, and moved on to something else. Nope. Didn't happen. Sunday, after church he went right back at it. By 10:30 that night, he'd finally made it to the stove. Sigh. The end in site?? Not so much.
My mother and I went shopping Monday and left him in the middle of the stove. Came home 5 hours later. Found him...in the middle of the stove, LOL. It was painful to watch, it really was. It was like the pink elephant in the room. I'd walk in the kitchen, try not to say anything. If I dared to say something was off, or didn't look right. A whole section would come down and he'd obsess even MORE. We went four whole days barely speaking. Which is odd for us, because we usually have such a good time together. Late Monday night, I finally got a big sigh of relief and a huge smile.."I'm done!". Bless his heart. He says tile is now his least favorite home improvement. For years, plumbing has been at the top of his list. I don't think I could get him to do this again for ANYTHING. He really, really didn't like it.
As I mentioned, I grouted. And I will say..that kind of sucked a bit. My shoulders were hurtin for a few days. MUCH more physical then putting a few little tiles on a wall :)
Together we caulked it on Thursday night.

I'm happy with is. I think he did an AWESOME job for never doing anything like this before. It really lightens up the kitchen, which I love. And we were both so burned out we thought we'd end here. Not paint the walls and cabinets. But, who are we kidding? We're goin' all the way, baby :)

We also got some new hardware for the cabinets (thanks mom. my bday present :) )
We started with ORB, put after a wk of living with it. Just didn't do it for us.
So, we switched to chrome. I liked it more when it was just one knob I was looking at. The whole kitchen in them..eh. It's ok. I'll love it more when the cabs are painted.



david hard at work



here's a close up when we had the orb knobs up


and chrome

I'll slap on a before to remind everyone how HORRID my kitchen was before the new counters and back splash. All that crap above the cabinets. What was I thinking???? It looks like what it is...my mother's old stuff, lol.
This is why we wanted to raise the cabinets. To eliminate the "need" to have anything up there. We've moved on to another idea...beefing up the molding. So, we'll see in the future how that pans out. Or..how long it takes :)

We'll move on to painting the walls next. I've grown to hate the red :( It especially doesn't work with the oak cabinets. I don't think it ever did, but I love it in the eat in area with all the white moulding and the window. And once we paint the cabinets, it really won't work. So, out it goes!