I've Been in the Kitchen.

Since my last post I've pretty much been holed up in the kitchen--but not cooking. There's been very little of that happening lately. I've been painting. Trim, cupboards, baseboards, drawers, walls, doors. Painting, painting, painting. I'm finally done and, as is the case anytime I repaint something desperately in need of repainting, I'm shocked at how much difference just two cans of paint made in this room.

The kitchen was the last room of our house left that we hadn't repainted since moving in eight years ago. And when it was painted back then it was walls and trim only--no cupboards or drawers. I knew the white had dulled over the years but I didn't realize just how much until I painted a fresh coat of white on top and there was a four shade difference. I got lucky this time and only needed to do one coat of white to cover everything, yessss.

A word about our kitchen. It's small. That about sums it up. It has everything we need and we do our best to make it as functional as possible, but it's small. This means paint color and extra stuff matter a whole lot--so we changed both. The old color wasn't bad (buttery yellow) but if I looked at it for one more day I would have gone crazy. I was so tired of it. And there were issues with extra stuff that had taken over that needed to be addressed, so we purged quite a bit of excess. And found smarter ways to store smaller appliances to free up precious countertop real estate, and figured out a pantry solution. 

Our kitchen has this weird area in the back, by the mudroom, that we turned into a makeshift pantry with shelves. The shelves have pretty much been garbage since day 1 when they kept ripping holes into the plaster and bending. And they were ugly. So I made a curtain, hung it from a tension rod, and covered the mess and that's been that since 2006. When we tore out the hold shelves to patch the wall and repaint, the shelves went straight into the garbage and I went straight to Lowe's to find a better solution. Answer? A pantry that just so happened to be the perfect height (this never happens in a 100+ year old house. Never. Everything is some ridiculous custom measurement. ClosetMaid, I thank you many times over).

The trim/cabinet color is Delicate White by Olympic and the wall color is some variation of light gray (also by Olympic, don't remember the actual color name).

On to the next project...

~Stacy

Camping and Not Camping

This past weekend Chad and Charlotte went camping for the first time this season. They went to Punderson State Park (about an hour away from us) and loved it--they had perfect weather (though a little chilly) and, since they stayed over on a Sunday, there were hardly any other campers there.

Charlotte was SO excited to go. She skipped to the car with her backpack on yelling "buh bye, Mommy, I'm going camping!" She was a great sleeper in the tent--even sleeping through the middle of the night rustling near the campfire of raccoons having a midnight snack.

I stayed behind and did yard work, which was a remarkably less fun way to spend the time. But it was also a quiet and peaceful way to spend the time...which was nice. But after a long day of doing manual labor I treated myself to a hard earned sundae from Mitchell's Ice Cream, so there's that. 

The day began with two huge piles of dirt and mulch. With the help of my good friend Mike (who only required beer and food as payment, which is a pretty sweet deal) we laid new dirt where the groundhog tunnels had been collapsed, then covered everything with mulch. It was a lot of work and I am very, very glad it is done.

Before:

And after:

Now we can enjoy the upcoming Memorial Day weekend without involving any big yard projects. And it's supposed to be beautiful outside, so that makes it even better. Enjoy your week!

~Stacy

A Room to Grow

Hello! Did you have a nice long weekend? Ours was lovely, and even lovelier is the fact that tomorrow is already Wednesday :)

We finished Charlotte's room a few days ago and now it's definitely my favorite room in the house. I had my worries about painting the walls pink, but now that it's done I think it actually looks really great against the crisp white trim and ceiling. I like it much better than the yellow (I didn't mind the color but I was just tired of it and it had started looking really dingy).

Charlotte's feelings about her room are overwhelmingly positive. Sometimes when we've been downstairs or outside for awhile she'll stop and ask to "go see my room? I love my room!". And she regularly tells me that she's "so excited about my big girl bed!". So that's adorable. And it definitely makes the aggravation of painting the ceiling worth it.

Here are some "before" shots:

And some "during", which are never pretty. We pretty much just dumped everything from her room into the extra bedroom until it was finished, making for this lovely sight:

After the painting was complete, Chad built her new bed frame in her room. We bought her a twin bed frame with built in drawers underneath, which meant we didn't need to buy a box spring--yay! And those drawers hold a lot, which is a must in a small house with precious little closet space.

Thankfully he had some "help":

After a very long day of sanding, painting, cleaning, and building, we were hungry. Charlotte was gone most of the day so it was a race against the clock to finish everything up before she came home and needed to go to sleep. This is what happens when Chad orders dinner on a very empty stomach:

Let's not discuss how much of this we actually consumed in one sitting.

Once everything was done we moved the crib back into the room, along with the bed, just in case there was drama with the new bed and she needed to sleep in the crib awhile longer. Thankfully she loves her bed, so out the crib went after less than a week. 

So now I present the finished room:

I was going to make a new quilt, but realized this one I made last fall was kind of a perfect match. It's a double sided patchwork made of flannel (the line is Marmalade by Bonnie & Camille for Moda). It is super soft and a great size for a twin bed.

I made this bunting out of some of my most favorite fabric ever--The Simple Life by Tasha Noel for Riley Blake Designs.

The only other change I want to make is to switch the curtains out to white--I'd like to find some white eyelet and make them, with maybe a shade underneath to block out more light when she's sleeping. I'm planning on repurposing the pink striped curtains and making floor pillow covers. Someday, someday...

This room just makes me happy. It's bright, colorful and cheerful--just like the little girl who sleeps here. :)

~Stacy

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Thanksgiving weekend is when we usually decorate for Christmas. Chad has some time off, the weather has been decent, and I love having the house all lit up and Christmas-y. It started lightly snowing last night and is still doing it this morning. I'm hoping for a white Christmas this year, then the snow can make an early exit until next December :) Here's peek at what we worked on yesterday:

And thanks to the wonderful thing that is the Internet, my Christmas shopping is done. I can now turn my focus to finishing the handmade gifts that are not really at all close to being finished.

On an unrelated note, today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

~Stacy

Thanksgiving Table Decor

Thanksgiving is two weeks away! I mentioned in my last post that Chad and I are hosting this year, which I'm excited about. I've been working on my grocery list and thinking of ways to dress up my table. Normally our table is dressed up with fingerprints, crumbs, random pieces of mail and at least two or three sewing projects. Aside from cleaning it up, clearing it off, and polishing it to a beautiful shine I'm not sure what to do.

I like simple designs and preferably ones that use natural elements or things I already have. And a tablecloth is preferable, but not a must. Ideas for holiday table arrangements can be found everywhere, but the hard part is finding a design that A) I like and B) is doable (read: very inexpensive or free) and C) isn't atrocious. Some are waaaay overboard for my taste, with dozens of candles, vases, flowers, gourds and other stuff that looks cluttered and leaves hardly any space for food or elbows. And some go a bit overboard in the creativity department--for example: I saw an idea for a Christmas table that used an old wooden toboggan as a large buffet. Cute idea for say, a magazine photo spread, but not necessarily a practical choice for the average hostess.

Here are a few ideas I've found that might work:

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I love this one, but I'd have to get my hands on some sort of wooden box structure that is rustic looking and not too big. Definitely a contender:

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I'm ignoring the super ornate background decor in this photo and just focusing on the centerpiece. I have vases and I have a toddler who will happily collect sticks for me. This could be the winner :)

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This one looks more wintery than the others, but I really like the cream colored candles and pinecones:

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Simple and cute, but would require buying flowers:

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This one is very pretty and wouldn't take up much space--bonus!

Image source and also here

I'm still not sure what I'll end up doing, but it'll likely be a combination of some of these ideas. And let's face it, all anyone really cares about is the food and the pie. Pie is non-negotiable. Specifically, pumpkin pie.

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Mmmm.

~Stacy

Built In Shelves: Check.

And the moment that I've been waiting a long time for--showing you our finished built-ins! We spent a few long nights painting and finishing everything we possibly could and managed to finish a day ahead of schedule. I put the last book onto the shelf last night, sat back, and breathed a huge sigh of relief that our last home improvement project of 2012 has come to an end. A very satisfying end.

To recap, here's where we started:

Everything was up to us to finish this week since the actual building was completed last Sunday. We had to take all 10 shelves out and sand, prime and paint them on each side. The most time consuming part was waiting around for everything to dry before the shelves could be given a second coat and flipped over to start again on the other side. This also meant that our dining room was left in disarray for yet another week while shelves piled up everywhere.

Have you noticed how every room somehow ends up a mess when just one is out of commission? That's the case in our house at least. Only the dining room really had an excuse to be a disaster, yet the kitchen and living room ended up a mess as well...perhaps it was just a reflection of my state of mind the past week spilling over into every room :)

Once the shelves were painted and dry it was time to hang them. I attempted this myself and was so proud when it only took 30 minutes. Then I stepped back to admire my work and realized that the left side shelves were about 4 inches higher than the right all the way up. I mis-measured the bottom one, which was the base height that I used for every subsequent shelf. Fabulous.

Thankfully Chad came home shortly after and fixed them. I think he was afraid I'd use them for kindling if I had to be near them another second. He took them all out, remeasured, and put them back in so that they were even with right side. Charlotte was his spotter.

After everything was in the correct place it was time to just wait around for a day or two while the paint dried and set completely. To make life easier, I measured the length of the shelves then arranged piles of books to that length according to how they'd be placed on the shelf. That might sound crazy but it was really helpful when it came time to haul all those books downstairs. This way we were able to grab one big pile at a time and put them right on the shelves--no sorting, no rearranging, no extra shuffling and carrying heavy stacks of books twice.


And finally:

I love these huge baskets (from Target--they're Smith & Hawken). They have a a chalkboard sign on the front so you can label what's inside and they store a ton of stuff. I managed to fit my entire fabric stash into one! I was able to consolidate three small/medium sized cubes that I had sitting around into this one basket. Win. The other one is home to art/craft supplies, games & puzzles.

One of my favorite parts about these built-ins is the storage bench across the middle. The bench is long, about 76", and the middle section lifts up so the entire unit underneath can be used as storage. I fit my ironing board in there, along with table linens and some larger sewing supplies like pillow forms, interfacing (piles and piles...) and fiberfill.

I guess I lied when I said this was completely finished, because it technically is not. I have a large piece of 2" foam sitting upstairs and just ordered upholstery fabric to make a cushion for the bench. I've never made anything so large before, nor have I ever made a boxed and corded cushion. That should be interesting...

Once everything was in place, we cleaned. Every single room. It felt so good to dust and know that the next day wouldn't bring another layer of dirt and sawdust flying around, or paint spatters, or wood filler drops. It was so nice to finally find a home for all of this stuff that been accumulating in places it didn't belong. It'll also be nice to go to a work meeting without any drops of paint in my hair that I don't discover until I'm in my car on the way home from said meeting.

We love how these turned out--they are exactly what I envisioned and turned out better than I hoped. I feel like they complete the space and were meant to be there all along. I love looking into that room and seeing rows and rows of books. It's like living in my own little library. Yes.