Less around the kitchen

With a kitchen counter remodel you have to remove all your counter top stuff.  I recommend you do this  just for fun about once a year to purge.  Because, I did not put back half the things I removed during the remodel.  I'm recycling tons of stuff to GW and Craigslist.

And also, now when I reach for things at Homegoods, Marshalls or Target, I stop and ask myself why? It works and new stuff doesn't hardly ever come home with me now.

Here are a few of the changes I made.

Mardi Gras crowns in a glass house and some of my favorite creamers.

The coffee area changed to another corner of the kitchen.  Still in love with my Annie Sloan, Old White cabinets.

And yes, a wooden cheese box makes a nice wine/napkin holder.

A select group of cookbooks got to stay stacked by the window.

Old family crocks are now holding my stash of wine corks.  You never know when you might need one or one hundred of those, right?

And yes, the outdoor chairs, being used indoors are so comfortable.  Maybe someday they will make it outside.  My Tuesday Morning clearance pillows are perfect on them too.

Nothing new, I just house shopped.  Yay me!  

Pittsburg, Not Pennsylvania

We attended a wedding in Mount Pleasant, Texas and had extra time on Saturday to wander around the area and we came across this!  After I stopped laughing (sorry anyone from Pittsburg) I made Lynn pull over for a Kodak photo op.  

Lynn said "I think someone is sitting under the huge head pavilion?"  

Do you know who it is?  A man, his bible and his CHICKEN.

Hint... notice the Pilgrim hat.

His employees had this commissioned for him.  Beau Pilgrim the founder of Pilgrim's Pride chicken.

We also checked out the quaint downtown, we pretty much had the area to ourselves on a Saturday. 

The rehearsal dinner was at a beautiful winery in the same area, two miles down a country road.
Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards, great day trip for any Dallas folks. 

The dinner was in the barrel room.

The wedding was the next day in the town of Mount Pleasant.

Mother/son dance... always a super sweet moment.  How she danced in those heels, I'll never know.  

and then there is the man and his chicken.... helped make for an interesting weekend away from Dallas.

My favorite things

My kitchen remodel has been finished for a couple weeks now.  I have some favorite things to share.

One is the relection in the absolute black counter top island.  It changes throughout the day.

I loved this lamp shade when I saw it at Tuesday Morning.  Black outside with animal  print inside.  It looks great at night and I keep it on during the day and get a relection on the counter.  Check out the plantation shutter reflection below.  

Can you guess what this push button below does?  This was the one thing that I thought Lynn would make me return.  He thought it was totally dumb.  But, he loves it know too.  It turns the sink disposal on and off.  Air pressure is the secret. I first tried it at my daughter's house and liked hers so much, I put it right on the list for our sink area re-do.  Does anybody else have one? Don't you love it? Do you still reach for the wall switch?

The GIANT sink!  Who would not love this full size, huge pot scrubbin', baby bath tub washin' sink?!

and last but not least the granite!

What is not to love?!  You see the beach dreaming sign on the counter?  When you save so much by doing the cabinets yourself and taking the time to get three yes, three estimates on granite, you get to splurge and take the family to the beach this summer!  

Easy to care for, extra counter space added, updated look of Colonial Cream.  Sigh.....

See the kitchen remodel post here.

Shared with:

Linda at Coastal Charm

The Scoop at Cedar Hill Ranch
My Romantic Home

Loving the "new to me" kitchen

New counter tops, led to new painted cabinets, led to new paint on the wall, led to new eat-in area.  Makes me very happy!

The original counters were 1990 ceramic tile and GROUT!  Gross grout!  

We had them replaced with Colonial cream granite.  You can see the granite search story here.

I wanted light and bright colored granite.  This one is perfect.  And of course cost a bit more, because it seems everyone now wants light colored granite.  Lucky us!

The cookbook area became the morning coffee area.  Much less groggy, half awake walking to find the creamer and a shorter distance to the sink to fill the coffee pot with water.  Yep, we are old fashioned that way, no single use coffee maker for us.  

We also extended the island and counter above the sink.  Increased our counter space tremendously.  I can now get a stool under the island on one side.  

I know you are checking out the absolute black island slab.  That was one of my last stands.  The granite guys wanted all colonial cream, I wanted the black island to kind of anchor the whole kitchen together.  With lots of stainless steel and black it really pops.  And is a nice calming effect as you look around the kitchen.  I found lots of examples on Pinterest, so I knew it would work. 

I use a lot of black in decorating. Black shutters, black mantel, pretty much a touch of black in every room.  Black shutter project you can see here.  

We thought we might have to replace the tumbled marble backsplash, but it blended perfectly.  

A much needed new cook top that is super easy to clean.  (except when I take a picture and leave crumbs all over it)  Even with crumbs it looks so much better than the old one below.

Hubby let me totally choose everything.  He is great like that.  I went from a 50/50 sink to a full deep large one.  Love it and it just perfect for twin grand-daughter's to fit in for bath time.  

I painted the cabinets with Annie Sloan "old white" paint and a light coat of varnish.  They are so much brighter now, I reused the black knobs.  It took two cans of paint and one container of her varnish.  

I sold the oval black kitchen table and purchased new chairs and I already had the zinc table.  Empty nesters only need two seats.  And when we have the entire family over we really do use the dining room.

The "new to me" kitchen is everything we hoped for and more.  Up next, my favorite things.

Stuff

faucet - Kohler

cook top - IKEA

lamp shade - Tuesday morning

chairs - Homegoods

zinc table - Pier One

small chandy - Ballard Designs

vintage stool - Round Top

Sharing with:

Kim at Savvy Southern Style
Debbiedo's Sun Linky Party

8 months and three weeks of pure joy

I can't believe it has been eight months since Hadley and Layton were born.

And little Raylyn almost three weeks now.

She has my little toe!

Lala gets the easy, inexpensive bumper pad

I made the bedding for all three of my grand-daughters.  But, never got around to having one for the crib at my house.  

We were going to have the twin grand-daughter's over last weekend and I decided it was time for a bumper since they are rolling around now.

Here is Layton and Hadley's bedding that I made.

...and here is Raylyn's bedding.

You can see more on their bedding here and here.

And here is my super fast and frugal bumper pad.  Now, I don't use mine every day.  I would iron some bonding material to stiffen the inside of this if you plan to use it everyday.  

I purchased a set of four, and used three Carter's flannel receiving blankets. Walmart $7.99. 

They were folded and already the perfect size. 

I just cut off the one extra strip.

Experimented with a sample version of the finished product design.

Sewed one huge tube, turned inside out and ironed.

I attached tightly on one corner with grograin ribbons.

The seams where the fabric connected is behind a dowel.  

Much better than the sheet version I was using.  

My cost $7.99 for three blankets, I had the ribbon.  Took about one hour to complete.

Hadley, Layton and Raylyn's bedding cost hundreds and hours of work.  

Layton tried it out overnight and at nap time. She says "thanks, Lala.  It was so soft and pretty." 

She also loved gardening with Poppa.