This is my kitchen...

This is my kitchen.

I know, it's kinda 1990's. 

Ok, it's a lot 1990's.

The Hubs and I have lived in this house for almost 17 years, and while we've purchased stainless steel appliances, the only other things we have done in the kitchen was to remove a wallpaper boarder, slap on a fresh coat of paint, and install ceramic tile floors.  However, my major home improvement goal this year is to bring this kitchen into this decade.

For months I have scoured the HGTV web site, DIY blogs, home improvement magazines and Pinterest for inspiration.  I have decided on the cabinet color, and pretty much the material I want for the counter tops.  The Hubs and I have discussed moving the sink so that it will be more accessible to the dishwasher and changing the island to incorporate bar stools.  There are a couple of other ideas I have bouncing around in my head, but I don't want to spoil all the surprises.  Did I mention that I'm on a pretty tight budget?  Yeah, well aren't we all?

I had my cousin, who's an electrician/plumber, come over on Saturday to discuss some of my ideas and look at the wiring and pipes.  He gave me a thumbs up on the work I want done and an estimate on the cost.  Okay! One step forward!  I had also lined up my brother-in-law, a cabinet maker/finish carpenter, to come over on Monday for his input/estimate, but alas the stars did not align.  We've rescheduled for Saturday.  Hopefully no other issues will arise and I will have more to post next week.

If you have updated your kitchen recently, I'd love to hear about your choices for materials and if you are happy with the results.

Flea Market Flip

I found two of these great chairs at my local flea market last year around Thanksgiving.  I thought with a wee bit of TLC they would be sweet little gems to flip and sell in my antiques booth.














You can tell they were kinda used and abused in their former life.

After I removed the seat and back, I sanded the body with some 80 grit sandpaper.  The original metal had a coat of silver paint and it was flaking and grungy.  I had a spray can of oil rubbed bronze paint that I bought last summer to update some hardware in my bathroom, and that's what I used to give these bad boys a little update.  And I thought oil rubbed bronze was a better match for the fabric I chose.

Don't you just love the pop of green 
and the bold print in this material?!

I'm also a sucker for anything paisley.  I used this same material to update the cushions on my dining room chairs last year.  Believe it or not, I actually bought this material at Wal-Mart.  I added some new batting to cushion the seat and back.  And I used oil rubbed bronze tacks to attach the back flap which covers up all the ugly guts of my reupholstering.

I think they have a kind of modern vibe and yet they still look kind of classic.  The best of both worlds!

















And don't you think they would make a perfect pairing with the little Duncan Phyfe coffee table that I up-cycled a couple of weeks ago?

Do you have a flea market flip that you're especially proud of ?

Comfort Food

I made chicken and dumplins the other night.

 Is there any more comforting comfort food than chicken and dumplins? 

 I think not.

 And I'm a southern girl, so no Yankee drop dumplings for me.  My grandmother, Tommie, taught me how to make dumplins, and in her book all dumplin dough had to be rolled out,

and cut in strips

 and cooked one layer at a time.

While I would like to say that being a good southern cook is a talent that every woman in my family is born with, it just ain't so.  It took me years to finally learn the secret to good corn bread.  And my homemade biscuits, well that's a story for another time.  Anyway, the first time I made dumplins on my own, I was 18 years old and living 600 miles away from my Tennessee home. I followed the recipe on the Bisquick box for dumplings but I rolled them out and cut them in strips like my Tommie taught me.  But when they were done, my dumplins were about the size of a nickel and it was more like dumplin soup.  So what did I do?  I did what any self-respecting southern girl would do. I called crying to my grandma.

"Tommie, my dumplins didn't dumple!" 

"What do you mean?" 

"They didn't dumple.  They fell all apart!"

"Baby, did you stir them dumplins?" 

"Well, yeah.  They were stickin to the bottom of the pan." 

"You were cooking them too fast, and you can't stir dumplins.  You have to shake the pot." 

Lesson learned. 

Now, my dumplins are almost as good as her's.  Almost. 

Did I mention that my grandma Tommie was the best southern cook of all time? She was.  Just ask anybody that ever ate at her table.  And trust me, that's A LOT of people.  She was also the wisest woman I ever knew.  She went home to be with the LORD over 20 years ago.  I still miss her A LOT.  But I think of her every time I cook dumplins.  And chocolate chip cookies.  And well, a lot of things.  She taught me so much about cooking.  And life.  And family.  And love.  Comfort food.  

30 Day Review

It's been a month since I started (or re-started) this blog thing.  Thirty days since I posted my goals for this year.  Thirty days. . .

Let's review how I'm doing.

Home Projects: Kitchen update - While we haven't started any demo or actually purchased any materials yet, I have made some decisions on design elements.  The next step is to schedule a couple of contractors to come in and give us estimates.  I'm trying to learn not to rush things.  GRADE - B-

Fitness:  I cancelled my gym membership.  It's a good thing, cause I really needed to save that $40 a month especially since my paycheck is about $40 lighter now thanks to government tax reform.  But I have started attending a Pilates class two days a week.  So far, I'm actually enjoying it.  Well, for someone who HATES to exercise, I'm getting close to actually enjoying it.  The first 20 minutes of cardio is not too bad.  I can do most of the moves without looking like a total uncoordinated freak.  And the last 20 minutes of stretching really is enjoyable to me; even if I'm not as limber as I would like to be.  I'll get there!  It's the middle 20 minutes that is really kicking my butt!  Our teacher switches up the routines and I can tell this is the part that makes me use muscles that thought they were on permanent vacation.  They are trying to revolt.  No pain, no gain. Right?  GRADE - B

The lady who teaches the class is a personal trainer/nutritionist whom I am helping with organizational goals.  We're trading services for now.  And she has already referred my services to another of her clients, so that's helping out with my financial goals as well. 

Financial: So far, I've only started putting $50 a month into my 401K.  I need to meet with the manager of the brokerage firm to discuss changing up some things before I bump up my bank draft another $50.  Again, I know this doesn't sound like a lot, but it's an attainable goal for now. GRADE - B-

Also, I have been putting a lot of time and effort into the side business my mom and I got involved with last November.  We started a booth at our local antiques/re-sale mall.  It has been a wonderful way of letting go of  items that I no longer use to decorate my home, while recouping some cash.  I've up-cycled some of our flea market finds, as I posted about in "New Projects" and this has given me a great creative outlet as well as money making opportunities.    

Personal:  I have concentrated on making date nights with the Hubs more of a priority and trying to change things up from our usual routine.  We had an amazing time attending a local basketball tournament which I wrote about under the post "Date Night Success".  And while we have had more "regular" dates, I think we have upped our communication level another notch.  However, we have kinda slacked on pulling sticks from the date jar.   Sometimes life just happens, and you take what you can get.  GRADE - B-

Educational:  Currently, I have not taken any steps to increase my photographic skills.  I got a new i-phone a couple of weeks ago, and well, it's just so easy to take pictures with my phone and post them to Facebook, that I haven't even taken my Cannon out of it's case.  GRADE - D (for Distracted)

Dreams:  As for my blogging efforts, I'm happy to say that I'm on-track!  I have published one post for every week since January 10, the day I posted "New Year - New Goals".  Currently, I have five followers of my blog, and many of my friends and family have linked up through Facebook and given me feedback and encouragement.  It's all very exciting!   GRADE - A

But really, the most exciting thing to me is that for the first time in a long time I feel like I am being the person God has created me to be.  For the past couple of years, I have dealt with a lot of grief and anger.  So much so that I didn't feel like myself.  I felt lost.  And as such, I was paralyzed to move forward with projects or plans or dreams.  I felt like I was just existing.  I lost much of my faith and hope.  But God never let me go.  He has plans for me.  Plans for my future.  Plans that give me hope.  And though this blog, maybe I can share some of that hope.

Thanks for reading and God bless!
   

I'm on a roll . . .

I finished another project! Whoop-Whoop!!

One of my new year's resolution goals was to finish all the left over projects of 2012.  The challenge was really to finish ALL of my left over projects before I started any new projects in 2013.  All I can say is that a leopard cannot change her spots overnight, or in the course of one month for that matter.

Since January 10, I have:

1. Painted a table to put in my antiques booth;
2. Re-placed a lamp switch (which has been broken for about a year);
3. Re-strung a bracelet that broke at church sending beads flying everywhere;
4. Created a Valentine's wreath from flowers that I have had in storage for   approximately 4 years; and
5.  Finished making a framed chalkboard for the kitchen at my office!!

I actually started this project about 6 months ago.  I know, I know, it's a project that I should have done in one weekend.  But in all fairness, I started this project while I was right in the middle of up-cycling my dining room table and chairs.  And that project was by far more of a top priority.  Anyhow, I started with this enormous picture frame that I rescued from the side of the road.  It was a little warped, but for a freebee it would work just fine.  I have a full-time job as a judge's secretary and we had just updated our office's kitchen/break room with a fresh coat of paint.  And we had plenty of paint left over for me to play with.  I bought a piece of thin lewan at Lowe's and had them cut the board to the frame's opening measurements.  I then applied three coats of a magnetic paint that I had bought on clearance at Wal-Mart.  After the third coat, I tested the surface to make sure a magnet would stick and it did!  So off I went to shop for chalkboard paint.  Chalkboard paint ain't cheap. And then a friend told me she preferred the chalkboard spay paint over the kind that you brush on.  It was less expensive, but I'm really not good at spray painting.  So then so I was stuck in the land of indecision.  I'll think about it tomorrow.  By then, I had Thanksgiving and Christmas to think about.  Finally I bought the spray paint, but then I had to wait for the weather to warm up.  I applied one coat of spray paint, and it looked horrible.  I told you I'm not good at spray painting.  Weeks went by before I finally broke down and bought the expensive can of chalkboard brush on paint.  It was worth it.  I brushed on two coats quickly and evenly.  It looked much better.

At long last, the end was in sight!  All I had to do to finish was to find my glazing points and insert the finished board into the frame and attach a hanging wire.  But I couldn't find my glazing points.  I looked in every logical place I would store glazing points; no luck.  I had lost my patience.  I was ready to have this thing done and out of my house!  I figured my handy dandy staple gun would work just fine.

It worked.  Too well.

 

But. . . after a trip to Hobby Lobby and $2.50 worth of cording. . .

I finally have a finished chalkboard!

I'm on a roll . . .

Valentine's Knock-Off

The other night I was scrounging around in my basement looking through containers for more treasures I could put in my booth at the antiques/resale mall.  When lo and behold, I found these:

I bought these lovely paper roses about four years ago when a local floral wholesaler was going out of business.  I may have paid $5 for the whole bunch.  I had great plans to make a new spring wreath or flower arrangement with them.  Well, you know what they say about good intentions.  Anyway, they've been sitting in a tub in my basement ever since.

Since Valentines' Day is right around the corner, the wheels started churning on the best way I could turn these lovelies into about three or four crafty gifts to sell.  So, I started searching Pinterest for ideas.  And the only things that kept catching my eye were these really cute Valentines' wreaths.

The more I searched, the more I thought about how just a couple of weeks ago I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have anything to hang on my kitchen door since I took the Christmas wreath down.  In my opinion, it's too early for my spring wreath, but I don't have anything for Valentines. Frankly, I'm too much of a tight wad to spend $50 or $60 on a nice Valentines' wreath that I probably won't leave up for more than four or five weeks.  And the dollar store decorations for Valentines' Day are -- well -- too cheap looking.  I may be cheap, but I don't like to look cheap!

So after a trip to Hobby Lobby, I came home with this red glitter styrafoam heart and pink ribbon for less than $10.  

And a couple of hours later and only one hot glue blister on my thumb . . .

I ended up with this sweet Joss & Main knock-off for under $20!!  

The only thing I would have done different is buy the smaller white styrofoam heart (which was $2 less) instead of the red glittery one.  I was stressing because I almost didn't have enough leaves to cover up the red glitter on the back of the wreath which at this point was very unattractive.  And now I have red glitter all over the place.  

 
Okay, so now that I have my Valentines' decoration, I'm kinda lost on gift ideas for my hubby.  Other than a card, what to you buy your man for Valentines?  No x-rated comments please!