{Kitchen Thoughts}

Welcome Back!  I did a post yesterday but have been busy today and wanted to do another one!
Remember the project I talked about yesterday.  The drapes painted with wall paint?? Well I did it! And I swoon over them every time I enter my kitch! They are perfect.  I should not say 'perfect'.  None of my projects are perfect,  that's what makes them unique!  It does have little bitty minuscule teeny tiny flaws like the paint line is not so even on some parts.  But if you're looking that closely, you probably would not be invited into my home in the first place...

Here is the before:

During...

More measuring???!

Hard at work!

The curtains all painted!

And the beautiful but not perfect after!

They look so great here! Mike doesn't ever know they're up yet! 

This picture is a better indication of the true color.  I think it's beautiful.  I am definitely going to paint the wall this color as well!

I'm toying around with the idea of having some open cabinetry.  My mom doesn't like it, but it's growing on me.  I took three doors off yesterday and rearranged some things to see if I like it before filling in the holes from the hinges with wood filler.  I think I like it! Here's just two of the doors off. 

Our Wedding Cake Tray!

Since the upper cabinets will be white so will the inside of the open cabinets.  I'm thinking mirrors on the back of the cabinets...Sounds pretty.  And I need to get some cabinet liners, BAD!

I took the doors off of the cabinets below the sink, as well.  Our kitchen just had WAY too much oak.  I wanted to break it up a bit until we refinish them, so I added a little sink skirt.  It's pretty darn cute if you ask me.  It was actually a longer curtain but I just chopped it off and used some Stitch Witchery from JoAnn's and cropped it a bit.  I then bought a cheap tension rod and VOILA...

We get SO much natural light in our kitchen.   

I also wanted to give a quick tip to my readers that have chalkboards in their homes.  I discovered what is called a Chalk Pen at HobLob.  It makes the writing so much more clear.  I'm obsessed!  Check out my chalkboard with this new pen! No chalk dust or anything.  Think about it.... :-)

Linking Up HERE!

Lackadaisical..

[lak-uh-dey-zi-kuhl]

–adjective

1.

without interest, vigor, or determination; listless; lethargic:a lackadaisical attempt.

2.

lazy; indolent: a lackadaisical fellow.

Origin: 
1760–70; lackadais ( y ) (variant of lackaday) + -ical

—Related forms

lack·a·dai·si·cal·ly, adverb

lack·a·dai·si·cal·ness, noun

—Synonyms 
2.  slothful, unambitious, idle.

Yep, that sounds about right.... That's exactly how I'm feeling right about...meow (as Mr. Hubs would say).  Is our wainscoting project finished? Finally!  For about three days, all we had left to do was put up two more chair rails.  We felt much better relaxing and just leaving the door closed until the urge to finish it came.  It showed up this morning at about 8:00 a.m.  Check out the pictures, we haven't moved the bed back in yet, I think it looks sooo great! Way better than I ever expected! Thank goodness, many things could have gone wrong and didn't!

Please use this as a 'before'...for the dresser that is.  I'm about to refinish it!

It's perfect! Way better than I anticipated we would do!



Big projects like this are seriously so much to take on.  I think I get so excited about the result that I don't think about everything that must go in to it to make the result.  My husband surely would agree.  Mike, not a word from you, not. one. word. 

I have been enjoying, yes enjoying, this humid weather (just happy it's not freezing) and drinking a lot of this...

Raspberry Iced Tea
via Taste of Home

and just r.e.l.a.x.i.n.g...Whew! I LOVE this weather, when we can open all the windows and just let the fresh spring air in.  Especially after it rains. My Favorite!

 

A side note: I want to thank everyone for their support on our blog and our ongoing projects. What a blessing it is to be able to do these projects with my sweet loving hunk of a hubby.  We just love doing home projects!! I love seeing something go from 'eh' to 'so cute' at the mercy of my hands.  It's a hobby, like reading, or shopping (which I love too), cooking, or playing with kids (we have not had a little blessing...yet) is to some people.  What a lucky couple we are to be able to play around with our house and make it our own before we can welcome a little one into the world.  To make it a home, not just a house, for us, for our future children, for our family.  We are making it EXACTLY what we want in a home.  It's so important (to us) to have this time in the first year or so, after wedding but before children, to make this house our home.  Who knows how long we will live here, but I do love this house and will take a wild guess and say that our first child will be born here and that's all the more reason to make it a loving, sweet, comforting and organized home...NOT a house, but a home.

"A House is Made of Bricks and Stone, A Home is Made of Love Alone."

I saw this quote when I was very young at a friends house while at a sleepover in a frame on the wall.  It has stuck with me this long.  I still vividly remember seeing that saying in the frame and thinking 'what a great quote'.  I was no older than 10.  Same mind set today.  

I also love the fact that instead of sitting in front of a computer or TV screen all day, we are doing something where we get to communicate and interact.  It's nice to have a common goal that you both are working towards, and that the other person is just as excited as you are about the progress and the end result.  

I will forever do projects.  I will do projects when I have babies and when my babies are grown, I will still do projects.  Imagine your favorite thing to do in your free time (if you say 'cleaning' you have and open invitation to my house, anytime, don't even call, just come on over)...OK got it? It's your hobby, right? This is mine.  Crafting, decorating, and making this house our home. :-) I hope you enjoy my hobby.

On another note, HOLY INSPIRATION at Pottery Barn on Saturday afternoon. They have seriously outdone themselves for Spring 2011!  Did you guys see that PB classic strip (l.o.v.e.) outdoor pillow.  I want it in 'stone' so bad! Like about 4 of them, please.  We need some new furniture for our NEW deck AND they would be so cute out there.  Hubs says I can't have everything I want... What the wha???!!!Who the who??!! Can too, fool!  The deck guy is starting in about two weeks methinks.  Which means we are going to have to tear out a ton of our landscaping in the back before it starts to bloom.  We are going to be so busy.  I did buy some lavender today to start on my garden.  I. love. me. some. lavender...

Did you know that lavender just takes full sun and really requires no maintenance? What an amazing bloom!  It reminds me of New Zealand because they had a ton of lavender over there, plus it's my favorite fragrance so it only made sense to have some.  I'm going with a purplely-french looking garden theme.


And these knobs.  Get real people.  




The PB knobs that I had in my hand.  Beautiful, but $11.  Not bad for all you non-DIY thinkers, but I knew I could make my own version of them!


I literally brought these up to the cashier lady and was like "I'm taking these, can you hold them here?" Then, as I'm walking away I whipped a 180 and was like "ugh scratch that..I'm going to MAKE those. Oh, yes" She looked at me like I was the Creature from the Black Lagoon, like I don't care what you do, just leave my store, um, now-ish.  Of course, I didn't I stayed for a few more minutes to steal some DIY ideas.


I already had the knobs on hand.  The old ones from our guest bathroom have just been collecting dust (what I have dust in my house? No way...) under the sink in there.  Remember, I replaced them with the cute jute knobs?






These are the little beauties before.  And I do love them as they are, but you know I love "His" and "Hers" things.  We don't like to share, and Heaven-forbid we get confused about who's pillow is who's or who's drawer is who's...I kid.


There will be an update on these possibly tomorrow depending on if I can get to them! I'm so excited!


ALSO, I have been working on a little DIY that I saw on a fellow blogger's website.  Her husband is deployed and for every day he's gone she does a project! What a great idea!  What a great way to make the days go by with a little fun in them.  


Her website is called Faith's Place. I originally came across this link, about pictures frames I think based on the title. But I seriously seriously zeroed in on the drapes in the kitchen.  I literally stopped and stared.  I have been looking for drapes like this for so long.  I asked her where she got them before even looking further to see if there was a post about them - which there was. I was willing to pay anything I love these!  So when I found out she just bought white drapes from Targé (Target) and painted them with leftover wall paint, I freaked!  So easy!

Faith's Place

I love classic stripe anything from PB and this reminds me of that.  I think I'm going to paint my kitchen this color, too!  It's so clean and perfect for a kitch!  The color is on her walls and the curtains! I'm not too proud to copy off of a fellow blogger!  I think it will go perfectly with the black and white cabinets we are going to get this summer!

ALSO, (geez how many topics can I cram into one blog post?!?) we finally bought a new vacuum.  We haven't had one in the house for about 2-3 months.  When I spilled the grout from the basement tiles on the carpet downstairs right after we had it put in oops... I tried to vacuum it up with our then vacuum and it stopped working.  I killed two birds with one stone, which is normally a good saying but not for me that week, the carpet and the vacuum...I didn't have a happy husband to say the least.  So we have been borrowing my mom's Dyson which I LOVE!  I was completely set on buying a Dyson, there was just no other option.  Someone, cough*Mike*cough, was like "WHAT?!!?? $400 for a vacuum?!? You obviously have lost your mind, here I'll help you find it.." So I started weighing other options.  People were comparing the Hoover Windtunnel Rewind Bagless Upright to Dyson online....Hmm With a $300 difference in price I thought we could check it out. 

Let. Me. Tell. You. People.  This vacuum sucks!  No, I mean it sucks in a good way, like EVERYTHING off the floor.  I'm in love!  You know you have a good vacuum when you want/look forward to vacuuming.  I think my favorite part is that you can see all the dust, hair, and pure grossness building up in the dirt cup.  Yum.  Two benefits over the Dyson: It has cord rewind. LOVE.  I just press a button and the cord whips right back into place, instead of spending five minutes while rolling my eyes wrapping the cord around the stupid little things on the back of the vacuum.  And, it freshens the air as you vacuum.  Take that Dyson.




Before you leave this looooooooonnnnnngggg post (I just noticed, sorry), check out the new About Us section tab up top.  It's adorable. 

Just a Touch of Spring...

I just love these two pictures of small touches of s.p.r.i.n.g in our home...I know it is right around the corner but why does it seem so far away? 



Hello, birdie!



Hydrangeas...love

We are *thisclose* to being finished with the wainscoting project in the guest bedroom. Need to paint the trim and then blog the after photos.  I also have another project in the works for next week! I'm pretty excited about it.  I stole it from another blogger.... :-)

Linking up to

 Centsational Girl

Peace, Love & Harmony

{Wainscoting Adventures: Day Tres}

It continues, my lovelies!  I'm OK with it. We got a lot done today between eating 8-10 cookies a piece thanks to my momma, breaks to watch the big miserable KU game :-( and meeting with the deck guy! Holler!

Firstly, WE BOUGHT A SWEET NEW COMPUTER! Look what this chick will be blogging on. Yes, the MacBook Pro! I love it.

Our New Baby!  What a great computer! We wanted this one so bad & we got it! Apples are the bomb dot com.



Look at that dreamy keyboard.  It's like typing on a cloud...

Next, we talked to a builder today about a NEW deck.  As most maybe none of you know, Spring is the best time of the whole wide year to build a deck.  We wanted to do it last year, but never got around to it with the wedding and all that jazz. Our rinky-dink deck is seriously, no seriously, 10x12.  It's re-deck-u-lous (pun intended), people.  So friggin' small. We can barely fit our small table on it. L.A.M.E.  If you know us, then you know we love to entertain.  We love having people over and we love hanging out on our deck.  If the weather is nice and the Chiefs aren't on that's where we hang out.  In fact, in the summer Mr. Le Inspired Nest and I eat more dinners outside than inside.
It's only fitting that we need a larger deck.  Enter Larry Swain (our super-duper deck builder).  We are going from a 10x12 box to *drum-roll* AN 18X24 BEAUTY!  I wish I had before pictures. I guess I could go and take some.  To be honest, I'm pretty comfortable and it's snowing outside. And it's spring. And supposed to be about 65-70 degrees.  Sorry, folks, no deck pictures tonight.  Try measuring it out if you want to see how small it is. 

We decided to get iron spindles (my favorite touch), and a wide stairway (4 ft.) going out to our huge backyard (P.S. Why such a teeny tiny deck for such a HUGE back yard? I never can understand that...) Needless to say, I'm pret-ty excited about it. 

Next topic, wainscoting...Come on, people, give a sister a break.  I've been working.  Slowly but surely!  We didn't finish today like I had hoped.  But, hey, that's life!  It never goes as planned, and I can deal.  Hopefully Tuesday we'll be done.  I make no promises.  We are still progressing and here are some highlights.


Primed.  No molding up yet.  We still need to miter cut it.  See that green tape? Amazing!



The boxes by/under the window.  I think I did such a good job! YAY! Still painting the trim around the windows and doors.  And, yes, that is paint *gasp* on the floor.  It comes off of wood floors so easy. 



Taking the tape out from underneath the baseboards after painting!

Spackling IS FUN!

Spackling smooths out the rough edges and the corners that don't meet perfectly.  There were quite a few, but now it's like they always met perfectly!

I am so excited to see the final product! My mom came over today, fattened us up a bit with some delish chocolate chip cookies (going to get my ninth (? lost count) one now....) and she said she "loved it" and that it looked "perfect".  I love my mommy!

The two items that have helped me so much on this project: Frog tape and Liquid Nails.

1. Frog tape: The green tape in the pictures above.  Please! If you are doing any painting at all, USE. THIS. TAPE.  I will never go back to that blue tape.  It may be cheaper but what's a few dollars more when the paint bleeds underneath it.  I wish I could show you a paint line with the blue and then with the green tape.  Such a difference! GO GREEN, PEOPLE! You'll totally thank me later and I'll say "told ja"!

2. Liquid Nails: It's not literally liquid nails (that'd be weird), but seriously this stuff is AH-mazing.  I wanted to use a nail gun but my mom was basically like "Are you friggin' crazy, lady?" and was probably going around telling random strangers that I'd lost my marbles, or fallin' off my rocker or something of that nature.  It was almost like a "You'll shoot your eye out" moment from A Christmas Story.  She literally said to me " No, nail guns kill people."  Mom, nail guns don't kill people, people kill people.  Athankyou.  Long story short.  I ended up with Liquid Nails.  We have used it before on our mirror in the master bath.  I liked it then and I like it now.  One tube put up all of the boxes.  I bought two but know I will use it eventually.  It makes the wood stick...well...like nails. :)

The single most important advice for this project: MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE! Heed this advice and all *should* go well.  Measuring is so important if you plan to do this project! Send me a message if you are interested in doing it and I can give you numerous tips! Have a beautiful day, and thanks for tuning in!

{Wainscoting Adventures: Day Dos}

Well, as much as I hate to say it, there is going to be a "Wainscoting Adventures: Day Tres".....We worked sort of hard today.  We didn't really stress about it...well, Mike didn't.  I was kind of a drama queen/diva today (at least I admit it).  I messed up on the measurements and Mr. Hubby just cut where he saw the lines, I sort of freaked because I didn't want to got to the Depot again!!! They should probably know me by name now anyway.  There was a slammed door in the midst of the measuring/miter saw fiasco.  We were not friends for about 3 minutes.  It was short lived and we got it all figured out, kissed on the stairs when we were passing each other, and I, yes I, apologized first.  Then all was right in the world again.  No biggie I just have to get a little more molding on my lunch tomorrow...Is it the end of the world? Maybe...Should I have been mad at my hubs? Nope. I was wrong! Moving on, let's not dwell on my wrongness any more than is necessary.

Oh, and to thank me for all the miter sawing I made let him do, he made me a crab dinner complete with sweet potatoes, carrots, and rice! Yum.  Be jealous, ladies!



I love love love our compound miter saw.



I have about three pages front and back that look like this! I can do math!

Progress! This was the first piece up on the wall.

 The chandelier! Oh, the chandelier! I love this piece of art! I am so grateful that I spent the $3 on this beauty.  I thought we would have a difficult time putting it up, it had some older looking wires.  We turned off the breaker for the guest bedroom.  It literally took us 15 minutes.  I was holding it and Mike was connecting the wires.  Went downstairs flipped the switch, and we had a beautiful light fixture! It was so simple that I want to get one for the kitchen and re-finish it! I thought for sure it would be an hour ordeal.  Boy, was I wrong! I was so BEYOND excited.  Like, literally people, jumping up and down, smiling ear to ear, kissing my husband.....all for a chandelier....Oh, my exciting life!  I even told Mike, "It's like God is looking down at us and saying you guys really worked hard and did a lot, I think you deserve to have the chandelier be easy to install..."Hallelujah!!!! I opened the shutters and turned on the light tonight so all of our neighbors could see my new light and be green with envy.

Chandelier in it's new home. It's so gorgeous here!

Again, the one wall we finished.  I was so proud to get that far! Obviously, it needs painting and caulking AND spackling, and I'll add some sanding in there too for good measure.

This is what it will look like with the chair rail type board, It's not attached yet, we just held it up to see what it would look like.

So pretty.  I'm happy with the progress. I expect to be totally done by Sunday!

 Thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day!