The Kitchen - Phase One

If you have followed this blog for long, you know that we've been working on "Phase 1" in our kitchen for just over a year.  Seriously.  We are not fast moving project people, obviously.  This was even part of my "Simplify" project last year that never got done but, guess what?  It is finished.  When this project started, there were no "phases" but life happens and I realized that I need to break this project up into phases or it would never, ever get done.   Phase One ended up consisting of:
1. Painting the cabinets
2. Putting on new hardware
3. Painting the Steps
4. Hanging decor
5. Hanging Curtains
6. Putting up trim (that was cut and painted 6 years ago but we were waiting until we did the kitchen to put it up. . .. geesh!)

To give you just a little background before I share the before and afters.  When we bought this house I said that I wanted to update the kitchen first.  This house has a pretty decent kitchen for the size that it is but it lacked any style.  Well, then our toilet flooded and ruined the flooring in the dining room so we redid the dining room.  Then our hot water heater exploded and ruined tons of stuff in the basement so we started working on that project.  Next, we decided to move our office into the smallest bedroom and we redid the guest room as our next project.  After that - kids.  Enough said.  To make it even funnier - 4 years ago I took almost everything off of the walls in the kitchen because we were going to finally redo that room.  I wanted it done before our son was born so we had a nice entrance to the house. .. then both my husband and I ended up on some sort of "bedrest" for weeks - he had back surgery at the same time I was already on bedrest and then I went into the hospital.  Needless to say it did not get done.  Finally, last March I decided to start by painting one cabinet at a time until they were done.  I was moving along great when the summer of holy hotness happened and I did nothing.  (Remember how horrid it was???) I finally picked up the project in January and my goal was to have it finished by today, Saturday May 5th and we finished a whole week early!!!

Without further ado - here are those photos!!  I'll start with a few before shots:

 Ok, first of all, yes, the cat is licking the hot dog package.  I was too busy taking photos not notice that until after the fact HA!  Back to the real story.  This is a very dated kitchen with the oak cabinets, fake wood looking counter tops and blue, yes blue, walls.  The walls were a super light shade of blue so sometimes they looked white but there were really blue!!

 The other side of the kitchen with lots of clutter, our old stove.  Some of the doors are missing because I had already started my project before I remembered to take photos!

 The stairwell wall and banister - nothing too pretty to look at. 

 Our ugly steps.  These were carpeted when we moved in - we ripped out the carpet because it was so gross and have lived with naked steps for years. 

This photo just shows some of the progress on the cabinets. 

Now, for the afters!

 Don't you just love this arrangement?  I'd see the inspiration all over on the Internet with people using plates but I had my wonderful strawberry knick knacks that have been in hiding for several years so I went to Walmart and found those wooden boxes.  There were three frames in each set for $14.00 so I was pretty happy.  Everything else I already owned.  I used Zots (scrapbooking "glue" on the bottoms of the stuff in the shelves to keep them from slipping. The color on the walls is from Lowes and is Green Apple.  It was not the "right" color.  We had been living with the color painted behind the stove for over a year.  I grabbed the paint card and headed to the store.  When I got home and started painting I discovered that I had grabbed the wrong card - it was the shade lighter then the original color but I LOVE this and am thrilled with my mistake!

 Seriously, I am so proud of this project.  I saw this idea years in a commercial, no less, for how to "finish" your steps.  Just simple paint but it looks like a carpet runner.  The green matches the wall color and the brick red matches the strawberries (The best part - it was leftover paint from when we painted our garage door so it was FREE!!)  I absolutely love how it turned out.  We are going to live with it for awhile and see how it wears . If it starts to chip, we'll touch it up and then use something to seal it but I'm hoping it wears well and we won't have to do that. 

 This wall is the one you see as you enter our house (it's above the stairs).  Don't you love those hanging candle holders?  I earned them by hosting a PartyLite show in October 2010.  I knew I wanted them in my kitchen and they are perfect.  In past posts I've mentioned about wanted to have a set of family rules in our home so I ordered this Vinyl from Sassy Sites and we just love it.  I want to give "Sassy" a shout out because working with her was so easy and I had my pieces within days of ordering them.  Anytime I want to order pieces like this I will go through her because I know that she does a great job. 

 Here is another of the lettering pieces.  Yes, that is the side of my dishwasher - the side that faces the patio door so when people enter our home, they see that statement.

 The picture above and the one below give you the full view of our kitchen.  I need to mention that our kitchen IS our entrance so when anyone comes to our home, this is the room they see first.  I love how light and bright the whole room is with the green, white, and stainless steel.  I also love how uncluttered the counter tops are now too - trust me, that was no easy feat but I did it and am working on keeping them that way! 

 A few more decor items - the saying on the wall I purchased years ago from one of those home parties.  I didn't even know if we could get it on the wall due to the age but, thanks to my husband, we did it.  Notice the flower hanging in the window?  That is what I purchased recently for my birthday.  I have decided not to hang a valance at this window - it seems to make it feel more open.  (And my husband even scrubbed the window inside and out for me too :-) )

 Do you remember this little project?  I love how the faux zebra print adds a little whimsy to the room.  

 This is my new calendar board from Creative Memories.  For years I had an oak board hung here but I wanted something clean - this is perfect :-)

 This is the area for the boys - coats and shows.  (That is a basket I got FREE from my recent Thirty-One party!)  I'm missing a few command hooks - I still have to pick those up and I think I want to get some vinyl lettering to put up that says something whitty :-)

 The view of the stairwell wall and the Bannister (it used to be brown but now disappears since it is white!)  Excuse the toys on the floor - I took pictures during prime play time.  I hung up white curtains on the patio door - they are more like sheers so now, in the heat of the summer, I can close them to help keep the blaring sun out but the light will still come through!  I would really like to do something on the patio door for decor too but other than my "Once in awhile" wreaths haven't come up with anything.

One more photo that includes that long wall with the family rules on it.

You may have noticed missing outlet covers - that is also part of Phase 1 but, my dad is our electrician and we are waiting for him to come over and put new outlets, switches and covers on :-)  This just happened to be a really busy time of year so we have to wait a few more weeks on that but I can still count this project as done since my part is done HA! 

What are the next phases?  Let me tell you!

Phase 2 - Cosmetic Things
We have quite a few cosmetic things that need to be done:
1. A new handrail on the wall to the basement (I can hear my parents cheering as they read this)
2. The strips that go on the floor between rooms and at the top of the stairs to make the edges all look nice (we also will do the bathroom strip at the same time!!)
3. A trash can holder that slides out from the cupboard  - it actually holds two cans, one for trash and one for cans.  (I want to get lettering that says "Trash Cans" to go on the cupboard door . . just for fun :-) )
4.  Draw pulls - we did the handles on the cabinets but chose to wait on the drawer pulls.  Now that the painting and all that is done, we really want the pulls after all.
5. I want to put up a shelf under a cabinet near the stove to house my recipe binder to keep it up off the counter
6. Hang the paper towels on the side of the cupboard above the sink and, on the other side, hang a spice rack to get the spices off the counter also.
7. I have a couple of cupboards that need some organizational help - I.e. the pots and pans - so I just need to get the storage solutions for those.

Phase 3- Counter top
Just one thing - we plan on doing a counter top paint to update those ugly faux wood counter tops.  I've seen it done on many blogs and "talked" to several of them about the process and feel confidant that this is the way to go for us at this time.  The counter tops will be a black surface - probably done to look like granite so it will have "movement".

Phase 4- Flooring
Again, just one thing - we are not 100% sure what we will go with yet other then I want black.  We are planning on having the flooring put in professionally (it is a small area so it won't cost much).  We feel this will be better than us trying to do it and ending up with it off center or something weird.

Phase 5 - the Bonus phase :-)
This is that phase that I don't know if I really want until we are done. Then I'll decide.  A back splash.  I have a few ideas in mind but I also just like the look of paint.  Maybe we'll do something just behind the stove . . .or maybe not.  I'd also like to get new light fixtures eventually.  What I have now is very practical and gives off tons of light . . but I want something pretty :-)

So, now we are going to begin on phase 2 - one item at a time.  We also have a few other house projects to do like decorating the boys bedrooms and updating our bedroom as well.  Just about the time I think I'm done - we start over :-)

Food Friday - Birthday Style

Yesterday I posted about my 40th birthday.  Today, I wanted to share the recipes from the day. Specifically, Pretzel Salad, Macaroni Salad, and Turtle Cake.

Pretzel Salad
adapted from All Recipes AND my own original recipe

I have made this recipe several times and each time I make it I think to myself, "This is not a perfect recipe".  Why?  There are no measurements.  I don't know where I got it but the estimates written down are a little off so I searched All Recipes to find a recipe that was was similiar but exact with measurements.  The one I linked too above is exactly what I was looking for (i.e - my recipe says 2 cups of long pretzels - but you really need to crush them and then measure out 2 cups or you don't have enough!) Also, it is very important to let the crust cool before putting the cream cheese layer on top.  Then, I would suggest to refrigerate it in  order to firm up while the Jell-O is setting.  It is also important to make sure the Jell-O has started to set before pouring it on or it will just run under the crust and make it soggy.

Ingredients

• 2 cups crushed pretzels
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored gelatin
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and 3 tablespoons sugar; mix well and press mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set. Set aside to cool.
4. In a large mixing bowl cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mixture onto cooled crust.
5. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in still frozen strawberries and allow to set briefly. When mixture is about the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set.               

Macaroni Salad
adapted from . . .. . .well, you'll see.

So, I love a GOOD Macaroni Salad and several years ago I found just that and my husband agrees.  Do you want to know what it is???

Walmart Amish Macaroni Salad

So my recipe is:

Drive to Walmart and buy a container of their Amish Macaroni Salad HA!

Turtle Cake

adapted from Lynnette McMaster (My sister-in-law)

My sister-in-law made this cake years ago and I've been making it every since.  It doesn't need any frosting because the caramel and chocolate chip center gives it just what it needs.

Ingredients:

1 box German chocolate cake mix

1 – 14 oz bag of caramels

¾ cup butter

½ cup evaporated milk

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup pecans

 Directions:

Prepare cake mix according to package directions.  Pour half in a 9 x 13 greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, melt the caramels with butter and evaporated milk.    Top with chocolate chips and pecans.  Pour the rest of the cake batter on top and bake at 350 degrees for another 20 minutes

Lordy, Lordy . . . . . Yes, I'm Forty!

Happy Birthday to me . .. about a week ago!  I want to so first and foremost that I had a wonderful birthday.  I planned  my day this year to make sure that I was able to enjoy my day as much as possible! 

I really didn't want to cook on Friday, April 27th so I made my birthday cake on Thursday and also went to the grocery store on Thursday night to make sure I had everything I needed for Friday.  Here's how it all went down.

The Morning:
My morning started with getting kids up but then I had a special breakfast.  I had picked up a Cheese Coffeecake at the store and some chocolate milk. 

It just so happened that they coffee cake was marked down - I hadn't really planned to get it so it was a double blessing.  I LOVE chocolate milk but try not to buy it all of the time so this was a special treat.  I had really wanted a cup (or two) of my favorite Tassimo drink but, once again, we could not get them - the store was sold out :-(  That's ok, the Chocolate Milk made up for it.  I had a few things on my to do list - so I cleaned up the kitchen and put away all of the painting supplies (because it is done!), got some jars ready for my sister-in-law and ran the vacuum.  Then, I relaxed until lunch time. 

My Afternoon:
It turned out to be a fantastically sunny day so I knew that I wanted to be able to sit outside for most of the afternoon.  First came lunch.

I picked up a few old favorites for my lunch - French Bread Pizzas.  Back in the days before kids, when Darryl worked a 4 day week, he would go to the grocery store on Friday mornings while I was at work and we had these little pizza's often.  I forgot how good they are!  I also picked up some of the snack mix with the little rye toast things in it . . I cannot think of the brand but I just love it (and so do my kids!!) .  Then my latest favorite beverage of choice - Sprite Zero :-)  After lunch, I wrapped up a few things before heading outside to sit and read.  Amazingly, the boys "let" me - Nate was in and out between watching Toons and playing; Josh hauled out his portable train sets and played trains on the patio the whole time. 

Now, remember, I didn't want to cook today so we waited for Daddy to get home so he could take care of dinner. :-)

My evening:
For my birthday dinner, I wanted burgers on the grill, macaroni salad, pretzel salad and olives/pickles.  I actually did have to make the pretzel salad in the morning because I didn't have everything I needed but it was a quick thing to make so it was ok :-)

Then, the fun began :-)

 Darryl knows I love birthday so he picked up birthday hats and noisemakers.  The boys loved having hats to wear and learning how to blow and make noise!  They also got to put all of the candles on my cake.

 Josh wanted to help me blow out the candles - but we convinced him to at least sing to me first :-)

 Then we enjoyed cake.  I have to confess, for 39 years, I've always had chocolate cake with chocolate frosting with M and M's on top.  Well, this year, I made a turtle cake instead - yum-o. 

Darryl brought home these beautiful Roses for me and the kids "signed" a card (it is too cute) for me too.

Now, this was not the end to my birthday weekend!  On Saturday morning, we got up and headed out for the day.  Our first stop was McDonald's - we got Mocha's and Sausage McMuffins for breakfast.  We had to make a little detour and meet my dad to drop off the jars for my sister-in-law (she is making things for the upcoming wedding!) then we headed to somewhere I seldom get to go to . .. we went to a huge Outlet Mall.  See, my husband is not a shopper so normally when we head to the mall, I pick my stores and we quickly get whatever I want to get but this was my day so we started wondering and guess what?  HE HAD FUN!! HA!  I think it helped that he had some of his own money to spend (and he had fun shopping for himself).  I had fun too!  I didn't buy anything here but they have a Pottery Barn Outlet . . holy cow.  I love that store.  This is what I DID get though:

A Sweat Jacket from Eddie Bauer (I really need a jacket like this - I kept stealing my husbands), some perfume, Reb'l Fleur (the last time I bought real perfume was about 4 years ago HA), two necklaces, an electric "tart" pot and some tarts from Yankee (the pot was marked at $15.00 but only rang up at $8.00 - that is my kinda of deal!), and then the suncatcher (which is already hanging in my kitchen window). 

From there, we went to dinner in Frankenmuth.  The Bavarian Inn serves a Family Style Chicken Dinner that is fantastic - they serve great salads, chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and, my ultimate favorite, the buttery noodles!!  We really enjoyed dinner - especially being able to eat it HOT!  After dinner we had planned to go to the HUGE Christmas Store, Bronners, but we forgot that it closes early in the off season so instead we walked through some of the little shops in town before heading home.  It ended up being a good thing because we picked up these awesome cupcakes :-)

At the cupcake shop - they also chocolate covered bacon and, since it was my birthday, I got a piece of that to eat while we were walking around (we saved the cupcakes for home).  I've heard people say how great chocolate covered bacon is and considering the fact that bacon is my favorite meat (HA!) and I love chocolate I figured I'd love it.  Wrong.  I, quite honestly, don't care if I ever have another piece.  It think it might better if the bacon was freshly cooked . ..

All in all, it was sa great two days.  I did notice that everything I did on Friday to make it a special day revolved around food - geesh!  I did give myself a manicure and pedicure so hopefully that off sets the love of food!!! 

Now, on to my "Next 40 years!!"

Hershey Kiss Stickers

One of the cute ideas I found to do for the recent Bridal Shower was something really simple and easy to do at home. 

I found the original idea on Pinterest (surprise, surprise) and knew that I wanted to do it.  It helped that the shower was Easter weekend so candy was plentiful! 

Supplies:
Avery stickers
Kisses and/or Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

This is such a simple project.  I found the Avery stickers at Staples.  I guess they are really considered seals for mailing things but you are able to print anything on them.  Like any Avery label, there are instructions provided to print on the labels so you can print anything you want in any color, style, font.  Once I had my labels printed, I just opened up a few bags of Kisses and Peanut Butter Cups and started sticking.  I found that the labels I purchased actually fit better on the top of the Peanut Butter Cups but they worked on both. 

 It's such a nice touch to add to the table and makes it much more personal then just laying candy on the table.  I also love that it is the "confetti" on the table and is also takes the place of needing little candy or nut cups at each place for that pre-meal snack. 

Too Cute Not To Toot . . . Fail.

I know, I know.  You are looking for tons of cute ideas to inspire you to wish you could make something, aren't you?  Me too!!  I'm just not finding them.  I've been trying to stick to blogs but I think I'm going to have to start linking up ideas I find on Pinterest since I find so much cute stuff over there.

I can tell you that I'm looking for some cute ideas to use in my kids rooms - transportation theme and dinasour theme.  My husband I want to make their rooms adorable with some DIY stuff but it is hard to find that inspiration out there!  

I can also tell you that we finished phase 1 of the kitchen redo and photos will come soon! 

So . .. sorry for the boring post - just wanted you to know that I'm not finding the ideas I used to AND, honestly, I've been a little busy wrapping up my own projects!

Enjoy your day :-)

40 x 40 - Not a complete Fail

Last week I turned 40, which is really not that traumatic as most people think.  It probably helps that I'm the youngest of 4 kids which means that all of my brothers turned 40 LONG before I did (and, dare I say it, one is even knocking on the door of 50 .. now THAT's old! HA!) I should also mention that all of my sisters-in-law are also older than me so being the last of the group to hit "big" numbers kinda makes it anti-climatic. 

When I first started this blog way back in the day, one of the trends I noticed on other blogs was writing goal lists such as "30 x 30", 40 x40, or even 101 in 1001 (101 goals in 1001 days) so it got me thinking at the time that I had about 1 1/2 years to accomplish 40 things on my to do list.  Now that I'm past that mile stone, I thought I'd do a full recap of what I accomplished, what I didn't, what I couldn't and what I wish I had completed.  This will probably be a slightly long post so skip it if you would like :-)

The Final Update:

1. Make a Rag Quilt - I can honestly say that when I wrote this list I was positive that I would get this done.  Well, that didn't happen.  This is still something I would like to accomplish . . . eventually.

2. Learn to Belly Dance - I never did order the disc I found, not sure why, but I still want to accomplish this eventually too.

3. Take a Ballroom dancing class with my husband - This is just not the time to accomplish this idea.  We live too far from town and with little kids it's hard to do something in the evening.  Maybe someday but I'm ok if it never happens too.

4. Be Completely current on all scrapbooking projects - THIS IS DONE!! WHOO WHOO!!  I still have pages to print but they are done and that is all that matters.  I'm currently working on March 2012.  Yes, you read that right.  I have pages printed through September 2009 and in an album.  The company I use for page prints has a sale twice a year - the next one is in September so I plan on saving money through then and order as many pages as I have money - with the sale I'll be able to get at least 25-30 pages "free". 

5.  Finish my first quilt -- This is done and I love seeing it :-)

6.  Eat in the 1913 Room - This restaurant closed.  I can be honest and say that after looking more at the menu for the place I did not want to go.  Instead we went to Charlie's Crab and loved it. 

7.  Learn to make the perfect cheesecake - This one seemed so easy HA  I just never made one . . .how lame is that??

8.  Reach my goal weight - Oh well.  We can't win them all!!

9.  Read through the Bible in the year - I never made it all the way through but I did make it further than I ever had before. 

10.  Plant a Vegetable garden - Done!!

11.  Can beets, pickles, tomatoes, salsa and jam - Done!

12.  Re-learn Claire Delune on the piano - I did work on this but never spent the time that I really needed to on it.  Practicing piano is just now making it back into the priority list.

13.  Go to a regular seasons Lions Game - Tickets are so expensive . . . one day we'll go!

14.  Go to a bra specialist - Done (guess what, you can do it at home and get the same measurement.  This really wasn't that big of a deal)

15.  Renovate my kitchen from top to bottom - I ended up dividing my kitchen into a few phases and phase one is almost done so I'm counting this as DONE!!!

16.  Put myself on a bone morrow transplant list - still need to do this. 

17.  Attend a Sandy Patty concert - Still waiting for her to come in concert somewhere local.

18.  Walk on the treadmill 4 days a week for three months - I thought about it, does that count???

19.  Be making $1000.00 a month from home - I thought this would be "easy" but everything I've looked into hs not worked.  I'm still working to find that one thing that will help us out!

20.  Take a cooking class - I'm still looking . . ..

21.  Tae a photography class - DONE!

22.  Learn to make jewelry - This is one project I just didn't get into . . I'd still like to do it but right now I have other projects that take my time and money.

23.  Ride on one of the two Great Lake Boats - I looked into this a few times but it just didn't work into our plans .

24.  Take a train to Chicago and stay overnight downtown - this is STILL on the list. 

25.  See Wicked - this one is also STILL on the list!

26.  See the Rockettes live - if they come back to Grand Rapids, I will go!

27.  Watch the Harlem Globetrotters in person -I'm hoping that maybe this coming January we can go - the boys will be big enough to enjoy it now.

28.  Sew an Apron - I got one for Christmas - that was easier than sewing :-)

29.  Cook clean for one week - Tried it. . .well read about it . . not happening HA!

30.  Attend a concert in the Park - Darryl's schedule just hasn't allowed this to happen but I'm hopeful we can do it this coming summer.

31.  Do a sole sensations treatment on my feet - if there is ever a spa in Michigan that does this, I will figure out how to get it done!

32. Join a Book Club - Done!  Not my favorite thing though.

33.  Get a German Shepherd - We still plan to do this - the timing just hasn't been right.

34.  Invite Lisa LaPlante for dinner - I tried; she declined.

35.  Make Three specific photo books - I made some progress on this but it isn't done.

36.  Learn CPR - DONE!

37.  Eat at the longest breakfast table in Battle Creek - I am planning to do it this summer - we have a family party that day but it will only take us about 30 minutes out of our way so I plan on doing both!

38.  Potty Train both of my children - Apparently my boys can read, saw this and said "NO WAY MOM!"   Now I'm just hoping they are out of diapers by the time they leave home :-/

39.  Win a Makeover from one of our local stations - I tried.  many times.

40.  Take my husband to see the Christmas lights and ride the train at Crossroads Village - He did ride the train but we have not make it to see the lights!

So, that's it.  I do plan on writing a new list .. now sure how I will "theme" it yet but I'm working on it . .. something to work towards.  What can I say? I'm a planner!

Carry Me To The Cross

The other day, while driving to get the boys haircut, I heard this song on the radio by Kutless.  I've always been a Kutless fan and this song did not disappoint.