The Dining Room

I thought I would go ahead and show you the dining room - even though it is still very unfinished.  I had originally thought I would paint the dining table and chairs and have the chairs recovered (again) but I knew that would be at the bottom of the priority list since they were not horrible as they are.  Not necessarily the room I had in mind, but I have to say...once I got everything in there, it kind of works.  The whole vibe of the the room is a little darker than the rest of the house, but I think I like the old world vibe the dining room is bringing right now.  In the old house, the dining room was very open to the den and kitchen and so I always had to coordinate all three rooms with the same colors and fabrics.  It dawned on me recently that I don't really have to do that anymore...so if this room has a little different flair...it's ok.

Here is the very bare dining room when we got the house.

You will notice the very ugly light fixture is lying in the floor.  Why?  I have no idea.  It is the same light fixture that I spray painted and hung in the laundry room. 

A little reminder...

Ok, back to the dining room now...here it is!

The wall of trays courtesy of Goodwill and the antique store...

The view from the front door.

I still need blinds in here and I need a solution for the other corner...the one I haven't shown yet.  It's not pretty....but here it is.



Yep, it's the catch all corner for projects I still have yet too do...my VERY vintage 1970's chair that was a steal for $19.99 at Goodwill.  It will be recovered for the office (someday).  And the buffet was also a find at Goodwill for only $29.99.  I plan on painting it and making it my jewelry cabinet to go in my bedroom...that project will be happening very soon.  The problem is..what goes in this corner?  I have no idea.  I am open for suggestions.  I am hoping it will come to me in the middle of the night (that's when my brain comes up with the best ideas) but for now, it holds the hodge podge of things undone. 

I think I am content with the rest of the room for now.  I am sure that as soon as I get the floor laid in the children's rooms and I mark some of the really important items off the to-do list, I will eventually get back to thinking about this room and what I want it to be.  Just not today.

Kitchen Side Table Makeover

My sister-in-law was given this side table from her neighbors.  She didn't like the table at all, and quite frankly neither did I.  She couldn't redo the table because she would have to have it outside in the driveway to sand and paint it and if this sweet little elderly man that gave it to her saw her doing this, she was afraid he would get his feelings hurt. He thought the table was grand as is...

 Well, where do you think the tabe ended up?  In MY house.  Not that I am complaining; I never turn down free furnitutre - ugly or not.  I love doing furniture makeovers.  As I've said over and over again, it's amazing what a can of paint can do. 

My sister-in-law came over yesterday while the husbands were off playing at duck hunting camp.  We decided to tackle the table.  It's been sitting in the kitchen (in all it's shiny oak stained glory - ugh).  I put it there to sit for a few days while I stared at it and determined if that's where I wanted it to permanently be placed.  That's been a couple of months so I guess that's where it is supposed to stay. 

We sanded that shiny finish off and painted two coats of antigue white paint.  Then we distressed it by sanding around the edges and curves.  We gave it some new hardware and voila!  The new table...

I had already hung my plates and favorite rabbit picture above the table so refinishing the table really made the wall look complete. 

Not bad for FREE.  Now on to the next project!

Birthday Cupcakes, Duck Hunter Cupcakes, and a Crown Cake

We've had a lot of birthdays in our family over the last month.  Which means I've been doing some baking. 

My cousin's birthday was this past week and we had a joint party for her and my husband whose birthday is this coming week. 

For her, I made two tiered cupcakes with a candle made from a chocolate covered pretzel. 

For my duck hunting husband, I made cupcakes with camoflauge icing and a sugar cookie mallard on top.

My children call their grandmother Queenie (cute, right? they came up with that on their own...) so for her birthday, I made a crown fit for a Queen...

Just thought I'd share these with you...they were fun!

Chalkboard Platters

  I am on a mission to MAKE as many gifts as I can this year instead of buying them, so for birthdays, Christmas, etc. I have been collecting neat items from Goodwill and the antique store and then coming up with ways to repurpose them.

I found some really cool silver trays at Goodwill for a few bucks each.  

I decided to paint the middle of the platters with chalkboard paint and stand them up with picture frame stands.

First, I cleaned them - toothpaste is AMAZING.  It got all of the tarnish right off and made them pretty and shiny.

My little girl is an excellent helper :).  Next, I taped off aorund the edges and spray painted the middle with primer.  Then I painted three coats of chalkboard paint in the middle.

Here is the final product...I made one for me and one for my cousin for her birthday. 

Not bad for a few bucks, eh?

High Heel Shoe Cupcakes

My sister's birthday was last weekend and I wanted to do something cute to surprise her.  I found an adorable idea for cupcakes that look like high heeled shoes in a cupcake book I recently got as a gift.  They were a little time consuming, as each pair had a different design (we can't have two pairs of the same shoes, now can we?).  Totally worth the time in the end because they turned out pretty awesome. 

There were 9 pairs in total.  The heel is made from those Pepperidge Farm pirouttes cookies and the flat part is a graham cracker coated in white chocolate.  Being the first time I did these, some are a little messy, but I figured out some things to do differently next time to keep them neater.

The Dorothy shoe...

The Spring Flower... (sorry for the blurry picture)

The wedding shoe...

The Green Bay Packer shoe (she loves Green Bay...)

This one has no theme or name...the black swirly shoe maybe?

The leopard print shoe...(the cupcake holder is pink leopard but you can't see it very well.  I should've taken better pictures!)  Lesson learned on this shoe - I dipped the heel in dark chocolate but quickly realized that at room temperature it kept trying to slide right out from under the rest of the shoe.  Next time I wont be dipping any heels. 

The zebra shoe, which kinda doesn't look like zebra print because I got the icing on too thick.  Lesson learned for next time...

The Zeta shoe (my sister was in Zeta and their color is turquoise).

And lastly, another shoe with no name.  This was my daughter Lilly's favorite.  The bow is made from a stick of gum :).

So there you have it...edible shoes.  Pretty cute, huh?

Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen cabinets needed an overhaul (as did every other thing in this house) and we didn't plan on replacing them so I had to figure out what to do to make them work for us.  Paint is magical.  Seriously.  I am always amazed at how just painting something can completely transform it and everything around it.  Painting kitchen cabinets is a long and painful process, but totally worth the time and effort when you see how they completely make the kitchen look new afterwards.  Here is the kitchen before:

Quite ugly, don't you agree? 

I sanded and sanded, which took several days.  Then I painted three coats of antique white on the top cabinets and the ones on the wall above.  I wanted to give the room a splash of color too since the walls and most of the cabinets would be antique white, so I used a country blue on the bottom cabinets around the breakfast bar. 

Three coats!  I painted and painted and was cussing these cabinets before I was done.  This is definitely a project you only tackle once every ten years or so because it is a lot of work and it takes a long time.  I had to paint three coats on each cabinet door, wait at least overnight, flip them, sand the edges (again!), and then paint three coats on the backs. 

After all of the painting, I sanded the edges of the doors and cabinets to give it an antigue finish.  Then I sealed them all with a coat of polyeurethane.  The poly gave them a yellowish tint, which I was upset about at first, but it's ok.  It adds to the antique feel.  Now that they are done I love them and it was totally worth the effort.  The kitchen doesn't look like the same kitchen at all.

Here they are - DONE!

I also hung my chalkboard up in the kitchen and am putting a quote on it each week.  The kids have really enjoyed this.

So there you have it.  What do you think of the cabinets? 

The Pool

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, the new pool is (was) green.  Really green. Swampy green complete with frogs.  And lots of overgrown weeds and cracked concrete.  And a broken fence.

Isn't that lovely?

We had some experts come and get the pool cleaned out and ready for swimming.  Amazing that the green water became pretty blue water.  The frogs have found another home. 

But the area around the pool was still a mess. 

It needed some SERIOUS help.  So here we go...

In one week's time, this yard went from disgusting to fabulous.  A super big thank you to my father for his help and expertise. 

And here's what we have now...

 We plan on adding a pergola here in the near future.  And we have an outdoor kitchen planned for the North side of the pool, but we will wait a while before tackling that project.

Several ugly trees have been removed, we have new concrete and flower beds full of knockout roses, banana trees, and Japanese maples, and we have patio furniture.  This pool is ready for a party :)!

Next steps are to stain the fence with a white wash, stain the new concrete to give it some pizzazz, and find an antique iron headboard to serve as the gate.  I want to have all of this finished by the end of next month for my daughter Lilly's 7th birthday party.  Lots to do...and all I REALLY want to do is curl up on one of those lounge chairs and relax with a good book...it's so nice to have a beautiful retreat in the backyard.  We don't want to go inside the house anymore!