I know those of you who have been waiting on my kitchen reveal have probably thought I was lying about doing it. I have. I mean I did! Oh sure there are still things to do, like a new light, a different back splash and stuff, but I am proud to announce that my cabinets have made me hear the hallelujah chorus!

As always, we'll take a look back at what the kitchen and dining nook (ugh I hate that word) looked like when we first looked at this house.
(previous owners)

 

It wasn't that bad. Just dreary and dark. It didn't make me run away screaming or anything, but I did take a paint roller to it about two weeks after moving in. (The paint color was from Layla at The Lettered Cottage. She has since painted her kitchen a different color.)

 

Now let us all sing in perfect harmony...



(try not to yawn at the repetition of the angles taken and the abundance of photographs!)

The following shot is the seldom seen but very necessary side of my kitchen,

Yes some of my large plates are chipped. I can send you my address if you would like to buy me some new ones.

I'll try and list some of the sources for what you see...
The paint that I used on my cabinets is all from Caromal Colours and I will be doing a whole post about it tomorrow. If you want to see more about them and save on your purchase then be sure to stop by Fabulous Finishes and get Patty's code! (she's pretty awesome with any questions you might have too!)

The light over the table is from Ikea.

My hardware for both the drawers and cabinet doors was an Ebay win.


The vinyl numbers on my jars can be bought here.

The corbels under my cabinets are from Home Depot and were also a Lettered Cottage inspiration.

The dust on the floor is all mine but can be duplicated very easily!

If you want to know about anything else that I may have missed then you know where to find me!


I can hear the rain starting to pour down on our newly installed windows. A super-duper cold front is on its way into Texas. It will give me plenty of time to post (I think)since I can't do much in the cold. Have I ever mentioned that I hate cold...and laundry.

Thanks for stopping by to see my kitchen. Let me know what you think!

While I'm off working on some more projects, I thought I would share a few Etsy stores that also happen to be good friends of mine.

The first one is Summerwood Photography where you can find some of the cutest rustic frames with amazing photography in them!
Check out a few...



She also has a few other great items, like this very cute wreath.

Neat stuff huh? All for you to buy too! What could be better. They also have a photography blog that you can see here.

Next stop by My Simple Things to see some cute and unique items.



I'm working on both of them to do a giveaway with me some day, so stay tuned!

Thanks for letting me feature you both girls!
Show them some love by stopping by their stores and loading up on gifts for yourself:-)
I'm off to finish up some stuff so that hopefully I'll have a full week of projects to show you come Monday.
Have a great weekend!

So the other day I was perusing Craigslist (my way to shop!) and came across a sofa for only a small amount and he would deliver! Well I've been wanting to trade our sofa for something a little lighter for some time but I knew that I had to either break even or make money on ours (it was also an inexpensive CL find about a year ago)
To make a long story longer.... The sofa was delivered and was... awful! Cat scratches all over it. We paid the guy for the delivery and he took it back (this had been our agreement and he was very nice!).


On to the next day when Craigslist made my heart beat faster again. This time with a leather sofa for less than we spend on groceries in a week. Crazy good deal!

I have some new (cheap) artwork that will be going above the sofa later in the week, as well as new lighting from that window I keep talking about. Well the window won't be coming this week... but soon? (I wonder if my husband reads this and if that would be considered nagging?)


Anyway, I know many of you are wondering about the rest of my kitchen, and I promise that full reveal will be soon as well..... Er, and the baby room.... In all honesty that one has come to a standstill since I still hate the cold and I still haven't figured out how to spray paint a baby bed in my living room.

By the way, the current art work in my living room, two large ship/boat pics (seen here) will be sold on Craigslist if anyone local (DFW Texas) is interested!

I've been quiet lately, but that's just cause I've been busy.
Want to see what I've been up to???

That's all I can share for now. Got a few more things to finish up.
Be back soon!

I've wanted silhouettes of my kids for forever, but wasn't ever quite sure how to make them. Enter Young House Love with their handy dandy tutorial (see it here).
I couldn't believe how easy and fun these were to make!

I took some quick profile shots of them (should have had a solid white background and less shadows)then loaded them up and started working.

Since I don't have Photoshop, then I used the free version Paint.Net. I love this program and use it all the time. Get your own free download here. After I had done what YHL suggested with my version of photoshop, then I opened it up in regular ol' paint program and filled in all the light spots, as well as removed some, changed the shape of the bottom of the silhouettes and added a few details like eyelashes and wisps of hair.



Pretty simple right?! I just printed them right out on card stock and hung them up in our room. I love that I can tell exactly who it is when I look at them!
If you want to try it out and have questions, then you know where to find me...

Almost everything I do starts with inspiration from somewhere. Sometimes my inspiration comes from a picture, sometimes it comes from the dark recesses of my brain when I've laid in bed waaaaay too long.

This particular inspiration comes from Restoration Hardware. I was thumbing (ok I was glued) through the pages of their baby catalog when these letters jumped out at me.
If you look them up on their site then you can see more of the mesh detail on them.

I LOVE these letters and the best part was, I had some letters at home just waiting for me to do something with.

I got the cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby for a baby shower about a year ago. They had been covered in scrapbook paper, but I knew I wanted something different for them.

First I simply traced them with a marker onto a piece of burlap, then cut it out. Make sure you cut the burlap a little on the small side since you don't want the material to hang over the edges.

I just used Elmers glue to stick the burlap to the letters, then let them dry for a while.

I then took a small (trim size) paint roller and rolled the paint onto the top and sides of the letters, filling in the small spots with a brush. The roller made it much faster and gave it a more even paint job than a brush.
After the paint dried then I distressed the edges that showed very gently and literally ran them into the baby room to set them on the shelf. Yes, I was that excited.

So there you go, super easy and so cute, even if I do say so myself!
Happy letter making!

I finished the stripes!

Let's let that sink in.

They actually weren't as hard as I thought they would be, but I did run out of tape and instead of buying more, I waited till some stripes were dry and then reused that tape. Whatever.

No I can't show you the room yet cause I have many more steps to take.
I'll list them for you:
1. Redo vintage stool
2. Paint stripes on walls
3. Redo collage wall
4. Paint other mirror
5. Paint crib
6. Paint small hutch
7. Make new crib bedding
8. Add a few pillows to the full size bed
9. Paint dresser to go in closet
10. Organize closet

I think that's it. I'll let you know if I go insane and add more stuff.

So here is my wall as it was a few weeks ago.


And here it is today.


I'll show you more about these letters in an upcoming post. I love them though!!



So one more step to completing the room bites the dust. That one was easy though. Spray painting a baby bed in 30 degree weather? Not so much. Think I'll wait on that one.