Kitchen Makeover

Wow, what a busy week!  My mind is always much bigger than reality - I try to cram waaaaaaay too much stuff into one week, but it's all with good intentions.  I can hear my Dad calling me an over achiever right now :)  How did this all start?  Well, my youngest son has been in Michigan this week with a friend and I said to myself one boy + a quiet house = time to work on projects.  I really thought it would be a good week to paint the kitchen, dining room, and possibly get started on the living room.  What did I get done?  The kitchen. One third of my plans completed. I don't think I'll ever learn, but it does keep me going :)  I did start painting the ceiling in the dining room tonight and I think I'll start on the ceiling in the living room tomorrow.  Anyway, enough of that - here are some pictures of the finished kitchen.  Unfortunately, the pictures make the paint look more green than what it is.  So just think mustard yellow in a primitive kind of way.  Excuse the hole in the wall - we're (Carl) is going to move the phone.

This wall looks very plain.  I had some decorations up there, but decided I didn't want to put most of them back up after painting.  Carl and I have a 2 different ideas for this space and until we can agree on one, it will stay this way.

This sign was above my stove before painting - I like it much better over here.

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It always starts like this.  Carl pets both dogs.....

Harley decides he wants extra attention.....

Suddenly Harley thinks he weighs 10 pounds instead of 80 pounds....

And poor Snickers is left by herself shaking her head in disbelief.

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This Nerf bullet has been on our ceiling since June 24.  I came home from work one day and there were at least 10 bullets on the ceiling....this one is just not giving up!  And I really want to paint the ceiling, but I don't want to take this down.  It's like part of our decorating now.....

The weather forecast sounds great for today which is a good thing because we are going to our community fish fry tonight to listen to some bands.  The boys to their grandparents house tomorrow AND we get to see Anna Joy! Can you tell I'm excited about that? 

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, don't sweat the small stuff, share a smile with someone you don't know, and say kind words. 

If this barn could talk...

There's just something about this picture. I feel calm and peaceful when I look at it.  If only that barn talk and share stories of what it has seen...

Photo courtesy of Michael Tuuk.

A sunrise, garage sale finds, and a new blog

Before I start, I want to wish my MIL Peggy a happy belated birthday.  I hope you had an absolutely fabulous day!  We are looking forward to celebrating with you this weekend.

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Isn't this a beautiful sunrise picture?!  My cousin, Mike Tuuk, snapped this on Fathers Day in Fredericksburg, TX.  He has some beautiful pictures on his website and if you would like to see them and  learn about photography, click here.

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Carl and I havae been to several garage sales and antique stores lately and here are some of my fave purchases so far.

I found a couple of crocks to add to my collection and snagged these at a great price - that always makes it so much more fun! 

Keepers Primitives in Lafayette was having a sale and I bought this cute little picture.  This wasn't the only thing I bought there, but this is my favorite.  If you don't know about Keepers and want to see some great prim pictures, click here and here and you can see more on facebook as well. 

Now, we went to the next garage sale and I wish we would have went there first because they had sooooo much great stuff!  I could tell that Carl thought I was going overboard because all I heard was "Pam"...."Pamela"....."How much are you going to buy?"  I really think he should be thankful that there was a group of ladies that came through before us or we would have just spent more money :)  Seriously, I bought some really great stuff  (and left some stuff behind for the next person) - I even bought a crockpot for $1.50 which is good because mine recently broke and I didn't want to pay the price for a new one.  Again, here's some of my fave purchases.

I found some cute fall and Thanksgiving decorations......

Some candles so our house will smell warm and inviting......

Some Christmas decorations because we tossed out alot of old ones last year......

Found some amber tiara sandwich glass at an antique store to add to my new collection.....

And a set of canisters to match.....

I'm hoping that we can find more great deals this summer.  But the end of summer means we are getting closer to the Covered Bridge Festival and that makes me smile!

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My friend O'Nealya has started a new website called Story of Hope Ministries.  She is very excited about this ministry and I know she would love to have you stop by and see what it's all about.   You can also find her on Facebook as well.

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I've been painting my kitchen the last few days and its almost finished.  I chose a yellow/gold/brown called Mustard Seed by Glidden - I would really like to call it "primitive yellow" because it seems to be the yellow that you see in so many prim magazines, pictures, and blogs - and Carl and I are so happy with it.  So, just a few more touch ups and then I'll post some pictures.

Ryan is in Michigan this week with a friend and his family.  I know he is having so much fun and he is well taken care of, but I miss my little guy.....the house just isn't the same without him.  I even think his older brother misses him although he will not admit it :)  Next week they are both going to visit their grandparents for a few days and I'm hoping they don't wear them out!

Yawn......it's late, I'm tired and it's time to say good night......

The Fair, Dirtbikes, and a Painted Room

Ahhh, the crowd, the food, the smells....hey wait.....what did I step in?  All kidding aside, we did go to the fair tonight and met some friends for dinner, although Carl said he was only going to see how many different foods could be fried.  Ryan did see a couple of friends - here he is with David.  I only wish my son would have smiled, but I will remember this picture and pull it out when he graduates from high school. 

We also saw a 2 week old goat.

The corn dogs and elephant ears were delicious, it was a fun evening spent with friends, but I'm happy to be away from the smells.  I even grew up on a small farm - you would think I would be used to it.

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Kyle and Ryan raced three days this week.  They were at the Clinton County Fair twice and then at the Hendricks County Fair on Monday.  Ryan got 2nd place and Kyle 7th at Clinton County.  Then at Hendricks County, Ryan got 3rd and lets just say that Kyle had a rough night.  After a couple of wrecks, we were happy that there were no broken bones and no broken bikes. Here are a couple of pictures from the Hendricks County Fair.

Kyle....

Ryan and Carl.....

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Carl recently told me that he thinks our house needs "color".  I took a look around  and thought it had color, but then I started looking at magazines and other blogs and guess what - our house needs some color!  That leads to project #1 - painting the entry way.  It's basically a large box that we don't use for anything other than a hallway.  I did have some old porch posts around the doors and couldn't decide if I wanted to keep them there - well, they have been removed.  To see a before picture, click here.  We decided on Benjamin Moore Van Duesen Blue which is a dark blue and we love it!  I told Carl that we had to work on project #2 so I could find something else to talk about.  Here are some pictures of the finished project.

Porch posts have been removed.  Now I need to figure out if I want to put curtains (or something) on the doors. 

The walls are a bit plain, but that can be fixed by shopping! 

I'm going to hop on over to Leslie's blog to see what everyone has been working on lately.  If you like to sew, Leslie's blog is one to read.  She is soooooo creative! 

A new baby, a birthday, and a redo

We received exciting news today!  My youngest sister gave birth to her second daughter, Anna Joy.  She joins proud parents Heath and Melissa, and big sister Kay.  We just can't wait to see her.

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There was another big event last week - my oldest son, Kyle, turned 15 and he will be a freshman this fall.  Time goes by so fast, doesn't it?  I remember the days after he was born....such sweet memories.  Well, here are some pictures of my handsome teenager, my husband Carl, and his brother Ryan.

I wish every day was full of smiles like this, but sibling rivalry sometimes sneaks it way into our house.

Kyle received some shirts for his birthday and Ryan got one too, then they decided to model them.  It was so funny and there were too many to choose from, so in order not to bore everyone, this is the one I decided to share.

Ok, I have just one redo picture to share.   I finished the post thingy that I have on my front porch.  It goes well with the repainted shutters and the porch looks so inviting when the candle is lit.  To see what it looked like before, click here.

I must say that we have been enjoying our summer so far - a few parties, a trip to Holiday World, the boys have been going to the community pool, plus we've had some yummy fresh fruit and veggies.  The county fair starts tomorrow and Ryan has Snickers entered in "dogs".  Wish us luck - my shy boy is going to have to get out in front of people he doesn't know and Snickers is not wanting to listen to him - this should be interesting. What have you been doing this summer?  Traveling, gardening, relaxing and trying to stay cool?  Whatever it is, I hope you have fun doing it.

Redo and Flea Market Finds

Good morning!!  Are you excited for fireworks?  I love holidays, celebrations, parties, festivals, etc., and if fireworks are involved, that just makes it better!

Well, if you've read my previous post, you know that Carl and I have been painting the shutters on our house.  We're using Claret Wine by Rustoleum, and we've purchased all the paint from the two stores in town and we still don't have enough to finish the rest of the shutters and the front door.  Sigh.......I'm hoping one store will get another shipment in soon so I can get the front door back on my house.  So one of our outdoor summer projects has been the house - washing the siding, staining the front porch, and painting the shutters (and I added the front door).  Here are some before pictures of the shutters....faded....old and worn.....needing some TLC....

And here is an after picture of them.  Once we get more paint, the upstairs shutters can be finished and put back up.

What do you think?  Carl and I really like it and can't believe the difference it makes.  A little more curb appeal, you know?  I've also been working on some other redo's.  This post-hanger thingy usually sits on my front porch or back patio and it also needed some TLC. 

So far I've painted it black, then two coats of red. Tonight I'm going to sand and stain it.

This chair was in a playhouse that my MIL played in when she was a little girl.  I really thought this was going to be an easy piece to sand - there were only two colors on the chair and they weren't going to budge.  I decided to wash the chair and it was like using a mini powerwasher!  Almost all the paint came off.

I'm not sure where this little beauty is going, but I'm sure I'll find the perfect place for it.  I put a coat of black on it and then I would like to put a coat of mustard yellow followed by stain.  I don't know where my fascination with painting everything black came from, but I seem to want to give almost everything a black base coat.

My MIL bought me this little shelf at a flea market in Lafayette and it is so cute - it's painted white with a crackle finish. 

I sanded, painted black (there's that color again!) and then mixed yellow and burnt umber to get the top coat color. I wanted to get something that kind of matched my curtains. Not sure if these things will stay on the shelf, but I was anxious to get something on there.

In this picture, it looks small between these windows but if in real life it doesn't look that bad.  Now, if you're talking about the picture....that is too small and it's gonna have to find another place to hang out. 

Well, have a wonderful day everyone.  I'm going to hop on over to Leslie's blog and see what everyone has been working on for Whatcha' working on Wednesday.  There are always some good things going on her Wednesday posts.  Hope to see you there!