It's in the air...Spring. Sure, the weather might be unpredictable, right now it looks like it could start raining any minute but that won't stop me from my latest project. Now what action or should I say annual event do we associate with Spring? It's Spring Cleaning of course!
My thoughts are with reorganizing my kitchen. The cupboards and pantry were in dire need of some serious help. As it is with any kitchen, things get stored in a certain order and then over time things fall out of order. Every kitchen needs to be gone over every few weeks, mine is no exception.
I took everything out of my 2 pantry areas, my appliance garage and even the storage cabinets that I need to stand on a chair to see into. Now that I've rearranged everything I seem to have even MORE space then I did before :) Life is Good!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
quote of the day
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
-Joseph Campbell
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Up-Cycling!
I'm a scrapbooker, a quilter, a foodie/gourmet cook, a gardener and now I'm a self proclaimed up-cycle queen!
I am all about giving item a new look with a little paint and maybe a few alterations to their original design. Take our master bathroom- we're giving it a fresh new look. I bought some spray paint and we went to town! The original color of the hardware and light fixtures was a dark brown almost black and we switched it up to silver with a hammered texture. The dirty purple walls are now a lovely serene aqua reminiscent of tropical ocean waters. I decided to go with a Hawaiian theme as I have fond memories of us spending our 15th wedding anniversary in Hawaii. By using exotic tropical flowers such as orchids (real ones) along the wall by the jetted bath tub, I've managed to give the room the feel of a tropical garden. I purchased fabric from a quilt shop in Hawaii for making window treatments and basket liners. The floral print is an authentic Hawaiian print, one that's full of Orchid, Plumeria, Hibiscus and Antherium blossoms as well as a few varieties of green leaves. I hope to find a large leafy plant for the bathroom to round out the tropical garden feel.
While I was out scouting around in my favorite consignment shop, I found some great things to work with...there was this small half round table that I HAD to have! With a little bit of sanding and a fresh coat of paint and it'll be perfect for our half bath! I'm very much into Pinterest- if you haven't joined yet, then you must! I'm always finding things I like, things that inspire me and things that I want to make or recreate for our home. Another one of today's great finds was a wicker picnic basket- I am going to gut it and make it into a Pet Bed for my spoiled cat. I'll make a fabric liner with Velcro tabs so it can be easily removed for washing.
Now to look at some fabric for my kitty's new bed.
I am all about giving item a new look with a little paint and maybe a few alterations to their original design. Take our master bathroom- we're giving it a fresh new look. I bought some spray paint and we went to town! The original color of the hardware and light fixtures was a dark brown almost black and we switched it up to silver with a hammered texture. The dirty purple walls are now a lovely serene aqua reminiscent of tropical ocean waters. I decided to go with a Hawaiian theme as I have fond memories of us spending our 15th wedding anniversary in Hawaii. By using exotic tropical flowers such as orchids (real ones) along the wall by the jetted bath tub, I've managed to give the room the feel of a tropical garden. I purchased fabric from a quilt shop in Hawaii for making window treatments and basket liners. The floral print is an authentic Hawaiian print, one that's full of Orchid, Plumeria, Hibiscus and Antherium blossoms as well as a few varieties of green leaves. I hope to find a large leafy plant for the bathroom to round out the tropical garden feel.
While I was out scouting around in my favorite consignment shop, I found some great things to work with...there was this small half round table that I HAD to have! With a little bit of sanding and a fresh coat of paint and it'll be perfect for our half bath! I'm very much into Pinterest- if you haven't joined yet, then you must! I'm always finding things I like, things that inspire me and things that I want to make or recreate for our home. Another one of today's great finds was a wicker picnic basket- I am going to gut it and make it into a Pet Bed for my spoiled cat. I'll make a fabric liner with Velcro tabs so it can be easily removed for washing.
Now to look at some fabric for my kitty's new bed.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
quote of the day
There's something almost perfect in the ugly duckling syndrome. Because a sensitivity is tattooed on a part of you no one else can see but can somehow guess is there.
-Stephanie Klein
Friday, March 02, 2012
Crocs with Socks
For as long as I can remember my Mom can make me see myself in a way that no one else can. She can make me frustrated, annoyed, cranky and sad, but most of all she can have me laughing and seeing the silly side of things.
Oh my word I laughed so darn hard I almost peed myself, twice!
We talked about bedding...this is something I'm a stickler about. You see, I like solid colored sheets, in colors that compliment the quilt or comforter on the bed versus ones that fight for visual attention with the bed covering. All my life my mom has been obsessed with patterned sheets. There were at least 15 different sets of printed sheets for our beds! From those wildly colored floral prints to one set with what I thought of as an insane geometric pattern to those crazy Asian inspired bird sheets right down to Christmas themed sheets. Believe it or not, that sort of thing drove me crazy as a kid. My mom and I had a good laugh about the time I begged her for solid colored sheets. Apparently normal kids don't ask for sheets for Christmas or birthdays (who knew?).
She had me laughing about life's little things...when she would be so thick into a sewing project that she would "forget" to make dinner for us. Oh yeah we called it "fend for yourself night". If she was into a sewing project, we'd be going hungry. My family has a similar thing going on when I'm into a crafting project, they call it "cheese and cracker night".
My mom had me seeing how we are the same but also very different. She made me laugh with my obsession with dishes. Growing up, I remember my Mom and her love of all things Corelle. I remember how she would buy a new set of Corelle dishes and just add it to her existing set. There must be 30 or more Corelle dinner plates of various patterns stacked in her kitchen cabinet! We laughed pretty hard at that. She poked fun at me and my huge dislike using paper plates. I can't help it if I'm a little odd. We all have our hang ups and mine is disposable dinnerware. I did tell her that I used disposable stuff when we had the house warming party (it was plastic and I was able to recycle it all, which makes me feel better about the stuff).
There are so many things we laughed at, for example- how I wear Crocs with socks and how she wears socks with sandals.
Silly is as silly does.
Oh my word I laughed so darn hard I almost peed myself, twice!
We talked about bedding...this is something I'm a stickler about. You see, I like solid colored sheets, in colors that compliment the quilt or comforter on the bed versus ones that fight for visual attention with the bed covering. All my life my mom has been obsessed with patterned sheets. There were at least 15 different sets of printed sheets for our beds! From those wildly colored floral prints to one set with what I thought of as an insane geometric pattern to those crazy Asian inspired bird sheets right down to Christmas themed sheets. Believe it or not, that sort of thing drove me crazy as a kid. My mom and I had a good laugh about the time I begged her for solid colored sheets. Apparently normal kids don't ask for sheets for Christmas or birthdays (who knew?).
She had me laughing about life's little things...when she would be so thick into a sewing project that she would "forget" to make dinner for us. Oh yeah we called it "fend for yourself night". If she was into a sewing project, we'd be going hungry. My family has a similar thing going on when I'm into a crafting project, they call it "cheese and cracker night".
My mom had me seeing how we are the same but also very different. She made me laugh with my obsession with dishes. Growing up, I remember my Mom and her love of all things Corelle. I remember how she would buy a new set of Corelle dishes and just add it to her existing set. There must be 30 or more Corelle dinner plates of various patterns stacked in her kitchen cabinet! We laughed pretty hard at that. She poked fun at me and my huge dislike using paper plates. I can't help it if I'm a little odd. We all have our hang ups and mine is disposable dinnerware. I did tell her that I used disposable stuff when we had the house warming party (it was plastic and I was able to recycle it all, which makes me feel better about the stuff).
There are so many things we laughed at, for example- how I wear Crocs with socks and how she wears socks with sandals.
Silly is as silly does.
The time to purge is now!
What do you do when you have lots of stuff that you keep for sentimental reasons but don't use? For me, I keep it all packed up in boxes. Today I'm going through those boxes and am making myself part with those items.
I have openly admitted that I am a dish hound, well I've got a few boxes of dishes to go through and weed out. Who am I kidding, it's A LOT of boxes! I've decided that it's just plain nuts for me to keep dinnerware that we don't use. I thought about saving it for my kids...what a joke! I can wish as much as I like that they could appreciate quality made in the USA dinnerware but it still isn't going to happen (insert small chuckle here).
At the same time, it's also insane for me to keep dishes that I never liked, even if they were a wedding gift. This is a different set than the ones I was just talking about. Now it's been over 20 years and we've been dragging this stuff from assignment to assignment and state to state. At times it was in permanent storage (one of those out of sight out of mind sort of deals). Well the time to purge them is now. Seriously, why am I keep something that's been stored in cardboard boxes for years? I should not feel guilty for wanting to get rid of something that I don't ever use- but yet I do. Is it because it was a wedding gift? I need to move past that. I just need to get rid of it all right now, kind of like tearing off a band-aid off in one swift yank!
I have openly admitted that I am a dish hound, well I've got a few boxes of dishes to go through and weed out. Who am I kidding, it's A LOT of boxes! I've decided that it's just plain nuts for me to keep dinnerware that we don't use. I thought about saving it for my kids...what a joke! I can wish as much as I like that they could appreciate quality made in the USA dinnerware but it still isn't going to happen (insert small chuckle here).
At the same time, it's also insane for me to keep dishes that I never liked, even if they were a wedding gift. This is a different set than the ones I was just talking about. Now it's been over 20 years and we've been dragging this stuff from assignment to assignment and state to state. At times it was in permanent storage (one of those out of sight out of mind sort of deals). Well the time to purge them is now. Seriously, why am I keep something that's been stored in cardboard boxes for years? I should not feel guilty for wanting to get rid of something that I don't ever use- but yet I do. Is it because it was a wedding gift? I need to move past that. I just need to get rid of it all right now, kind of like tearing off a band-aid off in one swift yank!
quote of the day
Men are like wine - some turn to vinegar,
but the best improve with age."
Pope John XXIII
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