Father's Day

Father's Day gatherings bring out yummy samplings from my kitchen.  You know that the fastest way to a man's heart is through his stomach.  This year as every year on Father's Day we met at my parents house with all of my siblings and their families.  I am incredibly blessed to have a family close by to celebrate even the smaller holidays on a regular basis.

I tried a couple recipes from Pinterest that I hadn't tried yet.  One of them you will find here.  http://thediva-dish.com/uncategorized/strawberry-broccoli-salad-how-to-get-your-2-year-old-to-eat-it/ It is Strawberry Broccoli Salad and oh my!  I have made spinach and strawberry with feta cheese before and love that.  With cashews, broccoli, strawberries and plain Greek yogurt as part of the dressing, it almost has all of the food groups!  I really think I will make up batches of this and put it in small containers for lunches!  It has everything you need for a yummy, healthy lunch.  All food groups except the grains.  (But who doesn't love a good cracker with a salad?) YUM!

A Little Experiment

Before

 What happens when you have a kitchen paint/refresh job and a husband who offers to make dinner?  That's right, paint on his work pants.  If he still had the first job he got when we were newlyweds, it would be fine.  He worked in construction.
 Not so great now however, when he works in an office at the computer.  What a great opportunity to check out Pinterest for an answer to this problem.  Of course that is what I did.  The problem is that there were mixed opinions about what to do with paint on clothing.  One group says blot it as quick as you can before it dries.  Looking at it I didn't think that blotting it out would work.

So Far...

 The other group I found was something I hadn't heard of before said to wait until it dried thoroughly and take a brand new razor to it and chip it off with the sharp edge.  That is what I thought I would do.  So, today I tackled the thoroughly dry paint.  I was extremely excited at first as it started to come off.  Using an old toothbrush I would razor and then brushed off the powdery residue.
 As you can see in the center of the paint swipe, there is a higher concentration of paint.  I realized at the point of the second picture that I had actually razored a small little hole close to the seam by weakening the weave.  So here I am ready to call it a day knowing that I dare not go farther until I can search for the solution for razored holes in dress pants and see what Pinterest has to say about that!

A Day Full of "Doing" in the Kitchen!

 

Talking about the kitchen yesterday made me think that I should show some of the other improvements that have happened so far.  Here below is a picture of the corner where the lazy Susans went in from the outside.  So, no more brown cabinets on that side of the kitchen! 

 

Here is above the stove which I love too.  You can see the terra cotta color painted over the ivy stencils I did when we first moved in.  I am not sure what it was about stencils, but I was very into them for awhile.  In our last house there were stenciled watermelon all around in that kitchen (yes, painted by me).  I sometimes miss that kitchen, very cheery and bright.  This kitchen is NOT that!  At least not yet.  As you can see, the white paint really makes a difference if you compare them with yesterday's "before" pictures!

One of the problems that had to have a solution is the problem of the cabinet / drawer handles.  On one side of the kitchen the handles looked like the ones on the top (in the picture on the left).  On the other side (the hutch / buffet side), the handles were "fancier" (as you see on the bottom of the picture).  Not only were there two different types of handles, the were two different sizes! 

Here are the new ones.  I found a few styles that came in the two different sizes but hit the jackpot at Menards when they had 10 packs of these great handles.  There were holes at both 3 inches and 3 3/4!  So not only did I save money in the budget by finding this in 10 packs, but I could also use the exact same handles (and not two of the same handles in different sizes)!  No one is the wiser!  They look so good! 

A friend showed up at my house on Friday and said "Hi! I am wearing my painting clothes!"  With her two to entertain my five, we were able to move everything out of the hutch / buffet side of the room and start on the painting there.  

Then Yesterday I was able to finish the coats on the inside of the top hutch along with the shelves and all of the drawer fronts on the bottom.  The cabinet doors are next.  I can't wait to get done painting and move to counter and backsplash! 

Big Project Update: How About a New Kitchen?

My kitchen project is one of those that will be GREAT when it is done!  I drag myself in there to work during the process but really only care about the results.  These are the kind of projects that can drag on for me!  Here is my kitchen (a few before pictures).

 There is usually an island that rolls in the middle there but I realized after the kids started pulling things out to start painting that I haven't taken "before" pictures.  The room is a HUGE improvement over when we moved in.  There were 1970's appliances and cabinet doors falling off the hinges.  The appliances have long ago been updated but cabinet doors still fall off.  

Looking at the first picture you can see where the cabinet door under the sink is missing.  One day my husband went to open the left side and the right door fell off!

It is interesting that the buffet/hutch side of the kitchen is what actually attracted me to the house. Cool, I thought.  There is a place to display all of my "prettys".  Lets face it, eight years later and two more kids in the picture, I am in desperate need for storage and couldn't care less about displaying "prettys".  The plan is to paint the cabinets white and the walls a terra cotta.  The ivy is going away too - as my mom said "I'm over it!"  We thought the tricky part would be to fill in the holes and re install the hinges which are old and hard to find.  My dad came to the rescue and found some exact matches!  

Woo Hoo!  Organization!
This week I would have to say that one of my favorite updates so far is the make shift lazy Susans on the bottom corner cabinet. Before they went in, that corner was just a black hole that sucked up everything that was shoved back there!  I do have to come in from one side or the other but compared to what it used to be, I am excited to have this addition thanks to my husband and dad who helped engineer and install them.  Tune in next Friday to read about my first experience with magnetic paint!

Motivation From Some New Curtains!

It is amazing what some curtains can do to a bedroom.  For eight plus years we have lived in our current home.  I have always been intimidated by the fact that our bedroom has two windows on one wall (taking up the entire wall) and one window on another.  That leaves little flexibility for moving around furniture which stinks for a girl who likes a change now and then.

Because of my attitude about the windows, I really think that the room had become the place to dump things.  For instance, Easter weekend we host brunch.  So, the day before when everyone is frantically trying to clean up the house, my suggestion many times would be "just go throw that in on Mommy's bed and I will take care of it"  Take care of it?  By now my kids know that when a pile of stuff goes into Mom's room it gets added to the piles in the corners on the floor, on the dressers or nightstands.  Who was I kidding?

I had an idea of what I wanted for curtains and rather than making them,  I thought it would be faster to just go out and buy some nice ones. So I did.  You can't beat Kohl's and a 30% off coupon along with an already 30% off sale!  It took a good bit of work on a Friday afternoon, but they went up!  WOW!  It was like my room was transformed into a luxury hotel.  Of course I did throw everything that didn't belong in there out!  Since then (I believe it was the second Friday after Easter) there has been nothing dumped in there and the bed has been made EVERY DAY!  If I am not the last one out of bed, my husband even takes a few extra minutes to make it. It has turned into a mini sanctuary.

This is my most recent change.  With a new feel in the room I decided to update our 1992 silk wedding flower decor with something else that would add to the feel of the room.  I had this "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" plaque up alone on a wall because I just thought it was cool (You can't really call me a master decorator).  Through my searches online, I had seen different things done with pictures on canvas.  With that in mind I found four kissing pictures I had of us in our years together and put them on canvas.  There are a couple more places to update and then the room will be perfect!

Appreciation

The end of the school year is full of all kinds of activities.  I searched for a great idea for my son's 1st grade teacher's door during teacher appreciation week and found some good ones here: http://ewehooo.blogspot.com/search/label/teacher%20appreciation%20door%20decorations.


I opted for the pirate theme and tweaked a little bit.  Instead of OUR I made it more "piratey" by replacing it with ARRRR.  It was a fun door.  I love the internet at my fingertips where there are all kinds of clipart and pictures to go with any theme a person may be looking to follow.  I was able to put the kids faces on the little pirates too from the class composite picture my son brought home in the fall. It was a hit!

Hope For the Hair Design Challenged

My sister is a hairdresser, and a very talented hairdresser at that.  My poor girls are lucky to have a mom who can put in a ponytail!  When I first started to go through Pinterest boards I was a little bit excited to see how many people were posting different hair designs for all ages.  On the night of my daughter's gymnastics tryouts I tried out my first attempt at one of these pins.  You can find this one at: http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/2008/06/this-is-what-its-all-about.html.  Those who pay close attention while reading this blog will notice that not all my attempts are exact but being "hair challenged", I was pretty impressed with my results.

Easy Summer Lunches?

Today is starting simple.  It is the first full day of summer vacation and I was burdened with the thoughts of "how do I feed these kids lunch all summer without hearing complaint after complaint?"  Well, just yesterday there was a pin on my screen for a site offering ideas for great lunches in muffin tins.  Check it out: (http://fancy-edibles.com/breakfast/24-awesome-muffin-tin-recipes) Of course, not being the great planner that so many others are, I had nothing in my pantry that could be used for the recipes there.

I am a creative creature.  Put me in the sewing room, the craft room downstairs, in the garden or yard or even in the recliner with yarn and a crochet hook and I can really go to town, but put me in the kitchen? No, I got nothin'!  So, shortcuts and quick meals are my repertoire.  One challenge that I have dealt with is that our 4th is on the autism spectrum and although it isn't the case for all autistic children, we see a huge difference in his ability to control his emotions and behavior if he eats gluten free.

Armed with a boxed GF muffin mix, I started his batch.  Mixing in chopped deli turkey and cheese with the batter, (about a cup total) and baked it as the instructions said.  They turned out great!  To get him to love something with the first bite is not easy so I was pretty pleased.  I will freeze two in a bag for lunches and three of the minis in a snack bag for the days he needs a protein boost before gymnastics.

Next I consulted my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook for a basic blueberry muffin recipe.  I reduced the sugar and added about a cup and a half of the deli turkey and shredded cheese.  Adding a dash of salt and pepper, I figured that would do it.  I baked it as directed in the recipe book and was pleased with how many times the kids walked through the kitchen for another sniff.  The kitchen smelled great.

Huge hit for us all!  We will be doing these again, not to mention the other recipes that were on the pin (once I make it to the grocery store to restock!)  I do have to say that I am pretty pleased with my ability to use some creativity in the kitchen - that is a rare happening that I could get used to!