Kitchen Before and After!!!

I am so thrilled that our kitchen is finally redone!  I've always hated the color of the cabinets.  Light pickled wood is just not for me.  I found a picture of a kitchen I loved with similar countertops to mine with white cabinets and a blue island, and that finally decided my plan for the kitchen.  Then I proceeded to procrastinate for months.  I bought the new hardware, thinking that might inspire me to get started.  Then I bought the paint, and let that sit in the garage for a month.  Finally, Dad finished building the beautiful new trim that raises the height of my cabinets to make them look much fancier, and that finally got me moving!  Now they are all done and I finally love my kitchen!

I love the blue island too. =)  The color is called Serenity, so it's perfect.  I just painted the sides and back though so if I change my mind about the color I don't have to repaint doors or drawers.  Never again is all I have to say about that =) And after I told Serenity the name of the color she said we should always keep it that color, she was so excited.  But I'm so happy I have a silly grin on my face every time I walk through the kitchen.

So here it is!

I LOVE the drawer pulls!

And here is the before:

Before we moved in

After Appliances

When it was green =)  This color allowed me to tolerate the cabinets for nearly three years =)

I still plan to paint the pantry door blue, and if they fit add drawers to the pantry to make it more functional.  And I'm going to order some new lighting for over the island soon.  Eventually we need to switch out the dishwasher and the faucet at least on the sink.  And I may want to get rid of the granite backsplash for something lighter in color.  But I'm content for now!  And if it were all done I'd probably get bored anyway. =) 

After the new microwave is installed and the new paint done.  Lambswool by Pratt and Lambert.  I decided I wanted the whole downstairs to be the same color since it's all open, and the neutral will let me switch out the accent color easily and quickly if I get the urge =)  I know, it's astonishing =)

I love my aqua ruffle curtains!  Or really cornices I guess, since they're just covering the blinds we never use. 

Magnet board is going to have to move to the hallway, I love the new island too much. =)

Digi-Scrapbooking

I have been MIA here for two months now!  I've got lots of projects I want to share, but I'm too busy crafting to want to post them =)  But I will quickly share some of the digital scrapbooking pages I've been making this month.  Snap My Life Creations, where I like to order my scrapbooks printed, is having a sale, and I'm trying to fill a book in time to take advantage of it!  At least it's motivated me to do some scrapbooking, I just now made my first pages for Donovan and he's 16 months old!!!!  I'm appalled!  At least now he has some and they're pretty =)

Ruffle Fabric Valances

I am super excited about my new valances in my kitchen!  My first window treatment in the house we've owned for three years now.  I don't know what it is about lighting and curtains but I just have a horrible time committing to them.  I repainted the kitchen area a few weeks ago and I loved it... but it just made me realize that the blinds in my bay window drive me crazy!  They are never straight, and the little pieces of wood that are supposed to stay at the top are always breaking out of their little plastic clips.  So, I covered them up!  Check it out!


This was SO cheap!  I bought a yard of the ruffle fabric and cut it in thirds.  12 inches was plenty long enough for a pretty valance (well, it ends up being 11 inches after the wrap around.)  I just wrapped it around foam core board using white duct tape!  Really, really easy!

If you want to do it yourself, I cut my board the width of my window, and then two inches longer than the length I wanted the valance.  I scored it at that two inches, and folded it, securing the seam with duct tape.  I used the folded part to tuck above the miniblinds.  I didn't even have to nail these things in!  Like I said, easiest window treatment ever!  I started attaching the fabric at the bottom.  I just folded the fabric part under to conceal the bottom of the foam core, and so a single ruffle hangs below the board.  That way I could be sure they ended up even.  The ruffle fabric doesn't ravel or anything!  Then I made sure the top was straight and that each valance had the same number of ruffles.  That was the hardest part, making sure not to stretch too much or the ruffles would pucker.  I just taped it bit by bit with the duct tape and then put one long piece over the top to secure it.

The one over my door has sides as well as the top.

Science Experiment: Mentos and What??

For my daughter's Science Birthday I was dying to do the famous Mentos and Diet Coke explosion experiment.  It is so cool looking.  But... it's not that pretty.  So for the Sparkly Science party, we decided we'd test out different kinds of sodas. We did the Diet Coke, but we also did Diet Cherry 7-Up, and diet orange soda.  It was awesome!  All the sodas worked just fine, and since we had a variety of drinks the kids could compare to see which went the highest!  I preferred the colored choices for sheer coolness factor, and they went plenty high!  Here are some pics

Globe Pillow =)

I made this fleece floor pillow for my godson Everett!  His room has an adventure/map sort of feel, so I thought this might work well.  I chose the fleece so I didn't have to worry about raveling.  I just used steam a seam for the applique, sewed around it with my machine to make sure it wouldn't come loose, and that was it!  I lost Madagascar somewhere but other than that it's great! 

Birthday Balloon Surprise =)

Since we celebrated her birthday party on Saturday, I didn't plan to do much for Serenity's actual birthday.  I promised we'd make cupcakes together since we had birthday pancakes at her party.  At the last minute though I headed out to the dollar tree to pick up a dozen mylar balloons.  We filled her room with them so she'd wake up to a happy birthday surprise!  She LOVED it!  We woke up to her happy shouts of "Balloon!  Balloon!"  Donovan soon ran to join her and added his, "Boon!  Boon!"  He was mesmerized.  I got a variety, so Serenity sorted her balloons into stars, flowers, circles, and then by color. =)  And she counted them.  So we had a little learning fun too. 

Planned Discoveries: Doctor's Office

A few things I've been reading on the internet came together last night!  One blog I follow (Momformation) recommended the show Doc MacStuffins.  It's a Disney Jr. show about a little girl who is a toy doctor...she fixes all her sick toys.  Then, I read another site about "planned discoveries."  I also saw something similar on Teach Preschool.The basic idea is to set up a vignette of some sort for the kids to come across and play with however they want.  Since today is Serenity's four year old checkup, I thought it was a great time to try this out! 

After she went to bed, I set up our game table with an assortment of doctor tools.  Our play doctor kit includes a stethoscope, otoscope, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, and syringe.  To this I added some cotton balls, a craft stick to use as a tongue depressor, an ace bandage, a clipboard, a medicine dropper or two, her lab coat from her birthday, and a box of real bandaids.  The bandaids were the biggest hit of course.  I set out a few stuffed animals, and they all immediately had boo boos.  After she asked in an awed and disbelieving voice, "can I give them REAL bandaids?"  She also asked for some tweezers, which we had from her Primary Science Set.  She performed a splinter removal operation, which she followed with a bandaid and a sticker as Lambie had been so brave.  She has played with this stuff for a couple of hours now!  I love listening to her creative play as she treats her animals and fixes them right up.  She's coming up with all kinds of stories and comforting her little patients.  Too cute. 

Totally worth the box of bandaids.  If only she didn't need a doctor's assistant to pick up all the wrappers. =) 

The bonus is, the doctor kit is something she doesn't really play with much.  So getting it out and putting it in an obvious place like this is better than buying her a brand new toy =)