When Pinterest and Real Life Collide....that's supposed to happen right?

I hang around Pinterest.  Not too obsessed but when I can't sleep it's a great joint.  And I don't mean "joint" in a "doob" kind of way more of a "library" kind of way.    I find some interesting stuff there.  Food, nail polish, hot guys in a creepy kind of hot guy way (not my fav), some religious stuff I could do without but what the hell, it's there and I can skip over it and I see some GREAT ideas that suit my current sitch (as Kim Possible would say.)

So today,  I took one of those "sitches" and am making it my own.   I am re-using my pantry door in a new spot.  It's a door with a glass front.  Back story, we live in a "model" home  (oh how far I could take that nonsense.)   As a model, having the pantry door with clear glass obviously opens the space.  In real life, a clear glass pantry door drives one crazy.

With the remodel, the entrance to the pantry is in a new place.  Awesome.  Because we are counting our pennies, we are using the old pantry door.  I don't want it to be see through anymore.  I'm taking care of that.  Thank you Pinterest.

Door, covered in black contact paper with lines and math and lines and stuff.

Door from another angle.  And yes,  it is currently the door to HELL which sadly is so appropriate and inappropriate at the same time.

Praying to Hades that my door way to HELL turns out.  I meeeaaannn, here's hoping that step one leads to a great step two and that when you come to my house you always, always feel welcome.

Progress people.  Progress.

Please add Kim Possible Theme Song to my Life Soundtrack.  Beep Me. Anytime you need me.


 

Fifty Shades of Gray..... my review.

Wait, what?

 There's a book?

 A book about WHAT?!

So not what I'm talking about.  Wow!  I'm talking Gray.  Not Grey.  There's a difference.

I think I have officially looked at 50 shades of gray.  At least.  There are so many variations in gray and I have had a hard time nailing one down.  The cabinets in the new kitchen are gray.  A very light shade of gray, it's very hard to see.  When you hold something white up to them,  it becomes more obvious. While it is subtle, in a weird way it's a very obvious part of the kitchen.  With that said, making a color choice for the walls has been challenging.  Those who know me (all 22 of you) understand that this is something I can lose sleep over.  Have lost, might still lose, and subsequently losing.

Initially I headed in a blue gray direction.  But we are not really blue people.  We like blue but living with blue is not something we do.  We head more in a warmer direction.  If you can possibly imagine, there are grays out there that have golds and reds and umbers in them.  Who knew!

After throwing some paint on the walls, we think we've come to a decision.

Which color would you choose?  Let us know.
To vote, go like this
A.
B.  C.
     D. E.
F.

Go ahead, tell us.


I am SO NOT a professional blogger!

One Step Closer to Being the Home of the Worldest Largest Refrigerator

I've been hiding.


Hiding from the dust, the filth, the financial impact.


 I've been hiding from the kitchen remodel.


 Let's face it.  It's ugly.  It's messier than you expect, it takes longer than you expect and it ALWAYS costs more than you expect.

I know, this is not new information.  But we all jump into these ideas with pictures pulled from magazines, a Pinterest board overflowing with loveliness and full on blind ambition.  It's so fun to be naive and childlike until you get a big fat smack in the face by a piece of crown molding that cost you more than your 14 year olds braces.

Okay not really, Mr. Handsome put the kibosh on the solid gold crown molding.... he felt it might, oddly enough "cheapen" the space.

But because all 22 of you are dying to know what the hell is going on here at the hive.... I will pleasure you with some pictures (I figured going with an "adult" metaphor I might pick up a few comments or followers.)


So for your viewing pleasure (to make the experience even more exciting see the post before this to get the full effect, kind of like a flip book from the olden days)

WAS:

IS:

WAS:

IS:

WAS:

IS:

I realize my photography skills are not ideal.  I would have mapped it out if I were a professional blogger.  I would have put an X on the floor and shot from the same spot.  But wait, oh that's right ...

1. I am not a professional blogger.
2. I am currently not living in the space and wait for it......
3. I have 3 children that are so busy it's mind blowing!  Okay, I'm good.

It looks lovely.  We are thrilled with what is happening.

For those of you curious about sources or how we are doing this on a TIGHT budget, ask away.   I am happy to share what I am learning, what I am sacrificing and how I think you can do this without spending what the professionals tell you to spend.  It certainly isn't DIY.  Sadly, we just don't have the time for that but someday I could see Mr. Handsome and myself taking on a few projects by our little ol' selves.


Party on people.  Next time you see me perhaps there will be countertops.  If you are good, I might do a dance on them for you (totally not meant to be an adult metaphor.)

C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G Song, it just might help if you sing along.

There was a time when Mr. Handsome and I were going to become avid campers.  We were going to tackle the challenge of becoming experts in the field of camping or camping in a field.  A pop-up camper or even a larger "hard-walled" camper was an investment we considered.  The Utah, The Matterhorn, The Cascade.... the options are endless.  We had dreams of camping with the kids, finding that perfect campsite next to a bubbling brook.  Campfires, smores, our own "glam"ping menus that we planned out ahead of time.  We could come up with great meals, perhaps author a cookbook of gourmet food that people could make while camping.   Well, it's not happening.  Not happening AT ALL.  We would be terrible campers.  We would like it for about 36 hours and then we would be ready to turn that "investment" right around and head home.

Instead of the great outdoors,  we are camping out in Mr. Handsome's parent's house.  It's kinda like a little vacation.  Funny how just a change of scenery can change your point of view.

The kitchen reno is underway.  Slowly but surely.  Slowly by design.  It's SSSSOOOO expensive and I do not do well handing out money left and right.  Also, because it's pricey, we are being extremely thoughtful with our choices.  It's out of nece$$ity.  Plus, who doesn't love to get the most out of their money?

I promised myself I would document the progress.  So as I promised..... here you go.  I sold our old cabinets on our local classified website.  The new owners of our old cabinets came and removed them.  And did it quite expertly..... thank goodness.  The granite came out in whole pieces.  Hallelulijah.  We will either attempt to use the pieces in bathrooms or will put them up for sale as well.

BEFORE:

CURRENT:

BEFORE:

CURRENT:

BEFORE:

CURRENT:

Next step?  Well, the new cabinetry is scheduled to be delivered.  The island (see it up there, in the corner of that picture, right there?)  needs to be removed and the refrigerator needs to find it's new home in the garage.  We have some tile to pick out for our backsplash and some appliances to order.  That heinous(!) wallpaper that was expertly painted over with textured paint,  needs to be removed.

After typing that last sentence, might I add......

1. Be careful where you choose to put wallpaper people.
2.  If you don't like existing wallpaper, take time to remove it properly.
3.  Seriously, textured paint?  Sorry Ralph Lauren, it was a bad idea.  BAD RALPH! VERY,VERY BAD!

In the meantime, we have a comfortable place to stay that doesn't involve pooping in the woods or washing our clothes in a bubbling brook.  We made microwave s'mores last night and I have to admit they were pretty good.  All in all, this investment is a much better choice for this crowd.

Just to prove that we aren't complete home bodies..... here are the kids enjoying some time in the great wide open.  We love nature.  It's just nice to come home to a snuggly bed.

Add "The Campfire Song" to my Life Soundtrack.

A Few of My Favorite Things..... go ahead just start singing it. I am.

Okay, I'm a fan of a lot of stuff.  Puppies, clean sheets, black olives, coupons.  But I have a couple things that are my favs.


1. KIDS ARTWORK!  It's the only artwork I own.  Not entirely true but it's a statement I use broadly.  I'm that person that has a rotating gallery of frames that showcase my kids' artwork.  In all seriousness, I love their art and I believe showing it off is good for everybody's self-esteem.


2.  BLANK NOTECARDS .  You can use those bad boys for any occasion.  Birthday? yes.  Graduation?  yep.  Congratulations on the new job?  you betcha.  Sorry to hear about the wart?  Absolutely!

3.  RUBBER CEMENT.  I'm almost positive I have mentioned this somewhere on this here little ol' blog but I'm too busy to research that.  It is the best bonding agent for paper and it's super fun to peel away. It just is.  

4.  HAND WRITTEN, SENT IN THE MAIL, THANK YOU NOTES.  While I spend a good amount of time on the computer with email, Facebook, Pinterest blah de blah blah, I still LOVE getting snail mail.  So, making my children write thank you notes is pretty much the reason for which I live.  I'm a task master for this.  It will make them better adults, I'm sure of it.

Elvis is a year older.  He's got some thank you notes to write!  I picked a piece of his artwork that makes me smile and made copies of it.  Slapped the copies on some blank notecards I had around the house with trusty rubber cement and we are 1/3 of the way there.

Experience has made me wiser.  I know that little people find this task, well, tedious!  So I try to ease their pain by taking care of the sentence structuring.  It's way more fun to fill in the interesting parts.  It makes the task quicker, less painful and something they aren't turned off to for life.

Elvis completed four thank you's in 15 minutes.  He's proud of his accomplishment.  The gift givers will be psyched to receive the thank you and I am proud of his work.

I know you can buy something similar at almost any big box store these days.  Don't bother.  Make your own from original artwork and about 5 minutes on the computer.  You can customize the inside to fit your child's personality.


Okay I'll get off my Emily Post soapbox.  Rock on people.

Pushing my buttons, so to speak

I've been trying to work some creativity into my daily life lately.  I easily fold 2 baskets of laundry a day, make a bunch of beds, contemplate 3 meals and 2 different snacks, push around a bunch of papers and waste at least an hour on Facebook daily.  I forget that taking the time to be creative is truly a psychological outlet for me.  Hence, the altar.

These little cuties are bracelets I've been making.  I have a button machine dedicated to making silly swimming buttons.  The kids decorate their swim backpacks with them and I've made a little money selling them at swim meets.  When I saw the bracelet concept in the button supply catalog (yep, there's a catalog of those kinds of things)  I couldn't resist trying it.  Super FUN!

I went throught some other catalogs I had around the house.  You probably have the same bunch, Garnet Hill, Pottery Barn, West Elm.  I found patterns that were appealing and got busy.  They are really cute and add a little punch to any outfit.  You know me and bracelets and the people who wear them.


Lookie there, money saved on therapy.

Vivir la vida al maximo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I have created this altar for a friend.  She proves to be an inspiration to me time and time again.  It has been a pleasure to try an art form that is outside of my heritage but definitely follows my

 "use what you have" philosophy.   It's my hope she loves it.

The theme revolves around tequila.  Tequila is one of the things that brings us together.  The vintage bottle in the middle is filled with the lovely gold goodness inspired by tequila, note the worm crawling out of the bottle.  The sides of the altar are wallpapered with "One Free Drink" tickets.  The skeletons represent our friends with sharp dress and angel wings.  It's a fun and different way to thank them for just being them.

Live life to the fullest!  Every day.  Seriously, every day!