Happy 4th and happy kitchen!

We had a very happy 4th of July! It had everything that makes it great: summer heat, a short power outage,
hanging out with the whole family, games, and of course...


homemade ice cream!!! (once the power came back on)

Here are a few snipits of our happy kitchen!

We LOVE the farmhouse sink from Ikea! Unfortunately, the corner broke off during install! (sniff sniff) But our amazing contractors are replacing it soon and we're very thankful!

The appliances and plumbing are yet to be done, but after that, there are 'little' things for us to finish up like: tiling the backsplash and laying hardwood floors ourselves, then I'll post some more finished photos!!! If you can't wait that long, then come on over and see it in person! :) We love showing it off if you don't mind walking through our maze of furniture, boxes, ladders (and dirt...dirt of all kinds that reappear immediately after I sweep and vacuum. It's inevitable. I give up.)

a teaser!

As we 'speak', the painters are on the other side of this plastic giving the kitchen base cabinets their shade of aqua!!! (technically, 'scuba green' from Benjamin Moore) Isn't it exciting!!!!!!!! I love how this glow is so tempting!!! Can't wait to show other reveal photos later this week!!!!

When it rains it pours

Our new kitchen cabinets came the other day!!!!
The one day in weeks that it's rained!!!
They were soaking wet and I almost lost it when the guys tilted the cabinets over to let the gallons of water pour out of them...! But everything worked out ok. Only a couple had to be refaced and the others dried out nicely, thank you Lord!

Steve and I had lots of sheetrock finishing to do before the cabinets could go up, and we have to let everyone know out there who might be hanging sheetrock soon that there is a lighter weight material out there!!! It's called Ultralight and it's literally almost half the weight of normal drywall. Who knew!? But it sure made it easier for Steve! (Really, all I did was hand him tools...) But I am really getting good at mudding! (If you're seeing this photo and think "...she's not really doing a good job mudding.." please let me know! )

The beadboard is up on the ceilings and we're so excited about how it's looking! The 'grid-looking' trim pieces will cover all the seams later...probably going to let the contractors do that as well seeing how miserable it was for them to hang the 4x8 panels over their heads. Thanks guys!! You are the best!!

A corner cabinet will be added soon. (also why I was lazy and didn't mud all the way up the wall...shhh)

last supper

kalamata olives, tomatoes and fresh basil pasta (made me think of you Brandy and our Tuesday night dinners!)

So this was one of our 'last suppers' before we (Steve) tore out our entire kitchen last weekend! And when I say "tore out" I am refering to the new rule of the house: 'don't leave the bedroom unless you're wearing shoes' (because there are wood chips and splinters, insulation cotton balls, nails and screws of many sorts, shards of broken tile all over the place...) kind of tore out! HOORAY! we say!
He and dad worked so hard the last few weeks and it's almost ready for our new cabinets and ceiling!!! We're very worn out to say the least, and excited about a new kitchen! Now...who wants to volunteer to help us tile the backsplash and lay hardwood floors...? huh? any takers? :)

Welcome Summer!

I got inspired to make something after hanging out with my friend Lauren who is a 'craft making machine' right now! Well, after pricing new front doors, the reality was....I'll just paint the one we have! Man! those new doors are expensive, so a fresh coat of charcoal paint perks up the front entry and looks updated. (much better than the white steel door with a few brush strokes of off white paint here and there...I guess the homeowners couldn't tell they were using a totally different color paint for touch ups on the door!)

My painted canvas pineapple! I sewed a front and back together, leaving an opening at the bottom, painted the pineapple and 'welcome', spray sealed it, stuffed it with newspaper (we're getting free-be daily papers delivered, as a marketing tactic I assume, and we're putting them to good use in crafts and as drop cloths! Thanks Democrat Gazzette!) and sewed up the bottom! = 2 hours! Hazzah!



My birthday came again this year! The homemade strawberry jam and bread were a divine way to wake up each morning of my birthday week! Thanks Werles!!!



We went to Dallas for the holiday weekend and really enjoyed seeing Steve's family, shopping, eating out (Abuelo's and Razoo's you are so tasty!) and the beautiful Courtyard Marriot!


See...beautiful courtyard! The lobby/cafe area was gorgeous too! A much needed getaway from a house that isn't as put together :)

We have visitors!

Melissa and Daisy are visiting us this week! Yeah! We love them!

Here is Daisy before going to the groomer for her annual 'Summer Shave' and here is the after!

 We're sure she's more comfortable in the heat this way...but is she comfortable with herself? We think so. Doesn't she look hilarious!!! I can't help to giggle at her during the day, but I love her just the same! Kisses puppers!!!!

ART in COOKING: inspiration for a painting? perhaps! I love the perfect circles of extra virgin olive oil and how they swam around each other like you would find in a 'live modern art exhibit' in MOMA!

ART in PAINT MIXING: this is always fascinating to me when I mix paint colors together! AMAZING!

Steve gets creative

Tell me you remember using Perler Beads when you were a kid! The ones you melt with an iron! (I know Tim will appreciate this!) Well, it's been a while since we were kids (clear throat and deep swallow...several years) so Steve got creative and dove right back into this beloved childhood craft with a vintage video game flare! What can I say...it's really awesome!

Q-bert and Tetris make for perfect adaptations to perler beads which have that classic pixel effect! (Although we should warn that it's a strain on the eyes when counting squares on your computer monitor! ha!)

And another shot of the canvas frames he built for me!

Then he got a hankering (is that how you spell hankering? is it an actual word even? if so, I'd like to use it soon with Bananagrams...) for sugar cookies from The Joy of Cooking. To be clear, I don't find that cookbook too much of a joy...no photos! But it's perfect for an engineer isn't it?  : )

Perfect sugar drop cookies!

Not-so perfect chocolate chip cookies....   : (  More like chocolate chip crepes!

Since the sugar cookies were successful, he made this classic, however, the recipe was wrong...it needed more flour than it called for...obviously! Come on Joy of Cooking!

Now that's more like it! These are perfectly puffy and perfectly tasty! I like it when Steve's creative with food! mmmm! Friends with benefits!