Kitchen redo!

We have been in our house for 5 years. Slowly but surely we have tried to get each room to reflect "us" and our personality.

Our house was built in 1978 and is the typical raised ranch style you find in older developments throughout Upstate New York. Our kitchen was remodeled in 1993 by the previous homeowners which had oak cabinets and ivory/bone colored appliances. It just felt dreary and sad. Nobody likes a sad and dreary cook! We I lived with it for 3 1/2 years...and then I just couldn't take it anymore!! After major hunting for ideas all over the blogesphere, ahem....Pinterest, I decided that white painted cabinets were just what the doctor ordered.

The previous owners kitchen

First I painted the walls a dark gray called Creek Bend by Behr. We purchased new stainless steel appliances and Jeff installed a dishwasher as the kitchen didn't have one before....best.thing.ever.

I decided I wanted open cabinets on one side of the kitchen, the other side near the fridge would keep their doors. I just love the look of open cabinets! So I took almost everything out of each cabinet and then all the doors off.





The white standing cabinet in this pic housed my colletion of Lu-Ray Pastel dinnerware. I got rid of the cabinet and those dishes now live in the open shelves.

Where the wine lives ;)

The paint I chose for the cabinets was Powdered Snow also by Behr (with the primer included) BUT the freak that I am also used primer by Zinsser first. It was a long process but totally worth it!

Cabinets before trimwork

Ahhh, my beautiful Lu-Rays!

Next came the trim I added to the tops of all the cabinets, I really like how they turned out.

So we lived with that for almost a year then I FINALLY finished the shelves I had wanted to put up inbetween the cabinets above the sink! That will be where my everyday dishes (Fiestaware) will be stored. I purchased four shelf brackets, two wood boards and trim for the front of each shelf from Home Depot.

Shelves being installed, new sink, faucet and door hardware.

New fridge and pantry

The keeper of all things important!



My new beautiful bright cheery kitchen. I love you. I love you. I love you!!

We kept the tile floor because it was in great shape and I am living with the countertops we had before. New countertops not really in the budget for now and I would really like to tackle the master bedroom next, so tag this baby DONE!!

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Side swiped!!

Soooo, I got some guts recently and made the plunge! I had my friend and hair stylist that works at the salon with me cut some side swept bangs on Thursday!! I have not had bangs since 1999!



I have been following the pinup model Cherry Dollface on youtube and she has some amazing vintage hair (and makeup) tutorials. That is what prompted me to cut my bangs, to be able to try some of her hairstyles. If you haven't yet checked out her videos I suggest you do! She's so sweet and the tutorials are easy to follow. Here are some of my favorites.

Vintage everyday beehive bouffant

Vintage Mod side ponytail bouffant

Vintage 1950's curly hair

The Cherry Dollface channel

I'm not used to the bangs yet and I have come to realize that I now need a few extra items in the bathroom to make them manageable such as a flat iron and stronger hairspray!  They fall into my eyes a bit while I am working but I just need to get the hang of styling them. I can't wait to try some new hairstyles and I will add some pictures here if I'm successful at all!

New hobby: Letterboxing

Okay, If you don't know this yet, I have quite a few hobbies that keep me busy. Genealogy, sewing, collecting, DIYing etc.
Enter Letterboxing.

It all started on the 4th of July at my husbands grandparents house. Waiting for us were his cousins and Aunt. They couldn't wait for us to get there to tell us (me) about their new hobby. Once they explained it, I said "lets go", and out the door we went. =)

It's basically a scavenger hunt, throughout the country and actually worldwide! People make a rubber stamp or they buy one and they also include a logbook. These items go into a hard, plastic "letterbox" (usually Rubbermaid type box). Then the "planter" the person planting the letterbox, writes up clues for you to follow and posts it online. There are two major websites for letterboxing. Atlas Quest and Letterboxing North America. Just do a search (usually by zip code) of what area you are looking for and you will finds TONS! and I mean TONS!! of letterboxes in your area!

All that you need for this fun adventure is an unlined logbook or notebook and a pretty cool stamp of your liking, this is your "signature stamp", an ink pad and also a "trail name" that you register on the website. Once you find where the letterbox is hiding, empty the contents of their box. Stamp your signature stamp into their logbook and sign your trail name and date, also the area where you are from too if you like. No personal information! Then take their stamp and do the same with your own log book. Make note of the date and the letterboxes name in there as well. Then close up their letterbox and hide it back in the spot you found it. As discreet as possible, we don't want any passersby to realize what you are up to. =)

 Basically you are collecting stamps that are secretly hidden. And I am HOOKED.

Usually the clues to where the letterbox is hidden takes you on a journey to beautiful places, quiet spots that you didn't even know where in your area. Some are historic and some are brain teasers that really make you think!

Butternut Creek Recreation and Nature Area

Old Orville Cemetery

It's a fun activity to do with the kids or family. My son and husband enjoy going with me. I've even got my sister hooked! It's a cheap date for sure, and we are spending our time together outside in the beautiful weather. Making memories, I think that is my favorite part.

My sister Lisa and I

Some of my favorite stamps so far:

These were hand carved!



My trail name is "Love Mom" which is one of my tattoos in my mothers handwriting that I have on my right forearm. My signature stamp is a picture of two vintage women with a background of a dress pattern instructions. =) Totally me!

Once you and your family start Letterboxing, I guarantee you will not want to stop. You will be jonesing for another find! Next up I plan to carve a stamp for my sister. We shall see how that goes! 

Pink, Pink, Pink!!

I just purchased this fun fabric for my sofa pillows! I can't wait for it to get here!

The website is www.spoonflower.com

My living room is a mix of different patterns and colors. I've been going with blues, greens and browns. Just recently I've been adding splashes of pink.

I just received this beautiful Leigh Viner print from her Etsy shop.

Jeff hasn't noticed the pops of PINK yet but I'm really considering replacing our boring black dining chairs with something pink. Hmmmmm, I think he will notice that. ;)

Here are some inspiration photo's....

Armonia Decors

House Beautiful

I'm really excited at all the new possibilities of room design with the color pink!!

Beefy! Dinner for a picky teenager.

Kind of a lazy day today. I threw together a recipe for dinner that I knew my picky son would like. Easy Beef Stroganoff. I really wasn't sure what to make for dinner until about an hour ago. =) So I just checked the pantry and knew I was going to make something with egg noodles.



Ingredients:

1 lb. hamburger
1/2 cup of Italian dressing
1 10 3/4oz. can of cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 cup of dry white wine
1/4 butter
1/2 of 8oz. tub of cream cheese "chive and onion"
Hot cooked egg noodles

In a frying pan brown the hamburger with the Italian dressing. Drain and set aside. In a pot, add the cream of mushroom soup, white wine, butter and cream cheese. I also added a bit of Italian dressing to the mix along with a splash of water. Cook until nice and combined. Add the hamburger and mix well. Serve over egg noodles. Makes 4 servings.

Caiden loved it! He's so picky! If I had them I would have added fresh mushrooms, which Caiden thinks are gross. Luckily the mushroom soup had small specks of mushrooms he wasn't able to identify.
=)

Beautiful Diaries

I'm excited to say that I just inherited a ton of family diaries!! I am on cloud 9!! My mother's first cousin Colleen in Colorado sent them to me. She has children and grandchildren of her own but she knows I'm the family historian and would take good care of them. I was given copies to a few of them a number of years ago, from my mother's other first cousin Pat in Vermont, but to have the whole collection of actual diaries is just completely awesome, I can't even describe it!!

One of the diaries is from my great great great grandmother Damaris (Robbins) West, it is from 1879-1883. She passed away in 1885 at the age of 77! The diary is 133 years old, unbelievable. The others are a total of 9 diaries from my great grandmother Catharine (Piquet) Clarke. She passed away in 1972 at the age of 92, just 11 months before I was born. Her diaries are 1914-1918, 1920-1925, and 1961-1966. It makes me wonder what happened to the 35 year span of diaries that are lost. =(

I plan to annotate the diary from my grt grt grt grandmother Damaris first, since it is smaller. I want future generations to be able to read them and have an understanding of who these people were, even 130 years from now!

I will probably scan every page into my computer and add the annotations there so as not to ruin the original. I will need to research US and NYS Census records, old newspaper articles and cemetery records to be able to add correct information to the diary of "who, what, where and when". At some point I will tackle my great grandmother Catharine's collection, but that will be a major undertaking, as some of them are very fragile.

(Click on picture to make it larger)

Damaris Robbins West 1879

Catharine Piquet Clarke's Diaries

My great grandmother Catharine had such beautiful handwriting

I can't wait to get started! Dang pesky job and chores will get in the way I'm sure. grumble grumble. Do you have any family treasure's to pass down to future generations??

Halloween 2011

Well, Caiden didn't dress up this year....sniff....=(

He took his younger brother and sister out and then hung out with some friends, dang 15 yr olds!  Saturday night I went out with his step mom, my friend, Christina. We went downtown and had a great ole time. My costume was a sugar skull for the Day of the Dead holiday or Día de los Muertos. I have been obsessed with sugar skull's for a while now, I just think they are beautiful. Also, I am a HUGE cemetery weirdo  enthusiast so a holiday about celebrating the dead is right down my alley. I'm in cemeteries quite often because of my love of genealogy and tracking down ancestors! =) One of my favorite artists is Sylvia Ji. She paints beautiful women mostly with sugar skull makeup. Here are a few. I wish I had the extra money to buy one of them!

  found here

My makeup was inspired by these paintings.

How was your Halloween? Get more treats than tricks?? I hope so! =)