Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Once upon a kitchen...... Official BEFORE photos!

Once upon a time there was a dirty OLD kitchen. Ok, so really its a dirty OLD kitchen!  I will warn you, it's clean of germs, but it will always look and be dirty to me!!  I am still learning my photo taking capabilities, so bear with me, and enjoy ther dirty old tour!!

We live in a 1950 Ranch Style home, and I have no idea whether these are the original cabinets or not... however, they are going away!  End of discussion.  It's an awful galley kitchen which will have to stay, but trust me, it will change-o-la!

 You liked the brown right?  hahaha  Well here it is again from the other side.....
 Now for some close ups:  This is the spot next to the dishwasher that had to be torn out in order to have a dishwasher in the first place.  We have lived here for 4 years, and have yet to fix this....  so this is where our recycle lives.. i probably could have emptied it for the photo.  Also, notice the layers of paint on the inside of the cupboards!!
 
 Right across the way from the recycle is the stove.....  again, it was fit for an old larger stove, and when that was taken out, it left a big empty gap... now the home for the garbage can!!  My dog loves it!!  grrr.....  Also take note, that in order to hang the over the range microwave we had to cut out the cabinet, thus leaving us with no doors to hide all of the above.... another grrr....
 And luck would have it that now 60 years later.... fridges are bigger, and those cabinets had to be cut out as well.  Yea we could have fixed them, but we knew in the long run that they were not going to be staying, we just didn't plan on it being this long.
 And then there was the sink!  Well first off... it leaks, and has from day 1!!  We've fixed it over and over, but we have to re-do all the pipes.  Second, notice the front plate thing missing??  Annoying, and again I could have done something for that too, but I thought that the longer it looked ugly, the faster the hubs would agree to a remodel.  No such luck!!
 And this is our tile backsplash???  Really???  what is that?!?!?!  moving on.....
 This cupboard has always bothered me.  You cant reach anything in the far top corner, so it's just wasted space.... I cant wait to tear that one down!!!

 Oh and the floor.... we re-finished the hardwood floors 2 years ago, but unfortunately there was no oak under the kitchen linolium..... so i lived with it like this for the past years, and cannot cannot wait to have the wood floors finished thoughout!!  Squeeallll!!

 Here is what they called a dining room... with a family of 5... i have no clue how you expect everyone to fit in there AND have room for a table to eat at.   I have BIG BIG plans for this little nook!!  (ignore the tools please)
 And last but not least... this is the small pile of new things just waiting to be torn into and put to use in the new kitchen!!



I honestly cannot tell you when we will start this, but hopefully within the month!  We are still deciding on colors and materials, and as you may or may not know, it is a BIG task!!  We've got the floors chosen, but NOTHING else.  Oh wait... my $100 cabinets will be white... yes $100... I will tell you all about that later!  IT will be FAB! 

I am so excited to share this journey with you, and hope that you will be here for me to cry on your shoulder when my hubby and I are fighting over stupid things like grout colors, or how to hand a light fixture... who knows!!

As for now, I have ANOTHER sick kiddo, and having more dental work done on Thursday... so I will see you all soon!!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Our next adventure.....

I don't any glamorous pictures for this post, or even any pictures at all... but I promise, I will have so many for you here shortly that it will be OOOVVVVEERRRLOAD!!


We are about to embark on our biggest journey ever, and I am sure it will test the strength in our marriage as well. We make a great team, but this is big... this is huge!


We are getting ready to rip out our ENTIRE kitchen and re-do it all 90% ourselves. I say 90% because we are having a friend help with the electrical.


I have some great things in store, and cannot hardly wait, but part of me has a fear of moving forward. I mean no kitchen?? I am panicked... I may have to set-up a make shift kitchen in our garage or something?


So, in preparation for this, do you have any really yummy freezer meals recipes you want to share with me? I would love any of them!!


But as for now... I am spending tonight getting ready for a garage sale tomorrow to raise money for my best friends ministry trip to India!! Wish me luck, it's going to be a cold one out there!!!


Have a great weekend everyone, and I will be back on Sunday with some Before (eeewwww!!) kitchen pictures!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Finally a Picture Wall!!!

I have been collecting and collecting things from thrift stores to use on my big fat bare wall! I was dying to try and get away from so much symmetry, and I have been seeing all of the wonderful picture walls pop up in blog land. I did mine a bit different, by adding all sorts of elements...

Let me take you on a little tour of the process.

My husband just finished the trim on the back wall of the living room, and gave the entire wall a fresh coat of paint.  He told me I was not allowed to touch the walls or put anything back on them!  HAHAHA Soooo.. I waited until he was at work!!  That's just how this mommy rolls!

Here is the before:


My children had some friends over on Friday for a play date, and us mom's had a play date of our own at the same time.  I was talking to their mom about how I wanted to do this to my wall, and she perked right up, and said "LET'S DO IT" !!!  I was so not prepared and had a moment of fear thinking I didn't have everything I needed.... well aparently I shop enough, and had enough stuff stashed.  So we started laying them out on the ground to get the design that we wanted!  I say WE because she was a BIG part of this whole design.  THANK YOU KRISTA!!!

 After it was all laid out, we traced the frames onto some kraft paper and taped them all to the wall.... I was in LOVE.....  This was such a big space to fill, and I really wanted something that filled the space, but wasn't too bulky... does that even make sense? Is this too bulky??  ok moving on....

At about this point my best friend Heather showed up to join in on the fun!  This picture was taken about half way through the hanging party, and we were all squealing with excitement over the results!!  LOVE!!!

This is my "Final" picture for now!  I still have a few changes that will be made, like painting some of the frames, and adding a couple more pieces (notice the paper still on there?)  I am not hooked on the gold frames, but Krista is trying to get me to keep them!  Once I get it 100% completed, I will come back with some close up photos of whats on this wall!

Thanks for stopping by!  Leave me some comment love if you have any ideas for my wall!!!

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Monday, February 14, 2011

Shamrock Gardens....

UPDATE:  This is one of my first few blog posts, so forgive the amazing photography!
 
Is it really Valentines day already??  Wow, time flies when you are crafting! 

I am going to show you a craft that I came up with last year, and since I didn't have my blog, the pictures really arent that great, so I am apologizing now!  I also do not have step by step picture tutorials, but I will still tell you how to make them!!

Here we go!  This is the finished product!



Materials:
Babyfood Jars
Green Spray paint
Ribbon
Foil garland
Glass rocks (for drainage)
Soil
Hot glue gun
Potting Soil
Shamrock Seeds (you can get these on ebay, the place I ordered them from now has a min. of 12 pkgs)

Step#1 - Clean out the baby food jars and spray paint the lids green. (I used the $1 paint for this project from Wal-Mart)
 
Step #2 - Glue the ribbon around the center of the jar, and glue the garland around just under the neck of the jar.
 
Step #3 - Place the glass rocks in the bottom of each jar.  (i used clear, but you could use green and that would look great too!)
 
OPTION- At this point I moved on to create the poem cards because I had the entire class plant their own gardens.  It made a great class project, but the rest of the directions are as follows.
 
Step#4 - Fill the jars 3/4 of the way full with potting soil. Try to find some with fertilizer, like Miraclegro.... they grow faster! (or Organic)
 
Step#5 - Place 3 seeds in each jar, and top with potting soil, but do not pack them in tightly.
 
Step#6- Mist with water daily (do not over water) and keep in sunlight, and enjoy the luck all year long!
 
That is it!  You are done... and keep in mind that the lids are ONLY used for transport, so make sure the kids know that, or they will not grow.
 
Here is the poem that I wrote, yes it's cheesy, but these were first graders!!! 
 
Shamrock Garden
I am lucky to have you as my friend,
I hope our friendship never ends.
 
I have a special gift for you,
I hope it makes you lucky too.
 
Take it home and watch it grow,
and soon your luck will start to show!
 
Happy St.Patricks Day!
From Your Friend!
 
I hope you enjoyed this post!  It was so much fun coming up with this project, and I cannot wait to think of a new one this year!!
 
 
Be Sure to stop by here and see where I like to party each week!  Thank you for stopping by, come back soon!!
 
 

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Craft Room update with some Thrifty Finds!

Hello Everyone!  Happy Happy Sunday.... for me this means work tomorrow, but as for today, the two older kids are off to Church, and the husband is off doing a tile job, his favor returned for the WONDERFUL man who built my Mantel that you can read about here.  So this means that I am at home with the little one for about 3 hours!!!  Amazing what time alone can do for a mom... ok well I am almost alone!

I have been doing many projects around the house and just trying to keep it clean.... hahaha..good luck right? 

I have been putting things away in my craft room and realized I have gotten some great things from the thrift store and amazing prices and I never shared them.  Thus, bringing me to this:

I found this little Pottery Barn organizer things for $4, and it was in the perfect red to match my Curious George Scrapbooking room!  I had no idea what it was originally used for, but I knew exactly what I had in mind for it!!


 Gluesticks baby!!!  And to think that is $10 worth of sticks, I have a lot more to buy before it's filled up!

Moving on to something a litle bigger!  I found these cabinets, and I bought them with the intention of putting them in my laundry room.  In the long run I did not like how they looked in their, so next place I could use storage??  Why my scrapbook room of course!  So here they are with the doors closed:


 Brace yourself!  It looks a little crazy with the doors open, but I am using these to store my Spray paints, oops paints (no gallons in here of course), sanding blocks and extra paper, glue guns, chalkboard supplies, my Your Story, and some other misc. stuff!  I love these!  and the good news?  I only paid $10 each!!! Score!!



 And lastly, I had a cheapo printer in here, and I FINALLY upgraded!  Just got it all hooked up last night, in time to print the last of our valentine goodies!! 
I will be back later today with a post about my picture wall, along with my other Valentine goodies!!

Hugs!
Jenn

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Life's big changes..... HELP!!!!!

This is not a fun post, so don't feel bad about not reading it. Just something that I want to get out of my head!!

Do you ever get the feeling as a mother that you are just stretched too thin, and too many ways?

For so long, we had a busy schedule and things always felt rushed and out of order, and for abour 2 months now things have slowed way down, to a point where I felt I could manage things better.

Our daily schedule was: (i would do all of this, the hubby works from 6am to 4pm, and sometimes later)

8:15 - Out the door, drop the 2 older kids at school
9:00 - Drop the youngest off at the sitters (she takes him to school at 1)
9:15 - Go into work
2:15 - Off of work to pick up the 2 older kids from school
2-4 - Clean house, laundry, get dinner prepared
4:00 - Pick up the youngest from pre-school (sometimes hubby would be able to do this for me)
4-8 Dinner, homework, baths, bedtime (never easy)

Until now!! My husbands co-worker up and moved to Texas with about 3 days notice, so he will now be taking over both shifts. He will come in later in the morning, but stay until late in the evening. GREAT! I will have help in the morning, BAD I will go at it alone at night.

Our new schedule has me feeling scared! Very scared! I was so used to having nights as a time to get things done around the house, and maybe even escape to my scrapbook room for a little while. I used that time to go grocery shopping, and even thrifting once in a while.. or I guess quite often.

I need help with getting my children into a routine after school since I will not have my hubby's help. I am thinking along the lines of a chore chart, but for basic tasks, such as.....

Hang Up coats and backpacks
homework
read for 15 minutes
pick up bedrooms
bath
brush teeth
take dirty clothes to the laundry room

And then.... how do I manage? It feels so foreign to me to think that I wont have the freedom that I am used to. I know mothers do this everyday, and in fact I idolize those of you that do. But believe me, this is sooo new to me, it's scary.

I was so used to the morning routine, and don't get me wrong, I wont miss that since I am not at all a morning person, but nights are going to be way harder.

Please please please give me any feedback, tips or links you may have as helping suggestions for my dillemas!  LOL

Ok, well thank you for letting me vent! And on a good note, my mouth is feeling much better, and we my husband finished all of the trim and paint in our living room, and I hope to post pictures soon! I also finished teacher valentines, and am now working on the packaging before I can take pictures!

See you all soon!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Wedding of my Dreams!

UPDATE: Civic Stadium was destroyed in a fire on June 29th, 2015.  See here, how we celebrated our 10 year anniversary just 6 weeks after the tragedy.
 
August 13th 2005

Civic Stadium, home of the Eugene Emeralds
San Diego Padres Minor League Affilliate

I want to take you on a walk with me down memory lane.  I figured since Valentines day is right around the corner, I thought it was fitting to share this special day with my blog buddies, and to show off the fun theme!!

To give you a little history, I was born and raised a baseball fan.  It's pretty much in my blood.  So, when I met the man of my dreams I knew I wanted to say "I DO" on a baseball field, player or not. ;)

 
This photo was taken out of my wedding album, those are our invitations, season tickets for our wedding day, and then of course the rings....

Yours Truly:  I am wearing a custom made wedding gown.  We chose the colors to be red white and blue.  We went for the "Americas Favorite Pastime" theme.
 

 

These are my wonderful Bridesmaids.  It was so much fun that day, we spent the whole morning pampered at the salon, and then got to play out on the baseball field.  Both the home and visiting baseball teams were so kind to not practice on the day of the wedding so that we were able to do photos.  All the girls wore red except my maid of honor.  Our wedding planner did an amazing job with the red white and blue bouquets,  he is amazing!!
 

Here we are, all rough and tough in our dugout pose!! 



Here are 3 of the most important people in my life. Left to Right, my Daddy, me, Allen, and my Mommy!  Love them to pieces and this day would have never happened without all of their hard work!



Eh, just the siblings.  Kidding, they are great!



These are all the players from the team that were in our wedding.  I had a great picture to share,but I could not get my uploader to rotate it.  These guys formed a tunnel with their bats that my dad and I walked down the aisle under!  Simply the most amazing thing ever, and they did a great job!  


Daddy and I getting ready to take the field!



We got married about 45 minutes before the game, so the stands were filling in with spectators, and our guests are off to the right side (not shown.  It was fun to see cameras going off all over, I don't think people knew what to think of this!



 Allen and I got to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
 
 
So here is where the fun is.  Look at what our wedding planner did...... these were all over the 30! or so tables under the tents.  They are all lights that he dressed up.  The cracker jacks were handed out to the first 3,000 fans, and on the back was a cordial invitation to our wedding.  Super cute, and got the crowd involved!!
 
 
Yummy chocolate dipped strawberries, and one of our cakes. You can only see the corner?  Sorry
 
 
This is our main cake.  The ball was supposed to be suspended in air with the bats, but the 98 degree weather had other plans.... notice the melting stars?
 
 
Ok, so we had about 3,500 people at the ball park that night, and no they were not all a part of our reception.  So, we purchased about 250 of these bracelets from the Tug McGraw Foundation.   

These were all given to our guests to enter our reception park, along with a little postcard.  On that postcard was a note.  These were dedicated to one of my bridesmaids father, who also passed from Brain Cancer and played baseball for the Eugene Emeralds.  (the team who's stadium we were married at)  It had such a HUGE meaning to me, as she was my best friend growing up, and I remember going to these games with her dad like it was yesterday.  We love you Bob!
 

Here are some of us showing off our support for Brain Cancer.  (my cousin passed from this as well about 3 years later)
 
 
Ah, the toast to the planner who did the most!  He was and still is simply the most amazing guy a bride could ask for!!!  He did it all, and he did it more than great!!!  Love you Kev!!
 
 
 There are so many more details, you can see part of my wedding video here.  Also, be sure to check out how we spent our 10 year wedding anniversary here.
 
THE END

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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Valentine Flowers!


WOW! I am actually getting Valentines done before the 13th of February! 

I may as well admit it now, I am a procrastinator, but that is where my little blog comes in handy!  I am so excited to share these ideas, that it actually forces me to complete them on time!  So here we go.  Its a complete tutorial!

I was inspired by Scrapbooks Etc. I saw the idea on the magazine while I was in line at the grocery store.

 You will need:

Tissue Paper
Suckers
Green Cardstock
2x4 (length may vary)
Green Spray Paint
3" Scallop Punch
Stamp or Stickers
Sm. Hole Punch or Crop-a-dile
Leaf Punch or Cricut/Sillhouette

Step#1- I created the leaves on my gypsy and cut them out on green cardstock using my cricut.


Step#2- I then took my 3" Scallop punch and punched out the petals,  I found it easiest to cut about12 sheets at a time.
Here is what I ended up with (about an hour later)


Step #3- For each flower I used 6 light petals and 6 dark, and then using my crop-a-dile I punched a hole.  You can use a smaller hole punch, but do not use a regular sized punch, it will be too big for the sucker sticks.
 Step #4- Punch holes in each of your leaves.

                               


I had a hard time finding a small enough valentine saying, so I went with some sweet sayings from the $1 bins at the craft store!

Step #5- Stamp your saying on each leaf, making sure your hole is on the left side.

Step #6- Have your husband cut a 2x4 to the desired length you need, and create a template for drill holes.  My holes are 2" apart on all sides.



Step #7- Sand down the rough edges and then spray in the green you choose


Once it has dried, stick in your suckers ad WALLA!!  A not so typical Valentine treat for some sweet little suckers.....  

I absolutely love how they turned out, and hope that my tutorial helps you create these treats too!!

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