Ta dah!!!

Our new kitchen has been done for a whole week!! It is even more beautiful than I imagined! Chris and I still just stand there and look at it!! It really looks like it is right out of a magazine or kitchen showroom!! *smile*

We have so much cabinet room now!! There is even an empty one above the fridge and the others aren't jam packed like they used to be!

It has been wonderful having appliances again, especially a dishwasher!!! The microwave is about a million times faster than the old crappy one we had!! The stove and microwave have so many buttons, it'll take us forever to figure it out! The fridge is high tech with all it's little features on it! We love it!! It is so worth it!!

The stove came with a ding in the drawer, so they had to order us another. They are coming to replace that on Tuesday.

The cabinet to the left is where the old stairwell was! The cabinetmaker did an amazing job building this for us! It is huge inside!


This is my favorite little nook. It's great having the extra little countertop to the left of the stove. The cabinetmaker also built that little skinny cabinet as well as the skinny one above. The bottom is perfect for cookie sheets and the top one is great for the coffee and wines, etc.


Here's the main counter. The light really comes in those windows so it's hard to get a good shot!


We couldn't stand the thought of putting our old kitchen table back in there, so we freecycled that and bought this pub table. We ordered a piece of glass for the top too, so there is no gauging with forks by two little people that will remain nameless! That should be done Monday!


So, all we have to do yet is paint the woodwork (blech!) and put up the new baseboard behind the table. We have it, but forgot to buy the nails to put it up! We'll get to that next week!

It's been mostly beautiful out here. We got a lot of play time in outside. Jack finally learned how to drive the gator in something other than circles! Now they fight over who is the driver!

No new layouts or projects to share, we've been too busy and it's been too nice to do any!

Have a great week!!

CKC-Valley Forge class

I'll be teaching for mlpa at the Valley Forge Creating Keepsakes Convention the first weekend in August! Registration begins this Wednesday! The class is called "Clearly Cool" and is a great clear scalloped wallhanging!
It'll be a really fun class!! Make sure you say hi to me and let me know you read about it on my blog!

Wednesday will be the day!! Our appliances are being delivered Wednesday morning! The counter top was installed on Friday and it's even more beautiful than I had imagined! The texture in it is so amazing! It's gorgeous!!!



As you can see, we have a sink! It is not a working sink at this moment, but it is so nice to have one there!! I love the undermount! Tomorrow morning at 8am, the whole crew will be here again. The plumber will hook up the plumbing and garbage disposal, all the molding will go in and the backsplash will go up!

The end is so close in sight! I can't believe the time has come!! It's been 3 VERY LONG weeks without a kitchen! I never want to remodel another kitchen in my life! I miss my sink and really dislike washing dishes in the kids bathtub!

I bought all of the necessary kitchen accessories on Friday. I just need to find a good valance or tier for the windows. I'll probably look for that tomorrow or Tuesday! We also need to get some stainless outlet covers too!

I'm sure I'll be updating tomorrow with some almost finished pics!

Have a great week!

Ahhh, spring!!!

This week has been gorgeous and it's only getting better!! Today it is supposed to be 76!

All of us have been spending a ton of time outside this week!! Tuesday, Chris and I were out shopping and came across a consignment store while going to Rite Aid. There were some little kid bikes outside, so we thought we'd check it out. Jack doesn't have a 2 wheeler, just his Radio Flyer big wheel, so we thought we'd see if they had any little boy bikes! There was one for 10 bucks!! What a steal, we bought it! He. Loves. It! The three of us rode our bikes down to the lake and playground yesterday. Macy was a little sad to hear that we did this while she was at school, but we made up for it!! He really took to the bike well. I remember it taking Macy several months to figure out how the pedals worked! Not Jack! *giggle* He's a daredevil, taking the turns at full force!! He's had a couple of falls, but gets right back up!


Macy and Daddy playing football.


Our magnolia tree is just about to full bloom now! It smells so wonderful and is so pretty!! I wish it would look like that all year round (they are messy!). I also found some Bleeding Hearts peeking and the Spirea is in bloom! Looking forward to May 15th when I can plant more flowers and then mulch! Ahh, I love the smell of fresh mulch!


The countertop is slated to be installed tomorrow! Yay!! I put the first coat of paint on the walls last night, it is looking mighty nice!! If I can pull myself in from outside today, I'll put the last coat on!

I'll leave with a layout. I haven't scrapped much lately due to bronchitis, sinus infection, sheer exhaustion and prepping for my class this Sunday and prep for my next technique class! I managed to squeeze this one in a few weeks ago. It's the kids on their Gator!


Have a great day! I hope it's as beautiful where you are!

Back from the maiden voyage!!

We returned yesterday from the maiden voyage of our pop up camper! Here is a little summary. There is some scary/funny stuff in the middle, grab a drink!

When we arrived on Friday, it started to rain, but it wasn't too bad, just drizzle mostly. We got it all set up easily. We actually went with a couple, Chris works with her and they have a 5th wheel camper, so we knew that if we had any problems, they had our back! Chris forgot the water hose, which they had a spare, so all was well!

The place was gorgeous!! It's a fairly big lake, when we called for reservations, we asked for lakeside but they were already gone. We ended up in a little loop that backed up to state forest lands and we had a nice creek behind us with this cute mallard duck couple that visited every day! We got across the creek on the rocks and explored the forest and climbed on all the rocks there. Gorgeous!

The first night definately tested out our new used camper! It poured and when I say poured, I mean poured, like buckets with thunder and lightening!! I didn't sleep that well the first night, worrying about if it would leak and I had this paranoia that Chris and I would be too heavy for the one bed and it would collapse in the middle of the night! That did not happen, thankfully, but I still worry! LOL

I put the kids on their bed the opposite way, I laid them sideways so they wouldn't roll out. About 4:30am, Chris hears Jack scream and cry! He gets out of the bed and goes to check, Jack is not in the bed!!!!! He comes and tells me and I was just speechless, ran over to look and he was not there. We could hear him though, but he was nowhere in the camper!! We looked at the door, it was still locked! Chris went outside and Jack was laying on the ground in his sleeping bag in a daze! His sleeping bag was soaked along with his head and his jammie pants. He carries him in and I wrap him up and get his pants changed, then collapse the table and set up that bed for him to use. He had no idea what happened and still doesn't recall it, thankfully!

When Jack sleeps, he always pushes himself up into the corner of his bed and against the wall, I really don't know how he does it, it can't be comfortable. When we checked it out on Saturday morning, what we saw happened is that he must've wedged himself up into the corner like he always does and continued to do it so much that he worked loose the heavy duty velcro that wraps around the mattress and the outside of the camper, then that opened up a gap and he fell out!

We can laugh about it and it will be told for generations, I'm sure! It was just scary at the time when Chris said he wasn't in his bed! Luckily, we both aren't the panic type!

So, that was that! Saturday was gorgeous 76 degrees! The lake was so blue! We flew kites and rode our bikes around the entire lake with our friends. Had a nice feast for supper and did the s'mores thing again. It really was great. We didn't even get to swim in the indoor pool, because it was just too nice to be indoors! The place had 5 playgrounds although we only found 2! The only negative was that there seemed to be a lot of trash laying around, which I can't stand litterers! Made me really sad, I just don't understand how people can be so inconsiderate!

We had to pack it in in the rain Sunday morning but when we got home it was dry here so we popped it back up and let it dry off.

We had fun, the kids had a blast and it's really nice camping with friends! We made dinner jointly, had some drinks and just had a great time!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Crocs are not totally heat proof! We got our campfire so hot Saturday night that the outer left front of my mammoth crocs must've melted a bit. You can't really tell, but I can feel it when I move my feet around!

Here are some pics of Otter Lake! www.otterlake.com



This was the back of our campsite:









On the homefront, the kitchen should hopefully be done next week at this time! We are hoping to be able to take delivery of our new appliances next week! I cannot wait!! I miss the sink the most! I've been washing dishes in the bathtub and it's not fun!!

Monday, Monday!

It sure was tough getting up this morning!!

We had a great weekend! The weather on Saturday was pretty nice, in the mid to upper 50's so we were outside all day and did some cleaning up of the garage. We started to gather up our camping supplies, we're taking our inaugural camper trip this weekend! The kids are super excited, Jack wakes up every morning asking if it's Friday!

I bought paint for the kitchen on Saturday, I went with "bone white". If I can muster up the energy, I'll start on that today. I splurged on some new painter's tape called Frog Tape. It is supposed to be non bleeding, it better be for $8 a roll! I've got to take every precaution to not get paint on my new cabinets!

Yesterday we went to one of my aunt's houses. My Aunt Holly is in from California on business so all my aunt's on my dad's side (3 of them) and my parents and me and the kids got together for lunch. I haven't seen 2 of my aunt's since Jan 2006 when my Grandmom died. It was nice spending time together! Here are the kids with Aunt Holly, it's such torture getting them to look at me when they are together!


The kids came home with 2 old toys of their cousin's. Kristen gave Macy a magic set and Megan gave Jack a wooden marble maze set! They were in heaven! LOL

I did a quick layout Friday night. It felt good, it was too long since I've created! Hopefully I can do it again soon! I used the Noggin symbol as my inspiration, can you tell? I used some new Basic Grey and Fancy Pants papers.


Who is watching Rock of Love 2? I'm so happy to see Ambre in the top 2! Daisy drives me a bit crazy! I'm rooting for Ambre (although her name spelling bothers me!) but I'm betting Daisy will win!

Have a great day!

Getting closer!!!

Yesterday they laid the tile.

This morning they hung all but one of the upper cabinets, put in the microwave and stove outlets and wired for the dishwasher.

The custom cabinet for the old stairwell looks awesome, even better than I imagined!! He really did a great job on that!!

The tile guy grouted and now the countertop guy is here getting measurements for the quartz. The countertop will go in 2 weeks from today!

It's really coming together and is so much more homey in there. I think I've decided on a different paint color too. Instead of a rusty color, I think we'll do a tan or beige, keep it in the earth tones. Hopefully we can squeeze that in this weekend!

Here are some pics I just took. Click on it to see it bigger.


I think I may do a mini album with all of this. I'm not a mini album person, but this may just call for one, plus I could put my barely used Bind It All to good use!!

I'm hoping to scrap tonight, it's been abotu 2 weeks and I'm really itching to do it, especially after the trip Mary, Tracy, Mimi and I took to memory lane, pa today!!

Hopefully I'll have something scrapping related to show next post!!

Have a great weekend!

Day 1 done!

The fridge is out, yay!! Our contractor was able to get the wheels off!

The old cabinets are out and the new base ones are in!! The cement board for the floor is in!! The tile guy is coming tomorrow morning to lay the tile! Grout on Friday, I believe!

I can't believe how fast they moved!! It looks a million times better in there already!

All the cabinets and tile are sitting in the living room! The large custom cabinet for the old stairwell looks awesome!!!

Here are some pics. Jack insisted on being a part of them!



That's a skinny 6 inch cabinet there. There will be another above it too, I think. It'll be perfect for storing Saran Wrap, foil, etc. In the old setup, the stove and fridge were right next to each other. We wanted to put something in between them to make it more efficient.

No big treasures to be found although he found a ton of old junky papers and some old dog medicine! He did come across this which I thought was neat! 4 cent postage!! Must be from the 1950's!

Tomorrow is D (demolition) day!!!

Our part is done! The cabinet guy comes bright and early tomorrow morning to demo the cabinets and start on his work! He is hoping to frame all the new cabinets out tomorrow too and wants the floor started by end of week! Wow!!!

Chris and I physically exhausted ourselves this weekend getting the floor out! The subfloor did prove to be stubborn as we thought it might. Many of the screws did not want to come out, so we had to use this big huge red bar to get underneath it and rip it up. Tough stuff!! It was actually kind of fun though, great workout! Once that was out, the old green stuff came up easily! Right now, the floor is black from the old adhesive. It is nice hardwoods like the rest of the house, just very black!

Here is what it all looks like now! Click on the pic to make it bigger!


We thought we were all over the hump after getting all that flooring out, until we went to move out the frig last night. It was too wide for the widest of the kitchen doorways. We knew that, it was a tight squeeze when we bought it 8 years ago! So, we took off the doors, still no go, there was a wheel that was getting caught up. Chris took out those bolts and could not get the wheel off! So, there it sits, still in the kitchen! The contractor is going to try and see if he can figure it out tomorrow. I talked to the appliance store today, all our appliances are in, so I told them of our problem! Our salesman was gone for the day, so he's calling us back tomorrow with more precise measurements of the new frig and how to fix our dilemma! If the contractor can't figure it out, we'll probably have the installers come and disassemble the old one first since the floor will be started sooner than we expected! Nothing ever happens quite how it's supposed to, does it??

On a neat note, while we were taking wheelbarrow loads of tile and debris out to the trailer on Saturday, we got to meet a previous owner of our house! Chris called in for me to come outside and there was a lady standing there. She owned the house 2 owners ago. She told us how they loved it and were sad to have to move, but her husband's job moved to NJ, but her mother lives a street behind us. They had 4 kids in the house. She told us of past owners too. It was once a parrish house. An owner of a wallpaper store lived here, which probably explains the wallpapered closets! I'm thankful we didn't have more wallpaper than we did have in here! The original owner was very wealthy, which we assumed would be, we knew the houses in our neighborhood were wealthy, upscale homes back in the 1950's. We talked for a bit and she loved what we've done to the outside. She was nice, we told her to come back in a few months when we're all finished and we'll give her a tour of the inside too, when it is not all ripped up!!

Did you ever watch the show "If Walls Could Talk"? It's on HGTV and is about hidden treasures that owners found in their houses. I was hoping we'd find something really cool, but my only treasure was a wheat penny!

Hope everyone's having a great week!! Hopefully I can get back to scrapping soon!

I will update with new pics probably tomorrow!!