A Quick Kitchen Update

We took a trip to Chicago last week and had a great time up north. They don't call it the windy city for nothing! But we had a fantastic time. It was a well-deserved break. :)

While we were there, we went to Ikea and a few other places for inspiration. There are these two spots in our kitchen that have looked lonely since we painted the walls. This trip has at least fixed one spot.

 

Everything in this spot wasn't all bought at the same time... Most of them we've picked up in the past couple of months. John did most of the work here. I am mostly in charge of the finishing touches and the shake and bake helper. [a.k.a. I help hold stuff up, and the clean up crew, photographer] and like John calls me the 'enjoyer' of it all. LOL

 

Don't try this at home! Make sure that where you work is free and clear of stuff that could fall or break! We put the jars on the one shelf to test how it will hold up to the weight we are putting on it. We did pick up metal brackets to install in the center of each shelf if it sagged any but it's holding up just fine.

Honestly, it is a team effort. We both have roles we play in the DIY messes we get ourselves into. My craft room hasn't been looking too nice since I started the kitchen project. There's always a crafty project being made in there it seems like, but I can't complain... There is not a better feeling than seeing a project or projects to the finish. John and I have done quite a few and when the results surpass our expectations, it feels even better. We love a good DIY challenge.

 

And here it is [photo above]. It took less than a week to put this whole thing together. But today, I was looking at the one empty spot under the first shelf and added the blocks with the numbers on them. This project cost me $0. I had all the supplies and it took no time to make.

 

The blocks are about 5.5 inches tall and approximately 4 inches wide. They are leftover plywood blocks from when John built floating shelves for our old house, and I got lucky because all four happened to be the same exact size! Then I got out some paint out of my stash, did a little sanding and my blocks were ready for the vinyl stencils I cut with my Silhouette and went to town. Fifteen minutes later, they were ready to hang! I used Command strips to mount them on the wall. After patching the 40,000 screw holes I found while painting the kitchen, I lost all desire to drill any holes on any of my walls. So no matter how expensive, I get the 3M stuff when I hang decor on the wall because they do my walls no harm. They also save me an extra step [patching holes] when I decide to change things up. :)

I didn't make the sign at the very top. John got that for me. And I am pretty sure he paid too much for it. LOL He is a sweetie and he will do anything for me except stencil or paint. He hates painting.

 

NOTE: Remember to always use your level to make sure your wall hangings aren't mounted crooked.

Here's more photos...

 

 

I love how everything can be seen and be pretty at the same time. I love clear glass jars/containers. They make every day stuff look nice. They make me smile. Below is our happy red buy from our trip that is now home to our K-cups and loose stuff that used to just lay in random drawers and places in our kitchen. Now they have a home. Everything is in its place and now that our Keurig is off the counter, I will have more room to work.

 

I love how cheery these cups are, too! They came with the new set of dishes we just recently got to replace the old Pfaltzgraff set we've had for a long time.

 

And here she is all done! I may change up a few things or add a thing or two in the next couple of weeks but she is done. :)

 

'Til next time,

Twinkle

 

Let your light shine.

That's all. 

Have a great middle of the week!

Friday Randomness

September is gone. September has been a really great month, but I'm glad that October is here and so is fall! It is one of my favorite seasons because it brings with it a lot of promise... cool, perfect temperatures, leaves turning beautiful colors and Halloween.  It also ushers in two of my most favorite holidays... Thanksgiving and Christmas! :)

I/We have made a couple of changes in the new house... John is busy percussioning [no that's not a word, I totally made that up!] so I have been pretty much pulling off every project that's been done here all by myself but that's okay. He's doing what he loves and I'm doing the same. It's all fair. John doesn't like to paint, and I don't know one thing about the drums. So, it works. :)

This week has been a pretty easy week. My kitchen is all painted, this was the part we were dreading the most because of the wallpaper, but after a couple of hiccups, it all turned out to be okay. And I love my kitchen more than ever. We just need to accessorize at this point. John didn't have rehearsals in the evening, so I have been enjoying having him around and not zooming in and out of the door right after supper to go to practice.

I've been taking lots of random photos. I've missed my camera.

 

Meet my coffee cup. This was a gift from John. I use it every day. It reminds me how he knows I'm not the girl that will whine to him about wanting a tennis bracelet from Kay Jewelers for Valentine's Day or an LV or a Coach or a pair of Jimmy Choo's. It doesn't take much to bribe me... like how this coffee cup did the trick! :) However, I do prefer to pick my own purse out and my shoes and I'm not that into jewelry.

 

And here's my sweetums. :) He has been looking at getting a vintage car to tinker with... Since he has quit smoking, he has been looking for stuff to do. I guess he has finally realized that since he doesn't have to be constantly going in and out of the house during his "stogie" breaks or have to find a secluded place for said breaks at work, he needs something to keep him busy. I'm really happy for him and it is a great breakthrough that he finally quit that deadly habit and leave all of that behind him.

 

 

We have been doing lots of putting our feet up this week and lots of me and him time. :)

 

I also get in the I'm-gonna-bake-a-ton-of-treats kind of mood. But, I am a baker, a foodie, and an enabler to my friends' cravings, so treats are nothing new in this house and it all gets shared.

 

And this crazy mess, is called Iddy. :) She is our baby. John got her for me when I first moved here to keep me company when he is off to work... She sure has been tons helpful. She also likes taking over my chair every chance she gets. What a brat! lol

 

Lastly, I am so glad I can actually sit down and play with my camera again, and be in my pajamas before 7 PM and not feel bad for it. At all.

We love these down times. We take it all as a blessing. We live it to the fullest. The way we look at it, time is precious and life is too short to be wasting it all.

Have a great weekend all! :)

John's Music Room

John and I have had an easy [but busy at the same time] summer. We have been working on the new house... Putting our mark on it, making it ours. We aren't by all means, done yet but we are definitely getting there. 

Slowly but surely. 

This summer, we put together my craft room and his music room/office. :) His music room was pretty much all me except anything heavy that needed to be picked up and hung or anything that required to be cut by a saw. 

Okay so here are photos.

The desk [photo above] used to be in my old craft room. He has been obssessed with it since I took it home from Staples. So since he totally pulled the best husband ever thing and built me that really awesome desk here and here, I gave my desk to him, painted his walls, sewed curtains and let him pick out the fabric and totally prettied up his music room... because awesome husbands deserve their own awesome, cozy space! I don't know about you other women out there but I am married to the best enabler in all of the land so when he wants something like a cool room, I give it to him.

We have had a lot of stuff going on this weekend home decorating so excuse the screw drivers and markers laying around. I did sew those curtains. They are just simple back tab panels. The fabric is Premier Prints Barber in black and lipstick and I got here. The lamp I got for a buck at the thrift store. Spruced it up with spray paint is all I did to it.

 

This corner, I am still trying to figure out why he is stuffing everything here from his guitars, to the guitar cases, his amp and pedals. The pedals kind of moved under the desk this weekend because he's been rocking in here. The chair is a gift from Betty and the Beatles poster, a nifty find by yours truly.

 

And this, this is what brings the cool factor in this room. This is a Slingerland snare drum that's been sitting in our garage for a long long time. I found it sitting in its lonesome as we were moving John's tools out to the new garage. And told John to make it into a lamp! A week of searching for a lamp kit that suited him, VOILA!!! A snare drum light. I have left it all untouched for a while because I wasn't sure if it was gonna stay hanging and it has so maybe next week, I'm gonna have to device a plan to conceal the cords.

Here's a quick lowdown on how we converted this thing into a lamp. I don't have photos to show you but it was really easy [given that we have every tool known to mankind and a lot of scrap wood from the construction of my desk]. First, John put the drum back together, we had to go to Guitar Center to get lug screws, etc. Second, he put a piece of either 1x2 or 1x4 [we experimented] across the drum to hold the light kit and bulb in place, then we dug into my gardening supplies and found the [hanging basket] chains that we used to hang the light up. A word of caution though, if you are using a real drum like we did, make sure that your mounting hardware can hold the weight of it and make sure you screw your hook into a stud on the ceiling. Then he drilled an inch or an inch and a half hole into the 1x2 or 1x4 to accommodate the light kit. String the cord onto the chain. Put a bulb in. I used a flood light for ours because it is brighter and gives out a spotlight-ish effect, it just adds a little bit of interest into what used to be an empty corner in his room. :)
 

There's more to come. I still have a full wall behind the drum set that I need to dress up! :)

But before I go, here's a couple of photos of our hallway. I've been working on it for a couple of weeks.

 

I'm crazy inlove with my husband, I could plaster his name all over the house! lol The stuff on the wall is the beginnings of a photo wall I'm trying to build. For all you know, it may be John's name in different languages! Haha!

And this is just one of those crazy ideas I had. I got the photos from Flickr. This was fun to make. No walls were harmed in the making of this project. I used 3M Command strips to hang each piece so I didn't have to make holes in the wall. 

So that's it for now. :) See you all next time!

Don't Think Too Much...

 

Hope you all have a great Thursday!!! :)

Happy Spring!!!

Hey all! I just want to say we are still here. We have just been very very busy. I won't yack too much and share photos instead.

 

 

 

 

Happy spring all!

Our/My Week In Photos

Hello all! Happy happy Monday! I have had the most interesting [last] week. I wouldn't say it was busy, it's just been a very productive, fun week. Seems like this has been the most productive winter I have had since I moved to this side of the world... It's been unusually warm and pretty here. So all the yard work that I usually wait to do in the spring have all been done last week! This is exciting for me because this only means, more time to plan and do new things in the backyard. There are spring perennials that have come up in the front and it is worrying me a bit, it's just too soon for them to be sprouting... but on the one hand, there really is nothing I can do to stop them! I did yard work in the middle of February on a warm windy 58-degree day and no one could've stopped me from doing that either. 

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I was all over the backyard picking up and trimming. Finally got to do the roses. Trimmed them and gave them some attention. I think I did good except that I totally scraped myself in the process.

 

Then Wednesday evening John comes home from work sick with the flu. :'( I felt so bad for him. He was achey all over and looked awful! He didn't even eat much of what I fixed that night... So the next evening [Thursday], I made him some homemade chicken noodle soup and my Mom's Creme Caramel cake. 

 

Friday, I started on our friend, Chris' Grandma's birthday. Chris is a very very good friend of ours. :) He is the youngest amongst all of us... and he is our little brutha from another mutha. He had spoken to me about his Grandma's 92nd birthday months ago and asked if I'd make a cake for her. And I said, "Sure! That's easy." But if you know me and my friends, we always start with easy then end up in complicated prettiness. It's like when we plan low-key dinners, it always ends up to be either a huge buffet or a full out sit down 3-course dinners. I don't think we can ever pull off SIMPLE. lol

I have made a ton of different stuff since Chris and I had talked and since, the list of things to make for his Grandma's birthday has grown too... from just a birthday cake, he ends up asking me to make cupcakes, and the raspberry cake pops I made for Superbowl Sunday.  :) But I did pull it off. I even managed to develop a new recipe... Fresh Orange Cupcakes! Here's proof!

I will share the recipe for the Orange Cupcakes soon in the other blog when I get all of the stuff written down and ready for sharing. :) I am thinking of making it again to make sure my proportions were right. The cakes were a hit at the party!!! But I would like to add more freshness, more of that orange in there. 

Here are some snapshots I took at the party: 

This is Chris, his 92-year old Grandma [the birthday girl] and his Dad.

There's Chris again with his fiancee, Julie. The minute she was introduced to us, we knew she would fit right into this crazy bunch. :) They got engaged over Christmas 2011 and they are getting married in April next year and I am making their wedding cake! We are all so excited for the two of them because we love them both and there is nothing more joyous than seeing two people in love and making things work. We don't get to see Julie much because of her schedule as an RN. But she joins us when she could. 

So that was my week. And today is Monday, and other than a baby shower on Sunday, I don't see anything else major that's gonna happen this week. :) I am crossing my fingers!

Life is Good Here

The past few years has been rather hectic... but it has been the best few years of our lives. And it just keeps getting better! :)

I don't know how many times I've done it, but I have been griping about moving ever since the day we found out we were. How stressful it is, how my arms hurt from moving stuff or painting walls, or how much money I have spent on gas going back and forth [again] moving, or how we will spend some money to finish the other house to get it ready to sell etc., etc... But what we [John and I both] always felt but never say as much as we ought to is how THANKFUL we are for all that we have been blessed with... the fact that we have to spend a little bit of money to finish what we started in the other house to sell it is nothing compared to having ZERO house payment when it's all said and done... how I have been blessed with the most wonderful parents-in-law who have looked after me and have taken care of me like I was their own flesh and blood [sometimes, it's crazy but I feel like they love me more than John! LOL].

And, you may be so sick of me saying this by now but I HAVE THE MOST WONDERFUL HUSBAND ON THE EARTH! He isn't perfect, but he is wonderful! I love his smile, his laugh and his very many quirks... and most of all I love his very sincere, generous, loyal, kind, very understanding heart. His skillful hands make all of my crazy ideas come to life. 

 

 

I get so teary when I look back to seven years ago. Who would've thought we'd be where we're at now. We have come so far... People our age are yet about to purchase their first home, but here we are getting moved in to our fourth house! LOL Some people are struggling between chasing after what they want to do with their lives, but John and I are exactly where we wanna be, doing exactly things that we love. :)

Six years ago, at my Uncle Al's and Auntie Lap's home in San Francisco, John was waiting for me to arrive. And I vividly remember them telling John how they are scared of him moving me into a small town because they just thought my city-loving butt won't ever warm up to small town living. Well, it took quite a bit of getting used to, but I have come to love it... except that we make it a point to go to St Louis at least twice a month [okay! maybe more than twice a month!] Sometimes, it just feels good to be stuck in traffic, or get lost in the city, or walk around. You know that thing they say, "You can take the girl from the city but you can't take the city out of the girl" is true.

I may not be living in the city like I'm used to, but life is good and it is beautiful nonetheless. I may not say it more often but GOD aren't I grateful for all this... If I had to do it all over again, I'd gladly do it again and I wouldn't change a thing! Otherwise [these animals] Senior Voodoo, Foozie, Meester Peapers and Iddy won't be where they are now either. I love all our pets! They are a joy to have around.

If I chose to live somewhere else, I wouldn't have gotten to meet the best friends in the world! Crazy enough to eat the stuff that I make in my kitchen... not knowing what's in the food they are eating. lol 

I love my life! I don't think anyone else has it as good as I do. :) And for that, I am so thankful to the One who is The Source of all this... Not just for the stuff, but for the people I love. They make living in this small town feel like HOME.

Dear God, 

Thanks for this beautiful life and forgive me if I don't love it enough [sometimes].