Party Time!

Today we celebrated birthdays for Wyatt, Grace, and Garett. The party had a Super Hero theme, as did many of the gifts. Spiderman, Transformers, and I'm sure you know this is Iron Man.

The twins turned 4 in January, and Wyatt will be 6 in March. That totals 14. Pay no attention to the 25 candles on the cake...By the time the gift opening was over, it looked like Christmas morning. Lucky kids.

Remember the Old Adage...

that says when children are quiet, it's probably not a good thing? Why did I forget that?

Today was Warm Sweater Wednesday, but no sweater was needed. Windows and doors were open and the fresh air was lovely.
Alas, the tease of Spring will be over by tomorrow when rain and snow are on the way...

The New Old Kitchen

Welcome to my 2nd "Met Monday"! Today I have some before and after photos of a little kitchen renovation we did last summer.

We live in a 12 year-old manufactured home, and over those 12 years I've painted over the patterned vinyl wallboard in every room. A couple of summers ago I finally did the kitchen. I must admit that the red was a bit out of both of our comfort zones, but we love it. I also replaced all of the door and drawer pulls, and Greg took down the ceiling light above the sink and put in a small pendant.

Last winter when we put in the wine and coffee centers, we chose the countertop with the red paint in mind, knowing we'd be replacing the laminate on the counters in the kitchen eventually, too. Last summer that project got underway. My honey is a very handy guy who can DIY pretty much every aspect of a small home renovation. This time he got to not only replace countertops, but also did a little electrical work and some plumbing. (We live in a tiny rural village that does not require licensed contractors for plumbing and electrical.)

We have a small galley kitchen. Here, I'm looking into the main kitchen area.

Here it is after Greg replaced the counter tops, changed out the rangehood, and put in the new faucet.

The fan over the stove had stopped working years ago, but Greg hadn't replaced it because the rangehood is an odd size, and he couldn't find one for a price we were willing to pay. Finally we found we could special order from Home Depot and the price was definitely affordable. Over the past 4 1/2 years we've changed out all of the appliances to stainless, so that's what we went with for the rangehood.
The gooseneck faucet is actually the third try for a kitchen faucet we've had in this house. I love it.

We also put in a garbage disposal - hadn't had one in this house. You can't really see it, but instead of a light switch on the wall, there is a little button for the disposal to the right of the sink, set in the countertop.

We planned to change out the sink, too, taking the double bowl out and putting in a single bowl. I did the measuring, and purchased the sink. Unfortunately I measured the top, not inside the cabinet, and the new sink was too wide. (Stupid manufactured homes have nothing that is standard measurements!) Fortunately we figured that out before Greg cut the hole for the sink. We just put the old one back in. (Yes, I could special order the correct size single bowl sink, but $600 is out of my budget...)

In this photo, Greg is removing the counter from the left side of the stove. You can see what the old wallboard looked like. No, I didn't paint inside my cabinets. If you look closely, you can also see the little jingle ball kitty toy on the floor. Not a safety hazard, was it?

Here's another view from the other end of the kitchen. See those plates on the wall at the far left? The bottom two are those tacky souvenir state plates that I spraypainted white. The top is from Avon and is a pale green, but light enough to go with the white ones.

This area is opposite the kitchen sink, next to the refrigerator. (The refrigerator that doubles as a bulletin board.)

And here it is after. Those canisters are actually antiques. I bought them at a garage sale several years ago for just a couple of dollars. They started out pale yellow, but all scratched up, so I spray painted them. The black is the third color they've been since I've had them.

Next summer's project will be the floor. I've picked out some black and white laminate, but Greg is dragging his feet. We'll see what we end up with. I'd also like to do something with the cabinets. The bottom doors and some of the drawer fronts have seen better days...

To see more metamorphases, head over to Between Naps on the Porch and check out the talent. You may be inspired to try a project of your own!

Furniture Re-do

This is my first Metamorphosis Monday post. To see more inspirational before and after projects, visit Between Naps on the Porch.

Several months ago I picked up this little dresser at the Goodwill store. I wasn't sure what I wanted it for, but for $11 dollars, something could be figured out. What I did figure out first thing, though, was the mint green paint color had to go. Oh, and the knobs. Those are the same style knobs that were on Grace's cupboard. They must've been quite popular in the 70's. It sat in the garage while I worked intermittently on Taylor's desk and Grace's cupboard. Another flat surface to stack stuff on top of.

Then it came to me that this would fit in the dining room and be a good place to store table linens, napkins and napkin rings, and doilies. It's big enough to store my few tablecloths and place mats, too.

It still sat. Procrastination should be an Olympic sport - I'd be first on the team...

One lovely Autumn day I started in with some stripper. There were several spots where the paint had peeled and left a glimpse of varnish underneath. I started with those.

Then it sat awhile longer.

On another nice Autumn day, I pulled it out onto the sidewalk and got out the hand sander. The stripping was slow and tedious. The sanding went quickly. Turns out there was a layer of white paint under the mint green, but no one had sanded the varnish, so the two layers of paint were coming off in big chunks. The hand sander took care of all paint and varnish and didn't take long to strip the piece completely.

Then it got put back in the garage and sat some more.

After the New Year, I promised myself I'd get those garage projects finished, even though the weather outside was frightful. The dresser came inside and I took my time cleaning it up and primed it with Zinsser Bin 1-2-3. Then a couple of coats of satin enamel, and I had my linen storage.

Then knobs are a brushed nickel finish. I was hoping for decorative glass, but couldn't bring myself to pay more for a couple of knobs than I did for the entire piece of furniture.

I may still do something more decorative to the drawer fronts. Perhaps some wooden embellishments or some decoupage, but for now I'm enjoying the simplicity.

The Birds Again

We had a big snowstorm on Friday that left us with those 40-hundred inches of snow. :o) Actually, I haven't heard the official totals, but my guess is we got 6-ish inches. I'm not going to complain, we could have had 10-12" according to weather forecasts.
I was fortunate to be able to come home shortly after the snow started. I got the birdfeeders filled as soon as I got home, before it got too bad. The birds emptied them by late afternoon, but by then the snow had stopped and Greg had scooped the sidewalks and decks, so I went out and filled the feeders again.
By early afternoon we had new guests at the party, our local cardinal couple. Cardinals are pretty skittish, and any time I approached the windows, they flew away. I finally was able to stand there long enough that the male came back to the feeder and I could get a photo.
Here we have a sweet little American Goldfinch. He was dipping his beak into the snow on the deck rail - I suspect for the moisture.
See how big and fluffy they make themselves when it's cold outside?

This house finch was drinking snow, too. There are probably more house finches than any other kind of bird to visit my feeders.

I haven't been able to get a picture of the dark-eyed juncos, and there are doves out there now, but they all scatter every time I get anywhere near the window.

Tucker has stopped whining and crying at the birds - he just lies there for hours watching them, twitching his tail.

Valentine Wishes

Wishing you all a day full of love!

My honey is going to pick up steaks and scallops and plans to grill our supper. We had 40-hundred inches of snow yesterday, so I don't know how he's going to get to the grill, but he's determined. Gotta love him. Well, I do. You don't have to. :o)
No other grand plans for the day besides puttering around the house and doing some scrapbooking. Unless Randy's kids show up for a little while. Then we'll play and maybe make some Valentines together. Either way it sounds like a good day to me.

Warm Sweater Wednesday

It was a good day to have WSW here on the Great Plains. Temps were mid-40's and the sun shone, so I left the furnace set at 63 and it hasn't come on all day. That's a good thing, especially after the last gas bill...

Though temps have ranged from the mid-60's to mid-40's so far this week, I'll not get my hopes up for an early Spring. The snow, it is a-comin' for the weekend. Sigh.

It's Been A Week...

This is the ride my emotions (and I suspect my hormones) have been on this week. I'll explain in a few days or a week or a month. I need to get off the ride, first.

Warm Sweater Wednesday/trivial thoughts

It was WSW today - did you turn back your thermostat a few degrees? We finally had a high temp today above 32 degrees, and it was the first in the last six days that we had no snow. Yea!
I have a kitty sleeping on my feet right now - they're staying toasty warm!

On a sad note, my herbs are not doing well. They seem to have stopped growing and are just "there". I think this weekend I may try to take them out of the bags and pot them up - we'll see if that helps.

Greg is watching "Ghost Hunters International" and they're in a house in Sweden, speaking to the ghosts in English. Really? Do the Swedish ghosts from hundreds of years ago understand English?

I made homemade rye bread today (yes, using a bread machine) and plan to have yummy patty melts for supper tomorrow night.

I'm helping Randy paint inside at one of the rental houses. Tomorrow we tackle the navy blue bedroom and the Spiderman (blue/red) bedroom walls. The former tenants painted them and I'm afraid I'm going to go blind before we get them covered! What were they thinking? The third bedroom is painted gray with a Harley Davidson border. We're leaving that one alone. :o)

Herb Update

Remember a few weeks ago when I planted those little bags with herb seeds? Well, after 5 days of sitting on top of the heating pad, covered in a plastic bag, there were sprouts!

Now they seem to grow more by the hour and are almost to the point where I'll need to thin them out. I hate thinning, because it seems such a waste of a potential plant, but if I'm going to get nice herbs, they'll need room to grow.

Supposedly in another 3 1/2 weeks, I'll be able to harvest the basil. The chives will be ready by then, too, I think. Not sure about the dill - we'll see.

I found the crate at Goodwill the other day for 99 cents. Isn't it perfect?

Birdwatching

One of my biggest backyard pleasures is feeding and watching the birds all year round. As you can imagine, we don't have many varieties winter-over here in the Heartland, but the ones that do stay provide quite a show!

Let me tell you, when there is snow on the ground, those feeders have to be filled daily. Right now, for food, I'm only using black oil sunflower seeds. I usually have a thistle feeder or two for the finches, but have you seen the price of thistle seed lately?! Ouch. All the birds we have now will eat the sunflower seeds, though. (I do not buy "mixes" since they pick out the sunflower seeds and leave the milo to sprout in my yard in the springtime!)

Tuesday morning we had dozens and dozens of birdies at the two feeders. They were mostly sparrows, house finches, goldfinches, and dark-eyed juncos. That's the usual "menu" of birds in my backyard in the winter, with the exception of the nasty starlings, and the occasional cardinal, bluejay, and nuthatch. I got a few photos through the window - the sky was cloudy early in the day, so the pictures look a little bleak, but we ended up with a beautiful, sunny, warm winter day. tree full of birdies - mostly American Goldfinches

female house finch - blurry photo because the feeder was swinging back and forth in the wind...

The feeders can be seen easily from the south-facing windows of the sunroom, and my kitty-boy Tucker parks himself there every morning to watch and cry. He starts out pawing the window, then resigns himself to the fact that he's only a spectator. Poor boy.

American Goldfinch - one of my favorite birds

What kinds of backyard birds do you have in the winter?

Warm Sweater Wednesday

Who needs a sweater today? Not me! The sun is shining and it's going to hit 50 this afternoon, so the furnace won't run much, even set at 63 - which is where it is now. Temps will be the same tomorrow. Yea!

Believe me when I say how appreciative I am of this little warm spell, especially when the high on Friday is forecast to be 20. Just in time to make the weekend too cold for comfort.

I was asking Greg last night about when we should schedule a trip to North Dakota to see Jessica and deliver the last of her furniture to her (we've been storing it in our garage). I suggested we go in a couple of weeks. He didn't seem too enthused and I asked if he had a problem going to see his daughter. He said no, but not now, let's wait until it's warm!

Honey, we're talking NORTH DAKOTA - it won't be warm until June!

Pay It Forward

My sweet friend Susan offered a PIF project on her blog back in November. I signed up to participate, but haven't posted about it until now.

Here's how it works:

I will make you a handmade gift for each of the first 3 people who post comment on this post, but you have to have a blog yourself, and be willing to pass on the 'pay it forward' concept. You then put it on your blog and make three gifts for other people. This is a fun way to get to know other people, and to spread some crafty love around the world!

The rules state that I have 365 days to make a gift and send it to you. I promise, it won't take that long.


C'mon and join the fun! Just leave a quick comment telling me you want to play and we'll be on our way!

Furniture Re-Do

For part of their Christmas gifts for Grace and Taylor, I refurbished a couple of furniture pieces.

The desk for Taylor was purchased at Goodwill one cold, rainy Autumn afternoon. I already had a small backpack and some drawing paper and markers for part of her gift, so this went perfectly as the main piece. It was in very good shape, though Greg tightened all the screws to make it less wobbly. He says he thinks it was built from a kit.

I sanded it, then remembered to take a photo. Here's the before:

Angela didn't care what color I painted it as long as it wasn't pink. :o) I chose a very bright blue in a satin finish. First I primed using Zinsser Bin 1 2 3. That stuff sticks to anything. Then a couple of coats of the blue.

Instead of painting the seat, I used a thick piece of foam and some lime green fleece. This wasn't my original plan, but it's how it worked out, and the finished look is so bright and fun! Taylor looks like she enjoys it. :o)

The other project was to rehabilitate an old cabinet for Grace. This little cupboard originally belonged to my Aunt Jan. It was a birthday gift to her when she was little, and was built by her uncle (?). I remember this cupboard being in the guest room at Grandma's when I was little. After I had kids, Jan gave the cupboard to me, asking only that I keep it in the family if I ever wanted to get rid of it. I was doing home daycare at the time, so it got lots of use. Once the kids outgrew it, I used it for storage, and a couple of years ago, we took it out to the garage where it continued to store odds and ends I used in gardening and crafting. My estimation is that the cabinet is about 50 years old.
When I was visiting at my brother's house one morning, Grace was playing in their china hutch, claiming one of the drawers as her own. I remembered the little cabinet, and decided that would be her Christmas present, along with a fun little tea set. I talked to Aunt Jan to make sure it was okay to paint and re-do it, first. She was okay with the idea - I hope she's okay with the result! It was passed on to Grace with the understanding that it will stay in the family when they're done with it.

This first photo is the before, though I'd already taken the back panel off. Originally the entire piece had a hard cardboard kind of back on it, but there were holes in it and it was popping off the back, so I got rid of it.

Grace's favorite color is orange, so I picked out five different orange paint chips and had Grace pick her favorite. Her choice was "grated carrot" in a satin finish.
I decided to only replace the back on the bottom part and leave the top open for more of a display cabinet feel. The top doors came off, and the warped shelf was replaced. The replacement is just a white laminated shelf, modge podged with scrapbooking paper.

The drawer handles are original to the piece. The door knobs are what was on the cabinet. I don't remember if I put those on or if they were on it when I got it, but they were gold-ish and tarnished and ugly. They all look great with a couple coats of watermelon-colored spray paint.

We delivered the cabinet a couple of days after Christmas and immediately the kids divided the drawers and shelves between them and started filling it up with the tea set and other toys.

Taylor's desk has a history - somewhere. I don't know who used it, if it was a gift, what their favorite activity was to use it for. We're starting anew with memories for that piece. I hope that it will keep for generations, but whether it does or not, any enjoyment she gets from it now is enough.

Grace's cabinet is full of family history and I hope one day she will appreciate that and be thankful that she and her brothers got to add to the memories made with it. Just seeing how much fun they had filling it up for the first time made me smile.

Warm Sweater Wednesday

It's been a month ago that I first posted here about WSW. We've done just so-so with Warm Sweater Wednesday the past few weeks. It was so cold and windy that we just couldn't turn down the heat. However, I didn't turn it up, either.

Last week was New Year's Eve, and no one was home all day, so the thermostat stayed set at 63 degrees. This is the normal setting for during the day, in case I don't come home right after I get off work at 8 a.m. When I get home, I usually turn it up to 68.

Today I did not. It's pretty chilly outside, in the 30's, and snowing off and on, but I left the thermostat at 63. When I first got home, I cleaned up the kitchen, then went to bed - remnants of a migraine only gave me 3 1/2 hours of sleep last night so a nap was badly needed. The bed was warm and cozy and I didn't even notice the cooler temp in the house.

I've been up for a few hours now, and am baking cookies and wearing layers, so I'm really quite comfortable. I think I'll just leave the setting at 63 until the thermostat changes itself to 68 at 4:00 or so.

You may have surmised that we have a programmable thermostat. This has been the biggest money-saver in the winter! It is programmed for 63 during the day, unless I change it, then 68 for the evening. At 11:00 it goes down to 60 for the night. (We have a dual-control heated mattress pad, so we stay toasty warm, don't worry.) At 3:30 it goes back up to 68 - I get up at 4, so the house is at least beginning to warm up then. Greg leaves for work a little before 7, so that's when it goes back down to 63.

Now I've had people mention to me that letting the house and furniture get cold overnight takes so much more heat to warm it up in the morning, that it cancels out any savings we might have by turning the furnace down at night. I beg to differ. A few years ago the gas man was here to hook up the new gas cook stove and he mentioned that we had the lowest gas bill in our entire town. Granted, that's just over 100 houses, but that's fairly significant. I can't say it's true today, but it proved to me that what we were doing was working.