The Front Row

Way back in December, the hubby won tickets to a Coldplay concert. Front row tickets! That show was Monday night.


These pictures were all taken with just a point 'n shoot camera


I don't know how many times they shot out confetti but it was everywhere!

Can you imagine how good these pictures would have been with a good camera?

See the lights in the background?

Everyone was given an wristband - pretty cool when they were all lit up!

We were the oldest people on the front row - but oh well!

I think my insides have finally stopped vibrating and someday I may be able to hear again!

Some things never change

and sometimes that's a good thing!

If I were an organized mom, which I'm so NOT, I could show you a picture from about 15 years ago with this same expression. (minus the shades and his bride) I'm sure there are more than one, I just remember this one because at the time it struck me as being so 'him' and he hasn't changed! Love that kid!!!

Oh - I totally swiped this picture from Ashley's facebook page.

Happy Wednesday

Or, I can't come up with a title. Not that I don't wish you a happy day - just, well, you get the idea. Not only do I not have a witty title, I don't have a witty post. :(


Since I don't have anything crafty to show, I thought I would show an update on one of the plants that seems to be doing well at the moment. (most of them are NOT doing well) Anyway - I planted this Lantana in April


Now look at it! (this is the 'back side - the side I see out the front door)


and this is the front (street) side (like the first picture)


I wish I could say the Lantana in the hanging baskets is doing as well but I'm afraid those baskets are about on the list of things to replace. As much as I LOVE hanging baskets on a porch (especially ferns but I gave up on those last year) I am about ready to just hang wind chimes on the front porch hooks - they wouldn't have to be watered!

The chair

This is what hubby wanted for Father's Day.

We ordered it in April and picked it up a couple of weeks ago (in the middle of working on the kitchen) You can kinda tell the color but it definitely looked greener in the store than it does in my living room.

I tried to help it, but there is just only so much you can do. It is a recliner - have I told you how much I dislike recliners? Nothing wrong with sitting in them, and I will admit it is comfortable, but it is a recliner. We looked and looked for one that didn't look like a recliner but he never could find one that he thought was comfortable. Oh well. Do you notice anything in this picture?

Yep - two weeks later and the tag is still on. I think I'll start calling him Mr. Minnie Pearl.

For those of you who have asked (and thank you for asking!) Autumn is better. Still limping, but not as bad and if you call her to eat she can move as fast as ever!

Plastic-ware and a lame dog

Seriously, how much plastic-ware does one person need? And - I had already gotten rid of some back when we had the garage sale in April! I used to buy lots of snack stuffs in bulk at Sam's so I did use those large containers at one time. I had a house full of teenage boys - mine plus the friends they always had over. Man can they go through the food. They were there so much they would even put stuff on the shopping list (I kept a running list on the side of the fridge) when we were out!
Anyway - I put all the lids and containers together to make sure everything had a mate (one lonely lid went in the trash). This was split between two cabinets (meaning it was taking up 4 of 10 shelves!) I was determined to get it all into one (2 shelves) hubby said I couldn't do it. The stack in the middle of the back has two sets of large containers - I ditched one set. The 2qt pitcher (there is another 2qt pitcher behind some of the bowls - from Pampered Chef, I kept that one) and the Velveeta keeper went too. That's it. Everything else went in one cabinet!


Really, why do men doubt us? I LOVE my pull-out shelves!


Autumn had issues last week. Not sure what her thing was but she just wasn't herself. She was just moping around. She seemed better by the weekend though and we though things were fine. Until she got a bath on Sunday. Don't know what happened but we could tell she was in pain and she would not use her front paw (not sure if it was the leg or paw) anyway - this is what she did the rest of the day. Hubby took her to the vet first thing Monday morning - nothing broken and no visible injury but she gave her pain meds and something for inflammation. She is much better - open the food container or pull out the leash and she is bouncing on all-fours but I think she is still playing the sympathy card! Just like kids who never grow up! This picture was yesterday but she is doing the same thing today. Maybe it is the heat, 'cause dude, it is HOT!

I started an applique class Monday - we have homework. Learning three different methods. This week was spray starch - next week is freezer paper, then back basting. Need to finish the block for this week and my house is still in recovery mode from working on the kitchen. (as in the rest of the house took a ride in a hand-basket if ya know what I mean!)

Evolution of a kitchen

Long, picture heavy post!

It's finished - well, almost - for now. (still some touch ups, need to find a rug and well, things always seem to move around - a few things have already moved since I took the pictures!)


Inspection Day - August 2009. This is how the previous owner had the kitchen. I don't know if she just took the 'depersonalize' aspect of home sale to the extreme or if she actually never decorated anything while she lived here. There had never been a curtain on any window and not a square inch of builder beige had been changed.

First thing we did was replace the sink and faucet. You can kinda see the sink in the first photo but you can't see how shallow it is or the awful faucet! This is how we spent our first New Years here. :) This is so much better!

Then we painted the builder (fugly) beige walls. It is really hard to see the color but it is called 'Butter'. Came from Lowe's but not sure if they still have the color swatch - I know some of the colors I have used they no longer have, good thing I saved my color swatches! (except two which for some reason are not in my purse - need to find those) Sorry - got off track a little there.

I attempted to draw your attention away from the ugly with stuff on top of the cabinets! And well, that stuff has to go somewhere! LOL Those awful lights are on the list for someday too. Can't figure out exactly what to do with them - the placement is weird in relation to the counters/sink so I don't think pendants are going to work. I think they just centered them in the room before cabinets went it.

Next we added hardware to the cabinets.

and under-cabinet lighting. Helps a lot (as does the white paint, but lighting is still on the list)

I snapped this after we had already taken the trim off the side cabinet because I couldn't find a good pic of the great hole. Anyway - the next step (before painting) was to do something about this empty hole above the fridge. I don't know if it was the combo of the cabinet on one side and pantry wall on the other and/or the tall ceilings but it just seemed like an unfinished space to me.

We just framed out an open shelf thinking we could extend the crown moulding and make it all match. Joke was on us though - we couldn't match the moulding (we could match the profile, but not the size) so we had to replace it all. More on that later. (that's a whole post!) We also added beadboard behind the open shelf and above the cabinets. Love beadboard!

Now we have all the uppers painted, the beadboard painted (I just painted it the same yellow as the walls) and added trim to the top of the beadboard. We just used a small trim and only did around the beadboard because I'm hoping to eventually do something to the ceiling (maybe tin?) and that will have to come down then anyway.

Time to start painting the lower cabinets!

Hubby built dividers for my silverware drawer. I could never find the right size tray thingie or one that would hold my whole set of flatware, so he customized it for me! (he made it as an insert so it can come out if no longer needed) We did this to two other drawers too - the ones that get all junky with gadgets and then you can never find the gadget you are looking for!

He (we) built pull-out shelves for all the lower cabinets - 10 pull-outs, 2 per cabinet. (I googled pull-out shelving and we ended up using the directions at This Old House as guidelines) Amazing how much more you can get in a cabinet when you can pull that shelf all the way out!

He customized one of them for my baking sheets! There were no directions for this (that I found anyway) but we figured it out!

and here she is all (well, mostly) put back together!

Doesn't she look pretty? I didn't buy anything new for above the cabinets (I lie - I bought two easels) I do need to replace that pitiful looking plant up there but it fills the space for now. (I did give it a bath before I put it back up!) I'll show you the stuff up there in another post - this one is getting long!


This will never be my dream kitchen (way too small for that!) But it is 1000% better than it was just a few weeks ago! Much easier on the eyes!

I don't know how to do the side-by-side, before and after thing but here is a quick re-cap.

When we purchased the house, so I guess this would be the 'before-before'.

Sometime before we started the paint project a few weeks ago - not sure exactly when this was taken but I see my 'Pantry' sign isn't on the door so it had to be before Thanksgiving, but nothing had really changed. So this would be the 'current-before'.

And now!

Whew, I'm tired - but happy!

Sneak-a-peek

Kitchen is almost back together! Yeah!

For those of you that asked - the peas in the last post are purple-hull peas. That there is some good eatin'!

Have a great weekend!

Onions, taters, peas and 'maters!

Took a little break from the kitchen and went to J'ville on Monday - lookie what came home with me yesterday! All this came from Daddy's garden. I've got the peas shelled - two bags are in the freezer and the rest are in a pot on the stove for dinner tonight. Have a meatloaf ready to go in the oven and I'm going to cut up some taters and onions to cook. I'll slice a couple of 'maters and dinner will be done! Yummm.

I know this blog has been pretty boring as of late - thanks to all of you that are still stopping by! I sometimes feel like I should change the name of my blog since so little stitching goes on around here these days. I feel like such a fraud! Honestly, I wanted a different name when I started but everything I tried that had 'yellow house' or yellow cottage' in the name came up as already in use and I came up with this out of frustration (knowing that it would never be just a stitching blog). I guess I really should have taken more time to think on the name. Oh well, after all this time I guess it is too late to change.

Gotta go check on my peas! Hope you are having a great week!

New Hardware

How do you like my new drawer hardware? LOL. Needed some way to get in the drawers while we were painting the facings. Hey, it works!


We are getting closer!

This stuff seemed like such a good idea in the store but it has been a P.I.T.A - I'll tell ya about it later.

Hope to at least be close enough to finished by the end of the week that I can show pictures (but I had hoped that last week too, so there ya go) I can't believe we did our whole kitchen at the last house in six weeks - and it was a total gut job! We stripped everything out to the sheet rock walls and down to the sub-floor! Of course we were 15 years younger!

Back soon!