Woolly Mutts

Staycation - day 2

Day 2 of the vacation, 44 degrees at 9:35.  It's going to be a beautiful day. 

So yesterday I promised kitchen pictures and today I deliver.  Just to keep a little perspective, a quick look at what we started with.

And now...the big reveal of the current progress, including, for those who have been impatient, THE COLOR....

...Lowes Valspar - Perfect Storm.  I have so much love for this color I can't even tell you. 

As you can see, we now have some upper cupboards with actual doors and new hardware.

The lowers got a fresh coat of paint and the same hardward.  I really love the drawer pulls.  (Also Lowes.)  There is still one more big cupboard that needs to be mounted above the microwave and then the upper portion will be done.  Yay! Backsplash tiling still needs to happen. 

We replaced the ugly and not very functional pop hanger light with these red pendants to add a pop of color and because we stood and looked at a ridiculous number of possible shades and both agreed that the red was the most fun.  The dining area wall-of-weird has been culled and rearranged a bit.  It still needs something red and I'll enjoy the hunt. :-)

The castle is still above the pantry, peeking through the imaginary ivy hedge.   Have I already posted about this castle?  Ages ago, when my kids were little, we had the daughters of my bff as babysitters.  One of them, Shannon, was artsy and one year she painted this castle and ivy on the pantry wall.  With each redecoration I just paint around it because I still love it so. 

Finally, my favorite new addition; this great tag art that was a kitchen warming gift from son Karl and his wife, Santa.  When I walk down the walk toward the dining/kitchen it is the first thing I see and it makes me SO happy.  Little, unexpected surprises are such a joy.

Time to head out to the work meeting that I scheduled because I'm an idiot.  Such is life.  Enjoy your day.

 

Red is the color of my true love's.........curtains.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I was all jazzed up over Kaffe Fassett and he fearless use of color?  After that I decided that I needed to turn over a new leaf, get true to myself, and start getting brave about color.  (big talk, scary action)  So the other day I was walking through my dining room and stopped to look at the boring, boring, boring curtains that were hanging there.  (Did I mention boring?)  As I looked and pondered a piece of fabric that I had been revisiting at our local Hancock Fabrics came to mind.  The red of the pattern was almost the exact red of the walls....I was positive of it!  So, off to Hancock I go, taking Amazing Husband with me just in case he saw the fabric and called a halt to the whole thing right off the bat.  (He would almost NEVER do this, but better safe than live with an unhappy man.)  We find the fabric, on the sale table, and there wasn't enough.  Careful math done by Amazing Math Man Husband indicated many more yards necessary than those available.  Not one to give up easily I begin to sort through the rest of the fabric and come up with not one, but two different patterns that I think might work.  It's a little wild, this mix of pattern, but I think I'm brave enough to go for it.  Several hours and many long seams later: 

new curtains in the dining room and kitchen.  (click on the pictures for a bigger view)

General reaction:

Me: the hem on the kitchen curtains is a little wonky.

Amazing Husband:   No, really, I like them.

Darling Daughter:  They look Swedish.

Darling Daughter's boyfriend:  Ummmm, interesting.  Very you.

(Darling Daughter's boyfriend already thinks I'm from another planet. )

But wait!  There's more!  Red is also the color of:

MY HAIR! 

Or at least some of it.  I had red hair at birth and I've always sort of dreamed of being brave enough to be a redhead.  So when I went in to have some highlights I mentioned this and Amy, my son's girlfriend, (who also thinks I'm not of this planet) and a really amazing hairstylist, decided to give me just a taste of red.  AND.....I love it!   I want more!  Clearly I am having some sort of mid-life awakening (this sure isn't a crisis) and grown a wild hair.  The underside in the back is solid red and then she just added pieces of it throughout.  Really, I know it's crazy, but having red in my hair is making me so happy. 

The weather dudes indicate that we may be getting something close to a blizzard tomorrow so I'm going to head out today and stock up a bit.  6+ inches of heavy, wet snow and lots of wind.  Should be fun!  I do so love weather. :-)

If the format of this post is a little nuts I apologize.  Typepad had been acting really strange lately and I haven't figured out how to make it better.  Liz, I've been trying to get the pictures to pop up into separate windows for weeks now with only sporadic luck.  I really do want to be sensitive to all you dial-up people!