from a not so red delicious to a fabulous granny smith

The kitchen has finally been painted! Yesssss! It is absolutely beautiful. I don't think I could love it more. I mean, how much can you really love a kitchen? Well, let me tell you ... a lot! There are just a few finishing touches to make and it will be complete! I'm hoping to get a backsplash done within a few weeks and then I want to get a dual oven ... but that's on hold for awhile.

before -

I wasn't a huge fan of the red paint in our kitchen. It made the kitchen very dark and small.

You also can't tell from the pictures but the paint job wasn't that great. I can only imagine how hard it would be to paint a room red ... you could tell that the previous owner tried and then probably got pretty irritated with it.

drum roll please ......

A close up of the paint and new window treatments. I chose black valances to blend with my appliances. Perfection.

The color of the paint is not even close to this picture ... visualize a granny smith apple. Delicious!

A new backsplash will replace what you see here. It will be black and it looks like old pressed tin. I have to get my vintage flair somewhere in there!

Awesome, huh?

Welcome to our home! What's for dinner? Tonight ... low fat chicken enchiladas. Come on over!

Part 1 - Before and After

Okay, so a few weeks ago I mentioned that I would be blogging before and after pictures of our new digs. Well, here it is. Finally. Yeah, I know I have been slacking. I would like to blame that on the fact that I have had long work weeks and have been making other improvements to the house. But that would be all lies because I am still unemployed and I have not been working on the house any. BUT ... I did mow the lawn this week. And in my opinion that totally counts as my excuse.

This post involves one of our guest rooms.

BEFORE:

For some reason, there were shelves along the top of the room going all around. Well, we thought it would be an easy fix just to take the shelving down. I wish. Wouldn't you know the paint color was different above the shelving from the rest of the walls? Luckily, paint was left behind that was used in this room. And the brown sponge paint had to go! I'm not opposed to texture painting ... but this was not pretty.


AFTER:
The shelves are gone and the wall has been painted! We also set up an old (and I mean OLD) iron bed. This was my bed as a child and I am so glad my parents kept it! The found two iron beds at an antique shop that are from the 1800's ... I think. Mom, please correct me if I'm wrong. We also have a rocking chair in there that was Andrew's mother's mother's mother's. (That would be his great-grandmother - I just like to make things difficult). It is a beautiful, hand-crafted wooden rocking chair and I'm so excited to have it in my house.

Here is another view. Yes, the curtains are quite bright. The dresser is from a children's furniture store that I used to work for that I got on clearance for $50. I also hung up a simple grape vine wreath that my grandfather made.

I love how the room turned out. It's definitely a hodge podge room but I think that it what makes it so great. I will soon have a nightstand to put in there that my Papa made and an old antiqued mirror that I need to hang up. I love vintage antiques so I was glad that I was able to use this room to show my love for the oldies but goodies!!!

Show us your life .... baby showers ....

It's time for me to show you my life again! I don't have much experience with hosting baby showers. I've co-hosted two showers - and I only have pictures of one. Sorry Amy!! But I'll share with you what I have done ... cause I have to admit, it turned out pretty cute!

My mom and I threw a shower for one of our sweet friends who had a baby girl. So of course, we didn't hold back! We created a vintage, shabby chic shower theme using formal china, my wedding silver, and old table linens. SO.DARN.CUTE. We scheduled the shower to be around 10am so we served brunch which included juices, mimosas, coffee, muffins, fruit salad, and pastries. Mom and I did attempt a coffee cake the night before. It turned out terrible so of course it wasn't served. I don't think we ever really decided what the initial problem was - either we used a really bad pan, didn't cook it long enough, or just missed a step somewhere. Oh, well ... live and learn. I don't think we will be attempting another coffee cake. :-)

This part turned out to be my favorite. My mom has a shadow box that she likes to change according to seasons, holidays, special occasions, etc. So we decided to set it up for the shower. We included the shower invitation, pink ribbon, and baby cards that were sent to my grandmother when my mom was born to add a vintage flare. No, mom ... I'm not saying you are vintage. Just the cards. ;-) It turned out to be awesome!




Now .... on to my specialty .... DIAPER CAKES.



When Amy's friend and I decided to throw a shower for her, I thought it would be cute to make her a diaper cake as the centerpiece. This was my first attempt and I thought it turned out to be pretty cute. It involved alot of time, tons of diapers, a few items off of her registry, and then a random assortment of baby items that I thought were cute.

Here is my second cake ... and one made by my sister too. We went to a baby shower for one of our cousins who was having twins so you can't just make one diaper cake! :-) These are a little smaller but just as cute!

Well, that's about all I can offer on my expertise around baby showers. Hop on over to Kelly's blog to read more!

Have a great weekend!

Mama, this one's right up your alley!!

I just found my new favorite site ... and I know it's gonna be one of my mom's favorites too!!!

Check it out on my sidebar. It's called Flea Market Style.

love.this.site.

Wordless Wednesday - Louie under the Willow Tree

A new look!

So, how do you like our blog makeover? I have to say, I am pretty impressed with my design skills. I did have some help with the template design from The Cutest Blog on the Block. Check out my sidebar for the link if you are interested in jazzing up your blog too!! I am still working on a few things. I want to add a few more buttons that link to some of the crafty blogs that I like to get ideas from. And I'm going to update the blog with some new pictures of the Mr. and myself. Until then ... enjoy!!

It's Friday!

Which means it's that time again! This week it's all about favorite vacation spots so I have decided to reminisce about our trip to Maine last summer for the Lobster Festival.

Andrew and I have talked before on how great it would be to go to Maine. When I was in the 5th grade we had to choose a state to do a class report on. I chose Maine. I've been hooked ever since. Andrew and I would always go back and forth debating whether or not to go so last summer we just decided to go for it. So, we made the 15-17 hour drive up (talk about a true test on our relationship - HA!) and enjoyed a full week of gorgeous views, beautiful weather, and some delicious lobster!

Okay, so look at the clouds in this picture. Don't you see the lobster and it's huge claw? This is been up for debate with a few people but I swear I can see it. Look above the electricity pole and to right. The claw is overlapped by the power lines. See it???? :-)

This was the view from our hotel room. We would wake up every morning, get a cup of coffee, and just take it the view. I enjoyed the simplicity of the town we stayed in. It had a beautiful shoreline and a fabulous historical downtown that has stayed true to its charm.

Do you know what time it is??? Time to get crackin'!

If you have ever thought about going to Maine, do it!! You won't regret it. But the next time I go ... I'll be flying. ;-)

(almost) Wordless Wednesday ... it's back!

Backyard Bliss

If you love to cook ....

then you have to check out The Pioneer Woman! Love this!!

Have a great week ya'll!

Show us your life ... part one for me

Okay, so I have decided to finally participate! I read Kelly's blog almost every day and she had this great idea to get everyone involved on Fridays to kind of put a spotlight on your family, house, and life .... so, here I go!

Today's post is about showing off your wedding reception and honeymoon. The Mr. and I got married at Childress Vineyards in Lexington and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day or location.

Here we are during our first dance as hubby and wifey. We danced to Billy Joel's "She's Got a Way" ... we were having such a hard time coming up with a song to dance to because we never had a song. My Mr. came over to my apartment one evening while we were planning the wedding and said he had the perfect song to dance to and play this one for me. ::swoons::

Here is a picture of our beautiful cake! I believe it was amaretto pound cake?? We literally only had the bite we gave to each other after we cut it. We did save the top layer for our one year anniversary and it still tasted pretty good. I made sure to save a small slice of our wedding cake and will keep it in my freezer for years to come. I actually noticed that my parents have done this with several special cakes they have had in their lives ... wedding, anniversaries, birthdays ... I'm just a bit sentimental, huh? :-) I wanted to stick to the traditional bride and groom cake topper and found this one on ebay that Hallmark sold. Hallmark actually sells them in their stores again. I love it.

My favorite unplanned photo! The vineyard set up a table just for the two of us with elaborate seating. Well, as we danced the night away Andrew draped his jacket over his chair and I put my veil across the arms of mine. I love that our photographer found this smallest detail and decided to capture it. I also love that Grammy is in the background ... this will always be one of my favorite pictures from our special day.

And last, but definitely not least. This picture is a table we had setup of both sets of parents and all of our grandparents. Some are from their own wedding days and others are just great snapshots. I loved having this! It made me feel that all of our grandparents were there to help us celebrate our special day. We got so many compliments on this and every time I looked over there were people at the table looking at their pictures.

I'll have to work on the honeymoon pictures. I am the genius who didn't charge her camera battery before the honeymoon so we had to buy $30 one time use cameras. And I still haven't gotten them developed. Ooops ... that is now on my to do list for next week.

Have a great weekend!

::knocking on the door to the blog world:: Anyone out there?

We are!

First of all, my apologies for no recent updates. For some reason I have kind of gotten out of the whole blogging routine for awhile. I just haven't thought that there as been much to blog about lately. I am still jobless but with a few leads right now. Just keep your fingers crossed that something will work out for me.

The house is going great! We are enjoying everything about it ... except for lawn work ... Andrew is not a fan. I have decided that I will start posting some before and after pictures of the changes we are making to our home. There isn't much that needs to be done except for a few things cosmetically. Be on the lookout for those photos coming soon!

OH! We have planned a nice Caribbean vacation to the Dominican Republic in September. 7 nights of all inclusive wonderfulness ... BIL and SIL are coming with us so I'm sure we will have a blast.

One more thing .... Mom and I have a little project that we are working on that I will introduce to you all in a few weeks. Get excited .... we are!!!