A busy weekend

I had a busy weekend and barely time today to share, but I'm going to carve out a couple of minutes and show you what I did.

First the kitchen update. Really I'm just going to show you that I managed to tile in the "bar".



This is where I keep the important stuff, wine and coffee. We also finished getting the tiles up around the window in the kitchen, but those pictures don't really show much so you'll just have to believe me. Now all that's left is the grouting and finishing. We found the perfect piece of wood to use to finish the edges so we need to get that purchased and stained as well so we can put it up. Also need to decide what we're going to use for the window sill. We have a piece of marble that was there, but I'm not sure if it will still fit. If not it's back to the drawing board.

So far you've all been good at not spilling the beans about the sampler for mom & dad's anniversary. Since you've been good I'll show you what I managed to accomplish while stitching Sunday afternoon with DF Jackie.


The sun was almost setting my the time I got to take this picture so it's not perfect. But you can see that the Elegant Eggplant Belle Soie has some shading to it. If got to start playing around with what I'm going to change so I can include some info on their anniversary.

I also worked on Daughters of Longbourne but no picture, sorry. Maybe later this week. Hope you all had a Halloween full of treats and not tricks!

Project Saturday

Today was the Saturday put aside to do some more work on the ongoing remodel of our kitchen. Some of you may remember that we got new counter tops a while ago. And by "a while ago" I mean over a year, in fact I don't even know when it happened. There has been more then a few debates on what to use for the back splash and how to finish out the window. Finally a decision was made and today we put the plan in to action. Except we also kind of changed the plan when we got started and thankfully we over bought the amount of glass tiles we'd need.

So, this morning we started with this.

And then we started debating where to put the glass tile and where to put the stuff that looks like tin tiles but is really plastic. We had originally thought to put the glass on the bottom and use just 3 or 4 rows of it, but then we started playing around with it and totally changed our minds. By 7:30 or so tonight we had this. (Sorry for the bad pictures but it was dark and the flash and the lights distorted the colors, the actual color of the counter top is what it looks like in the before pictures. I'll try to get some more tomorrow in the daylight.)



It's still not done. I have to tile all around the window, put in the window sill and also grout the tile. Plus I need to find covers for the plug and light fixtures. I know I've seen ones that are "glass" so that's what I want to use. I think it will end up looking really great. Plus we're going to finish the top and the bottom with quarter round since there's a bit of a gap between the wall and the counter top. I'll take more pictures when I get more done. Hopefully not in another 2 years!

Last night I finished a small ornament that's been in my bag for awhile. Just a cute freebie that I received as a kit during one of the Ornament exchanges.


I felt like stitching some more last night so I pulled out my Christmas Fairy and went back to work on it. As of last night she looked like this...



One final picture of our fireplace all decked out for fall.



A little bit of everything, but it covers the entire season.

Long awaited pictures

Well at least some pictures, but not all of the pictures.

Let's start with this
These lilies crop up in our yard after it rains. Well, to be technical they crop up in some pots we have. They only bloom if it rains. You can water them with water from the well, and nothing will happen, but a few days after it rains, maybe even just a day after, they will bloom. They last a few days, then they're gone. Mom & I want to naturalize them in the back of the yard, but can't until we've done some other things. Aren't they pretty? My Great-aunt Grace always called them "rain lilies".

Then there's the flowers we bought from a catalog. They came as bare roots and my aunt laughed about us planting sticks. Well, this is what one of the sticks produced.It's a type of hibiscus. The company calls them Sub-Zero Mixed Hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos). The bloom is really big and so pretty. Although apparently they taste good too since something has been eating on it, even with the spraying that it's been getting.

In case you were wondering this is what it looked like when we'd gotten part of the backsplash taken apart.The yellow part is without Formica, just the board underneath. It's all done and now we have to go look for tile. Not something I'm looking forward to if I'm totally honest about it. Gotta say I actually like the shade of the board with the new Corian, so we may go with something close to that with some black accent tiles. Who knows though.

That's all for today. I'm tired from band practice and the heat. Plus today is my dad's birthday, so I should at least have a piece of birthday cake with him before the day is through.

Finally a post and some pictures

To distract you from the fact that I haven't posted in almost a week I bring you pictures...
This would be a halfway decent picture of a 3 sided piece that has a very long history. It's the 1998 Commemorative Scissor Fob from Spirit of Cross Stitch. I'm sure that takes a few of you back.Here's another side. Don't you love my bunny? I though he'd do a fine job holding the fob. So, more on the story. I actually had this stitched in 1998, as you can tell from the next picture.
But for some reason I didn't manage to put it together. Well, if the truth were to be told it was more I was too scared to try and put it together. The finishing isn't all that hard, but back then I hadn't done much finishing. So, maybe last year, or the year before I found it in my stash and decided to put it together. Somehow I had a VERY LONG piece of twisted cording for it that I used and got it all done, except stuffed. At which point apparently I put it away until I could get to the bag of poly. I have. When I was going through all my stash for "September Smalls" month I found it and thought why not get this piece completely finished. So, here it is. It really is very pretty. I have no idea what I'll do with it. Right now it's sitting in a bowl with a couple of other smalls I have.

The rest of this week has been taken up with working on this...
That's the bookshelf my uncle made for the end of our kitchen island when he redid the countertops. That's with 2 coats of stain. I know, it looks kind of red now. The stain is "Dark Mahagony" or something like that. It will eventually turn black. That's eventually, after several more coats of stain. I wanted the black because, even though you can't tell, there is a black fleck in the countertops and we're looking at grey and black tile for the back-splash along the countertops and under the counters along the wall. So, it will all work together...eventually...when I've got enough coats on it.

The bad part is that between the weather we've had and the smell from the staining that's going on in the kitchen I've developed a migraine. So far, its staying somewhere around halfway bearable. Although this morning it descended into "must find a bed and cool sheets" for awhile before some medication kicked in.

Oh, I almost forgot! I finished something else last night....
Meet the "summer" panel for "cubie", or "All Year Square". That's right I finished. (If you want to see it a little larger, you can click on the picture to make it bigger, btw.) In the class she told us we could use several different options for the lily flowers. One was bullion knots, another was detached buttonhole. Now, knowing that I have something like 24 bullion knots to do on the pin cushion from Indigo Rose, I decided that if I did more here I wouldn't want to think about those. So, I opted for detached buttonhole. The only thing I haven't done is put the beads on the frog for his eyes. I don't want them to get messed up, so I'll wait until I'm ready to put it together. In a show of optimism, I started on the "spring" panel after I finished this one. Not much done, just the first row of long-arm cross and part of an "A". I've left this one for last since it has the rabbits on it, and I love bunnies so much that I thought it would spur me on to the finish. We'll see.

The weekend is looking interesting. I'm hoping the weather will be nice, but not sure what to expect. We've had lots of rain this week, which we needed, and they say we'll get more tomorrow. I'm not going to complain. My football team isn't playing this weekend, but we'll have a big game next week. I'm also hoping I'll do a little better with the blogging. But now you're all caught up!

Time flys....

When you're doing other things instead of blogging!

I'm sure you've all be wondering how the remodel has gone. I'm happy to announce it's pretty much completed, as you can see in the pictures I've posted. The first shows the island with the new cooktop and new set of bookcases at the end to house at least some of my cookbooks. Also, that black blob beside the cream colored refrigerator, that's the new double, wall ovens! They are fantastic!



The view towards the new sink. Love the new sink! It's one of those that has a small side that's not as deep and then a big side that's really deep. See....

I like that it's all one piece with the countertop, so it makes it very easy to clean. Had a hard time finding what we wanted for the faucet, but like what we finally decided on. Now to figure out what to do about the backsplash. As you can see, it's not been done yet.

With the backsplash to be decided on, we also have to figure out what to do with the wood parts that are new. Do we try to match the current stain? or Do we decide to paint it something that will go with the rest of the kitchen? My aunt suggested we paint, she said a lot of what they are seeing in the magazines shows that look of paint mixed with stain. It's under discussion. I also want to change the hardware on the doors and drawers. Found something we all liked, so that may be coming soon. And, the more I look at it, the more I realize we'll have to change the wall color a little. I'm thinking it can be done with a glaze or some other paint treatment. I'll work on that later though.

In other news...I finished the 3rd of the 4 ornaments I'm stitching for the ornament exchange. I love the way this one looks, even if it does have TONS of the dreaded RG silver and gold braid. I don't like the way it was finished in the magazine, so I'm going to do something different, just not sure what. Have too much to do now to think about finishing. I'm taking it with me to Atlanta next month, and if I haven't finished it by then, it might get left with the master, a.k.a Vickie B., for her to work her magic.

Very little knitting going on. I'm working almost exclusively on the HP Socks for the HP Exchange. Almost finished with sock 1! Now, I'm sure some are wondering if I'll finish the 2nd in time. Oh yeah of little faith. Of course I will. I'm a deadline person. It will happen. My plan right now is to only take the HP socks and orny 4 (the "surprise" orny) with me when I fly up to WV for a family reunion later this week. Can't really stitch at the reunion, but knitting will work. So there's plane time, car time and reunion time to knit! I foresee great progress.

Let the Remodeling Begin!

This morning it started. Well, it really started last night when we had to remove most of the drawers and most everything off the counter tops and even more stuff out of a cabinet that would be going away. As I type it's already gone. So last night, this is what the kitchen basically looked like. The head you see is my mother. As you can see, we had already removed some of the drawer, but you get the idea. I've always loved these cabinets. Hard to tell from the photo, but they are made with knotty pine and then stained a very light color. The floor tile is a light grey, and yes, the wall is a very pretty teal green. Note the mess of cookbooks at the end of the island, some of which are in a milk crate I had in my dorm room as a freshman...many, many years ago.

This morning the work began. My uncle tackled the island area first. That's where the stove was, and it had to come out first. Wasn't as hard as it could have been. That left a fairly large hole. He came with a new front for that, and it has a drawer at the bottom and a nice tall shelf above (or below the new cook top, depending on your perspective.)(A picture of the work in progress, no stove no drawers, no top.) We'll cut down the doors from the shelf area below where the microwave is in the picture above. (hint: it's to the right of the 'fridge.) Then the new top went on and the hole for the cook top was cut. After all that, it was finally time to put the cook top in. The last step to the island was to add new shelves for some of my cookbook collection. Like he said, it won't hold them all, but it will help some. I'm just happy to get rid of the milk crate! Can you see the shiny new glass cook top? It's so pretty! What you can't tell from this picture is that the counter top has black and white speckles, so that black looks fantastic. It also looks like it's a lot greener then the wall, and yet in person it's not really, they are actually quite similar. Odd...

This was fairly late in the afternoon. The man is my wonderful Uncle Jim, cabinet builder extraordinaire! He's the mastermind behind the entire kitchen, since he's the one that originally made them and is not putting on the new tops. He has a custom cabinet business in WV where he, his sons, and a grandson or 2 work and create beautiful kitchens for people. It's all from hand, all made at their shop. An art form to be appreciated, which our family does.

Things finally got wound up for the day around 6 PM. We have a slight problem with the wall ovens, electrical. But since it's all run through the attic, we decided to go back to it fresh in the morning. Needless to say, the guy who was having to go up in the attic, my employee Ronnie, was mighty happy not to have to go back up there today. It's pretty hot what with the temperatures being in the 90's today. Notice that the 'fridge had to be pulled out, and it was just left that way. So, it actually looks worse now, then earlier today. Not to mention that all kinds of tools are on top of the island. Oh well, it will look better tomorrow night...I hope.

Speaking of tomorrow...have to go early and find a faucet for the sink. Went to the "Big Orange Home Improvement Store" this afternoon and found one we liked, (we being me, mom & my Aunt Nora, and yes, it takes all 3 of us to pick something out!). The problem is, they didn't have it in stock, nor did any of the other stores in the surrounding area. They could order it, but it would take 7 - 21 days to receive it. Not helpful when the new top goes on tomorrow and the holes have to be drilled for the new faucet then, and I know I don't want what we have now. So, tomorrow morning we will be trudging to the "Big Blue Home Improvement Store" to see what they have. We may also make a trip to one of the local plumbing supply places in Orange Park (hopefully they are open on Saturdays). Wish me luck!