Woo-hoo! My "new" kitchen!

dFor my own sanity, this post will be (parentheses-free). I read some past posts recently and nearly drove myself crazy with all of the (parentheses) I use. So just this once, I will force myself to refrain. Sometimes I just really annoy myself!


So, we've been in this house 2 1/2 years and are just now doing ANYTHING to it, but we're on a roll! Which I'm sure will end, oh, I don't know, sometime around the end of May, when Babycare 501 begins. So with Maddy's pink room and the living area painted, what more could I ask for? Let me remind you...
Sadly, that was in JULY and here we are in FEBRUARY...

Yep, same ol' painted, nasty-looking floor. Okay, it probably IS actually nasty, and not just nasty-looking. Plus, I was really tempted to put that in parentheses. But still, the paint. SOOOOO...since we couldn't decide on exactly what to do "permanently", blah, blah, blah...insert long-winded account of our boring and drawn-out indecisive decision-making process...here is the current final result...



Jared, at my request, took the kids to his parents' house for a long-overdue visit Saturday night through Sunday evening. They were able to celebrate Uncle Dick's 91st birthday with him on Sunday. Jack especially liked the part where he blew out Uncle Dick's candles, even though Jared had warned him not to. I know this because when they walked in the door Sunday afternoon, Jack said, "It's not my birday, I cannot bwo out Uncle Dick's candles. My birday is 'tober thirty. It's not 'tober thirty yet. Then I can bwo out my candles." Let me just say, I was more impressed that he remembered his birthdate than I was upset over him blowing out the 91-year-old's candles. I'm betting Uncle Dick did NOT care. Although everyone else planning to actually EAT the cake might have a different opinion.

And how, you might wonder, does that relate to the kitchen floor? While they were gone, I "tiled" the kitchen floor! Yes, I'm 23 weeks pregnant. So sue me, I needed a project. I'm nesting a little early. The floor is 18" vinyl stick-on tiles from L.owe's (like Sarah K!). I had brought home 10+ different tiles to try out and the lighter ones, which seemed more practical in not making our small kitchen look any smaller, just didn't look right with the orange shellacked knotty pine cabinets. As if anything looks good with orange shellacked knotty pine cabinets. But I took a gamble...Jared did not share my vision...that these darker tiles, with the orangey-greeny tones, would work. For under $100 and probably 8 hours of my time...because I'm really slow...I...I mean we...have a new kitchen floor! I really like it, and Jared actually does, too. He still doesn't love the aloe-colored walls...and honestly, neither do I, but I think it all looks better at least. Although it would be hard NOT to improve on the "painted" linoleum!

These are the curtains...I just typed kirtins...seriously...although in my defense I was simultaneously--I can spell that--carrying on a conversation with Noah about Fat Tuesday and why we do NOT have to take the red velvet cake that Memaw gave me for Valentine's Day--THANK YOU, MEMAW!--to Maddy's Brownie meeting because they are going to have a king cake there, and that Maddy promises she will tell him after the meeting if she gets the piece with the baby...so, I guess I just went on autopilot.

Ok, seriously back to the kitchen. These are the curtains that I "made". I intended to actually sew them on Monday, but realized AFTER retrieving my sewing machine from the attic, that I had NO thread. I guess I took my sewing box to my parents' house and left it there. Oops! It didn't help that Jack was napping and I only had 5 hours until 11 friends came to my house for Bunko night! Oh yeah, and I needed to finish cooking, finish cleaning, un-grocery-sack the windows, etc. So, I decided to do the next-best, quickest thing...staple! You can tell in-person, but not too shabby in the picture. Except that I didn't bother to measure. I had already cut the fabric, but I just eye-balled the hems, "seam"-allowances, etc. I hope to go back soon and actually sew them, but I'm not making any promises. If you look at the "before" picture of the kitchen, you'll see the curtain was 3 cloth napkins from Ta.rget that I stapled to the inside of the existing wood cornice-thingy. I don't have a great track-record with these things. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I say.

The rest of these pictures, and really most of this post, are mostly for mom, who is probably the only one interested at this point. This is a little plaque...isn't that the stuff on your teeth? is it spelled the same?...I found at R.oss for $10 that convinced me that I COULD pull off the aloe and red color scheme with black iron accents. I already had the aloe walls, and black hinges/cabinet pulls, so I was pretty much stuck with that. Anyway, I like it and I really like it in this empty space under the cabinet. It used to be over the refrigerator. It looks mighty-nice with the curtains, I think. And my red-velvet valentine cake coordinates, too! And I feel like I should confess that, since I had 11 people over for Bunko/dinner last night, I have NOT finished all the dishes, so I had to move piles of dirty dishes from one end of the counter to the other to achieve full-coverage of the kitchen :) Just so you didn't think I have it all together. I know, don't laugh, no one really thought that anyway!!Now, if we can just do something about those countertops! I think I need a V-8 smack with a verse about being content. Thunk! And I made it with no parentheses! The next baby-step will be weaning myself from ... and --. Don't hold your breath.

And if you made it to the end of yet another long-winded post, please know that I appreciate any and all comments, even from the more mature ladies ;-) That's you, M.E.!

Good news! The painting is done!

First, another disclaimer (or something like that). Yes, my house is usually this messy, although in my defense, these were taken in the midst of "the sickness", so I had an excuse (THAT day, not all the other days, though!). By the way, those things next to the tv are known as "rabbit ears", for those of you with cable/satellite. And we are boycotting the '09 switch to HDtv and will be taking our $40 changeover credit to get the box and keep our non-HD set. Hey, we had the tv that Jared got for his 16th birthday in 1990 until a couple of years ago when we were given this one, so, hey, we're movin' on up!

Here is the living room BEFORE. The drapes and cornices came with the house and are OLD (house was built in '55). Also, the walls are as they were when we moved in TWO years ago...flat, white paint. Oh, with spackling OVER that. Yes, it was like that when we moved in, and YES, it has taken us TWO years to get around to painting it. Sad. But true.
These two are the dining room (open to the living room) BEFORE. Those are our Ruby pictures on the wall. And yes, that light fixture came with the house (although it's grown on us and I think I might keep it). These walls are in the same shape as the living room, flat, white, dirty walls. And old drapes (we'd already taken down this cornice, but it's the same as the living room)...

And...ta-da! Not as dramatic in pictures, but OH so much better in person. We did Porter's Neutral Beige in both rooms, with velvet white on the ceilings and molding. Yeah, who knew there was even crown molding up there? It was flat white like the walls. Now it's actually painted as trim! I'm still searching for window treatments, so we had to just put up the old drapes (since it was 9 degrees that night and our old windows are pretty drafty)...and I haven't put anything back on the walls, but I'm SO excited to have that done!And for the dining room...who knew we had a chair rail already there? Even though it's covered by the china cabinet, it looks SO much better! The pirates are not an intentional part of the decor. This is our only table, so it's gets LOTS of use!
I'm so excited to have this done, in case you can't tell! I know it's sad that I'm this excited about paint, but home improvement is a rare event in our household :-) Here's a sad fact: I had paint for these rooms bought back in June, until Jack spilled it on our kitchen floor in July. And guess what has NOT been replaced yet? That's right, our painted kitchen floor. But that's going to happen this week, so look for more exciting home improvement news from the Smallings!!

Pink Princess

The great Maddy's room makeover is finally complete...well, until we have to move the crib in there in a few months, once he outgrows the bassinet/pack-n-play/carseat/boppy (our babies have slept in lots of things--WHATEVER works!). But here are the pictures. I took the first two, she took the rest. She also took lots of other hilarious close-ups of random things in her room...and of herself sneezing, coughing, and some nostril shots...she cracks me up! But she wouldn't let me post those...

Dani made the bedding and curtains...

*"Over the Moon" pink toile coverlet, toile pillow sham trimmed in pink/green stripe, pink/green stripe bedskirt, plus throw pillows sewn by Maddy; curtains in white w/green polkadots, trimmed with toile, cording in pink/green stripe* The wardrobe in the 2nd picture was Jared's grandmother's. His parents had it stripped and refinished a few years ago for us.

Maddy's "Ba.rbie" house...we already had this but cleaned it up and found cute wooden dollhouse furniture at Ta.rget...cheaper than a Ba.rbie Dream House...and hopefully will last longer!

Madeline's doll corner...Sam.antha meets Kathleen McKenzie...they get along well!
The boys did not get a makeover (maybe when baby brother moves in eventually!), but for now they were excited about the pirate sheets I found at Ros.s Dres.s for Less for $7.99! (yes, for FULL size sheets!)Jack got Mag.tastiks for Christmas (thanks, Willow!) and he made this "Minja Wight Saver" (ninja light saber). He can't pick it up or it falls apart (because he won't settle for it being 4 sticks long, which would hold together; he wants it exactly this height), but he will build it and then stand holding it as long as someone else is in the room to talk to. He looks like a little old man with his cane...especially with the slightly nutty (ok, REALLY nutty) grin he's sporting...
Noah was proud of the "weights" he built out of the Mag.tastiks...not sure how he even knows what weights are, since he's certainly never heard his parents mention them, much less use them! Probably from Tom & Jerry...the kid is a walking cartoon! And proud of how strong he is. I asked how much they weighed and he said, "TEN pounds!" like that was unbelievably heavy. He also said he could do, "like, one hundred and five" curls, which he proceeded to demonstrate...until he got bored counting. Anyone else with a kindergartener...does yours make everything "one hundred" and something? Noah does and I remember Madeline doing it too. That's just still the largest number he can think of, I guess, but it's amusing to me. Of course, I'm easily amused...
Madeline documented almost everything in her room...for insurance purposes, I'm sure! :-)