DIY Sink Skirt

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.  Things are back to normal at the barn, and would you believe we have seen more customers come through since the shooting than before??  I thought for sure it would hurt business!

Its cold and rainy outside with a Winter storm brewing, bringing snow tonite.  But inside I'm dreaming of Spring and anxious to see warmer weather.

In the kitchen I've been bringing more of my new favorite color - Turquoise.  I just can't seem to get enough of it these days.  I recently ordered this cute Eat sign from Etsy and love how it looks over my sink.

Speaking of sink, you may be able to spy with your little eye my new sink skirt.

I made it myself!  Well, not really.  It's actually a vintage half apron that I thumbtacked to the frame.

The best part about using an apron as a sink skirt is you get to store stuff in it - and who doesn't love extra storage?

I got this tool box at the flea last weekend and I love it on my counter storing "stuff".

Got these cute little alphabet letters at Pottery Barn Kids for Cole to play with, but I think I'm having more fun playing with them that he is.

What color are you obsessed with these days??

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulicious day!
xoxo,
Kim

DIY Candlesticks

Recently I had one of those  "saw them - didn't get them - went back for them - too late they were already gone" moments, which turned into a "don't need these anymore - should probably get rid of them - wait maybe I can use them for something else" moments, which turned into a "DUH! Why didn't I think of that sooner" moment.  That ever happen to you?

So I'm at Marshalls looking at stuff I don't need and have nowhere to put when all of a sudden I spy with my little brown eye these candlesticks that I DO need and I DO have a place for (hubby?  are you reading???)!  but i didn't get them....What?  Huh?  The Earth must have been off of its axis that day.

Around the same time I was remodeling my master bedroom (you can read about that here), which left me with two pretty, but broken table lamps.

I brought them to that spot in the garage that serves as a go-between for items that are probably going to end up on the curb, but I'm not emotionally ready to part with them yet.  That's when a lightbulb went on (not the lamps, they are broken remember?).   So I strapped on my DIY cape, grabbed a paint brush and went to work.

Removing the cord was a snap.  Then I used my handy-dandy A.S.C.P. in a combo of Old White, Chateau Grey and Olive followed by some brown wax.

Pretty cool huh?

Don't you just love happy endings? (Hubby, stop reading!)

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulicious week!
xoxo,
Kim

Lookie What I Did!

It's no secret that open shelving in kitchens is the trend these days.  I absolutely love how it looks and would even be bold enough to try it myself if the trend of openly displaying sippy cups with cars on them was also in style.  Since it's not, I took the baby step of removing the cabinet doors over my fridge instead.  This was the easiest peasiest lemon-squeeziest project of all time.  I didn't even need hubby's help........much.

Before, the top of the fridge was the gathering place amidst the dust for school papers that need to be signed (cause I'm orderly like that) and random photos that still need to be shoved in a random box in a random drawer - no I am NOT a scrapper - and an article out of last month's newspaper that I wanted to save because I might need to read it one day, as well as Birthday cards that are too cute to throw away but have nowhere to go until I decide it's finally time to throw them away.

Now,  the top of my fridge is clean, dust and clutter-free and I have a place to display my pretties.

Once I took off the doors there were gaping holes on either side so I used hubby's table saw to cut out some leftover white beadboard I had in the shed.

You can see in the pic above that it still needed some trim to cover the edges of the beadboard.  That's where hubby showed mercy and mitered some trim for me.

It will be fun to switch out the accessories for the seasons.  I've already changed it since I took these first pictures.

Here it is at Christmas and you can see the pretty trim that hubby added.

And here's how it looks today.

A super-easy, super-fun project!

Thanks for visiting and have a fabulicious day!

xoxo,

Kim

Kitchen Chair Transformation!

Hope you all enjoyed a nice weekend.   Mine started out with a visit to the ER and an overnight stay for kidney stones.  I tell ya I've never experienced a pain quite like that before and God willing, never will. If you've had them you know what I'm talking about.  Lucky for me I have the most wonderful husband who never left my side and took care of me all weekend.  Thank you sweetie!

Of course the doctors wanted to make sure the baby was okay, so they ordered an ultrasound to look at my kidneys and a complete check of the baby.  They discovered that I'm farther along than we thought and pushed my due date up almost 2 weeks, and the baby is doing great.

I think he's sucking his finger!  Awww!

Okay, moving on to the real reason you are here.  With a lot of help from Mr. Bliss I tackled a project that I've been putting off for months! (Hence why I'm joining Procrastination Tuesday!).  Together, we transformed my kitchen chairs from blah:

 to FAB!

Using 2 yards of fabric I scored at the flea market for $5.

I simply took off the old fabric using a flathead screwdriver to remove all the staples and left the old padding in place.  Then Mr. Bliss used his electric staple gun to add the new fabric.  Easy peasy!

Hey, did I mention that today is my birthday?  So we celebrated last night with our parents here at the house for cake and ice cream.  I threw in a little surprise for them.........

Everybody close your eyes.

Okay, now OPEN!

That's my mom in the front left and my dad in the back right - they currently have 5 granddaughters!

My sweet MIL.

Tears of happiness.

It was a great ending to a crazy weekend!

For this extra-special post, I'm linking up to the following parties.

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Today's Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality
Transform Tuesday at the Pumpkin Patch
Anti-Procrastination Tuesday at New Nostalgia
Take a Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee

Sew Sweet No-Sew Valance

I've been experimenting with window treatments for my sliding glass doors in the kitchen.  For the past two years I've used bamboo placemats arranged to look like a valance.  This is the only photo I could find to show how that looked.

It was okay, but I wanted to add some more color to the room.  I decided on red as an accent color to tie in with the adjoining family room.  But everything I tried clashed with the rug under the kitchen table.  No problem, I just got rid of the rug.  This actually made the room look bigger and it's much easier to clean the bare floor than the rug.

I found this pretty fabric in my stash.

Then I pulled out this trim to go with it.

Lastly, I whipped out my handy-dandy Stitch Witchery.  Perfect for any no-sew project.

This is how it turned out.

I'm quite happy with the results!

Linking up to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch!
xoxo,
Kim

Gettin' Crafty Outdoors

We've been enjoying some blissful weather here in South Jersey during the past week with temperatures being in the 70's and not a cloud in the sky.

When the weather is this nice so early in the season, I tend to spend as much time as I can outside.  I just love looking at the flowers as they continue to grow more vibrant with each day.   And I've been trying to create a welcoming environment on our rather large patio, adding lots of planters and some new pieces of furniture too.

One addition was this old plant stand I recently purchased at a yard sale for $1.

Not much to look at, I know.

But with a little bit of this......

It now looks like this.

A little better, huh?

While I was at A.C. Moore getting the spray paint, I picked up this.

A terra cotta planter to go on my new red stand.  I spotted the marker next to the planters.

So I did this.

Cool, huh?

Put it all together, and you get this.

Course now all I need is a plant to go in there and we can really celebrate!

I love how the colors match the fabrics in the chair.

Btw, that's the chair I trashpicked a few weeks ago.....hehe.  The pillows and chairpad I purchased at Walmart.

Here's another look at the patio.

This is just a small portion of it.  On the other side are more planters and our table and chairs for eating.

I just got this chiminea from Craig's List yesterday for $50  I think it's a nice addition to my outdoor "room".

The planters on the other side.

We get full sun during the day, so petunias work best.

These are mini-petunias and this is the first year I planted them.

They tend to droop over the sides.

Not sure what this guy is.  I got it as a shower favor and just stuck it in the planter with the minis.

A mix of purple petunias.

Lemonade anyone?

Back to the opposite side of the yard along the fence.

Hubby added the large stained glass window as an accent piece after I couldn't sell it on CL.  It's not real stained glass, it's some sort of plastic material.

daylillies getting bigger

wreath from a yard sale last weekend.

My impatiens growing ever so patiently out front.  These will get huge by the end of the summer.

Also out front.

Mr. Dragonfly wanted to get his picture taken too.

Such a ham!

Little birdhouse from Michaels.

I'm linking up to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch and the Sunday Showcase Party at Under The Table And Dreaming.