Soccer Extraordinaires

Watch out Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain!  Here come the blt girls!

  We signed up for a local sports class.  

It was already hot at 9a, but I was determined they'd have fun.

can you sense the enthusiasm?!

Usually LB is very active (in case you hadn't heard), but after being sick all week- even she wasn't interested.

The stretches went ok

such a good way to touch your toes dontcha think!?

as soon as the kicking started, all interest was lost

until it was time to clean up!

Next week -- basketball!

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Settling Dust

What a day!  What a week really...

We have a sick house around these parts.  My little one has croup.  Who knew croup was a thing kids still got?!  Seriously, didn't it go out with the Little House on the Prairie books?  Love those books by the way.

Here is our week in pictures :)

The bean took a long nap so we had a little tea party

Soft focus, but so sweet

she asked me to take a picture of her elbow

that is my favorite hat

When the bean finally got up, she was her usual self.

I found her trying to change her baby's diaper.

Hope your weekend is restful and fab!

s:)

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A Kitchen-revealed!

Yowza!  Are we really here?!  What the heck will I blog about after this?  When last we were together we had the hilarity of the kitchen ticker tape parade and some lighting installation.

Now the kitchen is where it is at!  Well, there is forever stuff left to do, but I thought you'd like to see it just the same.  Plus there are some places I'd like to hear your input.

Here.we.go--wheeeee

Before

After

Want to come in for a closer look? Here's a little tour:

(Here the pendants are turned off so you can see the pretty color)

What do you think of the open shelving?

What do you think of the globes?  They were totally copied from inspired by Meg over at Whatever.  If you don't read it already, you should totally check out her blog--it's awesomesauce.  I need more globes.

Here are the new cabinets. 

The counter and my lovely faucet--oh and I grew those callas--how crazeeee is that--I can grow nothing!  Hopefully, they keep growing--cross your tootsies!

What do you think? (of my stinker, er thinker?!)

Here are a few things I'm still mulling over:

--is there a better way to tie the old cabinets with the new?

maybe get the same hardware?

--I need to do more accessorizing.  I'm just not a matchy-matchy dishes peep, but is it too cluttered?

Still on the wish list:

--apron front sink (oh how I lurve thee)

--slate or other Matte counters (ya know, like chem lab--I didn't like chemistry, not no way, no how! Maybe I should say like physics lab, love me some of that!)

--new appliances-not sure what kind-though I had a brief love affair with a red stove

--new coolio, maybe retro stools

A big bloggy shout-out to Edie at life in grace! Her kitchen was such great inspiration.  Here's something funny, the kitchen matches my dishes!  Check it out

The turquoises almost match!  If you are a lover of turquoise, you know that is seldom true. Is it true with most colors though?

 Phew!  Long post!  

I hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed the kitchen transformation journey. You can see all the steps in the handi-sidebar under kitchen :)

s:)

I'm also linking this up to House of Hepworths, funky junk interiors and along for the ride!  And just added to Thrifty Decor Chick!  Go check out those sites for lots of creative juices flowing! This is my first linky, so wish me luck!

***I'm changing it up again, I think it looks a little 'cleaner' but I'm still interested in your feedback***

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Ticker Tape Parade and Baby Proofing

In celebration of all the kitchen posts, I thought I'd share a nice story about my youngest--one we affectionately refer to as LB or the Wild Child, she.has.so.much.energy!

I am big on baby proofing.  When friends talk about their little ones learning to walk, I always remind them that they need to make sure their houses are on baby-lock-down.  I offer my suggestions as the mom of a teenager and two little ones, based on my sooooo worldly experience. :)

Well, I have a confession to make.  I am a terrible baby-proofer!  Our new house is not.done.at.all--Yowza!  Really though, my girls are 3 & 1/2 and 20 months, so couldn't I relax a little?  I can reason with them right?  Or move things constantly out of one-in-particular's reach (she has seriously long arms)  Anywho, all my cleaners and meds are definitely out of reach--don't worry your pretty little bloggy heads.   Here is where I learned my baby-proofing lesson...

When we had peeps in to finish up the kitchen, I was going back and forth, keeping the girls busy and making sure the work was going smoothly.  I left the girls in my bedroom for a few seconds minute second, while I discussed light placement.   I didn't want them perfectly spaced out, I'm weird like that.

It was exciting!  The kitchen was almost finished!  The lights were the last BIG thing to put in.  I had three garage sales to pay for these lights.  I had debated their custom length for a week and then worried about picking the wrong thing while they were being made.

  My delovely lights, they needed to be perfectly placed.  Well, while my excitement was building--my LB must have sensed my budding happiness. She came running out of the master bathroom and gave me my very own ticker tape parade! She had crowned me the champion of kitchen-fixer-upping!
  Yes, yes she did, she showered me and she showered the guys working in my kitchen.  Sweet, huh?! What did she use to create said parade?  Why, a full box of tampax of course! Fling, fling they rolled around my lovely bamboo floor.  Then, she sat down in the middle of the kitchen with the directions and 'read' them like a book...

Word to the wise--Always baby-proof...

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Kitchen Re-do part 7-almost done

Sorry to leave ya hanging last time!  I forgot to take a pic of what I chose--bad, bad blogger.
The last piece of the re-do was the new lighting.  We replaced the ugly old track lighting with recessed cans and some pendant lighting.  Oh my pendant lights--my new crush...
At first, we were going to do this ourselves.  I bought the nifty circle cutter from Lowe's and their multi-pack of recessed-can lights.  Well, the hubs doesn't know much about those things, my Pops was a busy bee, and our other possible help just didn't work out.
Anywho, we hired someone...they did a really nice job of cutting, patching and (besides the installation) putting in new switches for me. Yes, I will spare you the pic of the switches :)

Here are some pics of the process:

 you see where the light bulb goes?  I had it specially wired (ahem-extra dough) to take the greenest of green light bulbs--don't they look fun-kay?!

 Supposedly, they last nine years--which I'm not buying into, but I am one of those peeps that really.likes.lights.ON.  So it works for me to be using a green version if I'm using power :).  

Here's a good sample of the lovely blue color that they are and here is how they look lit

-though in person, they still look turquoise blue when lit.  As a new blogger, I am always uncertain of how many pics to post.  Do you want to see more?  I have a TON of random detail shots...Maybe if you ever decide to re-do your kitchen in 10 steps or less :)

Tomorrow, I have this great story about what happened while these lights were going in-seriously, it's worth coming back for...

until next time!

s:)

oh and after that--finally the big reveal--if I can clean the place up enough!

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Kitchen Re-do part 6

When last we were together here at the BLT we left off with a kitchen at 80% or so...
The counter was in, old (ho-hum) appliances long installed, kitchen cabinets painted...
The kitchen cabinets should have been done right?  I had carefully chosen the shades of blue, looking forward to my retro kitchen.
 I love the open cabinet look, but I wasn't sure it was the thing for our mess stuff different dishes.  Here's an image from Apartment Therapy.

Then to add to my uncertainty, I didn't like the upper white color on the cabinets.  It was wayyyyy different than the white of the new cabinets. 

Can you see how totally different they are--ugh! What to do? What to do?

So, I impulsively decided that maybe painting the upper cabinets blue would be good...

(crazy talk-since the lovely bamboo was already in and I'm a mess-say painter-yikes)

I started carefully painting

the outside of one section blue and the outside of one section white (blue inside)

and the inside became the former white-ish color....

What do you think?

I wasn't quite sure it was working still...

Indecision at dinner time with offspring-never a good plan...

I finally made up my mind.  What do you think I chose?

s:)

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A bountiful weekend

Once again, we are participating in the local food co-op, Bountiful Baskets.  I insist on picking mine up in a basket--it just makes the whole thing sweeter and more fun.  Of course, last week we were having our garage sale, so my husband had to pick it up. What a good hubster, slinging his arm through my a-dor-a-bull basket! Such fun times!

Would ya check out that bounty!

Hope your weekend is entertaining!

s:)

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Kitchen Re-do 5!

Yowza hard to believe there is this much to write!  I actually have a bunch more photos of all the work, so really I'm taking it easy on ya!

So we had to live with the cabinets in and wait on the countertops (read NO sink-oi!).

 You see, the granite has to be templated and then made/cut/quarried-I haven't a clue?  But you have to wait...which was not.so.fun. You really depend on your kitchen sink a lot!
When they finally brought the granite, it was in two ginormous pieces and one small side piece.  Remember how we basically doubled the size of the island--ahhh tahrue wove (points for knowing the movie!)

Well they brought that granite in, first they installed the small side piece.
Then they went to work on the big dogs.  And guess what?

  They made.it.wrong. and whoda thunk--it didn't fit.

(see that big goofy gap--they actually tried to fill it at first--goobers!)

soooo, they went back to the (literal) drawing board.  And we went back to having no sink...

Finally a week later, after many dirty bathtub dishes, we had a counter! joyful hipster dancing  abounds!

We also had a sink!   Of course, my boyfriend went in--along with his posse of necessary sink jewelry.

(ugh this is one thing I'm not crazy about, but I had to give the hubs at least a few of the things he wanted!)








It really is all coming together nicely at this point, dontcha think?!  I really love the faucet! I could do a photo shoot/blog session all about him:)  What'd I tell ya--you'd get kitchen info and a lullabye :)
Are you ready for the cabinet conundrum and adventures in lighting?  I might like my lights even more than mr. faucet (sshhhhh!)

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