New kitchen light is up - an oversized lantern!

Memorial Day weekend was spent battling suppressive heat in the upper 90s, a fever and awful sinus and lung infection.  All of those factors made painting my kitchen ceiling almost impossible.  I finally gave up and only painted the area needed to put up my new kitchen light.  

This is the light I bought back in March at the Habitat for Humanity store in South Bend, IN.  It was new in box and got it for about $28.  

I love this picture from my Pinterest.  I love the oversized lantern in this picture and the black patio doors.   This is definitely one of my favorite inspiration pics.  

Being a holiday weekend, not a lot of people were around to help.  So I decided to pile boxes up on the table to support the light while I wired it and installed the canopy.  It worked very well and I was a little thrilled that I was able to hang it without any help.  :-)

Once I got down off the ladder and looked at it, I was like, "WOW!  That light is huge!"  But then after about twenty minutes, I loved it!  It is perfectly perfect and I am absolutely thrilled.    I cannot wait to get the ceiling painted, the walls finished, the wall treatment completed and the finishing touches on the kitchen.   Still lots to do but I feel I'm well on my way to have it all done by the 4th of July!



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Finding Fabulous Frugalicious Friday Party

Tennis Championship, Antibiotics and Star Wars. :-)

CRAZIEST title for a post ever, right?  I just noticed that the last entry for my blog was May 7th - yikes.  I have been SO busy for a variety of reasons and vow to get back on track right away.

Firstly, I have been crazy busy with my boys tennis team.  It was such an amazing year and I wish I could post tons of funny pictures but I would never post their faces so I creatively cropped one of the pictures of our team championship SICA Blue Conference trophy and a couple of the medals in the background.  LOL

We not only won the title, but swept every spot and were individual champions at all of the singles and doubles spots.  One of the best days of my life - it was a storybook ending to an amazing season with 18 of the most talented,  intelligent, courteous and hysterical teenage players I have ever had the honor to coach!  SO FUN!

Secondly, I have been SO sick.  Having had cancer twice, I have different definitions of "sick" and with most things I can usually tough it out.  I have had this awful sinus infection, lung infection, fever thing for about three weeks and I am still deathly ill.  For the tennis awards night, I had a 102.3 fever and it has only progressed from there.  So now I am almost done with my prescription meds and they haven't even touched this - so frustrated!  It has definitely wreaked havoc with my life and DIY project schedule.

The cough is incessant and now it is involving my right eye - seriously?  UGH.

Disney's Old Key West Resort - the weather was AMAZING!

Thirdly, someone very close to me was heading down to WDW to celebrate a college degree and asked me to tag along.  What?  Disney?   Of course!  So I used some DVC points, got a sweet deal on a flight from Southwest (the only way to fly) and hung out in Disney for about 5 days (my favorite place in the whole world).  It just happened to be Star Wars Weekends (one of my favorite times of year) and so I hung out with Darth Vader and Jedi Mickey and had a ball - even being deathly ill which did take away from some of the fun.  :-(

Jedi Mickey, Darth Goofy and Stormtrooper Donald during the parade when it was 95 degrees!

Greatest Disney dessert ever - Double chocolate Vader cupcake with peanut butter mousse!

I am a huge Star Wars nerd and so I simply had to try this little beauty.  They had two special Star Wars treats and I was fortunate to partake in both.  One was a frozen slush in a R2D2 stein - it is so cool!  This Darth Vader cupcake was SO good.  It was double chocolate chip with chocolate lava sauce, chocolate shavings, a chocolate Darth Vader candy on top, a light saber (actually it was a coffee stirrer but it did the job nicely) and filled with peanut butter mousse! It could be the greatest Disney dessert I have every had and I have had a ton!  SO good!

The graduate with Mickey and Minnie topiaries in EPCOT!  So pretty!

It was also the last weekend of the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival!  If you have never been to this event, you may want to put it on your bucket list.  SIMPLY GORGEOUS!  Flowers everywhere!  I had quite the treat I will have to share in another post - it is so exciting it deserves it own space.  LOL!

So fellow bloggers, that is why I haven't been posting - coaching tennis, being sick and hanging out in Disney World.  But this weekend between coughing fits, I did make a little progress on my kitchen.  I will share that too!  Hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend are ready for SUMMER!

Flower Shopping - Woldhuis Nursery - SO amazing!

Yay - Spring is here and Mother's Day is this weekend which means it is finally safe to plant up here in Zone 5.  Warm weather warrants the annual pilgrimage to Woldhuis Farms Sunrise Greenhouse.  It is such an amazing place just south of Chicago.  It is not just a nursery, it is like the Midwestern version of the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival.  The picture above is JUST the impatiens room.  I mean, can you believe it?  And you get 48 plants flats as opposed to 36 plants - big difference.

So we printed out the coupons they e-mail each week and headed down ready to enjoy the day!

Red geraniums anyone?  Potted or hanging baskets - which ever you choose!

The place is so large that they have actual "street signs" which help you find the plants you are looking for.  Whether annuals or perennials, roses, shade plants etc. you can get a map of the green houses so you can navigate your way around a little bit easier.

There were beautiful butterflies all over the stunning dahlias.  So pretty!

They also have adorable topiaries - here is a flower and little angels.  So cute!

The gorgeous gardenias were in full bloom.  This was my Mom's favorite flower.  And they smell heavenly!  

Begonias!  As far as the eye can see.

I love these red flowers in the hanging baskets

More hanging baskets....

And still more hanging baskets.  Gorgeous double impatiens!  STUNNING!

Their statuary is awesome with such unique pieces.  I LOVE the giant sea shell!

This egret stood about four feet tall!  How great would he look in a garden?

At the end of the day, this was our cart.  Pretty pink geraniums, impatiens, lots of New Guinea impatiens, red geraniums, begonias, Proven Winners Diamond Frost and a few other random plants that looked interesting.  I can't wait to plant these and enjoy the gorgeous display!

I LOVE glass milk bottles!

I love milk.  I always have.  I love milk with cookies and cereal but I'm also quirky in that I love milk with  pizza, spaghetti, even a burger.  :-)  But I am not thrilled with the plastic milk containers.  They take up so much room in the fridge and are heavy to pour when it is a fresh gallon.

Recently, on a trip to HomeGoods, I saw this little beauty.  It is a bluish clear glass with a sealed top and has the image of a cow being milked on the front.  It was only $4.99 and so I couldn't pass it up.  A few days later I saw this smaller bottle at the Christmas Tree Shops and it was only $1.99.

Now, when I bring home milk, I pour it into the bottles, rinse out the plastic gallon and recycle it.  Did you know, according to the EPA, only 29% of the plastic milk containers get recycled.  The rest end up in the landfills.

That is awful when so many amazing things are made out recycled milk cartons.    Like an igloo.  :-)

It may just be my imagination but the milk seems colder and tastes better coming out of a glass bottle.  And it looks so much cuter on the kitchen table at meal time.  Give it a try!  Once you go glass, you'll never go back!

I did it! Painted my patio doors black!

I have been thinking about doing this for a while and finally decided to dive in and do it.  NO REGRETS - I love it!  I don't want to show off too much of my kitchen until it is closer to being done but I just had to share my new black doors.  (Pay no attention to the green ceiling and messy room).

I decided not to paint the door casing so it is consistent with the rest of the trim in the room and I love the way the white frames out the black.  It also keeps the black from being too overwhelming.

I painted the doors with a brush and used about four coats of Martha Stewart paint which is on clearance at Home Depot since it is discontinued.  So I was able to get this huge change for less than $7.00.  YAY!  I spray painted the window grids outside.  Here is the before:

I have removed the wall treatment on the slanted wall and I have bought blue ceiling paint to cover the green ceiling that is there now.  I bought blue wall paint to cover over the very bright green and I love the few changes I have made already.

 

I am working on the slanted wall treatment.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do and then I found a picture which perfectly exemplified the idea in my head.  (I love Google!)  Here is my inspiration picture from the blog Infarrantly Creative.  She did an amazing job on her wall.

Ok, that is my progress thus far.  I have all of my paint and materials so hopefully in the next few days I can make some headway on the entire kitchen.  More pics to follow!

Habitat for Humanity "Re-Store" Kitchen light! Woo hoo!

I really had no intention of changing out my kitchen light.  The one that is there is fine and I spray painted it black about two years ago and I like it.  But today I took a trip to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in South Bend, Indiana - I love this place!  It is about 10 minutes from the University of Notre Dame.  It had the most awesome molding too but I didn't have a way to get it home today.  I will be back!

In their lighting department, there was this gorgeous light hanging there.  It was listed as a carriage light and was NEW in the box.  It is black and has beveled glass.  It was only $35!  It looks like it will be perfect for over the kitchen table.  And I joined their preferred club for $5.00 and got another 25% off!  SWEET!  I also bought a new 5 x 7 area rug for only $36.95 I am going to use for my kitchen but I am going to give it a slight makeover with some fabric paint.

The light is quite large at 32" in length, but I love the look of an oversized lantern over a table.

I am still trying to decide on a kitchen paint color.  I thought I had it all figured out with ICE RINK by Martha Stewart but then I was looking through the Pottery Barn Kids catalog and found HEAVEN ON EARTH by Benjamin Moore.  I only want to to this once so I am taking my time to make sure it is the perfect color.

Martha Stewart:  ICE RINK

Benjamin Moore:  Heaven on Eart

But now I am totally motivated because I want to put up my light so the paint color decision needs to get done.  More updates to come...

Spring Spruce Up: De "greening" my kitchen

Maybe I do have some crazy disorder because I change my mind so much it is ridiculous.  Like when I am at a Cheesecake Factory where it takes me forever to order.   Sometimes, it is painful for me to make a decision.

A few years ago, the catalog pages of Ballard Designs and Pottery Barn were full of the bright green and black trend and I thought it was SO cool.

Source:  Be colorful.

Source:  Apartment Therapy

So, I painted my kitchen bright green (Aubusson vine - Dutch Boy paint) and accented with black and white harlequin and damask patterns.  Don't get me wrong, I loved it!    But about ten minutes after it was all done - you know that moment when you sit back and look at what you have done and you are SO happy to have the project complete - I looked at my sister and said, "How pretty would this be painted blue".  Seriously, I did.  I am a "BLUE PERSON".  For my sister and Mom, they love green.  Here is the kitchen as it is now.

I hate the white ceramic floor but for now - due to financial constraints - it needs to stay.  I think I will paint the table completely black and get rid of the brown wood surfaces.  Maybe some chair covers for the stools - stenciled for a fresher look for the summer.

Fast forward a few years and I am going to try to spend the next week painting my kitchen blue.  I am looking for a very light and airy grey-blue, sky blue, a very soft blue color.  I do love my kitchen but it seems so well, black and white.  I need some grey areas in my life,  and I crave a softness.  Here are my inspiration photos (sources can be found on my Pinterest boards):

I love the oversized lantern light!  

Such a pretty space - reminiscent of the Something's Gotta Give kitchen.

I want to paint my patio doors and window sill black!  I love this look!

I like this wall color.

I am in LOVE with this backsplash!

Such a pretty room!

Hooked On Houses.net- SO PRETTY!  

I have this exhaust soffit in the middle of the room.  I think I am going to repaint the ceiling inside it and trim the rest of it out in bead board like the picture below.

I am excited about the change - especially for Spring!  I know it will probably take a little more than a week but hopefully it will be one of my quicker projects.  As long as it doesn't take me a week to pick out a paint color.  :-)    But I so know it will.  LOL!