is it embarrasing?

That I just nominated myself for a Homie award?  What are the Homies you ask?  Well since you asked, the Homies are the Best Home Design Blog of 2011 and it is given out by Apartment Therapy.   Now lets be real-- there are a million other blogs I would have voted for but I cant lie-- I just wanted to see my name listed---even with only one small nomination from myself :-)  Go ahead--- feel free to poke fun- I deserve it.

 Carolyn

white and bright!

I am officially about 1/18th of the way to a white kitchen! YIPEE!!!  Not sure whether I think the decision to partial paint was a great idea or a epic fail-- you all will have to let me know:) 

So here's how it went down... I decided on a boring Saturday a few weeks ago that I wanted to give painting the kitchen cabinets a go--but I didn't necessarily want to sign myself up for painting the entire kitchen since well, lets be real, that's quite the commitment. I met myself in the middle and decided to only paint the kitchen island to see how I felt about white cabinets.  Now- it is important to know that while I did not technically tell Dan I was going to do this he DID say many months ago that I could paint the kitchen white and I am 99% sure he heard me tell someone on the phone that morning that I was going to start the process AND when I came home with armloads of paint and materials he didn't say a word so in my defense I thought we were on the same page... :-)  We were not on the same page.  Luckily we were early enough into the New Year that his resolution of being a little more patient when I act a fool was still fresh in his mind-- so I survived that one.

ANYWAYS-- onto the project.

I learned from my good friends (only in my dreams) Sherry and John over at Young House Love that its important to sand, use oil based primer and a semi-gloss latex paint when painting kitchen cabinets, so that is what I did.  I wanted cabinets that were SUPER white so that they matched the color of the trim molding in our house.  I went with Ultra White and it definitely is insanely white!


My first steps was taking a before picture.. here she is just begging for some white paint!

Then I took the hardware off of the cabinets (but kept the doors on for the time being) and started to sand the entire piece with my electric sander.

Once the sanding was done and she was grainy to the touch I took the doors off, wiped everything clean with a wet rag, dried and then started with the oil based primer.  Here is one coat in--this stuff is THICK!

After a coat of primer I let her sit to dry for about 4 hours.  Apparently you should do this overnight but I am too impatient for all that nonsense... so I moved onto my two coats of paint and after two full days of drying I re-attached the doors, added the hardware back and jumped up and down that a). I was done and b). I LOVED IT!!!!!  Here is the end result...

So what do you think?  Love the white?  Hate the white?  Keep as it is (with a white island and brown on the main cabinets) or paint everything white ASAP?  I for one vote on ALL white but add some glass pained doors to a few of the cabinets so it doesn't look to blindingly white.  Let me know what you think!


Carolyn

jumped the gun

OK--so in my last post I was debating whether or not to buy a kindle or now... well... I hope you all were going to say BUY one cause guess what.. I DID!  So now my next question is... what is the BEST book or series you have ever read?  I was a HUGE fan of the Twilight series (laugh all you want...but stick and stones people:)) and I cant seem to find another book or series that I like as much.  So what do you all think?  The bigger the book the better-- I am one of those crazies that will stay up all night if a book is REALLY good!


Carolyn

to kindle or not to kindle?

Remember my little "What I want for Christmas List" that I posted a few weeks back?   Well, the truth is that while I listed a Kindle on my list I really was iffy about "truly" asking for one and ended up telling everyone that I didn't want one.  Fast forward to Christmas-- I was a uber lucky girl and got a lot of amazingly wonderful gifts-- not a kindle because I said I didn't want one-- I really wasn't sure if I would like to read on a screen or not since I am such a big fan of real books.  Well, now I am teetering on the edge again and am thinking I may purchase one with some of the Christmas money that I received. 

So my question is for those of you with a Kindle--what do you think??  Love it or is it not worth the hype?

Thanks for sharing!

Carolyn

painting, flowers, and food

Well hello again!

I am SO stinkin' obsessed with stalking other peoples blogs that I keep forgetting about mine! 

So about a month ago I painted my downstairs bathroom a really pretty light grey color... let me tell you, it was a pain in the arse- - -seriously!  That bathroom is tiny and every time I turned around I was bumping into freshly painted walls-- not my best day to say the least.  Anyways-- the bathroom is painted and I decided to make a nifty yarn wreath to go along with the new color.  You can find directions all over the web and believe me it is really REALLY easy.  You just wrap a wreath with a lot of yarn...around and around and around for like 3 hours until the whole thing is covered and then you add your nifty felt flowers that you whipped up real quick- seriously so easy its silly.  Anywho-- here are a few pics.

I love!  Now that I know how to make these little flowers things I have a feeling I am going to put them everywhere!  I see a headband in my future!

Hope you all had a FANTASTIC New Years! I started mine off cooking up a storm-- blackberry cobbler, cookies, meatloaf, homemade mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus...mmmm.... makes me hungry thinking about all of it :)  I'm still debating my New Years resolution but once it is hammered down Ill be sure to share... why is it I have a feeling you all are NOT at the edge of your seat waiting to find out:-)

Carolyn