Deck the Halls

I love to make little Christmas pillows. They are fast and fun and they “smoosh” and pack away really easily. That’s great for me because I can not stand holiday decorations that take up too much room. Here’s my latest design. I hope you like it. (Embroidery design can be purchased here.)

Don’t stick with the traditional red/green Christmas colors—mix in your favorite colors as well. For me that would be turquoise. And don’t forget my tutorial for invisible zippers. Yes, I know, you probably won’t need to launder a pillow that only sits on your couch 3 weeks a year, but I can sew in a zipper faster than I cant stitch the pillow shut by hand. I avoid hand sewing whenever possible.

Kitchen Remodel part 1

Five and half years ago we moved into our lovely home. The first thing I said to my husband when I walked through this kitchen is, “You gotta let me paint these cabinets.”

This is the picture I took on our first walk through.  It’s ok if you gasp, I nearly cried. Diggin’ the purple/brown walls, huh?

I am so not a fan of the rustic look. Nor knotty alder. After we moved in Paul said he liked this kitchen and therefore crushed my dreams of having a white kitchen. I am not sure why. After all, this is how we transformed the brown kitchen cabinets in our old house:

Lots of beadboard and glossy paint. And then some subway tiles.

I am still proud of the above kitchen. I remember we spent $1,000 on the above remodel—paint, backsplash, and granite tiles. That was a lot of money! Look hard I am working putting up the backsplash? You can read about it in this super old blog post from 2005. I saw the below photo and that’s what inspired the red lower cabinets:

I didn’t care if I got tired of the red because hey, those were probably $800 dollar cabinets. It’s not like I was ruining anything valuable.

Ok, Ok, back to my current kitchen, if you are still reading.

I’ve talked about this in a previous blog post so I’ll quit the whining. I don’t want to sound ungrateful. Because I am grateful I have a nice place to cook meals. This kitchen just isn’t my style. At all.

I’ve done what I can by adding a white subway tile backsplash, adding a hood that actually vents outside (microwave is in pantry) and painting the island white. (I painted the island white just six months ago thinking it would calm me down.) But it’s time for a change. These cabinets have fulfilled their knotty alder destiny. At least in my home. They are for sale now. $2,000 or best offer.

Maybe being from California is the reason I am drawn to a coastal look—white cabinets and bright tiles. So we’re moving forward! I hired the talented Benjamin Blackwelder (his website doesn’t work in internet explorer) after seeing the below kitchen he designed in the Parade of Homes 6 months ago.  (You can read all about the kitchen by clicking here.)  I walked through this kitchen gasping. Finally a cabinet maker in Utah that wouldn’t try to talk me out of a white kitchen. (I asked about white cabinets in our first home in 1997 and allowed the idiot salesman to talk me out of them. “Oh they are too expensive, you don’t want them.”)

I am so excited. This kitchen has been a dream of mine for at least 8 years. I have worked so hard this year on my business saving all my pennies (a few nickels and dimes too). I have my range picked out, the Carrara marble for the counters, and the tile.

Demolition begins the week after Christmas, stay tuned!