It all started when I decided to replace these canisters that sit on the kitchen counter. Now the ball is rolling in my mind about "fixing" our kitchen.
I popped over to a favorite shop of mine Ruffles & Rust Square in Snohomish on 1st Street.
Look what I found? I love these. What I do NOT love, however, is that ugly wallpaper border and hideous backsplash thing behind them. These canisters do not look pretty in front of those ugly colors. I can't take it anymore. We have lived here for four years, and I still haven't ripped that stuff down. (It has been one room at a time, though..)
Then I started to look at the big picture. Counter tops, cabinet doors and drawer fronts, new hardware, painting over that dark green...
THIS drives me crazy. The cabinets get dirty, I scrub them, then the paint just chips off.. Grrrr...
AND the hinges are all ugly and on the outside. It is time to show this kitchen some love. I really love the layout of this kitchen and also love the huge cabinets. I have expressed my interest to my cabinet maker hubby in keeping the enormous cabinets and replacing the doors. He agreed!
I would like to hang an industrial light over the sink.
I would like to rip this stuff off and cover it with white bead board to create a country kitchen look.
I would like to replace this green with something lighter and ....
Extend this OUT to create a breakfast bar. That project may have to wait until I do not run a childcare center. But we are thinking about it! See what happens when we replace canisters? LOL Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥
Song for today All Souls Night by Loreena Mckennitt. ♥♥♥ I think all of her songs are even more beautiful played live. ♫
Happy Valentines Day! These "Hogs And Kisses" Valentines are for our sweets. I'm feeling extra proud of them this week after receiving exceptional report cards for all three of them! I'm so amazed to see that Stephanie has Aced MATH! (And all of her other classes, too.) When I was her age, I never brought home an A in math. Nice job, Steph. Your hard work paid off. Ethan recently brought home a "Good Ideas Award"! Apparently he always has great ideas to execute in class. He is soaring in Math, also! Aidens teacher said that he always greets her with "Good morning Mrs. Adams", he brought home a "Kindness Award" last week. Mrs. Adams said that Aiden sticks up for his friends and is kind to everyone. How awesome is that? Thank you God for blessing me with these kids. My true Valentines. ♥♥♥
I found this idea on Pinterest. Yep- Pinterest has sucked me in and I can't focus when I get logged on. So many things to look at, so many ideas...
Meet Smudge! He knows a great piece of furniture when he sees one! Smudge is a great cat, today is his fourth day here and he already brightens our day. He greets us in the morning and when I call out "Smudgie kitty" he always responds. His head will pop out of a bedroom or he will come running. He loves the garage and learned how to use the cat door relatively fast. He knows where we keep the cat treats and is so fun to cuddle. He slept on my lap yesterday at nap time. He LOVES the attention he is getting from the kids, and this is new for us because our previous cats would have nothing to do with them. We are falling in love. ♥
Lenny the guinea pig took a ride in Stephs robe hood. He was so happy in it, he was squeaking his happy noise the whole time. He like to snuggle in Stephanie's hair and just kept going this time until he plopped into her hood. Guinea pigs are great pets, we sure love ours. Happy Tuesday! I have one little guy this morning and we are taking a trip to the library. ♥♥♥
Song for today is All Of My Love by Led Zeppelin. ♫♪♫♪
Tissue paper squares are so great to have around! We use them for so many different things, and stained glass art is one of my favorite uses for them. We don't really use glass.
We use clear contact paper. For this project, you will need two heart cut outs of the same size for each child. This is a good project for the kids who can use scissors. Just fold a piece in half and draw the half heart shape for them so they can follow along the line.
Next, remove the paper on one heart, and place it on the table sticky side up. Let the kids create a color collage using tissue paper. (Or anything, really..) Tissue paper is so thin that it mimics stained glass very well when placed in a window. We used Valentine colors.
Stick..stick.. stick. . . . Encourage them to fill up the WHOLE heart.
Meanwhile, I cut out some heart shape frames that would cover the edges of our contact paper hearts upon completion. When the kids fill up their sticky heart completely, slap the other contact paper heart over the top of the tissue paper to secure it further. Then glue the heart frame on.
Hang up in the window to see the stained glass effect! Aren't they pretty? ♥ Happy Monday!
Song for today is Tempo Bledsoe by Smile Smile. This is my song for the handsome hubby. He's so wonderful!♫♪
We are still using the vitamin D we received when the sun was shining for several days in a row last week! Here in Washington I do not kid you when I say that if it comes out, it is important to get out in it. We go for days without it.
We got out some sidewalk chalk. The girls were happy to get right to work creating some chalk flowers. It felt like spring as far as we were concerned.
I thought it was funny that the princess gloves had been set aside for something as important as chalk art.
Our chalk garden was complete with a sunshine! ☼
It felt great to play outside without getting rained on. We were all exceptionally happy. ☺
Meanwhile, this is a new favorite toy for the youngest in the house. Isn't that the way it is? We spend money on bright and noisy toys only to find that the kids just want a pan and a spoon? Whatever works, count me in. I am so happy to announce that we are going to be receiving a new kitty tonight! His name is Smudge, and he will be coming to us from Adams cousin. I am so excited to have a cat to love again. I still dream about my Niko coming home, almost every night now. Sigh.. He was the BEST cat. I miss him terribly. This new kitty has BIG paws to fill.. ♥ Happy Friday! Sending prayers up for all of you for a restful weekend. ♥♥♥
Song for today is Over The Hills And Far Away by Nightwish. I sure miss Tarja as their lead vocalist. :( Glad I caught them in concert before she was gone. I needed a good head bang this morning. ♫♪
Boy have we been having a CRAZY week! I'm glad we have still managed to get some learning into our schedule. We are working on the letter Kk, although I don't think it is sinking in. That is the joy of this being a childcare center. Sometimes they get it, and if not, I still keep my job. I really do try, though. We created kites.
Instead of writing the letter K on a worksheet, we just glued tissue paper squares onto a kite shape. I like to give them a construction paper alphabet letter to glue on as well. Maybe if they touch it and spend time gluing it on it will jar their memory later.
We used yarn to finish our project. This project has made me think about finding a real kite project that will actually fly. It's on my enormous to-do list! Meanwhile, I have never felt so busy in my entire life. I am truly blessed by my God who understands my need for busy. Always be grateful- and I am. Happy Thursday! ♥♥♥
Song for today is Birthday by The Beatles. This is a perfect live performance! We are having a birthday party day today for a little guy who is turning 3! ♫♪♫
The sun has been out for the last several days and it has us all wishing it were Spring. The minute the air warmed up my brain automatically dragged me out to the garden to inspect the workload ahead of me. I realized we still have an abundance of carrots to harvest. We found one that looked like it had two stubby legs. We had to add eyes.
During my planting last year, I spilled lots of carrot seeds. This resulted in poorly planted, clumped together carrots that had no room to grow. They are pretty small, but still quite tasty!
These boys helped me find some.
"I see one!"
We had to actually dig for several of them. It's addicting.
He was more inclined to actually wash it off and eat it, too! After all, there was a lot of digging and grasping involved in getting it out of the ground. He HAD to try it now. One bite later, it was discarded. But hey- a bite of carrot is victory to me!
We even found a couple of radishes.
Now it was time to play with carrot guy.
Wheeee! Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥
Song for today is Little Black Submarines by The Black Keys. ♫♪
Hearts, hearts, hearts, and more hearts at Henle House right now!♥
I had a couple of these sitting around from a previous project. Instead of scrapping them, I hung onto them just in case. Sure enough, we ended up using them.
We got out some red and white paints. I was hoping that the kids would end up mixing them to create pink.
The idea was to finger paint the entire piece of white paper. They noticed the colors mixing.
This makes me chuckle because the kids are so used to me snapping photos. I don't usually ask them to say "cheese" because I like candid shots. But this time I did, and they looked at me like I was nuts. LOL!
When they were finished painting their white papers, we glued the heart shape over the top of them. Pretty! It can pass for a stained glass painting in a window. Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥
Song for today is Get Down by Audio Adrenaline. Emergency dance party! ♫☼ The sun is shining! ♪♫
