The Heart of the Home

I noticed that Shelia at Note Songs is having a link party on kitchens,  I love my kitchen and everybody else's too, so I decided with the cooler months coming on I would feature my kitchen and maybe some of my cooking.  Those cooking post are little tricky.

I love cooking during the fall and winter seasons, I guess we all do.  Lots of comfort food, stews, soups, and casseroles.  My poor honey wonders what happened when the summer rolls around.

Funny I used to lose weight in the summer months but not any more, nope, I manage to maintain my weight just fine even when I'm not hungry.  Thank you and darn-it.

I poured my heart and soul into this kitchen.  I knew just where every dish was going to go on paper.  I am a magazine junky and I read that the kitchen planners divide a kitchen up into zones in order to organize it. 

I think this kitchen has a very nice flow to it.  

I used hand scraped hickory for the floors.  The cabinets are made out of maple, painted and glazed, and  the rest of the wood in the house is knotty alder.  I don't know what the paint color is because this woman talked me into using a color she mixed.  It's a light khaki color but the lesson here is don't ever do that, it is impossible to match.

I wonder what Maria over at Color Me Happy would say about these color tones?
Maybe I don't want to know.

Yes I left my Christmas decorations up all year.  They're pretty.

I chose a sink from Kohler with the half divider, I love it, so many times I struggled with a pan too big in my old sink.  I love the brown color too, I was tired of looking at stainless sinks and I was worried that I would scratch up a pretty white one.

View at just after sunset.

View in the daytime.

My handy and oh so clever brush holder.

I've talked about it before, I NEED to do something with the top of this vent hood!!!!  I can't decided what I want to do, I like so many things.

The two column like things pictured here are my pantries.

No too much of a look inside, they need a lot of cleaning and organizing. The one on the left stores all the food and the one on the right houses an assortment of dishes, coolers, platters, paper towels, etc.

Dishes my Mom made for me.

I like it in the chair in the kitchen.

So that's it.  Pretty huh.  Except for the vent hood, I must do something with that soon.  Maybe before Thanksgiving.

See ya.  :)

Create in me a pure heart, O God

Psalm 51:10

Have a great weekend

See ya.

Tray Chic

I started with a tray from Target and added some fabric with mod podge.   Jill saw it in July and wanted it but forgot to pack it when she left.  They wanted me to bring it with me last weekend and several times I picked it up, turned it over and over in my hands and laid it back down.  I just wasn't happy with it.  I  couldn't let it go looking like it did.  I wasn't through with it yet.

While I loved the fabric idea, it left a ridge around the edge and an ugly (in my opinion) texture.  So when I got home from the wedding, with their living room in mind and knowing what they wanted to use it for, I started with some texture medium and began building the surface.

Most of what you see here is one thing after another trying to make it happen in some way.  That probably doesn't make any sense but I'm not sure I know how else to say it.  I applied texture to some areas trying to leave pieces of the fabric showing, then I added some (water base) glazing product, then stamped some of the areas that seem empty, then sprayed some Tim Holz stain, then added a little red, and then . . .  well, you get the picture.

They also liked a candle that I had worked on but I wasn't happy with that either so, after seeing the colors that began developing here I decided to make a new candle for them.  Always, I want to glorify God and point to Him in everything I do so what scripture does a newly married couple inspire?

For me, 1 Corinthians 13:4 - 8, 13.  

Love is patient ( it never gives up), love is kind ( it cares more for others than for self).  It does not envy (love doesn't want what it doesn't have), it does not boast (love doesn't strut), it is not proud (love doesn't have a swelled head).

 It is not rude (doesn't force itself on others), it is not self-seeking (isn't always "me first"), it is not easily angered (doesn't fly off the handle), it keeps no record of wrong (doesn't keep score of the sins of others).

Love does not delight in evil (doesn't revel when others grovel) but rejoices with the truth (takes pleasure in the flowering of the truth).

It always protects (puts up with anything), always trusts (trusts God always), always hopes (looks for the best), always perseveres (never looks back, but keeps going to the end).


Love never fails ( love never dies).

And now these three remain (But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation):  faith (trust steadily in God), hope (hope unswervingly) love ( love extravagantly).  But the greatest (and the best) of these (three) is love. 

The scripture in the parenthesis is from The Message bible and the rest is NIV. 

I love the way the Message re-words scripture that we know so well;  to "love extravagantly" and in 1 Peter 4:8 "love as if your life depended on it".  That's some good stuff right there.

I hope that as we look out at our life these two thoughts invade and roll together as one "to love extravagantly and as if our life depended on it".

See here you get a little craft and a little scripture.

Linking with - strut your stuff thursday @ Somewhat Simple

and - show off your stuff @ fire flies and jellybeans 

and Transformation Thursday @The Shabby chic Cottage 

and House of Hepworths

and 100 ideas under $100 @ Beyond the Picket Fence

See ya and I love you.

Craft Room

Just playing with new products.

What do you think?  Would you hang this on your wall?

Linking with blog parties at -
All Thingz Related - 


Today's Creative Blog - 


Domestically Speaking: Power of Paint Party - 


Trendy Treehouse

Jeremy + Jill

He met her through mutual friends in January and brought her home to meet me in July.  I knew the moment I laid eyes on her it was only a matter of time that she would be his and he would be hers.

His job on Friday was to find the spot.  She wanted water, they thought the beach but that turned out not to be, so when I got there we scouted out the lake.

He found his spot

and laid his claim.


She chose black and ivory as her colors but Jeremy loves orange so he added that in his tie.  While we were at the store I kept showing him black ties, we looked at silver and red.  Then he spotted this one with orange in it and it was so him.  It just seemed perfect.

This is their friends and Mark is what their friends call his twin brother.  Not so much from looks although they do favor but from mannerisms.  This is Mark and Tara.

and this is baby Mark.

As we waited for the bride

the boys strike a pose.

and skip some rocks.

and wait, not anxiously but patiently.  Jill's Mom had a terrible time getting down for the wedding.   First her flight was canceled then she was flown to the next town over and then she was put on stand by and then they lost her luggage and it didn't show up until Sunday afternoon.  So she and Jill had to make a fast and furious shopping trip for a dress.

All the waiting paid off

When we looked up the hill and see her coming in her little Ford chariot.

I made this for her to have something to carry, I don't think she needed it but I totally enjoyed making it and it turned out to be a perfect way to add some orange to the brides ensemble.

Sweet Jillian McCauley

He finally sees his bride and the dress.

Mr and Mrs Jeremy Buckley.

The momma's signed the marriage certificate as the two witnesses.

At the end of the day, it was a perfect and beautiful wedding.