Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Kitchen cabinet re do

Hey yall!! WOW It has been like forever since I posted here!! so sorry!! This year came in like a whirlwind and is spinning us around.  Tons of emotions and tons of projects and tons of new recipes and ohhhhhhhhhh not nearly enough hours in the day!!  I so think I am becoming obsessed to make and do as much as possible in a short amount of time and in doing so am loosing my mind and whatever little and I do mean little organizational skills I do have!! LOL  All is good!!  Life is good!!
So hubby bought a small farm, I am in shock yet but not going into details I just didnt know about it til it was a done deal.   There is a darling old 1900s farm house that needs some updating.   Paneling in every yes every room!  LOL but I can fix that!!  We are going to plan on renting this house out for summer weekend or weekly rentals it is between 2 nice tourist towns and would make a great country retreat.   My first project is doing the dark brown kitchen cabinets into shabby, farmhousey, primitive rustic country love!  I fell deeply in love with the sagey green color paint I bought for my snowmen signs and have lots of that so on it goes!!

So here is part of the kitchen.  These cabinets are really built solid and heavy.   I like the details on the inlay but as you can see are dated.   Ok my friend referred to the wallpaper on this wall "willy wonka lick paper" LOL that is gone!!  ripped off quickly. 


After sanding and applying a light coat of primer the first one is painted.  This is only one coat but it did cover pretty well I thought. 



I  applied a bit of antiquing medium and then drybrushed some white here and there. 

I love that color so much couldnt wait to hang em back and see if this color would work.  They looked plain so with some drybrushed black around the edges that made em pop!
Here they are up and looking pretty good,  I loved the handles so farmhousey, I was at first going to paint them either black or white, but I like the patina on them just sanded a bit and they look good.  So now to figure out what color to paint the bases I dont like all the dark wood around the doors.  I am leaning towards a nice light almond or cream or maybe even light off white that can be distressed and antiqued up to match.  WHAT are your thoughts??

And I did make up a new item for market last week a spinach and cheese crostada!! OH MY what a delish and pretty treat that was!~!



flaky pie crust with the addition of a bit of cornmeal topped with the steamed fresh spinach, ricotta, parmesan, and romano cheeses, and a bit of seasonings

buttermilk biscuits

I did do a nice egg wash on top so they browned up beautifully. 

 here is a better clearer pic of the rustic crostada. 

and another cabinet one. Gee I wondered where that pic went to!! LOL
Hope yall have a great day I will be sharing all I do on the farmhouse and surely wanting opinions so please leave em for me!!
THANKS
HUGS
Darlene

 AND THIS SATURDAY FEB 2nd IS THE ICE BREAKER FESTIVAL IN SOUTH HAVEN MI!~ stop on by we have a great market and some wonderful vendors/crafters coming for ya!!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~and SIMPLY~~

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Jan 10th already!!  Goodness time flies when you are having fun doesnt it?  Well we have no snow left it has been in the 40s round here! Crazy winter weather.   Hopefully we dont have a repeat of last winter, we lost 90% of our fruit crop here in mi and gee hope and pray we dont do that again!!  I dont have much left in the freezer so want to replenish with our fruits. 
Hope everyone is doing well out there and with the new year comes new inspirations!!  I have a ton of new products to work on and am currently working on making something for a valentines swap over at my other family forum!! primitive and rustic decorating over at delphi!! Love that place!!

The boys are all out of bed and laying with me here on the couch in living room, perfect way to start my day.  I am heading over to the kitchen for a bit, ciabatta baking day, some dog cookies, graham crackers and finishing up my chickpea veggie burgers for the freezer.

They announced on the tv morning news today that this is the worst flu season for decades!!  Scary!! Makes you want to stay in your home and lock up tightly!!  I didnt get a flu shot but am almost considering running over to walgreens and get one!  I think they are still giving them.

Have yall checked out the creative times magazine?  I finished and sent in the next article for the march/april issue, hint hint has some burlap ideas!!   Love burlap!! Bought some and am excited to make some new projects with it!! I watched the show junk gypsies and oh my goodness gracious, they made burlap curtains for a bedroom and used old vintage lace/trims from wedding dresses!!   You can find gorgeous wedding dresses cheap at local thrift stores I may just have to get one I would so love curtains for my craft studio! and what would be more perfect!!!
Are you making any burlap crafts these days?  Boy maybe I should do a challenge on here for yall showcasing your burlap creations!!
HMMMMMMMMMMMM... thinking that will be coming up in next post!!
Hope yall have a wondeful rest of your week!
Be back soon....
HUGS
Darlene
and my "boys" on the couch!!
LOL



~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

HAPPY 2013~~

NEW YEAR new plans, resolutions, goals, and best of all adventures!!
I want to let yall know on a new adventure for me!!  Creative Times Magazine which is a fabo online crafting mag has allowed me to be their new quick tips article writer!!  I am excited!!  You will find it here:
www.creativetimesmagazine.com   and best of all they are working on it not only being an online mag you could also order a hard copy!! I will be doing that!!
my first article of tips is in there!!    I am inspired so wrote up the next article last night for the march/april issue.

And onto new plans:  I have a few new projects I so want to make and some of them are ideas from the most wonderful online site  PINTEREST!! oh my love love LOVE that place!!  I can so get lost on the site!! If you havent visited please do do but be warned!! LIMIT yourself!!  hours pass quickly on there and I dont get much accomplished around here!! LOL oh well!! I have 50 some boards and find new things to pin by the minute.......no second!! 
here's a link to my boards:::   http://pinterest.com/chickenscratch/
And dont you know my boys have their own board!! LOL I need to put some more pics of them on there soon.           New goals: I have a few do you?  I really want to try making some great altered mixed media jewelry pieces.  I have visions in my mind but just have to incorporate that into actuallly doing...ya know.    Another goal would be to clean up and.....oh that dreaded word............organize my craft studio!! It has become a dumping ground if you will for everything!!  I can't even think of being creative in there anymore!! =(  time has come to pitch the unwanted unused items. 

Onto some of the things I did just before xmas.  

Susan made this beautiful chocolate mint torte.  Layers of decadent moist chocolate cake with peppermint infused buttercream topped with luscious chocolate ganache' and some marizpan holly!  Oh so yummylicious!!


chocolate dipped butter squares   and they were addicting too!!



my mom decorated some little sugar cookie trees for on our cookie trays and boxes. 

our popular red raspberry filled linzer tart cookies!!

some twisted candy cane butter cookies Susan made.  These were soooooooo yummo!! 


Old milkcan for my hubby's boss.  I was very pleased with how this turned out.  I had sectioned the painted area off with chalk, *hint* chalk wipes off with no marks, use it all the time when painted signs or pretty much anything.   hubby sandblasted the area and left the rest of can it's lovely rustiness!!



OK OK!~! I got up on christmas eve at 2 am to finish this block set for my little darling neice, so yes!! can u see it!!!  I didnt until her mommy and her unwrapped it!! I will be making another R for it!! LOL

I used vintage seam binding in brown for the outside edges, painted the blocks light sage green and mod podged the awesome My Mind's Eye papers and some little pearl accents.  My cricut finally got to get used!!  I have had it sitting on a work table poor baby neglected..... I can see using that alot this year!! I have alof of things to make!! 


And a couple last minute signs I painted for gifts!  Love those snowmen and a bit unhappy to not paint them til next winter!! sad!!=( 
maybe if we had some snow I would paint them more!! but we see grass!!
 

Love this guy!! I did one similar for my shows and the lady that bought it loved it so much she ordered 2 more.


Love this one too!! 
So that is about all for today.  Hope yall had a wonderful happy safe new years!!  My mom and I went out to lunch yesterday, did a bit of shopping and then came home.
 Hubby and I stayed home with the "boys" last night, watched tv, played games and had popcorn!! What a wonderful evening and start to the new year!!  Love my boys and our family!

Have a great day! be back soon!!
HUGS
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~