A Must Share Tip for DIYers

Taking a break from my regularly scheduled DIY adventure in the disaster area formerly known as Rip Van Kitchen to bring you an quick but important announcement. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been crazy-busy with a great kitchen adventure as I wait for that cement board to become a new tile floor.

Just in case you didn't figure it out, here it is:
I'm painting my cabinets.

Did you guess it?

I've always loved the crisp look of white cabinets, but mine are 80s oak-ish. If I ever purchase new ones, I would choose white.  Unfortunately, new cabinets aren't in the budget.

Paint is.

So since 2013 is my year of Stepping Out, I decided to step out on the wild side and paint those 80s oak-ish cabinets myself.

The doors will actually be sprayed, but I'm currently painting the frames. I'm working slowly and carefully because I want to actually like them when I'm done.

I don't want them to look all painty if you know what I mean.

I'd rather the white look as much like a smooth second skin as possible. Kind of like the custom ones that the Duchess put in a few years ago.

Thou shalt not covet thy mother's kitchen...

Toward that end, I have become a lean, mean, sanding machine. I sanded them before I painted, and then in between each coat, and  I'll probably give them a finish sanding before I apply some wax, too.

I've kicked up so much dust around here that Rip Van Kitchen, which was recently renamed Katrina, has even more recently been renamed Sandy.

And that's what brings me to my very important 

tip of the day. 

Here it is:

Folks, if you have reached the age when sneezing has become problematic, 

do not...

I repeat... do not...

 ...double knot your sweat pants

before kicking up a super storm. 

And that's all I have to say about that.

Back to the old grind.
And I do mean that literally. 

Do you have any painting tips you can share 

to help in the Sandy relief effort? 

Meet Katrina the Kitchen

My kitchen is Katrina.

That was my comment in my last post before I was called away from Blog Land for a while.  I said it kind of tongue-in-cheek at the time, but today I have something to share.

My kitchen is Katrina.

This time, I really mean it. 

That's because after years and years of waiting,
 I am finally getting a new kitchen floor.

The old one was the bane of my existence. It was made up of textured vinyl squares which were nearly impossible to get clean. We inherited it with the house, and it stretched and stretched and stretched to include two eating areas, a powder room, and a laundry room. That's one of the reasons it has taken so long.  This is a huge project. 

The other reason has to do with genetics.

I married a Scottish boy, you see, and we don't do a thing around here until we have the cold, hard cash to do it.  We actually purchased the tile two years ago, not long after I finally stripped the wallpaper and repainted my big fat  80's kitchen.  It has been squatting in the garage ever since.

A few weeks ago, Old MacFrugal decided that he was going to lay that new floor himself, with the help of a few good men who will forever more be called my heroes. 

First, though, we had to pull up the ugly vinyl.

It was trying hard to be glued to this plywood layer which had to removed as well. It served no useful purpose other than to be covering yet another layer of vinyl.  I would have snapped a picture, but at that point the men were getting a little bit testy.

They finally got it all off and ready to be covered with cement board. 

Woohooo!

Those wonderful men worked and worked and worked and finally got every room of cement board installed.

And then, the project stalled as well. 

As you might recall, the husband travels during the week and can only honey-do on the weekends. This coming weekend, we'll be in Atlanta with his family, which means that this floor... in all its glory... will be the floor in my kitchen until further notice.

The good news is, I don't have to mop.

The bad news news is I have one hot mess. 

.

Powder room, laundry, and pantry doors off their hinges.

A washer, dryer, stove, and refrigerator 

living in the garage along with all my kitchen furniture. 

A toilet on the back deck.

Welcome to Georgia. 

I tried to hide it behind the old plywood just in case the neighbors can peep
through the piney stick forest. The dead plant is a nice touch too, don't you think?

And that's the way it stands.

But wait! There's more.

 You see, I'm taking advantage of the floorless kitchen

to embark on another kitchen project while the husband is out of town. 

Apparently, I'm just not content with a little mess.
I have to make a royal one.

Musta been da debil...

  Can you tell what it is?


*****

I want to thank you for the kind emails that you sent after the passing of my mother-in-law last week. I apologize for not responding individually yet. I had honestly been too busy to check the computer until a day or so ago but am determined to get caught up soon.  

Ruth and Naomi...

... we were not.  

We didn't have that much in common, my mother-in-law and I.  

She loved dogs.

I'm terrified of them. 

She played tennis at the age of 80.

My idea of exercise is a brisk walk.

She was book club.

I'm luncheon club.

She could knit and crochet, and her work was exquisite.   

My idea of handiwork is decoupage. 

She leaned toward Danish modern and geometrics.

I like colonial and toile. 

She raised 5 boys in a very blue household.

I raised 2 girls and a lot of pink.  

She was a gifted cook and could whip up masterpieces

in her incredible self-cleaning kitchen. 

Pot luck is my Waterloo, and my kitchen is Katrina. 

We didn't read the same books, she and I.  We didn't like the same movies either. Like her son, she didn't mind the silence that I generally feel the need to fill with prattle. We were pretty much opposites in every area. Every area, that is, except one.  

She loved him with all her heart, 

and so do I. 

After a brief stay in the hospital last week, my mother-in-law passed away yesterday afternoon. She leaves four broken-hearted sons behind, sons who were blessed beyond measure to be raised in the home she made. I am blessed beyond measure to be married to the good man she raised.  Her fingerprints are all over him.

Please pray for my family today. 

Comments are closed.   

Simply Nauseating

I don't have anything earth shattering to report this morning. No giant steps. No long jumps into the Stepping Out hall of fame. The only thing I've stepped into is a pair of walking shoes.

I've mentioned before that morning walks with the husband are among my simple pleasures. I even mentioned that winter walks are my favorite walks of all. That's because I get to dress up like the Unibomber and walk incognito.

We haven't been doing much walking lately. 

I'd like to blame it on the Christmas busyness or the fact that I married a traveling man, but I can't. I'd also like to blame the fibro pain that seems to have settled in my feet of all places, but I can't do that either.

The plain truth is that the only legitimate way to combat fibromyalgia is to move through it. With fibro, less is more and more is less. The less you move, the more you hurt, and the more you move the less you hurt.

No, pain isn't the reason that I haven't been walking; it's the excuse. Laziness is the reason.

There. I said it.

So yesterday morning, I put on my walking shoes and limped out the door with my faithful companion at my side. Bet you think that's what this post is all about, don't you?

Well, it isn't.

It's about what happened after the walk. We were turning into the driveway, you see, when the husband looked up and said,

Looks like we missed an opportunity.  

And then, he pointed.

Can you see it?

It's mistletoe... Smack dab in the middle of our Bradford pear.  It had probably been there for months, but it was hiding under all the leafy stuff.

Now folks,  I know that the Christmas season is over, but mistletoe is mistletoe, and in my world every season is smooching season. So I planted myself under that Kissing Tree and gave him the face until he got the clue.

Stepping out has it privileges.

In fact, I enjoyed the privilege so much that I convinced him to walk again after dinner. We walked  this morning, too, and I have plans for a little blue hour stroll.

I'm convinced that my feet feel better already, and we still have one more morning before he leaves to go out of town.  At this rate, I'll be wearing stilettos by Valentine's Day.

That would be just about how long he's willing to leave the mistletoe undisturbed in the tree, too. He may be a romantic, but he's a left- brained romantic. Apparently, mistletoe is actually a parasite, and he thinks it ought to be whacked back before budding season.  He has  promised to leave just a little bit, though, if I promise to keep walking.

So there you have it:

Why Sir Lotsa Hair Kissed the Unibomber and Nauseated the Neighborhood.

Otherwise known as this week's

  simple pleasure.

So The Color Of The Year Is...

Wooohoo!

I'm finally finished!

I don't know whether it makes me early or late in blog years,

 but I have finally finished  undecorating the home place. 

Good-bye Christie Kringle, you big lug...

While I was in  no hurry whatsoever to see the spirit of the season go, I was more than ready to clear away the Christmas clutter. I love the festive Christmas decorations, but honestly, the color red is kind of like Christmas candy. By the end of the season, I've had way too much of both of them. 

Unfortunately, this presented a bit of a problem. You see, I like my color of the year to go along with my theme of the year, and this year my theme is Stepping Out.   

Yep. I enjoyed finding the sunshine so much last year that I thought I might try something a little more daring. This year, I'm going to step out into it.

Out of my comfort zone...

Out of my rut...

Away from my security blanket...

But here's the problem. Stepping out is going to take a bit of boldness, isn't it? And frankly,  I can't think of a better color for The Year of Stepping Out than the color red.

Red is all about boldness and confidence. 

 Red is out there...

right where I plan to be stepping.  

So what do you do when you're sick of a potential  color of the year  before the year even begins?  You embark on a Great Red Removal Adventure, of course. You clear away every inch of Christmas red from poinsettia to peppermint. You even remove red accessories that don't have a thing to do with Christmas. 

And then, when you are all finished,

 you go back and add just a pop of it. 

So that's  exactly what I did. 

And that's when it hit me.  

Boldness really is a lot like the color red. Both of them in moderation are beautiful things. Too much of either of them, though, is just plain too much. Too much boldness doesn't make you brave; it just makes you brash.  Who wants to be brash? 

I don't. 

I don't even want to be bold. I just want to be bolder. I just want the courage to take the step and add that missing pop of color to my life.

And that's why 2013 is not the year of red. 

It is very specifically 
the year of poppy.  

Why poppy? Because it pops, of course. Plus, it's the shade you get when you mix a lot of red with just a touch of yellow.  Sounds like the perfect color to me.  

So there you have it. 

 I hereby declare that 2013 is the color 

 Poppy

and I dub it
The Year of  Stepping Out

Now exactly what  I'm stepping into 
has yet to be determined. 

Just thought I would mention that so you don't follow too closely...


*****
Sharing with  Tabletop Tuesday at
A Stroll Thru Life

The New Year Blues

If you're thinking that this blue table is an introduction for my color of the year,

 you'll have to think again. 

My color is not blue. 

I just happen to think that blue is a very New Year-sy color.  It goes well with silver, and silver makes me think of bells...

And silver bells make me think of ringing in the New Year.

I don't know why. I have never once walked around ringing a bell on New Year's Eve, have you?

A blue table lets me use my (favorite) Aurora Blue stemware by Denby

And it looks pretty  against the Italian Countryside.

Blue also goes well with this nifty mercury glass globe

 that my niece gave me for Christmas. 

I don't think she intended for me to stick a paper tiara on it,

 but I did.  

She did suggest that I put lights under it to make it twinkle so I did that too. 

I think it looks festive that way.

The husband thinks it looks like E.T..

Or possibly a polar bear at the Waldorf Astoria.

Regardless, it made for a festive New Year's Eve centerpiece.

Too bad nobody sat at it. 

I just set it on New Year's Eve because I felt like it, and I'm posting it today for the very same reason.

In truth, our New Year's Eve was actually one for the Fuddy Duddy Hall of Fame. We ate our meal on trays in the den and watched You've Got Mail while waiting for the ball to drop.  (For the record, that movie is just as good the 100th time as it is the first, and yes...it is entirely possible to cry each time.)

 Just before midnight, I grabbed the party hat off the alien polar bear and counted down to the  New Year kiss.  Then, we said goodnight to the invisible table people and headed to up to bed. Happy New Year!

Glad the cops didn't shut us down.

So, what did you do for New Year's Eve?

*****

I'll be sharing with Cuisine Kathleen at Let's Dish!. 

So Long, Sunshine

 For all I know, the year ahead could make "The Year of the Pigeon-Toed Duck Waddle" look like a cake walk. Not trying to be Debbie Downer here, but when you reach the ripe age of 50, you just know that kind of stuff...

Those were the exact words that I wrote at the close of 2011, a dreary year full of clouds that brought no rain. In January, I was determined to look ahead to 2012 with a cup half full. That's why I  also wrote this:

...but it's just as certain to bring some pockets of sunshine.

And that, if you recall, was the reason for my yellow theme color and  Finding the Sunshine motto for 2012. In January, I purposed to appreciate the sunshine whenever, wherever, and however God sent it. 

That's exactly what I've done, and frankly folks

 I highly recommend it.    

You may not have heard much from me this year,  (You noticed, right?) but that honestly wasn't because I had the blues.  It had more to do with an acute case of menopausal ADD compounded by an inexplicable bout of  blogger's block.  There are 4,728 unfinished drafts lurking on the dashboard. (I'm hoping that this one doesn't make it 4,729...)

I started every morning with the mug of the year. I named her Smiley but temporarily changed it to 
Smirky when she  baptized Della the Demon Possessed Laptop in the Coffee River. 

My first table of the year was a yellow one.  

It was a farewell dinner for The Practical One, who left in January for an internship in Washington DC.  It turned into a permanent move.    

I found my sunshine in the fact that she had found hers. 

I found the sunshine in the heat of the Georgia summer by creating  a 

sand pail list of summer adventures. 

It was so fun that I'm planning to do it again this year. 

Anyone planning to join me?

 I found the sunshine after an unexpected debit card misadventure by creating 

 No Buy July.  

Don't tell the family, but I might do that again this year, too.

  (Minus the whole debit card part at the beginning.)  

I gave myself a decorating challenge to create a craft room out of an unused bathroom without spending a single dime.

Painted it yellow, of course...

And yes, I still love it. 

Just when I was able to spend again, we set sail on an unexpected Unemployment Adventure. I found the sunshine by completing some long overdue  painting, organizing, and purging while I had a man around the place to help me. 

As the year comes to a close, I admit that I'm sad to see it go. 2012  had the best color and best theme that I've ever chosen.  If I could, I would just keep it for 2013. However,  A new color and new theme  must be chosen to celebrate the beginning of each new year. 

That's the rule.
I know because I made it up. 

I've created a loophole, though.  I have decided to dub yellow my official life color.  (People who live their lives from theme to theme can do stuff like that.) I want to be reminded to stop and appreciate the sunshine whenever, wherever, and however God sends it  for the next fifty-onederful years.  

Have I mentioned that I highly recommend it?

So you'll probably see more yellow around here, but you'll be seeing the 2013 color of the year as well. 

I won't reveal what it is yet, I'll just leave you, as usual, with a little hint. 

It's in here.

heh heh heh...

So Happy New Year, everyone!  

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone 
who has stuck with me even though I've been a sporadic poster and lame blog friend.

 I am truly hoping to get the groove back
in 2013, the year of.......

'Twas the day after Christmas...

And all through the house...

Only a blogger would bother with computer and mouse.

Believe it or not, the 26th of December is my Blog Anniversary. Three years ago this morning, I woke up and decided that I needed a post- Christmas distraction.

It's been distracting, all right... 

  This year, the holiday itself has been full of distractions. 

I can't recall a holiday season since the girls were little that kept me so busy.    

Like the big elf himself, this is my first free morning in weeks

 to sit down, take off the boots and hat... 

And share some previously promised pictures

of the Duchess's Christmas Story.

In case you can't figure it out, her theme was
The Day After Christmas, too.  

Poor Santa...

Do not disturb.

Contrary to my conspicuous absence in Blog Land,
I actually had a very merry Christmas. 

By the 22nd, I had two little dears resting under my roof, too. 

And on Christmas Eve, I had another Great Birthday Adventure.  

Turning over 50 may not seem as festive as last year's Golden Jubilee, 

but it is when you dub it a  Fifty- Onederful Birthday Celebration

 and create a theme song to go along with it.

   (I'd sing it for you, but according to The Practical One, it gets stuck in your head and won't go away.)

So that's what has been happening in my neck of the Christmas woods.

How was your Christmas?