The Pantry

I probably shouldn't show you this but this is what my pantry looked like before I cleaned it out this weekend. Embarrassing isn't it?
Laying all out there for you to see.
And no, I didn't mess it up just for effect.
Nine hours later this is what it looked like. I cleaned out old food, reorganized, painted the whole closet, recovered shelves, and put it all back. I would have added some great baskets, new canisters, etc. so I had a great looking pantry but I went searching and everything was so expensive. Come on...it's only plastic. Why should a clear plastic canister cost over $14? It's crazy I tell ya. Needless to say, I used what I had pretty much. I did buy a box of food saver containers from Costco. I needed a little reward for all that hard work.
Here is the closet after painting and recovering the shelves. Isn't my life exciting? Hey, life can't be all fun and games. Sometimes you have to pay the fiddler right?

It feels good to have it clean and organized. I wonder how long it will last until it looks like the first picture in this post. Sometimes I feel like housekeeping is like being in the movie, "Groundhog Day." Ya, know what I mean?

A Baby Shower

My young women from church planned a little, and I mean little, baby shower for their teacher. Here are our refreshments. (Candice look I corrected the picture for indoor lighting. Aren't you proud of me?)
I baked lots of cupcakes and my young women came early to decorate them. Didn't they do a good job? They were so tasty with cream cheese frosting. They even had enough to take home to show off their new skills with their families.


Here's Michelle, the mother to be. Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of her. She's so cute.
Here is Emily.
And, here is Cindy. They did all the cupcake decorating.
One last cupcake picture. I was so proud of them. I think everyone had a good time.

A Whole Lotta Fun!

We almost made it in time for the initial paint throw at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. This is what the initial cloud looked like. Steph posted more details and pictures on her blog so check there if you want the details. We took some pictures and then hurried over to share in the fun.
Steph and Larry had purchased the colored chalk for us so we could join in.
Here is part of our group after the fun.
Steph and Larry. They left Creed with relatives. All that chalk has got to be bad for the lungs.
The crowd was huge! Everyone was dancing and chanting/singing and throwing paint. It was like being a little kid again and having a food fight or mud fight. It took us forever to get there in the traffic and then we had to park more than a mile away. We weren't even sure we wanted to go but didn't want to miss out on an adventure with Steph and Larry. They always are having fun. Next year we will go early. It was that fun!
We hurried off to a BYU men's volleyball game. Hopefully, we will be able to stay longer next year. What adventures have you been having?
Pretty crazy, huh?

Kitchen Bar Make Over

I'm hooked on finished projects. Head over to see what others are hooked on today.This is the before. Oak veneer on the back side of the cupboards and plywood boards holding up the granite counter. I'm not sorry to see those go.
My husband created the raised panels on a table saw to match the design in the kitchen cupboards. He's such a marvel. We purchased the hand carved corbels from either Van Dyke or Restoration Hardware. We bought them awhile ago so I don't remember.
A close up of the corbel. (Please note the amazing photography. I'm learning all kinds of good things in my photography class.)
After the primer and two coats of white paint.
After the stain and stain flecks. I tried to make it look aged.
A close up again.
The after. I would have should you how it really looks in the kitchen but I still have paint mess all over the counter. I still need to add one more coat of finish so it will be durable/washable. I took this in the evening.
I took this in the morning. What do you think? I'd really like to know. Next project...hard wood floors. Can't wait to get rid of this floor. What type of wood do you recommend?

Layla's Design for our Family Room Addition

Here are the virtual designs that Layla did for me. What do you think? This is the library area...our current family room space. This is looking from my kitchen/eating area.
This is area the corner and to the left. That french door will go out on to our patio.
This gives a little larger view of the space.
This is the old family room area turned into Layla's vision of a library space.
OK, give me your opinions. What do you think? I'd really like to know. The walls are 11 feet tall with high pitched ceilings with ceiling beams. The ceiling in the old family room area is 9 feet tall.

Christine did another post about a dream she had about my room. You can vote for the settee you like the best. She is also having a give away for her 1 year blogversary. I know she would love to hear from you.

It is thundering outside with snow in the forecast tonight. (As in winter storm warnings on the news tonight.) Bahhhh...it is so hard to go to work and drive around in that stuff. What a long winter we are having. I'm trying to be grateful for the water we are sure to need this summer.

Steph posted about the photo booth at Creed's yellow party. So much fun and a great party idea.

A Yellow Birthday Celebration!

Stephanie always has something fun going on. Last weekend we went to Creed's second birthday party. WE had lots of fun. Check out her blog posts...one, two, three, four. We also had a photo booth. I didn't take pictures because we used my camera for the photo booth. What did we do this weekend? We went to the Festival of Many Colors. We would not have gone without Steph's encouragement and we really had lots of fun. Brett and I even made it to see BYU men's volleyball Friday and Saturday night against UCLA. We lost Friday night and won Saturday night.

On Saturday, after I went to yoga, Steph and I went to get pedicures. They were having a $15 special and I had a gift certificate from my birthday so I shared....YUMMY. We had to check out a new bakery in Provo called "The Sweet Tooth Fairy" and had great "cake bites." Meagan Brown is the owner and we enjoyed spending a few minutes with her. She's friends with Danielle P. who sent us over to check it out so we had to say hello. My DH made a book case for Creed at Steph's request. Maybe Steph will post a picture soon.

S0, it was a busy weekend filled with family and fun and now this evening we are back to quiet and gearing up for another work week. Sunday nights are always a little depressing for me but tomorrow I am still off and will be finishing my kitchen bar. I have the finish coat left. I hope I like it after all is said and done. (My fingers are crossed because sometimes things work out way better in my mind than they do in reality. I'm sure this never happens to you.)

Candice has been doing lots of photography posts. So, check out her blog. I love to see her work.

Marissa is getting ready to have baby number two. I can't wait to meet her new arrival.

I've been doing lots of house cleaning but I think it all got undone this weekend. I also have been spending lots of time trying to hammer out details of my family room addition so we can start having it bid out. Christine even gave me advice on her blog. She is an interior designer and gives great advice. (She devoted two posts to me. What a nice girl.)

Layla did a virtual design for me. I think I figured out how to post those so I'll show you those tomorrow. Stay tuned...

This pretty much catches you up on things. I owe you pictures of my finished bar and the festival. You won't believe how much paint powder was in the air. It was unreal.

More Favorite Things

Here is my inspiration board in my art studio...aka sewing room. It's full of many of Candice's photographs (I can't get enough of those), sayings/quotes, and other trinkets. I love quotes that speak to me and write them in the end of my journals so I will always know where to find them.
I also love making books. The really good ones I've given away but here are a few I have left. I've taken book binding at BYU twice. It's a great class.
I made up these little boxes to house my little books. It's fun to experiment with leather, paper, old maps, and whatever else you can find for inspiration.
What things do you love?