And so it begins . . .

The kitchen remodel has begun! What have I gotten myself into? Did I make all the right decisions? Will it gain me the extra room that I wanted? Will it lighten this dark, nondescript, really boring kitchen and make it what I envisioned? Probably not, but I dream big and with a little luck, it will be beautiful. It has now gone from this (hate the green, hate the yellow) . . .

to this . . .





The funny thing is, that with the kitchen completely gutted, it looks so small. Shouldn't it look bigger?







Took Jamison to the neighbors' (and good friends) Sunday to ride the pony. Suppose he can talk Grandpa into getting one of his own?



My plan for the 3 weeks that it will take to finish the kitchen is to stay upstairs and do some "me" stuff since I can't cook or clean downstairs( oh, boo hoo). Like rearranging my "stuff" upstairs so I can have room to sew, create the new book creatologie kit from Carol Wingert I just received, make some banners, work outside in the flowers and BLOG. Yes, my plan is to blog at least every other day - big words I know, but I MEAN IT! I hate it when my favorite blogs don't blog every day.





(PS - Thanks Julie from The Little Red Shop for the tip on paragraphs. It worked a little but still not how I think it should. I need more practice. I sure wish there was a class I could take on this blogging thing!)

So, I am off to do fantastic things to blog about!

Ciao!

Who'd thunk it - I'm a Winner!

I received my 'Cottage Charm' giveaway prize today in the mail. It is too cute and I am so thrilled to have won! Julie, from a lovely blog, The Little Red Shop, sent it to me, with fancy wrapping and everything! Thank you Julie!!

The prize -- a darling froggie rattle and heart-shaped bath fizzie. Wrapped with froggie stickers and oh-so-cute little labels. The frog is so appropriate now because I am sitting here listening to all of the frogs in our pond croak VERY LOUDLY! (Yes, we finally got rain, alot of rain. Now I need some sunshine.)

I gotta tell ya - even the shipping box was labeled cute! I'm gonna have to send her a little sumpin, sumpin to thank her. The 'Cottage Charm' giveaways were so much fun and I found so many new blogs to visit. (I won't say how much time I spend on the computer looking at fabulous blogs but let's just say sometimes we run out of clean underware because the wash isn't done!) I hope to play along with all of the 'big girls' next year!



Went to a garden walk this weekend and was so inspired to clean up my flower beds (you hear that dandelions?) I see no need to work outside if the sun isn't shining and it isn't warm. The sun hasn't been shining for a week and it hasn't been warm (the furnace still runs at night in JUNE) so the weeds have been having a heyday. I'll post more pics the next time.



I so admire the clever things that are placed stratigically in gardens. It makes the gardens so interesting. I have an old bike but where do I get the baskets?

I have lots of old chairs. I think this will be a project when the kitchen is torn out. I'll have to have something to do outside with a bunch of men inside.

Speaking of the kitchen remodel - my contractor put me off until the end of June! So mad I could spit! I have really noticed lately that no one seems to honor their word and not just concerning the kitchen. Don't business people need the work or want the work or care about the work they do? If we handled out customers like we have been treated lately, we would be out of business!

(Can anybody tell me how to get a line space between these paragraphs? A 'return' works sometimes with the pictures but not when it is just text.)

Till the next post -- Connie

At least there are pictures of flowers . . .

I feel like I need to post something! I knew exactly what I wanted to say this morning - even wrote it out in my head. But tonight, I can't think of it. Note to self -- blog in the morning when the brain is working!

The garage sale went okay. Got rid of alot of stuff but I priced everything really low, maybe too low. But the goal was to clean out the excess, not make a ton of money. The things I thought would sell, didn't and the stuff I considered just throwing, sold. Go figure. Then there are those that really hesitate to spend a quarter on something they like. Or those that want to haggle over a dollar item. Garage sales - you gotta love 'em!

Wednesday was our anniversary so we went road trippin' overnight. Just got in the car and drove (that's what HE likes to do, I myself like a plan). Saw alot of country and stopped at a few interesting stores along the way. Still looking for that inspiration piece for my new kitchen but I still can't commit.

I was so excited to learn that I won a giveaway prize during the Cottage Charm giveaways. Will show you the darling prize I won and who is was from when I receive it. I've always said that if there were 50 prizes and 51 people to win, I would be the one that didn't! My luck is changing!

Still practicing on uploading pictures and this time it went fairly smoothly. Everybody likes to look at pretty flower pictures, right? These are actually mine, but I had to take pictures before they are gone. So dry here - haven't had any rain for over a month. Corn and beans still look good but not for much longer. Life of a farmer . . .

Ciao!