A Taste of Summer

After the Christmas decor the simplicity of January seems a breath of fresh air. But...only for a little while. It seems to change to the dullness of a dreary and dirty snow covered lawn.

We had a big snowstorm that has seemed to linger for more than the actual week. Snow is still covering the shady spots. Tired of this!

It is pretty...for a little while.

But staying inside begins to take its toll.

A trip to Krogers was just what I needed to turn that wintry white into a little green.

Hydrangeas are my favorite. 

Just a welcome taste of summer on a wintry January Day!

What is your way to brighten the winter blues?

Snow Day 2016

We have our first snow in East Tennessee today. It has snowed almost all day and the flakes are getting larger by the minute!

Snow creates a peaceful quietness to our abode.

A different view of the neighborhood that we have called home for almost our entire married life.

Snow takes our world into a black and white with only a little color.

And creates a time for stillness. A time for sitting still. A time for thoughts and memories.

Working on the Kitchen Update

Slowly our kitchen is nearing the finish line.  The cabinets were finished the week before Christmas--and all through the house we were treating them very tenderly while the paint cured.

Excuse the dark picture as I was using the cell phone. I received a Nikon camera for Christmas so things began to brighten considerably!

The one thing I wanted to do was add board and batten to the island. It just looked like a box on the sides and back. I began researching (googling) island transformations. I wanted it to be a project that Mr. Spouse and I could easily accomplish without divorcing in the process (ahem)...  I did find some great ideas on Pinterest. A couple that I used were here and here. 

I went to Lowes and Home Depot looking for MDF and found 2 X 4 feet panels that Home Depot cut. There was a slight issue with the guy cutting because he couldn't figure out how to get them the same size. We did accept four that were slightly wider and used those as the baseboard and the narrower ones for the battens and top rail. Because of the cutting we did receive 25% discount. We needed two pieces so the total price was a little over $15. I had purchased a quart of paint from Sherwin Williams to have in order to touch up knicks so that wasn't an extra expense. Prior to working on the island I went ahead and primed with Kilz and applied one coat of the paint. 

It was a fairly straight forward and easy installation. The major problem was the nail gun kept jamming. I caulked the seams and then sanded lightly. After a final coat of paint I am calling the project complete.

We are having an electrician install under counter lights and are waiting on those to arrive. I really miss having that extra light when I am preparing meals. After all--I am expected to cook now that I have my "white kitchen"!

Before:

After: