A shower

Over the weekend another girl and I threw a shower for my close friend Ashley. 
It went well I think, although in my current 7-month pregnant state it was a bit overwhelming and not every candle got lit before the guests arrived. 
And I may have had the guests get ready for a game when it was actually time to eat.  (still embarrassed, though they were all good sports)
Whew!  I’m glad that is done, although I was happy to do it for my dear friend. 
Here are some pictures of the desserts I made:

Raspberry Mousse Torte

I found chalkboard contact paper on Amazon and made the food signs up the day before.  The great thing is that I can re-use them again and again for various functions!

Flourless Chocolate cake

The other hostess made the paninis, they were delish!

I wish I had taken the time to take more pictures of the decorations and the other food.  We were so busy though getting it all together I barely had time to pull out my camera. 

When all is quiet on the blog…you know life is super busy!

We’ve been working like crazy on the kitchen!  I will try to take  a picture later today to show you just how much has been done.  Since we’re mostly DIY-ing this, it is going vveerrryyy slowly.  It is painful at times, especially when all my kitchen stuff is in the dining room (and also spilled into the living room) and I can’t find anything when I need it! 
However, I think you will agree when you see the pictures that progress has been made since my last pictures of our kitchen. 
And since my last post was about our lighting decisions, I will reveal which of the contestants made it to Miss Kitchen Light!!
(pregnant pause)
NONE of them!!!
We decided rather spur of the moment to go with something else.  I had just joined a site called Joss and Main and literally that same night I saw this lighting, for a fraction of the retail cost.

I snagged two for $40 each, which ended up way cheaper than this one from Home Depot that was a frontrunner (at $70 bucks apiece):

We have not installed them yet but I really like how they look.  When I first got them I googled to see how much I had saved, and at that time I could not find any that were under about $120.  Just now when I looked I found some that were on clearance for $88.  I still feel pretty good about the deal! 
I’m excited to see how they look when we put them up!

Lighting decisions

Now that the kitchen is heading a little faster toward finishing (though we have a loooonng way to go!), I have been trying to decide on more of the details like lighting and backsplashes and countertop. 
I was at Home Depot (again) today and I looked at these lights (again):
 

I really like this look and it is way cheaper than others of this style I have seen on the internet.  I also really like that it is clear and doesn’t take up the visual space of some other types of lighting…which is pretty important in our small narrow kitchen.  We will need two of these…one for over the mini peninsula and one for over the sink. 
But…
What I don’t like about these is that the one I saw at Home Depot on display doesn’t hang straight!!  I asked an employee about it and he said that sometimes you can straighten them by turning the little bulb-holder inside the bell shade, but sometimes they can’t be straightened as it is seed glass and not always completely balanced in weight.  So!  I haven’t bought them yet.  I also prefer a solid rod that suspends the light rather than the cord look that comes with this one. 
This one will probably win, unless I can’t get them balanced looking.  The crookedness would drive me nuts.  I do like it a lot and it is $70 so much more affordable than some.
I have pinned a few others that are of interest. 

This one from lighting direct.

This one from Ikea.  (Again the cord thing though…not liking that look)


Lighting direct again.
I keep coming back to this one too, from Overstock (I like the schoolhouse look but I think it would look too big in the kitchen):


I think in the end I’ll probably go with a schoolhouse one or the first bell pendant.  I don’t want to spend a lot of money on them as we’re not planning to live here forever, but I do want it to fit in with the style of our home and look updated. 
I have decided on cabinet hardware!  Yay!

Positive progress!

Finally!  A little positive progress on the kitchen remodel instead of negative (or destructive) progress.
Yay!
Drywall!!!

After some help from my dad and brother, we now have the ceiling and most of one wall sheetrocked.  It definitely makes the whole room look brighter…I was starting to worry that we had not put in enough can lights as it seemed like a cave. 
But that is just one side of the room. 
Here is the other side (excuse the mess on the countertop…we still have to live here!!):

Looks like fun right???
My husband now has almost all the plaster/lath removed from the walls.  What a job!  I can’t help but think of all the work that was put into this home years ago when they first plastered the walls.  All the pounds and pounds of plaster that were smoothed onto our walls (we know, we had to take it off and dispose of it!), all the skills that were needed to know how to do that work, all the planning of those first owners. 
We have uncovered a number of different things which really do remind us of the home’s checkered past.  We found the framing to a hole which we found out (from our neighbor who knew the former owner) was the hole that they put ice through into the icebox before they had refrigeration.  We uncovered another old doorway and realized that the whole back corner where the fridge and stove are now was a separate room, and we deduced from the paint pattern on the old plaster that it must have been used as a pantry with floor to ceiling shelving.  We have talked about making a time capsule and putting it in a wall somewhere for future owners to find when they tear out the sheetrock we are putting up now.  Maybe they’ll be curious too about the house’s past!
I’m just excited to see white walls instead of messy brown studs/insulation/wiring/plumbing!!

Progress on our kitchen project

Our construction…or perhaps you could call it deconstruction…is slowly moving along in the kitchen. 
Exhibit A:

(That’s my husband above, getting a bowl for ice cream after the exhausting demolition he just accomplished.)

And even more recently, this is what the largest non-cupboard wall looks like at the the moment:

Kind of rustic, don’t you think?  It makes me feel all Laura Ingalls Wilder in a way. 

At least we have electricity!!!!

(Just to refresh your memory, this was that same corner of the kitchen a few short weeks ago):

Moving on!!

(This one makes it look like our kitchen is crooked…but that would just be me taking the picture.  I guess that could make for a better “after” picture!  People could wonder how we got the room all leveled out.)

Speaking of electricity, we have about half of the wiring done, thanks to our new brother-in-law who is also an electrician.  The rest should be done this coming Saturday, yay!  Then we, or I should say my husband, can do more demolition and we can start dry walling the ceiling and a few walls.  There are of course a few problem areas that we need to address.  Old houses can be like that! 
This old door formerly connected to the foot of our stairs.  Don’t ask me why!  It was covered over with paneling.  The other side of the door looks much more civilized and actually quite nice, which is why we are not taking it out (ok let’s get right to the point…we don’t want to have to re-do the other side of the wall too!!!!).  We’re just going to cover it over with drywall.  Who needs a door from the middle of the kitchen to the bottom of the stairs?  Lazy people, that’s who.  Not us, obviously.  (Though we’d like the luxury of being lazy some mornings…not happening with a preschooler and a toddler in the house!!)
There are a couple of other things but I won’t bore you with the details.  Plus I didn’t take pictures.  :)
Anyway, progress is happening, whether it looks like it or not! 

Look what goodies came in the mail today!

Yay!!

Some of my favorites:
(Lilliput Fields Pomegranate Violet):

(Pop Garden Peonies Ivory):


(To Market to Market Mushrooms Forest):

And a cross-section of some of the goodies:

Most of it I have plans for, although I did buy a couple half yards of stuff because I knew I would have a use for it eventually, and it was just too beautiful to pass up!  (Especially with the great sale/coupon I had for fabric.com.)
I’m excited to start sewing on some projects!