Show Us Your Kitchen

It's SUYL Kitchens over at Kelley's Korner. I found a few pics of my kitchen that I took right after we moved in last fall, so I thought I would share.

We built this same house in Conway in 2005 and lived there for 3 years. We sold our house in January 2009 and moved to Sherwood. The commute from Conway was a nightmare in the mornings. We loved our house in Conway so much, that we built the same floor plan again....with a few minor changes. After lots of blood, sweat, and tears, we finally moved into this house in September 2009. We have vowed to never build another house again.....unless the construction loan is NOT in our name next time. We did save a lot of money doing it this way, but it was a stressful 5 months!

Now on to the KITCHEN...........................................





In our last house, the cabinets were dark brown and we wanted to lighten things up this time. The cabinets were originally supposed to be cream, but the painters wanted a bunch of extra money just to paint the cabinets a different color than the trim in the house. By this point and time, money was tight and I wasn't about to pay them the extra money, so the cabinets are white instead of cream. I am thinking of trying to antique them this winter or just repaint them myself. I can't decide which may be the smarter move. To add a little color into the kitchen we painted the island green. We also had the cabinet maker build a TV stand in the living room and we painted it the same color.



We wants something different for the bar lights this time, so we chose these. We were going to try to get something green to match the island, but decided this would work better in case we ever decide to repaint the island several years down the road. And we these were pretty cheap also...especially compared to come of the others I looked it. I think I only paid about $30 a light for the pendant and the globe.




Here is a view of our breakfast area. We use this table every day. We also decided on acid stained concrete floors this go round. We love how they turned out. They are very easy to take care of and you never have to worry if someone has muddy feet or spills something on the floor. We have about 3 or 4 different patters throughout the house, but the one in the pictures is in our living room and breakfast room.

Well that's the kitchen....................

Keurig

We spent last weekend in Springdale at my sister-in-law and brother-in-laws house. My brother-in-law, Scott K, is a coffee drinker and they have a Keurig. After using it and drinking coffee from it, my husband, also named Scott, decided that he NEEDED one. After a couple of days of hearing him talking about them we made the trip to Bed Bath and Beyond, with our 20% off coupon in hand, and ended up buying one. Of course, we couldn't just buy the Keurig with its 12 free samples of coffee (K-cups). We had to buy a couple of boxes of K-cups (had a couple for this too! I went prepared). We went home and used it right away. One great thing about the Keurig is that you just make one cup of coffee at a time, so no coffee is wasted. There are also a million different flavors of coffee, tea, iced coffee, and hot cocoa to choose from.

Save Lids to Save Lives

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Did you know that Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women in the US, besides skin cancer? I didn't until I read it online today.

There are many things that can be done to raise money towards this cause. For the past few years, my church has had a team in Race for the Cure. I was part of this team in 2008. I was unable to participate last year and it looks like I won't be able to participate this year (my sister-in-law is having a baby and is due close to race day). I've been thinking about other ways I could help raise money for this cause. While buying yogurt at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, I noticed that the lids of my yogurt were now pink. After reading the label, I saw that Yoplait will donate .10 for every pink lid you mail in (up to 1.6 million) to help fight breast cancer. What an easy way to help and eat healthy at the same time!

St. Jude's 1/2 Marathon....

One of my VERY best friends, Kristin, has decided to run in the St. Jude 1/2 Marathon in Memphis on December 4th. She is part of a team and is raising money for St. Jude's. If you would like to contribute to a great cause and help Kristin reach her goal of $500 raised, here is a link directly to her page.

This is her 1st half marathon and I know she will do great!!! I wish I could be there to cheer her on, but I am planning on running in the Jingle Bell 5k that day here in Little Rock. Maybe one day I will work up to a half marathon. I'm pretty sure I will never have the desire to run a full marathon, so a half if probably the most I'll ever do. For now I will stick with 5Ks and try to get my time a little better.

Happy Monday! I'm hoping this week is better than the last....Work today is already far better than it was last Monday.

Bible In Less Than a Year

On Saturday September 11th, I finished reading the Bible. Every last bit of it. It was a HUGE accomplishment for me. I started this journey on January 2nd, so it took me 8 months and 9 days if my math is correct.

There are many parts I want to read again, but I am going to take a small break....indulge myself in my every growing list of fiction and "chick-lit" and once I have a fresh mind and can really concentrate, I am going to go back and re-read a few of the chapters that really stuck out to me.

I still can't believe I actually finished it!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Given to me by a co-worker last Wednesday. It's a Black Tie Affair cupcake from Cupcakes on Kavanaugh. YYYUUUMMMMMMMMMYYYY!!!!

Maybe I did get a fraction of the "crafty" gene after all?

My mother always told me I was artsy....I always disagreed. She was always the one who could draw and paint. I was lucky to trace something properly. As I have gotten older, I have often wondered if there was a little snippet of my moms "crafty" gene in me and I decided to put it to the test and find out.

We had had a baby shower at church last weekend and when I asked what I could bring my friend Audra said "Can you make a diaper cake?" I had been thinking of making one for a baby shower in November, so this was perfect timing. Now I have never made one and I have never thought that I was a very crafty person, but a co-worker made one for a shower about a month ago and it looked super easy. I thought....how hard can this be?

I bought a package of Pampers, rounded up a million rubber bands, and went to Micheal's to see if I could find anything cute to put on the cake. I knew the nursery was going to be teal, yellow, gray, and white. I ended up with ribbon, a wooden B that I painted yellow and the sparkly things I put in the top (these were actually found in the Christmas decoration isle. Is it really time for Christmas decorations already???)

So here is the final result......





I'm thinking not to bad for my first try. I ended up using an empty paper towel roll to hold it together and put a small piece of cardboard on the bottom to keep the diapers from falling out of the bottom section.