Days 9 through 12

Do you sometimes wonder if I do any embroidery? I have been knee deep in this renovation lately ~ I can be found at Home Depot on any given morning looking at faucets, knobs, light fixtures, etc. We are finally at a stand-still and are waiting for counter tops. Jeff & I rode up to the boondocks Wednesday and picked out our granite, so now we sit back clean, dust and vacuum and wait for that to happen, hopefully BY next Thursday. I’m squeezing in a customer order here and there lately and have a few “jobs” to work on this weekend and next week. Here is a towel I did and I love this fabric! It’s Riley Blake and I’m a sucker for green and pink. This is the AC Whale.

Here are the kitchen pics from Days 9 ~ 12. We’ve come a long way!

 

This will be a “buffet” type cabinet. You’ll see it with the corbels added a little later.

Our pre-marriage washer and dryer look a little rough with the new laundry room, and the washer has actually made a crazy noise since we moved in. But, hopefully they’ll survive a little while longer!

LOVE the cubbies ~ you’ll see an updated photo down below!

Love the hood! This is before any molding.

Funny side note here ~ you may notice Jeff in his YMCA soccer coach’s t-shirt. What you can’t see is that it was WET! There is nothing like frantically getting ready for soccer and realizing A) both boys’ shin guards are unwashed from the previous game and scary FILTHY and B) Coach’s shirt is in the washing machine. He dried it for 5 minutes and then laid it out on the dash of the car on the way there hoping it would dry a little more. We are still catching up on laundry.

Sorry, no more hair washing sink!

 

 

Here is the buffet area again ~ molding has since been added and this will have granite counter tops as well. You may notice the door 2nd from the right coloring is a little “off”. It is, and will have to be replaced. The right drawer is actually off too. I’m excited about this piece and am already thinking of commissioning AMR Art to paint something for the space between the counter and the top cabinet!

Day 11 ~ we can now microwave and bake! Not that we would, but we can!

The island is taking shape.

 

Fridge back in place! Yeah ice and water!! Still missing my sink.

Day 12 ~ Details! Molding and trim were added and it looks great!

I like a little bead board too!

It’s coming together ~ you’ll notice a few knobs as well.

Anddddddd our cubbies!

Super excited about these ~ finally a place for the backpacks and soccer cleats!

Finishing touches on the island. You may notice the dust. We will be battling it for a while!

I had a couple of people ask who did our cabinets. I happen to have a connection! Jeff works for Bishop Cabinets during the day (and Applique Cafe at night). So that’s where they came from, but we used Adams Interiors to figure it all out and help us “design” the kitchen, and a guy named Aaron Corbin did our tile, cut out the wall to the den and 1,891 other things we asked him to do. We’ve been super duper pleased with everyone involved! Like I said, now we wait for the counters, then backsplash, painting (picking out paint colors now) and we still lack some molding and our drawer pulls. We also redid Sissy’s cabinet and are redoing the other guest bath cabinets, so I’ll post pics of those later too.

Did anyone get in on the Target Missoni craze? I saw it on the news but didn’t think much about it. Wednesday morning I went to Target to return something, and when I walked in I saw a friend of mine and another girl I knew hovering over the ladies who were restocking. A few minutes later a couple of other girls I knew came in. I ended up with a pair of tights, mostly because I felt like I needed to buy something Missoni after all the craze!

Off to soccer! We have Virginia’s Run in the morning! Jeff is doing the 5K and then we’ll all do the 1 mile fun run (the 5 of us). This might tell you how much of a non-excersizer I am… I found myself at Academy today buying some of the cute trendy Nike shorts for my mile run! I must dig out my sports bra tonight….

I-K-E-A…

 Tuesday was a BIG DAY! Jeff & I took a day trip to IKEA in Atlanta (left at 8:00 am and got back at 6:00 pm). It was as magical as I had imagined! We got a cinnamon roll first thing. I got a tiny piece of it and Jeff ate the rest. I figured he deserved it for driving me to Atlanta to go shopping.

 We went through the store (3 times, both levels) and made our shopping list of what we wanted. I got a 25 Cubby Expedit for my sewing room and a 16 Cubby Expedit for Mallory’s closet. We also got 2 doors for the office Expedit, a divider and 11 baskets. If you are unfamiliar with Expedit, search for it on Pinterest! I’ve been pining away over them for weeks! Here’s a picture of Jeff after we loaded up our cart with our goods. Not looking forward to put-it-all-together day! As you can see, and as I mentioned, we got 11 baskets. Why 11? They have gobs of basket styles, and I liked the Knipsa baskets, but they smelled like jute. We ended up with the Pjas baskets and we got the last 11 in the store – we robbed all of the displays we could find! I liked them because you can see through them (good for fabric) and because they had less of the jute smell. (I LOVE burlap, but can’t stand the smell – same thing.)

I took this shot of the MASSIVE aisles in the customer self serve part of the store! We had no idea how Ikea worked. It was quite fun! I’m anxious to go back with some girlfriends who wouldn’t mind wandering the store for hours!

It all fit in the Suburban quite nicely, and they had helpers who would help you load (so I could have gone solo had I known that). I’ll be taking prayer requests when we actually have to put all this together. We also ate at P.F. Changs while in Atlanta (lettuce wraps – love) and hit Ballards Backroom (aka Ballard Designs). I resisted Forever 21 and H&M when we went to eat.

While we were in “the ATL”, it was demo day in our KITCHEN! They did a lot while we were away! I’ve taken pics each day so it’s neat to follow the progression. These pics are from DAY 1 (Demo Day) only! Today they are already laying tile (and I will post those pics tomorrow).

They removed all cabinets and most of the tile floor on Day 1.

 

They also cut out part of the wall to open our kitchen up more in to our den. We have a plastic wall in our den as you can see which helps with the dust.

This is looking at our eating area.

This is from the eating area looking back to the kitchen.

AND the laundry room!

Nice! This is all now gone, and they are already laying new tile (after mudding and leveling out the floors). It’s very exciting to look in each day to see what they are doing.

We lost our den this week (the plastic wall is a joke) and had to move Mallory upstairs. It’s a MESS, but pretty well contained in the kitchen and den area. I’ll post more pics tomorrow of Day 2 and 3! The floors should be done Tuesday with new cabinets MAYBE going in next Thursday. Then appliances go back in, countertops, backsplash and we have a few other projects to do at the end of this!

Jeff & I are about the last people on earth to do any type of renovation, so this is exciting! Looking forward to all the before and afters! Stay tuned!

Field Trip!!

First of all, I sold the Dog Truck shirt and 2 of Mallory’s shirts, but still have the Firetruck and Football Helmet shirts left! It’s still 100 degrees where I am! If anyone is interested in these email me – rosemarygulledge@gmail.com! $12/each but if you buy both I’ll cut you a deal! 😉

 

So I posted about the organic veggies & fruit earlier this week. Well, Monday night we ended up at Flips (burger joint) because it got too late in the day to go to the grocery store and cook. Tuesday  night we ended up at Pizza Perfect (pizza joint) because it got too late in the day to go to the grocery store and cook. Do you see a pattern? This is the pattern of our household! We eat out A LOT! Wednesday, FINALLY, I went to the grocery store and we finally cooked our dinner mentioned in the last blog post. Since I only got 1 squash from my Coop basket, I had to buy more plus a few more ingredients, but we did end up making (magnolia) squash casserole. I think it’s a Paula Deen recipe? It is yummy!

 

I also whipped up a little broccoli salad with our Coop broccoli (minus the red onion in the salad because I forgot to get it at the store).

And our meat ~ Costco rotisserie chicken. This is the best chicken and the best buy in town! This whole chicken is $4.99! Other than having to drive to Costco to get it and time your sides, this is a great meal! Luckily we live close by.

A while ago I had a girl named Mandy C. from Atlanta email me about having some fabric she wanted to get rid of (she mentioned 3 garbage bags full). She emailed me because we’ve been collecting items/fabric/stuff for Laughin Lizard Embroidery (Michele lost her home in the April Alabama tornadoes). We’ve gone back & forth about this fabric in Atlanta and I couldn’t figure out how I’d get over there to get it. Because let’s face it… who can turn down free fabric, even if it’s not even for me! FINALLY we decided that she could drop it off at Sewingmachine.com in Atlanta and Steve could then transport it to West Point, which is much closer to me than ATL. She & I both got our machines from Steve so he was happy to oblige when I emailed him about this situation. The “transaction” took place this week, so the boys & I took a field trip over to West Point yesterday morning. It’s just over an hour drive from Montgomery and I hadn’t been to the store since October so I was excited to make the trip. Of course I took my camera (and the ladies shopping were probably wondering what in the heck I was taking pictures for).

First, here is G. Not sure what he is doing? Acrobatics? There was a little girl there watching him play his DS, so I’m thinking he was trying to impress.

Let me say I was thrilled at all the new stuff they had at the store! Lots of cute blanks (backpacks, market totes etc)! I love this flowery backpack! It would be cute with a hot pink monogram. Orange on the camo one too!

Tons of these cute quilted bags ~ these really make great baby gifts! No one ever thinks of the big bag for baby for traveling! I actually have a couple of these in stock (one brown w/ blue trim duffle) and a lime green one if anyone needs a gift!

The store was loaded down with vinyl products and supplies which has become super popular!

Here, my friends, is the coveted 10 NEEDLE BROTHER PR1000 machine!! I get asked a lot if I wished I had a 10 needle. I have to say I’ve never done an applique where I needed more than my 6 needles, so I’m content. Don’t get me wrong, it would be fabo to have this beauty!!

Love….

I noticed they had the Durkee hoops too – these are great and come in sizes not offered by Brother. I love the 9×9 and I also have the 6×6. They are not, as I said, Brother hoops – they work like Fast Frames in that you have to be sure your needle isn’t going to hit anything. You have to check your boundaries!

TONSSSSSS of acrylic stuff for the vinyl and embroidery paper projects!

A little too much houndstooth for me (HA), but lots of blanks!

Thread for days! I use Isacord, but they also carry Fufu, Floriani and possibly another brand? They do have Isacord in the 1000M smaller spools too (not pictured).

Stabilizer for days as well ~ their commercial stabilizer is super cheap and awesome! I’ll take the 8 year old too!

S-T-A-B-I-L-I-Z-E-R!!

Here is Browder ~ one day he may join the family business!

CUTE market totes! Some were insulated too!

Here is the mega hoop for the 10 needle. I think you have to flip this around while sewing? I’m not sure how big it is but it is HUGE!

And below is “the fabric”. I’m saving this for another post because it’s on my dining room floor and I have yet to really dig in to the bags! Michele is super excited about this and I’ve been told I can keep a few of the duplicates! I will post on this once I peek in to the bags probably this weekend!

I did purchase this 5000M spool thread stand! It holds 30 spools, and these are the BIG spools. My plan is to paint all of my “natural” thread stands (black?) and hang them on the wall. My sewing room is still a work in progress and I’m awaiting a trip to Ikea in Atlanta hopefully in a couple of weeks! I have my eye on some of the Expedit cubbies! The thread stand is not online (www.sewingmachine.com) but if you call either store I know they ship anywhere and everywhere!

School starts Monday for Browder and on September 1st for the other 2 (tick tock tick tock….). Demolition on our kitchen starts August 29th! We have everything picked out so we’re very excited to get that project underway. I know it’s going to be a big fat mess, but worth it when it’s all done! Have a great weekend! Thanks for a great ANNIVERSARY SALE too!

p.s. If you are traveling Interstate 85 between Montgomery and Atlanta, West Point is almost in between! Check out the Sewingmachine.com store in West Point (tell Wanda I sent you) or their Atlanta store!