Cool White Doors and Hot Chilli

Well, you'll all be pleased to know the cabinet doors are finally white, although I discovered that my technique when using aerosol spray paint, coupled with the poor spray pattern of said spray cans, didn't give me quite the finish I wanted.  So I will be patient and tackle them with regular gloss paint and a brush this weekend!   I am so wanting to show some pictures but  then I really want to go for a big reveal when I have done the backsplash and the table, and *hugs Lovely Man* the banquette that Lovely Man says he will build for me!  So, for now at least, both you and I are going to have to be a little patient.  The banquette may be a little while in the making as right now we are in limbo somewhat.  Lovely Man's father is in the final stage of CA Pancreas and it's a tough time for all and all the harder that we are so far away.  However, we are taking each day as it comes and trying to do the best we can.

I found a product by Murdesign for the backsplash,  it is a paintable sheet a bit like MDF with the pattern carved into it.  You simply paint it ALL over (Back, front & sides) put it up and then use whatever paint technique you want to finish it.  The lovely people even e-mailed me step by step instructions on how to paint it to get the look I want!  How cool is that?  So I promise I will take some pics and share the cabinets and the backsplash very soon, but the big reveal may take a little longer!

Now I have to tell you about this wonderful recipe I found via Pinterest for the most amazing taco seasoning! The title was Cool White Doors and hot Chilli after all!   For years I have been buying various packet mixes, usually they are either far too hot or have no heat/taste at all!  So when I found this recipe from Perry's Plate I was really keen to try it and I have to say it is totally, utterly fabulous!  What's more I made the bulk version and keep it in a mason jar which saves me money and it's there ready to use whenever I fancy.  So far I have used it to season chicken, peppers and tomato for fajitas and added it to ground beef, kidney beans and tomatoes for a Chilli con Carne. 

Source

Now I would just add a precaution with this however.  DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT use this in the fajita version and then put them on a plate, on a tray and hand over to your Lovely Man.  I did, and the result was one beige carpet (which thankfully was earmarked for replacement) with a huge area covered in chicken, spices, tomatoes etc. etc.  Although we did our best to clean it up there is still a huge scar!

A Little Bit of Vintage For Mother

Well I am still struggling with the kitchen cabinet doors....soooo tempted to just go buy some wood and make new ones but!  I hate to admit defeat and so I will continue with them and they WILL look nice, and I WILL be happy with them and I WILL feel oh so darned pleased with myself for getting 'new' stuff without spending a fortune!

Lovely Man spent an entire day last weekend with his good friend, Ron, sorting out the electrics so the fridge and the cooker could swap places.  It's amazing how you start a job which should take just a couple of hours and it ends up taking a whole day because Bodgit and Scarper got there before you and made a right pigs ear of the whole affair!  You wouldn't believe the amount of loose, live wires they found!  So now I can sleep easy that the electrics are actually safe AND the kitchen is one baby step closer to getting a facelift.

So anyhow I have been busy making my Mother's Day card for mum (18th March in the UK).  I've been admiring all the lovely vintage look things in blogland lately and decided I wanted to have a go.  Took me a couple of days to get it finished...I'm sure I made it harder than it needed to be simply because I was in too much of a hurry to search out AND READ any tutorials.  Therefore I probably used all the wrong methods/tools/equipment but it's done and actually I'm quite pleased with it.  Now I know I'm safe showing you guys cos I know my mum never ventures here (her computer tends to be like her cell phone - for emergencies only!) and you will keep 'mum' I know!

Sharing this at Brag Monday over at The Graphics Fairy,  thanks Karen for all the hard work you put in every day to supply us all with these cool graphics!

Trying Something New

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Family Day here in Canada, which meant a day off work...Yay!  A few days before Lovely Man had come home from an out of town trip and announced that he heard there was a free Dog Sledding event being held at our local National Park.  So we trawled the papers and the internet to see exactly when and where and established it was to take place a Pukaskwa National Park, just 80km away and it started at 1pm...first come first served!

And so it was that on a non working day, a public holiday, when normal people laid snug in their beds until as late as ten o'clock we were up at 7 a.m.  By 9 a.m. we were in the car, with snow shoes, drinks, coats, hats and mittens.  The sun was shining and we arrived at the park gate at 10.30 to be greeted by a giant dancing beaver!  Yes, Lovely Man was going to ensure we got this ride no doubt about it.  So we hung around, ate some moose stew and dumpling, had a short hike on the snow shoe trail and at 12 noon he decided we really should get to the front of the line up for the sled ride.

So at 12.05 we arrived at the meeting point only to find there were some 30 people already there!  And there we stood....for THREE hours!  Oh yes!  It appeared that these 30 people were just keeping a place for several family members as we watched as numerous children and adults just wandered up to the front and walked straight in!  I admit there were times when I considered quitting but one look at Lovely Man gazing wistfully at the dogs and the sleds quickly squashed any thoughts of leaving my spot!  Anyhow, as the sun started to go down behind the trees and it started to get chilly we finally got to the front of the queue.  At last we got our ride!  Oh My Gosh!  I am SO glad we didn't give up...amazing!  I think the photos just say it all!

Taking A Break

Ok, so day three (yesterday)  I was struggling...only four doors and three drawer fronts stripped, 8 more doors to go!  My arms were tired and I was fed up with the smell of hot paint!  So I decided to give paint stripper a go.  I used paint stripper in the UK and to be honest it was pretty useless I thought but maybe, just maybe,  Canadian paint stripper would work.  Well...it didn't.  Or rather it did on the top layer of latex paint but it turns out what I thought was a simple primer/undercoat was in fact Melamine Paint!  The stripper actually made it ten times worse to get off!  Disillusioned I decided to take the day off today and do something nice.

Ta da!

I got this idea on Pinterest, originally crafted by Destiny from A Place For Us. Destiny's are a little more dressy than mine as you will see if you visit her blog, but living in a small Northern Ontario town miles (Like 450 km) from the nearest proper shops you can't be too choosey!  I had two oval signs in stock that I picked up at Dollerama last time I was there (450 km away!) and my local Home Hardware store had just two of these hangers but they were white.  So I now have a can of black spray paint in stock also!  I had some Waterslide Decals ( Thank You Carol, from The Polkadot Closet) so I found a fancy font in Photoshop, downloaded some nice graphics from The Graphics Fairy and hey presto!

AND...I found this in a thrift store...actually I found two AND they were just $2 each!

They are beautifully hand crafted although I am not a pine person...I feel they are a little dated.  Soooo I am now in the process of sanding them down and prepping for a little white paint and a little distressing... a pretty graphic on the mirror, another waterslide decal, and they will be in the bedroom I think!

Last of all I went to the post office today and my lovely stencils from Cutting Edge Stencils had arrived.  I won these courtesy of Alderberry Hill and can't wait for Lovely Man to finish the dining room wall so I can put the to good use!  So all in all not such a bad day afterall!

Linking Up with:

 

Making a Start

Last week I was interested to read a post about Analysis Paralysis over at The Yellow Cape Cod, and I realised at last what it is that I suffer from!  It has a name!  Oh thank goodness!  I also made a new friend on Facebook, who just happens to live down the road (98k away but 'down the road' nonetheless).  She remarked to me that we sounded like kindred spirits except she spent a lot of time looking, planning, gathering ideas but a lot less time doing!  This confirmed the diagnosis for me because I realised that is what I do too. I spend hours on blogs and pinterest gazing a beautiful things and planning to do them some day and then I give myself a hard time because I get hardly any of them done!  Well no more let me tell you. 

So before I forget with all this chatter, here are the before photo's of my kitchen:

Now please try to look past the lack of cabinet doors, you see I set Lovely Man to task with his screw driver before taking the pictures!  But try to imagine Battleship Gray painted cabinet doors!  As you can see the kitchen is pretty small and there really isn't a lot I can do about that...but with a budget of approximately zero $'s I plan to decorate fearlessly, and cheaply, in the hope that until I win the 649 lottery I will be happy in this wee space.

Plan one is to paint all the doors white.  So many people seem to be doing this lately and it really does make a huge difference.  So far I have managed to strip three drawer fronts and two cabinet doors...only eleven more to go :/

Next I plan to replace the table and chairs with 4 white press back chairs (I grabbed 4 of these for just $10 at a yard sale when I arrived in Canada two years ago, they just need painting white) and a nice round table when I can find one to refinish.  Check out Liz Marie's Lovely Table and Chairs to see where I am going with that!

Lovely Man, who also spends hours watching the Property Brothers and Love It or List It, has joined me and gone all 'designer' and is going to swap the cooker and the fridge over which will hopefully open up the kitchen a little, and hopefully if we can get a piece of counter top to match the existing one we will extend the counter top where the butcher block is.  And finally, later in the year when finances allow we hope to put a dark wood floor in here and right through the main floor of the house.  Neat Eh?
So watch this space...and if you see no movement please give me a poke!
Again thank you to Liz for the inspiration and permission to nab her photo!

My Happy Place

Yesterday I was looking through some photo's that we took at the weekend and this one really lifted my spirits.  Our life of late hasn't been without it's ups and downs, stresses and strains.  We have been hurt and disappointed with some personal and family issues and, for a while, these took their toll and they still do if I allow myself to dwell.  However, I looked at this picture and some others we took and I suddenly felt very grateful and lucky.  There are those who don't agree with how we choose to live our lives, and those who refuse to try and understand.  They can be hurtful.  But equally there are those who love us for who we are, and accept us, they understand and support us. They do not look at what we can give them, they especially don't expect us to give them what we don't have.  For these people in our lives I am grateful.  I am also now at peace with where we are, happy that we made the right choice and more determined to enjoy it all.  And with this right at your backyard gate...well who wouldn't count themselves lucky?

I love this little Northern Ontario Township!

Catching up!

Ha!  As I typed the title I noticed I've used it before...which just proves one thing to me.  I spend my life catching up with stuff!  Ok so I was going to tell you about my perfect lazy weekend with Lovely Man, and then my plans to get started with some projects, but first I just have to share this little gem.  Now I know I shouldn't tease but I just can't help myself.  You see I happened to need something from the bathroom whilst Lovely Man getting ready for work tonight.  So I wondered in and there he was with the bathroom cabinet open and I couldn't help but notice this...

Now the question is should I be worried?  I mean, I have seen programs on the TV recently about hoarding!  Now I know that with our big shops some 4 and a half hours away it pays to stock up occasionally but really?  Ten bottles of deodorant?  I inquired as to whether we were expecting some sort of siege or something, were we going to be confined to the house, was there going to be a world shortage of deodorant anytime soon.  Lovely Man just gave me one of those looks and said "well if there is at least I won't be a smelly little oik"  So enough already, I just thought it was funny!

Now back to my perfect weekend.  Yesterday we went skiing for the first time this year and I managed to complete the whole trail without any mishaps, unlike Lovely Man who took a couple of tumbles.  I avoided the slopes but he did them all with success, can you believe he fell on the flat part of the trail?  How does that work?  Actually I can tell you exactly how that works cos if I cast my mind back to last year I did a perfect face plant on a flat and straight bit of the trail.  It's when you lose that concentration for just a split second and you get sloppy with your technique usually causing your to trip yourself over with your own ski pole!  But it was a lovely morning and we had a ball, and then the next best bit was coming home to a nice mug of hot chocolate and a snooze on the couch!  Bliss.

I do count myself extremely lucky to have this right on our doorstep, and to have the time to make the most of it.  Do you know the snow on my back deck comes up to my butt?  I simply LOVE it!

Now plans for projects, there are a few!  First of all I confess I purchased a pink Christmas tree whilst in the UK (it was only £5!) and I hauled it all the way back here.  My plan was to have a pink tree next Christmas with gingerbread men, lolliepops and candy canes to decorate.  That was until my friend introduced me to the joys of Pinterest (Yes I know where have I been lately!) and I found this neat lady blogger (can't remember for the life of me who) but she got this pink tree and decorated it with hearts and cherubs and stuff for Valentines!  Priceless!  Now I can justify my purchase by using not just once a year but twice...talk about value for money.  And the bonus is I get to wind up Lovely Man once more which is always fun *he actually thinks I'm cute and is really just pretending he doesn't like it*. I just love it when he pretends to be irritated but really he can't help but laugh, I love it when he laughs.   I also bought this gorgeous shaggy fluffy fabric to make pillow covers but he doesn't know that yet!

After that I have so many plans for the house, like paint the kitchen cabinet doors, make a roman blind for the bedroom and put wood floor down.  I want to make some pretty purses and aprons and refinish some of those bits of old furniture I collected last summer.  I have a camper van to refit inside, not to mention a garden swing to make cushions for.  But one step at a time...now where's that pink tree?