Nutmeg Place: March 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

$13 Kitchen Update - COLOR!!

Happy Easter weekend babies!!

Drew and I are non-religious nor do we have human offspring.

So, we don't really celebrate Easter.

We do, however, celebrate the food & candy. hehe

We do hope you enjoy your weekend.

Last week, I got fidgetty.

Decided I needed to switch some things up.

The colors on the main floor are pretty muted.

Maybe it's because it's Spring, maybe I just felt the need to cheer things up a bit.

I've wanted to do something with the large wall at the far end of the kitchen.

I've always wanted shelves there, but could never find exactly what I wanted.

They had to be long and not very deep {so we didn't smack into them constantly}.

I decided, to make my own.

And guess what?? I already had EVERYTHING, didn't need to buy one thing.

The wall before:

{sorry for the bad pictures. I do my DIY in the evening}

I nailed up (2) 3 1/2 in by 4 foot pieces of MDF:

Made sure they were level and all that technical stuff.

Then, just like with my door toppers, I added 3 in crown across the front and sides:

Also added a 4 inch piece of MDF across the top, for the shelf, and a small strip of decorative molding to the bottom, to make it prettier. It's in the details.

I primed, and painted them white. I will show you in a second.

During the week, I decided that since things were about to get happy and colorful, the kids needed happy and colorful new dishes, since they are directly below this new wall treatment.

They were eating out of these:

Boring! And lets pretend there isn't still Christmas candy on my counter, mkay??

I looked high and low.

My criteria was:

Need to be raised, so the kids don't puke.

They need to be ceramic. Plastic pet dishes are a 'no-no'.

They needed to be bright and cheerful!

Nothing, I found nothing. Decided I would have to make my own.

That afternoon, I went on my lunch break to look for some accents for the new shelves.

At the store, I found these ceramic bowls, on clearance for .49 ea:

Bright, happy, ceramic but not raised.

Hmmm.

But, I had a very clever idea. I will show you.

Also, I've been wanting to paint the inside of my open shelving forever, I just could never settle on a color I love. Decided that would have to change.

I wanted color... I got color!!

Take a peek, at the newly colorful NMP kitchen:

How did this only cost $13?

I had all the materials {including caulk & paint} for the shelves.

I already had the Tucson Coral paint from my Nightstand re-do.

The only things I purchased were the coral buckets {$2.99 ea}:

The silk flower was $4:

The 'Fine Liquor' sign was .33, yes... .33 cents:

Last, but not least, the new food bowls for the kids {4 ceramic bowls @ .49 ea}:

Hells yes. I used liquid nails and glued those babies together! The kids LOVE them and so do I!

There's Max, quality testing them the other night. PASS!!

My friend, Shelley, gave me the 2 white plates:

I spray painted a few of my vast jar collection and popped in some cute and colorful paper straws:

Everything else, I already had!

I'm LOVING IT!!

The coral is still VERY bright to me, but I'm digging it.

Besides:

Amen Frank!!

Enjoy your weekend babies.

SMOOCHIES!!

XOXO

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

When I grow up ~

I'm going to have my very own woodshop and just build things all day long.

I love it so much.

Wanna see a sneak peek of what I built last night?

FUN!!

And they only took a couple hours.

Tonight I'm going to go home and paint them, then stage them.

I will share the finished project this weekend.

Any guesses where these are being built?

I'm excited, I've wanted these for awhile.

No more procrastinating.

The best part?

I used only what I already had!

I do need to buy a couple finishing touches, but hey. Don't you love then that happens?

Come back this weekend to see the final project!

*SQUEE*

XOXO

Monday, March 25, 2013

Gratitiude ~

Hey babies!

It's Monday {BOO!!} and I felt this overwhelming need to tell you...

I'm not one of those bloggers who posts everyday.

I believe in quality over quantity.

And I have a day job.

That doesn't leave me tons of time to complete big projects as often as I'd like.

Things have been crazy in our lives the past few months, and my to-do list keeps getting longer and longer. I keep saying "When things settle down, I'm tackling the Master bedroom, laundry room, closets..." I'm lucky if we have food and clean clothes these days!

So, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you coming back and seeing what I've been up to.

Not always exciting, not always pretty.

But, you come back and always say such sweet and lovely things.

You 'get' me and appreciate that I don't fit into the 'blogger mold'.

I'm opinionated, speak my mind, probably offensive, don't give things away (unless it's SUPER special!), don't advertise, probably drink too much, don't quote the bible, don't have cute offspring running around, am a crazy cat lady - sorta, stay away from the drama of the blogging world, not out to impress anyone but myself... I'm different. Proud to be and will never apologize for it.

And still,

you come back.

And I LOVE you for it.

Just wanted to tell you:

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Nutella Brownie Mousse

Hi babies!!

I've been under the weather {STILL} and made Drew promise that he wouldn't let me do any projects this weekend. Only resting. I need to get well.

I'm cooking a crock pot full of chicken soup, and decided to make a quick dessert.

And, this is quick. Seriously.

I made 4 individual servings.

Started with breaking up a brownie into the bottom of each cup.

Then, and this recipe is pretty vague, I mixed half of a container of Nutella with a half of a small container of cool whip. Is that vague enough?

Spooned the 'mousse' over the brownie, plopped a dollop of cool whip on top, then a drizzle of chocolate syrup.

Easy, peasy Nutella Brownie Mousse.

Drew said that since I took pictures, this was actually borderline a 'project' and gave me an extremely hard time about it. But of course, he let me continue since he really likes Nutella.

XOXO

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Happiness List #25 ~

Hey there babies! Happy first day of Spring!

It's overcast and rainy here, and I have a nasty chest cold.

So, to try and force myself to feel better, I'm doing a happiness list.

Lets begin:

Last week, it was 74 degrees. Perfect.

And on that day, broke out the capris and boat shoes.

Being part of the Daryl Dixon Army. Yep, I'm a dork.

The new art I'm working on for the office.

Can you guess which one is my favorite??

After a year of practice, finally being able to take the kinds of pictures I've always admired.

These sweet babies.

Brandy is doing pretty well still.

Mira {pictured at top} crashed a couple weekends ago.

Rushed her to our vet Monday morning, turns out, she's borderline kidney failure.

She 'crashed' because she's been drinking so much and peeing so much, that her potassium levels were dangerously low. Did you know that if your potassium levels get too low, it causes weakness, vomiting, dehydration... it was pretty scary.

So, she got lots of TLC and needs meds and a potassium supplement twice a day.

She has to eat canned food (to keep her hydrated) and she is doing much better.

So now, we have a kitty with thickening heart arteries (Max), a kitty with a lung tumor (Brandy) and one kitty borderline kidney failure (Mira). Oh yes, we do have ONE healthy kitty, Nala, but she is afraid of cameras. Not sure whats up with that.

Anyway, seems we cannot catch a break on the health front here at NMP.

But, things will eventually be ok.

This stuff is devastating, and we do the absolute very best we can for them and ALWAYS make their quality of life our first consideration.

This happiness list turned kinda poopy, didn't it?

Rats.

My Nyquil is kicking in so I'm going back to bed and do my best to kick this colds ass.

See you on the flip side!

XOXO