Baking Center

We recently moved into our new house that we built, hopefully the one that we will stay in for many years to come. It took a while for the lots to be ready to build on so we had a long time to study the plan and get it just the way we wanted. The first thing I knew I  wanted in my kitchen was a baking center.

 I Hated having to haul the flour and sugar from the pantry every time I needed them and wanted to leave my Jars on the counter. I found the idea for these labels on this web sight http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com/search/label/Pantry. I designed them up and used my vinyl cutter to make them.

The Cabinet guy put in some dividers so that I could keep my measuring cups and spoons organized.

I also had him put in a lift for my Kitchen aid and the electrician put in a outlet so I could always have it plugged in.

I have cabinets on both sides to keep my cookbooks in and my cake mixes and such.

 

Now off to make a Christmas baking shopping list.....

Come back and I will show you the rest of my house.

Love, 

Bonnie

Black Friday-Blue Morning

There are many lethal combinations in this world; gun powder and sparks, kielbasa and bananas, spring skiing without sunblock, and Darla and Barbara shopping together without adult supervision.

At 11:45 the night of Thanksgiving we headed out to see what a night of shopping would  hold in store for us, we had no plan just a huge stack of newspaper with tons of prospects.

At Toys R Us we found a slew of people with the right idea.

      By the time we hit up Fred Meyers at 5 am, I was more than willing to fall asleep in public with no shame.

The couches at Fred Meyer had never looked more comfortable.

 Sharlene joined us at 5 am, can't you tell that she had at least 5 hours of beauty sleep? The events that took place during our 8 am breakfast stop are foggy in my mind, I know we laughed a lot and we weren't making a lot of sense. I have confirmed that people over the age of 25 need sleep to function. The only thing that Darla and I could come up with to explain our behavior toward the end of the long night was "YouTubes David goes to the Dentist"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs

It took me 3 days to recover enough to get my loot from Darla's garage and when I went through the bags it was like shopping all over again because I barely remembered the things I had bought. If you would like to come over to my place in the near future we will be watching $1.88 'Gone with the Wind', while snuggling in a $10.00 'Electric Blanket', while eating $4.99 'Worlds largest tub of popcorn', on my new $49.00 'blu-ray' player..

Keep Laughing,

Barbara

At Least My Kid's Like It...

My husband is gone for a few days and this is an excuse to spoil my kids with things like cereal for dinner, no showers, a messy house, pj's all day, and numerous other favorites of mine that I have managed to hide from my husband for the last 10 years.  He really wants me to spoil them while he is gone but I'm not sure that is what he had in mind.

This weekend was the annual Artisan Fair that manages to have the cutest homemade stuff that I don't need and buy anyway.  Every year I plan on having a booth and I am such a procrastinator that I buy my supplies about 3 days before and then make about 2 things and put the rest of the junk in my closet.  This year was no different, I made my 3 things to make my 8 year old happy and sent her in to sell them at her cousins booth.  A smashing success!  We sold all 3!  What can I make for next year!  My head is already checking off the ideas.  

After stopping at the Fabric Store with a few different ideas rolling around, I remembered the most adorable Christmas Tree Skirt that I had seen on pinterest.  It was a tutorial that Miss Mustard Seed had done for HGTV.

The tutorial is a no sew method where they use hot glue to put it together.  Knowing that I can sew and I have an awesome ruffler foot, I know that I can whip one of these up in no time. 

Here is where the kids come in.  We have 2 Christmas Trees in our house.  One is for "me" and the other one is for my kids to do whatever they like.  Their ornaments come in many shapes and colors.  Blue, Hot Pink, Red, Purple, Green, Glitter, School Photos, Popsicle Stick Frames, Cut Out Handmade Stars, and so much more...  My brilliant idea is to make my kids a ruffled Christmas Tree skirt!!!  My husband is going to be so proud of me!  Being a quilter, I know that you can just take colors and incorporate them and they have a way of blending together in the end.  

I am pretty sure that I got one of every color in there.  The kids were so excited while I was sewing each ruffle on.  They think it is the coolest thing ever!!!  I quickly finished it up while they were getting ready for bed.  Like anything that I have made I usually don't know if I like it until it is completed.  I brought it upstairs to show them and they showered me with kisses and told me how much they loved it.  As Maddy picked it up and put it around her waist I realized what I had done....

I had made the world's ugliest Four Square Skirt.

This sucks... Why do my kid's have to like it????

Darla

Home Sweet Double Wide Home

 We Moved!!! In April we sold our house in Woodland and spent the summer camping with intentions of being in our new house shortly (that didn't pan out and I believe I would share the whole story in a different kind of blog)...now that school was starting we decided it was time to get a little more room. With the help of Darla we found this rental property. It's a double wide on 6+ acres in the perfect location. It needed a little TLC and who better to give the little manufactured home some of that than my sisters and I (not to exclude my husband)....

I fell in love at first sight....the Landlord had done a great job keeping the outside looking well kept, and lets face it after 4 months and 5 days living in a 32 foot trailer, I would have been elated with anything. Aaron and I had decided we didn't want to rent in a subdivision and anything with land would work for us..little did we know the potential this little trailer beheld.

Before-----Can you just see the potential??? Wait can you smell that? Is that musty? cigarettes? Dog pee?

 

After---All it really needed was a little love and 10 gallons of primer ;-)

 

Before---with the two fifty watt bulbs this kitchen needed a little light on the subject.

 

We thought white would work good, but I decided it didn't look quite right.

With the help of Bonnie and Lorinda and a bottle of furniture stain and glaze, it took less than an hour and the cabinets were all stained and looking like new.Before--I didn't think about it before but I really should have bought stock in primer before we got started.

 

I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

Meet Milkshake and his sidekick Little Llama. Aaron is in his glories and hopefully our mini farm is complete. Even if it's just for a year, for now I feel right at home...

Keep smiling,

Barbara

Parade House 2

This is the other parade house My Mom, My Aunt Annie, and I did this summer, This one is a more informal, which is a lot more my style....

The first room on the left is the living room. I love the coffee table..

The office is to the right

The dining room

 Family Room

Kitchen

Master Bedroom and Bath

Guest Room

Upstairs loft area

 Upstairs Bedroom

Craft room

 Bathroom upstairs

 Thanks Annie for flying out and helping with these, We could not have done it without you!

Love, Bonnie

Where a kid can be a kid

With 25 Grandkids and 18 adults rolling around these parts one thing is a constant, well besides "death and taxes", it Birthday Parties!!
Enter: our home away from home Chuck E. Cheese's. Where a kid can be a kid also where big boys turn into little kids.

The Husbands compete on basketball and ski-ball. Props to Scott and Brad- the reigning champions.

     Hudson, Brielle, and Kasen 2,3, and 4. All within a few days of each other.

     Donna the executive chef made the cakes

We all love not having to make dinner for the night and even better no clean-up.

Only if life was always this simple; Tickets, tokens, and toys.

Barbara