creative little daisy

Closer

I'm sure I'll never be done with my kitchen, but I do believe I've moved into a more classic direction that I will not tire of as soon. It's beginning to feel settled and comfortable. Just like it is supposed to be this way, not like it's decorated. Does that make sense? It's like me in jeans and a tee as opposed to a dress and heels. I can put on a dress and heels and look nice, but it feels temporary, like I can't wait to get home and be me. The real me in jeans and a tee. I feel like my kitchen has finally found a comfy pair of jeans and a clean tee. Jeans that fit and make her butt look good.

I finished painting the front side of the bar.

I love the added details.

For my birthday, I got two school house style light fixtures.

 
Notice anything else new in this picture??

Bar stools!! I love these bar stools!! I've been dreaming of stools like these, coveting stools like these. Pinning every similar stool I saw. Wishing for these stools. But the thing is, they were way out of my budget. I could in no way justify or afford spending over three hundred dollars for something I didn't need. Yes, I wanted them bunches, but didn't need them one bit. So I decided if I could sell something I no longer needed, something that was just taking up space, I could get the stools. Long story short, I sold a commercial sewing machine I had in the garage and had not used in more than a year for almost exactly what the stools cost. Win, win! More space in the garage, and NEW STOOLS!! I also sold the old stools on craigslist. Triple win.

Did I mention I love these stools?

They are heavy and sturdy and lovely and I.... well  you know.

While I was busy tweaking, I roped Mitch in, as I always do, and we installed some under-cabinet lighting. We purchased it at least 5 years ago, probably more like 10 and just never put it up.

Now if I could find something in the garage to sell that would bring a couple grand I'd get new appliances. Yea, I don't think that's too likely.

I guess she's wearing her comfy jeans with a clean tee and old worn in shoes.

{Dough bowl made my Mitch's grandfather}

I hope it works

I'm not a spanker. I'm not firmly against a swat on the bottom to get attention when nothing else is working, but how can you expect a child to understand hitting is wrong if you use hitting as discipline. We use time out with Bayleigh. Or I should say we try to use time out. She's a very strong willed child. Very strong willed and if it isn't her will to sit down, you are going to have to sit on her to keep her in the chair.

The terrible twos seem to have waited to attack full on at three. We definitely notice a strong correlation between food and her behavior and are trying to greatly limit artificial coloring, especially brightly colored candies and fruit punch. Fruit punch + Bayleigh = wildfire out of control. Out. Of. Control. And just you try putting her in time out. She had one of these episodes this past weekend. We tried everything to reign her in. Alyssa put her in the tub and it worked for a few minutes, until she decided to sling with both hands water out of the tub and onto the floor. Bath time over. Fit throwing resumes.

We finally got her to settle down by getting her to use my peak flow meter.  It was really just a distraction, but taking deep breaths helped her to calm down to a reasonable level and wind down for bedtime.

Boy, that was a wordy bunch jibber-jabber to get to the meat of this post. I had this pinned on pinterest. Yes, again with the pinterest. I'm a junkie folks,. but in a good way. She calls it a mind jar and made hers with glitter glue, water, food coloring and glitter.

I made one for Bayleigh today. I didn't have any glitter glue on hand so I just used some gel tacky glue.

 
I filled a jar with water. I think this jar holds about 2 cups.

Then I added a few drops of food dye,

about 2/3 of the container of glue,

and several shakes of glitter.

I started out with a large flake glitter, but it sank too quickly.

This very fine Martha Stewart glitter floated slowly to the bottom.

The idea is you give it a good shake and let the child hold the jar while in time out, watching the glitter fall to the bottom is soothing and calming and also a timer of sorts.

I kept adding glue and glitter until it took about 2 minutes for the glitter to settle to the bottom.

Long enough for a screaming banshee to settle back into a sweet toddler. I hope. We shall see.

 

Just call me Tim the Tool Man...

I've been power toolin' around here all week and I like it! My bar got a make-over. No plans, just flying by the seat of my pants. Ya'll should know me well enough by now, to know that's just how I roll. I have all these ideas floating around in my head, and I never know when they will decide to materialize.

Last week, or was it the week before... anyway, one day I was walking through the kitchen and I don't know what came over me. I just started tearing the beadboard wall paper off the bar. It just happened, really it did.

Pretty, no? This ended up being a bigger job than I imagined and took me a few hours.

Once the old wallpaper was all scraped off, I put up more. The same wallpaper friends. I wanted to start fresh. I figured too may coats of paint and you start to loose the beading effect.

Next came the fun part. Molding! Mitch cut the first few pieces of baseboard for me and I did the rest. It took me a long time. A long time. I made many, many trips to the garage to cut and re-cut, but my my thighs and kitchen are the better for it. I used muscles I forgot I had with all that bending and squatting. If I did this for a living I'd have buns of steel.  I cut, nailed, caulked, and painted it all. by. my. self!

This photo shows where things got complicated. I replaced the baseboard with a taller board and brought it around to the side of the cabinet, where there had been none before. Figuring out how to tie it in with the cabinets nearly fried my brain. I do not kid when I say I sat on the floor for hours, at that very spot pictured, scratching my head and playing with molding. I looked at countless photos on the internet, consulted Mitch, scratched my head some more. Finally I rigged up something that seemed like it was going to work.

Kinda crude looking, but nothing some caulk can't fix.

Caulk? My new bff. We're tight, me and some caulk, cause my seams aren't always so tight.

I found these brackets at the Salvation Army several months ago. I didn't know what I'd use them for at the time, but for a dollar a piece, I knew I'd find something.

I actually enjoyed the priming and painting.

I love it, and now I want to put molding on everything.

The front is still black. I hope I can get that painted this week. 

Want to see the many faces of my kitchen through the years? Sure you do.

Now brace yourself for the original, 90s version. Be warned, it's a little scary.

I know, right? What was I thinking?  Man, there's a lot going on there. Sorry I exposed you to that. I hope it doesn't cause any bad dreams.

I'll be sharing this project at some of these fun linkie parties.