Merry Christmas Eve.

I love Christmas Eve. We made cookies and read the story of Jesus' birth and then picked a spot for our stockings and opened one present. The kiddos loved their new pajamas and Danielle loved the princess shoes Mark picked out for her (with a free ten dollar Kohl's coupon I might add). Mark got the book "Good Night Gorilla." He carried it around for a long time and loves it. Then he loved one of the cookies we made for Santa. Danielle drew Santa a picture of himself and the sippy cup Mark"wants." She helped us write Santa a letter.

Sometimes her prayers are a little bit like her requests to Santa- we told her that Santa gives kids presents for Jesus' birthday. Now she wants to know what kind of cake we are making for Jesus.

Good question.

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Flowers

Danielle tells me she really likes sunflowers. I got some for her today. our kitchen is such a happy place when the counter is cleared off. I think there is something about having a clean countertop and kitchen table that makes me feel like my whole house is clean.

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What I did this weekend.

This weekend I really wanted to do the floor. Then we had a wedding to go to.
It was absolutely beautiful. I love weddings.
I stayed up until 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning.
do you like the new floor? I still need to do some finish work around the edges.
I wonder what we will do next weekend.
Also a few notes: Mike the picture comment was not about you but thanks for forgiving me for losing your template.
Claire and Kathryn: I would love to come tile your backsplash.
I have to order some fabric online to make new drapes for the kitchen now.
hugs
Janae

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What I did this weekend.

Every time John goes out of town I try to do a project. I tiled the backsplash this weekend. Then I realized the drapes didn't match so I made new ones. If you look at the picture you can see my next project: the horrible floor. We replaced the oven hood Monday.
I am so happy that I own a tile saw. I want to tile my whole house now.
and make a wall in the basement.
maybe next weekend.

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My Project Collection: Kitchen

We are still wildly working on the kitchen- the painting is almost done. I really like this hardware from Anthropologie and we ordered drawer pulls from the hardware store- THRILLING! Knobs are a harder decision because John doesn't like the glass knobs that I like. Also some of them are really expensive. I love looking at them- I look online a lot. I am glad we went with a light paint color because our kitchen looks cleaner and brighter. It makes me realize that our non-functioning oven hood doesn't match our oven. Jen noticed it right away when she visited and now it bothers me. It already bothered me that the hood didn't work. I decided I wanted the freak out and call mom print somewhere in my kitchen. That happens to me so frequently in the kitchen after all...

The current countertop in all it's worn out glory. My least favorite part of the kitchen is the floor- it's original linoleum. Someone told me you used to have to refinish linoleum and that might be why the finish is so strange. I covered it up with a rug so I don't have to think of it until we get the time to put tile in. My uncle was going to come help us do the floor but my house was too messy so we backed out. As soon as that happened a little piece of my heart died. So I had to go and buy the stacking kit for the washer and dryer (in the kitchen) and three shelves. Our microwave is going to live in the closet with the washer and dryer. When I got the idea I emptied out the current shelf and took down the rod. Then I realized we had to repair the wall. Is it wrong to wait on putting things together because I want to paint the closet. Then I thought maybe I should wait until we do the floor tile. Sigh- luckily I found new homes for all of the cleaners.

Our Kitchen adventure continues. If you ever want your life to be torn up for a few days just decide to paint your kitchen. It's like being naked- everything in your cupboards is on display. Danielle kept stealing my nutella. Maybe I shouldn't have food that I hide my kids- if I have to hide it I shouldn't eat it. Of course this morning I hid in the bathroom and ate my nutella toast and banana, grateful that the cabinet door was on. I don't know exactly what we will do with the back splash- I want to do a Tiffany blue porcelain subway tile but I'm not sure if it will be universally appealing since we probably won't live here forever.
To paint the cabinets we
cleaned them-
filled the holes with wood putty (if you want to level the surface just use a wet rag rather than sanding it flat- it works great)
sanded them
cleaned them again
painted primer 3-4 coats
paint 3-4 coats (sand between coats)
I used really light coats with the detail roller which I liked- for the corners I used a paintbrush for thicker coverage.
I had touch ups after the doors were hung.

My advice if you are painting cabinets-
Get the little detail rollers- I really liked using them and felt like the painting went faster.
Primer is wonderful.
It took us like a billion coats and you need lots of space to paint that- if I could do it again I would follow the advice I read to just get a line in your garage and paint them all rather than putting them all over in the kitchen- so I would paint when it is warmer. That being said I have kids so I can't just disappear in the garage all the time.
It takes a lot longer than you think- I read some thing that said you could do it in a weekend. umm OK maybe if that is your job- I think at least a week is necessary.
Off white is not white. No white porcelain sink for me.
John doesn't like Chrome- who doesn't like Chrome. that's not related. I love projects.

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