Weigh In Thursday

Thanks for all of the nice comments about our kitchen. It was hard work but I'm so happy I did it. I love how it turned out!

This week I had a gain. Only .4 though. This is really confusing me. Last week I only ran twice & didn't go to Yoglates at all & I lost over a pound. This week I've gone to Yoglates twice & I've ran twice & I gained. Who knows.

Speaking of Yoglates. Monday was the first time I'd been to class in 10 days because of the kitchen project. I've said it before & I'll say it again, I don't ever want to skip that long. Of course, I know it will end up happening because stuff just comes up. It was so hard. I just felt completely out of whack. It's the strangest thing. Tuesday was better. Still hard but not as bad as Monday. Today we'll have a new routine & I hope I'm back in the groove.

Yesterday, I had a hair appointment. I had to get rid of that grey hair that I found. I got a trim & I went with lighter highlights than the last couple of times. Here are a couple of pics of the back.

You can't really tell how the highlights look. I love the way the layers look. This is the 3rd time I've been to the new Stylist. I cannot say enough good things about her. I've loved my hair every time & I've even loved how she styles it. That was never the case with my old Stylist. I really liked her but I  never liked how she actually fixed my hair.

Yes, I only have pics of the back & sides because I was getting ready for bed & didn't have any make up on. HA!

I bought a product too.

It's Keratin oil by Global Keratin. The brush  that changed my life is the same brand.  It's supposed to be really good for your hair. It can be used on wet or dry hair. I plan to use it on dry hair to tame the fly aways. I hate those things & I have a lot. This stuff smells amazing! Kinda like cotton candy but better. I'll let you know how it works.

Toodles!

Guess What??

I interrupt this regularly scheduled Weigh In Wednesday for PICTURES!!! Pictures of what?? THE KITCHEN!! I know, it's taken forever but I've got them & there's a lot of them. They were taken with my iPhone &  the lighting isn't the best.

First up - the desk area. I mentioned before that I'm not using it as a desk but as a bar/butler's pantry. I have our crystal in these cabinets. (Well, currently it's all in the guest bedroom but it will be here eventually). My crystal that matches my china is in the china cabinet. The stuff in this area is the stuff we actually use. The  little cubbies are great for bottles. Here's the before picture.

 No granite & white paint. The after.

Sorry for the phone & internet stuff. That will be taken care of in the decorating process. It's REALLY hard to take a pic of this area because it's right off the kitchen in the hall. The cabinets are the same color as the island. Since it's meant to be a desk area there aren't cabinets below the granite but I would love to have the extra storage so I'm going to see about adding that. 

This is a before pic of the island & one side of the kitchen. The island had black granite tile & the counters had the same ceramic tile that's on the floor. That will be changed out as well but not anytime soon.Also the lovely wood trimmed fluorescent lights are on my to do list.

There are holes where the drawers belong because we'd already taken them out getting ready for the granite when I remembered to take pictures. Here's the after. Please excuse the area in the background that has tools on it. Dean had just finished putting all the cabinet pulls on. He wasn't overly thrilled with me for buying pulls that required him to measure & drill 2 holes for each one. I've said before he's very inventive & he made himself a templet & they all look great!

  

This is a more accurate picture of the color. The paint color is Valspar Golden Eagle. We bought new bar stools last weekend. The seats of the old ones were tearing up & they had nail head trim which I liked but they scratched up the wood on the island because they always got pushed up against it. The cushions are dark brown.

 Before of the sink area.

After - The kitchen gets A LOT of natural light so it's hard to get good pictures. I LOVE my new 60/40 deep sink.

I'm a really bad photographer. That pink thing on the left side is a cup. Obviously, I didn't want that in the pic!

Here's a close up of the paint & the cabinet hardware. After a ridiculous amount of time trying to decide what I wanted & also trying not to go broke at the same time I found these on Overstock. Knobs & pulls are expensive!

 

Here's the cook top area before paint but after granite & the back splash was installed.

The after

The new dishwasher

 It's so quiet!

There are still a few minor things left to do. I plan to get those taken care of soon. It's just really hard to get stuff done during the week between work & working out & all the regular stuff that needs to be done, like eating. I'm sure you noticed in the pictures the lack of face plates on all the outlets. That was something else that I put a ridiculous amount of thought & time into. I made a decision Sunday after getting a few opinions from the family. Now Dean just has to turn off the electricity & change everything out. I don't play with electricity. I could really hurt myself. HA! Also, the decorating isn't done. It's just a plain kitchen until I take the time to put everything back out. I'm just happy all the hard work is done!

Toodles!

Happy Mother's Day!

I know it was yesterday but I didn't get a chance to post. We had a delightful day. Dean cooked  & our parents & my brother, sis-in-law & Logan came over for lunch. Lydia brought a cake that was amazeballs! Chocolate, cream cheese, DELISH!

Logan enjoyed it! I made a lemon ice box pie. This has to be the easiest thing I've ever made. 2 egg yolks, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 cup of lemon juice & a pie crust. It's good too!
Sorry, but there are still no pics of the kitchen. We said we were taking the weekend off & we did. We did buy the correct size screws & new bar stools. That's the extent of what we did. HA!

I think the birds are taunting me. After the discovery last week of the nest Dean tells me that he thinks there's another nest on the bakers rack. I went outside & found this.

It was hiding behind the Home Depot bag I stuck there. The birds are working fast. It's not like we don't have trees in the area either. Behind our yard is a whole bunch of trees. Plenty of room for nesting. I swear, they're taunting me.

On a sad note, last night when I was taking my contacts out I discovered not one but two grey hairs. How can this be? My hair has high lights, low lights & the leftovers from previous hi & low lights. How is it that I managed to spot them? I even thought maybe they were highlights. My mom suggested paint. Sadly, no. I had Dean get out of bed & come look. It was no mistake. Wiry, grey hair. Sigh.

Toodles!

TGIF

Seriously, I couldn't be happier for Friday. I need to do nothing or as close to nothing as I can get away with. I want to read & watch reality TV! LSU has baseball games all weekend but we're also supposed to have a weekend of rain so who knows how that will work out.

The other day Kerri tagged me in a post & I'm supposed to tell you 5 random things about myself. Here goes:

• I love ketchup. I really, really love it. Now that I'm eating healthier I don't eat it as much. I've been known to dip  (I always dip & don't pour it on stuff) my green beans in it. I don't eat it with things that a lot of people eat it with like eggs.
• I really like rap music. Snoop, Tupac, Dr. Dre, etc. 
• I've always wanted to be a Debutante. Don't ask, I have no idea. 
• I could eat french fries at every meal & never get tired of them. EVER.  They must have LOTS of salt & A LOT of ketchup.
• I LOVE Friends. I cried when it was over. Yes, I know it's just a TV show. I was at a Counting Crows concert back in the day when Courtney Cox was dating the lead singer, Adam Durwitz & she was there. I made my friends boyfriend go with me & he got her autograph on my ticket stub. HAHA!

Pretty random huh?

Have a great weekend!

Toodles!

For the birds

In more ways than one. I do not have pictures of the kitchen project because technically it's not finished. The painting is DONE! Well, if you don't count touching up the walls. There are a couple of spots that were messed up when the granite was installed  & that whole taping to paint isn't an exact science either.

Then there are the screws. Really? Screw drama? YEP! For whatever reason all of the knobs & pulls I ordered have these ridiculously short screws. They don't work. Off to Lowe's Dean went & bought about a gazillion screws. Well, apparently, the drawers needed longer screws than the cabinets. Really? Who would've thought? Well, maybe a lot of people but not us. So another trip to Lowe's is in our future. Seriously, we really need to buy stock. This project is never ending & it's for the birds.

Speaking of Lowe's & screws, we bought this little gem awhile back for $5.

It's a screwdriver & a ratchet. I didn't know what a ratchet was until today & WOW what a concept! How did I not know about this?? The end unscrews & it has all of these neat little attachments.

There are all different sizes of flat head & phillips bits. This may be the best $5.00 we've ever spent. Well, aside from the $20 furniture dolly. That thing is amazing! Anyway, pics to come later.

I've mentioned here before about my disdain for birds. Maybe I'm weird but they freak me out a little. It may have something to do with pushing their babies out of the nest. Who does that?? Also, the fact that they do their business all over my stuff. Anyway, I was outside watering plants this evening & I discovered this on the bakers rack on my patio.

This was behind the container I keep our sunscreen in. I don't know what the attraction with our house is.

Dean was cutting grass & due to the disarray of the kitchen & the fact that we basically have no food in the house to make anything closely resembling a meal I went to McDonald's for him. I had oatmeal. As I was driving down the street I saw this.

Do you see the little lizard head hanging over my window? He was hanging on for dear life.

He rode on my car all the way to McDonald's & back. It's about a 2 mile trip each way. I'm guessing this was the equivalent of Mission Space for lizards. I tried to drive a little slower. I didn't want to be responsible for sending him flying to his death.

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday

Apparently, painting burns calories. I haven't been to Yoglates since Thursday because painting cabinets has consumed my life when I'm not at work BUT I lost another 1.2 lbs. this week!!! This was totally unexpected. I ate cake, party squares & ooey gooey bars! Not to mention Vodka punch, which OMG, was soooooo good!!! It will definitely be something I have around the house this summer when out by the pool. Anyway, I've stopped trying to figure it out & I'll just enjoy the loss.

I've ran twice this week. Monday was a 32.5 minute run. I didn't set out to do that half minute, it just kinda happened. This morning I did 35 minutes.

Kitchen update - I left work a little early yesterday to go paint. On my way home I stopped for a treat.

A Caramel Light Frap! It's light but I did get those delightful caramel drizzles on top. No whip though! That stuff is a ton of calories. My plan was to get one on my way home Monday but it was storming & windy. I got soaked getting to my car & SB by work doesn't have a drive thru. I sucked it up & went home.

Back to the kitchen. The only thing left to do today is put the second coat of paint on 6 doors & there are a couple of touch ups to be done. I'm so thankful we're almost done because I'm tired. Not to mention the kitchen & dining room are a mess. Dean got a lot of stuff back in the cabinets Sunday while I was at the shower but the dining room table still looks like this.

Did I mention that I plan to do NOTHING this weekend???

Toodles!

Painting

We're still not finished. BUT we're really close. Friday afternoon a couple of the guys in the office read my mind & were making a Starbuck's run. From 3-5 through May 13th they're having "Frappuccino Happy Hour". All Fraps are half off. I  mentioned the other day that I was going to give iced coffee a try. What better time than half off?

I got the Caramel Frappuccino. I really, really liked it! It was good that I had the extra caffeine because I had plenty of work to do when I got home!

All I can say is thank God for Dean!! If he wouldn't have helped I would be looking at another entire weekend of painting. Friday we got started with the emptying of cabinets, de-glosser, sanding & Kilz.

This is one section of the cabinets with the Kilz & waiting for paint. The table is covered with a vinyl tablecloth & all the stuff that belongs in the drawers. The kitchen was a MESS!!! I also made the mistake of not buying odorless Kilz. It wasn't awful but I did have a headache off & on all weekend.

After a coat of paint. It's hard to see the color. Yes, that is a shower rod that you see peaking out from under the door. Dean is very inventive with the things he finds in his shed. Those buckets are empty Windfresh laundry detergent buckets. It worked great.

We had quite the set up! There were several times I wanted to get a bottle of wine out of my little fridge but I refrained!! Honestly, I don't mind painting. I find it therapeutic. I just don't like the prep work or the clean up. So, when we get home from work today we'll get back to work. There's not much left. Now that I think about it, I think I'll stop at Starbuck's Happy Hour for a caffeine fix to get me through!

Needless to say there will be no Yoglates today. I did run this morning though. I was supposed to run once over the weekend but that didn't happen. I needed all my time to paint.

Dean's cousin is getting married next month so me & my mom went to his fiance's bridal shower yesterday afternoon. That cut into painting time too. It was very nice & the food was delicious! I just realized I didn't take any pics. The cake was from Winn Dixie & it was SOOOOO GOOD!! It tasted just like wedding cake & that's my fave! There were party squares & ooey gooey bars too. I love those! Needless to say I had a headache from all the sugar by the time we left.

Hopefully, I'll have before & after pics soon!

Toodles!