Wetting yer whistle

I know, I know, I'm a slacker.  I promised pictures of the kitchen shelving and I haven't delivered.  What you may not realize is that the sun never shines in Newark, Ohio.  Ok, it does shine it just only shines when I'm at work or school or internship.  When I'm home it's dark, cloudy, grey, or it's midnight.  None of those make for good blog pictures.  (But as you'll see in a bit, anything would be better than what I currently have to offer.)

Not to mention I've been tweaking, rearranging and still shopping for things to make the shelves...sing if you will.  I didn't realize how tough it would be to have open shelving and OCD.  I'm sure normal people with open shelving do not stand and stare, wonder, rearrange, scratch their heads and sigh when putting dishes away.  I'm getting better though, I'm only spending about 30 minutes obsessing over it, last week it was around 45 minutes. ;)

Guess what?  The sun is shinning today and it supposed to shine ALL DAY!!!! AND I don't have internship tonight so I my plan is to get those pictures done today and posted tomorrow.  (Ok, maybe by the end of the week.)

Until then, I'm going to show you what inspired me in the first place.

Perfectly Imperfect, amazing isn't it?

I also think having one long, uninterrupted area for shelving is the secret to ease of staging.

Fly Through Our Window

In all honesty, this amazing transformation was my utmost inspiration.  Darby not only split her shelving up with her window, as I did, but she also has another closed cabinet on the right side, just like we do!

Do I even need to tell you where this comes from?  If so, you have some homework to do, go read EVERY post at The Lettered Cottage.

And to tease you just a bit further, here is an awful cell phone picture of one side of the shelving.  A lot has changed, moved, moved back, etc, but maybe it will wet yer whistle for the better pics (hopefully) coming your way this week!

OH that picture is just awful, the next time I make cookies I will send you each a box as an apology for this picture!

Who's gonna bring me a chicken dinner?

While I definitely could use a live in chef, this chicken dinner is because I'm a winner!! I won the gorgeous, and inaugural, give away at Honeycomb Creative Co.  If you haven't checked out Courtney's blog, you need to, go now!  Well finish reading this, then go. 

Show the readers what Beth won, Bob.

You're jealous, it's ok, I would be too!  That compote/bowl will be DEEE-VINE in my newly finished open shelves in the kitchen.  Yep, I did it.  If we ever get sunshine again in Central Ohio I will take some pictures and show you! 

When I receive my beautiful gift I will also post pictures.  Until then, read up over at Courtney's!

Where I'd like to be right now.

There are lots of places I'd like to be right now, most of them include a bed and some quiet.  I'm pooped!  I am currently working full time and doing 16 hours a week of internship in the emergency department of our local hospital.  I"m hoping that when I grow up, or in May of 2012, whichever comes first I'll have my MSW.  Graduate school has been hard but so worth it! (At least that's what I am telling myself.)

But right now, I'd like to be here.  In our spare room, curled up in the sun with the puppies and Eric.

Are you where you want to be right now?

Tooty-toot-toot-toot!

No, this post is not going to be about Boston Terrier gas, but let me tell you, it's amazing the stank a 13lb dog can lay down.

This post is to notify you all that I am tootin' my own horn that my silly little kitchen light is front page news over at Funky Junk Interiors.  Can I just say that I was baaa-lowwwwn away when I saw it today. 

This makes me really reconsider my current undertaking of getting my MSW and going into interior design.  Yes, I am just that over inflated that one little mention on an amazing and highly followed blog and I would consider a new and not always lucrative career choice.  Let's not even begin to discuss how I by no means have the talent to do interior design.  Anyways, head over to Funky Junk Interiors and check out the other amazing talent that's being profiled.  (Yeah, I just called myself amazing.)

I'm gonna do it. Sometime. Maybe.

I've lusted over open shelving in kitchens before.  But today I got a step closer.  I finally got around to spending a Kohl's gift card from Christmas and got an amazing deal on these lovely Oneida dishes.

These are the Oneida Souffle dishes.  The deal was great, 40 pcs for $59.99 plus my $25 gift card! Granted, I would have really liked to have found enough white vintage dishes to make a full set, but alas, these will do just fine.  Not to mention I have a set of lovely vintage china that I use for holidays and such, they just aren't white.

Now that I have a full matching set instead of two partial sets. (One with blue sponge painted farm animals on them, yes, you read that right. I really can't believe I told you all that, please, don't shun me for having country decor!) I can now proceed with my open shelving. 

My only hurdle is deciding which cabinets to use as shelving.  Should I do this side, the stove side? Sorry awful picture, but it's dreary here today and the pictures just were not coming out well and this was all I have in my files.  There are two equal sized cabinets on each side of the microwave which speaks loudly to my OCD nature of symmetry. 

The draw back for this side of the kitchen is that those cabinets house food and spices/cooking "stuff."  If I put my dishes over here I will then have to put the cooking stuff on the other side of the kitchen.   I suppose this goes to show how lazy I am, I hate the idea of having to turn around and walk 2 steps to get salt and pepper when I'm cooking.  Not to mention if the dishes are on the stove side the grease factor goes up a zillion percent than if the dishes were on the sink side.

Or should I do it on this side, the sink side?  These cabinets, each side of the window, currently house the dishes and glasses so it "makes sense" on this side.  BUT see that blurry white/green thing on the right? That's another cabinet, it's the "junk food" cabinet and I am not sure if it would look right to have four cabinets sans doors and then one with a door.  Because I will tell you now, there is NO WAY that junk food cabinet will ever, ever, ever be obsolete nor will it ever be purdy enough to not have a door.



So, whatcha' think?  Sink side all four doors or sink side, just the two you can see above?  Or are you a stove side sort of person? 

Tick tock...glug glug

This clock makes my heart beat fast (that's the glug glug part.)  Sorry, stolen pictures from the net do not transfer well to blogs.

I saw it in Country Living and spontaneously "ohhhhhhh, I want this."   My dear sweet husband endulged me and looked at the picture when I showed it to him but his "uh huh, it's nice" was by no means as enthusiastic as I had wanted.  I am hoping she will be coming home with me this weekend, she would be puuuuuurrrfect in our living room.   I'll let you know (and see) if it does make it home with us!

Here's the info on the clock, just please don't buy the only ones in the Columbus, Ohio area, or you'll have one sad Bellom on your hands! ;)

http://www.pier1.com/Catalog/HomeAccentsD%c3%a9cor/tabid/508/List/0/CategoryID/134/level/a/ProductID/28347/ProductName/Grandmother-Wall-Clockuu/Default.aspx

What you can do with $25

I tell people I'm "cheap" or "frugal" in truth, we live on a budget.  Some months are lean and some are fruitful but no matter the month I do try to do the most I can with the least possible.  This is evident in our kitchen where I used Goodwill finds and a great Ebay score to make a super cute gallery wall.

Here's the break down.

First off, the square frames are all from Goodwill for $1.00 each.  The vintage egg print in this one was $12.00.  I will admit, I thought that was pricey, but I love all things bird related and thought this would be perfect in my kitchen so I went for it. Using left over paint (FREE) and left over burlap (FREE) I just taped the print down and used the glass from the frame to keep everything in place.  Not bad for $13.00. (Please excuse the reflection, I wasn't about to move the kitchen table to take a picture, I'm not that dedicated of a blogger I suppose.But at least you can see my handmade curtains from Target grain sack dish towels and some seam binding.)

Next up, my Mary Poppins spoon.  I love, love, love Mary Poppins.  You may have picked up on that from my new blog header; Practically IMperfect in Every Way.   I scored this cute spoon on Ebay, in fact it was my first ever Ebay purchase!  I got her for $10.00 including shipping.  Pricey for a little spoon, perhaps, but recently I saw one on Ebay for $50.00.  This frame I purchased awhile back and couldn't figure out what to do with it, so I count it as "free" since I didn't go out and purchase it for this purpose, instead I "shopped" the junk closet for it.  I just used some super glue and some left over (FREE) scrapbook paper as the background.

I felt I "needed" some chalk board in the kitchen, a $1.00 painting from Goodwill was perfect.  I used left over (FREE) chalk board paint and left over (FREE) while paint and here you go!

Lastly, this was a $1.00 mirror from Goodwill.  Using a key that came with the music used in this project, which was bought for another project (so again, I count this as "FREE") I simply glued the music to the mirror and then glued the key to the music.  I didn't intend on distressing this frame but the finish on the wood did not agree with the paint so it bubbled, therefore, distress it!

I don't think that's too bad for $25.00, do you?