This entire past week has centered around one thing: my kitchen. Every to-do, every tackle, every errand was in preparation of the kitchen makeover.

I mean, nevermind the monster to-do list on Friday, the painting of the dining room table on Tuesday or the chandelier last Monday…

Don’t forget about the painting of the two overhead cabinets I did on Friday and the picking up the stove from Craiglist on Thursday…

This past weekend was packed with kitchen tackling all over the place! Saturday we (my parents, husband and I) spent most of the day working the cabinets under the sink. The front face was rebuilt and a new cabinet floor was added.

On Sunday, we focused on getting in the “new” sink I found on Craigslist for 50$ that is twice the size of the old one. And on Monday I focused on getting the dining room painted and put back together so that I could get some of the kitchen stuff out of my living room.

And there’s still so much more to do! But hopefully by the end of this week it’ll all be done… Stay tuned for Part 4 next week!

Tackle it Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom!

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Well, I’ve promised some kitchen makeover results today. But alas, as often happens with these things, the project has been delayed a week for several reasons. And then in rained ALL weekend.. so it turns out it was a good thing.

But I wasn’t completely off the hook.. oh no! I’m supposed to get all the individual projects done before my parents come up next weekend. SO…

• we did get the “new” (used) washer put in last week
• I decluttered and cleaned off the top of the refrigerator
• I replaced a broken hook on a coffee themed plaque that hangs on the wall
• I re-painted the “new” (used) chandelier light for the dining room
• and with the new washer (which adequately spins the water out of the clothes) I have done more laundry than “you can shake a stick at!”

But I’m not done!

My big task for today: paint the dining room table. My grandmother is coming over to help keep an eye on the kids so I can get that done. You know, I’ve had this table for at least five years or so. I got it from my best friend, who bought it black, sanded it, started painting it cobalt blue and then sold it to me. I originally planned on painting it cobalt blue also, but never got around to it. And now, after all this time I’m getting around to it.. and I’m painting it BLACK.

Life is funny isn’t it?

My other tackles to do before my parents come up this weekend include:

• paint all the cabinet doors
• clean out the refrigerator
• organize and declutter the two cabinets above the washer and dryer
• stay on top of the housework and try to keep the kids from UN-cleaning! (A daily tackle around this place!)

So it’s going to be a busy week. Yeah. But when it’s all done it’s going to be soooo worth it! What kinds of things are you tackling this week? Link up and let us see.

Tackle it Tueday is hosted for 5 Minutes for Mom!

Are you ready for a mini Kitchen Makeover?? I am!

For the last week and a half I’ve been planning for a kitchen makeover this weekend. Yesterday I actually began putting that plan in action by going to the hardware store and buying paint!! Picking paint colors is always a lot of fun, but this time it was real quick and easy since I took a picture and a kitchen valance with me for comparison, and since I found three of the colors I needed all on one color card. Suh-weet! So that was the first step and now there’s more to do.

The "bright white" on the end is actually a soft ivory, the same color as the mat on the picture. The beige is what will eventually be going in the living room.

Today’s tackle is to get all our chores done and then clear the baskets of supplies and things off the back of the washer and dryer so we can switch out the washer tonight when Big Daddy gets home. We found the washer we have now for free on Freecycle about a year ago, but it has stopped spinning at the end of the cycle and the clothes come out too wet. We may have been able to fix it, but a friend was moving and selling his washer cheap so Hubs bought that one instead.

So my goal today is to get everything ready and make that happen tonight so that I can catch up on laundry before the weekend when we have family here and we’re busy working on the makeover.

Next week, Part 2 of the Mini Kitchen Makeover, I’ll get to show you the finished product!!!

(P.S. – In the meantime you can cast your vote about which set of dishes you like the best with my coffee themed kitchen!)

Tackle it Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom!

You may not believe this given the state of my sad, tired, country-fied floral arrangement I showed you last week, but I actually do have some strict floral rules I try to adhere to – really.

Rules for Floral Engagement

1. The flowers have to look like their real counterparts – imperfect petals, some browns in the leaves. Real flowers aren’t cookie cutter and identical so artificial ones shouldn’t be either.
2. Avoid flowers commonly found in funeral arrangements – unless you want your home to look like a funeral parlor, in which case, go for it.
3. Adjust the size of the floral arrangement for the space. Bigger is better – but only in bigger spaces.
4. Let the arrangement fit your personality!
5. Wash/Dust the flowers when they get dirty and replace them when they get old and lose their shape/petals/leaves/etc.
6. Balance them out with real plant life – don’t let your home become overrun with the fake stuff!
7. Don’t spend a lot of money on them! I shop on clearance a lot. I can’t really justify spending a lot of money on something that sits on a shelf and never has a use or purpose. At least the real plants put out real oxygen. Even then I shop inexpensively.

So it goes without saying that the tired, country-fied floral arrangement on my piano was breaking almost all of those rules and needed to be replaced. I decided last week to start keeping an eye out for yard sales to see what I could find.

I had no idea that while taking my daughter to Wal-Mart to get a birthday present, I’d find this $20 grass arrangement on clearance for FIVE DOLLARS. With that, my brass vase from before, pruning down to the magnolias only and my yellow betta fish, I’ve got a completely different look. A cleaner, sleeker, more visually appealing and NOT country look.

I may still paint or cover the brown grass base , or perhaps tuck it inside of another container, but I’ll have to keep my open for some cheap yard sale finds for that. I’d also like to find something more creative and visually appealing for my betta fish besides that standard glass vase – ditto about the yard sale find there, too. In the meantime, this was a really quick and easy $5 fix to breathe new life into an old space.

I love tackles like this! I get to decorate. I get to do it cheaply. I get to enjoy looking at the new results. It’s a win-win.

Tackle It Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom!

I think decorating the home is some kind of primal urge built deep into my cell structure. Not that I want to over-decorate or spend tons of money on new furniture, but I do want to make the home a nice and inviting place for my friends and family. I just don’t have a lot of time, tools and resources at my disposal. Who does, right?

So lately I’ve been seeking inexpensive ways I can make little changes to make our house more homey. Last week’s project was to tackle some inexpensive wall decor that I’d been noodling around in my head for a while.

The first thing you need are some inexpensive picture frames – I got five at the Dollar General for a dollar each – and some pretty ribbon – I got a spool of 24 yards for around $3.50 (but I only used about 7 yds.) The second thing you need is something to frame – I printed 5 letters in a pretty font that I liked.

The next thing I did, COULD have worked, but it didn’t turn out as I planned. You can learn from my mistake and do it right the first time. I used the papers that came in the frames as a guide for cutting my papers. My mistake was that I didn’t account for how much of the paper insert was covered by the frame. I used one at it’s original size, one trimmed about 1/4 inch smaller and one trimmed about 1/2 inch smaller. As a result, you can’t even see the outer white trim you SHOULD see. Next time I will remove the glass from one of the frames and mark what is visible on the paper insert and go from there.

After using the papers as my guides, I had 5 stacks of letters, 5 stacks of slightly larger black paper and 5 stacks of slightly larger white paper. You know what I did next? I taped them. Yup – I’m real fancy like that. Using “loops” of scotch tape, I centered them each and taped them together for framing.

After framing them (and getting disappointed that I didn’t measure right but not wanting to RE-DO it… I measured and cut my ribbon into approximately 4 ft strips. I looped the ribbon through the hanger on the back of the picture frame and then alternated the way that I tied the bows.

When it was all said and done, I had this:

It’s not perfect, but who cares? It makes me happy. It makes me smile. And it was really cheap. Uh, I mean, frugal. =P Not only that, but I can change it out when the papers start to fade. I make it say different things or I can hang black and white baby pictures of each family member or I can make silhouettes – the possibilities are endless.

And HOW CUTE are these? I keep hoping to find something trendy and cute like this at the dollar store, but I may just need to break down and buy them from Amazon. I definitely see something like this on my walls in the near future.

Now all I need to do is change out the flower arrangement for something a little less… country.

Tackle it Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom.

{P.S. – I apologize for the picture quality! Hubs had our camera so I used our daughter’s inexpensive one. The first two were overexposed and the white was TOO white – hence the sepia tones.}

Last week and the week before that, we tackled the girls’ bed situation. I say “Situation” becuause, well, it WAS. I was tired of them playing on the bunkbed like it was a jungle gym, drawing their legs up and swinging on the bars under the top bunk like monkey bars. I was fed up with them grabbing hold of the safety rail and hanging on it, or sitting on it, and bending the screws so that the support rail didn’t stand up straight anymore. Oh, I tried to handle it, believe me – but no amount of training and consequences would correct their hyper-active ways.

So I did what a mother at her wits end does – I got rid of the bunkbed. I don’t have to worry about their saftey (in regards to that bunkbed) anymore.

No, instead I turned to Craigslist (doncha loveit?) and found a twin bed for Princess in excellent condition for only a hundred dollars and I bought a pull out twin bed/loveseat from for Drama Queen from a friend for only $30. Frugal furnishings. Gotta love it.

With the two new additions, we took their room from this (click for bigger):

That little piece of floor you see in the third picture was all they had. The toybox and bed was immediately to the left of the door, and there was just a tiny walk space between the bed and white dresser/bookcase.

To this:

Ok, sure, Drama Queen’s bed takes up a little more space when it’s open:

But, hey! Drama Queen can open it and close it all by herself. And look how much space they have now!

They’re room (still small) seems a smidge LESS small now.

Princess’ bed is a dark brown wood with 3 drawers underneath and bookcase type headboard. Drama Queen’s is a white loveseat that pulls out into a twin bed at night and gives them seating during the day. The best part is… they can’t SWING on these beds! And sure, they can jump off of them and fall and say,… BRUISE THEIR RIBS.. *ahem*… but they can’t fall as far, right? Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

Tackle It Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom!!