Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Kitchen Redo...progress

Just because we haven't posted about the kitchen lately, doesn't mean no progress is being made. With some vacation days between the holidays I am trying to make good progress.
The ceiling has a fresh coat of white paint and there is a new light fixture in the dining room. The new light and paint brighten up the space so much!
We also started with the upper cabinets. We removed the doors to get ready for paint. Thankfully the inside of our cabinets are in great shape and a light wood finish, so we are not going to paint inside - that saves a lot of work!
So far most of the upper cabinets have been primed and painted. The doors have one coat on them and are waiting for some more coats. I am so happy with the results so far!
We are trying to do as little construction as possible, but the cabinet above the stove needed to be changed to make room for an over the range microwave. The current cabinet was 5 inches too big. My solution was to buy a new smaller cabinet to replace the old one. Dan's solution was to cut the current cabinet in half and cut out the 5 inches from the center. Well, much to my dismay, Dan's solution seems to be the best option because I could not find a matching door style at the local home improvement stores and getting a cabinet specially made would be $200 or more. The cabinet pieced back together pretty well, but he hasn't tried to cut the doors yet...to be continued...
Next up...replacing hinges and hardware on the painted cabinet doors and getting the kitchen back to "normal" in order to host my family (15 additional people) for New Years!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Holiday Goodies



I love and hate making holiday treats. I love looking at them and eating them, of course, but the preparation and clean-up I hate. Regardless, these have to be the cutest treats I've ever made and they weren't too hard either.

How to:
1. Dip Nutter Butter cookies in melted chocolate (I used almond bark with a scoop of peanut butter in it).
2. While chocolate is still soft, add an m&m for the nose, white chips for the eyes, and broken pretzels for the antlers.
3. Use a toothpick to add melted chocolate to the eyes.
These are really easy and I will definitely make them again!