My latest project: Kitchen Countertops

We've planned to remodel the kitchen, extending it out even with the back of the house, ever since I moved into it. Have we ever gotten it done? No. Every year it seems something else comes up or happens that prevents us from having the money needed for such a large project. And basically, at this point, I'm tired of waiting for it. This is the "before" picture of the countertop between the dining room and kitchen:



The lighting is inappropriate. Sorry, but DH is the photographer in the family; and he wasn't home when I decided I couldn't stand the kitchen any longer. The countertop is a pale golden colored laminate. The house was built in the early 90s. But I swear, the original owner had a 70s obsession! Everything in the house was originally white, gold and avocado green.

I did some reading about a product called "Paper Illusions" that can be used for crafts, cabinets, walls, etc. It's a "breathable" wallpaper that you tear and then reassemble like puzzle pieces to look like Tavertine, marble or stone. Well guess what? Two styles were on clearance at the Lowes by my office for 50% off. So I bought one roll each of the granite and multi-stone patterns. I plan on using the granite on the stair bannisters that are large, wide, white painted wood that I don't have the patience or time to strip and refinish at the moment. The other, has been torn and prepared for my kitchen counters. I figure at this point, for less than $50, I can't mess it up too awfully bad. And if I do, I can just tear it all out and replace it when we finally do the kitchen remodel.

It took me two hours to put these torn pieces down on the counter after priming it. I let it sit overnight to dry. Here is the picture "after" the Paper Illusions, but before I started sealing and polishing it:



I may not want to tear out the cabinets and counters at this rate?!? So far so good! This morning I got up early and put down the first coat of polyurethane. After work today, I sanded it down with fine sandpaper, cleaned it up, and put the second coat of poly on it. I'm using a satin finish trying to prevent the brush strokes of which the glosses so often challenge me. After my first four coats of poly have cured for a week, I'll put a coat of clear acrylic over it and then buff it up to a nice shine. I'll post the final pictures next week after I'm done.

Heck, this weekend, maybe I'll go ahead and try one of those stair bannisters? It's gotta be better than those dingy white painted boards there now. I'll try to take some before and after pictures of those too.

Some QPs and my new page topper

Hi Everyone,

I finished up my page topper and made some QPs this weekend. You can preview them here.
Let me know what you think :)

(I couldn't get the page topper to post on this blog; so I loaded it to wordpress to see how it looked.)

Have a super weekend :)

Raw Oysters

Everyone in our household, EXCEPT ME, loves raw oysters. When we go on vacation, they are all on the lookout for happy hours and early bird specials. Yesterday, the girls commented that they couldn't wait for Fall to get back down to Apalachicola to get their Fall oyster "fix." These are pictures from their Oyster Bash this past April in Okaloosa at AJ's. And yes, they really did eat 6 dozen of those slimy things that afternoon!



I also saved the bamboo basket and frames as a PNG template. If anyone would like to have it, just leave your email addy in the comments section. Sorry, but the guestcheck was made by KristyAnn so I can't share it. But I'll be happy to email you the template without the guestcheck :)

Playing with PSP tonight

And made this frame. What do you think? I've not quite mastered wrapping ivy around the wood. But I think it's still usable...at least for me. LOL



I saved it as a tranparent PNG image. You can snag it for personal use by downloading here.

Fish Like a Girl

Here's a mini-kit I made for the Designs by J3 kit challenge. I made it with Katelyn in mind, for some of her fishing pics.



If you like it, leave a comment on this post to get the link :)
(Yes, I'm learning the hard way....almost 400 downloads on my QP and less than 5% of that number commented! And heck, I'm easy; I'd be happy if 1 in 4 commented!)

I made a new header for my blog today! Actually, it's 4 headers in one. It will have a "window to my life" on it; and the view in the window will change with my moods and/or the seasons. I hope to get it up later this week if all goes well. I'm trying it out first on another "throw down" blog to see if it works as planned so that I don't make a total fool out of myself if it doesn't! *LOL*

Stay tuned! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

The youngest two DDs and I made picture bookmarks for their Grandmas this weekend. Both of them love to read and love pictures. I used Mireille's Rosi kit for this. I just loved her colors in this one. Here's the bookmark we made:


To all you Moms out there, I hope it's a wonderful weekend filled with love and joy :)

Tropical QP

My daughter wanted a QP with a tropical bird holding some dangling frames. So this is what we came up with after many "No Mom, not that color, this color" and "No Mom, move that over here, then over there" changes. I'm not sure that the side waves nor their colors really work for me. But hey, teens these days wear so many multiple patterns and colors together these days that I've lost the ability to decode color schemes! *LOL*
I put some pics in her frames for this sample. But the download is a PNG file with transparent boxes.


If you like her little tropical QP, you may download it here and use it for personal use only. Just remember to leave Codah a comment here :)

More Living Room Scrap Freebies

Here are some more pieces to my Tuscany Living Room kit:


The sizes may not be uniform in this file. I'm struggling with my zipper program at the moment. It seems to want to resize items for me when I'm mixing png and jpgs in the same zip file. **ARGGHH** But you can download it here if you like it.

Papers for my scrap kit

I made some more elements and papers for my kit last night. I made a preview of some of the papers and put them into a picture frame I made last night. The frame is the color of the wood walls in the living room. I did this so you could give me opinions of how these colors would look in the living room. PLEASE COMMENT. DH is not at all happy about a "red couch." I explained that it won't be "red"; it will be "burgandy." *LOL* He thinks these colors will make the living room look too "dark and gloomy."



On the other hand, DH wants a "light tan colored" couch with some "light colored" pillows. Somehow, I feel that this would just wash out the living room. And it doesn't really work with the black woodburning stove in there, or would it? I don't want to go too light in there. It just doesn't seem realistic to me because we still have two teens and Bubba at home. (Bubba=black lab, overgrown baby who thinks he's a lapdog) And guess who has to clean that furniture? Yep, the very person who wants to lighten up the room but doesn't want the furniture being too light! ~sigh~
Again, what do you think?