Jessie's Table

What a project! I love how Jessie's table turned out. It is such a fun table now!! We planned on using stain for the dark parts, but we ended up using paint. Looks great! This was our big project that we worked on while we were in CA over Christmas break.

Before picture:

Family photos 2016

Scanning Photos

Mom and Dad found several large boxes of photos that I had taken since elementary school. What in the world was I going to do with all these pictures? I looked into a photo scanning service. That would have cost hundreds of dollars!! So I looked into getting a photo scanner. Yes, we already have a flatbed scanner that takes 20 seconds or so to do 1 scan. That wasn't going to work. So I found a scanner, Doxie One for $128 on Amazon. It is great! It takes about 4 seconds per photo. You don't have to be connected to a computer. You just turn it on and start scanning. All the photos are saved on an SD card. When you are done scanning you connect to your computer and upload those photos like you would from a USB drive. The kids, of course, helped. =) I love that it was so simple that they could help. We scanned a couple thousand photos! Now I'm working on getting those photos online to share. 

Kitchen Post Fixed

The Kitchen post is working now, and worth a look if you ask me. =)

http://morganandeva.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-kitchen.html

Sushi

We made sushi together! We used sushi rice, seaweed nori, chicken, crab, cucumber, avocado and cream cheese. We also had on hand soy sauce and (fake) wasabi. I tried to buy eel sauce, which I love, but the bottle that arrived was no more than just soy sauce and sugar. We didn't use any raw fish. I was amazed at how sticky the sushi rice was! We used oil on our hands to be able to arrange the rice.

I even pulled out the nice plates.

How did we learn to do this? Morgan and I went to sushi making class! I found the deal on half.com. There are about 10 couples. Here we are:

When you cut the sushi using a dull knife:

When you cut the sushi using a sharp knife: 

Apparently sake is alcoholic. I almost got some. Opps. Now I know. 

The Best

Jordan misplaced his scissors. I found them. He said,

Thanks Mom, you're the best.

My heart melted.

The Kitchen

The pictures on this post didn't work, so here it is again, hopefully with pictures.

After months and months (years?) of planning, it was time to paint the kitchen cabinets.

Before pictures: 

Taking the doors off and painting with Rustoleum's bond coat:

After months of searching, finally found the right knobs:

I wanted a shiny gold glow to the dark cabinets. Regular paint didn't work. After much trying, I used a lightly saturated dry paint brush with metallic acrylic paint. I used gold, copper, and antique gold colors.

I love how they turned out! I don't love the distressed and worn look, but I do like the patina Tuscan look. I'm pleased with these. After glaze and protective top coat they were ready to go. 

I added some pretty scrollwork to the faux drawers:

Now for the top cabinets. My plan was cream color with golden glaze. Because this was a lighter color I decided to prime the cabinets rather than simply degloss. Sanding was a bad idea, it brought out some stains that took extra effort to fix. Here are the top cabinets after priming. We really enjoyed having no doors on the cabinets. Haha! It was convenient to not have to open the doors. Kitchen sure looks messier, though. 

I used a regular cream colored paint from Home Depot rather than the Rustoleum bond coat.

It took me a LONG time to figure out the glaze. I tried many different things. I got a clear glaze that you were meant to mix in your color choice. I couldn't get the color right again until I used the metallic acrylics. Finally I achieved the golden honey glaze that I wanted. I didn't want the dark glaze that you see sometimes on cream cabinets. I think the glaze is too hard to see on these pictures. But in the grooves of each cabinet and the above trim you will find the honey colored glaze. 

I got excited and I bought some decorations. Most of these things we already had but yes, I had a fun trip to Hobby Lobby and Pier 1. =) 

I finally figured out the "style" that I like. It's not modern. Not shabby chic (the distressed and worn look). Not minimalist. I like TUSCAN style. Dark wood, scrollwork, metalworks, creams, comfy. 

And, have you noticed anything wrong in this kitchen? Yes, me too. It is screaming for a new countertop. Hello mascarello granite slab with my name attached:

Totally Tuscan! And that thing is 12.5 feet long! 

I plan on painting that white garbage can a "oil rubbed bronze." And I plan on having a stone backsplash. I haven't decided for sure yet, but something like this:

I TRIED to move the outlets on the backsplash to under the kitchen cabinets. But that didn't work for several reasons. GFCI. Walls are stuffed with insulation. Maybe some code issues? But I found these beautiful oil rubbed bronze outlet covers! So that made it mostly all better. They will look something like this:

And there will be some more scrollwork on the bar side of the "island" and a few corbels, something like this:

SOMEDAY in the future we might have this light hanging:

And maybe Tuscan style paint job on the walls?