Decluttering: Kitchen Island

As long as we were on the topic of progress for our New Years Resolutions, I thought I would share another one! The decluttering of the kitchen island - granted this was a project that took place before we added outlets (seen HERE), but I still thought I should blog it up!

This is what I started with. An overly cluttered cabinet with more pans than I could ever need! First step, I sorted out the bakeware that was staying and stashed the rest for friends/family that were moving into new houses.
Next came tackling the over abundance of goodies! You know, those pesky tidbits that we have to add to everything so we can add a couple inches to the ol' waistline, yep, those! We had a mad stash that was just thrown in there - time for some organization!

I dug out a Hershey's tin that I had picked up at Goodwill a while back for a quarter.

Then I stashed my food coloring in there and shut the lid, three boxes gone!

Next I went and grabbed a metal filing tin that I snatched up at an auction a while back. I had gotten a set of three for $2. You can tell this one had been loved - I mean look at the pretty butterfly! Anyone else just think of the movie I Am Legend!? No, just me!? Okay, moving on...

So I grabbed my cleaning supplies. 409 for germs and Ronsonal lighter fluid for the stickers. I used to work at the college bookstore, and thats where I learned if you want to get a price tag (or sticker) off of a school book, use lighter fluid. Yes, we soaked the books with lighter fluid. Now you know why textbooks smell funny!

I got to work removing all the stickers by soaking them and then peeling them off with a putty knife I found nearby.

I filled it with our tidbits (note the tape in the lid is holding the keys for the file tin, in case I want to use it for something else in the future).

There you got, a pretty storage container for hiding the unhealthy necessities!

And that's all she wrote! Now I can easily reach into the cupboard and grab exactly what I need! Thanks for stopping by, see you next week! Happy Friday!

Obsessions - Animalistic Impulses

I've decided it was time to acknowledge another obsession of mine... animals. Not real live furry ones, but the kind that sit quietly and don't make a mess!

So I took a stroll around the house to see what I could find and snapped some pictures. Some of these you have seen before, but maybe a few are newbies. So let's honor a New Year's Resolution and begin!

1. This is one of my beloved owls! I picked him up at Gordmans for 15 beans - well spent! I have been obsessed with owls since back when I was managing Nature's Backyard - a former bird store in Marshall (more on that HERE). So I am afraid, that I have collected plenty throughout the years... but HOO doesn't love an owl!? (Punny, I know!)
2. Little Mr. Peacock, he was a freebie from a local antique store - you can read more of his tear-jerking story HERE.
3. These little birdies are currently residing in the kitchen, they were our little love birds - and celebrated the best day of my life with us! More on them HERE.
4. This little creamer cow, was picked up at Shopko for a whopping $3 over a year ago.
5. These little gems were purchased at the same estate sale with I got the chairs at (HERE). I paid $.25 for a box full of goodies, and these castiron trivet hoots were resting in the bottom.
6. This shiny guy was purchased from 509 Design (a Local Find spotted HERE). I found him in the clearance section for $2.50 and he was signing to come home with me!

7. This handsome devil was found a Goodwill for $3.99 - originally a Christmas decoration, but after removing the bow around his neck, I've determined he gets to hang out all year long!
8. The owls were a find from Pier One, for the pair I paid almost $12.95 and the giraffe is a gift from my parents from their last cruise (thanks Mom!).
9. My amazing rhino - you can learn all about Rigley HERE.
10. Another owl - this little guy is made of wood. He makes my heart melt. I purchased him so long ago, I can't remember where I got him or how much I spent - but I'm sure he was well worth it!
11. These little bunnies were a Goodwill score, picked up for $.50 a piece - the kitty loves to knock them around.
12. This sparkly pink owl was rescued from the Pier 1 clearance section for $1.25. He is a piggy bank, and some day I will have a baby girl who I am sure will love owls just as much as I do! Especially if I raise her in a Woodland themed nursery! (Disclaimer: No baby news yet.)
13. This critter was found in the same $.25 box as the hooters (yep, I couldn't resist) in #5 above!
14. Another rhino! This one followed me home from a recent trip to Gordmans, he was a dainty $11.99 for his chromey goodness.
15. This little owl is a castiron doorstop. Found at World Market for $5.99!
16. These crazy fellas will soon live in the guestroom. You can read more on them HERE!
17. Lastly, I dug up this picture from last Christmas. I love these reindeer an uber lot! They were scored at Runnings for 15 clams each!

Well, that's all that stuck out when I went on the house tour. I know there are more, but this will at least give you a glimpse into my obsession. Do you have any obsessions? Are you drawn to white ceramic animals like a moth to a flame? Does your husband roll his eyes when you walk in the house with a rhino? I'd love to hear about it!

Wednesday Wishes - Wicker Furniture

Another Wednesday Wishes post!

With the end of the porch roof project in sight, I have been daydreaming about what to do with the inside... and wicker furniture keeps popping up! This is definitely something that I am going to investigate... I love the charming look and character it lends to the space it fills.

The Roof! The Roof!

The roof is on fire! We don't need no water, let the *AHEM*

Sorry, I got carried away - in order to keep this a family friendly blog, I'll stop singing right there...

Anywho, that could probably describe my feelings the weekend we tore the roof off of the porch. The day before the project started our area got hit by a big storm, leaving us without power for 48 hours. Chris and I crossed our fingers that when we got home there would be a tree lying across the roof, so we could hire this out, but no such luck!

We stuffed our disappointment deep down and moved forward. Saturday morning Chris' folks showed up to lend helping hands and a generator! My front yard turned into a work zone.

Chris and his dad immediately starting tearing the roof apart, strategizing the entire way. See we went into this without a plan (problem #1), all we knew is that we had a budget and we needed to fix the leak!
We went shopping at our local Menards to pick up everything we needed, or so we thought. Just note that without a plan you may be likely to head back for additional supplies - we had a total of 5 trips in 3 days. But the old roof was off and the new one was starting to take shape - that where Problem #2 comes in... see Chris and I had two very different "shapes" in mind... Kelli = peaked "looking" roof stretched from wall to edge... Chris = keep steep sides and slant only the flat portion, leaving it still looking "flat" from ground level. Ugh. Chris wins, cause he had the hammer.
But luckily, we had lots of assistance to get us through this hiccup and back on track! Not only did Chris' parents assist, but my Uncle Jeff lent a hand during our BBQ that Sunday! Chris and I could not be more grateful. You have to love that family is always there for you, especially when you are without power, had cold showers and are living on cold sandwiches. By the end of the weekend we had the new roof shething (hmmm I wonder if that's the right word... note to self, increase construction vocabulary) in place.

On Monday, Chris and I put on the drip edge, tar paper, other black stuff and trimmed some boards (oh yeah, more building terminology is needed)! Next up was shingling and Dad was there for the assist! He spent a few weeknights at our place helping Chris shingle, while mom and I supervised safely from the ground with wine in hand!

Here is what it looks like today. We had some extremely hot weekends, and with nothing leaking we left if as is. Last Sunday we got back at it and tore off some siding to get flashing installed, now comes the task of replacing the siding... Problem #3 - 100 year old siding, hard to find. 4 inch cedar wood siding, nearly impossible to find, and pricey to boot... but we are slowly tracking pieces down and tonight we will being to put them up!

Still a few nights work to crank out, but hoping to have this project wrapped up by the end of the month! Once completed I will be back with pictures, a breakdown of the budget and possibly plans for the inside.

Patience...

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

- Saint Augustine

We are still working on all of our projects, but getting close. Peanut has shown all sorts of patience and is teaching me a lot. I tend to get frustrated by the "slow" pace my hubby can tend to work at, but it is mainly because he is a thinker. He is an analyzer... he may take extra time to complete a project, but he doesn't do anything short of exceptional work. I am a researcher, always hunting down ideas on how to tackle projects and stick to our budget. Put us together, and our projects tend to take a little extra time.

The above picture is our sweet little Peanut watching as Chris is outside the window working on the roof. This has been a common sight around our house, with the little guy following us around the house from window to window.

I promise to be back tomorrow with a roof update... we are ALMOST there!!!

Our Favorite Slugger

Last night we got the chance to head to one of our nephew's baseball games! His team is doing amazing this year, and remain undefeated!

Riley is a talented athlete and we always love getting to watch him play!
We even got to see him make a double play when he was covering first base! Sorry, no pictures of that, I was too busy cheering!

We had a great time and headed out to eat in Raymond afterwards, where I got the chance to teach the boys how to play darts!

We love you Riley, congrats on such a great season!

Southern Home & Decor

As I mentioned yesterday, the hotel I stayed at in Nashville was like a small city itself. And of course this "city" included a shopping district. So one day I took a quick walk just to swing in a fews places and I thought I would share one of them.

I was very excited to see this store, "Southern Home & Decor." I loved the big chucky molding around the storefront windows and the amazing lantern lights!
The second I stepped through the door, I was met with this lovely sight! Look at those globes! I immediately fell in love, but quick realized they were out of my budget. They were very heavy (which I adored, they had the weight of a book end) but knew that I probably didn't want to have to lug one home in my carryon. But the weight explained the price tag, which was around $45 for the tiny blue one in the bottom-righthand corner.

There were these colorful guys - you know owls make me go weak in the knees... but they were pricey too, with the yellow guy coming in at $65.

I thought these were cute... a unique girls night party favor, maybe!? Their little "flip-flops" for your wine glasses! Each of them had a drink recipe on it and the colors were very fun, but there was a trend starting... can you guess it!? Each of these babies was $13.50 a piece! Uff-Da... that's more than I would spend on a complete pair of flip-flops to cover my feet. Moving on...

The store had lots of "stuff" - and most of it was likeable... but nothing seemed very "Southern" to me... I loved all the ceramic shells and the coral was amazing... but Southern? Is there a Southern style? Are sea shells and globes southern? If that is Southern, what is Northern? Eastern? Western? Maybe my style and/or direction assumptions are skewed... hmmm... Is Southern style cowboys or coral? But isn't Western style cowboys and Eastern style coral? Wow, I have throughly confused myself...

At least I know one thing for sure... this was a hotel boutique shop. Nothing that stood out as very "unique", nothing I couldn't find in Minnesota and I wasn't impressed that nearly a quarter of the store was filled with overpriced Willow Tree Angels.

Maybe not the fairy tale ending anyone was hoping for, but this is reality. Still a fun trip, I'm glad I stopped because even if the merchandise inside wasn't coming home with me - I will be hunting down globes, possibly DIYing wine glass flip-flops, getting out my el' cheapo ceramic shell (Seen HERE) and searching for a place to put lovely lanterns and super-chucky molding!

Nashville - A Whirlwind Trip

Hi Ya'll! Yep, I caught myself using a southern twang more than once during last week's trip... but with all the southern charm surrounding me, I didn't let it bother me much. I figured with hot/sticky weather that continued to remind of this whirlwind trip - I was about time I shared some pictures (note that the first two images were not taken by me, rather yanked from the hotel's website).

This is the magnificent Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN. It was stunning and not to mention GINORMOUS!
Just check out this map! My room was located in the Garden Conservatory section, but I spent lots of time walking around and most daytime hours in the convention center for a food show.

There was tons of greenery in the three "atrium" areas, as well as the outdoor pool area in the Magnolia section.

Even waterfalls! I have to admit that having everything indoors was really nice with the weather being so warm is sucked the air right out of your lungs.

There is even a river in the Delta section, complete with a river boat that you can ride for a tour! Sadly, I didn't have time to partake in that excursion.

Also in the Delta area, was the Delta Island. Filled is cute boutique shops (more on one of those later) and restaurants! We spent quite a bit of time here and over the the "bar district" aka Magnolia.

On Monday evening we headed down to the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville's riverfront district for a work event. We actually rented out the entire bar and threw everyone a concert!

The band that was hired was amazing! If you ever get the chance to see the LoCash Cowboys, don't miss out! They are brothers who have an amazing variety of talents! They were singing their own songs, other country songs, Kid Rock, Michael Jackson, Black-Eyed Peas, etc. Extremely fun evening!

On Tuesday I actually had some free time to spend with a friend! Jenna lives about an hour outside of Nashville and made the short trip to spend the night together. We headed back down to the riverfront district to eat at the Hard Rock and stroll around.

She about jumped out of her pants when this "statue" whistled at her! So we paid the man and took our picture. It was a low-key night that I will never forget. Love you Jenna Ann. And this is about all the pictures I took on my trip - other than a walk through a store that I will share tomorrow - I flew out Monday morning and back Wednesday afternoon... whirlwind trip filled with many memories, even if there are only a few pictures! Happy Wednesday!

Happy Hearts

Okay, first of all... blogger has been making me angry. I have been trying to post for nearly a week now and it looks like this will be the first time it goes through. Ugh. Anywho...

Let's get back on the blogging train! Let's start with something recent, this past weekend. We have had some wickedly hot and humid weather, so what did we do!? NOTHING and it was AMAZING!!! The hubby surprised me with an early birthday present, True Blood Season 1! The perfect reason for staying within the confines of our central air. And what goes perfect with a weekend plopped on the couch!? Well a family tradition of course! Now everyone knows that Cherrios are supposed to make your heart happy - but our version does so in a different way!

See, we get rid of all the cholesterol reducing goodness and fry it up! Yes, in our house Fried Cherrios is a staple! Very simple to make, melt butter, add cherrios and salt - viola! Yummy heart happy, smiley, salty goodness. Maybe another time I will introduce you to "Crackers, Cheese & Marshmallows" - yes that is the technical name. Happy Tuesday!

Busy. Busy. Busy.

Just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts. We have been busy working on our new porch roof. We had quite the storm a week ago on Friday... quite a bit of damage in the area, but only small branches at our house (secretly, we were hoping a tree would fall on the porch... no such luck)! But we did lose power, for nearly 48 hours... sure made our pace slower, running everything off of one generator.


Anywho, more posts to come! We are close to finishing the roof (thanks to help from our fabulous family), only ridging, flashing and some siding left to complete... but more on that soon, I promise! This weekend looks to be busy with Cottonwood's "Coming Home Days" happening, and then I am off to Nashville next week for work. Will be back soon!


Things to Come:
1. New Porch Roof
2. Guest Room Update
3. Jared & Caycee's Engagement Pictures - Take 1
4. Thrifty Finds