Wednesday, December 30, 2015

I have found my inspiration!

Hello!  It's me!  Hello...Can you hear me? Hello, from the outside!  Yes friends, I do believe 2016 is going to be a wonderful year because I have found my inspiration again.  Sorry for the tease, no this post is not about being inspired by the beautiful voice of Adele.  Though that could be partially true because I  have found myself pulling towards music quite a bit lately and feeling quite inspired by it.

This post is about finally feeling inspired and finding some direction with a few changes I want to make in my kitchen.  I absolutely love my kitchen, always have.  It's very large and very pretty if I must say so myself.  In fact its one of the rooms our guests gush over the most and want to congregate in as well.  Now mind you... all is not perfect in kitchen land, there are flaws.  Some of the flaws I just have to live with others not so much.  



Over last few days while waiting to take down the rest of Christmas I have found my inspiration.  Yes that's right, I am waiting. While I have taken down the kitchen Christmas decor, the rest of my house is still full on Christmas.  I have this crazy idea about taking things down before New Years.  I usually spend New Years day breaking it all down.  Last year I took everything down before New Years and let's just say, it wasn't a great year, Okay?   Sooo, this year we're sticking to New Year day breakdowns.    

Now back to my topic at hand before I bore you to tears.  I have spent the last few days thinking of ways to improve the cozy factor in my kitchen. I decided what I needed was curtains in the kitchen.  I need some textiles!   I love the Country French look I see in so many photos, blogs, pins, instas,etc.  I really want that look.  However, I think my look might be a bit more Country French Mediterranean, if there is such a thing.   I love florals and checks and such but I also love patterns and the colors of the sea.  My husband and I are sailors, so my heart also leans towards nautical as well.  Crazy mix huh?  Yeah, I know.  


Here are two different options of curtains I've been playing with that I could use in my kitchen. I've tacked them up to see if I would like having curtains before I invest in rods.   Both would work very well.  The lighter florals are some panels I had made for my dining room some time ago.  While I do like them I would need to alter the tops some as I'm not crazy about the plaid on them.  It's not a problem because the french doors are shorter then the window were so I've got the fabric.  The darker floral is yards of fabric I purchased years ago and never knew what I wanted to do with it.  I can see real possibilities here with both fabrics.  What do you think?  I also plan on strolling through some stores soon to see if anything else catches my eye now that I know exactly what I have in mind.


I have moved the smaller table over on the wall where the bakers rack used to be and love it.  I've got plans for shelves above this table.  I went to Hobby Lobby the other day and found some brackets that I just adore and they were on sale too.  I think the rustic brackets will go well with my chandelier and a few other accessories I have throughout the kitchen.  I chose brackets because I want to make a shelf that is deeper then most of the standard prepackaged display type shelves you see around.  Also they will be less difficult for hubby to mount.  Less difficulty means less fussy, and I like that!


Here's part of what has gotten me so bogged down with figuring out which direction to go in here.  I have these beautiful frenchy looking swivel bar stools that I just adore.  I have been searching for a way to bring them into the whole look without totally having to redo everything about them.  I would love to repaint them and my first thoughts were to paint them black.   


However, If I repaint them black then the seat cover is just not going to cut it.  I really don't want to have to redo the seat covers because well they are fantastically done.  They are a vinyl coated fabric and piped out and I just will not be able to recover these myself and don't want to spend money on having them redone professionally right now.    So how to mesh this look together has been the big question in my head for some time.  That is until.....I found my inspiration piece!


Did you notice it earlier?  I had it right in front of the drapes.  Ladies, I am so excited about this piece!!!   I also found it at Hobby Lobby.  I bought it fully intending to put in the den above my TV.  I had it sitting here in the kitchen and suddenly, I knew I would need to bring this color in throughout the kitchen to pull it all together.  I even think I can use this color of sea blue green on my bar stools and it will coordinate with the seat covers beautifully.  Can you say....Eureka?  This was definitely a Eureka moment. That's how I feel!  I already have several small splashes of this color throughout my kitchen but it's so drowned out by the black.  I just need to pop it back out again in a few larger splashes!  


Of course, now I've got to also find the right paint to use that matches this color.  Lucky for me this little iron piece will be easy to haul to the paint store for the exact match. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself to get started.

I love when a plan comes together, don't you?  Yes, you do too....I've seen yours and they are beautiful!  I just want to thank all of you again who inspire me so much with what all you do.  I love seeing your photos and getting inspiration for myself. That is so much of what this blogging is all about for me.   I hope maybe to share a little inspiration as well from time to time.  
And because I thought you might like to hear the music too....



Now, if you don't mind, I've really got to run because you know I just can't hold back any longer.
Have a beautiful and blessed day friends, even if it is cloudy and rainy outside.
Hugs and Waves!
Mary 

Monday, December 28, 2015

Clean up Monday

Good Morning Blogworld!  It's quite the dreary day outside again here in South Carolina.  We sure have had our fair share of rain this year.  In fact it's been one of the most unusual winter weather situations that I have ever seen.  All the rain and warmer weather temperatures sure has invited quite a bit of mold and mildew to pop up everywhere.  I have been doing all I can to stay on top of it, but gosh, enough already!  

Let's move on to bigger and brighter things, shall we?  How was your Christmas?  I really hope it was nice, ours was wonderful!  We have had what has felt like two continuous weeks of celebrations at our home.  It's been so busy that it's been almost comical to see the dog go retreat to our room for her own self imposed timeouts away from it all.  I say almost comical because she also hasn't been feeling very well and has gotten sick to her stomach a few times.  I am watching closely to see if we need a visit to the vet or if she has just overindulged much like the rest of us.  

Ooops, I promised to move on brighter things now didn't I?  Sorry about that!

Sooo, moving on!  Here's what is left of Christmas in our kitchen. The decor is all down now and I gathered up all the candy and put them all in this clear jar.  I am hopeful that Mr. and youngest son home from college will see them now and get to them quickly.  They really need to go bye-bye, know what I mean? 

Have you started putting away any of your Christmas decor yet?  Yesterday, I worked on the kitchen.  I still have 3 more rooms to do but it sure feels good to have one step down. I don't know why but for some reason I was feeling like I was on a plaid candy land overload in here.  Maybe it has more to do with candy overload but whew the plaid was getting to me too! 

 I also have another reason why I took down Christmas decor from this room first.  I want to get started on a little switch a roo.   I am going to move this small table in our kitchen entry over near the kitchen table where my bakers rack currently is.  Then I want to add floating shelves on the wall above it.  I've seen so many of you sharing your shelves and I love the look.

I've had this bakers rack here for awhile now and while I do love it, I feel it's a bit large.  It was fine when I had the round table in here but now that I have the longer rectangular table it seems a bit tight.  I am hoping the smaller buffet style table I have will fit this space better without sticking out to far.  We shall see anyway.  So that's the plan for today on this dreary day.  To shift more things around and possibly scout out some shelves.  That's the plan unless I get distracted, again, because....


I've saved the brightest of all news for last.   Look what I got for Christmas!  Y'all I am just so excited about this.  It's an embroidery machine.  I have wanted one of these for soooo very long friends.  Some of you may recall that I have worked in not just one but two embroidery shops in my retail history.  I was always on the retail end of things, working in the storefront and taking the orders for custom work to be done but not actually doing the embroidery.  Don't get me wrong, I loved working in the store, yes mam!  I can honestly say I have never been interested in learning embroidery as a trade, but as a hobby I am all for it.  I am so excited about this because now I will be able to continue to enjoy the creative aspect of embroidery.  I am also excited because hopefully one day I will have grands that I can spoil with monogrammed items and I get to learn how to do it now, waaay before that happens.  

The embroidery machine I have is a Brother PE770.  I have been scoping this machine out for sometime  and doing all the comparisons.  Like for years!  I feel it is the best choice for me based on what all it has and can do.  I decided on this one because the machine I would prefer, the Babylock, starts in the thousands.  I was not opposed to spending more for a good machine but I wasn't keen on the idea of spending thousands on something that I don't even know if I'll be good at.  After working with excellent embroiders you tend to be a little picky on your embroidery.   This machine has everything I need for what I want to use if for.  I think that's important to know right off the bat.  I has a larger 5x7 hoop to start and you can buy a larger one to use beyond that.  I feel like most of what I need for me personally will fall in the 5x7 hoop size.   It also has a USB port for me to transfer designs or fonts that I want to use after downloading them from my computer.  I am currently checking into a few different softwares for editing and learning all about them as well as about my new machine.  As much as I want to jump right in and stitch something out, I am taking it slow. 

 One of the best things I have also found is the amount of support I have been able to find for this machine.  I first started finding youtube videos online that others had made.  Then I found a few very active support groups on Facebook all specifically centered around the Brother PE770.  Interestingly enough there are several Babylock owners in the group as well.   I think that's because they also use the same PES files and have similarities to the Brother machines.  I even read that someone said that Brother and Babylock are like Ford and Chevy.  I don't quite know if that's true or not but sure did make me happy to read.  I especially have been very pleased to read how so many people in the embroidery groups who are doing professional embroidery still have their Brother PE770 even after adding newer more industrial machines.  They refer to the PE770 as their little backup workhorse.  Yay!  I feel so good about this choice and really don't want to screw it up.  I want to read and learn as much as I can about this to get it right.  Now that the holidays are winding down I hope to be getting a jump here soon.  Woohoo!

I truly hope all of you also had a wonderful and blessed Christmas as well.  I would love to here if you did.  I would also love to hear your thoughts on the shelves above the table as well.  Thank you so much for visiting.  

Hope you have a wonderful Monday!