Needles and Pens

I guess it's pretty obvious that I cried, "Uncle," a few months back, but this makes it official. LoL I was NOT up to the challenge! On the bright side, though, I did get a lot more done than I would have without challenging myself. This doesn't mean I've given up on all of my projects, of course, just that I'm taking the pressure off. I've fallen far enough behind that it would take a miracle to "catch up" by the end of the year. The blasted kitchen is still coming along. The window is in. (Just doesn't have any trim yet.) The baseboards are done. I still don't like the wall color... or maybe it's the cabinets... ugh. Are you as tired of my kitchen as I am?? And now we're entering into fall, which is when I tend to hide out in my sewing room a lot. I've been quilting like mad lately, and should have a few finishes to share here very soon. And we're expecting a new grandson any day now... And... And... So that...

Honestly, I'm about to cry "Uncle" on this challenge (who's brilliant idea was this anyway?), but maybe August will be that magical month when all the loose ends are tied up and I feel like I can actually move forward. I'm giving it one more shot anyway... First, some "progress" on the kitchen (the MAY project): The replacement window we ordered came in -- but we measured wrong. It's a little too small, so now some carpentry is required to make it fit. How we'll trim it all out and make it look right is beyond me, but there has to be a way. Of course, before we discovered that it was too small, we had the old window completely out. And then right back in it went: Last night we got the supplies to "make it fit," so maybe it'll be finished in the near future... (sigh) Meanwhile, I picked a number for August (which I'm already beginning to regret)... number nine, the basement storage room: Looks like fun, ri...

I know, I know... I'm SO behind! I have to apologize to anyone who has been following along on this challenge. My May project (the kitchen) dragged into June and my June project (the deck and front porch) barely got started before it was July. The July project should be #8 (in case you've been wondering), the garage, but I think I'm going to pass on that one and try to get the kitchen finished before I dig into anything else. Meanwhile, I do have a few progress pictures to share. I'm still working on it. Really, I am! Last week, we finally got our kitchen floor done. Here's the "before:" It doesn't look so bad in the picture, but it actually had lots of nicks and cuts in it, a seam right through the middle of the room, and the surface was so worn down, there was no getting it really clean anymore. Here's the new tile: Such a big change, it's taken some getting used to, but it's definitely growing on me. And... we got a new o...

Well June is half over already and I haven't even started on my June project... BUT, I think today may be the day. I plan to get outside and start some scraping and painting on the deck railings, weather permitting. Wish me luck for a day without rain... I do, however, have some progress to report on the kitchen. It's really coming along. Since my last update, I stripped the rest of the wallpaper, patched and sanded lots of dings and nail holes in the walls, and finished the painting -- and we got a new light fixture! Here's our old fluorescent light with the missing cover (and ugly, to boot!) And here's the new light installed and a freshly painted ceiling. What a difference! Just SO much better. And no surprise here, but deciding on a wall color was tough. I had a vague idea in mind of "purpley-gray," and gradually collected every purpley-gray sample in existence a few samples to mull over. Finally I decided on "Vintage Vineyard,...

Sorry I'm a little late with this (story of my life these days), but the challenge project for June is #12 -- on my list, the front porch and back deck. With any luck, I can tackle this one with some help from my hubby and still play catch-up in the kitchen at the same time. So here's the front porch, from the front of the house. It doesn't look too bad, but it's definitely time to repaint the rails and stain the deck. A little landscaping wouldn't hurt either. And this is the view walking up to the porch from the driveway... Yikes. The railroad ties supporting the walkway are beginning to rot and the whole thing has a definite tilt these days. My husband just mentioned this today, so hopefully I can get him on board to work on it soon... (And I think the snowboard can safely be put away now, too.) Here's the back deck, which gets lots of use -- and it shows. Coming up the stairs from the back: View from the sliding glass door: View fr...

Well, it was bound to happen eventually... no "reveal" post for this month. May is always a super busy time at our house, so I'm really not surprised. And there were a lot of extra goings-on this year besides. So I'm still working on the kitchen, slowly but surely. At this point, I plan to keep at it into June and hopefully squeeze in my June project, too. Or not. We'll see. Life happens. I do have a few progress pics to share at least. Cleaning out and organizing the cabinets seemed to take forever . I was seriously NOT in the mood AT ALL. I was overcome with such overwhelming lethargy over the whole thing, I was doing well to finish one a day. Hated, hated, hated cleaning out the cabinets. Like pulling teeth. Seriously. At any rate, I finally finished that miserable job and got around to painting -- which pretty much destroyed the kitchen. For a week or so, it looked more or less like this... But it was so worth the mess. The color is off in th...

It's official. I'm overwhelmed. A progress report might give me some motivation to keep on going... maybe. So far, I've cleaned out all of the upper cabinets in my kitchen, thrown out all the outdated things, rock-hard marshmallows and such. I opted not to paint the insides or put new liners in, because they still look fine (and there's still that hope in me that one of these days, we'll have new cabinets!) All they really needed was to be cleaned, organized and the paint touched up along the front edges of the shelves. Amazing what a difference it makes. Before: And after: Much better. The rest of the week's energies went into both my boys' birthdays (on the 3rd and 8th) and my youngest's confirmation (on the 6th). I did start in on the lower cabinets, but then discovered my dishwasher has been leaking, clear through to the basement (luckily nothing was ruined down there) and swelled up the chipboard underlayment under the tile. Kind of too...