Weather & other stuff

I don't know about most of you, but the weather has been quite soggy here just this week. That doesn't make for a happy us here. Rain doesn't bother me, but heavy rain does & lots of it. And of course, it doesn't get that way around here until we're ready to have a new roof put on. The buckets are getting full, we even have to use a long tote underneath the beam because you just never know where it's gonna leak there & we don't want a bunch of buckets lined up along there. Then, there's the towels under the buckets & flattened trash bags under the towels to help protect the carpet from splashes when the buckets get too full. No, it's not pretty here. And, because of the rain, they have now postponed starting on our roof until Monday. It's supposed to rain Monday & Tuesday here too. The April showers finally showed up here for the last 2 weeks of the month. Yes, things are looking lush & green now.

Speaking of spring, last night was my daughter's Spring Music Program. It's a big deal for the kids because they get to get dressed up & look like movie stars. They do a great job & it's so cute to watch the little Kindergartners. Brooke is in First grade, but they go in order, so you get to see the smaller children perform. It was a huge crowd last night & it was very warm in there. I am rarely warm until about July, so for me to say it was very warm, is really something.












Brooke likes to have her hair done up & so we did a single braid in the back, but the problem with her having her hair in tales of any kind is that she won't leave them alone. So, several times during the her grade's portion of the program you see her with her hands along the back of her head, fiddling with that braid.












And, the little boy that was standing next to her was so funny! He had stage fright, according to Brooke. We noticed him hiding behind her during different parts of the program & we were wondering what that was about. LOL!

I knew Tracy would ask to see the Easter basket that I decorated a little for my daughter, so I took a picture of it & here it is.












It's not put together in a professional presentation, but I just have never had a knack for that, so I could never make a living out of making gift baskets, that's for sure.

I haven't quite figured out the point of having Easter grass in the basket. Maybe I just put too much stuff in them & I try to dig it back up so you can see some, but it doesn't stay there & it all just ends up settling to the bottom. I actually spend more time picking it up off the floor & digging it out of my vacuum more than it serving a purpose in those baskets. Am I right? Oh, ya know I am. ;-)

And so I leave you with a Happy Easter wishes & God Bless!

Preparing for Easter

It never fails around here. The weather can be glorious & beautiful for many days & weeks on end, but the week before Easter...rain...and cold.....and just plain gloom. Maybe God gets sad during this time of remembering the sacrifice His son made for us. But at least we can rejoice in His glory and that sacrifice & know that God loves us that much! I don't know that I could give my only child, or any of my children as a sacrifice for anything. I feel truly BLESSED by Him.

Now I have never gone on in a religious sort of way on my blog, but I would never deny knowing and loving God either, however, I did feel moved to say something as a reminder during these troubling times that everyone is witnessing these days. I just hope it causes you to stop & think about what is really important & not let the non-essential things get in the way of letting you do what is right by not just yourself, but everyone else around you. And, if you don't believe in the same God as I do, it still can't hurt to be nice to someone who may really need it, but just doesn't know how to show it.

And now on to another part of Easter....




I have made my 84 year old grandmother an Easter card. I'm not all that sure that I like how it turned out, but it looks better after adding lots of colored Stickles than before I did that. I made the mistake of trying to "re-glue" my Cricut cutting mat. I don't have one of those big chunky blue glue markers, but I found something else to try instead. I was looking at my local Walmart the other day & thought I'd try one of those Elmer's glue pens that has a fine tip nozzle on one end & a rubbery wide applicator on the other. The bottle said for a permanent adhesion, apply wet & allow to dry. For repositionable, apply & let dry completely first. So, I bought it & tried it. I wasn't too thrilled with how the applicator thing worked, but I managed to get the mat covered & I let it dry overnight. Well, I gotta say, if you thought your Cricut mats were too sticky when you first buy them, you ain't seen nothing!! I guess my first recommendation would be to perhaps water down the glue a little after you apply a super thin coat on your mat and then do the de-sticking with your mat, where you pat the sticky side of your mat to your shirt and hands many times. So, after all this trial & error on my super duper sticky cutting mat, I had all kinds of issues trying to get my intricate design to come off without tearing it to pieces, including the uncut portion of my paper. Ugh! Then, I had issues with my Word program on my computer to create the greeting, but that's a whole other story that took almost all day & I ended up using the first one I did. what-ever. On this cut, I decided that I'd use one of my markers in the cricut to try to add a little extra punch to the design. yuck. Not to mention that my blade must have moved just a tad in between removing the marker & adding the blade back in the housing, because parts at the top had no outline, but did at the bottom. So, I just went around the blank areas with the marker by hand & added green stickles to that afterwards. I then added the pink Cotton Candy & blue Waterfall stickles for the flowers & then sprayed it with Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist. Not something I'd try to submit to a magazine, but I hope my grandma likes it enough. In general, I think it's pretty, but the details aren't very nice - that's where the layers of other colors comes in ...to throw your eye off the bad glitter job. LOL! I did finish off the inside as well, but I've already written the sentiment, so I'll just leave that part to your imagination.

Also today, I needed to get started on putting my daughter's Easter basket together, so I wouldn't be rushing to do it at the last minute where I'd be discovered, ya know? I didn't take a photo of the what I did to the basket & it really isn't a big deal either. I just wanted to mention it in case someone wanted to try doing it too. You see, I seen a really simple, yet pretty basket at Walmart (are ya noticing a pattern here with WM?) . It has a little layered ruffle around the basket that looks kinda like a ruffly skirt. I thought Brooke would just adore that, but they wanted too much money for that. I'm thinking Hey! I can do that for a lot less & in no time! I had found a 6 inch wide spool of Organza ribbon that I got for a $1 at Jo-Ann's in a raspberry color & I reuse the kid's basket every year & it sort of matched that. I just took the ribbon & took the measurement for the length by wrapping the ribbon around the basket 3 times & cut it off. Then, I had some left over 1.0 mm thick stretchy clear elastic that they use for making stretchy beaded bracelets, cut it to length that would fit around the basket snug, but not tight, & I just hand basted that about 1 1/2" down from the top along the whole piece of ribbon. Tied the ends together & put it on the basket. It has a little ruffle at the top & a ruffly bottom too. Definitely girly. I might take a pic, if anyone really wants to see it. The worst part is the Easter Bunny will get total credit for it. ;-)

Boy, have I been getting long winded on these posts these days, or what? I guess that comes from lack of outside adult interaction - especially now that my hubby is working again, it's probably even worse.

God Bless & have a great day!

One of my MANY projects in the works

I think it's safe to say that everyone who reads my blog is a crafter to some degree or another. Mainly paper crafters, but there are a few of you who dabble in other cool things outside the realm of paper & scrapbooks. Myself included. I swear that I'm ADD & I classify that as a downgrade from being ADHD as a child. I think motherhood & middle age helped to eliminate the "H" factor, but I digress....because of being ADD, I have too many interests & many things in the works, so that when I come to a roadblock, I can shift gears to another that has been waiting for attention. I so wish I wasn't this way, but I must say that when I was working outside the home, it was actually somewhat beneficial. In the corporate world, there are always roadblocks & delays until someone else can get you the information you need to complete YOUR portion of the job & there goes the trickle down effect.

So, you're probably asking yourself what this post is about. (if you haven't nodded off or just plain left my blog already) It's about another project that I am planning on starting to make for my dear, sweet Brooke. I just hope I finish it before she loses interest in what it is. LOL! Now mind you, prior to this project, I was planning on adding vinyl to a door mirror for her bedroom. Simple enough. The mirror is still waiting to get done and it was supposed to by done by her last birthday back in Oct., then it got pushed out Christmas & yet, hidden behind the door of my craft room here in the middle of April, it sits waiting to get completed before she's too tall to make good use of it for her age.

And now, drum roll please............ this is the going to be my next project for my daughter.
























I'm not going to reveal what this gorgeous {snicker} suitcase is going to be transformed into yet & it may never get revealed as slow as I work! LOL! Actually, that's really not that funny. If I had every penny back for all the stuff I've purchased thinking I was going to make it into something, but didn't, we could afford a fabulous trip to just about anywhere. I will admit that I'm doing much better in the last couple of years of either talking myself out of buying something or just actually getting stuff made with what I have on hand. It's a good feeling.

Well, I'm off to go work on yet another project that isn't this one. ;-)

God Bless & have a great day!

Another Boy page

I know many of you scrappers out there can crank out pages in just under an hour or two and they look fabulous & with lots of cool details!! Me? Not so much, no so much at all. It can take me daaaaays to complete ONE page & they end up looking pretty simple in design. Sometimes I can create something that I know is awesome, but they're few & far between. I think part of my problem is that I'm basically lazy & don't want to have to put that much effort into creating things.

I guess when I'm doing a page for my son, I have permission to keep it simple & in his opinion, minimum is best. He tells me I put too much thought & effort into doing a scrapbook page as it is ~ boy, if he saw the pages I see online, he'd be in artistic overload! lol.

This is a page I just completed this morning & yes, I started on it yesterday. I had most of it done then, but I thought it needed something along the sides of the photo, I just didn't know what. Now, I don't know about you all, but my best ideas come to me while I'm lying in bed or even in the middle of a sound sleep. Is that weird, or is it just normal when you're somewhat creative, like myself? {*snicker*}







So, while lying bed, it came to me to add some simple swirls that my son wouldn't think was too feminine. I guess I don't care what he thinks about the pages I do for him. At least someone is keeping track of his life & memories. I know he won't really admit it, but I know he's glad that I do scrapbooking for him, because he forgets a lot of his experiences & if he hadn't seen a scrapbook page of the event, he would completely forget that it even happened.

I know this page doesn't look like a school page by any stretch of the imagination, but the colors went well with his shirt. I thought it needed something else to add a little pop & the little strips in the title border that are the backside of the blue paper had some orange & it looked pretty good, so that's what I went with.

The title was cut on my Cricut Expression using the Mickey Font cartridge at 1.50" & then I ran them through my crimper, that had to be dusted off since I hadn't used it in years! I've noticed that the crimped letters are becoming popular. I like that look. I hand cut the chevrons on the corner & used Lyrical Letters with the Capital setting & cut at .80", I think. The little primitive stars were cut at .50" using the George cartridge & the swirls were cut with the Home Decor cartridge & cut at 1.80", 1.40" & 1.20" for each set, but I used the "Flip" option for the left side because the card stock has a texture to it on one side. The little tag is a Maya Road chipboard tag I just got in the mail yesterday as one of my gifts from having a project published in the Cricut magazine. How cool is that? I just covered it with more orange card stock & added his teachers' names on it. Then.... I added dimensional glaze to the circles in the upper right corner, because you know wet cup rings are a staple in every kid household! I like how the page looks, but in the photo, it looks like the orange is brighter than it really is. It's more of a burnt orange than this pumpkin-y color. I might add some little brads to the page here & there, but I think I'm mostly done with this one!

And with that long chapter from the novel I seem to be writing, I'll end this post!

God Bless & have a great day!

Scrappin' again...

Well, I have started to do some scrapbooking again. The hubby found a job that may only hopefully be temporary, but it pays more than unemployment. So, with my once again found alone time, I've started to get to work on getting my son's scrapbook pages done for his high school graduation. It actually feels good to dig back into all the pictures and all that old product that I've had piling up for yeeeeears. I will NEVER put a mild dent in it, but progress is progress, no matter how large or small it may be. I've also been working somewhat simultaneously on my daughter's pages too. When you come across pictures that fit in both of their books, you might as well do them both & be done with those pictures for good, right? right. Dog pictures fit into that category.











Now, I mentioned digging into some of my old product...see that tooth die cut? That is sooooo old, it came from Creative Memories probably before my son even lost his first tooth!!! seriously.

Now, these pages are incredibly simple in design because I really need to start pumping some pages out, & since the majority of these pages are going to be for my son, simple is best. I've started on the dog page for him, but need a picture that I don't have made before I can finish it to MY liking. ;-)






But, I did get a dog page done for Brooke. Now, for this page of my daughter & new puppy, that scalloped die cut paper was all the rage about 3-4 years ago, before I ever knew anything about a machine called the Cricut & border punches were big, but you couldn't do corners with them. The title sticker & other matching embellies are as old as the time we first got the dog 2 1/2 years ago. The little lacey scalloped heart was a leftover from some Valentine bookmarks I made for Brooke's class this year. I just hate to waste anything. I still want to cut a little banner with my Cricut that tells the date & age, but I might get that done today. We'll see.

Before I got started on scrapping again, I did start working on cleaning up my scrap areas, but only got about 1/3 of the way through, but it was still a huge improvement because I found some of my floor! I still need to clean off my tables better so I can use them to work at instead of the floor {picture rolling eyes here}. What inspired me to clean the room, you ask? We were having people coming in to give us estimates of our roof & the last time, one of them wanted to see the attic for damage & the access to that is guess where? In my scraproom. Needless to say, that was a tad embarrassing! I thought I could just keep the door close to hide all my hoarding sins, but I was soooo busted! And guess what? No one asked to look there this time! Ugh! Oh well, it needed to get cleaned even though it was still looks a total mess in there, I can at least say it's Organized Chaos.

I do also want to mention that I have been creating before this, but I submitted things to magazine in hopes of getting published more, but since I haven't heard anything in a month on the Cricut & Cards calls, I'm guessing nothing of mine was chosen. bummer. The only thing I can say about that is, I haven't heard of anyone else getting the notifications either. Two Peas says that they post it when the notifications come out, but I can't find where that is. I'm not a 2Peas regular. I love the inspiration there, but I'm not a fan of many of their forum posters. not. nice. "ladies". That's all I gotta say bout that.

So, I need to get back to work on more stuff & I think there's a pile of laundry that's about ready to walk itself into the washer. Gee...wouldn't that be great?


Oh, before I forget....if you want an opportunity to win a really cool looking scrapping kit, check out my friend Monique's blog. She's an awesome designer on FOUR design teams & she's giving away a pretty cool looking kit on her blog. Just click on this link to go see it & check out how you can get a chance to win it for yourself. While you're at it, check out her amazing work too.
Creating {Non}Sense by Monique

PS: I have been having some issues with blogger, so I hope you can see my pics. I reloaded them, so I hope they're there.

God Bless & have a great day!

A little outta sorts

I don't know if I have a cold or if I have allergies, but I'm feeling a little funky-like the past couple of days. Between the congestion & the sorta dryness in my throat, my head feels a little distorted. In spite of not feeling quite up to par, I still worked out this morning even though I first told myself that I'd only walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes, then I renegotiated with myself & said that it wasn't so bad, so maybe 15 more minutes and when it was all said & done I ended up walking the full hour anyway. I don't know where I get my own personal drive sometimes, but I wish it would hang around all the time! LOL!!

Today is the day that my hubby goes to the Dr. to get a sebaceous cyst removed from his head. {this next portion maybe be a bit graphic in description-so consider yourself forewarned} It's the 2nd one he's had, but this one seems to have a life of it's own & is really nasty & disgusting looking. He's had it since about 6 months after he had the first one removed, which was about 9 years ago, but he bumped this one a few weeks back & it caused it to grow quickly & now it has
an opening & you can see the actual cyst! EWWWW Gross!! I jokingly tell my husband that it due any time now & he must be dilated at 10 cm. When it's born, he's gonna have to just cut the cord & let it go before he can have an emotional bond with it. LOL!! Surprisingly, our 7 yr old daughter wants to watch him get it cut out at the Dr. We were told that it would be fine, unless the Dr. didn't want her there. I know I'd rather see it get cut out than to look at it anymore. I make him wear a hat because it's HUGE! I know he can't wait to get rid of it either, since it's pretty sore for him now. I just hope he doesn't get anymore after this one.

On a less gross topic, I had submitted some projects in to the Cricut Magazine earlier this month, but I haven't heard if they'd put out the notifications yet. I think I will do some more checking around, but from what I had seen, no one else had heard anything yet either. I was thinking maybe today & that maybe I'd get something picked again.

So, have any of you had the Spring Cleaning bug yet? I got a slight taste of it on Sunday, but I can't get too ambitious yet. We use a fireplace insert in our living room all winter long & it blows out a ton of dust & soot into the house. We still have to use it with the overnight temps being into the low 20's & the daytime high temps aren't even 40. So, until we're ready to stop burning the wood, I can't do a good cleaning & I hate it when I'm in the mood because it may not come back around again this year! {*snicker!*}

Well. need to start getting around here for the hubby's Dr. appt.

God Bless & take care!

WINNER ~ WINNER, Chicken Dinner!!!

I couldn't believe it when I hopped over to one of my FAVORITE scrappy sites called the Crop Addict! They had a blog hop earlier this month and if you participated in all the fun little activities over the course of a whole weekend, you had a chance to win 3 prize packages. First place was $100 worth of product!! GUESS WHAT?? That was ME!!! AHHH!!

They have always had great challenges every week & even though it's been ages since I've participated in a challenge, I've won a few & received great prize packages for those too. I can't wait to see if I get to go shopping myself or if it's a package valued at $100. I'm not clear on that, but regardless, WOW!!! If I do get to shop for myself, I'd love to try one of those ATG adhesive runners, because I'm so tired of the ones that are out there that don't last long before they run out & the adhesive doesn't hold up long either.

I'll keep you posted on what my winnings are when I get them...how exciting!!

God Bless & take care!

Fitness 4 me!

I guess I'll forewarn you that this posting doesn't talk about anything creative or really anything fun, it's about exercise & weight loss. If you're not interested in this topic, you may just want to move on to a creative blog from here. But, if you're struggling with your weight, then you may want to continue reading, just so that you can know that you're not alone with your struggle...

I don't know how many of you are into being physically fit or just trying to lose weight, like me. I have been doing well by exercising 5-7 times a week since January 4th of this year. I'll start from the beginning....I was flabbergasted last year when I managed to gain 5 pounds in the one week between Christmas and New Year's day!! What was up with THAT??!!! So, needless to say, I wasn't very happy with how I was starting to look or even feel anymore, & that 5 lbs. just tipped me over the edge. So I put myself into the mindset that I was going to finally use my treadmill that I promised my husband 5 or 6 years ago that I would use religiously if he bought it for me. And I did at first for about a month, because I had been walking outside before that. But as with many things, life started to get in the way & it got moved out of the way, then it was moved upstairs to where I really did want it to be, but then it just sat there. It's just a cheap treadmill that we got at Walmart, so there's not a lot of bells & whistles, but it does have miles per hour, calories burned & a timer. It also checks your pulse rate, but I have considerable doubts about it's accuracy. I also doubt how accurate it is about the calories burned, but I have nothing else to gauge it by. I think it registers on the low side in this area & that's OK, because I'd rather it show me the minimum that I'm burning so that anything else is just a bonus.

So, since Jan. 4th, I've been doing a very good job of exercising at least 5x a week, plus I alternate every other day by doing my stair stepper one day & then my ab roller the next & I do warm up jumping jacks, as well as doing JJ's at different times through out the day. I do them while I'm waiting for the microwave is heating something up or while I'm watching TV during a commercial break. These help to get my heart rate up at different times throughout the day & hopefully revving up my metabolism. Now here's the discouraging part for me.....I've only lost 3 pounds!!! Why is that I can gain 5 pounds in a week, but only lose 3 pounds in nearly 3 months???? Now, I realize that I'm not overweight to begin with, but I was getting to the upper threshold for my height, which is only 5 ft. 2 inches. I don't want to get overweight like 98% of my entire family on both of my parent's sides. And trust me when I say, & when you hear from others, it gets MUCH harder the older you get!

And now, after walking on my treadmill & slowly working my way up in the speed & the distance that I walk, from starting at a speed of 2.7 mph, I am now up to 4.2. My treadmill doesn't have the nice movable hand poles that you can move back & forth, & the incline even at the max, is barely noticeable, but it prepared me to walk outdoors for the first time on Thursday. I wasn't sure how well I'd handle walking outdoors, because the terrain is quite hilly on the block that I walk around. We live in the country so a block around here is miles in length, unlike in town. In fact, we have what I call a short block distance and a long block distance. To the north of us is a nice subdivision and if you walk through there, it's 3 miles long, but if you go all the way to the main street north of that, then it's 4 miles long. I've never walked the long block. So, on Thursday, I decided that since it was so nice out, I'd walk the 3 mile length to see how I'd do. I was so proud of myself because I was able to walk it in 45 minutes without getting winded at all AND, even though I took water with me because I always needed something to drink before, I didn't need it!

Yesterday, my 18 year old son was here & after we ate dinner we decided to go walk. I thought we should try the 4 mile length this time. We did it in a hour and I still was not winded, even though we jogged short distances 3 different times throughout the walk. I can feel that I'm getting more of a workout walking on the road as opposed to my treadmill & I knew that, but the extra mile I did yesterday actually made feel invigorated. Even though I've only lost a few pounds, I can tell a difference a little in how I look & my clothes aren't as tight & I'm even noticing that my calves don't have any fat dimples in them. I even had those when I was super thin! Now my thighs are another story. I have cellulite genetically built in to those suckers that I don't think will ever leave until I've been buried in the ground for years.

I just wish that my skin was more elastic than it is because you would think that with only losing 3 pounds in 3 months that my skin has had puh-lenty of time to shrink with it instead of sagging. For goodness sakes! How much time does it need to shrink up anyway?? Or will it ever shrink? I'm 45 now, so I may just have to live with it and I know there's much worse things to have to live with.

Well, this has been a long & most likely BORING post from me & I apologize that I don't have anything creative to show you. But maybe, just maybe I've given you some inspiration for your own personal well being & motivation to lose some weight & get in better health.

PS. I have a sort of goal for this Labor Day weekend. There is a blueberry Festival here in Plymouth & they host a Blueberry Stomp that is a mini-race of sorts. They have a 5k walk & a 10K & 25K run. I never thought I'd ever consider do a race, but I think I might try doing the 5k walk at the very least. I'll keep y'all posted on that as time gets closer.

God Bless & have a great day!

I can FINALLY show you!!

First, I want to thank Andrea Amu for being so nice and taking a picture of my very first paper magazine publication & sending it to me!! You see, when you get published by Northridge Media, they wait to send you your copies of the magazine you've been published in until they're ready to send back your project(s). Makes sense, of course, but it's just so hard to wait to see what they did with your project in the magazine!! I must say, the very first "official" Cricut Magazine, that I was so fortunate enough to get published in, must have been very popular, because I couldn't find one anywhere!! So again, I want to THANK YOU Andrea!!

To view a larger version of this picture, just click on the photo.







So, in case you can't read what this project really is, let me explain. It's actually pretty simple! This is a plate that I made into a dry erase "board" menu. Not only is it functional, but it's pretty too! I didn't know if they wanted the easel I used from the photo I submitted to them or not, so I went ahead & sent it & they used it too! However, I think I noticed an error in their instructions. It states that I used Ashlyn's Alphabet for the letters, but I didn't. That's what the flourishes are made with. The letters are from Botanicals, I think. They switched the cartridges around for what was actually cut.

Now, there was a call for Disney scrapbook pages too & I had one of my layouts accepted for that, as well. I don't know if they didn't do a Disney section after all, because I had another friend tell me that my page wasn't in the magazine. I'm guessing that they didn't do Disney this time around, since I seen another call for that later. I don't know if they're saving my page for THAT publication or what. It would be so awesome if they did, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high for that, but one can dream, cant they? ;-)

Well, it's finally starting to warm up here for longer periods of time now, so I'm hoping that Spring really is right around the corner. Don't you? And, would you believe that our house is the ONLY house around that still has snow in the yard? WHAT is up with that????? But I have Hyacinths sprouting in one section of my landscape & I don't understand that either. They're not coming up anywhere else that I have them planted. My Daffodils are shooting up green leaves, but they're only up about 3-4 inches. It's supposed to get up to the 60's later this week & in the 50's all the other days, so I'm happy about that too.

That's all I have for you today.

God Bless & have a great day!!

Finished Kitchen Alcove Project

This is another project that my hubby & I have completed from beginning to end since he's been laid off from work. Which, by the way, we found out that he does not have an employer anymore, but that a story for another day....


Creating a little display cabinet is something that we have been talking about doing for a couple of years, but frankly were a little afraid to tackle because of needing to cut the brick work. We wanted to make it so we could have all the Brown Drip stoneware from his mother all in one place with easy access, instead of some pieces in one cabinet, others in a different cabinet & yet more buried way too high for me to see or reach. We wanted to be able to display them while still being able to use them. I don't necessarily care for this style of dishes, but they're part of my husband family. They do sort of go with the style of our home too, so that's why I don't make too much of a stink about them. They're just not my taste.


Anyway, this is the BEFORE picture of where the cabinet is going to go. We have this cute little alcove area in our kitchen, but it has this big bare brick wall space below it that seems to be wasted. We think the original owners may have thought about adding something there later, but never got around to it. The location for the cabinet is where the bricks are recessed in 2 rectangular areas below the alcove. Maybe you can see them in this photo.

Nice enough, right? (besides the clutter) But even good can be better.
This is the prep & beginning of the demo. We tried to keep the dust down by me using a garden sprayer to spray water on the saw blade while he was cutting. It worked really well, but there's just times that it didn't cut all the dust. It would have been MUCH worse, if we hadn't done that!

What an ugly mess....


















This is my hubby trying to bust the bricks out after cutting out the design. this was a true demolition job.





















My hubby was actually cleaning up his own mess!

















Here it is with the metal door in. Would you believe this door was actually the original door to one of our fireplaces? The owners prior to us had a fireplace insert installed into the family room unit &, thank goodness, they kept the old door! I'm glad we found a cool way to re-purpose it to give it new life! It was much too cool to leave in a closet
















This is the inside with the bottom in and the backboard, which all the wood in this project was left over pieces that my hubby hoards. LOL!!! We did buy the paint in a Glidden color, Golden Bronze from Walmart. It looks kinda like a dark butterscotch.


Here is the placement of the tiles we found at the Habitat for Humanity Restore for $7.50 & the brackets we picked up at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. I was hoping for an even more decorative style, but the selection was not as good as in years past. I guess the economy has made it what it is now. We had to paint the brackets brown because they only had one brown one in stock. I still need to touch up the screw heads and add the trim for the front edge of the shelf!























This is the tiles after the grout was dry.

















Here it is completed, but before the dishes were put in. He added some lights inside too, so it's even nicer looking with those on.

















Here is the cabinet filled with the dishes. We might add some other dishes that we have that need a home, but they'll get sort of hidden along the deep sides so they're not as noticeable.
















Here it is in the full effect. Oh! and my hubby added a light above the alcove too. I just want to find some kind of metal wall art now to hang on the inside alcove wall.






















So, we figured the cost of this lovely little project to be less than $60! Plus, we could probably paint our hallway with the left over paint, if I decide that I want it that color. We barely used the pint.


Hopefully, I'll have a fun pic to share with you all in a day or two, if I can find the time to sit down & write that blog segment.



Hope you have creative day!

 
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