Missing in action....

Hi everyone (if any of you are actually out there). As you may have noticed, I haven't blogged in a long while. Truth be told, I have sort of lost my zest for blogging. At least for now. I may be back, but for now I'm taking a break. I'm pretty active on Instagram these days (follow me at arichardson79) and want to spend some time focusing on my Etsy shop too. So, I'll still be reading blogs from time to time and if I have something super "blog worthy" I will most definitely share it here :) I hope you all are well. Happy fall!!

Oh - and p.s. I went to THE COUNTRY LIVING FAIR in Ohio with my sister, Cassie, Cassie's mom, and Sarah and had a BLAST! If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it :)

My NEW Kitchen - The Reveal

The day has finally come to share my brand spankin' new kitchen! Woohooo! I am so so excited! This post is going to be super picture heavy, and I'll try to keep the talking to a minimum.

First up - some BEFORE pictures (eeeeek). I seriously had pretty much forgotten what the old icky kitchen looked like. Prepare yourself people. No bueno.

BEFORE:

Ick. Right!? Don't get me wrong, I am grateful that I had a fully functional kitchen with working appliances and a place to feed my family. Seriously, I am a very lucky lady. BUT - when we are speaking about efficiency and aesthetics, this kitchen was seriously not cuttin' it.

ok - are you ready to see the {zillion} AFTER shots?? I am so ready to show you!

AFTER:



!!!!!!!!!!!!
(btw - my amazingly talented father in law built us this gorgeous custom range hood. We used a stain by varathane called "Sun Bleached" to give it a grayish "sun bleached" look. Can you say, one of a kind!? Yeah baby!)

!!!!!!!!!!

See that gorgeous shiny white subway tile. Dreamy! Our friend Mica installed it for us and did an amazing job. Just perfect!

This {double basin apron front farmhouse sink} is straight from my dreams! It was one of my non-negotiables.

Apron front!!!!!

(and I may have strong armed my hubby into the gold hardware. I mean, c'mon! The coolest, right!? My other non-negotiable)

See this corner cabinet.....

It pulls out!!!!!!!

Poof! There are now cabinets where there once were none.

Oh - and see this before picture below. See that closet OUTSIDE the kitchen. Yep, that's a coat closet that was turned into a pantry. The food was being stored OUTSIDE the kitchen people.

Now!!!!

And they pull out!!!!!

Food. INSIDE the kitchen. I know, I know!

This is our little home office nook...

These drawers have our office type stuff like stamps, envelopes, coupons, etc. They also hold the kid's art supplies and coloring books, etc. Very handy if you ask me :)

And this is the wall where the black buffet used to be. We kept it pretty bare so there would be a clear walkway to the sliding door that leads to the backyard. No more bottleneck!

Soooo!!!?? What do you think!!? Do you loooooooove it!? I love it so much, I want to shout it from the rooftop. I am such a happy girl!

Here are the basic details:
CUSTOM Range Hood - OOAK (one of a kind and made with love by the fabulous Tom Miller)
Cabinets - Ikea
Gold hardware - Overstock.com
Granite counters - Home Depot
Floor/Back splash tile - Home Depot
Sink - Signature Hardware

So, there you have it. My new {beachy glam} kitchen makeover. It really is my dream kitchen and I couldn't be happier with how everything turned out. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I hope the reveal lived up to the hype. lol.
Happy happy happy!!!!!!!

{GROCERY} sign

Happy Fourth of July eve everyone :) Our 4th of July plans tomorrow will include a trolley ride, the beach, a bbq, and fireworks...oh, and root beer floats :)

I wanted to share a quick kitchen project I did recently. I made a sign :) Ooooh, ahhhh. lol.

First step, buy a board. I got mine at Home Depot and it was pretty poplar wood with a great color and grain to it. I had a 3.5' piece cut and was on my way.

I loved the grain and grayish color to the wood so I decided to keep it as is instead of painting over it.

Next step, pick a font.
I printed my BIG letters out individually on card stock.

Then I cut them out...

And traced them on my wood board using a pencil.

I used basic acrylic craft paint to fill in the letters...

After they were completely dry, I took out my palm sander and went to work. Once the initial distressing was done, I made a white paint/water mixture and sort of "white-washed" the whole piece to give it more of an aged look.

Here is the final product :)

close-up shot of the lettering...

And here is a shot of it from the doorway of the kitchen....

(& a teaser kitchen cabinet shot).

I was trying to wait till we got our new kitchen windows before I did any reveals. Alas, it is taking WAY too long and I am getting impatient. Kitchen reveal will be on Monday (with old windows). I'm soooooo excited to show it to you!!!!

Have a happy and safe 4th everyone :)

Burlap flag o' Comfort

Hello there friends. Are you annoyed with me for leaving you hanging on the kitchen reveal? Do you not really follow me anymore because I never have new posts? Well, if you are out there, I promise the kitchen reveal with happen sooooon. There are just a couple finishing details that need to happen before I show her off :) Stay tuned, k!?

Moving on.
Burlap. Comforting? Wha!?

O.k. You know those moments as a mom when your head is spinning, your temper is boiling up, and you just need to take a big deep breath and calm down before you explode. I know this feeling all too well (remember, I'm the mom that yells). The Summer "non-routine" was starting to get to me just as the crafty urge struck. I remembered one of my "stuff to make" pins from long ago and I knew it was a must.

"It's O.k."

I got my tools set up (including: sewing machine, iron, glue gun, spray paint etc) and got to work.

First I took my dowel and ball caps outside and spray painted them, what else, gold. While those were drying, I ironed my burlap (wrinkly from not being stored properly, ugh) and cut it to size.

I used my sewing machine to sew around the edges as well as sew a rod pocket (sorry for the lack of pictures, I never claimed to be a good tutor).

Next, I sewed from fancy trim along the bottom.

 After all the sewing was done, I printed the letters out on card stock and cut them out. I used them as stencils and traced them right onto my burlap.

After that I just filled in the outlines with acrylic paint and called it a day :)

I'll apologize again for my poor tutorial skills and skip to the end:

 

Now, when I reach my boiling point, I can look up at this comforting burlap sign, take my deep breath, and calm the heck down. lol.

Happy Summer everyone!!!

Crafty Quickies

Happy Monday everyone. Just wanted to pop in to share a couple quick projects that I've been working on (if you follow me on Instagram "arichardson79," you've already seen these). Nothin' fancy, just a few easy "smalls". Take a look:

First, I bought Rustoleum's glitter spray paint when I was at Home Depot and it didn't disappoint.

I just taped off the bottom of a mason jar and made is sparkly :)
Oh, and look at how BIG this peony is!!

It was the size of my head...maybe bigger. Lol. So pretty!

Next, i decided I wanted to spruce up my utensil holder so it will fit in with my new snazzy kitchen (reveal coming sooooon). It was just a basic metal canister thingy (sorry - I don't have a true before pic). First I spray painted it white. The next day I used some washi tape to tape off a design (herringbone). then I sprayed the whole thing gold.

Not a perfect tape job, but I think it turned out cute :)

I didn't get a before pic of this one either (fail) but my sister gave me an old vanity mirror that she wasn't using anymore. I turned it into a counter-top chalkboard :)

Aqua, of course :)

So, that's it. A few little randoms. lol.
Here's a {dreamy} kitchen teaser pic for ya :)

Yay yay yay!!!

Have a great week everyone :)

A keeper, no matter what

Hi friends, happy Monday! I spent this past weekend camping and whitewater rafting (kid free). We had a great time getting away but now it's back to the grind. We are nearing the end of the school year which always seems to be a hectic time. We are still in the midst of our kitchen remodel. Our counter tops and back splash go in Fri and Sat. After that, the custom hood will be the last piece of the puzzle. Can't wait to show the reveal pics :)

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you have probably seen my {favorite} French kitchen buffet. I have had it in my kitchen since 2010 and have loved it dearly. The curvy lines, all those spacious drawers. It really has been a favorite piece of mine since I bought it. (note: I think my "styling" has come along way since 2010. Just sayin').

As I mentioned previously, we are currently in the midst of remodeling our kitchen (hence the faux Spanish tiles in the pic above. I love you mom, but I wasn't a fan when you picked those out for Nana's house). Well, as luck would have it, our new kitchen floor plan no longer has enough space for my precious buffet.

I have been wanting a new tv stand for a loooooong time. The one we have been using isn't too terrible, just your basic IKEA tv stand. My hubby thought the buffet would be too big to use as a tv stand, but I had other ideas :)

This pic below isn't the best "before" pic, but you can at least see the tv stand (I was crafting at night while watching tv) lol.

I'll get to the point here. With a few minor tweaks, we now have a fabulous new tv stand :)

We just removed 2 of the top drawers for the components and painted the inside black. Luckily the top part under the drawers was solid so we didn't even have to add a wood shelf. Easy peasy!

Here is the big picture for ya...

This pic below shows the black chair currently in the room (bottom left). Along with the black chalkboard, I think Frenchy fits right in :)

Likey?? Likey! lol. That's it, just wanted to share our little {easy} big impact transformation with you.

Happy week everyone :)