Details and Fun

This entire post is being written because I have no one here on the Hill to get excited with me about some of the fun little details and decorating spots that I now have after our lengthy redo of the kitchen.  So here are some random things that I have had  a bit of fun with.

For the first time in a long, looong time, I got to decorate for fall!

My kitchen window sill is almost as good as a fireplace mantle.  I love the way the light comes in and makes everything sparkle and gleam.

I stacked some silver pieces and stuck a candle on them and then scattered some leaves from the yard and some dried flowers from my anniversary bouquet.

It had 6 gorgeous rosy red sunflowers in it and they dried beautifully!  So I kept them to scatter in my silver bowl full of fall.

 
This is a little vase that is tucked into the greenery on the left side of the window.  We must have a few million sweet gum balls scattered all over our land.  But this little vase holds four that are irreplaceable.

Four little sweet gum balls that hold a precious memory.  Early fall in 2012 Josh and I met Rae and the grands in a town about half way between us for a picnic in a park.  Our little Fletcher was still walking a baby wobble walk.  So Rae and I were following him around a walking track.  It happened to be covered in sweet gum balls.  Fletcher brought these to me one at a time with a very enthusiastic "SEE, Meme!"  every time.  It is so easy to forget the beauty and the wonder in the world and it is so precious to be reminded of that by a wee little boy that brings you a prickly little gem.  Or a little girl that brings you a bouquet of clover.

This is one of my favorite vases and it usually sits here,  I used it on the mantle for Thanksgiving and put the smaller one here.

But I like the way this fills the space better so it is already back here and right now is filled with dead branches.   I've had it forever and is one of the few blue pieces that never got packed away.  I can count on it being filled with a beautiful bouquet several times a year. It has been kind comforting to me over the years to look at it's gorgeous glaze and remember the last pretty flowers in it.   It deserves this spot!    

This is a little bit closer shot of the right side of the kitchen than I put in my Kitchen...Yes   post.

Right next to the sink is my little prep area that I had already shown here.  I switched smaller jars after I unpacked this one.  Rae brought me this little beauty from France.  This shot also gives you a glimpse at what I did to my switch and outlet covers. 

As you can see I did make changes to the knife block.  Mother's chickens are no longer visible, but I know they are there hiding under the blue paint.  Even hidden, they still make me smile with memories.

 My version of a monogrammed knife block.

 Sitting in the corner is a stack of Mother's plates with a good smelling candle and some fall goodness.  The pretty little ceramic dish hanging on the wall is another Rae gift from France.  See, I do have cobalt stuff from all over! The dish is a Kougelhopf ceramic cake mold from the Alsace region and I so had to google that to find it out.  She told me when she brought it home but neither one of us could remember.  That was way back before any grands! 

This is a pretty good shot of the back splash M put on the counter top also.  He did such an awesome job with them!

Here is my corners every day look.  My silver cake stand is holding most of my small blue bottles.  I did have them lined up on the window sill but I got very tired of wiping construction dust off of them.  The cobalt glass sitting on Mother's plates is one Karen found for me at a thrift store but I don't remember where. Texas, Illinois or Alabama?  K do you remember?  Anyway it has my babies spoons in it.  The 2 with the cobalt gems on them I found for my grandbabies to use.  Such a precious memory of my little curly haired Evie going to the drawer for her little spoon.   I just realized this was taken before I hung the cake mold.

Here is another shot with the cake mold and on the other side is a silver ladle that was Mother's.  She gave it to me with a couple of other small pieces years ago, while they were still in Texas.  I hung it with a small wire and plopped a gingerbread candle in it.  Makes that corner smell good!  Thank you for that idea Pinterest. The biscuits crock is the other side of the one I bought in Scotland.  Someday I really have to write about Scotland.  Just to annoy my daughter.

My canisters get the central spot next to Aunt Evelyn's rolling pin.  I made the Good Times Roll sign but right now it is just taped up because I can't decide whether to frame it or something else.  I kind of want to modpodge it on a canvas.   Ideas anyone?

 

Aunt Evelyn's rolling pin is hung with hooks J made me from a couple of old silver spoons.

Love them!   I covered the outlet plates with pages from a thrift store cookbook. And modpodge.  Love them too!

This little nook  next to my beloved cobalt KitchenAid mixer is another great spot for some fall fun.  Those little gingerbread candles smell awesome even not burning.  Even unlit?  Even not lit? Not even lit?  How do you say that?

And I can not believe I did not get a shot of Her Blueness the Mixer.  She is one of my favorites!

My framed recipes hang on the side of the oven cabinet above my baking center.  I made the Serenity sign to go with them.  This is my abbreviated version of the Serenity Prayer.  I use it often.

 Up top is a fun word I made from scrap book paper and 2x6s.  The pumpkins were only there for fall of course!

My daughter may or may not have given me a bit of a bad time about the punctuation.  While studiously ignoring her and her brother poking fun at their mother I did happen to overhear something about making even my decor a declarative sentence. 

On the left side of the sink sits some more cobalt goodness, of course! The lidded bottle has the rosary my sister in love Barb made for M 13 years ago.  The small jug holds a couple of silver butter knives that we really do use.  Or at least I do.

 

Love my cookie jar, last years Christmas gift from the grands! 

This corner is the coffee/tea station.  M uses an old fashioned percolator.   I have it on a tray so all he has to do is slide it out, use it and slide it back in.  Works, sometimes.

This side also is what I think of as sandwich central.  I keep the bread in a basket in the cabinet above the fridge, the toaster is tucked away out of site in the corner with my butter bell.

 Isn't the glaze beautiful.  If anyone comes to visit me Miracle Pottery is a place we have to go to.  M's folks and his sister Jan and BIL Den came to visit us several months back and we discovered it then.  It is an awesome place.  Jan got me the butter bell and I just love it.  Still thanking you Jan!

As some of you know I have a little problem with a quest towards absolute rightness when I do something crafty or creative.  Not perfection, uh uh, not me.  Just a quest.  As an example of that quest, just in case you did not pay attention to my outlet and switch covers, here is the one behind the coffee pot.  As seen when peeking past the cobalt tea pot.  See just a quest. 

It is so fun being able to have an actual centerpiece on the island.  We are all trying not to let it become just a piling place. 

The wooden piece  is a dish that Josh carved out of a piece of a neat log he found out in the woods between his house and ours.

You can see the carving from this end a little better and also the little legs he put in notches in the bottom.  He made the whole thing by hand, scraping and smoothing and then sanding and polishing it down to a satiny finish.  No power tools involved.  It is really a work of art and I've waited for several years to have a good place to put this beautiful thing!

I put another good smelling candle in it, tucked some things from the woods in it and some fake stuff too.  It's sitting with a cobalt glass bowl filled with potpourri and a small silver Paul Revere bowl with another candle.  Josh found the glass bowl at a flea  market  we went to one day.  He was so excited to show it to me because it is blown glass and super heavy.

Another spot where I am having lots of fun is my chalkboard.

  
Here is my fall chalkboard.  We have a small blackjack oak at the edge of the woods straight out from my kitchen window.  It turned a brilliant orangey red and gold  this fall.  When I went out to gather a few leaves for the window sill, this leaf that is in my chalk heart was a brilliant spot on the pine needle covered ground.  Some little critter had chewed off the top of the middle lobe leaving it looking like a heart.  So I took advantage of its brilliance and gave it a stage.

We actually use the chalkboard for grocery lists and reminders.  Menus too when I get around to it.  And when my grands come,  it always gets a new look.  I love having it in there.

Before I show you the next photos of my fun, I want to show you a before shot to remind you of what was.  This is a shot taken across the dining room into the kitchen/family room.

There was no transition between the rooms.  Just an opening with drywall corners taped, mudded and painted.  The corners and edges were not painted the same color ending up with joinings that looked like this.

 
This still causes me to shudder when I see it.

I almost feel like the next photo should be accompanied by bugles and a drum roll.  Mentally insert them here please. This is the new transition between the kitchen/family room and the dining room.   

These are the beautiful columns my son built for me.  He will tell you that he only did what I told him to.  But I'm telling you he did it.  He took my vision and my dream and made it real. He did it and redid it when I didn't think it looked right.  He wanted it to look the way I wanted.  AND this was the very first time he had ever done any trim work. I can not even begin to describe how gorgeous they are.  I need an Aunt Barb word and my brain just does not work that way.

This next one is taken from the living room looking into the family room/kitchen.  The same area as the above before shot. This also gives you a shot of the new wall color in the dining room/living room, the old color is still next to the left pillar at the top.  It's green, no it's gray, no it's khaki.   It's all those depending upon the time of day.  I say it is a greenish greige.  It's a perfect color for the room and looks awesome framing the chocolate walls of the family room.  I picked it by  holding blue and white plates in front of samples.  It's called Prairie Grass so that made it even more perfect.

I love the pillars so much, they are beautiful and my son built them. There is just nothing else to say.  Well, except that the ledge also makes an awesome spot to decorate. 

I have some photos of some things I did for Halloween but this is already so long I will post them separately.  
 
If any of you did happen to go read the old post about Mother's Chickens and Waffles?  The rest of  Mother's chickens now adorn my laundry room and someday I will show them to you.  When I can get it cleaned up enough - it is the entry point for red mud!

And Mother?  It's now been more than four years and I still miss you every day.  I know you would love my kitchen.  Even though it is black and blue and not black and red.