Life After a Kitchen Remodel

It only seemed fitting having Cheryle over as our first dinner guest because without her help, where would we be? The table, covered in so many photos with the quilt, reclaimed it's former role as a dining space.

Her husband David had just left for a trip to Germany, so, although we would have loved for him come, he was not available. Nonetheless, a good time was had by the three of us. Did I tell you how much I love cooking in my new light and bright space? Of course I did!!!

Finally, we had a good long chat with Matt and Tom, with Tom wanting a tour of the kitchen, albeit on my phone. He, like probably all of you, is slightly skeptical that I can keep the spice cabinet looking like this:

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.......

When Fallon and Bill came by I mentioned to Fallon that maybe having the spices and all my magnets in one corner was a wee bit much? Her response? In her opinion it gives my kitchen character--just what I wanted to hear! Some people, while traveling bring home souvenirs; me, I bring home magnets!

I mentioned that B needed some saw sharpening done, so he took his blades to Dan's Saw Sharpening on Orange Avenue.

The router blade shown needed it as well after all that drawer making! There's a funny story about that saw......when we were so very young, I wanted to have a baby, while B wanted a table saw, so we decided to have both! Thus, Matthew was born 38 years ago, as was the table saw he is still using.

I mentioned the constant rain during our project, and I was not exaggerating--the rainiest September in a century. The pool looked mostly like this during the month.

It is sad because usually September is such a great month for swimming, however, I was in it only briefly, mostly after mowing the lawn because it was still very hot in spite of the rain. We finally left the house to do a few errands, one of which was a trip to Ikea, naturally, after a downpour.

I picked up some very, very thin plastic cutting boards to use in lieu of shelf paper, or make that drawer paper. At one dollar a piece they are quite the bargain and can be removed for cleaning. Whether I will ever actually do that remains to be seen! While we were in the vicinity we popped into Kirklands to see one of my pieces which I'd seen on their website while fooling around on the iPad. In truth, my version is color so the credit goes to the great team at SD.

My friend Karen will recognize this one, except she has the original version. Some of the artists are not happy with any changes to their work, however, I'm not one of them. I've always wanted an editor and now I have one!

Also, while we were working in the kitchen, our new WaWa opened! You may recall that we learned to love WaWa while working over at Bill's house for all those days.

You can't beat their sandwich options!

Dana asked if I would take some photos at the building she manages, archiving the look of the Church Street Exchange before the escalators are removed, in fact that is happening today.

Finally, life is coming back to the building with multiple tech companies moving in, one of which rented the entire second floor. Back in the day, this was quite a place, however, in more recent years it has been mostly vacant.

It was good to see it being used once again albeit in an entirely different way. Shops and tourists packed the space before Disney and Universal discovered that if they built their own nighttime spots, people would come, and they did, leaving Church Street a ghost town.

It seems as if as quickly as I noticed my hair falling out, it has stopped, or at least slowed way down. Perhaps Pam's sister was right after all. While we were working away in the kitchen, our cardinals quit losing their feathers as well, looking mighty sharp don't you think?

So, here's the Mrs.

I could not resist posting the above photo! I've never actually gotten one from the back, in spite of taking hundreds of cardinal photos. I just love that little shot of red! Here she is from the front.

What else is new? FSU won on Saturday, not looking one bit like a championship team, AND, we had a cold snap!! The market was packed with people enjoying what we call chilly weather and the abundant sunshine.

Now we are all caught up! Can you stand one more photo of the kitchen? Please say that you can.

Happy days are here!

How About Orange?

Today I came across this awesome blog called How About Orange. Need I say more?

Perhaps you are new to this blog and if so you may not know how much I love the color orange. So much so that I now have SIX orange lamps in my house! SIX? Yes, and I'm offering no apologies.

While watching the Olympics I went through a stack of magazines which had been piling up. Corrine, my dear 86 year old neighbor, gives me both Southern Living and Good Housekeeping after finishing them each month. Love recycling like that don't you? Now I know what you are thinking--Good Housekeeping? Believe me, it's an excellent resource for all sorts of things besides cleaning, which as everyone knows, unlike orange, I'm not a fan, despite my last post. By the way, when Nancy called this morning she asked if I'd oiled my teak tables, to which I replied--"are you kidding?" "I vacuumed the sofas, isn't that enough???"

So while leafing through the above magazines I came across an orange lamp at JC Penny, renamed to sound hipper, JCP. Well, hip might be a stretch, but I can sure see they are trying.

I want stores like this to continue doing business. I hate that everything as we've known it is going by the wayside. James Cash Penney was certainly an interesting character, and whether or not this is true, while David was studying economics, he learned that JC Penney was one of the first retailers to issue credit cards. Furthermore, Sam Walton began working at JC Penney in 1940, of course, later on starting Wal Mart. Time will tell if Ron Johnson, formerly a brainchild at Apple, will be able to turn the company around. Okay--enough of a history lesson. Back to the story...

I went to the store at Florida Mall, only to discover they did not have the lamps pictured in the magazine. They did, however, have one orange lamp that pleased me. That sounds strong, but seriously, if you had looked as often as I have to replace aging bedroom lamps, you would understand. I wanted high wattage so my aging eyes can read in bed at night, not too big to fit on a nightstand, and of course, they needed to look good. So, voila--they arrived last night and here you are:

Cute huh? The fact that they were only $45 each added to their allure.

While grocery shopping last Friday I bought a small bunch of sunflowers at Publix. Is there anyone who doesn't love sunflowers? If so, shame on you! They are so bright and cheery! So, here's the thing, when I purchase flowers, I try multiple ways to create a beautiful photograph, failing more often than not. Despite trying multiple scenarios, I'm afraid my sunflower photographs fall short. As in not quite ready for prime time.

I tried, Lord knows, I tried, but with any subject that has been photographed a million times, coming up with something new is MUCH harder than it seems. This morning I took one of them outside, setting it on the canoe in a bottle. Lo and behold, a yellow butterfly came to visit:

My goodness, who knew the yellow butterflies floating around had yellow heads as well as wings???

Speaking of GH, I tore this recipe out, and last night we had a salad made with cherries, Israeli couscous, mint, and celery.

Although the recipe called for barley, which I was out of, the substitution worked beautifully, and oh how happy I was that I found my cherry pitter in the back of the gadget drawer. The taste? Delicious!

Yesterday I made what I thought was going to be my second-to-the last trip to Palm Casual. Two chairs to pick up, two to drop off. But wait, the new WaWa was open on the corner of Silver Star and John Young Parkway. All the transplanted folks from the North East have been so excited WaWa was coming to town, so, of course, I had to see what the fuss was all about. I'm still not entirely sure, but it was kind of neat using this touch screen to order my sandwich.

Any sandwich for $1.99 during their grand opening was a deal too good to pass up! It just occurred to me that perhaps they get around the Spanish language problem with the pictures? I ate the sandwich at lunchtime and it was good but at the risk of angering some folks, not memorable.

Next stop Palm Casual. The young woman at the counter, after taking my last payment, mentioned that she had the worker cut four slings, and this time it would not take two weeks. Great news! When I drove to the back to pick the chairs up, the fellow who has been handling things said, if I wanted to wait about thirty minutes he would do the last two, saving me another trip. Yippee! I told him I needed to make a quick trip to the WalMart down the street--perfect! And it did. I got all four chairs, my new sink plug, and some fabric I couldn't resist.

Stripes to match the green chairs, and the new dress I made earlier today from the fabric.

Using a pattern from last year, I know the cotton will help keep me cool at the market, which by the way, Dana reported that, although we had very little rain at our house, the market got drenched. So happy to have missed all the drama! Bonus points for pockets in the dress!

It has rained like mad the last 24 hours, quite a bit overnight ,and then more this afternoon. This makes me, my plants, and my checkbook very happy. Maybe not as happy as orange but.......

P.S. Fans of Ira Glass might enjoy this interview. I love the way he described something as cunning, a very good word indeed.

P.P.S. I thought I'd try one of the fancy blog templates again--what do you think?