Trip Planning & my Bujo Planner

Does anyone get anxious before a trip?? I know I do all the time.  I get myself so worked up with everything that needs to be done for the weekend away that sometimes I opt out of going away at all and it’s like a huge sigh of relief, but even after all of that worry I know it’s worth the planning when I reach my destination, see all my missed friends and enjoy the adventure the weekend brings and I’m so glad I decided to go.  

I think to learning to embrace my enneagram 7 personality type is also helpful.  I plan on going into that further in another post, on another day, but one of our main commonalities is our ability to worry about everything and we are always looking for a safe place. 

 I am loving my "bullet journal" weekend list of the items I need to prep and don't want to forget.  I'm realizing I'll need to make a section for my volunteer slots.  I signed up for 2 spots, so I want to make sure they are easy to find along with a place for my hosts address and food plan. 

This past weekend was another one of those weekends for me.  I was super anxious about what is going to happen, who will I be housed with, will I be able to find my host and my way to and from the venues?  Will I be able to find an IKEA nearby so I can return the mirror they mailed me and it broke, super not happy with this.  All they need to do was wrap the mirror in a few rounds of bubble wrap and this could have all been avoided.  Now I have to drive there to exchange it and hopefully get it home without the glass breaking again.  Plus, I wanted to pick up some shelves for my kitchen wall.  That's my next step in organizing my kitchen.  However, I've been waiting for this mirror not so patiently for about 2+ months now and I really want it installed in my bathroom, like ASAP!   Anyways, these are some of the things I planned to do while some of the workshops were going on , workshops that I opted not to take for a few reasons, one just being it’s just to much to squeeze in a weekend for me anymore and so I let the kiddos who have tons of energy immerse themselves into the wonderful knowledge of our instructors in hopes that it rubs off on me while we dance.  Wishful thinking, I know. 

Haha.  Just realized I haven’t mentioned what I was doing this past weekend, my bad.  I made my way to Philadelphia, the city of love, for a workshop weekend for the DJX Fusion Exchange.  Though as I mentioned above I opted to skip the workshops.  Not that I don’t need them.  I would LOVEto take them, but money and time are just not in my favor.  I was really looking forward to spending that free time with some time with my Philly friends while the workshops are happening, sleeping in a little longer and reading my book, The Joy of Less, which has been sadly neglected this last month.  I want to finish it  so that I can graduate to the Kon Mari book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, which I’m super excited to start reading. I've been hearing some really great things about her methods.  She's so good she's never had a repeat client.  

I am also loving my weekly - to do list - spread so far.  i still need to work on my doodling, but the layout is def a plus for me.  

please note that none of my links are affiliate links.  They are just items I like and recommend.  also this was written prior to my trip and I choose to wait and publish it after my trip.    

a fresh color palette

The last few days have been pretty productive for me in the home to do lists, including finishing my half bath.  I honestly can't believe it's done especially since I've really been dreading re-painting the walls, but it was inevitable with all the holes that needed patching from changing out the towel bars and hooks and then a few weeks ago my cats decided to climb the curtains and yep it all came crashing down.  

Such happiness seeing  my IKEA print shining brighter against crisp white walls.   

The desire to change my walls from Behrs Peanut Butter to Martha Stewart's Vapor came about when I was inspired by the color scheme in this red, white and teal laundry makeover.  My favorite part of the design was the red knobs.  After scowering her post I found out where she had bought them, but after getting to the check out I stopped when the shipping for a pair of $3 knobs was going to be $10.  This meant I was going to DIY my own red knobs.  It was actually pretty practical since I already had the primer and red spray paint on hand and my cabinet already had the same shape knob only it was a pink flower ceramic knob.  It took several layers of primer even after lightly sanding it down for it to stick and then a few coats of red before I was happy with them. I do still need to add a layer of a clear sealer so they are more shiny than rough. 

I also had high hopes of using the sew now, sew wow fabric by Alexander Henry that Anna used for the ironing board cover, but outside of a toilet set cover I couldn't think of anything in the room that I could practically use it for and I didn't want to just frame it.  So you can image my happiness when I came across this $10 dove poster art on one of my trips to IKEA

 source 

I've yet to hang up a towel rail or hook, because after sealing seeing the bathroom so clean and crisp I didn't like how my IKEA ENNUDEN towel rack looked.  Plus, I really love the ceramic hook that Anna had in her laundry room, so until I can find one similar I'll continue to drape the towel over the cabinet door.

I used command strips to hang the mirror and IKEA RIBBA frame so I didn't add more holes.  I really should buy stock in them, because most of my frames and art are hung up by command stripes.  They really do save me from having so many holes in the wall from the countless times I've changed my mind.  I just used the Velcro stripes for the IKEA frame.  I always cut the Velcro in half vertically and use 1 strip for each side.  this way I get more use out of each strip, especially with the back edging being so thin.  However, for the mirror I opted to use another version, one that the wire could hang from.  

  

I also think that I will opt to using bar soap rather than a dispenser.  I really hate dispensers, especially if I decide to change out the soap.  Plus, I think it will keep it simple.

I'm quite happy with using my vintage telephone / record stand since it's not been very useful in the living room.  It's far to light and my cats like to catapult from it, which usually results in it falling down and anything on it.  This way they can't knock it down and it holds all my extra towels instead of them being on the back of the toilet tank.  I've also added the air fresher on top since taking the photo. 

The MYRVIKEN hand towels and PERSBY area rug are both from IKEA..  I tried looking on their site, but it looks as if they are no longer available.  I did just purchase sometime after summer and the hand towels were a new design then so they may still be available in stores. 

I didn't take out the anchors for my IKEA ENUDDEN toilet roll holder as I new I wanted it back and love that it holds to rolls so we don't have to change it out as often.  I also like that it has a "top shelf" which allows you to utilize the space.  At one point I had the air fresher there, but I really like my ceramic dogs so for now I have them resting there.

I do love how the whole look came out and it's far more refreshing and open and better liking to my Scandinavian design tastes compared to how it looked prior with the Behr Paint as you can see before with my last photographed update in May.

May 4th update

Below you can see my priming progress.  It was definitely a challenge painting this small and cramped space, but after two coats of primer and a coat of Vapor I'm sooo glad I did it.

I decided to just paint the bath walls white, but the only white I had was a matte finish, so I thought this could be a good way to veer from the Picket Fence by Martha Stewart that I painted the dining room, because it was stark white so I decided to go with my original white Vapor which has a slight gray tint to it.

I'm also glad that I  figured out how to paint behind the light fixture without having to disconnect the wires. It wasn't fun, but I'm glad for it.   

It feels good to finally have the walls painted.  I only needed one coat of Vapor, which I was very thankful for and after adding all the hardware and accessories I'm very happy with how it looks.

a disappointing row of campers

It was quite an adventure the weekend of the 11th, especially with my car breaking down Friday on the Carlisle Army Barracks when my mom took it for a doctors appointment.   The car spent several days there after trying to have it towed with USAA, but the towing company they chose didn't have updated insurance papers with them so the guards, due to protocol, couldn't allow him on the base.  It was pretty disappointing since we waited over 2 hours for the truck to get there, but the guard was very nice about it and suggested that we head over to the main office to inform them that the car would be at the clinic parking lot for a few more days so they don't tow it. 

We had to use USAA since I had just added towing on my insurance the day prior.  We both thought I had it on the Mazda, but turns out I didn't follow through.  I couldn't call my insurance company after only requesting the insurance the day prior so we called my mom's insurance.  It still made sense since she was the one driving the car and in the end it did end up in our favor and we didn't have to pay the additional mileage after the 13 free miles.  You know you have a good insurance company when they cover the additional mileage, because the same company who came out Saturday tells you Monday that they don't go on military bases and a whole new company came out without any issues.  We know that either a) none of their trucks papers were updated or b) they didn't like when my mom told them that she refused to pay the additional mileage because now she had to drive back out to Carlisle, which is a 30 minute drive all because they weren't prepared to go on a military base and the insurance company agreed with us.  

With all of this happening Saturday it killed most of my day and I didn't make it out to the fabric store until about 7pm, and so it was sometime after 9pm until we managed to make our way to the basement to add more items to sell at the flea market.  I had planned on going to bed early, but finally shut off the lights sometime after midnight.  Mom had headed to be a little before me, but when the alarm went off we were both at a slow crawl and didn't manage to leave the house until 8am, an hour later than our start last week.   We did also load my car before heading out since the van was pretty full and we wanted to add a few more items to our inventory this week and again hoping to leave with a few less items then what we came with a few extra dollars in our pockets.

When we drove up the hill and around the first lot of campers we had anticipated seeing another vendors already set up, but instead saw more campers.  Yep, the RV show that was just supposed to be next weekend was also showing this weekend and taking up the back lot for more campers.  It was bad enough that we were starting our home purge at the tale end of the Harrisburg's flea market season and then to lose another week it was a bit of a blow to our progress.

There was however a single vendor who had set up along the main roadside to the market and according to the RV entrance guard was doing well with stopping traffic since everyone was under the impression the flea market was happening this weekend.   We were up a creek and trying to figure out what our best option was a) stay here and set up like the guard suggested or b) drive to our potential option where guaranteed traffic would be and other vendors.   Luckily my mom suggested that we look up to make sure we could just show up and set up like we could here, because they wasn't the case.  had we of driven there we would have been turned away due to not preregistering with them and not having a tax id number. 

In the end we were pretty satisfied with our decision to stay, because we left with what we made last week and a few less toys and home items. 

{weekend organizer} creating simplified + organized files p1

part 1: starting the purging process
 
I feel good tonight knowing that I've purged a little more in my office / spare room / workout nook on the 3rd floor.  It's kind of our catch all space and I really hate that about it.  I really want it to be a functional space where I can pay bills, workout, and get things ready to post on ebay/etsy/craigslist.   My workout area is actually the only place I like up here, and I redid that a few weeks ago, though I haven't gotten around to blogging about it.  I actually have a lot of posts I want to publish, but I haven't felt like typing them since I tend to write a book and would love to learn how to master the short hand of writing posts quickly, and still have something worth reading when I'm done.

I have several boxes with stuff piled in them, and I really had just been avoiding them and for some reason while looking for a Martha Stewart Paint pamphlet, which I didn't find, I decided to go through and sort some of the piles.  I was also hoping I would find a recipe for the one-piece bathing suit I ended up not wearing for my lake house trip (yep, another post I've yet to write), but no luck.  However, I did end up with several piles of now semi-organized papers.

I don't have a before photo since this wasn't planned and my phone was floors down on my dining room table, but just image the drawer 3/4 full of paper piles and the weaved basket overflowing w miscellaneous items and 3 shirts.    

I ended up with a few piles 1) doctor/monthly bills paid automatically 2) online purchase and non-home bills 3) work papers 4) paper recycle 5) to be shredded 6) coupons and misc papers 7) empty file folders and I even managed to sort through my receipt bin. 

Luna decided to make himself a bed out of my paper recycle bin after I was done and then later ended up in the shoe box.

Now that these piles are sorted I can finally get to reorganzing my personal files, which I plan to do similarly to Fabulous Organized Home and her post on how to Simply & Organize Your Personal Files.   I found it 11 days ago and her site has been helping me to figure out how to organize my mini-weekend projects so I can actually start to accomplish things instead of just surfing pinterest collecting really cool ideas.   

Currently I use a binder system, which I love using at work, but I've not had the same success with it at home so I'm looking forward to the change.  What are some filing systems you've had success with?

Steps to complete:

1) buy folders & labels

2) buy colored pencils 

3) create labels

4) put in alpha order & insert into file drawer.

{Weekend Organizer} Evolution of My MCM Kitchen

I'm super excited to be showing you how my kitchen has evolved this last year and a half, and how much I'm really starting to love being there.  It's funny how simple things were with the previous owner; she had a very minimal furniture layout so the spaciousness created a very inviting atmosphere that we lost for a while, but are slowly bringing back.

 Here is what the Kitchen looked like with the previous owner. 

This is what it looks like now!!!

I'm really excited about this sunflower fabric bag and I plan to use it as wall art above the credenza.  I just need to cut down some plywood or foam core to fit an extra IKEA frame that I  accidentally broke the glass to, but it's the prefect size for this piece.  I'm thinking of painting the frame either orange or yellow to contrast with the wall.  I also plan to wrap a layer of batting between the plywood and fabric to add some dimension before installing it above the credenza.  I'm also on the look out for a unique shelving unit to hold my collection of s/p shakers and owls.

I'm excited to finally have a home where my vintage ceramic canisters can be displayed.  Now I just need to figure out what to put in them since they don't seal.  I have been using the flour canister for my coffee pods, which seam to be working well.

I love my got milk? jug that supposed to I think be used for creamer, but it doesn't seal and since I don't drink much coffee at home it's not the best use for it.  I love that it fits my dish sponge and scrub brush and so far it's working very well.  I also added the sink stoppers to the hooks where my sponge and brush were residing. My mom even likes the new set up, which is saying a lot since we agree to disagree most of the time.

Raggedy Ann is safely being displayed in the corner to the left of the sink since there is nothing there & it looks kind of bare.   I decided to swap out the solid curtain for these sheer panels from IKEA, which I actually kind of loving.  Plus it works well with the $1 macrame, that's housing my fake plant and IKEA planter.  I also really like looking at my owl s/p shakers (currently only for display) every time I get bread.  They really pop next to the avocado green napkin holder.  I'm also really glad that my bread box once again contains bread!!  I was using it for spices and was using a smaller wood bread box for a while, but this is a bar better fit.

the beginning of a happy space 

Things really started to come together in March when I started to focus on being happy in my home.  This is a nice home and I want to treat it well, but I don't plan on spending more than 4 years here.  I simply wanted something simple that I can build equity in so wanting to make mega changes and spending money on a house I don't plan to stay longer in is really silly and unpractical.

Organizing is a passion of mine, and one of the reason's I went to school for design.  I learned a lot from my days in the field and know that there are small changes that can be made to create a welcoming and tidy home and I'm loving how close my home is becoming a happy space.  

By having a design plan it helps us to know where were going in the space so we save ourselves stress, time and money by not buying items we "think" will work and later regret.  Plus, we have it pretty easy these days in creating a plan and design board with the help of Pinterest (free) and Photoshop Elements ($100 aka the poor mans Photoshop) plan so we know when we've found the right piece(s).

---------------------insert kitchen wall elevation--------------------------------

With my design plan and elevation in hand of the window wall I knew when I saw this 3 piece dresser set at the Salvo in Camp Hill that it would be perfect. 

I mean check out the number of drawers on that bad boy.  It had storage galore and my mind started racing with ideas.  I still didn't pounce on it Saturday night, because we found out that they were having a 50% sale Monday for all their furniture and they're closed Sunday's so we decided to wait and measure just in case.  Yes, I forgot to add the dimensions of the wall and window to my design plan, so measuring once we got home was the first thing I did.    They were right on with how I wanted it to fit, and the we decided that the 2 end tables would go in the 3rd floor catch all room for now.  I think they will make nice storage for our printer + supplies and other office storage.  

I'm VERY glad we waited, especially since Monday morning we scored this 3-pc dresser set for only $40!!!  Oh, did I mention that it's by Lane Furniture, double score!  

This thrifted mid-century mod dresser post by Dream Green DIY came to mind when I saw this set to, so I plan to do a similar DIY and also add some fabric to the removable door panels in the middle before the end of summer.  It's going to be quite a task to take on, but so worth it to see this baby transform into a mcm beauty.  

The evolution has definitely been a challenge, but I'm thankful how well it's moving toward a happy space and finding the balance in my home.  

learning to be content 

I've even grown to love my wonky wall, which I've been wanting to do something with for a year now.  It was such a wasted space, but now I love the simplify of the space and that I can hang my broom and dust pan so they are easily accessible, and paired with my garbage can.  I've also found a home for some retro wall art there and my orange clock.

the kitchen evolution

 Here's a reminder of how it looks now

Things have come and gone in the kitchen, but I believe that this new layout is going to stay for a long while, as it seems to be working quite well for me.  There are no annoyances and things are tidy in their place creating an open room, which allows my counter tops to be free and clear of clutter.

At first I started by installed IKEA curtains across the entire wall, then put a bookshelf between the windows and decided to paint the walls Behr Enchanted blue, which I later regretted.  It really reminded me of California surfer blue.

After that design flopped I decided in December 2012 to swap out the bookshelf for a cubby shelf,  add art on the wall above and then added a small makeshift table in the middle.  The cubby was far more practical then the bookshelf, but it still didn't hold what I needed, and with everything being exposed (sadly this was the idea) I realized that what I really needed didn't aesthetically fit in the space.  

I also found these adorable vintage ceramic canister at the Salvo and added them to the main counter space.

This April I decided to change out the wall color and painted them Endive by Martha Stewart.  I took out the items between the window and added my vintage Formica table top to create a simple eating area, along with adding a pair of curtains to one of the windows. 

A few weeks later I added an IKEA Billy Bookcase that had been housed in the living room, before going to the dining room and now founds it's way to the kitchen so I could store more things vertically, but again it was a bit annoying having to work around the table.

I also displayed my made in the USA vintage coffee cups.

{Weekend Organizer} Run Strong

As a designer I have so many ideas running though my head at one given time, so it's nice when I finally see something come to fruition and my running inspiration wall is one of them. When my bed was angled I had planned exactly where I was going to put whatever inspiration I needed up using, but since moving my bed I had a design relapse. It took me a few weeks to figure out how to create before an asymmetrical design while still being visible when I wake up and I'll I had to do was move my mirror down a few feet.  Though this was after my bedroom spruce up since the last bedroom design.  
.

I had a few ideas at first and wanted to use some crafty ideas, but ended up keeping it simple and I'm really glad how it turned out.  Here are some art ideas I had thought about adding to the wall 1) run 2) felt banner 2) run strong 

Finally when I did a spurce up in my bedroom on 26th of March my running inspiration wall finally happened and I have to say I'm pretty happy wiht the results.  It's simple, but says what I need.

Sources:
Large Frame: IKEA ODBY

Art: Quote by Gossip Girl. 
Live: Marshall's 
Med. Frame: IKEA Ribba White 
Art: Liberate Your Inner Awesome - found online
R: Cardboard letter is from Micheal's and I spray painted it a high gloss white
Embroidery hoop I found at a thrifty store after seeing this DIY
Green Clock: I had this on hand and don't really remember where or when I bought it.

View from my bed

I knew I wanted the clock there so I could read it, but it just didn't look right until I added the embroidery hoop.  It really adds some symmetry and I love the over all. I plan to add a real bookcase where the rubbermaid laundry shelf currently is to hold my shoes and workout books.  I may even bring down all my magazine, but maybe not.  I just have a plain white cheap 3 shelf bookshelf that I plan to paint and fabric the back of the wall with some fabric I found at JoAnn's.  The fabric really helps to inspire, but still adds a feme-retro look.

What ways do you have to create inspiration to run or workout?

{Weekend Organizer} What's Hiding under the House Part 1

It's always hard to throw things away or even to give them away, but sometimes it;s necessary to let go in order to maintain your sanity.  My home has been creating a lot of stress and strain for me.  Mostly, due to my mom living with me and having to deal with not only my mess, but her's as well.  She also comes with a lot of baggage - clutter - junk - things she doesn't want to part with and trying to magically find a place to put these items.  This mess seems never ending between her room and the basement, as outside of that the house is pretty empty.  My room I'm sure could be less of some items, but for now it works and I keep it neat 90% of the time.  Mostly, my items are clothes that need to be put away or items from my closet that I'm going to post on poshmark or items for my etsy shop.

Surprisingly, we worked well together and there was very little to no arguing happening.  We took time to sweep once an area was cleared and took some items upstairs to be discarded in the garbage.  

Stuff that is unused, yet kept, requires space and management.
And time.
Lots of time.
Moving it around. Cleaning it. Working around it. Moving it around.
Do I even need to mention the money I've wasted on buying "organizers"
to store this unneeded stuff?
Goodbye House, Hello Home. 

On the 6th my mom and I headed to the basement to attack the overflowing mounds of clutter.  We didn't by any means get nearly finished with the job, as this will take I believe a few months to actually tame, but we did mean to clear out most of the main floor clutter and set up the new pantry area and made room for the freezer so it can be removed from my backyard deck

I took a few before photos and they're pretty shameful, but here they are:

TOP LEFT: 
Here is the view when you come down the stairs and look to the left.  Before we moved a few things around it contained my workbench - it's the large cardboard box on the left - lots of empty boxes to be used for goodwill runs and at some point storing items.

At the back far right - not visible - is our electrical panel so it would be nice to be able to access that as well.  Down the center is a black garage rack that stores our household cleaners, bug sprays and emergency supplies.

Then behind this shelf is my actual storage.  Things like empty DVD cases, electronic empty boxes, summer/winter clothing storage and ice/roller skates and some Christmas storage.  All items I use, but some are more seasonal items.

Behind the AC is a table with kids toys that my mom just had to have thinking she could resell them for a profit, however, several yard sales and Craigslist ads and they are still sitting in my basement.  These NEED to go.  Seriously I have no kids and I'm not planning on it so I'm not sure why she insists on keeping them.

BOTTOM LEFT: 

This is the view of that same area above after we made some adjustments.  The upclose can be found at the TOP RIGHT.  We have a few of these black wire shelves that we purchased at Walmart for around $30 and thought they would work well for storing items in the basement, but some of the storage uses just weren't very functional for me.  We had been using one to store our extra food items aka our pantry, but the food didn't sit well on it and some items fell frequently.  So we found another cabinet that I had in my dining room and moved it down there for the food pantry.  So far I like how it looks - shown below - and we took the shelf we were using back to the back wall and are now using it for car cleaning supplies and maintenance items.  

The black wire shelving on the right now stores our household cleaners and emergency supplies.  

I do like so far where the shelves are and they wont be in the way of my workbench when I set that up, plus, I like not having the car oils near the food.  This is a far as we got with this area, and the right side didn't even get touched or under the stairs.  I still plan to find basket organizers to better separate the the cleaners and car supplies so that way the anti-freeze, oil, and engine fluids are separated in labeled bins so it not only looks neater, but will be far easier to find.  I will most likely use dollar store bins for this or see if any of the bins we've emptied will work.    

 This area is actually where we started in our clean out today.   Definitional an improvement and you can now see the window wall to the front of the house :)

TOP LEFT:

This was the straight on view when you walked down the stairs - YIKES I know.  I dreaded coming down to the basement because everything that had been organized was behind new clutter that my mom had brought down from her room. 

On the back wall we had empty household boxes like for comcast and humidifiers that were in use, dog toys, treats, a bin for baby shower gifts, the glass screens for the kitchen window and the back door.  To the right is where we had our pantry storage, but it's not visible due to the brown cabinet that is hiding it.  We used the brown cabinet to store our breakfast items and my moms mixed drink packets.  We had to hide these items from the mice when they were creating a home in our basement.  However, we had the holes sealed up and killed about 10 of them including their babies and since then haven't had any so I think were safe with taking the food out.  I'd rather store appliances and dishware in covered storage so we don't have to wash them every time we want to use the.

BOTTOM LEFT:

Here is the new home for our pantry and the wooden cabinet I had in my dining room.  It works far better to keep the food on, and the solid shelves keeps them from falling down.  The filing cabinet keeps my moms flaxseed in one drawer - yes the whole drawer contains flaxseed + 3 hard containers that are on the pantry shelf that I couldn't fit in there.  The top drawer contains dried fruits and nuts.  The 3 drawer Rubbermaid is filled with teas and tea mixes.  I decided to use the coolers for storage so the yellow one contains extra ziplocs and plastic wrap and the big blue one contains my vitamin waters that are not sealed in a large pack.  Those are just stacked on the floor next to the teas. 

The electical outlets are over here since I had originally planned on putting my workbench where the pantry cabinet is, but it will still workout since the freezer will be moved down here.  The plan is to move it to the right of the pantry since it's hinged on the right and it really shouldn't be next to our HVAC system.  Currently, my dining chairs are to the right of the pantry, but they will be moving to my dining room in the next two weeks once I get the table set back up.  

it's taken me a week or two to clear out the dining room so I could make room for the table as it's pretty big and my dining room is pretty small.   I look forward to the dinner parties I will be having once the table is set up and the kitchen gets better organized on my window wall. 

BOTTOM RIGHT:

Now that all that mess is clear out you can finally see the wall that faces the street.  I know it's pretty ugly, but this summer we hope to make some improvement to that by 1) having a professional come in and repoint the brick foundation on the side walls so we can then 2) use Behr paint's version of drylock to seal up all the holes and create a moisture barrier and hopefully keep the basement from being so dusty.  Then once that's all done we plan to 3) vacuum ceiling so that we can then add insulation between the beams, which we hope will help to regular the temperature.  However, before we can do this we have to clear out some of the items we don't need or use so the professional has room to move around.

{Weekend Organizer} Martha and Endive

It's been a whole months since I painted the kitchen, so I apologize for taking this long with the Martha Saves the day Series.  I've just been distracted and I know how many photos I took that day, and I think I've just been avoiding the whole post. Though If you've been following me on instagram, then you've already seen these photos. 

The day was long and hard and it'snot a day I want to go back and redue.  Though I am very happy with the outcome and do look forward to actually finishing the kitchen.  It makes me excited to begin working on the rest of my living space colors so that everything will flow together.  Though looking at everything that I will be painting over is a bit overwhelming and currently I've decided to take a break from any major expenses to the house, including painting until I can sell more items.  We've been at a major stand still with our craigslist sales so it's been hard to bring in any extra money to justify spending on more paint.

My kitchen before. Today the plan is to clear this wall, remove all hardware, seal up the holes, blue tape & add a coat of kilz primer. Godbye California blue your time has come to an end.

Top Left + Right: my walls look like they have the chicken pox,lol. The Hardware has been removed & the entire wall has been sanded. I even used my putty knife to scrap some imperfections like dried paint drips & bubbling before I added the spackle. It was a lot more work, but it will be worth it when I start to paint.

Bottom Left:   Wall spackle finally dried & now I'm wiping down the walls & trim to clean up all the dust. The rag cloth was yellow & almost all blue & I'm only halfway done. I think the rag will be completely blue once I finish. Then once the walls dry I'll begin taping then yes, finally begin painting.

Bottom Middle: Spackle dustings all swept up.

Bottom Left: Kilz primer. Say bye bye California Surfer Blue (embellished blue by Behr)

The walls were wiped down, taped, & ready for primer.   It took 2 costs of Kilz Primer around the trim & the corners to cover the blue & now my hand is sore, but now for the super fun part using the roller w the extender stick for a smooth easy application.

Looks like I'll be up until midnight at least to complete the priming process. The Kilz didn't quite kill The California Surfer blue from hell. So another coat is required to give Endive by Martha Stewart complete freedom to shine in its glorious beauty. So next a Netflix movie to allow time for the primer to dry & a much needed rest.

After a movie break & about 30 minutes to get me off the couch the 2nd coat of primer is finished. Now to bed & tomorrow I'll paint the actual color.  The time 2am.  It took from 2pm to 2am just to get this far. 

Here is my wonky wall view with 2 coats of primer.  

I'm so looking forward to seeing Endive (color on left) on the wall tomorrow.  It really stands out against the primer.

The 2nd coat of primer looks better in the morning, now that its dry.

Let the painting begin!

Painted around the trim complete. Now for the roller.

Kitchen view wonky wall after. It's so pretty, & feels light & airy. It opens up the space so much.

Kitchen after deck view. Loving the color.  This is a more accurate view of the color. 

Once everything was finished I decided to move my formica  table form the dining room into the kitchen.  Figured it would help to determine if I wanted an island there for prepping.  So far it's a much lovelier view and I'm very happy with the outcome. 

The kitchen has yet to be completed as I still need to install wall shelves above the able and paint the whole other side of the kitchen.