Very Merry Christmas Cards

On Thanksgiving Day, we had my brother take our family picture for Christmas cards.  We were already dressed up and the recent snowfall was perfect timing.  Here are some of the "keepers."

 I chose the last two photos for the Christmas card.  I used PicMonkey to edit the photos and uploaded them to Shutterfly for the cards.

 And what to do with all the cards we receive?  I have been corralling them in this vintage log planter I found at an antique store.

It also houses some vintage caroling booklets and tea bags.

And here are some photos I took at my mom's house for her Christmas cards.  She decided to capture some shots of her Christmas-y vignettes.

And again, I edited them with PicMonkey to make them resemble postcards.

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Kitchen Featured on Remodelaholic

 Today my kitchen makeover is being featured by Remodelaholic.  Hop on over to read all about the process and to see more kitchens with two-tone cabinets.

Homemade Ninja Turtle Costume

My son knew right away that he wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for Halloween this year.  So I immediately started to brainstorm how to make that costume.  I was so happy with how last year's piñata costume came out that I knew I wanted to make a homemade costume again.  Here's how it turned out.

Raphael!

And here's a quick breakdown:

And know that garden tools can be TMNT weapons too :)

Hiiii-yaaa!

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Senior Pictures

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking my little brother's senior pictures.  I had so much fun!  And I want to say that he had a little fun too :)

Here's a sampling of my favorites.

These first two were taken in my parents' backyard.

My brother is awesome at playing the guitar.

The rest of the pictures were taken in Milwaukee, in the Third Ward area.  It gave us so many great industrial elements to the photos, like this cream city brick.

And how perfect is this quote that was painted on a building?  Great inspiration for a senior!

I'm pretty proud of myself, since I'm an amateur photographer just starting out.  It was a great day and a special memory that was made.

Linking up with Simple Things Sunday

Printing Instagram Photos

I have hundreds of Instagram pictures and have always thought about getting them printed.  And then I found this awesome vintage photo album at a flea market and the square photo pockets seem to be made for Instagram pics.  So I did some research on a few companies that print Instagram photos and decided to go with Printstagram.  You can choose from 2 different sized prints that come out to about 25 cents a photo.  Not bad!  They also offer things like calendars, stickers and books- all using your Instagram photos.

And today, here is what I got in the mail.  144 prints of some of my favorite Instagram shots.  This is the photo album I found while flea marketing in May.  I think it's from the 60's.

And here they are inside the album.  I went with the 2.5 x 2.5 inches prints but it looks like I could have gone with the 4 x 4 inches ones instead.  Oh well...still looks good.

 Here are some of my favorite shots.

DIY Kitchen Redo

I have been absent from blogging for way too long!  But I'm back with an awesome project.  My husband had the summer off from school and on day one he began demo on our kitchen.

This is what our kitchen used to look like.

The cabinets, countertops and floor were all the same orangey-brown.

And now looking back, it was so dark.

Our plan was to replace the countertops and floor but to keep the cabinets and paint them.  So in preparation, we disassembled the cabinets and trim and labeled each piece.

Next up, we did lots of sanding and de-glossing.

We put up a plastic curtain to try to keep the dust out of the rest of the house...but that dust somehow finds its way everywhere!

And after many weeks of hard work here is the BEAUTIFUL after!  So bright and clean looking.

We decided to have hardwood floors put in to warm up the room and look more cohesive with the rest of the house.  And being in a kitchen, the floors have an extra layer of polyurethane.

I really loved the look of two toned cabinets so we went with a white for the uppers and a blue/gray for the lowers.

 I especially love our full wall of tile.  It really sparkles at night  :)

We replaced the original glass with seedy glass to give it a little more texture and dimension.

And since we have so much pattern with the tiled wall/backsplash we decided to go with a solid color Corian countertop.

Here's a look at the breakfast bar leading into the dining room.

The breakfast nook is so inviting now.

I found these two chairs on Craigslist for only $60.  I just had to reupholster the seats.

I already had this bench cushion made a few years ago...

...and then found this fabric at JoAnn's.  I think it matches perfectly!

This view shows our new back door and our final project of adding batten board to the back hallway.  All it needs is some paint and coat hooks.

I love the look of our integrated sink.  No seams!

As for the cabinet paint, we went with a satin finish and used 2-3 coats on top of a primer layer.  It was a long process but a necessary one to withstand its constant use.

The upper cabinet color is Muslin White by Glidden and the bottom color is Pencil Point by Behr.

I'm in love!

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