Hey guys!
   I've been pretty quiet this month, mostly because I haven't gotten much accomplished.  I didn't want to write a bunch of posts about nothing and waste your time. ;)

This past weekend we actually finished a whole section of cabinetry!

Really need to paint that ceiling... Sheesh.

I love the way this picture shows the "before" and "after".  Really quite a dramatic effect, if I do say so myself. ;)  I am so in love with them!!!   Seriously, look at the "before", basically anything is an improvement.

"before" caulking the seams

"after" caulking.

 A little bit of caulk goes a long way to improving the finished look.  So much better after.

Closeup

I like the way you can still see the wood grain.  Got new hardware too.  Just the cheap stuff that comes in 10 packs for contractors at Home Depot.  I forgot to take a pic but the old hinges were nasty.  I cleaned them and they were 10 times better but still ugly old brass.  Yuck. 

Just imagine how much better it'll look when they're all done, plus the backsplash and countertops.  I can see a light at the end of the kitchen makeover tunnel!  Haha  Every time I look at these cabinets it brings a big smile to my face.

Couple of notes:  I had to hand brush a few cabinets to touch up and they came out just dandy.  So don't be afraid to hand brush your cabinets.  Don't put polycrylic or anything on them.  Just leave it at 3 coats of paint.  You can always touch up.  The poly stuff I put on a few of these turned yellow right away.  Hence the touching up.  I also hand brushed the boxes and they came out perfectly.

Yahoo for progress!
Have a great week, y'all!
☺Holly☺

I hate, hate  to say this but my husband was right... and I was wrong.  Also, I'm sorry Daniel.  *smh*

Daniel hates Pinterest.  Hates it.  With a passion.  Sooo much.  LOL

The chalk paint is fine, there's nothing wrong with it, perfect recipe, go ahead and use it.  But  if you change your mind about using that technique because it's not the look you want after all, there are consequences.

First of all, it is not, I repeat not  to be used like a primer.  Regular paint does not adhere to it.  At all.  So if you choose to scrap the chalk paint, learn from my mistakes, and sand it or strip it all the way gone.  Here's a reminder of what that technique looked like.

First (and only) coat of chalk paint

It's great if you're going to use a wax finish and are going for that Shabby Chic look.  After I did the first coat, I thought, "Hmmm, why don't I just use regular paint now and roll it over the chalk paint?"  Terrible idea.  Luckily I only tried this on one section of the headboard.  Unfortunately it took me an hour of peeling and sanding to get it off of said section.  I would recommend having paint stripper on hand.  I did not, hence the hour of tedious work.  Daniel had a few choice words for me and Pinterest before I took over fixing my problem.


Like I said, if you're going to see it through, this technique is great.  If it weren't for the problems I created we had, this would have taken a couple hours to finish.  As it was, it took us all day.  We ended up spraying everything with the spray gun, which is so much easier than hand painting.  By the way, when I say "we", I mean Daniel.  Of course I forgot to take a "before" picture of the bedroom, but here's the final result. 

Need to move that picture now...

I love it!  It's way bigger than I expected but that's good.  We finally have grown up furniture.  Hurray!  Now we need to install our baseboards and hang things on the walls and we'll be done with the bedroom.  Oh, and still need to re-finish the nightstand.  Not 100% sure what I'm going to do with it but I'll tell Daniel I came up with the idea and not Pinterest. Shh, don't tell.  ;)

This was all on Saturday and Daniel also cut a piece of plywood for the kitchen counter which was a gaping whole for a few weeks.

On Sunday, Daniel sprayed the second coat on our first batch of kitchen cabinets.  Now they just need a coat of Polycrylic and new hardware and they're good to go!  Only a million more and the boxes to go.  Haha

Hope you had a great weekend, we were busy little beavers.  If we can keep up the pace, we'll have a bright white kitchen in no time.

♥ Holly ♥

Happy Thursday!  We made it over the hump, yahoo!

I had never had a fish taco until this year.  Crazy, but true.  A couple weeks ago Daniel decided to try to make some at home.  He got the recipe for the white sauce from our friend Michelle who works with him.  We made two tweaks, but first, here's the original recipe:

• fresh lime juice to taste (around 2 Tbs)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 Tbs Sriracha or equivalent hot sauce
• 1/2 tsp crushed oregano
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried, crushed dill
• 1/2 tsp ground cayenne chile 
• ground white pepper to taste

All you have to do is mix the ingredients together in a bowl.  As for the tweaks, we don't have white pepper so he used regular old pepper and instead of sour cream he used plain Greek yogurt because that's what we had on hand.   Bonus!  Greek yogurt is fat free as apposed to sour cream which is not great for you. 

And the easiest part of all, the fish.  We just used Van de Kamp's Beer Battered Fish Fillet's.  Cook according to instructions and pop those babies in a fresh corn tortilla smothered with white sauce.  You can chop the fish up if you want, but we left them whole.  Add cabbage or salsa if you want, we used cabbage when we had these last night.  Sooo darn good.  Seriously, you have to try it.


Aren't I a great, professional photographer??

Okay, fine!  I stole this picture from Sunset Magazine...  Jeez.  This is basically what they looked like though. 

In other news, I went home at lunch and painted the other side of the headboard.  I had just enough paint to finish it, so the first coat is done.  The paint was pretty hard due to the fact that there's plaster in it and all, so I added a splash of water and stirred it up.  It was fine.  So it'll be ready to sand as soon as I get the opportunity.  Then I'll tackle the second coat and finish the thing.  I'm pretty sure I'm just going to spray it with the clear gloss I have after it's painted.  Basically because I'm lazy and I don't want to try other options.  Truth!  LOL

That's all she wrote!  For now.
♥ Holly ♥