Hello Coordination!!

Hooray!  I had a really productive day on Saturday, followed by skiing all day on Sunday (yup, in the rain no less) and sleeping in terribly late on Monday (nothing like getting up at 8 to be in at work at 8:30 LOL. Fortunately I have a really great friend who phoned wondering where I was or I would have slept the whole morning away).  Zoinks as Shaggy would say.

Anyway, back to the focus of this post...THE KITCHEN!

Without further ado, here are the crappy cellphone pictures results of my efforts.  I promise to take higher quality photographs with my gorgeous new camera, but that will take a moment or two to get them transferred over, and I want to share these with you NOW!!!

Appliance Cart aka Kitchen Office
(holds pens, paper, notepads, stapler, etc.) 

Curtain for the bookshelf holding my cookbooks,
just to tidy it all up.  I have yet to add a piece of
weathered stained wood for the top
to make it even prettier

Large print toile for the large window

Ticking fabric for the small window

Breadmaker cover on the appliance cart/office

I cannot believe the difference a few curtains have made.  It adds such a cozy, homey feeling to the room, and it makes it feel "finished."  All without painting or replacing the countertop!

To do yet:  Curtain tie backs for both the small and large windows, apron, potholders, tablecloths, and placemats.

Any other suggestions as to how to decorate your kitchen with fabric??  I have a TON left over!

I had a great suggestion from my mom to place a large mirror on top of the bookshelves where I keep the extra plateware, so I'm now on the hunt for a large mirror at the local thrift shops.  When summer comes, I'm hoping to paint those shelves white and add etching to the glass. (I have a thing about paint fumes, they don't make me feel very well).

What's Cookin'?

It's been hectic around here, readjusting to the "normal" routine of work, skiing, and hanging out with family and friends after the holidays.  I've also kicked up the exercise part of my life a few notches too - I have some events coming up that I need to be in much better shape than I currently am - deadlines make for great motivators!!

Back to the kitchen...I've finally gotten around to taking the before photographs...

Kitchen - Dining area

Kitchen - prep/storage area

Kitchen

So there you have the befores.  They are TOTALLY staged, by the way.  The clutter was moved from the flat areas onto the opposite side of the kitchen  for the duration of the photograph.  :D  The paint is staying the same for the time being, as are the table, cupboards and the countertops.  I'm hoping to purchase new chairs (they're falling apart) and make new soft furnishings out of these fabrics:

Blue & cream toiles with coordinates

I've already made the curtains for the big window, and hope to have photographs later this weekend.  The plan today is to make the blind/valance/curtain for the small window above the sink.  It typically stays open 24/7 (unless it is really hot/cold out)  because privacy is not an issue as I have forest behind my house.  I found some lovely, extravagant trim at Fabricland earlier this week, it is discontinued, so it was marked down from $15/m to $3.75/m.  I'm planning on using it on the valances to dress them up a little.  So...that's the plan!  I'd best head down to L'Atelier to get started!

Its a New Year! (In case you haven't noticed...)

Happy New Year!!!  Yeah, I know, it's already January 6th.  I've been MIA for the past few weeks, spending time with family.  I really struggled with jet lag when I returned from my vacation, which totally drained my energy.  I was also immediately into preparing for the various Christmas celebrations. After our Christmas celebrations (which stretched out over a few weeks), I've been spending time purging and tidying and cleaning and making space.  I also managed to get some skiing time in.

I don't usually like to make resolutions.  They have ALWAYS fallen by the way side very quickly after the new year.  This year, I've decided to focus on a few things over the year instead of resolutions.  One of them is My House.  One theme I'm adopting is Use What You Have.  Another is Less is More.

I've lived in my lovely comfortable townhouse for four and a half years, and painted only ONE room.  I can live with some of the colours, and love a few, but the others are just...grating on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.  My goal is to decorate the house this year, room by room.  I also have promised myself to sew REAL curtains for the house, and almost every room needs new curtains.  I already have the fabric for most of them (yay for the stash!)

My first focus is the kitchen.  I use this room every day.  I have a roman blind that is falling apart (and I'm ashamed to admit this but it has been falling apart since the day I moved in, but I love the colours of it), and *lovely* blue countertops that just aren't me.  I don't have a serious kitchen re-do in the budget for this year, so instead of trying to hide those countertops, I figured I'd play them up like they should be an accessory.  Hey - they're there.  Everyone knows it.  I can't just hide them.  So...searching the fabric stash I found a lot of blue and creamy white large toile print, a small toile print, ticking fabric and cream and blue check fabric.  I have a couple of other pieces of blue and creamy white toile as well.  Umm, yeah...I have a HUGE fabric stash.

On New Year's Day, I used the blue and creamy white large toile print to make Plain Jane (but lined) curtains for the large window. I haven't hung them yet because I need to purchase some hardware to hang the curtain rods, but the second I do hang them, I will share how they look with you!  I'm planning on making a valance for the small window out of the check fabric with some fancy blue trim, and a similar valance for the large window to add some "Oomph."  I'm hoping to finish those by this coming weekend.

New Year's Day was really productive - I purged some of my kitchen cupboards, my closet and tidied up the Christmas decor.  I got rid of 4 black garbage bags of garbage, and 8 black garbage bags to Goodwill, along with a few boxes.  It felt SO good!!

While working on some mending today, I lost half the feed dogs of my sewing machine.  I broke a needle, and dented the throat plate and broke off a section of the feed dogs.  Ugh.  I will have to order the replacement parts tomorrow.  Fortunately, I have a really good "back-up" machine to use.

I haven't done ANY garment sewing since the end of November, except for mending for friends and family. I'm getting a little antsy and I want to start to tackle my winter wardrobe sewing plan before spring comes. Hopefully I'll get a chance to log some hours at the sewing machine this week!