Starting on my Cabinets!

It has been a long time coming, but my kitchen cabinets are so close to being refinished and looking fresher than ever! I have all my materials and tools and myself psyched for this big project. 

I started today by using a flat blade to get all the existing (and not-so-effective) door bumpers off. 

Then, I started cleaning. 

I am excited to share a new product with you. It's called TSP and maybe you've heard of it. I never had before visiting this website in preparation for doing my cabinets.

It's a heavy duty cleaner that comes in granular form and you add it to warm water. It works incredibly at getting the dirt and grime off the cabinets and I also had a good time cleaning my house walls. It's relatively cheap and it definitely worked better than anything I have ever used before. 

It would be great also for preparing any hard-surface furniture for refinishing.

After I finish cleaning all of the cabinets, my next step is deglosser.

I'm excited to share my photos as I make my kitchen beautiful!

Can you feel the LOVE?

I just want to share some LOVE with you!

 Bling in a bow!!!!

 These are really special 'heart' flowers that 2 of our Grandcuties made for us last year. Love them!

 On our mantle are pictures of our 4 kids and their families! We love them all dearly!

 These gorgeous stemmed candle holders are from some dear friends in Austria! I found some old 'heart' bracelets to attach to them with a pretty bow.

 Triple the love! I just put this together with some things I already had on hand.

 I hope you feel the love, by giving love to all! Even yourself!

With Love, ~*~Lynda~*~

Love Is In The Air The Banner Way

Here are some very lovely Valentines Day decorating ideas from BHG!

With Love, ~*~Lynda~*~

Great DeCluttering Ideas!

Hi Friends! I just looked at this great link from BHG and wanted to share it with you! Have a fantabulous time creating your beautiful & organized living spaces!

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/organization-basics/declutter/?sssdmh=dm17.637874&esrc=nwdc121912

Then I looked over at my desk with a huge pile of papers that hadn't been sorted (or tossed) for a few months. Yikes! So, this inspired me to deal with it.

 This is a magnet board that we made a couple of years ago. Two metal tins hang on the glass knobs.

The smaller one holds all of my business cards. 

There are lots of special notes, cards, & pictures on this board. 

~*~Lynda~*~

Photo Frames ~ Magnetized

 I'm not a big fan of a lot of clutter on our refrigerator.  So, I painted these wooden frames, put a little touch of bling on them, added magnets on the back and enjoy changing the messages, scriptures or pictures quite often. It is so much fun! Especially when the pictures are of our Grandcuties!  They are precious and we love them dearly.

 I love Christmas too! Because I love Jesus Christ!

Merry Christmas! ~*~Lynda~*~

Merry Christmas To All.

I really like the thought that I heard recently at church. Mas means more in Spanish, so, let's put more Christ in our Christmas.

 I am very excited about this mantle over our fireplace. Rod made it completely out of scraps that we had in the shop. It's so fun when I get an idea to make something out of a variety of pieces of wood and then my Handsome Honey makes it for me. Well, when he has time to, that is.

 This is a beautiful nativity that was given to me from Allen, Jacob & Chelsea. They purchased it while in Austria.

 This special nativity came from Guatemala from our Son, Allen, who was serving a mission there.

With love for our Savior, Jesus Christ, Lynda.

Homemade Cards - Block Printing

Mass production of a unique piece of art made by you - block printing. 

This was a new concept for me and a very rewarding one. I received a Speedball Block Printing Kit for Christmas last year, and I've been thinking all year about what I wanted to carve into the block.

I penciled my design on paper, transferred it onto the block, carved out the white space and made my own mini printing press. The carving took some patience and time (and a few cuts on my fingers), but it was very enjoyable overall.

Hot off my press...Christmas Cards for some friends and family who I won't be able to personally spend Christmas with.

They were sent in the mail yesterday coupled with a recent photo of my family.

My work space while the newly stamped cards are drying.

My design carved into the block after being inked.

The stamped card before the top and bottom are trimmed off.

Very fun craft that I'm sure I will be touching again in the future. I love the imperfect look it gives to the cards. Each one is a little unique but they all have enough in common to make me excited! 

Try it sometime!

~ Chelsea ~

Fabric Banners - Simplified with a Pinking Rotary Cutter

I've made a few fabric banners and I tend to love them! I love how they use such a small amount of fabric, how they only take 20 minutes max to make and the cute look they produce over a window in celebration of a party or a season.

I recently purchased a pinking blade for my rotary cutter and it is wonderful, well worth the money for the time and hand muscles it saves. I used my mother's pinking scissors for my first fabric banner and it was less than ideal, but definitely did the job.

I had a hard time finding a rotary pinking blade. I ended up finding one, but a different brand, OLFA, and I was not sure if it would be compatible with my FISKARS rotary cutter. I looked online for answers and it was split about 50/50 with responses saying it definitely would not be compatible and others say they had used them and they worked fine. So, that left me just to try it for myself and I was thrilled to see that it works great. It cuts through several layers of even heavier fabrics with ease.

My mom made this banner for her home that ties a lot of her decor colors together:

Below is my first banner I made for my daughter's birthday party. I've used it since then for a baby shower too. Blurry picture, but you get the general theme.

How we make FABRIC BANNERS:

First I look through my extensive fabric stash and find several fabrics that coordinate and represent the theme desired. I use my simple triangle template and cut around it for all the fabric triangles. Then, I lay out the triangles in an eye-pleasing order on the floor. Then I put the triangles in order into a pile and take them to the sewing machine. I sew across each top and together at overlapping corners (about 1 inch overlap) going aln the way across about 1/4 inch from the top, securing a ribbon/ piece of ric rac to each end for hanging and back stitching each time I overlap two triangle tops. Done. I then hang it up, wash my windows and take pictures of my accomplishment.

Here's another one I made for Autumn Time. 

~ Chelsea ~