The Tour Part 4: Kitchen & Dining

Here we are in the kitchen and dining area.

I'm still figuring this space out. It's very different from all of my previous kitchens. The cabinet space is fair, but there was no corner for my corner china cabinet. So the cabinet AND all of my china (+ some) is in storage. That makes me a little sad, but maybe it means that one of these days I'll finally get that bigger--non-corner--antique china cabinet that I've been wanting:)

I do like the way the room is open, it has a nice feel to it. And great tile, too! I love the tile.

I'm loving having the microwave/vent hood combo again. I missed that in my previous house.

We already have our art gallery going again. The fridge is my kiddos' fave place to hang their colored pictures and I do love them! Right now the trend with Mr. B is apple trees~I've got a whole orchard almost:) Oh, and that door beside the fridge is my pantry--very handy!

The cabinets have a little display space above them where I have put my few pieces of flow blue and also some other blue and white pieces.

Although it's not that attractive, I guess, I do have my bookshelves full of cookbooks in the dining area. One of these days maybe I'll have that huge walk-in pantry and can tuck them away. I need them handy for inspiration though, so it works for me.

I was really happy with the way my blue & white plates turned out in here. Those wonderful little plates have been with me since our first house (3 houses ago) and are so versatile. They really warm up a space and make it feel *homey*.

Thanks for touring the kitchen. If you were here, I'd offer you some cookies!

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...

my blessed life

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