Cabinet Takedown!

 

Remember that picture? That's what our kitchen looked like when we moved in. And below? Well that's what it looks like right now! Well from a slightly different angle, and I promise that I cleaned up, I was just too excited to clean up before I took the picture....

While Greg's parents visited over the weekend, we took advantage of Greg's dad skills and took down the cabinets over the island and installed some pendant lighting. The pictures don't do it justice, it's such a huge difference now! It would have taken Greg and I so much longer to do without his dad, we just wouldn't have been confident in getting the right parts and installing the electrical. Overall, it was a pretty simple job though, the electrical took about 2-3 hours to get everything wired and hung. We even added a wireless switch, which was necessary since the line they are on was not attached to a wall switch, so it would have always been hot {meaning the lights would always be on for you non-electrical people out there}. We still need to patch the ceiling and paint above the lights, so we'll probably do that when we paint the cabinets.

Oh by the way, I think we finally decided on a color!! But you'll just have to wait a few weeks for that reveal :)

Mission: DIY Cat Tree

Mission: DIY Cat Tree is short for "Mission: Keep the cats off the dining room table!" But that seemed too long to be a blog post title :)

Our cats, like most others, love to look out windows. Bird watching, squirrel watching, they love it all!

If I could only find a way out, I would so hunt
down those birds and eat them.

~Lionheart (the 20 pound Maine Coon)

Trust me, he trys to find a way out the door almost everyday, so I'm pretty sure that's what he's thinking. Little does he know that he wouldn't get his daily wet food.


Anyways, back on topic.....We want a small cat tree to put next to the dining room window, since that's where the cats [mainly Nutmeg] like to hang out and watch birdies. We already have one next to the french doors by the deck, which is also a favorite location for bird watching. I bought a cat tree probably 5 years ago when I first brought Kitty to Atlanta. She never cared much for it, and neither have Nutmeg and Lion. It's almost identical to this one available on Overstock. So 5 years of wear later, the top platform has been broken off, and it's a little wobbly. Plus it's huge and the only place we could find for it was next to the TV console in the basement, which encourages Nutmeg to run across it in his hyper fits, never a good thing!

So we deconstructed it a few nights ago and decided that we'll re-purpose it to build a new, nicer looking and probably small cat tree. Maybe we'll even turn it into 2 cat trees! These are some images I found online that we like-

So we'll see what ends up happening with the kitties and their bird watching. This project might take awhile to finish, we have soo much going on lately! Greg's parents are coming for a visit this weekend, and  next weekend Kristine and I are going to visit Kristin! And on a somewhat related note, check out another adorable video of Nutmeg playing golf! He's so tiny in the video, it was taken in July 2011.

Vegetable Garden Planning

So we have about a 20'x 3.5' raised bed that we are going to plant a vegetable garden in. After taking away about 6' in paths, we're going to plant two 7' x 3.5' beds. Here's my preliminary plan-

Our Vegetable Garden!

So far we've started everything except the watermelon and honeydew melons by seed. We started the seeds a few weeks ago and set up some plant lights above them once most of them had germinated. Everything is sprouting really well, except for the butter lettuce, poblano and bell pepper. Only one poblano and two bell peppers have come up in the last week or so, so maybe they are just late bloomers. I'm not sure what's going on with the butter lettuce, there are like 2 pathetic looking sprouts, so hopefully some more will pop up soon!

From left to right: Broccoli, Spinach, Catnip, Poblano, Roma Tomato (2 rows), Zucchini (2 rows), Bell Pepper (2 rows), and Onion (2 rows)

From left to right: Cherokee Tomatoes (4 containers), Butter Lettuce (white container), Zucchini (2 containers), and some Rosemary in the back

I am by no means an expert gardener, I usually kill everything I plant, but now that I'm planting in real soil and not on an apartment balcony, hopefully things will turn around. The only exception to that rule has been my little clementine tree that I started from seeds from a clementine I ate just for fun, and surprising it sprouted and grew! Who knows, it may never produce any fruit, but for now it's my pride and joy!



On a completely separate note, check out this video of my goofy kitten. You'd think I never feed him, right? He's actually succeeded in getting this kind of can open and eating the whole thing, so these are kept out of his reach now!

Fresh Baked Bread

Super excited this week to try baking my own bread! My mom doesn't use her bread maker, so she gave it to me, and I got a sourdough bread starter and recipe from my Aunt Kathy! All in one week! So I anticipate being obsessed with bread making for awhile.
Last night I made a loaf of French Bread in the bread maker (just the standard recipe from Sunbeam), and it looks amazing! I tried a tiny bite this morning, and cut slices of it for a panini for lunch! With ham, provolone cheese, and homemade basil pesto, yummy!

Yummy French Bread!

I will probably stop trying to make bread when starting after 8pm on a weeknight. Staying up til 1am for it to finish wasn't that fun.... I'm pretty excited to try the sourdough recipe this weekend! I've had the bread when Aunt Kathy makes it and it's always delicious! I think I'll be feeding the starter for the first time tomorrow morning, so that should be interesting....