a little kitchen vignette

This year, I am decorating the house for fall a little differently:

Brick Master did not return to the dorm this semesterinstead he is remote learning from the kitchen!We moved his desk here as his room is quite small(before moving away to university last year,he switched bedrooms with Miss C.,losing his large room for a small one!)

So now, I have lost my favorite place to decoratefor fall or the Holidays!But I found this cute 2 tier tray at Target,so it has become my portable vignette for fall.(I do not like to have anything on the island while I cook!)

It looks great on the repainted island.

We can have a few mugs ready for hot drinks,

and some sweets like caramels, chocolates, figs...

but no eating of the fake acorns!

I think it will work perfectly

as a cocoa station later in the season.

Happy Fall Day!

repainting the island

With a fair amount of free time on my hands,

but very limited access to supply,

in other words Quarantine,

I have been working on a couple home projects,

like painting the kitchen island!

Isn't just a lovely blue?!

It is the same blue (in the midnight hour by Benjamin Moore)

that I used on the library (leftover paints are the best!)

And since the kitchen is on the opposite to this wall,

I thought it would be a great accent!

I was also inspired by Cristina of Remodelando La Casa

where she painted her island blue!

My island already underwent a lot of transformations

over the years, from plain stained plywood, to "station wagon"

to white to finally blue

As I previously mentioned I had already repainted the kitchen blue, palladian blue by Benjamin Moore

My sister thinks I am going through my Blue period! It has always been one of my favorite colors...

the kitchen is a little bit messy, we do live here and it is quarantine time, so not too bad.
One thing I would like to update is the countertop of the island, I thought about it during the ORC baking corner (more than 3 years ago!) I would like a lighter countertop and reuse the black granite for the baking corner that still has its temporary butcher block... but that will have to wait longer!
In the meantime, here is a picture of my first Lily of the Valley:

(and Bosco)
After years of tries and failures, they are in bloom, last year, there were only leaves....

a storage box for above the fridge

I have been making some changes to our kitchen: I started repainting it palladian blue, like the living room.
I spent a lot of time, searching for the right color, trying many things, but none seems to be "me", until I got tired of it all, and reached that same blue/grey/green!

And it was perfect, bright and fresh, but as usual once I touched the paint, other things needed attention....
The curtains looked ugly with the new color, especially on this little area, just above the fridge:

At the time I made it in 2012, it is was quite appropriate, but it is now 2020, time for something new! So it was off with the "curtain" and on with the mess.... It remained that way for quite some times, but I found myself with a lot of free time right now!

(we changed fridge a few years ago, and 

went with white unlike the rest of our appliances)

So I built a simple box out of  1 x 6 pieces of pine, that I had on hand, nothing fancy, just like I did for the crates I built in 2012 

They are still in their location, I guess not everything needs to change this year!
This time it is a lot bigger

but same principle,

I decided to stain it like it did all the other ones,

but not to transfer any images

but instead to affix these 3 wine enamel plaques I purchased a few years ago (and that I was able to find in my cleaning!):

I am able to hide all of the mess in the box:

I really like the look of the tags on the box, and above the fridge!

Like in most houses, we use the fridge to display stuff,

just regular mess....

This has been my first week at home,

so I am started to catch up on the projects I have been wanted to do.

The kids have been home for 2 weeks already,

with close schools and universities.

With most of my relatives in Europe,

we spend a lot of times reading the news,

it is scary!

So we also spend time making food,

like homemade pizza

in our outdoor pizza oven: 

(I know I need to clean the outdoor table,

winter has been long!)

I will share more of the kitchen redo later, it is still very much a work in progress...

I hope you and your family are staying safe.

Keeping warm with some hot cocoa....

I have not yet decorated the house for Christmas. We are getting the tree next weekend, but the kids insisted it was time to set up our cocoa station!

It has become quite a tradition here,

the kids enjoy coming home from school and getting themselves some cocoa.

For this year version, I am using the frame from my advent calendar

to display Christmas cards 

(since we have not received any yet this year, there are just our old ones!)

 I am also reusing the mug holder that I made last year,

and most of the other accessories.

It is fun to make a "different" cocoa station every year,

using pretty much the same thing!

Now let's walk down memory lane:

Last year hot cocoa station: the natural one.
2015 cocoa station: the red period....
2014 cocoa station: the deer version.
2013 cocoa station: the snow version.

With the lights on, it is really cute!

Happy cool days!

a year in review

It is time to bid farewell to 2016 and review this year top posts.
There were some great house projects: the baking corner and the patio makeover are among my favorites,

There were a couple quilts: calendar kids and puppies

And some smaller sewing projects: sweet pepper coasters, lunch box, fox pillow and sewing mat.

and also some cross stitched embroideries: advent calendar and beach bag.

I cannot finish this list without adding some desserts: apple pie, lemon pie, galette des rois and tartelette aux fraises.

It was a very good year for this little blog, and I hope 2017 is just as good. See you next year!