For the love of plates...

I absolutely adore vintage plates. There's something about a beautiful plate hanging on the wall that makes me smile. That's the first thing I look for when I'm out thrifting.

Well as you can guess I have a good bit of plates that adorn my kitchen. Not really knowing where to put them all, they mostly stayed in the cabinet. That is until we had to remove a window in our breakfast area.

We had just added a mudroom and the window would have been sandwiched between our breakfast room and the mudroom. Now this was kind of a cute idea...but then I realized mudroom, kids junks, window, kitchen...EEK! All that junk would be seen from my breakfast room. HELLO...who wants to stare at that while your eating...

So we decided to yank it out and in its place we put a really cute 14 x 30 stain glass window I had purchased at a local shop. The mudroom contractor installed my little piece of stain glass joy. On the mudroom side, he completely closed in the original opening with Sheetrock. In the breakfast room, he left the recess opening from the original window along with its trim work. He used tongue and groove bead board planks to line the opening. My hubby said he would build some shelves to make a little display niche.

OH but thanks to Better Homes and Gardens I found a better idea!!!...My kitchen niche would be a nice little home for all my plates.

AND this is what hubby and I came up with based on the BHG pic...

Notice how the stain glass window catches the light.

needless to say I am very pleased with the end result. Oh and just ignore the dates on the pictures...I forgot to turn the date function off! Way to go huh? Anyone up for some plate shopping?

Good Morning...FALL!!

Oh what a beautiful fall morning! The first real chill of the season. The North Georgia Mountains will shortly begin their spectacular display of fall color...and I can't wait. I love the cool breeze and the clear blue sky. The crisp night air and the shimmering stars. Its like heaven is covering the land with a warm brightly colored patchwork quilt...getting it ready for winters cold nap!

Source: Better Homes and Gardens

"Come," said the Wind to the Leaves one day.

"Come over the meadow and we will play.

Put on your dresses of red and gold.

For summer is gone and the days grow cold." ~Anonymous.

I'd like to thank Twice Remembered for the warm blogging welcome. I had begun to think I was talking to myself!! ha ha...something I find my self doing that!! You've given me the boost I needed to add more posts and to get my rump in gear with those projects I've been dwelling on.

Birthday Wishes...

Happy Birthday to my little man! I can't believe you are five today!! Love you lots.

Kitchen Blahs!!!

As I'm stumbling around my kitchen this morning at 5:00am making a bottle for my daughter, I noticed how much I dislike my kitchen cabinets. They are dismal oak stained square boxes that merely serve the purpose of housing my kitchen junk! How could I have settled for such? I remember...our builder under bid the cabinets and the painted ones were way more than we could budget. My dream of cream French Country cabinets with mocha glaze had to be scrapped for oak stained boxes. If I have learned anything, it's not to settle for things you don't like! Now I'm not saying spend a bunch of money to get what you like. I'm saying get what you like and do it on a budget. If I were thinking, I would have said: "Deliver the cabinets unfinished and leave them in the basement. I will apply my paint/glaze and you can come install them when they are dry!!" Now I fully understand hind site is 20/20. So now I have to choose: 1) paint them or 2) live with them and believe me I've been living with them for 5 years now...its time for a change! Wonder how well my hubbie will take the news? Men tend to LOVE stained wood!!!
The cabinets are not the only issue I want to address in my kitchen. I have an island in the middle of the room that is very ODD. It has a raised bar area. Now this isn't uncommon if the island is used to separate the kitchen area from lets say the living area. However, in my case the kitchen and breakfast area are one large room. So why is this "barrier island" floating in the middle of my kitchen? Note to self: things always look different on paper than they do in reality!! Guess my next project in the kitchen would be remodeling the kitchen island. Maybe I could add some bead board or ornate turned legs?? Any ideas??