Valentine Tea Party

Hello there! So I know it's not Valentine's Day, it's not even February anymore, but time just got away with me these last few weeks with all the fun kitchen renovations going on, along with some health issues I've been dealing with. I still wanted to share with you the fun little get-together my 11 year old planned, along with her two pals.

Our home school group has done a Valentine's party for the last several years, but this year, we weren't sure it was going to happen. Then Michelle and her 2 besties decided they would like to host a Valentine's Tea Party with their close friends. Their mom and I helped in the planning, but the girls did a lot of the work on their own.

I found this Valentine Crossword for the girls to do as the guests were arriving. They actually had more fun finding words in it that weren't on the list. They also brought Valentines to exchange with each other.

The chalkboard banner is from Stampin Up! The heart banner is one I made last year with a LOT of hearts we had punched out for another project and didn't end up using. I simply ran them through my sewing machine one after another. 

 The girls made little take-home favors for each of their friends.

Michelle's friends came over early the day of the party to help decorate and to make these heart shaped scones for our first course. It's amazing how hard it is to follow a recipe when you have multiple things going on at once. We may or may not have left the butter out of one of the batches. Thankfully, they all came out yummy!

The second course was peanut butter and jelly, and cucumber sandwiches. Apparently I didn't get any photos of those. For dessert, her friends brought these yummy Honey Cookies they made, and we all had fun dipping strawberries. YUM!

After the tea, we played a few minute-to-win-it games and a couple rounds of Bingo. 

Before the girls went home, my friend did a wonderful Bible study on God's love and our need of His forgiveness. He is, by far, our best Valentine! Speaking of Valentines and God's love, I will leave you with this cake I did for our February Fellowship Supper at church. My first attempt at a chalkboard cake. I enjoyed designing this one a lot.

Anyway, I better go. I've got some catch up work to do around the house.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Kitchen Renovation

Hello there! This is going to be a super quick post with some fun pictures. My handsome hubby was off work this last week for winter break, so we decided to tackle a major item off our honey-do list: renovate the kitchen. Eeek! I still can't believe we started this, let alone how far we've gotten.

I've been dreaming for quite some time about opening up a window from the kitchen into the living room. I have, what I believe, is called a galley kitchen. It's long and narrow. Originally it had an eat-in breakfast nook, but since we never used it, and I desperately needed more storage, we added cabinets and beautiful display shelves at that end of the kitchen several years ago. You can read about it on this post. While my storage is OK now, I was getting really tired of feeling closed in and by myself when I am in there, and if you know anything about me, you know I am in there a LOT! I have also been dreaming of a large counter space. One where friends and family can sit and chat with me, and where there's room for more than one person to work. One where I can roll out fondant without bumping into the wall and where I can teach cake decorating classes. This week, I started seeing those dreams become a reality.

I think we're about 75% done, but most of the major work is finished so I thought I'd share some before and afters of where we are right now.

This is the main entry into the kitchen. This is also what Handsome Hubby and I see first thing in the morning when we exit our bedroom. One of the things I hadn't thought about before was the change in scenery with this reno. By moving the massively HUGE fridge to the other wall, we now have a straight shot out the window. I think I had a perma-grin the first morning I woke up to this. :o)

The stove was moved over into the fridge's spot. Thankfully, the contractors didn't mount the stove outlet into the wall. It is an extension cord coming out, so we simply had to slide it across the floor to it's new home. Do you see the gap between the two lower cabinets? In rearranging the cabinets, we ended up with about a 9 1/2 inch space. We looked at getting a cabinet to fill it, but it was going to be too expensive. We also thought about putting the two cabinets next to each other and simply having a smaller counter space, but I wasn't too keen on that idea. I'd like as much work space as I can get. We decided to space the two cabinets apart and build a shelf in there to house cookie sheets and our electric griddle, and an upper, pull-out shelf for bins of onions and potatoes. We're still debating on making a door for the spot or simply making a curtain to cover it. Also, the counter top is on order (bonus: it was on sale when we went in to order it!), so for now, we are using a fold up table as a counter.

Here you can see where most of the work was done. The fridge moved across the kitchen, the stove moved into the fridge's spot so we would have a place for the window. Another bonus, although you can't tell in this picture, is now I can see out the living room window from the kitchen as well. :o)

The table you see in the "before" picture below was built by my Handsome Hubby when we first moved in. It stores some of my cake decorating tools and was my main decorating area so it was always in this position, which takes up a lot of floor space. We are in the process of revamping the base of it for better storage, but I will no longer have to use it on a regular basis which means I will be able to tuck it in next to the fridge like you see in the "after" photo most of the time now.

And here's a picture looking in from the living room. I didn't get any "before" photos from this angle. The new counter will extend 18 inches into the living area creating a "breakfast bar".

We still have a bit of work ahead of us. I want to paint the kitchen, and will need to paint the living room wall as well. I can't decide if I want to paint it the same color it is, change the color and make it an accent wall, or repaint the whole living room. I'm having a hard enough time figuring out a paint color for the kitchen. Once the counter top comes in we will frame in the window. We are also working on the table in there and have some cabinet and shelf work to do. Oh, and some trim work as well. I'm already in love. Oh, and I've only tried to get milk out of the stove twice. ;o)

Well, this post ended up being longer than I planned. I will be back soon as I have some happenings I'd like to share that I just didn't have time for last week, and I promise to keep you updated on the kitchen progress.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!