Let the remodeling begin!

I wish I could say, "Let the holiday decorating begin!", but instead we are in the midst of remodeling our kitchen.  If you've been following my blog for awhile, you probably have noticed that I have never, ever shared photos of my kitchen.  It's time to come clean and share my dirty secret here at Love and Life at Leadora.  Here goes...

Ugh! When you stood at the entry way, your first sight was our bathroom!   Back in the olden days, the bathroom was built as part of the kitchen because it kept plumbing easy!  Apparently, privacy was not important!

You can see here that the kitchen was L shaped and wrapped around the bathroom.  Let's fast forward to today....

The bathroom is gone, along with the horrible green and white linoleum floors.  After tearing out the bathroom, MacGyver husband had to patch up the ceiling, and then he painted it with a fresh coat of white gloss.

You can see here that part of the kitchen has a shed roof.  Originally, this house had no kitchen.  Back in the 1920's someone decided to convert the porch into a kitchen, leaving the shed roof.

 

The most exciting part so far is having a eating area in the kitchen now!  I used to have to schlep our meals back and forth into the dining room! 

Boy, I must really be feeling confident since I'm showing you the insides of my cabinets now!  The cabinet doors have been removed and are waiting for paint.   There's so much more to do...countertops, lighting, floors, windows...and so on!!   Next post, I'll be sharing my big plans for this kitchen makeover, so stay tuned!

Hello!!

Hello!  There's been a few bumps along the road at Love and Life at Leadora, but things are much better now.  Today, we had a visitor....

Yes, it's a peahen!   According to Wikipedia, in Babylonia and Persia, the peacock is seen as a guardian to royalty.  Here at Love and Life at Leadora, I am definitely the queen, but truthfully the peacocks come to eat the flowers and plants in my yard.   

  

Now only if they would leave me a few of their beautiful feathers!

When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam,

May luck be yours on Halloween!

           ~author unknown

The Day After

Well, my Bunco guests are long gone...but before they came and left, I did manage to snap a few photos of the favors I made for my lovely ladies to take home...

I stole this idea from one of my favorite bloggers, Kim, at Musings from Kim K.  I simply painted peat pots (I bought mine at Big Lots) and glued on mini cupcake liners, stickers and ribbon.  Then all I had to do was fill my decorated peat pots with shredded paper and candy, and they were ready to go home with my guests.  To tell you the truth, I made these several weeks ago, and I was kind of sad to see them go since they made a cute display on my Martha Stewart cake stands...

I also needed to wrap up the Bunco cash prizes in something cute and easy, so I decided to make some Halloween crackers.  I just cut up a couple of paper towel tubes, put more shredded paper and the prize money inside, and then wrapped the whole thing up in tissue paper....



Now that Bunco is over, I kind of have that same feeling one has the day after Christmas.  Oops, I just remembered that I still have to show you the outside decorations!  Oh, and we've begun rennovating the kitchen, so stay tuned!

Martha's Halloween Fans

Last night, MacGyver husband and the kids and I were discussing how I don't say bad words often.  Except, according to my husband, I do swear a lot when trying to create some Martha Stewart craft projects.  I have to say, at that point, I got real quiet.  This latest Martha project really did bring out the worst in me.  I can't tell you how many times I came close to throwing in the towel on these fans, but I had already invested so much time and money that I wasn't willing to give up.  We won't discuss the words that came out of my mouth, but, in the end, I think it was all worth it.  I hope you think so too, but if you would like to make some, don't say I didn't warn you!

Halloween Corner Cabinet

Halloween decorating has begun here at Love and Life at Leadora.  I am hosting October BUNCO, so I am forcing myself to get my decorating groove on.

My corner cabinet in the dining room is always the easiest spot to start.  Plus, it's a great place to showcase my favorite and easiest Halloween decorations: black construction paper silhouettes!  I must give thanks to Martha Stewart for this idea, especially since I found all the templates for the mice and owl on her website.  So if you're having trouble like me getting into Halloween decorating, go visit Martha.  Just bring along your black paper, scissors and tape!

Our New Bathroom...It's finally done!

Yes, our new bathroom is finally done!  For those who don't remember, (I wouldn't blame you if you did...it's been awhile), check out my original post here.  Didn't MacGyver husband do an outstanding job on my Pottery Barn inspired vanity?  We actually ended up doing everything ourselves except for the drywall and tile, and this really kept our costs low.  Also, I was so lucky to find the vintage mirror in my grandmother's barn.  It fits perfectly with the vanity!  

As you can see, I still need to make a proper shower curtain.  This side isn't nearly as thrilling, so I think I'll take you back to the pretty side again!

Now that the kids'/guest bathroom is done, we will soon be taking out the old bathroom and starting a kitchen mini makeover!  Stay posted!