It seems a little ironic that the very day that I posted this article at A Martha Heart that this is who came to live with us.
Meet Sully.
He’s half golden retriever and half yellow Labrador.
His daddy is 110 pounds.
He won’t be this size for long.
So we are enjoying it while it lasts.
All of us but Gus, it seems.
My little family began the day that my husband and I got married in January 1996. By June of that year we had purchased our first home. And then on August 29th, our family grew when Mike brought home our first puppy in celebration of my birthday that year.
read more...
****
Join me over at A Martha Heart for the rest of this post.
Your dachshund has lived a very spoiled life if she spends her last moments lying in her owners lap and surrounded by her family loving and petting on her.
Oh Frankie, you lived with our family and brought us such joy for 15 years. How we will all miss you so.
You can see other “Your dachshund might be spoiled if…” posts about Frankie and posts about our other dogs here.
Over the last 5 (or so) years I have gathered ideas from pictures and other people’s kitchens and made a mental wish list of what I would eventually want in my dream kitchen. My desire here is to give you ideas if you are in that same boat. I want to put all of our best and favorite ideas in one place so that if someone out there is thinking and dreaming about what they might want in their kitchen some day, they could see what we found that works really well… for us at least.
So, from the home office in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, my top ten favorite things in my new kitchen (not necessarily in “favorite order”).
10. The (soon to come) pot-filler. I already love this backsplash that hubs installed and I really think I’m going to like the pot-filler that will accompany it… when we get it done.
9. Our new KitchenAid french door refrigerator. I love the drawer freezer and the width of the main part of the fridge. And it has a wicked-awesome computer in it that measures out how many ounces of water that it is dispensing, runs a picture slide show and picks your nose. (Well, not that last part, but it does everything but.)
8. Our new Delta Touch2O faucet. We all keep walking up to other faucets and trying to touch them to turn them on. Our whole family loves the touch faucet.
7. Spice jar storage drawer beside the range. We had to adjust our original design because of space constraints and I did not know where on earth I would store my herbs and spices. This drawer and some little clear topped spice jars were the perfect solution. I bought these jars here.
6. The new custom pantry. It may be in the hallway just off the kitchen, but it is a might better than that old useless thing we used to have. There is room for everything in one place. Now if we could just get the tile in the hallway done so that it could have a finished tile floor.
One thing in particular that I love about the pantry is how we designed a specific place for a rolling cart to house my big stand mixer. I love that it is stored away in my new pantry and that I can just wheel the whole thing out to use it and I can put the whole thing away when I’m done.
5. The super-awesome vent hood over the new range. We purchased this GE Monogram vent hood that was designed as a “stand alone” type that was surrounded by stainless steel from our “scratch & dent” guy. We got it really cheap. But it easily takes care of any steam or smoke you might generate. And since it was originally a stand alone type unit, it has a prettier appearance than the ones that are made to be hidden.
4. The stone arch and how it offsets the surrounding black cabinets and accents as well as contrasts with the stainless range and fridge.
I just love how this “star of the show” as far as decorative elements turned out.
3. The utensil drawers. There are four of them hidden behind cabinet doors. They are shallow and wide enough to find everything easily, yet deep enough for my large measuring cups to sit upright in them with no problem.
2. Our custom maple hutch; designed by me and built by our cabinet maker.
It has a special pull out shelf for my computer and doors to house all of our kitchen/family office type things.
And… my number one favorite thing in my new kitchen…..
1. My new KitchenAid professional grade range with steam assist.
As a lover of baking bread, the steam assist mode is the greatest thing since… well… sliced bread.
And as a bonus, I just can’t end this post without saying how much we love the new tile floor.
I know I kind of sound like a commercial in this post, and I want to clarify that we received none of these appliances or merchandise. We purchased every last bit of it. We are just in love with our new kitchen and want to tell you about it a little.
You can view a list of all my kitchen updates here.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
You can view a list of all my kitchen updates here.
Here it is.
Kitchen version 2.0 after a complete uninstall of what we believe may have been version 1.3.
The pot filler behind the range is the only “major” thing that is still undone. But the kitchen was clean (for once) and I had a few minutes to take pictures, so here it is.
Also this week you will see posts with some before and after pictures and a tour of some of our more favorite elements.
You can view a list of all my kitchen updates here.
It’s that time of year in the Dallas/Fort Worth area: The circus is coming to town!
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents BARNUM 200® is coming to American Airlines Center, July 27-August 7, and Fort Worth Convention Center, August 10-14. This monumental, once-in-a- lifetime event celebrates The Biggest Birthday Bash in Circus History in honor of P.T. Barnum’s 200th birthday. For more information, visit www.Ringling.com.
We love ourselves some circus and I know many of you do also. So I took up the opportunity to give away a 4-pack of circus tickets for Wednesday, July 27th at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
To enter, just leave a comment on this blog post, including your email address, and tell me what 4 lucky people will use the tickets.
For additional entries:
I will draw a winner on Friday morning, July 15th.
The fine print: This giveaway is only for 4 tickets to the July 27th show. No additional tickets are available. Nor are they available for any other date. Please make sure that you can attend the show on that date before entering the giveaway.
And even if you do not win the giveaway, I hope you will try to go to the circus with your family. It has always been such a good memory for our family and a nice break from these dog days of summer. If you are going to purchase tickets, you should make note of the following:
Note: My family and I were compensated with tickets to the circus for the publicity that my blog posts and this give away affords.
We went on a little trip last week and I still can’t believe we got to be there.
And I got to experience it with some very special people.
Subscribe in a reader
Add Way More Homemade to your Google Reader:
