The end is in sight ...

We have almost finished our current projects, and it's so exciting to start seeing the end result.  It's kinda like our Christmas present to ourselves.  It's really beginning to feel cozy.  On my last update I asked for opinions on hats or no hats for our kitchen chandelier, I took your guidance and picked up some hats for the chandi!

So to recap, here is the original light ... Fancy Boob Light ... Yep, found a pic!  I think I will take this baby to Restore, someone will like it (won't they?)

Here's the new Chandi prior to party hats

And here she is all decked out ...

Thank you everyone who commented, not only does it look good, it casts a much nicer light with the shades.

Also on my last post I gave you a preview of our faux brick, Frank had applied drywall mud to the wall to create the bricks.  This weekend I tackled the bulk of the paint job,  I'm going to give it a break over the holidays then add a little more detail later.

Right now there are presents to wrap, family to visit, eggnog to drink and turkey to be eaten.

To recap here's the before

 During ...

After

Thanks for stopping by!

Jo

Linking to

Progress Update, and I'd love your opinion ...

Our home is open concept so it's hard to take pictures of updates when we are working on both the kitchen and living room.  Frank has been busy working away while I'm at the office, we're almost there!

Here is a quick peak at the Distressed Kitchen Cabinets, I will apply a coat of Minwax poly to the finished cabinets.

Next, Frank has been working on the faux brick.  I have not been able to capture any action shots since I have been at the office while he's creating.  He is applying drywall compound to the walls then carving out the brick, these are not perfectly straight bricks, we wanted something that was going to look more rustic and old.  Here is the wall with the drywall compound applied ...

Painting of the brick and shelf are on the agenda for this weekend.
Here is the shot of the fireplace and the wall.

It will be so different once the painting is complete, here is the before again

Here's where I need your opinion, last week I mentioned a deal I got on the Home Depot website for a chandelier.  We put it up on the weekend, it's smaller then we imagined but we are OK with it for now. (It's so much better then the Boob light).  Here is a pic.

 I just realized I never got a picture of the Boob light while it was up, I have to get a shot of it before it goes to it's new home ... where ever that may be.  It's actually a Nice Boob light as far as they go, just not my preference.  So my question is .... Shades or No Shades?  I took a shot with one blue toile shade on it, I'm just wondering if the light is too small for shades.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Jo

A Beautiful Fall Weekend

What a fabulous weekend!  I love fall, we had the blinds wide open today, here's the view out our front window.

We didn't get any painting done this weekend but I enjoyed some Fall nesting ... cleaning, and cooking.

I received my Epicure prize shipment this week courtesy of Nancy McKay Watts (aka The Spice Nut) with Epicure Selections.  One of the items I decided to get with my $85 winning was a 12" fry pan with a glass lid ... this sucker is huge and it is my new kitchen fav!

Friday night I made a beef and noodle stir fry, there is sooo much room in this pan it is fabulous for one pot cooking.  It's so much more then a fry pan.  Tonight I made Pork tenderloin with a mushroom pan sauce and served it over a cornbread stuffing.  Here are some pics ...

Love the tempered glass lid!

I made Frank take a picture of his plate before he started to eat!

Back to decor ...

Did a couple of "practice boards" on some paint finishes this weekend.  We want to do some faux brick on the wall behind our gas fireplace/stove.  Frank will do the texture portion of the bricks with drywall compound then I will paint the bricks, this photo just shows some of the colour palette but the texture will make such a difference to the final outcome.  I had also been wanting to paint faux wood beams, I did practice boards of barn board, pine to match our floors and a darker stain but right now we are leaning toward a full wall of brick only.  My pine practice painting is below.

There will be more texture on our wall from the compound which will make it easier to add dimension with paint (I haven't mastered adding dimension on a flat surface)

If we had decided to do a beam I would have gone with a  less "mustard" base, maybe something a little more grey.

Well this was a mish mash of an update wasn't it.  I read so many great blogs, I hope to pick up on their style as I get more accustomed to updating here. 
Have a great week!