Stick A Fork In It! ... Kitchen: Before and Afters

She's Done!!!

Well, good enough!

All that's left is grouting along the toe kicks and caulking along the cupboards where they meet the walls. I'm sorry this post might take awhile to load because I took a ton of before and after pictures.

Notice the raised ceiling!

See how my kitchen was such a cave with that dropped ceiling?

I always had to use the end of this counter to roll out pie crusts and such and I ALWAYS whacked my head on the corner of that hanging cupboard- maybe my head can have a chance to heal now!

(We are still working on painting the walls.)

And the whole she-bang...

Woot woot! I so so love it!

Right now I have that Coke sign hanging to fill in that empty space but SOMEDAY I would like some open shelves there. I also need to figure out a color scheme and put some decorations out- that will be like frosting on the cake!
Soon I will do a post about the specific things about my new kitchen- that will be another picture heavy post because there are lots of things I love!
UPDATE: Here is the link to my kitchen details/favorite things post

Things My Taimi Grandma Taught Me

Taimi Grandma taught me how to eat strawberries.
She always asked me why I didn't dip them in sugar.
I told her I liked them plain.
She would say, TRY IT- they taste like dessert. 

So I did.
And SHE WAS RIGHT.
They are SO good- just like dessert!

And when us kids were young we would go stay at her house. She would call us for a meal and it was always so fun. We would be so excited to go see what was there. She always would have little bowls of things to choose from.

When my kids were little I would do the same thing for their lunches and then for school snacks when they got older. Now I only get to do it once in awhile for supper. This night we were having Chicken Pockets.

It's still fun to do. And as an added bonus when they were young, they learned to say, "Please pass the ------"!

Another thing I remember of my Grandma was her love of flowers.

She always had flowers at her little pink house. In her later years when she would come to visit at my house she always wanted to sit on the patio and admire them. Planting flowers always reminds me of her.

She always would notice animals and comment about them. She noticed a lot of little things and they would bring her joy.

She would say things like, look at that little ant. And comment how strong they are and how hard they work.

And she loved funny things animals do. Like this woodpecker stealing hummingbird nectar.

And the cuteness. This little chipmunk is always jumping up pot to pot to drink out of the bird bath. She loved watching things like this. Someday I will get a picture of him in the birdbath but as of yet he is too fast.
Whenever I see little animals I remember the little comments she would say.
At my old house I had this written on the wall;

The world is so full of a number of things

I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Taimi Grandma always read it out loud and said, That's right!

And when I was going through tough times she was my rock.
Unconditional love and empathy.
Encouraging words;
All God asks us to do is to try our best.
But mostly she taught me calmness and patience.
We have to wait and see how things turn out.
And hope for the best.

Instead of Taimi Grandma, my kids used to call her Tiny Grandma.
And I would always marvel how someone so small could be so wise and strong, filled with so much love for all things big and small,  and never seemed to be too tired or weary to care and worry about what happened to her family- from her own children to her grandchildren to her
youngest great-grandchild.
And this included a wide circle of friends too.
Even if she wanted to wring a neck or two she still loved us.
She cared.
What a beautiful lady.