Home Tour #2

HOME TOUR #2: Family Room, Kitchen, Debi's Craft Room/office

As promised, here are more pictures of the new house! Today I will be showing the Family Room, Kitchen and my Office/Craft Room. I was also intending to show the Laundry Room, but still have a project to finish in there.

Here is the family  room. This room is so cozy and comfortable. In the past we have had our couch and both my recliner and Kevin's in the family room. However, due to the smaller size of this room, we put Kevin's chair in the living room. Since it's typically only Kevin and I watching TV together in this room, less seating works at this stage in the game most of the time.

The fireplace was freshly painted before we moved in as well as all the interior walls. It makes everything feel so fresh and new. I love having a mantle to decorate! The finials and cross belonged to my Mom. The mirror was a great purchase/deal at Kirklands two years.

...and another view of the room

...and another...looking into the kitchen.

I'm standing in the breakfast nook taking this shot. Since this house does not come with a built in entertainment center we chose to use the one that goes with our bedroom set. It works well in this room and I love that you can close it when you are not watching TV.

Here is some close ups of what is inside of each curio cabinet on either side of the entertainment center. (making one big unit when put together)

A pic of my Mom and a few of her beautiful things...

My Willow Tree Angels. My Mom started this collection for me and I have not had a new one since she passed away. I would love to add on to this collection....hmm, birthday idea for Kevin!

I JUST received this darling frame and book from my Dad and Polly as an early birthday gift. I need to get a picture in the frame though.

The breakfast nook right off the kitchen. More of the same tile...and beautiful GRANITE COUNTER TOPS!!! After living with tile counter tops the past two years I am LOVING the granite again!!!!

                                   Standing in the breakfast nook looking into the kitchen.

These kitchen cabinets are my least favorite thing about the house. I don't like bleached oak and the previous tenants left them so sticky and dirty I've gone through more types of cleaning solution than I care to mention trying to get the "sticky/greasy" residue off of them. As I type this blog post I STILL have not figured out how to get rid of the grime. I posed the question on Face book asking what people recommended I try. NOTHING has worked. I mentioned this to my Dad today and he suggested trying "GOO GONE" which I have a tin of. I will try it and see!! The granite counter tops make up for the cabinets!!

Another view of the kitchen, looking out onto the family room.

Another view of the breakfast nook.

My Office/Craft Room (downstairs...two steps down from the entry and to the left of the family room)

I feel very fortunate to have my own  "space" once again. This desk was in Kyle's room up until now (we just bought him a new one) and it works just fine for me and my desk top computer. This is where I pay bills, blog, go on Face book, etc etc...(I'm sitting here now!)
The painting over the desk was done by my Mom and is called "Kisses upon your soul" My Dad presented to me a few years back. It is my favorite of ALL her paintings.

This little antique desk has been in  my family for a long time. A great place to store some of my craft stuff!

I love displaying some of my favorite wooden stamps in this little wall cabinet/case.

A closer look

This was my Mom's drafting table that she used for painting. I sit here to scrap book, hand stamp cards etc..

This wall cabinet is great for storing ink pads, stickles glitter paint, ribbon etc.

I found this cool tiered rack at Walmart last spring and have been  using it for my acrylic paints.
I'm excited to share this organizational idea with my fellow crafters. These fabric bins are from Walmart and fit well in this book/cube case also from Walmart. I've never been happy with the way I stored my scrap book and card making accessories. So many times I'd look through a bin here or a drawer there and find a cool flower or ribbon and say "I forgot I had that!" Those days are gone now. I decided to color coordinate all my embellishments by color.

For example: in the above bin I keep all my YELLOW, ORANGE AND GREEN embellishments.

...and my pink ones.

Everything stacked up nicely and put away within the appropriate bin.

Here I took everything out of the pink bin and laid it out to show you. These bead boxes are at both Walmart and Michael's and are very inexpensive. As you can see, now when I'm working on a project with pink in at and need embellishments I just pull my "pink" bin and it's all at my fingertips! The ribbon holder is from Stampin Up!

I love to watch/listen to TV while I scrap book!

About 7-8 years ago my Mom wanted to teach me how to paint. The above painting is my attempt at that. I got about 1/2 of it done and decided I didn't like to paint, so Mom finished it. So I say this is the painting Mom and I painted! I plan on trying painting again once I'm an "empty nester."

I finally broke out the label maker I bought 6 months ago and did a lot of labeling in an effort to be more organized in my craft room. I've had these plastic bins forever and now they are finally labeled!

This corner wrought iron piece is more decorative than anything. It fit perfectly in this corner.

more labeled and organized supplies...

my office/craft room does not have a closet...so I use the closet right across the hall from it, which is the "under the stairs closet". It is a great space for the rest of my supplies.

Thanks for touring more of the house! Stop by in the next day or two for the final tour....the laundry room and the upstairs rooms (Kevin's office, Kyle's room, Master bed room and 2 bathrooms) See you then!