Kitchen Gratitude!

As I grow older I become more aware of what a great life I have. Yes, there are plenty of days when I'm not feeling that way, but at the end of every day as I lie down I can really only be thankful. I think it is such a beautiful way to live to be able to tell the people in your life how grateful you are for them. Jason and I are surrounded by A LOT of really wonderful people, close friends and friends from a distance, people we admire and people we want our love to overflow too. Lately, I have really been feeling like I haven't had a lot of excess love to go around to my friends, but they still love me and nurture me the only way really great friends should. I hope sometime VERY soon to get to repay my gratitude. There is no Tit for Tat amongst us women folks and men folks, it is a joy to help one another and I know in the coming months I can look forward to opportunities to repay the kindness shown to me yesterday and I really can not WAIT!

I have these 3 friends, Jennifer, Rachel, and Shannon who formed this cool thing that they call the Cleaning Club, every Monday, they get together at each others homes where together they work on a cleaning project. When they get together there is a total of 11 children and one on the way and they still manage to accomplish a lot. The older kids help out with the younger ones while the moms work without any resentment or wishing they could be doing something different, they are just thankful their mom is getting the help they are getting and that they are also getting to hang out with their friends. This is something that has always impressed me about cleaning club is the managing of ALL the children. So, they have accomplished a lot of stuff in each others homes. They have hung photos, cleaned drawers out, cleaned out a fridge, repainted a bedroom, closets are no match for these ladies, and not to mention the support and help they get from one another in the process of it all. So, they are reaping such benefits from it they are now offering to help out friends who need it. Me being one of the people they have repeatedly offered to help. Now, I feel pretty sure you all are just like me and it is SO hard to ask for help when you really need it and I am strong independent woman and I really don't like to ask for help, but I finally did and they came to my rescue in a VERY big way! My dear friend Ashley also showed up to help out too and every hand was appreciated. For years, and I do mean years, Jason has been after me to do SOMETHING with our kitchen to make it more usable and more functional, but I had no ideas and it just seemed like the most daunting task in the world to me. I want things to look nice and be functional and I just had absolutely no ideas where to begin, not to mention I'm only 4'11" tall and can only reach the bottom cabinets in my kitchen. I am constantly kicking around a stool, so I started putting EVERYTHING down low which caused everything to be cluttered... CLEANING CLUB AND ASHLEY TO THE RESCUE!!!!

I called out for help! I picked a weekend (labor day being a 4 day weekend seemed like as good of a time as any) Jason painted the kitchen based on a fabric swatch by Amy Butler. We went with yellow on the walls and gray trim. At first I was a little scared of the yellow, but it looks just awesome, and I'm going to pick up some of the fabric to make a small window treatment to bring it all together... So, Jason spent Friday night and Saturday painting (I was recovering from a stomach flu and was no help at all), but I was busy thinking... thinking... thinking... Yesterday, at 1:30, these ladies showed up. We emptied out every single cabinet in my kitchen, wiped them down (Doors too). We wiped everything in the cabinets down too, Shannon took to the task of cleaning my appliances and most of them look brand new (even the one's we have had since we got married) and then we put it all back, taking down some of the doors of the cabinets and reorganizing and culling through, and I ended up not feeling like I had to get rid of much and still being very happy with how it all looks. So, enough of my talk... on to the pictures, but not without the sincerest thanks I have to these women for helping to make me excited about being in the kitchen and just feeling like my kitchen is a kitchen for ME now! A place where I feel comfortable and every time I look at it I will be reminded of what a great life I have with great friends!

I looked for a before kitchen, but couldn't find a good one...let's just suffice it to say it was messy and an awful shade of blue...
Here it is as Jason finishes up painting.


plastic containers organized? Check!




recycling will no longer live on my counter!












Lastly, the best picture of them all! Ladies well satisfied with work well done, and please notice the mushrooms in the back and how lovely all the plates look standing up! Jennifer put nails in there to hold them up to display them and don't all my bowls just look so nice!


Thank you thank you thank you! I LOVE IT!

What's my next big project you ask? The computer desk and around our table, but there's plenty of time for that and no reason to rush it!