Kitchen love

  I have been planning for a long while to paint my cabinets. They are a light oak and seem to just blend in with the wood background. Besides that, I love color in my kitchen. At our last home we ripped everything out and started from scratch so I was able to fix it exactly as I wanted. Of course the reason we ripped it all out was because it had been a camp and was full of junkie leftover cabinets, mismatched floors, etc. But everything in this home is newer and in good shape, so paint it must be!

I have two color choices I'm torn between. I'd like to share them with you and have you tell me what you think.

I'm afraid this photo doesn't do justice to the original picture, but for some reason I couldn't get any of the magazine pages I scanned to upload to my post, so I took shots with my camera. I have so much to learn yet! But I hope it gives you an idea of the look I'm loving here.

           This is a little truer to the original colors of the magazine photo. The cabinet is a chalky slate blue.

This I especially love and red is my favorite color for decorating. But as I'm getting older I'm not as brave with color as I used to be. Or I now consider all the extra work it would be to re-paint it if I don't like it!!

Probably a bit of both.

                          This is the same kitchen as the last one, just a different view.

           This is a cabin called the "dog house" from an old country living magazine. Yes, red again!

           So, what do you think? The red or the blue?

                                                                                                                                                                      

You know I have been blogging for about 6 weeks now. And I still consider myself a newbie. I have learned a lot about navigating my way around mostly from other blogging friends that were willing to take their time to lead me step by step through the rough places. And I want to say a big, fat "thank you"!

 Now I've become brave enough to start investigating what some of the tabs on my "managing" page represent. I clicked on "stats" and was like a little kid, hollering at my husband about all the countries ladies were visiting me from . It tells me what are the peak times of day I'm being visited and the referring sites that people are visiting me from. It's amazing. Oh, I know I'll get used to it and won't be jumping over there 3 or 4 times a day to check out what from what country someone is visiting or how many page views I've had that day.

But now I have to admit to something silly. Before I checked the stats page I thought if someone became your follower you where automatically added to their blog list. I've discovered that this isn't the case!

I have almost 70 followers, but only 10 refering sites. So I wanted to be bold and ask those of you that do visit regularly and do enjoy my blog if you would mind taking the time to add my blog to your list. I really wrestled with whether to mention it or not and decided I would just throw it out there. They say if you don't ask, you don't get!  And please, if you are not already on my list let me know and I will add you.

We are off today to town for my MIL to pick out the bathroom vanity and cabinet for her "camp" It is coming along really well. But nothing to photograph yet. My DH had to do structural reinforcement to the beams, insulating, sub-flooring, and the wall placement. When he starts with the fun stuff I'll post his progress!

I hope you have a great Monday friends,

Tablecloths and Aprons

  I have a small collection of  vintage aprons and tablecloths. I would have more but there is a question of room here in my cabin. I don't know about you, but when I'm cooking I usually mess and splatter the top part of my body. Which is why I wear a full apron, not a half of one. It just never made sense to me why homemakers had so many half aprons. So I ask a lady in her 70's if she had any explanation for my puzzlement. She said that her mother, and her peers didn't have many dresses to wear so they would have their full sized aprons to cook in. But if someone came to the door or company came then they would slip into one of their decorative half aprons. How ingenious! Did you know this already? You probably did!

In early spring I decided to wash and air dry a few of my tablecloths. I'm pledging to start using them instead of leaving them setting in a drawer. And I proud to say the last time we has friends over for dinner, I did.
Now I have my own straight from the horses mouth story to share about vintage tablecloths.
When I was a young girl I was sent was lucky enough to spend some of my summer vacation on my grandparents homestead in MO. This was so..... much fun! My grandma taught me so much and had so much patience too. But that's a whole different story for another day.
Back to the tablecloth. After we finished our lunch each day. Grandma would take the dirty dishes off the table to be washed and then spread a tablecloth over the leftover food. Then when it was time for supper she would lift the cloth and warm any food that needed warmed, add some fresh cooked foods, and voila-it was time to eat again! Now I know you're wondering what saved us from stomach poisoning. Frankly, I've ask myself that question a lot of times too. The only answer I can come up with is that she wasn't using food items that would cause intestinal problems. No egg based dressings, etc. It was vegetables from the garden and pickled food mostly. Now tell me, did your grandmother ever do this? Just curious if it was a common practice back then! Or if you have any other unusual uses for your tablecloths I'd love to know!
Blessings to all,

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

 I had a lovely, beautiful post planned for today celebrating Canada Day. Lovely picture of fireworks. Photos of Will and Kate arriving here yesterday for the beginning of their grand tour of Canada. And, last but not least, a shot of a darling Canada Day cake I was going to copy to bake today.
 But alas, I couldn't up-load any of the photos to my blog. So, after two hours of trying, I  concluded "it just wasn't meant to be".  I finally gave up and collapsed into bed at 2AM.
Now on a cheery note. I want to say a big , fat "thank you" to Sherri over at "Little House in Paradise" blog spot for letting her readers know that I even exist. It was sweet of her.  Please check out her blog, you'll become "hooked" as I have!
I am joining the "magazine copycat" party over at Debbiedoosbloggingandblabbing blog today. Tell me what you think! Here is the magazine photo. I love everything about this dining area! But I only copied the park sign on the wall.

It has been too long ago for me to remember what magazine I found this in and the scan doesn't begin to do it justice. But I think you can still appreciate it's loveliness.
Now for my version of the sign. I personalized it and put an old Canadian flag in place of  the emblem in the photos sign. Here it is.

Believe me, I'm no great painter. And a further photo would have looked  a whole lot better! But for the copycat I needed a close-up. So now ladies, where do I hang it? Inside or out? Let me know what you think!