Keepin it Real

Often times in blogland we only see the staged beautiful pictures of how something turned out.

Rightly so, who wants to look at blogs all day of someone's disorganized, messy house.

But I'm sure that's NOT the way it always looks. 

I know my house doesn't always...shoot I have 5 children, and a husband. 

You can't really imagine how my laundry room looks about 98% of the time. ;)

I'm going to show you how my kitchen was last night before I headed off to bed.

Well actually I fell asleep while getting baby to go to sleep. :)

AND that meant my kitchen didn't get cleaned until this morning.  OH, NO!  haha!

Here's my attempt at KEEPIN IT REAL for ya... ;)

Kitchen table was messier, but the boys had gotten most their Valentines, and homework cleaned up.

Yeah, NICE... ;)  Love my new dishwasher.

Look past the dirty island, and see the BOMB of all fridges... ;)

Yeah, I LOVE it.  Upgrade!!  And has to last me the next, ummm, 18 yrs. haha!

Last night I made cupcakes for the boys to take to their classes today.  I only decorated the ones for my oldest sons class.  The rest I left for my other two sons class to decorate as a craft  for their party.

A mess, but out of the way.  I still have painting to finish, and don't want to put all this away just yet. :)

 Supper was in the cork pot tonight.

Mixer out from making the cupcakes.

 School bag NOT where it belongs... ;)

I hope to soon post a CLEAN kitchen with all the details of the new painted cabinets.  Love the gray...

Keep it real,

Our Thrifty Nest of 7

Sneak peek...white to gray.

I finished painting the cabinets.

I'm now just trying to find the right hardware for the kitchen island, along with material to make a curtain for the window.

I want to have everything finished for the GRAND REVEAL... ;)

Here's a tiny sneak peek of one of the cabinets.  :)

I'm LOVING the new kitchen redo.

Blessings,

Our Thrify Nest of 7

White columns

The plan was always to make those blue support beams right there... yeah, you see them, into pretty looking columns. 

And last week we finally did...well I should say my husband did. :)

Another before pic...

And one more before... :)

And finally....after trim, crown molding...

Lots of caulking...haha!

Beginning of column make over. You can read there and see the trim before paint. :)

And some beautiful semi-gloss white paint.

Here they are.  LOVE them!

Sorry for the lighting...I took pictures after I finished them the other night.

We're deciding how we want to trim out under the ledge.

It makes the biggest difference now in our downstairs.

I'm so happy with how they turned out!!

For the Love of Faith, Family, and Home,

Our Thrifty Nest

I'm linking up with these fabulous blogs...

Feathered Nest Friday@

From white to gray.

I LOVE white kitchen cabinets.  

When we first built our kitchen these cabinets were a honey color.  And everyone thought I was CRAZY for painting "oak" cabinets.

I did it anyway, and have loved them.

BUT...I have 4 very active children, and a 5th little guy right behind them.

My so called "white" kitchen cabinets are taking a beating!  Well the bottoms ones anyway. :)  

So I have decided to walk on the wild side...haha!  I'm going to paint the bottom cabinets...

GRAY!

(This is my kitchen today...but we have upgraded our fridge, and dishwasher.)

Mountain Smoke...

Yes, that's the color I've chosen to courageously paint the bottom cabinets and island.

I didn't want a light gray, that would still show yucky dirt and food to much.  I also didn't want to dark, cause that's just to dark. ;)

I should begin on this project sometime tomorrow.  Also the columns in our living room have now been all trimed out and crown molding added to them.  They're just waiting on caulk, and then their pretty semi-gloss white paint finish. :)

Keep painting, 

Our Thrifty Nest of 7

Beginning of column make-over

I'm really excited that my dear husband has finally started on making those big blue posts in our living room into beautiful columns...

He'll trim them both out, like the one below.  Then I will prim, and paint the whole thing white.

You can see my dear husband working on the other one.  :)

It still needs to have caulk, primer, and finally it's pretty white semi-gloss finish. ;)

Here is our little man, he's already 7 weeks...and makes it a little more difficult to get to much done. ;)

All worth it of course.  I just want to snuggle him, because I know they don't stay this little for to long.

I hope to share the finished columns with you sometime next week.

Have a very blessed weekend,

Our Thrifty Nest of 7

Crock pot-Chicken and Stuffing.

I'm not a great cook...and the easier the better for me.  I also like recipes that are easy to understand, and with things we already purchase.  I like no brainer kinda cooking.  HA!

I LOVE my crock pot...what woman really doesn't? :)

It's especially handy now with having the new baby.  I don't always have time to start cooking supper...why you ask?  Because I'm a momma who breastfeeds, and with a newborn that's really my full time job right now.  ;)

So putting something quick and easy in the crock pot is wonderful for me at this time.

Here is what you'll need for a yummy complete meal.

I use three large chicken breast.  Cut them long ways in half, and place at bottom of crock pot.

Next slice up Moz. cheese and cover chicken.

Take two small can of cream of chicken and mix with 1 cup milk.  Pour over cheese, and then add one box flavored stuffing.

We add one bag of broccoli to the top of stuffing to make it seem more like a complete meal. :)

6-8 hrs. on low or 4-6 hrs. on high.  Time usually varies and just make sure the chicken is done.

This is a family favorite!  And the leftovers are even so yummy...

For the Love of Faith, Family, and Home,

Our Thrifty Nest of 7

I'm linking up with this fabulous party...