DIY Project: Kitchen Tiles

I have long wanted to try my hand at tiling my kitchen over the stove and sink, but I was always scared to do so.  I wish I had plunged in sooner.  Armed with a $30 credit from Home Depot, I picked out tile squares and the grout and matting the salesman directed me to.  For $51, here is what I was able to accomplish.

Here is my ugly backsplash above the stove:  a white metal sheet.

Here is what I was able to do in about an hour:

And, at the end of two hours:  this---I had bought 6 12x12 tile squares and had enough left over to do this 
ugly, white wall behind the sink.

I still have matting and grout left if I want to tile something else.

Frugal Friday

Today for the first time I"m participating in Frugal Friday. 

I don't know if this idea is new to anyone else, but it was new to me about a year ago.  I have quite a few pets, and I was having to change my filter for my central heat/AC quite often.  I decided, "Why not try vacuuming out the pet hair and dust that has accumulated?  That way, I can stretch the filter for a couple of months instead of twice *a month*. 

Before:

And, *after*:

Does anyone else vacuum their filter to make it last longer?

Making Your Home a Haven: Beauty

Monica has been hosting the Make Your Home a Haven series.  This week is beauty.  I am actually showing you something that Monica made!  I use this for my front door, and I think it is just so cheerful.

Making Your Home a Haven: Drawers

Monica

 has been hosting the Making Your Home a Haven series.  This past week we were supposed to do something for someone.  I am taking that out of order and hosting a baby shower next Thursday for a woman at work whose baby came early, so he will be there!  I have NEVER given any kind of shower, so this is new to me.  She is very sweet, so she will be happy, no matter how it turns out.

Now, on to today's challenge:  Drawers.  I have 2 drawers in my kitchen that are catch-all drawers.  YES, 2!  Ridiculous I know.  Here are the "before" pictures:

After culling through them, here is the finished product:

Not so Frugal: A New Car

I hate it when life happens and we are thrown curve balls.  About three weeks ago my car  started jerking and wouldn't pick up speed well.  Sure enough, it was the transmission.  After a quote of $3000, I  knew I had to get a new car.  Mine was paid off for two years (that was nice!) but had 115,000 miles on it.  I just could not see putting out that kind of money, which I didn't have anyway, to risk something else going wrong.  This is one of the times it sucks to be a single parent with no one around to count on. 

That very day I called Toyota and told them what I wanted and told them to start the paperwork because I would not have a lot of time after school to spend on the purchase.  I can't say I'm happy with a car payment again, but I have something reliable now:

Make Your Home a Haven: Laundry

Dear Monica (yes, she REALLY is THAT nice! and though I don't know her super well, she is a blessing to have in my life.) is hosting the "Make Your Home a Haven" Challenge.  I Do have some outside projects to work on, but first I need to tackle LAUNDRY.  I don't mind doing laundry, but it seems that it takes so long to put away.  Sadly, I end up washing and drying, and then I just take out of the clean pile to wear.  Consequently, few times do the clean clothes actually end up in the closet or drawers.  As a result, I tend to wear the same things over and over.   There really is no excuse because it's just my laundry.  My son has been doing his since sixth grade.   Since I was up at 5am this Saturday morning, I thought I'd tackle this:

It became this:

They are already put away in the drawers.  I didn't get a shot of the dresses on the hangers, but they are put away as well. 

**Later today I will head to the feed and seed to get started with spring planting.  Last year I used plants from Lowe's and just didn't have a whole lot of luck.  I am taking Monica's lead because 1) she had great luck last year and 2) if she says it's ok to start, it MUST be, right???

Make Your Home a Haven: Papers and Filing

Dear Monica  has been hosting a Make Your Home a Haven challenge.  The one I had time to participate in was the Papers and Filing Challenge.

Like Monica, my kitchen is a problem area.  I have a huge island that has become the catch-all for papers.  I have this system:  put the papers in here:

until I can either file them or shred them.

However, it always seems they end up here:

I HATE this!  There is no counter space, and this is where we eat.  So, I had to get busy and get it back to this:

Thanks for the motivation, Monica. 

Eating From the Pantry Challenge

In January I will be participating in Eating from the Pantry, hosted by  Crystal.  The objective is to eat as much as possible from the resources we have on hand.   I am a single mom with a 15 year-old son, so here will be my goals:

1.  Buy only dairy and produce from the grocery store
2.  Use the money saved to reduce my debt.
3.  Continue to play the CVS/WAGS game so I get most paper products/personal hygiene products FREE.

Here are pictures from my freezers and cabinets to prove that I need to do this:

Show and Tell: New Vintage Kitchen Piece

http://www.romantichome.blogspot.com/

Go to the above link and see what Cindy has in store.

I know I'm a couple of days late, but here is my Show and Tell for this week:

When I went to the Salvation Army store yesterday on my consignment shop outing, I found this.  My mother has one similar, and it brought back such nostalgic memories that I just *had* to have it.

Here she is almost full.

I wonder how old she is?  I'm thinking from the '50s, since that's how old my mother's is.  I love the two little drawers on the bottom.

New Kitchen

Well, the cabinets are finished, and I just LOVE them!

Progress

We are making progress. My kitchen will be finished on Saturday.

Time to Renew (Or Reface, as the term goes)

All I can say is "Yuck, Yuck, and Yuck!" My kitchen is literally falling apart. The drawer front in the one picture has been missing for over a year. Dad and I tried nailing, glue-gunning, Gorilla-glueing....you name it, we tried it; nothing would hold the front on. In the bottom picuture you can see the door hanging, and in the picture with the two drawers, the top one was hanging since last summer. Last week it fell in for good. Friday the cabinet installer comes to reface by cabinets. I can't wait. I will post "after pictures" when he's done.

Time to pack

You may wonder what all this means. Read the next post to find out.