A finished project...

Is life flying by for anyone else?  Seriously!  I don't work outside our home and I still can't seem to accomplish everything on my to do list...which would account for my tardiness in showing you a picture of the finish project my honey started in March.

Since it's been so long, let me give a summary of the project.  It all started when my honey had to get down on his hands and knees to get a special pan out of the kitchen cabinet.  It was on the bottom shelf in the back.  He got up and said that someone needed to build some pull out drawers for my cabinets!

It didn't take long for him to get started, but took a couple of months to finish.  I love the pull out drawers!  It is so easy to get things out of the cabinet and I no longer have to get on my hands and knees to get things off the bottom shelves.  Here are the pictures from start to finish:

A little bit of privacy...

Funny story...

My honey likes to eat a piece of egg casserole for breakfast.  So I made a yummy spicy version for him to enjoy and it made the kitchen smell fantastic while it was cooking.  I had a long to do list for the day, so I was glad when the timer went off to indicate that the casserole was finally done and reached over and turned the oven off.  I've been known to walk back into the kitchen after I've taken something out of the oven, only to find the oven still on...um, yeah. Wasting electricity...

So, imagine my horror when I was putting some individual peach cobblers into the oven last night after dinner only to discover the egg casserole!  Auuuugggggghhhhh!  Fortunately, my honey just laughed and said (tongue in cheek) that he's glad he's never done anything like that!  The stories I could tell...just sayin'.


Decorating

When my oldest daughter and her husband moved into their new home, she was concerned about a lack of privacy because of the French doors off the dining room leading into the back yard.  She wanted something that would give them some privacy at night and liked the roll up shade I had made for our back door.  So we went shopping for fabric and decided on a pattern for the front and a solid for the back, thinking it would look more interesting when it was rolled up.  We also purchased magnetic curtain rods for the doors.

We had been hard at work cleaning and unpacking so I was very relieved when we had the shades up...until I realized that I had forgotten to include the ribbon to hold the shades up when rolled.  I was so tired I wanted to cry.  Then, my very creative son-in-law suggested that instead of rolling them up, why not just pull them up behind the rod and fold them over the rod.  He's a genius!  It only took about five minutes to get a look that they both liked. 

I put the sewing machine away!

The shades are held down by magnets sewn into each bottom corner:

Folding the shades to make them look like Roman shades:

Holiday Cheesecake...

FYI: New format coming soon!

 My oldest daughter used this easy Philadelphia Cream Cheese cheesecake recipe to make a delicious not-too-sweet dessert.  It makes 16 servings and you can change the colors of the candies to fit the different holidays or use fresh berries. Yum!  Blueberries and raspberries would be great for the 4th of July.  Just sayin'...

Ingredients:

40 Nilla Wafers, crushed to make 1 1/2 cups (to make it gluten free, use Mi-Del Arrowroot Cookies)
3 Tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar / 1/4 cup sugar
4 pkg. (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened, divided
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp vanilla, divided
3 eggs
8 oz Cool Whip, thawed - plus extra for decoration


Heat oven to 325 degrees F.  Mix wafer crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9" spring form pan.
Beat 3 pkgs. cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp vanilla with mixer until well blended.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended.  Pour over crust.  Bake 50-55 minutes or until center is almost set. 

Run a knife around the rim of pan to loosen cake; cool completely in pan.

Beat remaining cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer in large bowl until well blended.  Whisk in Cool Whip; spread over cheesecake. 

Spread over cooled cheesecake.  Refrigerate at least four hours.

To Serve:

Remove the rim of the spring form pan before serving the cheesecake.  Use a long knife to score the top of the cheesecake into serving portions. 

Using a small spoon and a clean finger, put a small dollop on the top of the outside edge of each serving.

Add an M&M or a berry to the middle of each dollop. 

Here is a picture of the cheesecake in the fridge just waiting to be eaten after Easter dinner.  Yum!

A reading tent...

My middle daughter saw a cute play tent on Pinterest and asked my honey to make it for her daughter.  Of course, Papa said yes!  He made it out of 1x2s with the hardware that would allow it to fold flat.  My daughter draped some extra fabric that coordinated with the other fabrics in my granddaughter's room and tucked it under the bottom pieces of the frame. Her crib mattress fits perfectly inside.  She loves reading in her tent!

A picture gallery...

My oldest daughter is an artist who uses unusual medium to create her paintings.  So it came as no surprise that she wanted to do a picture gallery on her dining room wall that was asymmetrical but balanced.  We saw the idea on Pinterest to have a horizontal line across the arrangement that all the pictures would go above or below.  So we used painter's tape for that horizontal line. 

The next thing we did was lay all the pictures and initials out on the living room floor in an arrangement that she liked, then transferred them to the wall one at a time.  The thing that saved the most time was putting toothpaste on the hooks on the back of the picture frames and pressing them to the wall to mark where the nails would go.  We probably saved several hours because we didn't have to measure anything.  Also, we used a small level on the larger frames to make sure the toothpaste marks would be level.

I've got to do some planning...

I spend, on average, ten hours a week on this blog - research, studying, planning and writing - and thoroughly enjoy the process and the outcome.  Sometimes life gets in the way and the research, studying, planning and writing just doesn't happen.  It's just how it is...

So, because of a lack of planning, the posts you will find in Nanna's Kitchen this week will again be short but hopefully sweet.

Today will be pictures of two crafty items found at my oldest daughter's house.  The first set of pictures are of a pretty frame around the thermostat in the hall.  This was a tabletop frame so we had to tear off the easel back and break the glued in glass (which I did by wrapping the frame in two layers of paper towel and put it all in a plastic gallon bag then broke the glass by gently tapping it with a hammer out in the carport).

Another craft project that she had done was a really cute pedestal that she keeps by her kitchen sink for her dish soap, hand soap and sponge.  She simply used gorilla glue to glue a melamine plate from Target to a wooden candle stick. 

Busy, busy, busy...

Ok...I always have these grandiose plans to blog no matter what's going on.  And, they rarely come to fruition.  So, my daughter and granddaughter have been here for a week and a half and I thought I could surely blog during her afternoon nap.  But, my daughter and I have had these wonderful conversations about what God is teaching us about ourselves and our relationships - hence, the lack of daily blog posts.

Today's post is going to be short and sweet.  And I will make no promises that you will find any more posts this week.  I will try...


Decor

Sometimes, all you need to update your decor is a little Old English Scratch Oil on your wood furniture to give them a new lease on life.  My daughter inherited this little desk from her grandma and it had obtained a variety of scratches in our many moves.  It was looking a little dry and scruffy.

I just put some Old English on a rag and rubbed it into the desk.  It's not perfect, but it sure looks better!  (Sorry about the dark pictures)

Before:

After:

My daughter also had an old oak dresser that was quite dry and dull.  The same Old English brightened it up as well and it is a beautiful piece of furniture in their living room.