~HAND SCRAPED WOOD FLOOR GOES IN...WHOOT! ALMOST DONE!~

 ~Beautiful Hand Scraped Wood Floor~

My Mr. AGPMan and I leave for the Nashville area this week to spend some time with my sister and to help her with her estate sale...we are hoping to sweat off some pounds while we are there and maybe bring back a few treasures!  We we  also be hauling back the antique counter we will be transforming into our kitchen island...so excited!

~Wood Floors Tie Everything Together~

After yapping about our complete kitchen remodel/renovation and I'm excited to say that in just a very short time it will be completely done.  Can't wait to show you pictures of the final reveal with everything put into place.

~Waiting for Glue to Dry~

I haven't taken new pictures, but the stove/oven and fridge are back in place and so is our temporary island we purchased at Sam's Club.  I'm going to paint it and move it to my studio as it's a great piece to craft on.  You can see part of it in one of the photos below (two down)...

~May 2014~

We've come a long way since a year ago May 2014.  This temporary island was made up of two old cabinets.  We used this for over a year...YUCK!  But...hey~it worked!  The big white fridge was banished to the gawh-raj!

~May 2015~

Lots of work in one year.  That was evenings and almost every single weekend!!!!  Seeing the cabinets go up was so exciting.  They still had to be customized and painted...but to see cabinets on the wall made me feel like we had a real kitchen again!

~Easter 2014~

The two pictures above will show you that we actually used the kitchen during our remodel.  This is my Miss K and I at Easter 2014 dying Easter Eggs in a hovel of a kitchen.  I refused to allow the torn up mess to keep us from making memories.  If I had we would have lost four years of fun times!  This is before sheet rock, etc.  My Mr. AGPMan was still working on the electrical, etc.  By the way...I have on his geek shirt (need a hair cut!) and my Miss K is now as tall as I am.  She's grown a lot in 15-16 months!  She'll be 13 in November!  Say it isn't so!

~My Miss K~

OK...more when I return from our trip.  August is half over and my favorite month of September will soon be here...  I love Autumn...makes my heart sing!

Love to you...

~GROWING UP BEFORE MY EYES~

I'm swamped with working on Christmas offerings, but just had to take a few seconds to show you the latest picture I snapped of my Miss K...

Can you believe how much she's grown over the past year or so?  Such a precious girl and moving up and onward!  She's still my only grandchild and I love her to the moon and back again.

More soon.  Pretty things to share over the next few days...

Blessings~

~HAPPY HARVEST DAYS...And So Much More~

 

HAPPY FALL, Peeps!

The official FIRST DAY of AUTUMN isn't until September 23rd, but who's counting, right?  I love the mild weather we've been having and so enjoy having cooler days.  I'm also eager to share new thoughts with you...that is, if any of my old readers are still around and care to tag along.

 

So many changes this year and many more to come.  

 

I still have my Booth at Serendipity Market (Edmond, OK) and loving it more than ever.

 

I still JUNK with a passion and suppose I always will.

 

And...when I FEEL like it, I add something new to my REBECCA VINTAGE - A Gathering Place website.

My home continues along a path of metamorphic change.

I'll be sharing more about it soon...especially our never-ending kitchen and downstairs renovation...

(Our Achilles Heel!)

The kitchen portion of it has been ongoing for way too long now and we are BEYOND sick of it.  We do have our new fridge, sink, window, faucet, etc.  All the plumbing, wiring is done (huge, huge job) and the walls are now textured and painted and doors trimmed out.

 

But, our cabinets came in and then were sent back because of damage, poor painting and glazing and missing parts.

(Silent Scream Goes Here!)

At this point we are moving towards Plan B on the cabinets.  We found a style we LOVE, but they are so OUT of our BUDGET (like THOUSANDS OVER!!!) that my hubby is going to custom make them.  Am I totally on board with this?  Ummm...NO!  He's already overworked (and underpaid!) and making custom cabinets will take months given his available time.  But, convincing a do-it-yourselfer to NOT do-it-himself will take a miracle.

The one thing he's opted NOT TO DO HIMESELF are the cabinets.  The company we chose dropped the ball (big time) and the quality was simply terrible.  They were expensive too...

(Totally bummed out!)

I'm sure my hubby's returning to school, his job loss in the middle of last year and the death of both of our fathers only eight weeks apart has played a huge part in the delay.  Not to mention landing a new job and getting settled into a new career... 

It's all been overwhelming.

My guy works a full time job and has done ALL the work alone.  That means only a couple of hours a night and Saturdays to work on everything...and little rest. :(

So...the beat (and work) goes on!!!  More pics to share with you soon!

For those of you who are wondering about my Miss K...  Well, she will be TWELVE in November and is no longer a wee little girl.  She'll pass me up in height this year (Boo!) and can no longer 'borrow' my cool shoes as her feet are bigger than mine.  I suspect she'll one day reach at least 5'8...she's going to be a tall girl.  She's grown up to be so precious~  Oh, and she LOVES her newly refashioned turquoise bedroom.

So, there you have it...where I am today.  Busy as ever and loving life so much.  I'm grateful for my health and so much more.

God is good.

All the time.

Blessings...

 

~SNAPSHOTS and SEPIA DREAMS~

When your only grandchild comes to stay for two whole weeks at her Nana's house you've got to get creative to keep things interesting...  If not the long summer days can go bust in a big fat hurry!  So~what did I do to keep one amazing ten year old from getting totally bored day-in and day-out?

Well...after days of doing the usual...swimming, shopping (lots of shopping!), reading, movie watching, taking walks, working on my booth (yes...she helped me) we had to find something different and out of the norm to do...  And so....

We played DRESS-UP!!!  Or at least my Miss K did!

Together (um...it was more MY idea than HER idea) we decided to pull the clothes off one of my display mannequins and with the trusty aid of a few safety pins my favorite little girl in the whole wide world was dressed to the nines.  We curled up her hair and added just a wee bit of lip-gloss and mascara to her already beautiful face...grabbed an old hat and shoes for some props and away we went to the backyard for some picture-taking-fun!

 

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had and what a trooper my Miss K was during the entire process of photographing her.  Even when it started to get a tiny bit warm outside (imagine all the clothes) she didn't complain one little bit....

I always wanted to do something like this when my daughter, Adrienne, was little.  But...back then we didn't have digital cameras...no Photo Shop, no Paint Shop Pro, and certainly no way to manipulate photographs via the computer like you can today!

Adrienne grew up and I never did get those dress-up pictures taken...  I'd give almost anything if had some photos taken with my old 110 camera or 35mm...

Anyway...by the the time Miss K and I were finished with all the pictures (only took about 10-15 minutes) we came in and snacked on peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwiches and sipped on sweet tea.  A fabulously FUN MEMORY TO MAKE and a day I will never forget.

  

I told my girl how special she was to me and promised her that one day...hopefully a long, long time from now...the pictures would mean a lot to her as well.  I told her I knew it was hard to picture herself as an older lady, but that one day she would be and she would have grandchildren of her own.  I hope she will look back on this afternoon and the memories we made and will remember it as a special time in her life.

In November Miss K will turn eleven.  Not many more chances to snap photos like this.  Before long she'll be a teenager and moments like this will have passed us by.  So happy we were able to carve some time out of our busy lives to create something lasting...and forever.

Make your day count!

Love to you...

~WHERE'S MY CUPCAKE??? HAPPY ST. PADDY'S DAY~

 Happy St. Patrick's Day...

I'm not feeling too great at the moment (surely caught some bug...probably a GREEN ONE!) and so this will be quick...

Spent the early afternoon helping my Miss K bake cupcakes!  She did everything herself except pull the hot pans from the oven.  I'm sooo proud of her.  Lemon cupcakes (tinted green, of course) with cream cheese icing!  Lots of shamrock sprinkles and green sugar sparkles for fun!!!  She even piped the frosting onto the tops which is kinda hard when your hands are small!!!!

 She called her Papa in from his workshop (notice his cap) and they shared her sweet treats with glasses of icy cold milk!

While we were chatting away we looked across the table (that sits four) and just who do you think was occupying the lone empty seat?????  Well..if you guessed MY MISS MOLLIE you would be right!  That silly doggie!
How can ANYONE say NO to that face????

("Where's MY CUPCAKE????")

Thanking God today for St. Patrick and his legacy of love and peace.

Love to you...

~POISON ETTA~

For years I've wondered what happened to Etta!  Now I know...someone poisoned her!

I love sharing stories with you about my Miss K and today I have a brand new one for you.  She was only six when I started blogging and now she is ten.  Once a tiny thing she's growing up to be so lovely and I adore her more than ever.  

As my Miss K has gotten older she continues to just crack me up.  I'm constantly laughing out loud over something she has said or done and yesterday she once again had me in stitches.

 I had a few errands to run Saturday afternoon and for my only grandchild that means a trip to ROSS and maybe new shoes (she LOVES new shoes)!  Right next to our destination store was a Tuesday Morning and so we decided to step inside for a look around.  The TAKE an EXTRA 25% OFF REDUCED ITEMS sign on the door called out my name.

Anyway...after looking around the only thing I found that begged for my hard-earned cash was a dozen white Christmas flowers.  Originally valued at $4.99 they had been marked down to .69 and with the ongoing sale they were only .52 a stem.  WHAT A DEAL!  My girl and I checked out and went about our way.

A few hours later while I was busy decorating the China Hutch in my breakfast room my Miss K played upstairs.  Hunger pangs must have led her back into the kitchen because after an hour or so she reappeared.  While munching on White Cheddar Cheese Its (such a nice, healthy Holiday Treat, don't you thinK?) she sat down for a chat while I continued to work.  Now...this girl can talk a lot!  I mean a lot!!!  And so she began a partially one-sided conversation with me saying
UH-HUH and WOW and AWESOME 
every now and then.

Then she said something that REALLY caught my attention...

Miss K:

"I love decorating and maybe when I grown up I'll be a decorator, too!
 Wow, Nana!  I see what you did with that
POISON ETTA!"

Me:

"Yeah..... (LONG PAUSE.......)

WHAT did you SAY?"

Miss K (very seriously this time!):

"I said I like where you put the POISON ETTA!"

??????????

Obviously she was referring to the Poinsettia Flowers I had just purchase at Tuesday Morning.  I laughed soooo hard I couldn't speak.  I told her they were called Poin-Set-Ti-Uhs  and NOT POISON ETTAS and of course she thought she was just soooo funny.  That made me laugh all the more!

Reminds me of the story I shared a few years ago about her confusing
HOSANNA with OH SANTA!

Today I'm thanking God for her beautiful little spirit and the sweetness of her soul.  I pray everyday she never loses it.

Blessings as you celebrate Advent.

Love to you...

~HAPPY BIRTHDAY #10 TO MY MISS K~

Ten years ago my life changed forever.  On November 13, 2002 my oldest child became a daddy and I became a Nana.  I didn't realize it then, but our Miss K coming into the world would ultimately change everything I ever believed about Grand-parenting and my capacity to love...

Our Miss K means more to me than any other little girl in the whole-wide-world..

 She makes me laugh and cry and gives me so much love...

She has blessed me from day one...

There is nothing I wouldn't do for her...

Happy Birthday #10 to my beautiful, beautiful grandgirl, Miss K.  Seems like just yesterday you were born...  Where have the years gone?

God has GREAT THINGS in store for you...  I can't wait to see just where His blessings lead you.

I love you most and I'm so very proud of you!

Love, Nana

~~*~~

Blessings as you celebrate life with those you love.

Love to you...