...and there went March!

Well they do say that time flies when you're having fun, but this is ridiculous!  Where did March go? 

I think it must have got lost somewhere in between birthdays (mine and Brian's), an anniversary (21 years since we started dating), a spring break (Becca's, and she really needed it), various late winter coughs and colds, and an outbreak of kitchen redecorating. 

The kitchen was inspired by a beautiful piece of beech countertop that Brian and Caity found at a scrap wood place, they brought it home, cut it to size, refinished it, and it's now installed on my cut-down island.  We lost the old cooktop, removed one stack of drawers, and turned the island 90 degrees, also removing the doors so that the pans are easily accessible and they look pretty, too!  Then I got to work with a can of paint and refinished all the lower cabinets.  This really needs pictures...hang on a minute, let me go and find the camera...

First, and most important, here is Connie, in all her beautiful Aga glory!  Guess where everyone likes to sit....

Here's the new island.

 and the newly painted cabinets....

next on the list will be new countertops and white trim! 

 and here's where I'm blogging from!  With knitting, of course!  ;-) 

You can see which part of the floor is refinished and which hasn't been sanded back yet - there was no wood underneath the old island, so we're going to use the torn out bathroom flooring to tidy that up and make it all match nicely.  The refinishing of the rest of the floor will happen after that, probably in fall when we want to be back inside again. 

The ceiling needs paint, and one of the new light fittings hasn't been installed yet, but it's coming along nicely, and we're enjoying the new brighter space. 

Sunshine in December.

Today was a beautiful day, not too cold, clear and pretty - unusual for mid-December.  My family woke to find a pan of porridge on the back of the Aga, and their excitement was definitely disproportionate to the 5 minutes it took for me to make it last night!  Bri taught the girls how to cook toast on the top, and off they went, well fed, happy, and ready to enjoy Saturday! We got the woodstores filled, the driveway cleaned, the girls rode their bikes, we baked bread, did a spot of cleaning, and then this afternoon Becca and I made muffins. 

Dinner was roast chicken, with rice and roasted onions/peppers/carrots - Rebecca liked the peppers best, Caity liked the carrots, Brian and I were just so glad to be eating out of the Aga.  The fruit is soaking in brandy, ready to bake the Christmas cake tomorrow, and it has been a lovely day, in the kitchen and out! 

Everyone is in bed now, except me, it's that late-at-night quiet time that I so love.  I have tv (an old David Jason series on Netflix), tea, knitting, and the blog.  Who could ask for more? 

That went by fast...

And it's Saturday again, already!  It's been quite a week in our house, hallowe'en costumes needed to be made, knitting is underway for presents, R turned 14 yesterday, so we threw an ice-cream free-for-all at the RC where she goes to class and about 50 of her closest friends showed up to eat with her!  She had a blast! 

This morning I slept til past 11, felt much better for it and got up to find Bri getting ready to start work on the kitchen again.  He has, this week, built the plinth that the Aga will sit on, and it needed to be leveled off ready to go.  I needed to finish the Bella mittens that I was supposed to have given R for her birthday yesterday, so I sat down to knit for a bit.  After eating a sort of brunch-ish-lunch with the family, I was told to go and rest for a bit...and I just woke up, after a 3 hour nap.  I can hear my Nan, bless her heart, telling me that I must have needed it or I wouldn't have slept that long. 

I woke up to find this...

I have to go now - apparently he needs a 'strong helper' for the next part.  Really.  How he got that first part in WITHOUT a strong helper, I don't know!