Round Top, Part ONE!!!

So, I think we left Thursday. or was it Wed?

That's me, Clara Blalock, and Lisa Moore

(who's birthday is TODAY!!!)

SO....we piled over 200 pieces of art in a really tall van to head on out to Round Top, Texas.

um...like something you guys would never in your wildest dreams believe.

We left Atlanta at 6:30 a.m.

hum.....1 hour accidental detour and 15 (at least) potty breaks on my part

(next time I'm wearing a depends ;))

driving over probably 100 miles of bridges in Louisians.  y'all.  um if you have a fear of bridges?

Don't go through Louisiana.  I'm serious.

oh, and don't get me started on the 1000's of billboards about casinos.  They even have them at truck stops.....I'm serious.

we decided to refrain ;)

 now....i love to gamble....but...

We finally arrived in Texas

Wow.....you guys should see the gas refineries.  Lit up like Christmas trees. SO beautiful!!!

Then we finally made it to Houston

pretty tired let me tell you.....

and it was very dark

and.

The absolute WORST construction I've ever in my life seen.

no really, I think they are trying to be the most high tech highway system in the country.

The overpasses look like this

the game "Mousetrap" came to mind for some reason

seriously scared the crap outta me. (and I was following Lisa and Clara in the van)

and SIXTEEN hours later

We finally arrived at PEACE...

here. a cabin in the country

with a barn...

and a cow.

 and forgive me for getting  a little hummingbird picture taking obsessive....

I am now a true "cowgirl".....

(hiding my BIG hair)

we had to have walls built that were not painted.

SO, we went and got paint and painted ALOT of walls.

I think we used 7 gallons of paint.

WHEW....

but we endured and hung

and hung.

and hung...

and hung

Now, today will be our final day of setting up.

GOOD GRIEF,

Thank you baby Jesus.

You guys should see Lisa Upchurch Moore's and Clara Blalock's work.

It is just simple AMAZING.

I'm pretty happy with mine too!

Especially over 100 prints of my watercolors

signed and numbered!

Come see us!

Arbor Antiques

Tent D

Round Top Texas

Have a terrific day y'all!

kb

When God Brings People Together...

So I think everything happens for a reason.

God brought Leigh Ann Herrin into my life about 2 1/2 months ago.

She has opened my eyes to the seriousness of the grossly underfunded research for Childhood Cancer and has become a wonderful, wonderful new friend.

I am simply honored to know her.

Today is the anniversary of her son Carter's death.  Carter died of Childhood Cancer.

Something no child should EVER have to go through, nor should a parent have to watch their child suffer through this horrible disease.

Please support CURE Childhood Cancer.

The Quiet Heroes on-line auction is UP!!!!

Y'all. You won't even believe how great all the items are.

Some of the best auction items I've ever seen.

Please go to the site, register and bid!!!  The bidding will end on September 19th on the day of the Quiet Heroes event.

But, as long as you put your highest bid in, you don't have to be at the event to win!!!

Please, please friends, help support this horribly underfunded cause.

Our children need this.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

xoxoxo

kendall

http://quietheroes.org/silent-auction/

Watercolour Lovin!

I have never thought that I would ever be a watercolour painter.

Ever.

Like, I really don't even [normally] like the look of watercolour art.

But for some strange, and really pretty insane reason, I decided to try to do some watercolour paintings (a week before we leave for Round Top, Texas)

I really just wanted to have something more affordable in my portfolio.

and now I'm obsessed.

I simply love, love, love groupings of pictures in rows both vertically and horizontally.

Like these examples:

Suzanne Kasler

RH

RH

framed intaglios

Erika Powell with Urban Grace

so, since I love groupings, I decided to try my hand at painting watercolours.  

And, I'm not really sure what I didn't like about them!

For Round Top I am going to have about 30 original watercolour paintings that will be framed.

I will also have about 60 giclees that will be matted.

These are some of what you'll see!

Hope you guys have a terrific day!!!

kb

Can This Kitchen Be Saved???? YES it Can!!!!

Well y'all.

Christmas has literally come to me at the end of August/first of September.

no really.

I'm like OVERTHEMOON ecstatic.

Here's why.

Well, 12 years ago we bought a condo in Atlanta.

3 years ago "W" decided that retirement at Reynold's Plantation was really not for him.

(it wasn't for me either)...hehe

So.  We sold our what we thought was our "dream" home and moved back to our condo in Atlanta.

The condo really needed to be updated but

1) I didn't have time to do any type of renovation and 

2) I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it since really, I wasn't sure how long we would stay here.

So, in my spare time, I tried to put lipstick on a pig.

That's really, really not too nice because honestly, the pig is a pretty nice pig.

Now, with that being said, I think those of you who have read my blog for a while now know how much I love to cook.  LOVE IT.

The cabinets in our condo are seriously the cheapest melamine condo grade cabinets that I've ever seen.  Just yuck.

While they work fine, I hated my kitchen.

Here it was when we moved back in....

notice that it didn't even have moulding on top of the cabinets. (who does that?)

So, about a year ago, I tried my best to fix this up a little.  I love open cabinets, so I took a lot of the doors off and tried a different shade of lipstick for my pig....

Here we go...

took the cabinet doors off

BTW. when you don't have cabinet doors, you may not like the look, but I will tell you, my lazy ass loved not having to open a cabinet door.

...oh goodness

then I added crown molding to the top of the cabinets

but first added trim to that wierd space above the microwave.

(which since it is at eye level, I'm sure I'll have a brain tumor one day)

and I simply changed the knobs and pulls

So, "W" has known for a while that I hated the way our kitchen looked.  I probably told him that every day!  I'm kidding of course, but really, he was reminded a lot.

For my birthday, he took me to Home Depot because he was sure we could get the best deal EVER by using HD.  Again....neither one of us wanted to spend a lot of money on something that we may not recover when/if we decide to sell.

So Home Depot came on out.  Wow, were they ever business like.  All I was interested in really was resurfacing my cabinets, that's all.

The guy said "yes, we do this ALL the time...and it's half of what it cost to replace the cabinets!!!"

y'all we are talking 57 linear ft. of cabinets.  That's it.

The price quoted?

Get ready for it....

14,500.00

I honestly wish you guys could have seen my face.  I mean really, I try not to look stunned when folks shock the hell outta me, but really I was not refacing cabinets in a million dollar home.

FOURTEENTHOUSANDFIVEHUNDREDDOLLARS.

I really, really came close to using my really strong titanium leg and booting him the heck outta my condo.

so.

I put an ISO "in search of" someone who could paint my cabinets on my 11,750 member FB page that I administer.  It's a trading site but on Wednesdays I let businesses advertise.

In comes truly the most magnificent, talented human being I've probably ever been around.

Suzanne Burgess.

First of all, I honestly didn't think melamine cabinets could be painted.

Suzanne assured me that they could and she came by to take a look.

We clicked like butter on a piece a toast.

I was headed to Napa and she said "Kendall, I'll do this while you're gone"

Like do it all.  Take down an ugly, oh MG, U.G.L.Y. light box, add 4 recessed lights, two light fixtures (great find if I say so myself...), paint all the ceilings, fixed some drywall that looked kinda rough, primed and painted my cabinets, installed a new microwave and then saved me more money by painting my knobs.

Take a looksy....

we had no place to keep our 15 cases of wine that we gotslightlycarriedawaywithbuyinginNapa

I don't understand what makes you buy so much wine when you go to Napa....

this is only half of what is still being delivered....

and "W" came up with this great storage idea!!!

Not sure where we are going to put the other 15 boxes that we're expecting.....

 so, here are more shots

now, Suzanne did all of this...but the clincher was the new countertops and backsplash.

OMG.

I know that Cararra marble is not the smartest thing to use on your countertops.

But....I'm dumb like that.  And really I don't care....I love the look of it, everything about it.

Add to that a simple white subway tile.

This was provided by another lovely member of my group

Kylie Kremer

her family's company is 

True Source out of Atlanta.

www.truesourcecabinets.com

They do it all.  I mean everything.  If I was doing new cabinets, flooring, or anything else, that's who I would use.  SO incredibly easy to work with.  Like just unreal.

So, let's recap...

Before:

after me trying to fix

and then after the REAL professionals do it....

All done for under 6K.

No, I'm serious.

Suzanne Burgess' contact is:

suzanneburgess44@gmail.com

(just a note....if you paint your melamine cabinets, you MUST find someone who does this professionally)

If you don't....you will regret it.

I'm a happy woman!!!

have a great day y'all!

kb