Damsel In Distress

This is not technically a follow-up from my last post, although I do want to express my deep gratitude to those of you who commented, sent emails, called and - most importantly - prayed for me. I felt your prayers. I really did. I still do! What I didn't mention in that last post was that Phillip had left that morning for an overnight business trip. He is so good to me all of the time - but especially when I am sick - so I was lamenting my aloneness as well as being sick and caring for a sick child, although most of you didn't know that. So, thank you for giving me strength through your prayers and words of encouragement. Jack and I did get a great nap that afternoon and even treated ourselves to a car ride to Sonic for dinner and an Oreo Blast! And praise the Lord, we are now so much better. So, thank you, thank you, thank you.

With that said, I thought I'd lighten things up a bit by discussing my newest passion in life: distressing furniture. Everybody knows I love old things. I like things with a story, things with meaning. I am learning to "age" the things I already own by distressing and antiquing them myself, at a pretty substantial savings to buying them already looking exactly the way I want them to look. A while back, we salvaged an old built-in hutch from a building downtown and I have finally finished painting and distressing it. It took a long time, but it was so much fun! It now resides (thanks to Phillip, Craig Parker, Matt Chance and my Dad for lifting it at one time or another in its cumbersome journey) in Phillip's home office and it looks even better than I thought it would! Black paint is a miracle worker!

And now, for the MAJOR project I have undertaken...(And let me just add here, in case you don't know me well: I am the Queen of the Unfinished Project. I am notorious for taking on a project and getting it almost done and then finding a new project and repeating the cycle. Just wanted to throw that in for fun.) When we moved into our 55 year old home 4 and a half years ago, the kitchen was my absolute least favorite room in the house. The cabinets were floor to ceiling oak. The only light came from a window over the sink and two glaring overhead fluorescent lights. It literally felt like a coffin. There's nothing like starting your day off with a nice cup of coffee fresh from the Coffin!

Thanks to the amazing abilities of my parents, we (they) transformed the kitchen after about a year of living with it. My dad built all new doors for the actual cabinet bases and we opted to put glass in some doors to make it feel more airy and also to leave the top shelves open for display space. Mom and dad slaved away on the weekends building, attaching doors, installing lighting and then painting everything a clean, bright white. They are amazing and I owe them tremendously for all the hours they put into finishing it for us. I loved my kitchen just as it was. White kitchens are so pristine and have a way of looking new, yet always so classic. However, I had been itching to antique the cabinets for quite some time, even though I really debated changing anything. I kept having this vision of my kitchen looking like it had been pulled right out of a Tuscan villa...since my fear of flying will probably keep me from ever actually visiting a Tuscan villa. Ha ha.

So, the other night - armed with glaze and a pair of holey socks - I began the process of aging my cabinets, hopefully by about 100 years or so! I am currently almost half way around the kitchen and so far, I am very pleased with the results. I forgot to take any "Before" shots, so you'll just have to imagine the cabinets bright white like they were before. Yeah, and I'll just imagine that I don't notice the partially-painted ceiling that has been that way for nearly four years...