Red I Said

Hallelujah!!!! I've done it. The kitchen is ready for action...sprinkled with my favorite color RED....a bit of original art....and things collected over the years.

Yeah, I know, I have just revealed that I have a rubber band looped to the button of my favorite gardening pants (purely for comfort, mind you) but this picture said it best. I'm very happy.
I'll begin with a before shot of my old fridge.....

 Lord, Have Mercy!

And now the after fridge....

Yes, that's the only magnet on it! I can hardly believe my own restraint. Now, all I need is some of that stainless steel cleaner. This magnet is by the great Sandy Mastroni, by the way.
Next up the big white hutch before....

And the hutch now wearing the new gray paint....

This is where I ran into trouble during the stuffectomy.  Things just refused to go so I'm calling this my
Stuff Shrine to the Past.  I know, it's a cop out.
I gave two grocery bags of this kind of stuff to my little sister a few weeks ago. She loved it, so I was happy, but there is still more. We lived in Michigan for four years when Joe was in the Coast Guard and we had the best time antiquing in the country nearly every free weekend. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
Okay! Ready to see the RED?

RED atop a little jelly cabinet my dad made.  I did the painting. Arty Hazelquist did the Santa.

A great retro bowl little sis gave me. My wax lips that I'm saving for a special occasion.

My most favorite thing isn't red, it's the King Kong on the Empire State Building. My big sis says it should go. I think she's wrong.

 Part of my apron collection. I was very judicious. This is a great thing to collect. You can find them for $3 to $5 dollars at yard sales and on Etsy. They remind me of my grandmother. This is good for my soul.

Here's another before shot.  Paintings I did in another life time.....and two sweet boys...

Now for the pared down NEW streamlined look....

That's one of my Minor Whiners in the basket. I have a few more in my Etsy shop. They've been waiting to be adopted for so long they're starting to look meaner and meaner.
Next up an idea I had for an old tole tray my mom gave me. She served drinks on this back in the '50's. More good memories....

I turned it into a magnet board.  I found the big magnet clips at Target for about $5.  The paperclip can is magnetic too.
More red accents.....

A bit more....

He wouldn't be still. Notice red collar.
And more......

I decided to put Lucky Linda with her friend. Yes, more Sandy art.....

Last, but surely not least, is The Mullet Tossing Mermaid created by Sandy Mastroni.
I told Sandy I wanted to be buried with it....

HER ARMS MOVE! HER TAIL MOVES! I am so in love with this. Here's a closer picture...

 I'd best write this in the will. "Bury with Ronnie!"
See you all next time. I hope your Summer is going well.
Love and all good things,
Ronnie aka Joe's stove operator

August speeds by!

Summer seems to move faster than other seasons, but I did manage to squeeze in the kitchen painting. Kitchen walls are now blue! Used to be greener. And that behemoth of a white hutch is now a nice gray taupe.

 Here's how it used to look. White with all that STUFF piled in it! Streamlining is my new middle name.

I'll be editing. You'll see the results of my stuffectomy in a forthcoming post. Anyway, I got this brilliant idea from a magazine to add an accent color to my new scheme. So, I painted the back of the hutch a nice brick red thinking it would look real sharp, but it looked plain awful! I painted over it with the gray and sanded it a bit to show just a little red. More of that later.

Whine time: Painting the interior of your house is a nightmare. It's as near to moving as you can get. Moving stuff from room to room as each room gets painted. Pictures come off the wall....

Books I haven't dusted in 15 years come off the shelves...

Now all the stuff has to find a place again. Blah.  Do I really want to hammer a bunch of holes in these freshly painted walls? A lot of it just needs to go. Too much stuff!
But I have a plan... Less stuff and less traditional! How's this for a start?

A Texas Javelina (boar's head) I gave to Joe for his birthday one year. Sandy Mastroni's Lucky Linda is a nice juxtaposition, don't you think. I have more results to show you, but I left my camera next door. I'll get it tomorrow and we'll visit again. How's that?!
Oh, I forgot, I do have one pic of the finished kitchen....

 Sandy Mastroni's mullet tossing mermaid now hangs from the light fixture. SHOOT! I'll never make it as a Home Decorating Blogger! This picture just doesn't cut it.
Maybe I better wait til tomorrow when I have my camera.
I'll have nice pics of the squared away new kitchen and some ART PHOTOS too (yes, this is an Art Blog) from my trip to Quebec, Canada. Here's a tiny tease.....

HAH! Not so tiny, huh?!
Later gators,
Ronnie