End of Summer

Another summer disappeared. It happened so quickly, I don't know where it went. Except is supposed to reach 90 today, so I guess it isn't really over, but The Boy is back at college and The Girl started her junior year of HS.
and HP has a Masters in Business Administration New Ventures & Entrepreneurial Studies. (Yes he usually is that blurry, it's not the camera.)

I have had problems off & on with my digital, and am desperately hoping that I will be able to get it to behave before I go to Italy next month. Wow, next Month???? (We've been talking about this trip for about a year and a half--HP's dad is taking us, HP's sis & her hubby so we can meet his new wife's family. A nice way to get to know each other, eh. I honestly didn't think it was going to happen, but it is almost here! I guess I better get back to those Italian lessons!)

Any way, I am trying to get back into a routine of answering email and posting. Hopefully I can, because really I'm shocked that I missed 2 Ho-Downs! I swear, I've been eating my potatoes like a good ho! Last night's mashed Yukon Gold with caramelized onions, goat cheese and smoked Parmesan were out of this world. But the camera was up here on the 3rd flr with the computer. Maybe I can do something with the left-overs.

Let's see if I have any good pics of our Major Kitchen Project, shall we?

The kitchen started a terra cotta color with these blue cabinets. When I bought the house I thought the kitchen was cozy and warm. After 7 years of cooking and living in it, I decided it was dingy and tortuous.
We started with the ceiling, then did prep & cut in around the miles of moulding in the kitchen. Can ya see the garden through the window?
We had a lot of prep, and had a hard time figuring out what to with the stuff we use every day. We worked around it for a little while.

We were still cutting in on HP's birthday, so I made him a card.

We put the new sink & countertop in after we painted the "racing stripes"
We had a dearth of doors for a while! I think this was supposed to show the "after" color on the yellow. The "before" picture is one that was eaten by my camera's random memory card issues. The yellow was very bright and sunny, but we didn't want to want to wear sunglasses for our morning coffee, so I toned it down with a glaze effect made with brown glaze and beer. (no, that doesn't count the beer I was drinking at the time, really I mixed the two and applied it to the wall)

And our kitchen will never look this clean again...