New-Old kitchen cabinet

We bought a (vintage) kitchen cabinet yesterday from this great place in Reading called the Artifacts Bank. There you can find all kinds of old stuff (hardware, moulding, doors, windows, sinks, furniture, etc...) that has been salvaged from homes in Reading that were to be demolished, or are being renovated. This cabinet is awesome, although in need of major stripping. I have started the stripping process, and am wondering what I have gotten myself into. I know I need to take the doors and hardware off, and probably should have done that before I started stripping, but I am impatient and wanted to start scraping paint. It will be a process and I will post more pictures as things progress!

Hot, hot day in July

Rowan, the dogs and I went for a walk today while Meilea was at her last movie making class. It got pretty hot, pretty fast. Here are some colorful pictures of Rowan climbing....





















Here is handsome Scooter...

The Family

Me and my kids

100_4623, originally uploaded by karenlyn1772.

Here we are in front of the wild Atlantic Ocean.

Avalon

100_4620, originally uploaded by karenlyn1772.

Earlier this summer we took a mini vacation in Avalon, NJ. Am posting this from flikr... something new that I just signed up for tonight. (I should be in bed. What is my problem?) Anyway, here are the kids running with abandon on the beach. A memory that is etched nicely in my brain. :) Click on the picture to go to flickr and see other pictures from that vacation!

Summer Gardening

I am starting a new blog, because I miss blogging about my art room adventures. So welcome to the adventures of the rest of my life. A good place to start is my garden, which is taking up some of my summer hours. It is easily the best garden I have ever tended to (and I have had more than a few) Not sure if it is the imported mushroom soil, the new location, or maybe I'm just getting better at it? Whatever the case, there are many wonderful things happening there! My husband and I planted zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, green and yellow beans, peas, radishes, lettuces, red corn (yes, red) (which my little boy picked out) japanese(?) eggplant, basil and a variety of flowers. The butternut squash planted itself and it taking over a large portion of the yard next to the compost. The worst problem I have encountered have been large, squishy, yellow aphids (also known as a variety of unmentionable names) that almost decimated my beans. But I discovered them in time, it seems and have been on a killing mission ever since. The best defense against these nasty beasts is to squish them between your thumb and forefinger. They squirt yellow ick and hopefully this evokes terror in their peers. Finally some yellow ladybugs (?) and wasps have come to my aid and have been dining on these awful creatures the past few days. Anyway, have a look at the pictures. You can see my little guy with some cherry tomatoes. Nice face!