2011 | Beneath My Heart

“Best DIY Projects of December” Linky Party

December 31, 2011 AT 11:08 pm 16 Comments

December 31, 2011 By traci 16 Comments

Welcome to the “Best DIY Projects of December” Linky Party!!!

While you all were all busy putting up beautiful Christmas decorations, making delicious Christmas treats, and making cute little Christmas crafts, our family was knee deep in our kitchen renovation.

I was so jealous that I wasn’t able to decorate my house for Christmas (until a few days before Christmas), and I plan on never doing another major home renovation during the holiday season.

That being said, I am so glad we got it completed! And we are enjoying our new kitchen soooo much.

Plus, it made me focus more on the true meaning of Christmas. Our Christmas was just as special as any other year, even without the Christmas fanfare.

We had everything we needed for Christmas…the love of Christ and the love of our family and friends.

Since I was so preoccupied with our kitchen, I missed out on a lot of the beautiful Christmas projects floating around blogland.

I would sure love it if you would link them up here, so I can finally check them out!

Here is a reminder of the party guidelines:

Your project MUST be about DIY home decor or home improvement.
Only ONE project per blogger, please.
Your project needs to be from the month of December, 2011.
Please enjoy visiting other great projects by other bloggers and leave some comment love.
Please link back to the party somewhere in your post. (Only those with a link back to the party will be considered to be featured on my blog.)

Let me see your best!

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2011 Beneath My Heart Highlights! (Wow! What a Year It’s been!)

December 30, 2011 AT 10:24 am 19 Comments

December 30, 2011 By traci 19 Comments

I canNOT believe this year is over!

And I canNOT believe all changes that our family has been through this past year as I look back over my posts!

It has been fun, depressing, exciting, nerve-racking, and More!

Today, I wanted to share some of my favorite highlights with you.

In January, my sister and I hosted a series called, Organizing your Heart and Home.

I got a LOT of organizing done that month! Here are the areas of my home that I organized…

My new laundry room (that I miss a bunch!)…

My bathroom closet makeover (in my master bedroom)…

My kitchen pantry makeover…

And lastly, my craft closet makeover…

I dressed up my mudroom sink…

Made over a table with my new favorite paint color…

I found a mirror at GW for $7.50 and painted it for our guest house…

I had fun creating this “I Celebrate YOU” tablescape for a guest post…

In June, we sold our house and moved into a new one!

After a month of being in our new home, we broke ground on a new addition!

I made a HUGE announcement on my blog that I still cannot believe I have the honor of being a part of!

So excited about Haven 2012!!!! I hope I get to meet some of you there!

We were busy on our addition, and I shared a tour of it with you.

While Cy was busy on the addition, I found some time to make a skirted desk for my office, and I showed you how to do it.

And oh yeah…

There was this little project I started in the middle of October…

You know…the one in the kitchen. I wanted to paint those cabinets white!

And I ended up with this!

Woo to the hoo!!!

My husband and I agree that our kitchen renovation has turned out to be one our favorite projects that we have completed together.

It was rough at times, but we are so glad we did it!

There was just too much going on this past year to add in all in one post.

We actually found time to makeover a friend’s kitchen and bathroom.

My Dad remarried.

I became a Great Aunt to my precious great nephew, Colt.

Cy ran in his first full marathon.

I went to Blissdom and Relevant.

Stayed and shopped with my friend Sarah.

Hung out in Tennessee with Layla.

Whew! What an amazing year!

This blog continues to bless me in ways I could never have imagined!

And YOU are the biggest reason!!

Thank you for following my blog.

Thank you for being such a blessing to me!

I pray for God’s blessing on 2012!

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Jeanne Oliver Designs {Creatively Made ECourse} Giveaway!!

December 29, 2011 AT 8:44 am

December 29, 2011 By traci

Hello, friends!

I am so thrilled to share with you another fabulous giveaway from Jeanne Oliver Designs!

Jeanne is giving away 5 spots to her Creatively Made ECourse!

Do you remember my last Jeanne Oliver Designs’ Giveaway?

Jeanne is the creator of these beautiful bags! And so much more!

(source)

And now she is offering FIVE spots to her Creatively Made ECourse!

Just click on “read more” to find out more about this giveaway and how to enter.

[Read more...]

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Before and After Pictures of our Kitchen Makeover {without mouse over effect!}

December 28, 2011 AT 2:30 pm 65 Comments

December 28, 2011 By traci 65 Comments

I know these pictures are a repeat, but I wanted to share the before and after pictures of our kitchen for those of you who cannot use the mouse over effect on your computer.

It was just too many pictures to put in yesterday’s post.

So here they are!

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After…

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We have a few more things left to do, and I will share those with you soon.

I will also answer a bunch of your questions about our counters, lighting, floors, etc. in a future post too.

THANK YOU so much for all of your sweet comments! Sharing this kitchen renovation with you made it so much more bearable during the difficult days.

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Filed Under kitchen makeover, makeover, makeovers, My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover 65 Comments

Before And After Kitchen Makeover Pictures {mouse over effect}

December 27, 2011 AT 7:24 pm 89 Comments

December 27, 2011 By traci 89 Comments

Happy Week After Christmas!!!

Are ya hangin’ in there?

My boys are having a blast playing with their Christmas goodies, and I am getting the itch to get things organized around here. Are you feelin’ the itch?

Before I show you the pictures of our kitchen, I wanted to ask you to check to see if my blog feed is working in your readers. Some people have told me that my feed isn’t working. It isn’t working for me in my Google Reader either. The last post shown is from the middle of December, which means some of you may have not seen my last TEN posts! Yikes! I posted a lot of great stuff these past weeks, so be sure to check it out.

I am having so much fun sharing with you “before and after” pictures of our kitchen.

I can hardly believe our kitchen ever looked like the “befores!”

The following EIGHT pictures have the “mouse over effect” on them.

Just move your cursor back and forth over the pictures to see the “before and afters.”

*You will not be able to see this effect in your email or readers, you MUST click on the post title and view this post on my blog page. So come on over!

If you were not able to use the mouse over effect, do not despair! Smile

I am sharing before and after pictures without the mouse over effect in my next post.

See you then!

Linking this post to…

And Addicted2Decorating 2011 Year in Review: Room Makeovers Linky Party!

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Filed Under kitchen makeover, makeover, My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover, room makeovers 89 Comments

Our Kitchen Makeover Video!

December 25, 2011 AT 11:01 pm 35 Comments

December 25, 2011 By traci 35 Comments

Merry Christmas, sweet friends!

I hope you have had a blessed day with family and friends.

I wanted to quickly share a video of our kitchen makeover with you. After being without a kitchen table for almost two months, it felt great to eat our Christmas breakfast at the table this morning. The kitchen truly is the heart of the home. Smile

I will be sharing more pictures of our kitchen in my next post.

Need a Christmas smile?

Watch this sweet video of one of my close friend’s daughter singing a precious song.

“I’m gonna wrap up myself for Christmas and tie me with a big red bow.

That’s what I’m giving to Jesus. It’s a present he’ll like I know!

My mama keeps trying to tell me, it won’t do any good to primp and fuss.

‘Cause Jesus doesn’t look at the wrapping. He’s looking for a Heart that Trusts!”

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Filed Under My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover 35 Comments

Hot Chocolate Bar {Our New Christmas Tradition}

December 23, 2011 AT 3:40 pm 19 Comments

December 23, 2011 By traci 19 Comments

Well, amidst the chaos of our kitchen renovation this December, we have been able to start a new Christmas tradition.

At least that’s what the boys’ say.

We have the “island” from our kitchen that we are not using as an island anymore, but it still holds some of the pots and pans that I need. So I just sat it up against the wall and put some leftover butcher block on top.

It’s just a temporary thing.

But since it is sitting in our kitchen, I thought I would put it to use and make it a “Hot Chocolate Bar.”

Let’s just say that the boys went crazy over this!

They think I am the coolest mom EVA!

We always drink hot chocolate each winter, but we have never had a spot designated just for making hot chocolate.

That’s what me made so cool.

We have regular marshmallows and peppermint marshmallows, some hot chocolate, and some candy canes.

I’m sure that new items will be added to our hot chocolate bar each year.

Maybe hazelnut or almond flavoring? Yum!

The boys made me promise that I will do this again next year, and of course I agreed.

So a new family tradition has begun!

Here are some hot chocolate bars I found on Pinterest if you need some more ideas to create your own.

The following three images are from Catch My Party!

source

Warm Winter Wishes!

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Filed Under Christmas 19 Comments

Simple and Inexpensive Christmas Recipes

December 22, 2011 AT 12:04 pm 9 Comments

December 22, 2011 By traci 9 Comments

Wow! Christmas is almost here!

I really can’t believe it. Our kitchen renovation has had me a wee-bit distracted. Smile

But I wanted to take a second to share with you some easy Christmas recipes.

First up is these chocolate-covered-marshmallows-on-pretzels-thingies.

A friend of ours made these at our sons’ piano recitals, and the boys just loved them.

They were easy to pick up and delicious to eat.

I made some for Adam’s classroom party the next week, and they loved them too.

You basically stick two mini-marshmallows on the end of a pretzel stick and dip it in melted chocolate, then add sprinkles, and Voila!

Another recipe I love to make our these marshmallow-cornflake-holly-berry-thingies.

These are so festive and beautiful on a Christmas table. Plus, they taste great!

It’s basically like making rice krispy treats.

I melted 1/2 stick of butter in a sauce pan, added a bag of marshmallows and let them melt together. Then I added a ton of green food coloring to get that deep green color. You can add a teaspoon of vanilla too, but I was out of it.

Then you add 3 cups of corn flakes mix them with the marshmallow mixture. Spoon some of the mix onto wax paper and had a few red hots to the top. Then let cool.

How easy is that?!

Warning: These treats will turn your tongue green. Smile

Tomorrow night the boys and I will be making our buckeyes. This is a tradition that I will never skip. I’ve been making them as long as I can remember. Over 30 years at least.

The boys love making them too. We leave buckeyes for Santa Claus.

Click on the picture above to find the recipe and read the story behind why I’ve been making them since I was a child.

Lastly, every year I share this link again…

We call it “Snow”. It’s basically white chocolate covered popcorn with M&M’s. It is delicious!!!

Such a great little snack to have around at Christmas time.

I like to bag it up and give it as a little gift!

Click on the picture to view the recipe.

As a side note, we are almost finished with the kitchen. I hope to show you how I’ve decorated my shelves for Christmas by tomorrow or Saturday.

Until then, I hope you are enjoying this season, and I pray that you would feel God’s love for you in a fresh way today.

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Filed Under Christmas, recipes 9 Comments

Our Subway Tile (And Jo Totes Giveaway Winner!)

December 21, 2011 AT 11:19 am 23 Comments

December 21, 2011 By traci 23 Comments

I love our white subway tile backsplash.

It’s simple, classic, and inexpensive.

I got my white tiles at Lowe’s. It was less than $25 a box, and we used less than 3 boxes to tile our entire backsplash. So it was less than $75 to create this classic look.

Here is the label on the box of tiles I used…

Cy used a 3/16 inch V-Notched Trowel to apply the tile adhesive to the tile.

He used Type 1 pre-mixed tile adhesive.

After applying the glaze to the back of the tile, he placed the tile in a brick pattern on the wall.

He used a tile saw to cut some of the pieces of tile around the sink, the outlets, and the corbels.

You can see that we butted the tiles right up next to each other. We did not want to have a large grout line between the tiles.

There’s nothing more sexy that this right here, right ladies?!…

I have a hard working man!

Here is the ready to use adhesive and grout we used between the tiles.

Here is what the tiles looked like after applying the grout and cleaning off the tiles…

Here is a tip when caulking between the bottom of the tile and the countertop:

Place a strip of painter’s tape along the top of the countertop and next to the bottom of the tile.

Then apply the caulk and smooth it out with your fingertip.

Once you are finished applying the caulk, lift up the painter’s tape, and you will have a perfectly smooth caulk line!

That’s it!

Now I need to announce the winner of the

fabulous Jo Tote’s giveaway!

The lucky lady is…

Vanessa from The 31 Lady!

Congratulations! I will be contacting you soon!!

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Filed Under My Kitchen, New Kitchen Makover 23 Comments

Our New Open Kitchen Shelves!

December 19, 2011 AT 8:09 pm 102 Comments

December 19, 2011 By traci 102 Comments

I have loved the look of open shelving for several years now.

I made a couple of them for our previous kitchen.

Some people say they are a fad and will go out of style. But I’m okay with that. I love them NOW, so that’s why I took my old cabinets down. (Carpe Diem, I say!)

After I took them down, I was left with this…

Notice ugly soffit.

It had to go.

So down it went. And so did a ton of insulation.

I almost didn’t survive that day. It was not even funny.

But we cleaned it up, and repaired the holes in the ceiling and walls…

Oh yeah, and we ditched the old pantry too!

So, let’s fast forward to this weekend.

I bought some corbels like the ones I had used in my previous kitchen and had them ready for my hubby to put up…

He put three of the corbels up on the wall, and I noticed TWO things immediately:

1. These corbels were too small for the shelves we were installing.

2. They were not the “look” I was after.

We were going to be installing 16 of these bad boys in our kitchen, and these corbels were a little too “curvy” for the look I was after. (A little too “cottagey”, if you will.)

So I returned the corbels to Home Depot and came home with some that I love.

In order to give the shelves lots of support, we made sure that each corbel was nailed into a stud in the wall.

These shelves will be holding a lot of dishes, so I am glad that the shelves to the right of the sink have three corbels each supporting them.

You can see the subway tile that we installed this past weekend too. Now that the back splash is white, we are going to have to switch out all of our tan outlets with new white ones. Ugh, the details!

Our friend, Adam, helped Cy with the kitchen this weekend. He was a huge help!!

We are going to be putting a little trim around the front of the shelves because they are just made of mdf board.

Now, I will be honest, that I am a little nervous about making my dishes look pretty on those shelves. I know they cannot be perfect, but I also don’t want the open shelves to look messy.