Beautiful nature photos

Here is a really nice board on Pinterest

http://pinterest.com/ilovecuttables/incredible-nature-and-its-fabulous-awesomeness/

Melody Johnson

Here are some more wonderful art quilts from Melody Johnson, a lover of COLOR.

http://www.wowmelody.com/Pages/G_StreetRiverSeries.html

Twenty year kitchen project

 We've been in our house almost seventeen years and have been slowly remodeling our kitchen.  We've changed the window, the lighting, one wall of cabinets, lots of trim.  Got a new oven and a new refrigerator.  This year we are doing the biggest part of the project.  It will be expensive and invasive.  We are replacing the island, which has the cooktop in it.  And we are getting a Vent-A-Hood.

We currently have a downdraft vent which is not at all effective and yet is very noisy and hard to clean.  The new hood will be a huge honkin' thing that is suspended from the ceiling over the island.  The photo is our hood mockup.  John made it out of a stick frame covered in brown paper.  It IS big but I think it will be okay.

John ia making the island cabintes and I am excited about having new beautiful cabinets instead of cheap stock cabinets that are falling apart. 

Moving slowly on our kitchen project has been great.  We can modify our our choices as we go.  I highly recommend it.  Good for the budget, too.

Kitchen island

These were "drawn" using MS Excel after running a  macro to make a square grid.  Then used Format borders to "draw" the configuration.

Coloring

Dye-na-flow fabric dye applied with bits of natural sponge, then some rubbing with some paper towel and maybe a few drops of water.  Lines made with fabric roller pen.   A few touches of embroidery here and there.  A color border added in Picasa collage.

Workshop cabinet

This is a "test" cabinet John (my husband) made, "test" meaning he was testing the construction techniques for our new kitchen island. This one is for his workshop. Pretty fancy for a basement workshop, huh? I keep threatening to move it upstairs.