Endless

It's not that transforming my blah cream kitchen hasn't been satisfying, and it's not even that I haven't enjoyed much of it although in all honesty I'm not sure I can differentiate between being pleased with the outcome versus actually enjoying the act of effecting it - it's just that it's been going on for so long and it feels like it's never going to end.

That being said, I'm really close to being at the point where I could call it done.

Not quite though.

Except for the ceiling, everything that should have been painted, has been.

I started taping the top of the walls and then lost interest because (a) not the highest priority and more to the point (b) I didn't feel like getting the stepladder from the garage. It'll get done, but not today.

I had made the old shade in 2006 but it's become so last decade that it had to go. I couldn't find suitable fabric for a new one, so I bought some white canvas and some assorted fruits and vegetables and fabric paint and took advantage of the lovely weather yesterday.

Also some carrots and corn.

I had help taking down the old one.

I think he likes the unobstructed view outside but quite honestly it's not as though it's much different when the shade is installed and open.

He seems unconvinced.

When I moved into my house there was nowhere in the kitchen to put cookbooks so I put a shelf on the wall which served its purpose perfectly well but I'm not sure I ever actually liked it. It had to go, and its replacement is in process.

I knew that the sanding of the boards would take a while; it always does, but I completely managed to discount the time needed for staining.

It's nice pine, but plain pine boards don't really stand up to the rest of the kitchen but apparently I can't apply a finish until the stain has been allowed to dry for eight hours.

Whoops! Guess I managed to get some glue in there. It won't be noticeable (I hope) once the shelves are in use but if it is I suppose I'll have to get creative in the disguise department.

I'm super motivated to get the shelves completed and installed because everything that was on the old ones is all over my dining room table which is less than ideal.

It feels like I had a very productive weekend even if I didn't get the shelves done.

I made cheese-scallion scones which seemed like they'd be really good but were disappointing. Not flavourful and completely wrong texture, not scone-like at all.

Even with the Jeowbong (I don't know what it actually is for. Or what the name means. It was a gift from my brother when I was visiting, and it's very spicy and fruity and I don't know how it's supposed to be used but a savoury scone seemed like a good application for something which is equal parts hot pepper and jam), not as good as I'd anticipated. I'll do better next time.

There was a lot of hardware for the shelves to be washed (it's gross and black and greasy right out of the box) and painted. Actually the picture above is sort of misleading because I over-designed and then redesigned and I ended up not needing all of that. But I have it for the next project, whatever that is.

I added and painted trim.

I thought about painting the ceiling.

Last week I finally made yellow and purple shoelaces to match my purple Docs.

The week before I taught a class but only completely finished the last class sample a few days afterwards. 

I haven't been doing tons of beading what with the kitchen.  

And knitting. 

But there are no pictures of knitting because it's dark and dull-looking although it feels lovely, what with being cashmere-silk.