Taking neighbors to the Wilderness Center

The Wilderness Center is located in Stark Co, Ohio, Wilmot to be exact, this is a place we went to frequently while I was growing up, so after chatting one day with my neighbors I come to find out these gals have never been there and they are in their 70's and lived their entire life in this area, it took us 30 minutes roughly to get there, I convinced them they needed to go to see it at least ONCE in their lifetime, I mean it's right in their neck of the woods and they had never been there?

We set out to remedy that in September

Let's meet the gals, these are my lovely neighbors on each side of us

there are a ton of hiking trails here

my neighbors with my sister, my tour guide helper :)

you can walk around to the many ponds and feed the ducks, geese and fish (turtles too)

sis feeding the geese, it smells so pretty there, do you see all the water lilies in bloom? the whole areas just smells so sweet from those blossoms

you can walk out above the lake to feed the fishies

always remember to take old bread or popcorn along when you go

you may even get lucky and see a huge snapping turtle

half way around the pond trail you get to this awesome observation tower, go up 3 stories and look out over the pond

see the area we were just at, feeding the fish and turtle down there?

 strike a pose!!

I think they all had fun!

a place to rest your feet or have a light picnic

then finish off the walk and head home, it was a beautiful day, from here we took them to Dundee Falls, another spot they had never been and it's only 15 minutes from where we all live!

More Japanese Morning Glory blooms

These vines are loving the spot I planted them, on the front walkway handrail!

How can you not enjoy Japanese morning glories, the colors are so much prettier than the standard american variety . . .

Kitchen & Dining room trim painting & barn find

I'm baccccckkkk!!!

I think I told you my husband likes wood in it's natural form, stained or just plain sealed, well I do too, for SOME things, not all, and I was a stinker, I decided I wanted my window trim and baseboard trim painted and of course, I had to sneak and do this when he wasn't home or he would pitch a fit with me about the beauty of natural wood, blah blah blah

heh heh heh - he's at work don't ya know! maybe he won't even notice?

BUT ~ doesn't it just look so much better painted??? not going to have many photos today because I am in a rush to get this done before he gets home HA HA

I did around the kitchen window, 2 windows in the dining room and all the baseboard trim today, I want to do the livingroom as well but I better see how this flies before I get too carried away . . .

farmer John took me to the original farm down the road from me, the farm was being sold and he was helping the current owner cleanup for the sale, they had a huge pile of "throw aways", well let me tell you, this pile I could have parked my explorer under it! I grabbed a ladder first thing, it was twice this size plus a bit more, I used part to hang on wall to put photos in, the other is half is standing in the corner with quilts draped over it in my bedroom at present time, don't you just love free treasures?

hmmm not sure I like that there, maybe the living room would be a better spot for it, time will tell . . .

Japanese Morning Glories & water hyacinth in fish pond

I love morning glories, but have loved them even more since I found these gorgeous Japanese variety of morning glories

just look at the colors on these, some are even 5+ inches in diameter!

stunning!

see how bright and pretty they are, and I love the varigated leaves they have

 beautiful colors that just pop out at ya!

and they have a beautiful shimmer or sheen to them too, would love to have one of every variety there is out there!

 water hyacinth in my fish pond, they have taken over!

told ya they took over LOL, can't find the fishies in there any longer!!

Kitchen cabinets get a paint job!!

HA remember how I say if you want to do something, just do it and don't ask the hubby first?

That's my theory and I am STICKING TO IT!!!

well I would have been scolded every which way from Sunday if I had said I wanted to PAINT the kitchen cabinets, ya know, he's a cabinet builder and LOVES wood naturally, well sometimes natural wood is just plain UGLY, so there! So I had it all planned out in my head, soon as he heads off to work, I am ripping off those cabinet doors, sanding them down in basement, painting them and while the doors dry, I run back and forth between basement to do doors and the cabinet exterior up here  and then getting them all back up before he gets home tee hee, he can't stop me if it's done right?

recap of the old orange-ish looking cabinets and knobs

 one of the drawers was falling apart, so I glued it, screwed it and then taped it to hold it together until it dried, yea I know a clamp would have worked much better, but he had all those at work and I certainly couldn't have asked for one or he would have been onto me and my project!
then get them all gathered up to take to basement to start sanding!!

gotta take off knobs and hardware and get to sanding!

 as you can see I have doors in progress, also started painting the cabinets as well

my plan was to paint the base color a green color, then apply that crackle and put the off white paint on top, so it would have the aged crackle effect, however after trying one cabinet I knew I needed a huge wide roller to do this, so . . . I gave up that and had to just paint over the green :(

 maybe another day and time when I have the right large roller I will attempt it again!

and now . . .

see, we moved the fridge over to the area where they had laundry

oh la la, just lookie there what I did when he ran off to work ;)

I even rummaged around in the basement of the left over treasures the former owner left here and found an old metal coffee can full of the silver knobs, they had to be used in this kitchen at one point in time because there were the perfect amount of them!!! Score!

and remember the upper cabinets above the old oven cook top?

well . . . hubby took that down for me awhile back, and I have since painted the soffit area too

we can see through to the other part of the room without a big road block in the way!

the before of where the oven was hanging out in the wall cabinet & the opening where the fridge used to be

there's the other side of the kitchen, the fridge used to be in that nook where we have placed the stove, fits perfect and I want you to take note of the counter top laminate in these photos, the stuff is so old it's pulling apart, discolored, etc. not to mention TAPED, again with the tape geesh, never heard of repairing with glue? anyway take note because we will be redoing the laminate counter tops too here soon :)