A Beautiful Disaster...

A beautiful disaster. That's currently how I describe the current state of our kitchen; a bit disastrous looking, but knowing that in the end it will {hopefully} be beautiful and so worth it in the end... :) I've spent the majority of the week trying to fully recover from being ill, while attempting to finish up some lingering projects.

With that being said, I did welcome some stunning gifts & inspiration that arrived recently. That certainly made my heart sing! You may {or may not} recall that I won a fabulous giveaway from Melinda over at Alabaster Rose Designs right around Christmastime. To say that I was excited to be receiving one of her jewelry creations would be an understatement, as she is just one of the most talented individuals I know!

So I just had to share a few images of the gorgeous bracelet that Melinda made {did I mention that her creations were published in Jewelery Affaire Magazine?!?!}. Here I showcased this little gem on one of my German dessert plates decorated with Blue Floral Garlands {I have quite an obsession for vintage dessert plates, by the way}.

She was even kind enough to engrave my initial on it! Isn't it just lovely?!?! :)

Thank you Melinda for making my otherwise stressful week, a more brighter one! :)

In other inspirational news, I was pleasantly surprised to be getting this cute little package in the mail as well.

It's the latest {Winter 2012} issue of The Jeanne d'Arc Living Magazine that I ordered from Tracey over at French Larkspur!

Isn't the packaging so lovely & personal? This has to be one of my favorite JDL issues! Oh the French vintage industrial inspiration that this issue inspires, is just my "cup of tea!" :) If you don't already have your copy, go and order one before it sells out!

Now before I leave this post today, I thought I'd give you a sneak peek of the chaos that is {currently, but temporarily} our dining room & kitchen! :)

So our dining room has become a storage depo of sorts, on top of also being the place where I work on my paint projects. Our garage is completely unfinished and currently doesn't have any lighting {or electrical outlets} in it, so it's just easier to work indoors until we get our garage functioning properly. Plus it's too cold & windy to work out there sometimes!

In case you're just joining me here for the first time, thought I'd mention again that my "before" pics will always be in black & white, so that my "after" pics will be shown in full color! :)

See, I told you I was making progress on painting our kitchen cabinets white! ;) Oh it sure has been a learning process - but also a truly interesting {albeit tedious} one nonetheless! :)

...and this is the current state of our breakfast bar counter tops and of the drawers that had to be displaced. We've had to eat out this week because it was too hard to cook anything in that chaos, so I can't wait until this is over so that I can have at least part of my kitchen back! :)

Well my dear friends, that is my update on what has been going on so far. Before I bid everyone a lovely weekend, I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to read my little ole blog. It's been a pleasure having to share little snippets of my journey with wonderful blogger friends & visitors such as yourself. :) Thank you also for the new faces that I see on here! It's an honor to have you stay awhile and check out my cozy little corner here in blog land. :) Until next time, have a most fantastic weekend!!!


XOXO's,
Jessie



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