Cheers to Progress!

This is my glass right now, freshly refilled so I can drink while I sit and write this post. As I've been simplifying my kitchen, I opted to get rid of all of my regular glasses, and use these instead. These are actually beer glasses from Ikea, and they hold more liquid than my regular drinking glasses did. I bought 60 matching glasses like this when we had DS the Younger's wedding in our backyard.  We aren't big drinkers around here, so I wanted nice glasses for the wedding, but a decent size for lemonade and iced tea, and these were perfect. I decided to keep about two dozen of these glasses, and I donated the rest and all the other misc. glasses I had in the house. I'm really liking the change, I find these glasses easier to hold, no sweat rings since they are stemware, and I get to use a pretty glass instead of a plain one. Wondering if I have a wine problem? Nope, I fill the glass with water and top it off with about 2 tablespoons of apple juice. Sometimes I get tired of just water and that's enough juice to flavor the water without adding a bunch of calories or cost. A jug of apple juice lasts me a couple weeks. 

I donated all the plates I had bought for the wedding (which all came from thrift stores in the first place). I think DH has made three trips to the donation center in the last two weeks! To be fair, we got a lot more use out of the plates and glasses than I expected. We ended up having two weddings in our backyard, and I've lost count of all the showers I've thrown, both baby and bridal. Now that all my kids are married and done having kids, I feel like I can get rid of that fancy stuff. For family getting togethers I tend to use paper plates! 

DH tackled the dining area this week, and took out all the built in seating we had added years ago. Now that it's mostly just the two of us, we don't need that much seating, and usually when we have a houseful we eat outside. The weather is usually perfect for eating outside at Thanksgiving! 

We had used cabinets to make the built in seating, and when I decided I wanted to pull out the seating, I also decided to repurpose the cabinets. We had two great big corner cabinets in the dining area that we gave to a friend to use as a pantry, but all the rest we are using.  We had five cabinets to work with, in three different sizes. I wanted DH to make me a freestanding piece of furniture from three of the cabinets to put under some that were mounted on the wall. I did have three of the same size, but they were the smallest size, and when I auditioned them, I just didn't like it, they were too narrow compared to the ones mounted on the wall. I decided to try three different width cabinets pyramid style, and I liked the visual interest. 

The three cabinets are fastened to each other, and DH added feet to keep them off the floor. 

Now our dining area is much simpler, and I took the leaf out of the table so now we have a round table instead of oval. 

I had room in the corner for the china hutch that used to be in the living room with DH's scooter figurine collection in it. The collection is now in his office, in the other cabinets we took out of the living room.

Now the china hutch has my grandmother's china, and a few pieces of milk glass from my other grandmother. I had quite a bit of milk glass, and when I had two built in corner cabinets I had plenty of room to store it. DD#3 wanted my milk glass collection, so I packed it up for her, and I got rid of lots of misc. pieces of glassware, until I could easily fit what remained in the top of this china hutch. The bottom has kids craft supplies for the grandkids! 

I used to have a LOT of kitchen antiques, and I've whittled it down considerably. I kept some stuff that's been handed down, and a few key items so I still have some antiques present, but I cut down on the volume. I think it gives a similar feel, but less clutter. 

Built-in seating was definitely the way to go when we had a houseful, but I was ready for a change, and for the price of four furniture feet, I have a new storage piece, a completely revamped dining area, and DH can even repurpose the boards we had covered to make cushioned seating.  

My week hasn't been all purging and household stuff. I finished the top of the giraffe quilt, pieced the backing, basted it and the two doll quilts I had made, and I'm almost finished quilting the giraffe quilt!

I did snap a photo of the quilt top before I basted it. I thinks it's really cute! Yup, there's a mistake in it, and if you find it, good eye! I had to fix several mistakes in this quilt that really looked wrong, but the last one didn't bother me enough to fix it. I can tell I'm don't usually follow patterns, because I had to do a lot of unsewing on this quilt! 

I got this baby quilt all assembled too. It's a good size as it is, so I won't be adding a border. 

We don't have any other imminent house changes planned, DH is anxious to get his wood shop set up. Electricity gets run to the shed next week, then the work for DH really starts! He's got tools to buy, he plans on building a workbench and tool storage himself, so that will be an ongoing project. 

I have designed an island for my fabric room, that he'll be making me when he gets the chance. I'm anxious to get it, but I can wait until he has more time. I've got LOTS to keep me busy in the meantime!