Wordy Wednesday – More Kitchen Updates

Hi everyone! It’s Walter here. Ever since our kitchen was finished my pawrents have been adding a few more touches to make it even better.

I think I look great on this new runner

One thing they did was buy a couple of new carpet runners. The old carpet we had in the kitchen was too small and they wanted something in front of both the main work areas of the kitchen but not have it cover up the entire floor.

This rust colored one is about 8′ and fits perfectly in front of the sink area and the grey one is 10′ long. The carpets were purchased from Oriental Rug Mart in Victor, NY. They will let you take rugs home and try them out before you even buy them. These two are from a “collection” which means the same color threads are used throughout the entire collection so they coordinate very well.

Are we done talking about the carpets yet mom?

Millie & I really like having the runners so we don’t go slipping and sliding through the kitchen. Now on to the other improvements in the kitchen. These are ones you can’t see when you just look at the kitchen. You have to open some of the drawers to see what my dad has been doing to help keep the drawers organized.

Silverware drawer

First up is the silverware drawer. There are lots of things you can buy in the stores to help you organize your drawers but they are mostly made of plastic and cost way too much money. Having a handy dad helps a lot. All of the inserts were made using a 1/4″ maple plywood for the base and  1/4″ or 1/2″ solid maple for the dividers. There also were no nails used. Everything is carefully glued together and dado joints were used to make sure the pieces lined up well.

Overhead view of silverware drawer

Utensil drawer – side view

Utensil drawer – overhead view

By making the inserts himself, my dad was able to custom fit them to make sure all the utensils or silverware fit perfectly. My mom really loves the utensil drawer. For one thing it’s a 36″ wide drawer and it is what they call “full access”. That means it pulls all the way out so you don’t have to reach under anything to get at the items in the back. She no longer has to stack as many items on top of each other and it is well organized.

Spice drawer

Here is a different type of insert for storing all my mom’s spices.

Spice drawer – side view

The insert for the spices takes up about two thirds of the drawer so there is also room for some pot holders and other things. This one is made using a 1/4″ maple plywood for the base and the angled pieces are made from 3/8″ baltic birch plywood.

knife drawer

The knife drawer is the last one for now. With our new kitchen we finally have room to be able to store things so they aren’t all piled on top of each other.

The knife drawer has room in the back for additional items too. As you can see there is also space in the middle for our bread knife that has an adjustable guide. 

For this drawer my dad used 1/2″ and 3/4″ thick solid maple for the dividers and 3/4″ maple for the handle rests.

Well that is all the new stuff that has been added to our kitchen. We sure are lucky to have such a handy dad. Next up he is going to make an insert for all his coffee pods but I will have to show you that later.

Chewy Review – Natural Balance Beef Formula Dog Food Roll

Hi everyone, it’s Millie & Walter here!

It’s time for this month’s Chewy.com review. We are reviewing Natural Balance Beef Formula Dog Food Roll. There are other flavors available too.

Here are pictures from every side of the roll
(Don’t forget you can click on the picture to make it bigger)

According to the Chewy website these treats “…are formulated to be meaty tasting and full of delicious flavors that no dog can resist. These delicious rolls are packed with high quality nutrition and the finest ingredients.”

Use this food as a full meal, a topper or cut it up for treats

The roll is soft and cuts easily with a knife.

We only get those little pieces?

That sure looks tasty

We finally got to try a few pieces.

Hey Millie! You are supposed to wait!

Take a look at our video that we took during our second tasting. You sure can see how much we loved these treats

If you can’t see the video you can go here to view it.

Let go of the treat and you won’t lose any fingers

These treats are fantastic

We both got 4 treats each and boy were they great!

We have to give these treats 8 paws up (because that is all the paws we have) and we recommend them to all our friends.

This month we are joining Oz the Terrier and Angel Sugar the Golden Retriever for their Chewy.com blog hop.

Disclaimer: As #ChewyInfluencers we received one Natural Balance Beef Formula Dog Food Roll from Chewy.com to review. We did not receive any monetary compensation for this review and will receive no additional benefits for barking about the product or the company. The opinions in this review are the honest opinions of ours.

Hooking on Hump Day – A Sunhat for Mother’s Day

Hi everyone it’s Cindy here. Today I’m joining the Hookin on Hump Day blog hop to show you a sunhat I made for my mom for Mother’s Day. We all know that as our parents age it becomes more difficult to find things to gift them at holidays and birthdays. When the Summer 2017 issue of Crochet! magazine arrived I glanced through it as usual and when I saw the pattern for the Sheer Southern Style Sun Hat by Kathy Lashley I just knew I had to make it for my mom.

My mom loves to wear hats, especially in the summer, so since Mother’s Day was a few weeks away I set out to find the yarn. When I do a pattern for the first time, that you must do to the same size as it’s intended (unlike an afghan for instance), I like to use the same yarn that is called for in the pattern. The yarn used for this pattern is Omega Sinfonia DK-weight yarn. Fortunately I found a local source and went to acquire the yarn. The pattern calls for the colors Navy, White and Blue Orchid. The store didn’t have any of the Blue Orchid but the Light Teal was a great substitute since it was the same value color as the Blue Orchid.

No hat is complete without a proper hat box. Since this hat pattern uses millinery wire to keep the brim from flopping I wanted to give it to my mom in a box that could be used for storing it properly. I looked all around (Michael’s, JoAnn’s, etc.) and couldn’t find anything wide enough for the wired brim. A quick perusal in our basement found a box that stored a vacuum hose for Charlie’s wood shop that was the perfect size for the hat. He was very gracious in giving up the box for the hat but I couldn’t have my mom’s hat sitting in a “tool” box.

This is one of those boxes that comes apart and opens to a flat piece of cardboard. I rummaged in my wrapping paper supply and found this great floral and two solid colors that all went together (even if they weren’t bought as a set). With a bit of spray adhesive, scissors, and tape I had a proper hat box. The only thing left to finish off the gift was a flower.

I couldn’t find one pattern that fit the bill so I took three patterns and combined them to make the above flower. The main pattern is called Blossom Posy and I did the whole pattern using the white for the center and the light teal for the petals. I wanted to make the flower a little bigger and so I used a modified version (by not doing the “extended single crochet”) of the final round of the Cheerful Crochet Flower pattern to add the white around the outside. The last thing I added was a covered button to fill in the middle of the flower with the navy colored yarn. The reason I wanted to fill in the middle was because I added a pin to the back and I didn’t want that to show through the hole in the center of the flower. With the pin back the flower can be worn as a lapel pin if desired.

I love the way the hat and flower came out. My mom was very surprised and happy with the hat and has worn it many times already. We have an outdoor wedding to go to this summer and she said the hat matches her dress.

The hat pattern was very easy to follow. I had never worked with this yarn before and found it a bit sticky to use. It is a nice 100% cotton but as you pull it out of the skein it kind of sticks to itself and can sometimes get tangled. This wasn’t too much of a problem that I would use this yarn again if I found the right pattern for it. When I went looking for the millinery wire I did a search on Etsy and found Kathy Lashley’s shop by accident. I didn’t even realize at first that the Etsy shop where I purchased the wire and joiner was owned by the woman who wrote the pattern.

I receive no benefit from any of the links in this post but have provided them for informational purposes to my readers. The pictures of the hat were taken with a form under the crown. It doesn’t stay up on its own.

Our New Appliances

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. I almost forgot that I promised to show you our new appliances.

Sharp Microwave Drawer

One of the big things we wanted to do with our kitchen renovation was to get the microwave off the counter. At first we thought we were going to install the oven and a new microwave in the cubby that our former refrigerator was in but when the designer took the wall out in that area we were left without a place to put a microwave. We didn’t want one over the stove so luckily our designer was familiar with microwave drawers.

The Sharp Microwave Drawer is 1.2-cu ft so it has a very generous capacity. The control panel flips down when you need to use it and is held in place with a magnet when closed. So far the only flaw with the microwave is the location of the menu guide for the special controls.

You can only read it when the drawer is open and the way it sits under the control panel makes it difficult to read. I solved that problem by copying the menu from the manual and I keep it in a drawer with my potholders next to the microwave.

There is plenty of room for a dinner plate or you can put a few small containers of leftovers in and heat them at the same time.

This is very convenient for me.

The one drawback which we knew about going into it was that the microwave would be opening at dog level. If Millie & Walter were a bit taller they really would be able to stick their heads in there when it’s open. So far they’ve been very good about not trying to snarf anything out of it when it’s open. The biggest concern is making sure no doggie snouts are in the way when it closes. Here is a little video to show you how it opens and closes.

If you can’t see the video you can go here to view it.

I like our new microwave mom.

Next up is our new refrigerator. 

Because of its location we wanted to find a counter depth unit preferably with more capacity than our old one and this Samsung Food Showcase Refrigerator fit the bill. One of the things we liked best about this unit is that there are no handles sticking out.

The refrigerator side has an interesting double door. The outer one, or Show Case, is used for the items you use most often.

Show Case Door

The rest of the refrigerator is accessed through the “Inner Case” handle and you still have access to the Show Case items.

This is the first side by side unit we’ve ever had. With it being counter depth it’s very easy to reach everything on the inside.

The freezer side has plenty of capacity for everything we need. This is also the first refrigerator that we’ve had that has an ice maker and water dispenser and I’ve been giving it a regular work out too.

I thought you might like to see these new appliances since they aren’t very common versions. I don’t receive any benefit for blogging about them and the links are for the convenience of reading more about them if you are interested. We were lucky that we were able to catch both these appliances when they were on sale as well.

Mischief Monday – A Girl’s Gotta Roll

Hi everyone! It’s Millie here.

There is nothing I like better than laying in the grass in my back yard. Most of the time when my mom or dad lets me out to “do my business” I just go lay down in the grass. It doesn’t matter if it is 50° F or 90° F or if I’m in the sun or the shade.

Here is a little action video of what I like to do when laying in the grass.

If you can’t see the video you can go here to see it.

It seems that my rolling in the grass may have caused some mischief with one of my ears. Last week I started shaking my head and my mom took me to the vet. The vet was very nice and cleaned my ear out real good but she said I do have a yeast infection in my right ear. Unfortunately that means I have to get drops in that ear twice a day for 10 days! I’m not too happy about getting those drops but I haven’t been as itchy as I was before going to the vet.

I guess sometimes you have to take the good with the bad because I will never stop rolling in the grass.

Kitchen Renovation – Week 5 – Completion!

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to show you the final pictures of our kitchen. This might take a while so grab your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy.

First I will start where I last left off. The cabinets were installed and the finish details of the knobs, crown molding and base trim were in place.

The crew had a couple of days before the granite would be installed so they took that time to install all the appliances except the cooktop.

The granite was installed the Monday I was returning from my recent trip so I don’t have any pictures of that while it was being installed so here is the completed granite installation.

The granite color is called Santa Cecelia. The above picture doesn’t do the color any justice so here are a couple of close ups.

A wide view of the granite on our peninsula

A close up detail of the same area

The Santa Cecelia is described to have “colors that fall more in the grouping of gold-gray due to the slight hints of burgundy, ivory and black veins interlaced on the consistent white stone background. I also found this great description of all the colors found in this stone.

Next up it was time for the tile back splash to be installed.

Back splash tile without grout

We picked out Durango Travertine from Mexico in 3″ x 6″ tiles and paired it with Precious Gems Woodland Teak Glass and Slate Medley for the accent color.

Durango Travertine with Precious Gems Woodland Teak Glass and Slate Medley

The Precious Gems accent is described as a “collaboration of glossy and frosted glass with natural slate and quartzite”. We really love how the colors in the accent tiles resemble the colors in the granite.

Cooktop Backsplash Tile Detail

For the cooktop backsplash we used the same Precious Gems detail and paired it with the 4″x 4″ Durango tile. It is framed with Sandgate Antique Bronze Cove Liner.

Finally the cooktop and the glass for the cupboard doors was installed. It took quite a few days to clean all the cabinets and fill them up.

The kitchen looks great mom! When are you going to cook me some treats?

The view from our family room

I love all the large drawers we put in. They are great for holding pots and pans. The best part is that you don’t have to get on your hands and knees to try to drag something out of the bottom shelf any more.

This is a great place to hang out and be right in the middle of all the action.

Besides moving the door and window the biggest change in our kitchen was to remove a small wall that was on the left of the doorway from the family room that you can see above. You can see the wall in this next picture.

Old view of refrigerator

It created a little cubbie that our refrigerator fit in.

Corner where refrigerator used to be

Now there are cabinets that wrap around the corner. Without that wall the entrance from the family room is more open and makes the kitchen seem bigger.

View from the kitchen window

The new window is bigger and lower than the old one and gives us a beautiful view of the back yard. With LED under cabinet lighting the kitchen is very bright even at night.

View from the eating area

We don’t have the table in our eating area yet because Charlie is working on refinishing it. We really love is our new refrigerator. It is a Samsung counter depth unit and the thing we like best about it is there are no handles sticking out. I will do a review of it and our new microwave in another post.

I hope you have enjoyed watching our new kitchen construction. We are very happy with how it turned out. I have already done some cooking and felt it was great to work in. We now have a lot more counter space which makes it easy to prepare meals and work around the oven and cooktop.

I’m still catching up on my blog reading but now that this project is behind me I will have more time to comment. Thanks for your understanding.

Chewy Review – Merrick Backcountry Great Plains Real Steak Patties Dog Treats

Hi everyone, it’s Millie & Walter here!

It’s time for this month’s Chewy.com review. We are reviewing Merrick Backcountry Great Plains Real Steak Patties Dog Treats. There are other flavors available too.

According to the Chewy website these treats “feature a hearty, wood-smoked taste that dogs go wild for. These treats are grain-free with no gluten ingredients and have real beef as the first ingredient.” These tasty treats are made in the USA and we know how important that is to all of us.

How do I get this bag open?

The treats are a soft patty that is unfortunately easy to break into smaller pieces.

Look at that large patty!

I can’t wait to get my chompers on that patty.
That looks like quite a mouthful.

Why did mom tear the treat in half?

I was really hoping for a whole patty

We can’t believe it but our mom ripped the patty in half and we only got half each. Finally she put the pieces on the floor and, as usual, made us wait before we could eat them. Here is our taste test video.

If you can’t see the video you can go here to view it.

As you can see in the end we both really loved these treats! Mom let us try another half piece each.

You can let go now mom!

I was really hoping for a whole piece

We have to give these treats 8 paws up (because that is all the paws we have) and we recommend them to all our friends.

This month we are joining Oz the Terrier and Angel Sugar the Golden Retriever for their Chewy.com blog hop.

Disclaimer: As #ChewyInfluencers we received one bag of Merrick Backcountry Great Plains Real Steak Patties Dog Treats from Chewy.com to review. We did not receive any monetary compensation for this review and will receive no additional benefits for barking about the product or the company. The opinions in this review are the honest opinions of ours.

P.S. If you were hoping for an update on our kitchen don’t worry it will be coming soon. Our mom wanted to get our Chewy review done by the end of the month and that is today.