Pretty Blossoms in May

May is such a beautiful time of year here in the South.  The weather is usually mild with beautiful glistening days and cool evenings.

May is also a busy month with many events happening.  As you know there is Mother's Day honoring all of the mothers in our lives, graduations with special celebrations, grandchildren's end of the school year field trips, testing and preparation for the end of the school year,  and Memorial Day.

During this busy month I tried to remember to put my camera in the car each time I left home.  The month of May is a time when so many beautiful flowers are in bloom all over,  and I wanted to try to capture some of that beauty with my camera.

Driving back to Tallahassee from my husband's hometown of Moultrie, Georgia,  I did a double-take seeing these beautiful Climbing Old Garden Roses draped across a chainlink fence out close to the highway.  Of course I just had to get pictures of this charming Old Garden Rose.   Isn't it so pretty the way this rose has different colors all on the same bush!

I love how the colors change from white, to pink, to dark pink.

I don't know the name of this beautiful Old Garden Rose but it looks very similar to cuttings taken from my sister-in-law's cow pasture rose bush there in Moultrie, Georgia.  That rose is now growing nicely out on the front fence.  Our daughter Stephanie also transplanted little rose plants from our bush over to her fence and they have almost covered her fence too.

Driving along on the same highway on toward home,  one could not help but notice this huge Confederate Jasmine vine trailing all along someone's front entrance.

We just had to stop so I could get a picture of this beautiful sight. And this

Confederate Jasmine had such a wonderful Jasmine fragrance.

This beautiful bush grows nicely in zones 8 through 10.

In the below photo, our daughter Stephanie put this little arrangement together 

for one of the Mother's Day serving tables.

A closer look.

These Old Garden Roses we planted out on our front fence always bloom in the month of May.  These rose cuttings originally were also taken from roses growing on an old cow pasture fence up in Moultrie, Georgia.

These Old Garden Roses only bloom once a year, but to me, they are worth waiting for.

The below photo shows an Old English Rose planted in our side yard many years ago.  I wish I could tell you the name of this pretty rose.  When it blooms for the first time in Spring it just blooms and blooms.

This is

In the below photo is a  close-up of one of the blossoms.

Another unidentified rose growing in the garden.

And another English Rose.

I have watched the two trees in the below photo grow up to be this size from two little weed-like bushes that were about two feet tall.  When we had horses years ago these two little weeds were growing next to a wooden fence used to fence in the horses. 

As you can see, at this time of year they are filled with pretty little white blossoms.

Confederate Jasmine blooming on the arbor out front.  

The blossoms of the Confederate Jasmine look like little stars and they smell heavenly.

In the below photo is a little Fairy Rose growing in the rose garden.

For some reason I just love climbing vines, especially climbing roses.  I love this climbing rose and wish I could tell you the name of this charming climber.

In the below photo is another climbing rose.  

We found this rose at Tallahassee Nurseries and it is called "Seven Sisters."

Close to the roses I spotted this pretty little Iris blooming.

On the other side of the house near this cut off tree are some more pretty blooming Irises.
Also growing on the cut off tree is a very pretty Virginia Creeper vine, mixed in with
a little Poison Ivy.

Also blooming all over town are what I call wild Queen Ann's Lace.  I drive by this beautiful bush everyday and just had to stop to try to capture it with my camera. 

A pretty Mother's Day gift Azalea.

And, yes, even the beautiful, fragrant Gardenias are in full bloom.

One of our Garden Club members picked these beautiful flowers from her garden and made a lovely table bouquet for the brunch table for the May meeting.  I think this combination is so beautiful.

All of the above photos are some of the beautiful reasons I try to keep the camera with me during this  Springtime time of year.  

Thanks for coming along  as we stroll through the amazing beauty we see all around us.

Wishing you a beautiful Springtime Memorial Day weekend full of beautiful blossoms wherever you may be.

A Before and After Kitchen Remodel

After living in our home for 30 years with the kitchen being the heart of our home with daily meals, company meals, special family birthday and other celebration meals, snack time meals, and cooking with children and grandchildren meals,  slowly it dawned on me that it was time to remodel.

So much in the kitchen was not looking very good, and actually some of the kitchen was falling apart.  While vigorously trying to clean the glass on the oven door one day, to my great surprise,  the glass broke.  Over the years, the space between the oven door and the glass had gotten so stained probably no amount of cleaning attempts would have helped.

Oven door.

Some of the cabinet doors had cracked from the hinges, 

but were working nicely thanks to Super Glue.

And then, down under the cabinets by the air-conditioning vents 

some of the wood was disintegrating.

               Below are three photos of the over all kitchen before the remodeling process began.

Before

The microwave over the stove had stopped working and was replaced by the portable microwave on the cabinet.  

And, as you can see there is no island.  We measured and measured trying to decide if an island would work in the amount of floor space that was available in the kitchen.  We hoped to be able to add an island for additional storage and to use as an additional serving area.   The cabinet maker made a lightweight mock island and put it in place for us to "live with it" to see is it would be workable for us ... As you will see in later photos, we did add an island, and it turned out to be a very nice addition to the kitchen.

Before

The below photo shows the pantry area and some unused space in the little side entrance alcove.  This is the wall that will see the most changes.

Before

We decided it was time to take everything out of the kitchen 

including the brick paver flooring and start over.  

We called a local builder, Susan Carey with 7 Gables Construction Company, and began the  remodeling process.  It was very nice working with Susan on the kitchen remodel because she had such good suggestions and ideas.

Most everything was removed from the kitchen.

We liked the original kitchen and it was very workable.  Therefore, we decided to remodel very similar to the old kitchen.  We also really like the stained wood showing the beauty of the wood grain.  So we decided to go with the old design with just a few new changes.

We also decided to leave the wood Chair Rail around the little dining area in the kitchen.  The wood is Pine with lots of knots that brought out the beauty of the old wood,  and somewhat brought the outdoors inside.

The  old Chair Rail will remain.

I saw an advertisement in a magazine featuring a business called Acadian Brick and Stone over in the New Orleans area.  One of their products is brick flooring.  We especially liked their "Old Saint Lewis Antique Brick Flooring."  Our builder called the company and worked out the ordering details for the brick.  The company was very easy to work with and we loved the finished brick floor. 

If you would like to see their products you can click on their website below:

http://www.acadianbrick.com/photo_galleries/Antique_Interior_Photo/antique_interior_photo.html

I will show an "after" finished brick floor later on.

The below photo shows the beginning of laying the brick flooring.

Laying the brick flooring.

There were lots of "in the process" construction photos,
but I will mainly show the before and after photos.

Before

In the "after" photo below you can see the changes to the cabinets. First, I must tell you the cabinet maker was wonderful to work with.  When we told him the design we were looking for, he designed the cabinets just the way we wanted them to look.

If you look at the above "before" photo you will notice that the cabinets did not go all the way up to the ceiling,  and therefore a lot of storage space was lost.  The new cabinets make much better use of storage space.  And, we were able to include a small island in the design.

Mike Trawick

 M and L Custom Cabinets

1312 Florida-Georgia Highway

Havana, Florida

(850) 562-2288

In the below photo you can get an idea of the finished brick flooring. 

 After

Before

In the below photo you can see the difference where the island was added.   It has turned out to be a much used work space,  and an additional serving area.  It also looks so pretty with a beautiful flower arrangement.

After 

  

Below photo showing the old pantry wall.

Before

Below photo showing the pantry wall during remodeling.

The below photos showing the remodeled pantry wall.

After

After

Our builder and cabinet maker remodeled the old pantry wall to include much more storage with a counter top and a coffee station across from the main working part of the kitchen.  They also added a larger pantry as you can see in the above photo.

After

After

After

After

One of our favorite choices for the kitchen remodel has been the counter tops.  We originally wanted marble, but were advised against that choice because marble will stain very easily.  Our grandchildren love grape juice so that definitely would not work.

Our builder Susan suggested we take a trip to Atlanta and visit MS International Stone Super Center in Atlanta.  We would be traveling up that way anyway and did plan to visit.  She said to pack a lunch because the warehouse with all the counter top choices was so big we could be there a long time.

 "

If you would like to see MS International website click on the below 

link, then click on "Countertops." 

http://www.msistone.com/atlanta-countertop-showroom-distribution/ 

We thought we would find a beautiful Granite, but walking through the rows and rows of choices I spotted the below slab of what they call Quartzite.   That was it!  As far as I was concerned we did not have to look at anything else.  My husband loved it as much as I did.

Our counter top choice.

Quartzite

MS International communicated with our cabinet maker and took care of all of the details necessary to deliver the stone to the folks who cut the pattern for the counter tops.

After

We especially liked this Quartzite because it looked like marble and had a delicate glass-like shiny finish.  They told us it was such a hard stone that it would never stain or chip.

After

We thought the color with the brown veins running through the stone would match the stain for the cabinets.  It also had white color veins that I thought would go with the white appliances we would be using.

After

In the below photo you can see the lighting we chose for over the island.  Previously we had a long neon ceiling light.  It provided a lot of much needed light while cooking, but it was not very pretty.  In one of my favorite magazines I spotted an advertisement for House of Antique Hardware and Lighting.  Never liking anything that looks modern, this site appealed to me right away.  If you would like to see their products you can click on the below site:

http://www.houseofantiquehardware.com/victorian

After

When we purchased the Quartzite for the counter tops,  one of the representatives involved had just traveled to Brazil.  He had been to the very mountain in Brazil where they had harvested, if that is the word, the Quartzite.  He said they were working on the other side of this mountain and that is where  our counter tops came from.  He was kind enough to send us a picture of the mountain.

Mountain in Brazil where Quartzite was mined for the kitchen counter tops.

This kitchen remodel has been finished for awhile now and we have really been enjoying the changes our builder made in the kitchen.  It was so nice working with so many talented people who were really interested in helping us with this project.

Thanks for coming along with us today as we walked through all the before and after steps for the kitchen remodel ... What a fun project!

Wishing you a blessed weekend wherever you may be.