Cabin Kitchen Makeover {In Progress}

The kitchen in our family's Upstate NY vacation home hasn't been the most functional space.  Let's face it, nobody goes up there to cook gourmet meals, but we do enjoy making big breakfasts up there so Billy and I knew that there had to be an affordable way to make it look nicer.  

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Wednesday's Weekly Wrap Up

It is finally summer for our kids and we spent a few days upstate celebrating Matty's 8th birthday.  I took many of these on Instagram (http://instagram.com/courtneyaffrunti)  Are you on Instagram?  I just love it.  Not to mention it is so much easier to lug around my phone instead of my heavy dslr.

This reservoir is one of our favorite destinations when we take a ride in the trails.  It is so peaceful here...

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Tips for "Brightening Up" a Dark Sofa

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Friday Flowers

I just love how much freshness a jar of flowers adds to a room.  I usually try to buy a bunch at Trader Joe's because their assortment is great and the price is always right.  Here's a cheery yellow bunch for this week...

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Wall Baskets

Recently I posted pictures of our Ikea kitchen hack and I showed this basket that hangs on the side of the cabinet.  Many people asked where I bought it (Homegoods).  It really is both useful and decorative...and versatile.  For everyday use, it holds our paper plates and lunch bags.  I've also utilized it during parties to hold plates and napkins for a buffet...

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Weekend Waffles

We love having waffles for breakfast on the weekend a couple of times a month.  My husband, Billy, is definitely the breakfast chef around here.  After trying many, many homemade waffle recipes, we learned that the secret ingredient to awesome waffles is Carbon's Golden Malted Waffle Flour.  It makes waffles that are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.  When we used to "escape our kids" and head to an inn in Pennsylvania, we learned that this was what they were using to make their delicious waffles.  Now that our kids are a bit older (and they seem to be the ones escaping us!), we have found a way to make them at home.  He uses his Waring Pro Beligian waffle maker to make the big fluffy waffles...

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Our Family Friendly Family Room

Our family room was previously a small, dark room off the back of our house.  Here is what it looked like before.  This is the only picture I can find right now.  Sorry for the mess but it's actually what it looked like most days.  Two small windows were the only elements that brought light in to the space...

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DIY Shaw's Farmhouse Sink Installation

We completed our kitchen reno about 4 years ago.  The main element on my wish list for our kitchen was a farmhouse sink.  However, since we planned on DIYing the entire kitchen, we were VERY worried that this would be a project that was over our heads.  I had my heart set on a Rohl Shaw's Original fireclay sink to be exact and those are handmade which means the sides of the sink can be "wonky".  We decided to take the rather pricey leap and order the sink.  It worked out in the end (and is still my favorite part of the kitchen 4 years later!), but the installation was rather stressful.  We spent many hours researching how to go about installing it on the internet.  This is definitely not a beginner's DIY project, but we are certainly not professionals and we are happy with our results...

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May Wrap-Up

Whew!  May flew right by us.  Here are some of our highlights from the month:

We celebrated my mom and Ray's wedding at a luncheon.  Here we are all dressed up...

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A Tour of Our Kitchen

Our kitchen was the first big DIY project we did when we moved into this house.  I knew I wanted a farm sink.  Because it was a total DIY job, we were nervous about cutting the sink cabinet to the correct size, but my husband did a fantastic job.  I love having the 3 windows over the sink that look out onto our yard.  The kitchen is definitely where I spend the most time.  If you want to learn more about how we DIY'd our farmhouse sink click here....

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