Thankful Thursday

Well, I took a week off from being thankful for my parents (actually, I was thankful for them all along . . . I just didn't write about it), but I'm back at it. Today I am extra thankful for my dad and for our fresh new kitchen. My dad's been workin' (somewhat hard) off and on for the past 10 days or so to help us with a kitchen transformation. (We would LOVE a complete kitchen remodel . . . and an addition . . . and a mudroom . . . and I could go on and on but the sad truth is you can't do these things without gobs of money -- which we don't have -- so we settled for the $150 makeover, actually all those extra trips for "one more thing" that we forgot probably pushed it closer to the $200 mark, but still worth it!). It didn't turn out to be quite as simple as we hoped (when does it ever?). We thought, simple enough . . . take the doors off the cupboards, spiff 'em up a little, paint 'em and re-hang 'em . . . not too tough. I mean really, just the other day I saw someone do almost the exact same thing on HGTV in about 30 minutes!! Well, it turned out to be a little more of an undertaking then we expected, (you don't really want all the details, I'm sure) but it's (pretty much) done and it looks great! I still have a little distressing work I'd like to do on them, but even as it stands right now it's a huge improvement from 2 weeks ago!! If my uncle Den would have stayed longer (or spent more time workin' and less time playin'!!) it could have really gotten a professional makeover, but we'll have to settle for the really nice amateur job we got instead! Thanks so much Dad, we appreciate it (and you) lots! I love you and am glad, quirky as you can sometimes be, that you are my Dad. I wouldn't trade ya for anyone else!

Plus, just look how cute he is. He's trying to hide behind Anna, but I know you can still tell!


If you don't already know, my dad is also an amazing artist, Doug Carlson gallery even has a website of all things (it's listed on my right side bar so you can hop on over any time you want to!). We have a great Ethiopian landscape that he did hanging above our couch in the living room . . . we love it! I know he would have much preferred to be painting on canvas rather than my cupboard doors, but he did it anyway. What a guy! You can get back to your canvases now . . . thanks for taking a break from the "fun painting" to do some "not-as-fun" painting for us! I think there is still a square foot or two of bare wall space in the stairway coming up from your basement, so you better paint something to fill it up!

And did I mention this is what he spends about 8 months of the year doing?


This was last summer on some insanely long ride that he signed up for . . . I think he was the oldest guy to finish it. He rode for like 36 hours straight with a few short little stops to eat, go potty and catch a nap for like an hour. He's one unique grandpa, that's for sure!

And here he is working hard on the kitchen:



And the [almost] finished product:



Stop over & see it in person if you want! That is, if you know where I live!