Kitchen Make-over

I have wanted to paint our kitchen since before we moved in. But alas it has remained elusive, waiting for the day when other things are not more important. Finally Douglas has finished all regular and pre-med schooling, and so the goal was to paint before the end of the year. Thanks to a crazy thought by Douglas, that day has come sooner than anticipated! We still have a few finishing touches to take care of (clean-up, etc), and a last coat of white on the stairway, but I'm calling this one project done and successful! I'm so happy with the way it turned out! And now all the parts of the kitchen finally feel like they all belongs together.

Before (but after tearing down wallpaper)

The ugly wallpaper

Nice bright ceiling

Top part finished

Finished product

(Ignore the vacuum & ladder)

Fun curtains (same off-while color as trim)

Oktoberfest 2011

We had such a great time at Oktoberfest this year.  It's sad to think this may be my last year going after doing it my whole life.  But I can't be too sad at having such great memories and pictures!  I probably took way too many pictures because it was really hard to narrow it down. And the slideshow isn't working today for me, so here are even fewer than I was going to show.  We had a few close calls in the pool with kids, but everyone is doing great.