The finished kitchen (well almost!)

 AFTER  I cleaned up the kitchen and took these photos the electricians finally rang to say they were coming to fit the final three power-points...so while the picture tells you otherwise, they have been fitted now.  It is so nice to have a new kitchen, not just because it looks good, but because it functions so well!  I now have a nice wide bench round my stove top, overhead cupboards I can use - and display things in, a self cleaning oven (yippee) and LOTS of big draws for great storage.  The green splash back is much more of a pea green in real life, this photo was taken at night - you can see our dinner cooking in the oven!

 I cheated here and just removed all the junk paperwork off this bench top, but it is a great dumping office space for my handbag, the phone (now plugged into the new power point) and all the bits and pieces.  As you can see up top I have room for cook books on one side and well the other side needs some creative styling assistance!  The appliance cupboard is to the right and everything fits to my delight.  On the left is the pantry, which is still overflowing, so I need to learn to ONLY buy what I need for the week...still stock up like I live on the farm!  The last thing to do is the kitchen guy needs to come and tweak the pantry light, otherwise its all done!

This is the back side of the bench with the ugly but still functioning dishwasher we kept.  The only thing that makes it ugly is the original owners never removed the protective film from the front and now its stuck on, but got "wrinkles" in it! 

This is the dining side of the kitchen and you can see my two big cupboards which hide the sink and store LOTS of handy things such as the good dishes, vases, salt n pepper shakers (we have quite a collection) and all the good bowls and platters.  You can see that I am trying my luck with an African Violet (still alive) and have been growing a bulb in my Grandmothers bulb vase.  I treated myself to a big bunch of flowers last weekend and they have survived really well.
I have been sewing, but just not got any pictures to prove it.  Made a few more string QAYG blocks and a some progress on the Kwik Stars, hopefully will have some photos by the end of the weekend BEFORE I clean up the sewing room for the painter comes back!  YIKES the three rooms left to be painted are the ones with the most crap stuff in them, so perhaps I might have to have a clean out!
Happy quilting, Sue SA.