Kitchen work

We moved into this old 1912 (or 1917 according to another source) farmhouse in January, and though we had some things taken care of before we moved in (plumbing, asbestos in the basement), we got the flooring and ceiling tiles (thankfully only in one room) tested after we moved in. And also, thankfully, only the kitchen vinyl turned out to have it.

The previous owners back in the remodel of '65 laid the vinyl four inches under each of the cabinets. So we had the cabinets all taken out, too. We were a little disappointed the vinyl was glued so well that we couldn't save the birdseye maple below, but now we have an open slate :)















The soffit was removed today, and that alone make a huge difference in how the space looks. And I've been crazily reading the kitchen forum on GardenWeb and looking up period kitchens, trying to find a layout that will be clean and give me a nice counter workspace. It's only 12x13, and it gets segmented by the applicances pretty quickly. I'll be missing a few TWD's, but I'm looking forward to getting a kitchen put back together and baking again this fall!

Parties

Last Sunday we had our kids' joint birthday party with the family. I took pictures of the cakes before, but then after realized there was no card in the camera - ahhh! My three year old got another Thomas, and my six year old wanted Hello, Kitty. The kitty cake was on two 8 in rounds of the famous epicurious double chocolate cake with Rosenberg's buttercream and Michele Foster's fondant using El Rey Icoa for the white chocolate version. There were pastel and bright pink double daisies around and single for the border. So you can imagine those :)

I cheated and bought a tube of Pillsbury for the cookies, but I had no idea how much they would spread. I probably could have cut them down, but I thought the edges would be too rough. And with all the other party prep, I just decided it looked good enough :) I used Toba's glace icing, and it was fantastic! It seemed much easier to use and tastier than royal. I'm looking forward to trying it again this fall, maybe some cute harvest cookies :)