Look what we made . . . a play kitchen!

We have been busy around here this week!  We worked hard to get our first play kitchen done, hoping to sell these for Christmas and put a huge dent in bringing Ayla home from China.  We had seen these kitchens on other blogs and we decided it might be a good thing to sell at Christmas.  There's a LOT of TLC put in these, so they're not the cheapest thing we've ever sold.  We spent well over 30 hours on this one, but hopefully we'll get faster. So instead of buying something "made in China"  buy something "made for China"!  The elves can probably only get around 10 done, so let Santa know soon!

Without further ado, here's the grand reveal of our Vintage Play Kitchen. 

Isn't this the sweetest thing ever?  There's a side by side refrigerator, oven, stove and counter space.  Don't you love the retro feel of the appliances?

Debbie has 2 granddaughters coming soon, and can't wait to cook with them!

Close up view of the "tiled" counter and stove top.  Cute little curtain helps make it even sweeter!

 

 

 

 

Loved the knobs!  Hey, does anyone know how to make them turn without unscrewing them?  Tiff's quite the engineer, but hasn't figured this out yet.

We are finding some great kitchen accessories at yard sales.  But these aren't for sale, they're for my girls!

Here's a big view.  So cute!

 Here's some more items at "The Nest"!

Nice little chest of drawers

Love this end table!

The planters are from Anthropologie

Frames are a hot item right now, especially for gallery walls

Awesome antique buffet we painted.  There's a drop-leaf on each side for even more serving.  The chalkboard above is a great piece too!

Good look at all our goodies!

We re-purpose for a purpose . . . to bring Ayla home!

If y'all are in the Birmingham or Pelham, Alabama area, come visit our booth at Encore Resales.  See the sidebar for a link to directions.

Meet our cutie pie from China!!

Meet Ayla!  Tiff & Steven finally got their match "Made in China".  There's still more of the adoption process to go through, so hopefully she'll be home in about 5 months or less!  We can't wait!!  She is why we are doing "The Not So Empty Nest"! 

Can you tell we've been a little busy lately?  For the first time in 25 years, I've been baby shopping!   Our son and wife should have grandbaby #1 or 2 (depending on who you're asking) delivered in November and that's another reason we're called, "The Not So Empty Nest"...

It's almost been a month since our last post - but we are back!!  In the last month I (Debbie), along with the hubs,  have been to Wyoming for a week with over 20 college friends and then a week after that we went on a 7 day cruise!  In between trips, Tiff & I tried to get caught up in our booth.  I'll share some pictures of our trips a little later, but wanted to show you what our "Not So Empty Nest" looks like.  Actually, many of these items have already sold so we're working hard this week to resupply.  We went to a neighborhood garage sale Saturday and hit about 50 sales! 

These 2 nightstands sold really quick!

Tiff & Jocelyn made these.  Aren't they adorable?  These will be easy to ship, so we can take orders and do a different color scheme.

We always have something on sale!!

3 candlesticks that we distressed.  They have pink undertones and look amazing!

Isn't this bistro adorable?  Tiff's friend gave us this and we painted and restained.  SOLD!

Great 48" table that we distressed with grey.  It's only $129!

This is one of our favorite pieces ever!  It's a 9 drawer Drexel dresser and boy is it heavy.  We were going to change out the hardware, but once we painted and distressed it, the hardware enhanced it.  We have it priced at $429 since it's so heavy and top quality.  It's actually 10% off right now!  We've also been told people are using these as buffets in the dining room.  Hmm...  I just might have a place for it myself.

 

We have sold the heck out of these distressed grey frames.  We can't believe these shutters are still in our booth.  They enhance it, so we're fine with them "hanging" around!

This was another great dresser we had.  It sold in 1 day!

This is what it looked like when we left Saturday!  We'll be adding more this Friday, so stay tuned!

 

My favorite kitchen gadget

Do you have a favorite kitchen gadget you can't live without?  I do!  This was one of those "as seen on TV" and it looked great!  So I waited for it to come to Bed, Bath & Beyond and used a $5.00 off coupon, making it $15.00.  Sure enough, it was as fabulous as they claimed!  And here it is!

It's the Chop Wizard!  I loathe cutting veggies in cubes with a knife and cutting board . . . even pretending I'm on Top Chef doesn't make it any easier.  But this makes the job fun!  We had a little boy from Uganda at Thanksgiving and he cut the celery and onions for our stuffing.  While he was working, he wished his mother had one of these too.

You'll want to cut your veggies in slices first.

It works best to do one slice at a time and then quickly do the rest.  You just take the top part on the right and slam down.  See how the potatoes are cubed now?  Sometimes I just cube these red potatoes, boil and add butter & parsley.  Love it!

It also has a measuring cup on the side so if your recipes call for a certain amount you can easily see how much you have.

One of my favorite things to do with this is to make salsa.  I chop the tomatoes with the largest grid and then the jalapenos and onions with the smallest.  All the juices remain in the bottom container.  YUM!

The Chop Wizard goes in the dishwasher and also comes with this comb-looking thing that cleans the top.  It's very easy.  I bet I use it most every day I cook, which I admit, is not that often, since it's just the hubs and me most of the time.  (I told him it's cheaper for 2 to eat out!)

I just bought 2 of these for wedding gifts.   I actually helped with an engagement party Saturday and knew I would probably help cut tomatoes and onions for the taco bar, so I included this as one of my gifts to the happy couple - knowing full well I would break it out and use it myself!  My friend makes the most awesome salsa and he had cut tomatoes for 1.5 hours.  He almost started to cry when he saw how fast and easy my Chop Wizard made the job.   I bet if I had 5 of these to sell I would have sold them all - and Laird would have probably paid a lot!

So that's mine, let me hear what your favorite kitchen gadget is!

We Repurpose for a Purpose

Nest:  a place of retreat, (n.) rest, or lodging. 

Welcome to "The Not So Empty Nest"!  This is our first post and we're glad you found us!  Doesn't this picture, just say it all?  Right after I took this picture, they all flew away, but not before buzzing my head!

We are a mother/daughter team who love to repurpose others' discards and turn them into treasures for your own nest, whether it be your home, lake cottage or beach retreat.  This blog will showcase our finds, and we'll also share why we chose the name, "The Not So Empty Nest".  We have lots to share so keep coming back.

You'll be hearing from both of us, Debbie (mom) and Tiffany (daughter), so you'll get our perspectives from both of our seasons of life.  

Let us introduce ourselves.  I'm Debbie, the empty nester.  I have been married 31 years and have 3 adult children, 2 of which are married.  I turned 50 last year and dreaded it as much as being an empty nester.  But after it happened, I chose to embrace it and use it to my advantage!  And the best thing is, it works!  Oh, and did I mention that food is my love language?  I bet there'll be some yummy posts too!

Hubs and I live on a farm, where I enjoy tending to my veggie garden and mowing our 4 acres.  We are expecting 2 granddaughters in November (1 from each of the married couples).  Pink has never been my favorite color (I'm a redhead), but I am embracing that too and got my toenails painted a coral pink to celebrate!  We are a blessed nest indeedy! 

And I'm Tiffany, the first one to fly the coop! I married Steven right after graduating from college and 8 days later, we had 19 kids from 6 different countries. We directed an international children's choir for several years, so we have a total 78 kids that mean the world to us.

Right now, we are getting our nest ready for a little one of our own- she will be coming to us all the way from China, through the miracle of adoption. In fact, we should be finding out who she is any day now... I cannot wait to write that post to introduce her! I turned the big 3-0 last year, which I was not looking forward to at all... until I found out that you have to be 30 to adopt from China!

Tiff is painting a vintage table we found.

Headboard turned into a too cute message center!

          

This is one of our fave pieces and sadly, it's sold!

This is a rare steamer trunk.  Wouldn't you love to know where it's been?

Remember we said, "We Repurpose for a Purpose"?  We are using all the proceeds from our sales towards the adoption to bring home a precious daughter/granddaughter.   We'll be doing a lot of before & afters, so we're excited about that part in our blog.  This will include stories about everyday life in addition to our "finds".

We're still learning the blogging ropes so hang in there with us.  And please become one of our "Peeps", so we can stay, "The Not So Empty Nest"!