Kitchen Update and a Grandson Visit!

We recently made a trip to visit to see our son, daughter in-law and grandson in Pennsylvania.

While there I got a chance to do some shopping.  They have some larger malls and lots of stores that I don't have near me and one place I enjoyed visiting was Crate & Barrel.  I saw this cute server piece and decided to bring it home with me.

 It has two natural marble trays with little rubber feet underneath so you can also use them as serving trays on a table separately.  They call it the French Kitchen Marble 2-Tier Server.

They had three of them on display which gave me the opportunity to chose which one I liked best.  

 I also picked this small striped bowl from C & B and incorporated it into my little vignette on the tiered tray.

  I found these two Polish Pottery pieces on another shopping venture that I figured would go well with my arrangement too.  I have a coffee mug that looks just like the little creamer.  I'll have to set an Easter egg on the egg cup soon!

 Last year my sister sent me the two little pig salt and paper shakers which I adore and they are also from  C & B.  The cow creamer is another Polish Pottery piece I already had. The metal measuring spoons were hanging on a little rack on the wall but I removed it.  I'm gearing up to paint the kitchen a new color that I still have to decide on.  

Though this is a serving piece I will also be using it as a decorative display piece!

I had to rearrange the whole counter and removed a couple of pieces.  I'm now using the basket to hold potatoes and onions.  The metal platter is from one of our Pennsylvania trips a while back made by Wendell August.  They are hand forged and you can watch them hand embossing them in their work shop.  The basket came from Juliska's website on one of their sales a while back but last I knew it is still available.  

 The blue vase was found at Pottery Barn.  It's called the Pamela vase Medium Blue but I can't find it on their website so I think it's an older piece that just happened to still be on the shelf.  It's going to look great with flowers from my gardens in it!

 I also moved the coffee station over to this counter area and it's working out nicely there.

 I found this nice compact metal cooling rack at the same store with the Polish Pottery.  I'm keeping it by the stove to set hot things on and I've used it many times already!  It's made well and heavy duty so it's going to be a workhorse piece in my kitchen.

I set this salad plate on it to give you an idea of it's size.  

Last week I changed out all the door/drawer pulls to satin nickel.  We started out with bright brass when we remodeled the kitchen in 1996.  Then in around 2010 I changed them to dark bronze which looked great with the wood but recently I decided to change to the satin nickel to go with the stainless appliances.  

Last but not least the star of our visit!

Our little grandson is such a sweetheart and this is his favorite spot to play.  He can tap his feet against the end where there is a keyboard which plays music and grab the toys above him.  It's a great interactive toy encouraging the development of various skills and muscles too!  When he rolls over they have more toys for him to work at getting.  He's also starting to scoot so before long he'll be on the move!

This was just after our arrival after an 8 hr. drive.  Joey was tired and ready for bed.  He's cutting his first teeth right now and we all know how rough it can be for him and the parents!

Dan is enjoying being a Grandpa.  Good times!

Can't wait to see him again!

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Celebrate & Decorate