Just a BlinkProof Time Flies

I love a good before and after. I love them in life stories, design ads and make overs. It revitalizes me to believe things, people and styles can and do become reinvented.

There is actually some sort of sadness that occurs in me when someone remodels their kitchen and they forget to take a before photo. There is a minor importance about the before that I can’t quite place.

Befores set the stage for the wow factor in the after. As if the after alone wouldn’t be amazing enough? Would the effort to get to the after somehow be lost on all who viewed it? Maybe the issue lies more in the history of the before than anything else. Does the world need to know a fragment of what went on in the life of a chair, kitchen cupboard or set of clothes or a person? Perhaps it does.

View some designer before and afters at bhg.com or at design sponge.

In the meantime here is a before photo of my bathroom. I am attempting to push myself to get an after photo by the end of the summer. After all I’ve living in the before photo for over 3 years. It is time. Any ideas for me? Please post some comments about reinventing this space (remember we have to think resale though so nothing too outlandish) Thanks!

Papa Dennis, Ryan, Molly and Grammy Lu play on the waterside in Prior Lake.

Molly loves the water. She loves it in every way possible. [Drink, bathe, run through, splash, swim, pour] From her very first bath in the Hospital she has adored water. She is a water baby.

Ryan likes the water. He likes water to see the fish in the lake, jump from the side of the pool and mix the water in the juice pitcher. He is a hesitant water lover but he wouldn’t think of missing out on any water experience just the same.

Freshly picked, plucked and piled strawberries waited to be feature ingredients in a delightful summer dish as I poured over at least 100 strawberry recipes. I longed for the just right presentation for my hand picked red ripe beauties. I went to cooks.com, strawberry-recipes.com, easy-strawberry-recipes.com and justberryrecipes.com perusing mouth watering treats like strawberry truffles, mousses, baked goods, ice creams, syrups and even strawberry salsas. I scratched a few notes and sent a few recipes to my email account all in preparation for my just right strawberry dish.

Upon entering my kitchen [first to wash dishes, next to make dinner and finally to create dessert] I realized I am not living up to my full expectations. I expect to be imperfect, spontaneous and most of all fun! I tossed out my recipe for some much too uptight strawberry confection.

I had Ryan pull up his kitchen chair to the counter for some much needed time to be inventive and important. Together we made a simple layered parfait from our everyday snack cupboard.

The ingredient list was as follows: Banana pudding, milk, strawberries, chocolate chips and honey teddy grahams. We chilled the dessert as we ate supper and enjoyed them very much! Oh, I forgot to mention we added sprinkles to the top of each parfait right before we ate them.

It was the just right strawberry dish after all.

• What the?
• Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
• Are you kidding me?
• Are you serious?
• Ah Man!
• Bingo! (with a fake snap of his fingers)
• That’s How!
• That’s the ticket!
• That is what I’m talking about!
• No Molly!
• A lot, A lot, A lot, A lot!
• Not Quite.