Breakin' Up is Hard to Do

My dearest Venetian Gray,

I love you, really, I do.  You are so beautiful and fresh.  You go well with every color I put next to you.  There is no other color like you.  I could look at you for hours on end.  But I have some things that we need to discuss.  I just can't go on with this relationship.

First things first, I'm not sure how to spell your name.  Why must you be so confusing?  From now on, I will only spell your name with an A.  I hope that is okay.

Back when we were happy.  You were only on the dining room walls, before I put you in the bathroom.

I found you on the oops shelf at a local hardware store and I couldn't keep my eyes off of you.  I don't think you are an oops, not to me.  I brought you home and put you in my dining room.  You looked so beautiful.  What happened?  I brought you upstairs to put you into my bathroom and you changed.  You were no longer my beautiful gray. Why must you change to lilac purple when you are with my yellow tile?  Why can't you just be yourself?!

I tried to replace you with a new gray.  I know, I'm sorry.  I found a beautiful cloudy sky gray and put it up next to you.  This was a terrible mistake.  Now the bathroom is cold, freezing.  So I broke it off quickly.  But now, I have moved on from both of you. After 3 months of my bathroom looking like this, I am ready to commit.

It's not you, it's me.  I found a new gray who completes me better.  His name is Anonymous, Yes, Anonymous and he is made by Behr.  He doesn't change when he gets in different light and he is such a rich color that makes my bathroom look so much more glamorous than it truly is.

I am keeping you around in my dining room, but please don't think that I am leading you on.  That is just the only light you and me work in.

While I would have loved to put you in every room of my house, I just can't. I hope you understand.

Love,
Katie

What I have learned from the first month of blogging

I have been blogging for a month now, so I can officially say that I had NO idea what it took to be a blogger :o)  I also had NO idea how much I would enjoy doing it or I would have started a lot sooner!!

Here we go, the Top 5 things I learned in the first month of blogging....

5.  It's funny how quickly I forgot what I posted here.  Hubby the Great, Boog, and Bear are why I do what I do.  I jumped quickly on the I-wanna-do-what-makes-me-and-other-bloggers-happy train (yeah, that's a train) and forgot what it was all about.  Fortunately, I hopped off that train and went back to doing what my family loves, even if you hate it :o)  But I still love you!

4.  Blogging isn't about quantity, it's about quality.  When I started I had 30 different posts planned out and about half of them written.  Ha, I think I used about 7 of them.  I met my goal of posting 5 days a week for the first month (yay!), but things may slow down a little.  I want to show you something that I am doing, not do something so that I can show you.

3.  Sometimes things need to simmer.  This may relate a lot to the quantity vs. quality thing.  I was in such a hurry to do things that sometimes I just did what worked and didn't take time to think about what would work best.  I'm not saying that spontaneous is always bad. One of the most spontaneous projects that I did in the last month was my pallet art, which I am totally in love with!  I just think some of the best ideas can come after you look at an empty wall for a few days.

2.  Photography is a major deal.  I kinda knew this part, but I didn't know the effect it would have on a blog to show stinky pictures of a project.  A project looks all that much better if you can show a good picture of it!  Hence a new lens is being purchase very soon :o)

1. It's not about the numbers.  I can say this to myself over and over, but I get stuck on it almost every day.  There are good days and there are bad.  There are days in a row when no one follows and then 3 followers in one day.  I can quadruple my average page views for 3 days in a row and then fall behind a few days.  It is what it is.  That isn't why I'm doing it.  They are numbers.  But the people that are reading and being inspired aren't numbers, they are why I am doing it.  If 1 person is enjoying this blog, then I am doing it for you :o)

That being said, I will move into my second month of blogging.  Fall is in the air and I can't wait to show you the projects that I'm working on! 

Thanks to those of you who are reading, I appreciate you more than you know :o)

Katie

A Chair Named Molly

Meet Molly

Hi Molly :o)

Isn't Molly pretty?  She came from the ReStore.  I'm not sure how she got separated from her set, but I'm a little glad she did.  She was my last addition.  I was waiting for a chair with that beautiful curve on top and was SO excited when I walked in and spotted her!

Molly, like Lucy, started out glowing in the dark.

yikes!  Are you blind yet?!

But ended up looking like this...

I didn't do too much special to Molly, I will probably make her a cushion in the future.  But for now, I like her just as she is :) 

The curve at the top turned out beautiful once it was a little distressed.

All these brush marks give her so much character. I used to hate brush lines and I did everything I could to avoid them.  I still do in some cases, but when I want something to have character and look like it's got a life behind it.... brush lines are the ticket :o)

See my blurry pugger in the back?  I haven't introduced you to my pups yet.  I have two of 'em :o)

Where did the name Molly come from you ask?  Well I'm so glad you did!  Molly is my grandmother who is in town visiting.  She was over last night and absolutely fell in love with this chair. I already named a daughter after her, and now I will name a chair after her :o)  She deserves 2 things.

In a way, this chair is a lot like her as well.  It's beautiful, strong, and special, which are 3 of the things I have always admired my grandmother for.  She has been through so many things in her life that I can't imagine surviving through.  I respect her so much for remaining so strong when she had to.  This is by far the strongest chair in my new set (which I have almost finished introducing you to!).  I have some pretty amazing women ahead of me to look up to!  I found out yesterday that my grandmother and my great grandmother were really into refinishing furniture... it's funny what you find out about yourself when you take the time to listen.

Tomorrow is the final day of chair week, I will be introducing you to Mr. Chair.  Then this weird story-telling-introducing-you-to-inanimate-objects-with-names fiasco will be over.  

I'm excited to be starting my fall decorating this year and here is a sneak peak of my first project

Happy Fall!

Here are the introductions to my other chairs in case you missed them...

Lucy

Sister Chairs

Ellen

Check out the whole dining room set here!

My favorite Chair

Let me preface this post by saying this: my mom has a great sense of humor, she will in no way be offended by anything written below, and she knows I love her :)  This will make her day... promise!

My favorite chair carries the name Ellen.

This is my favorite chair because it holds a lot of memories for me.  This is the only chair that was in my family growing up.  It used to be a part of a massive dining room set that held lots of people for lots of different occasions.  I remember lots of Thanksgivings, Birthdays, Christmas's(I can never remember where the apostrophe goes in situations like this... and my last name ends in an s :) , and  Easter's gathered around in these chairs.  But this was the only one left and was in pretty bad shape.  The seat had fallen out  , and I can't remember if someone was in it when it happened or not!

Why did I choose to name it Ellen?  Well that's my mom's name.  Her real name.  For one, all of the memories around that table involved my mom.  At birthdays, she brought in the birthday cake. At Thanksgiving, she brought in the Turkey (and FYI, most of the time my birthday cake and the turkey came in at the same gathering cause I'm a Turkey Baby!)   At Christmas, she brought in the ham.  They are special memories, so why wouldn't I name a chair after her?!

Now to the more obvious reasons.  This chair is an antique, as is my mom.

This chair is beautiful, as is my mom.

This chair has hip replacements, just like my mom.

This chair has an old bike on it, probably like my mom used to ride... lol, just kidding... she isn't that antique!  

This chair carries the number 119605 which are my kiddos birthdays.  I know they mean the world to her.

And last but not least, it was once part of a very uniform, complete antique set that was beautiful from the outside.  That set has now been pieced out across the family, split apart.  But this chair is now becoming a part of something more beautiful and pieced together from sets all over.  This is a lot like our family.  We have broken apart and spread out, but we have added in so many more to our family over the years.  It may be a little more eclectic, but it is equally as beautiful. 

But the dining room set you will have to wait to see :)

If you missed the first 3 chairs of this set
Sister Chairs
A Chair Named Lucy

Linking Up To:

Perfectly Imperfect
Home Sweet Butterfly

Check out the completed dining room set here!

Sister Chairs

Let me paint a story of what happens EVERY TIME we sit down to eat a meal.  Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Snack.

I tell the girls that the food is ready and Boog (3) and Bear (2) come running.  Bear always runs directly to Boog's chair and climbs up looking all ready to eat.  Boog always looks at Bear and says, "No, your spot is over there!"  Bear climbs down and then goes to her chair and sits.  As soon as I set the food on the table, Bear is all over the place- moving, standing, turning. That's when I always say, "Your bottom goes here."

Now onto the chairs...

Sister Number 1

Sister Number 2 is the one between sister number 1 and Lucy... not sure where the before picture is :)

Sister Number 1 I got from a yard sale, she is absolutely perfect.  Now I'm usually a painter, I think it can make things that much more beautiful.  But for some reason, I just couldn't lay a brush to this chair.  Her color is amazing and the wear and tear on her couldn't be matched, so she didn't get painted.  You can tell she has a story, I just don't know it :)

Her hand-carved rose.

Sister Number 2 was the only chair left from our dining set that wasn't chippy and falling apart, so I chose to keep her a part of the new set.  Here is how she turned out...

Aren't they cute together?

And now for the whole point of the story above....

Boog's Chair

Bear's Chair

I will still probably hear the same conversation at every meal, but at least these make me laugh :)

Check out the completed dining room set here!

Partying Here!

Daniels Den Relocation

6 months ago this was my den...

My home was a 2 bedroom, 75 year old farmhouse with one complete door that only closed with the assistance of a paint stick. It had no insulation and sat right on the road. It had a carport (which if you have a carport you should totally read this blog post from The Little Brown House... I loved it! Heck read it even if you have a garage.) The den was also called the master suite and was conveniently close to the kitchen. I had a beautiful old fireplace in the kitchen, dining room, and Boog's room... none of which worked. Every line, every door, every floor in the house was crooked. It smelled funny. It had mice in the winter.

I could have looked at it that way. Very Easily. A lot of days I did. But some days I chose to look at all the positives....

We brought a baby home here.

We had an amazing view out of our kitchen window.

This guy made his home in our back yard.

We had a few really great Holiday Seasons

We had birthdays, 2 sets of first steps, and a chance to learn what is important in life.

That was our home and I worked for 2 1/2 years to make it that way... no matter what.

5 months ago we got the opportunity to buy our first house. It's a dream come true for us. We tripled our space and got our own bedroom (it even has a big brick fireplace in it that works!)

**We will call these all "before" pictures, mmmk?**

We have lots of doors that close now and 3 bathrooms. We have a mini bar, a play room, a den, and formal living and dining rooms.

And a backyard to die for.

I can't forget my dream all white kitchen

With all of that, there are still negatives. It was a foreclosure after all. I still have to remind myself that a home is only about 10% what it is built with. The other 90% is how you perceive it and what you do with it. It doesn't take much money to make a house a home, it just takes some determination and persistence. We lived on $600 a month for the better of 6 months and still managed to make a place that people loved to spend time in.

If you are not content in your home, your family and friends won't be either. It has to be a place that your family can be the best that they can be.

My goal in life is to teach my daughters that lesson.

And truly learn it myself one day.

-Katie