So Blue

We took the plunge today.... That's right! We started painting the kitchen cabinets! Luckily for us our cabinets have already been painted. So we didn't have to go through a huge process of sanding and priming everything. So far it's only taken two coats for full coverage.

Here is a before shot

Sorry about the crappy pictures. It was at night and we have terrible lighting. Maybe another thing to add to the to do list... I'll think on that later...

Back to painting. I started by only removing one of the doors. I didn't want to go head first into the project, in case I didn't like the color.

Turns out, I do! It's Behr Vintage Classic in Caribe. We found it at Home Depot. This paint color is actually a funny thing. Story and I went and picked out paint, forever ago now. I was looking at a few different blues and so was she. This is a color that she picked out to play with. At first I wasn't too fond of it. But the longer it was taped up, the more it grew on me :)

After two coats. I think the color is nice and even. I doubt I will go back over it. I didn't feel like breaking out the brush, so none of the detail work has been done. Jordan and I both have the same day off this week, so we hope to get most everything done then! Can't wait.

Every time I walk into the kitchen now I get giddy! I think it's going to really pull the colors together, and almost combine the kitchen and the living room. Both of which are painted blue.

Stay tuned! Later this week I will post of more progress!

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Bright Colors

 

sweater, jeans- Forever 21. shoes- Toms.

Story and I went to the park. It's been such a nice week here I knew we had to get out of the house before it turned cold again. She's been wanting to go to the park for ages now. We had a really nice time :) She met some new kids and made up her own song. 

We also went to Home Depot..... And bought paint for the cabinets!!!!! I plan on starting on it tonight! Right after I do the dishes... :(

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K is for Knit : Region and Era

skirt, necklace- thrifted. shirt, boots, socks, Target. bracelet- World Market

earrings- made by me.

I tried combining the challenges again. The knit part is summed up in my socks. They are extremely comfortable, but very warm.  The outfit is both era and region. Northern California is known for it's laid back, hippy-ish attitude. This outfit resembles that feeling, for me. It also reminds me of the '60's. I didn't want to go all flower child, but I feel this is a nice mix.

jeans- Levi's. scarf- gift.

I changed to be more practical. But it's also a fun way to style the same idea. Less hippy and more knit-ty.


Linked ::   My Greatest Hits : ABC's of style   Freckles In April   Rae Gun Ramblings

J is for Jewel Tones : Mixed Patterns

I appreciate jewel tones. I can't seem to pull them off though. I tried once, but I didn't feel very comfortable in it. I think the whole thing was just too loud for me. Not saying I'm a subtle dresser, I don't know, it just didn't work for me. I toned it down a bit for this post. two jewel tones, while also mixing patterns.

button up, turtle neck- Old Navy. tie, socks- super old. jeans- Marshalls. shoes, Target.

The pink shirt is neat all on its own, because the cuffs and collar are striped. 

I really like these earrings, but haven't had a chance to wear them until today. Jordan's Aunt made them for me. They look like flowers. 

Also, I broke down and bought a pair of these.....

They are black canvas Toms. Jordan thinks they're hipster shoes and is slightly mad at me for getting them. But... they are so comfortable..... 

That's it for today. Hoping to buy paint tomorrow! Will keep you posted on the kitchen progress :)

Linked ::  My Greatest Hits : ABC's of style   Freckles In April   Blonde Episodes

I is for Inspired By : Channeling

I'm attempting to participate in two ongoing fashion challenges. Today they sort of overlap. One is supposed to be inspired by a fashion blogger while the other is channeling a person, real or fictional. I've chosen to focus on channeling, and bypass the fact that it should be inspired by a fashion blogger. Combining the best of both.

I chose Taylor Swift. I really appreciate her feminine vibe and timeless style. I think her fashion choices are appropriate for her age, and sets good examples for those who look up to her. And, we have similar taste in clothes. :)




 



So, here is my attempt to channel Taylor Swift.

dress- Local Shop. wrap- gift. belt- Forever 21

Tried curling my hair. And couldn't forget the signature red lip.


Linked ::  Freckles In April   My Greatest Hits : ABC's of style    Blonde Episodes   Monday Mingle

H is for Headbands

I'm not usually one to wear hats. I had such long hair for most of my life that it was never practical. Once I cut my hair I started wearing headbands and hair accessories.

This is one of my favorite pieces. I'm pretty sure it came in a 2 pack from Target.

Van Gogh- stolen from the hubs. long sleeve t- Target. jeans- Vanity. infinity scarf- Walmart.

Anyone else have extreme veiny hands? Oh wow, didn't realize mine were that bad....

 Anyway...

Linked ::  My Greatest Hits : ABC's of style

F is for Feathers

I'm not really into fashion trends. I appreciate them, but for the most part they're not practical for me. I'm still filling my wardrobe with staples... :) But of all the odd things to already have in my closet was this feather lined green poncho. I don't think I've ever worn it.

poncho- ??. tights- Walmart. boot socks- Wet Seal

boots- Target.

I actually enjoyed wearing it. It was warm and cozy. But completely impractical. I kept having to throw it over my shoulder when I needed to do something. Like putting on my shoes. Other than that, pretty awesome.

Linked ::   My Greatest Hits : ABC's of style    Work It Wednesday   Rae Gun Ramblings  The Pleated Poppy

E is for Everyone's Choice

I'm okay with wearing leggings as pants. I'm not okay with pairing them with a shirt that doesn't cover my butt. Um gross, I don't want to see it on you, and I don't want you to see it on me. It just doesn't look good.

shirt- Gap. boots, tank- Target. vest, leggings- Walmart.

The shirt is just barely long enough. I don't know if I would feel comfortable wearing this in public. But it's pretty awesome for lounging around before work.

Linked ::   My Greatest Hits : ABC's of style  The Pleated Poppy

D is for Dressed on a Dollar

So, this was a lot harder than I thought it would be. For the most part, I buy very inexpensive clothing. There are so many more important things to spend my hard earned money on. That doesn't mean I don't want to look good or have nice clothes. I just refuse to pay a ridiculously high amount for it. When I saw outfit for under $20 I thought that it would be really easy. Turns out, it's not. Before I had Story I was able to spend more money on clothes. A lot of those pieces are still staples in my wardrobe. I had to think pretty hard on things that I had recently purchased. Pants were the hardest. I could have just thrown on a dress or skirt, but that doesn't fit in with my plans for the day. Keeping it real here. Today is all about getting stuff done. I need something practical and comfortable.

jeans- Levis via Ross $10. shirt- stolen from my husband. sweater- Derek Heart $8. No shoes.

Dressed on a dime. And that's okay. 

Check out the paint swatches in the back ground. We are starting to pick out the colors for the cabinets. Totally stoked for that!! 

Linked ::  My Greatest Hits : ABC's of style

C is for Celebrity Inspired

I looked through a ton of Pinterest celebrity photos hoping to find something inspiring and achievable. I finally settled on Jennifer Aniston. She always looks flawless and for the most part, pretty causal. Though my hair is different and only she can make this look as sexy as it is, I thought I would try it. Here is my personal take on ::

shades- Gifted. tank- Target. blazer- Marshalls. belt- Old. jeans- Fragile

Linking up to My Greatest Hits : ABC's of style   All Things Lovely   Stepping Out

B is for Bows

Wow, 2 posts in one day! Getting better at this :) I decided to join in on My Greatest Hits new series : ABC's of style. I missed out on the first day but I thought I would try and jump in when I can. I don't want to overwhelm my blog with fashion posts. If I'm lucky I'll be able to figure out how to put them all under the same page. We'll see. So, here we go :)

I searched through all of my clothes hoping to find anything with a bow. Turns out I don't have anything. Luckily for me my cute mini has a lot. She's really into picking out her own clothes and deciding what goes into her ridiculously long hair. 

bow- Faded Glory. shirt- Chaps

tights- Chaps. shoes- Sketchers Twinkle Toes.

Even though I don't have a bow. I don't want to be left out! Just pretend there is a bow, somewhere. 

shirt, skirt- Forever 21. hose- Target.

I'm really starting to like the pattern on pattern look. It's helping me break out of my fashion boundaries. I know, I wore this shirt last week. But it went so well with the skirt...... And it's soft....

shoes- Target.

So, go check out My Greatest Hits and maybe jump in on the fun :)

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What I Wore

turtle neck- Falls Creek. blazer- Marshalls. jeans- Banana Republic. belt- Gifted.

My beautiful 3 year old likes to pick out her own clothes. She's hit or miss on the matching. It's okay, she's cute no matter what. She told me she would like to have her picture taken as well. So, you might be seeing more of that lovely face :)

This is it for this weeks "What I Wore". I will be linking up daily (if I can) outfits to My Greatest Hits : ABC's of style. I think it will be a lot of fun! So, check back later for "B is for Bows".


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Lets Add A {Coffee} Bar

Jordan and I are really big coffee drinkers. When we had a standard coffee pot I think we would go through close to two pots between the two of us. He would get some at work (the joys of working in a Target with a Starbucks...) and I would most always have some more at my job. When I moved into my first house in Indiana I had a coffee themed kitchen. Taking care of the most active child in the history of the world, alone, meant a tired Mom who required a lot of caffeine to keep going. Any way, we really like coffee. For Christmas we were gifted with enough money to get one of these lovely machines.

It is a Keurig Elite. We were originally going to go with the Keurig Mini Brewer but decided the bigger version would be more bang for the buck. When I first heard about Keurigs I was skeptical. I mean, it didn't take us that long to make a pot of coffee. The Great Value brand coffee wasn't that bad. Jordan really wanted one. He had heard stories and read review on how awesome they are. He said it would be a lot easier on him in the mornings. Poor guy has to be at work at 4:30 a.m. So we got one. And I must say, I'm in love. It's beautiful to look at, has almost instant results, and the coffee selection is amazing. Gourmet coffee, in under 90 seconds, in my pajamas. Uh, YEAH! For real though, go get one.

The only down side is that it requires a grounded outlet. Not a big deal. Unless you live in a place that hasn't been updated since the '70's and doesn't have grounded outlets. Yup. We were left with a dilemma. Like I've mentioned before, we have two counter tops. To give us a little extra room we got a Forhoja island. We use this thing all the time. And now the Keurig was going to have to take up half the thing.

I really just wanted to put it here. Where the old one was. It was a perfect setup. The cups were right above. I had the coffee, sugar, and filters all next to it. And I didn't want to give up a huge space that we used.

For the time being it stayed there. But I wasn't happy about it. I started browsing Pinterest to find inspiration. I didn't have to browse long before I found this amazing idea.

via

There is no reason why I can't come up with something similar to this. I even have some extra space. You see, a while back our dryer broke. We tried fixing it, and then replacing it. To then have to try and fix the "new" one. It was a huge bummer. And then our washer broke. We were able to replace the washer, thanks to Jordan's wonderful family. But the dryer, not so much. Luckily we have a pretty nice laundromat across the street. That left us with a fairly nice sized spot in the kitchen. I had had some of my craft items there, but after purging the linen closet I was able to put it all in there. 

Doesn't look like much space. Oh, Story's kitchen was moved into her room, so that's out of the way too. So this is what we were left with.

Just last week we changed out our old entertainment center for this. It's actually all put together now, and even partially styled. I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures. Before the new system we were using an array of furniture. I decided to take one of the pieces and see if I could fit it into the coffee bar design. As luck would have it, it's a perfect fit. I haven't really spent a whole lot of time on the piece itself, but I have plans.

Everything is sort of thrown on there. I taped down two placemats. I don't know if I want it to have a fabric top. It looks nice, but is harder to clean.

I'm not sure if I want to keep the piece in natural wood or if I should paint it something fun, or even just white.

* Add shelf to hold mugs, saucers, etc. I would really like to have a shelf like the one in the inspiration photo. Haven't been able to find one yet, but I haven't looked too hard yet. Right now I have a plain shelf and a bar that I could attach to the bottom of it. I have several S hooks that I could use to hold mugs. I'll have to think on that more. My most favorite mugs do not have a handle that can be hung. They stack nicely though...

* Figure out what to do with the piece of furniture. I don't think I will keep it as is. Maybe once it warms up a bit I can take it outside and sand it. What color do you think I should do?

* I need to think of the best way to use it as a storage center. There used to be a shelf in the middle but we had to take it out to make the speaker system fit. It's a pretty good size on the inside. I think if I got a few stacking bins from Target I could put a lot of items in there.

* Now that we have the Keurig we have several different beverage options. I would like to come up with a fun and creative way to store and display the K-Cups.


So, there isn't a whole lot that I need to do regarding the coffee bar. Seems to me, I need to make up my mind about a few things first. But that's the fun part of it :) We've has this setup for a few days now. And I must say I like it. Really looking forward to having the mugs nearby.

The next area in the kitchen I need to tackle is my desk and area. Oh, and I have tomorrow off. So Story and I will be off to Home Depot to check out some paint colors :)


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The Kitchen Redesign {list} 2012

I don't know about you, but I'm real sick of talking about the living room. I know it's our most used space -as a family- but there is only so much small tweaking I can do before it starts to get boring and tedious -from a blogging standpoint-. I would have to say my most used area is the kitchen. It's where my desk is, where my craft area was, and where the coffee is made. I would include cooking, but I don't do a whole lot of that, and I'm not very good at it either. I've always said if I had a nice kitchen I would feel more inspired to cook. What I honestly think would happen is that I would get overwhelmed with the thought of making a huge mess all over a big kitchen and then not want to clean it up. I kind of feel that way now, and we only have 2 counter tops. And we don't have a dishwasher. Dishes are such a bummer.

I am excited to try and maximize our kitchen. There is a lot I think we can do to make it a more enjoyable space. I'm going to break it down into three parts. The actual kitchen, my area, and the coffee bar. Remember, we are in a rental, so there will be no major construction. Even though I would love to do this...

via

I know that it would be way too much money, time, energy, and money, wasted in a place that isn't ours and isn't some place we plan on staying for very long. It would be absolutely amazing if the landlord would pay us back. I would totally do it then :)

But since that would probably never happen we are left with what we have. 

[absolutely none of these pictures are recent. There have been several updates and tweaks. Just wanted to refresh you on the layout]

Here is a list of things I would like to take on in the actual kitchen, biggest project to smallest tweak. 

* Repaint the cabinets. - I haven't decided if I want them to stay white, or something more dramatic. Even if they are white, it will have to be a different shade of white because we don't have the matching paint. Matching paint, that's funny. In the kitchen alone, 3 different shades of white are used. And not in an intentional way. So, either way we go we'll have to pick out and purchase paint. I'm starting to like the idea of the top cabinets being white and the bottom ones being a fun, bold color. Sort of like this, but maybe not this color.

via

Our counter tops are light wood. As is the added island (?)

I think adding a dark color on bottom could possibly hide all of the weird things about the cabinets. Like the random grate, and the fact that none of the cabinets close. What do you think about painting the window to match the bottom cabinets? Would that be too matchy matchy?

I also want to paint the cabinets across the room. There is a wall of them.

I would like them to be the dark color as well. That way they pop. They are the first thing you see when you walk in the front door.

* Jordan pointed out that if we paint the cabinet we will need to spruce up the trim. I completely agree. Even  just to get it all to match. Like one side of a door frame is a different color. It's so weird in here.

We should probably just go ahead and paint the entire room, but I doubt Jordan will want to. I would do it myself but I'm not a very neat painter.

* Paint the interior door. I'm not sure about this one. The door is a pretty, dark wood. It's been stained and could possibly be the original color. Our house isn't that old, but it has some old features. (like the bathroom colors and the hardwood floors)

See? It's a pretty color. But no one seemed to care if they got random paint splashes on it. I don't know anything about staining, and it doesn't seem like a project I could, or would want to, take on. I also don't like the mixed color of the counter tops and the door. I'm all for mixing wood tones, I just don't think these two go together. I'll probably paint it. I have no idea what color, but we'll get there.

*Add drop- leaf table to create a flowing workspace. Something wall mounted that folds down would be perfect. That way it's out of the way when we need to get into the drawer or bottom cabinet. I was thinking something like this from Ikea would work well.

via

They all measure a bit too big for the space. But I think I can move things over a bit to make it fit. The stove and refrigerator can be moved further down the wall if need be. It would just cut into the coffee bar space. And in a tiny space, 2in can be a big deal. Again, we'll just have to see. 

I would like it to be right between the stove and counter. That way we could raise it when we're cooking. I think it would make things a lot easier. 

* Hang shelf in window above sink.  Our window sill is not very big and it is the best window for natural lighting. Right now all of our plants are shoved in that one place. I think adding a shelf there would give me more room. 

* Organize all the cabinets. When we get the coffee bar functioning it will open up an entire shelf. The only good thing about our cabinets next to the sink is that they are huge. They are very tall and pretty deep. We can fit a lot of stuff in there. One of my favorite things are coffee mugs. There is just something about them that makes me really happy. I'm not into strange ones, or anything eclectic. I just like a matching, possibly stacking, mug in pretty colors. So, now I will be able to show them off. But back to the cabinets. The ones that really need to be organized are the ones across the room, over the washer. They are wood and flaky. I really don't like using them. Maybe if I covered all of them in contact paper it would help. But it is a lot of wasted space.

* Add more laundry space in said cabinets. This one is fairly easy. I just need to set up a designated laundry space in one cabinet. Somewhere that is easily accessible. Our new washer is bigger than the old one. And believe it or not, I have a hard time getting to the cabinets above it.

* New curtains for door and small window. They are the curtains I had in my little house in Indiana. The ones on the door are too small.

sorry for the terrible picture. it's all I could find...

I'm sure there are more things I could think of to improve. But honestly speaking, this list is probably more than we will be able to take on this year. I am very inspired to get started. I can't wait to paint the cabinets. I hope next week to start picking out paint. Do you have any suggestions? What do you think of the listed improvements? Think we can handle it? :)

I will be back next week with the coffee bar list. And hopefully the finished project! We had a pretty busy day yesterday. Oh, and I have to show you some improvements in the living room. It's going to be a busy blogging week. :) :)


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