New Blog + Kitchen Update

Hello! Welcome to my new blog!

I've had approximately 158 different blogs in my adult life (isn't flakiness adorable?), all of which I just kind of grew out of as the seasons in my life were changing, so when it came time to come up with a name for this new one (that I sort of hope will last a little longer), I literally could not come up with anything cute or smart or charming that I knew for certain I would never get sick of. 

So heres what I finally conceded to. My name. 

I assume I won't be growing out of that any time soon, so here's hoping for some permanency.

THEN AGAIN. When my little brother, Shawn, was in 4th grade, he completely out-of-the-blue decided that he wanted an entirely different name, and let me tell you what a hassle that was. Here I am dealing with my own problems, like waiting for the next NSYNC album to come out and learning where not to apply eye liner, and he just drops this "From now on, call me 'Harry'" bomb on our family, adding one more stressful change to deal with during puberty. THE NERVE.

I did eventually adjust, learn how to use eye liner, and have become quite flexible and open to all of my brother's life changes. I love you, Harriet.

(Just kidding.)

Anyway, I obviously wouldn't want to put myself through another big life adjustment, so for sake of complacency, I'll going to ahead and plan on keeping the name and the blog title.

But, speaking of change (the non-traumatic kind!), I updated my kitchen recently and snapped some cute before and after pics to share.

Here's the BEFORE.

This is one side of my little galley kitchen. 

And the whole thing really isn't too bad, I love all the cabinet space I have and the window above the sink looks out to our beautiful little slice of country paradise. At some point we'll update the appliances, and those delightful UFO lights will have to go (sad, right?), but other than that, there's not anything too scary or hideous that made me want to never go in there. 

(Which is good, because Hi, that's where my life the food is.)

So overall, it's an okay room, BUT those classy gold cabinet knobs and the whole palette of mis-matched neutrals were driving me a little nuts, so it was time to give it a little makeover.

We're not talking a whole episode of Fixer Upper here, but giving it a little personality with a couple inexpensive changes couldn't hurt, right?

...Ta-da!

This is the AFTER.

Like I said, HGTV isn't calling about our own potential reality show (do we even have enough kids for our own reality show? I'm pretty sure the bare minimum is like, 12.), but it's enough of a change to make it feel like a whole new room.

We looked long and hard for that perfect teal-ish light blue paint, and it turned out perfectly.

(Pro Tip: Get on the Google and type in "What kitchen paint color will make my oak cabinets look less like Donald Trump's complexion?" and this beautiful shade of aqua will come up. All I have to say is...wow. The interior design geniuses of the internet do not disappoint.)

(Also, maybe someone should share this magical color palette tip with whoever picks out our President's ties? Could be a game changer.)

The new oil-rubbed bronze cabinet knobs I found on Amazon for only $45 for a pack of 50!

If you have done any home renovating recently, then you know how jaw-dropping that number is. Decent knobs usually run around 1.5 million dollars each.

(By the way, I feel like I've mentally exhausted all of the DECENT KNOBS jokes that there are, but feel free to throw any originals my way if you feel so inspired.)

Anyway, here is the link to the HARDWARE (*snort* I can't stop.) if you want to get in on the good find.

And like I said, at some point I'd like to get a cute, rustic hanging lamp to replace the U.S.S. Enterprise that's currently lighting our kitchen, but I assume this one will just fly off on it's own back to outer space someday, so....after that I'll replace it!

Finally, the big Farmers Market sign is really the statement piece that this room needed, and I absolutely love how it turned out.

And when I say 'big', I mean BIG. 

Believe it or not, it's 10 inches tall and over 7 FEET LONG.

But obviously that awkward above-the-cabinets space needed something that huge to fill it up.

I used the tutorial over at the Little Glass Jar blog to make the sign, which was very helpful. The only thing I did differently is that instead of buying pricey chalkboard paint, I bought a cheap sample of white interior paint in an eggshell finish for $2.97. 

And I regret nothing.

It was a lot of detail work, which is tedious for those of us who God made with an 'Eh, good enough.' mindset about things, but it was totally worth spending the time and energy doing such a precise job on it, because I don't completely hate myself every time I look at it (which I've found to be an important quality that any DIY project needs.)

Plus I would have had to spend half of our yearly income on a sign this big anywhere else, and you know...that can be hard to justify and/or talk your husband into.

Anyway, I love my kitchen's little farmhouse style makeover, considering how little we worked and paid to make it look a little more updated.

And now that that's done, we have to work on building another chicken coop for our BABY CHICKS that came in this week..

...or should I just set up a Pack-n-play and keep them in our room?

Because look at this thing.