9 on 11

I know that for those that play this game, this is supposed to 10 on 10, and done yesterday, the 10th.  

But I forgot until I read Megan's post - and thought - i have some peace and quiet so let me do this now....

Ok...possibly the sweetest baby ever - their baby half-brother.  He was dressed as a cow for halloween.  I could eat this boy up - just look at him.

and all 3 of them before we headed out to the costume contest...Nick was more interested in the grass :)....which is fitting for a cow i guess.
 

Ah, the pantry.  I show you this only because it doesn't look like this anymore.  My one and only looked at it on Sunday and said "ENOUGH"....bless his heart.  Yep, those are bags of chips on the floor, among Crisco and the mixers.  We have all angles covered I think.

And here is where we are now with this project

 
Ok, just kidding. We're further than that.  Look, recycle bin in the middle.  Cubbies for cat food and bins that still need shelves to the right and left to put more stuff.  Momma's a happy girl.

 Late work night dinner.  In bed.  Don't judge.  I had been starting at spreadsheets all day, talking to 2 different IT teams and i was needing comfort wherever i could get it.  Sushi, wine, laptop and bed.

The aforementioned spreadsheets.  GRRRRrrrrrr.

 My young men - look how they love each other LOL.
 

  
and, the last one...sweet child running to first last week. Too busy watching where his ball ended up instead of toward 1st base. 

I forget about doing this and i need to be better than that - it's a great way to update loved ones near and far.  This is for Mom and Dad, and Mom and Joe.  See you soon...

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I remember getting asked this numerous times growing up.  I remember thinking "I'm only TEN for crying out loud - how do I know??"

I'm not ten anymore, but at least i know the answer to that question finally.

I hate to tell you - it just came to me last week.  At age, well, not ten.

Old enough that i should be thinking about putting more away for retirement than what career I want, I'll tell you that.

I guess I'm a late bloomer of sorts.

My own ten year old son actually gets credit for my "AHA!" moment, bless his heart.  Someone asked him this same question and he was telling me the story the other night when I was tucking him into bed. 

I said to him, "Well, what did you say?"  Very intrigued by what might come out of his mouth next.  And he said "Famous". 

I started laughing and I said, "I think they meant what job do you want to do when you get big".

He said, in all seriousness, "Well, that's not what they asked".  Duly noted.

He turned the question on me, asking me if I was doing what i wanted to do.  He asked me if I liked it.  I had to think about how to answer this.

I do like it.  Enough.  I feel fortunate to even have a job when so many are out of work.  So that's what i said to him.  But, he was like a dog with a bone, this one.  "But is it what you want to do?".

Life's questions never get easier no matter what age you are.

"Uhm, no, I guess.  I really don't know what I want to do."

He looked at me and said "I know what you want to do."  I laughed.  "You do?"

"Yeah, you want to cook. and fish."

"Cook??!?  Why would you say that?" 

"Because mom, you always say you love packing a lunch and getting out on the water."

Yes.  I guess I do say that.  Apparently, I say it a lot.

So, maybe you'll see me one day packing box lunches at a small marina for boaters as they head out for a day on the water. 

I can think of worse things.

Why Does all the cool stuff come out at the holidays??

....when my money should be spent elsewhere - like Christmas gifts, the holiday party fund...etc?

That's what i get for getting caught up on my blog reading i guess.  If you read Rene's post today - you'll see these awesome chairs from World Market.  I think my jaw dropped when i read World Market.  No offense, WM, but i'm used to uhh, not so great merchandise from ya.

i very rarely fall in love at first sight - but oh... the worn grey patina - the old appearance - can you blame me?

At some point i'm getting a table like this back from a friend (you know who you are) OR i'm buying a new one if she can't part with mine.  I would understand the reluctance of giving it back -  it's beautiful.  And paired with those chairs up there - it's pretty much perfection.

And of course - now that i've fallen in love with chairs - i had to go look at barstools - AND CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS...I MEAN GET OUT OF TOWN ALREADY....World Market, i may have to marry you.

These would be great at my kitchen bar.  I think i'm off to sell some stock.  I mean, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do right?  


Linking to The Picket Fence for Inspiration Fridays!

Halloween at casa Kibler

It's been wonderfully cool this past week here in central Florida.  Like in the 60's. At 3 am.  

It's still short and flip flops weather here during the day, but the temps are perfect.  A little breeze.  At night a light sweater (if you're like me) is perfect. 

it's been just gorgeous this weekend.   I found myself nesting a little more.  Trying to add some scary and at the same time, cozy up the house for the holidays.

And while i'm not the one to embrace the orange and black - i do like pulling the scary stuff out hiding, even for a week.

This guy cracks me up.  He's got a motion sensor so he goes off when you walk by.  Says the funniest things.  Nothing scary. But my boys absolutely hate him.  Says it creeps them out.  So...of course...it stays right there. LOL.

I love the eyeballs in the jar, stuck with an olive fork.  The skull smoking Vance's dad's pipe.  

And what's a halloween display without a beating heart and a scary rat?

New Kitchen Color.

I've been away so long i forgot my password to sign into google.  I don't think that's ever happened before.

Life has been crazy lately - not in a bad way - just gas pedal to the floor for a few months.  The little time i had free i spent either at kids' games, practice, or gathered with friends and family - and that equals a pretty good time.  No complaints.  Life is good.

I am still reading blogs when i can't sleep and keeping up with everyone - there have been so many great things to catch up on out there - i think fall does that to everyone.  The whole "gotta get the house in order before Thanksgiving" thing.

We kind of did the same thing this weekend - it rained for almost 48 hours straight between Friday afternoon and Sunday mid-day, so with games canceled, and kids playing with their cousins (in the rain no less - no idea what makes a kid want to be outside in a deluge is beyond me) - we decided to re-paint the kitchen and family room to match the PB curtains we finally bought.

This open floorplan thing really throws one for a loop when trying to decorate and coordinate. At least it throws ME for a loop. 

It was very hard trying to find what worked with things we were keeping from the merger of 2 households, and me," Ms. Holdmycashwithaclosedfist" , not wanting to spend anymore money than necessary.

This is what it started with - realtor pics b4 we bought.  Very gold.  i called it 'walk on the sun' yellow'.  Yellow is not a favorite color of mine.  This house is very odd, the way it captures colors on film, good or bad.  Trust me when i say it seemed even brighter than this when i was standing in the middle of it.

So, now the kitchen is in it's 3rd revival since we moved in a year ago.   We painted it blue the week we moved in.  Ok, really, my dad and husband painted it blue.  I was in Vegas. (on work people, really!)

which i really liked, but i didn't have window treatments to consider at the time.  Now we do, and they are more gray-blue than this pretty powder blue. 


So now we are here:

Notice the light differenct in afternoon light (blue paint pic) and morning light (last gray blue pic). That's part of the reason this whole paint issue made me batty.

Here are the PB drapes that you see when you walk in the front door, and you can see how your eye goes all the way thru the breakfast nook into the family room?  Crazy madness.

 

But it is coming together - even though we still have a ladder left in the room. Not quite finished yet...Oh, and a little Halloween scarifying thrown in for the boys....cute, huh?  TJ Maxx is the bees knees for stuff like that.  They've got little bats instead of snowflakes, so when you shake them little glitter bats fly around.   Adorable.

And, what would a decor post be without a decor dilemma.  And here is mine.  That entire area around and above the desk.  Right now i have a few tins from Homegood up there, that you really can't see in this pic - and the entire ledge is very short - so i've had a hard time knowing what to stick up there.   

Also, i think it needs a sink skirt even though it's not a sink. We don't use it as a desk and the only thing i want to put there is my cookbooks.  The underneath becomes a catch all for pet food bags that are too huge to fit in the pantry - so i might as well go with it and just hide the darn thing with some cute fabric.


And if you're thinking that the corkboard is too low - it's because it had it's twin chalk board above it until yesterday.  When it fell, hit the floor and broke into about 5 pieces.


So this my friends, is my kitchen.  I would LOVE any input.  Oh, and the color is SW Sea Salt.

Linking to Cottage and Vine's Room by Room series.

In the Closet.

Mr. Big: We're getting married. Should we get you a diamond?
Carrie Bradshaw: No. No. Just get me a really big closet. 

Amen sister.

I mean.....remember this?

I thought i had a small closet, until i moved into this house and got married. THEN i had a REALLY small closet.  So small, that i must have stuffed it a wee bit too much.  Because last Saturday this happened:

Why yes, that is ALL of my husband's suits on the floor with his travel bag laying on top.  

See the shelf hooks still attached to the wall? Notice the shelf is NOT attached to the wall?

Yea.

So..now his weekend project is to re-configure this mess.  But no matter how much magic he makes in there....it is never going to look like this:

unless we win the lottery this weekend...and then...well, we have a whole new set of decisions to make!

Room by Room....The Entryway

Today Cottage and Vine is hosting her Room by Room party, and today's room is the entryway!

 

It finally gave me the push I needed to get off of my duff and paint those front doors.  I had been staring at very badly treated builder's doors - dings, scratches ...not to mention it was white and showed every little boy fingerprint they could leave behind.

This is what I started with...kind of boring, right?

    and then i became obsessed with red interior doors thanks to Sarah's Farmhouse.  This is what, 3years old now and i'm still loving it.
 

And, I fell in love with this shelf and coat rack too, so V built me one when i couldn't find one the right scale for the wall.  Heather Chadduck love.

And here is where we are now.  I found out that when you paint a dark color, it is kind of hard to photgraph...

I had to turn on every light to get a pic, and it's making the front door have this weird sheen. It doesn't look like that in real life thank goodness.

These pics still crack me up.  The one the left is my paternal grandmother at 14, holding her chicken and her cat.  I have got to find a way to turn that into a Christmas card - I just need a good quote or comment to go with it.

The first on the right is my mom when she was 17 laying out in the sun, and the last one is my maternal grandmother and grandfather a few days before they got married.  Love that pic.

I had to come up with a way to get these things to stay up - so hook and loop to the rescue. Otherwise, every time those boys slammed the door, they would hit the floor.

Well, there you have it.  I still need a great rug.  And i'm looking for a very worn bend - small, no back, to go against the half wall on the left, and the elusive rug.  I've tried several - only to realize that i loved the first one i had and I should have kept it.  Now it's gone. Poop.

Guess what I'm finally doing?

    Yep.  That's gray primer you see.....on my interior front doors....

    Now....what color do you think i'm going with?

    Come back on Monday to find out!

What do you mean they shrunk??

Like I said in the last post, it can take me for-freakin-ever to make a permanent decision.  So, of course, it would naturally prevail that when i DO finally settle on something, something is going to happen that will throw a wrench into the works.

Like today.


Long story short - i found the cool chick who owns the house that this picture was from.  

Honestly, i had given up and then i found similar blog, who fluke of all flukes, links back to her.  Yippee Skippee!


Anyway.  She wrote a great post that hit me like a ton of bricks about finding your decorating style.  Like so much, that I literally sat there and had my own "Aha!" moment without Oprah.


In short - go to your closet to determine your decorating style.  To quote the cute Katie, your closet is a good indicator of what you typically allow yourself to spend on items.  So true.  I am a Target shopper so I would be physically ill pulling out my wallet to buy home stuff at Restoration Hardware.  Your closet is also a good indicator of your style (classic with a little trend thrown in) and color too.  


So...I thought about that.  Then i went to my closet and did a little testing of this theory.

Here are 4 pieces that i go to a lot.  

That ice blue soft cotton maxi is perfect for casual date night, or having the neighbors over by the pool. I am wearing this dress so much lately that the fabric is starting to pile. (so aggravating).  But it's a trendy, inexpensive dress that makes me feel cute, hides some figure flaws and i love the color.

The black dress is a work staple.  Very cute, classic - oh, and did I mention it's from Target? 

The red top was a TJ Maxx find that i have paired with white denim, blue denim, and black.  Again, i'm wearing this shirt to shreds.  See how wrinkled it is at the bottom?


Lastly, the denim jacket (also Target) - a classic.  It's been worn over that blue maxi with chunky jewelry (Cute!) - over tanks and boho skirts - this thing lives in the backseat of my car.  


So when I looked at that, i thought, why am I not using what I know works??  I think I got so wrapped up in new, different house, madness that i forgot how much I love what i have.  Like these drapes:

(sorry for the blurry pic - i was enlarging my old realtor photos and it gets like that)


This is from the great room of my last house.  Those drapes are from PB and cost a fortune.  They are lined double width dupionis - (I think i paid close to $600 for the pair but i had been gifted about $300 from a few friends for house-warming so it was doable.)  They puddled beautifully, which you will have to take my word for since the pic stinks - and i was over the moon for them.


So...i thought - i obviously love the touch of red/cranberry/brick in a house and in my closet  - why am I not using those?  So, i pulled them out of the closet and ran those puppies over to the dry cleaner last week.


And that's about where the story goes bad.


We picked them up Friday, and Vance hung them....and they had shrunk at least 6 inches!!!  Oh, and the best part? The lining didn't shrink, only the drapes.  So she hung there like used up prom gown to short for her crinoline.  Sad.


Talk about infuriating.


So, V and I drove over to PB with the drapes and the dry cleaning receipt in hand, and had a conversation with the manager.  She was very nice, and i have to say, I still love me some Pottery Barn.  Especially after today.  Those drapes were at least 3 years old and she gave me back full credit without even batting an eye.  Very apologetic, and very much wanting to keep us as customers - and it was so freakin painless that i was shocked I didn't have to fight a battle.


However.  The don't make double panels in that color anymore.  Awesome.


Plan B has now turned into Plan C it looks like.


So, she sent us home with a PB credit and some options. And I'm back to being undecided.


Here are the 3 out of the 4  we came home with.  The cranberry silk below is much more red than the brick red i had before.  The double width is less of an issue in this house since we're just using them to flank the windows here - as opposed for privacy like i did in the old house.

 Vance picked the stripe - but i've rejected that one - sorry honey - not doing it for me whatsoever.  The other print i had up - but the print was more of an Indian Batik than a traditional floral - so that got nixed too.  The red, i think, is too red.  The brick color i had was perfect. and when i say perfect. i mean matched the brick in all of V's duck prints (which i have a love hate relationship with)   Which leaves us with the Vanessa in cream, that i have hanging.  In the wrong length - we'll have to order the 108" if we decide it's the one.

I like that the blue in the drape is the same blue as the kitchen wall and the green is the exact green of the rug.  Where I'm stuck is that I was thinking more contrast is necessary....?  

Here is what it looks like when you come in the front door.
..

They also have it in these other 2 color ways

 

I want to tie the blue in the kitchen to the ivory in the living room you see up there. I also need to keep the rug in there - too expensive to ditch right now.  

And yes, i did this butt-backwards.  I painted colors i love with absolutely no plan first - and i'm trying desperately not to repaint.

Thoughts?

The Never Ending Project and How I Change My Mind a Million Times....Which is WHY the Project Never Ends.

I really am trying to blog more.  Really.  But just when I think my life is going to quiet down some...BAM....another thing.  Lately it's been the rental houses, we've had to flip renters in both houses in the last 2 months, one of which we had to evict, the other decided mid-lease to bolt.  But with both came costs - some expected, some not (eviction is not a cheap process - but it was quicker than everyone told me it would be).  And it came with a lot of hands-on, fix-it work at both places.  


Anyway - on to the stuff that has taken a back seat.  That darn hall bath.  The bowling alley, remember this?


Anyway - we have not progressed very far....except to say that the beadboard is done!  And considering what we have been doing on other projects (pool, vacation, rentals, frozen shoulder, new boss - did i even mention that??) - i'm surprised we made any headway in this room!

And that led to framing out the door with chunkier trim - this poor tract house is going to be turned into a cottage/farmhouse one way or the other LOL.

This isn't the art that i had on my design board...not even close.  But I always seem to get drawn into anything that reminds me of the low country.  I think I picked this up at Old Time Pottery for like $7 bucks.  I'm not sure it's going to stay here, but i know it's going somewhere.  I can't seem to get rid of this picture either, and as soon as i determine where it's going to go I'll let you know, but not in this spot - i don't think.  

I really hate that orange cabinet.  And now that i'm staring at the TP holder, i'm not too fond of that view either.  That's our cat, Bill Compton.  He never comes out during the day, in fact, i think i see his fur starting to singe from that light coming thru the door window.  I'm surprised he even showed up on film - seriously this cat never comes out during the day.


Anyway.


As you can see, the cabinet's not painted. There are no places to hang towels, which means they end up on the floor.  All the time.  I shoved them into the bathtub and closed the curtain for this picture.  I don't have a bath rug yet.  And the list goes on....


But any progress is progress, right? 

I am slacker blogger extrordanaire this week.

I have no deep thoughts to share.

I had no beautiful moments of introspection.

 
 It might have to do with the boys being home and summer calling us outside more.  
 

I'm not sure what IT is.  But the only thing i have going on in my head is nesting.   

And I can't think of a more beautiful nest than this one.  All of these gorgeous pics are from 
http://fortheloveofahouse.blogspot.com    What a house.   What an eye she has for warmth and detail.

 I keep telling myself that less is more.  But I may have to rethink this.  This corner is just like a little hug to me...all warm and glowing and sweet.