A new dining room table

After buying our house last month I searched and searched for the perfect dining room table and came up totally empty handed. I literally spent days on the computer looking for something that would serve our family well, but that was cute and stylish. No one wants an ugly dining room table. Especially when you can see it when you walk in the front door.

My biggest problem was the size of our dining room. I don't know if you could call it a 'room' over-say... maybe more like a dining area. It is tiny. And then theres the master bedroom door right smack dab in the way! Who designs these houses anyway?

You can see from right here just how tiny the area is with our old table. And this pic didn't even include the leaf that made it bigger!

My biggest problem during the whole search was the quality of the products and price. These sites wanted an arm and a leg for compressed wood that never stands up to anything much less a house full of boys. I needed real wood! Solid wood that can withstand meltdowns, spills, pocket knives and crashing hot wheels. Do you know how hard that is to find? So after almost calling it quits I decided to search Pinterest for ideas and it was staring at me. Right there on the screen. 

Build yourself a pipe leg table!

How did I not think of this before? It couldn't be that hard right? I mean it is just some wood and pipe screwed together.

Well let me tell you... It was so easy! And I even decided to make a bench to match! I swear if I can make something that looks like this then anyone can make one! And not only was it cheaper than buying a new table, but I have a feeling that is way sturdier than anything I could buy in a store. 

I still need to sand the rough edges and decide whether I am going to stain it or not, but the family and I are already enjoying eating at this table made with love.

I will post in the next few days all the details of the table and how you can make your own :)

P.s. The metal chairs are from Target and we love them! And we got rid of the ugly red walls! Yay!

one crazy month

Oh my, what a month it has been! I swear all I ever do is play catch up. I think I am going to sit down and schedule in some blog time. I really do miss sitting down an reading all the posts on my blog roll and sharing about what's going on in my world with everyone.

I want to start off by talking about the name of my blog. I have spoke about my little identity crisis in the past and apparently still feel confused. I hope you all don't think I am too crazy. Xo

Now on to the catching up part. I thought the best way to catch everyone up was to just post the pictures. Hope you all enjoy this little catch up post! 

Let's start with these wonderful Strawberry Spinach Popsicles I made for the boys. They were super easy to make and they were super yummy!

This delicious Enchilada Casserole was a HUGE hit with the family! Thank you Jen! 

 My amazingly wonderful friends got me this awesome Kelly Moore Libby bag. And I absolutely love it!

Tyler started flag football, and even though it has been rocky and back and forth, he still loves it.

Love watching him play!!!

Finally got my Fall Bucket List up from Loves of Life. Thank you Katie!

Found this sign at Marshall's and thought it would make a great addition to my kitchen.

 Bought me some new boots for this fall and have been having fun dressing myself from Pinterest :)

 And dressing myself out of things that I find in the back of my closet. 

Well that has been a lot of catching up for the past month. Hoping that I will be better about at least updating every couple of days instead of every month. 

Y'all have a Wonderful Wednesday! 

pedestal tables and a kitchen that needs some love

As I was cleaning my kitchen today I couldn't help but notice how horrible my kitchen and dining area look. It's not a big area and so you would think I would be able to do something with it and make it look pretty. But apparently not! Everything I do to it never comes out right. It's kind of depressing.

Here is my kitchen/dining room right now...

I know that it's not that bad and could be a whole lot worse, but when I think of my kitchen I think of someplace that is light and bright. Someplace I won't mind sitting for hours and blogging or drinking coffee. Someplace that makes people say "I love your kitchen". I also needed something that looked great with white appliances because that is what I have and can't justify replacing perfectly good ones (well except for the stove with the front glass that kind of fell off...). So naturally I started looking for some inspiration on Pinterest.

I had to add this kitchen at the top. I fell in love with it the moment that I saw it! I know that my kitchen differs from this one in several ways, but I can so see my kitchen looking like this. I love it!!

(picture source)

There is also this wonderful kitchen from Flower Patch Farmgirl.
Didn't she do a wonderful job? Her curtains are even made from old napkins!

(image via Flower Patch Farmgirl)

This next one I found on Pinterest but could not find an original source. I really like the open cabinets as well as the chalkboard. Great for kids. And that farmhouse sink! LOVE!

(image via Pinterest)

Now when it comes to the dining room my table desperately needs to be refinished and my chairs need to be painted. But I will get to that eventually. Someday. Right now I am trying to figure out what I am going to do with the space. With it being so small it poses the challenge of making it functional and pretty.

I really like bench here. It adds something different and gives you one extra seat. I'm just not sure how it would look in my kitchen. My light is placed a little further out and I don't know if I could make the bench work if it were not flush up against a wall.

(image via Pinterest)

This one here is my favorite. My table looks almost exactly like this one. You know when it is refinished and all. But what I like most about it is that they left the table it's natural color. Which is exactly what I want to do! Seeing this makes me want to go refinish my table now! 

(picture via BHG)

I also took this screen shot of my latest issue of Country Living Magazine. 

I am in love with this little dining nook!

(picture via my iPad)

kitchen walls: after

Yesterday I left my keys in Michael’s truck, so I was stuck at the house all day with no way to go anywhere. Ya, it sucked! But it gave me a chance to get in there and finish painting the kitchen.

I am really excited to step back and see the reward of all my hard work.

Before

During

After

 

Now I can’t wait to get those floors replaced :)

Linking up to: Savvy Southern Styles Wow Us Wednesday #85

&

Emily A. Clark

kitchen walls: during

I had the contractor come by and fix the part of my walls insurance paid for, funny thing is my walls were just fine. He said they didn’t need to be repaired at all : / But the hole in the wall needed it so I was really happy that after 3 years it was fixed.

 

Next came the primer!

Thankfully they make this stuff because red is a hard color to cover.

  

It took two coats of primer to cover all the red.

This is the part that drives my poor hubby cray-zee!

I am the worlds messiest painter. I am so glad that we are getting new floors, because if not then I would be in some trouble :)

 

It was very thankful it was so nice outside.

I ended up leaving the windows open all day just to listen to the rain.

kitchen walls: before

My kitchen being made over has been a long time in the making. The real push was the slab leak we found about two months ago. It helps get you motivated when insurance helps pay for everything :)

See all the paint samples painted on the wall? I could not decide what I wanted to do with my kitchen. In the end I decided to go neutral and just add color with accessories.

I am hoping that after I get the walls and floor done I will be able to refinish my table and chairs.
Maybe even hang some window treatments :)

A major goal of mine is to get rid of that horrible light fixture that just hangs there.

our slab sprung a leak

A few weeks ago I was walking through our kitchen and noticed that the floors were kinda squishy and warm to the touch. And with Pergo floors you never want to describe them as squishy. If you have ever had the pleasure of dealing with a slab leak, you know that they ARE NOT FUN! Good news is is that it was a simple fix that cost a lot less to fix than I thought.

Now we are in the process of trying to find a contractor to come in and replace the sheetrock in the walls so we can repaint them and lay new floors. Unfortunately, that has been proven to be harder than it seems. Most of the contractors I have had the pleasure of talking to are less than ideal.

Here are a few photos to show you what my kitchen looks like right now…

{p.s. please forgive my super messy floors}

indecisiveness

When it comes to my kitchen I have been completely indecisive on what I want to do with it.

I’m trying to get away from the darker colors and lighten things up a bit. But to be honest, I am not sure how to do that. Everything has always been black or brown or different shades of black and brown. And I am sick of it! I want a light and bright house.

Here is my kitchen/dining room in it’s semi-current state. The walls are called ‘fabulous red’. The microwave is not there anymore, but it still pretty much looks the same.

I originally wanted to paint stripes along the entire wall...

... then I found this picture on The Lettered Cottage. Yes, they wall is black, but it is a fun chalkboard black. Mike likes it and so do the boys. I think that they just want to draw on the walls and not get in trouble :)

I also love the way this kitchen. Yes, I know that mine does not look anything like this... and the cabinets are black (see I can’t escape it!) but I love the cabinets and how bright they are with the white walls. I think my kitchen has enough natural light that I could pull off the dark cabinets.

By the time this is all over I swear I am going to drive my husband crazy :)