Project: Keep Busy ~ Life Updates! (Photo Heavy)

First off, let me just take a second to thank all of my friends and family that have been so wonderful to us during our time of loss. I seriously wouldn't have made it through those dark first days without the wonderful women in my life texting, calling, and stopping by with food. I've learned more than once in my life that it's exactly like that song says, "you find out who your friends are," when something like this happens. So thank you all, and I love you so dearly. I'll never forget your kindness to us.

 As my friend said when she dropped these goodies off: "There are very few problems in life that ice cream and Reese's can't solve."

This has been my motto ever since we found out about the miscarriage. I have no power to change any of this at all, the best I can do it let it be. When I find myself in times of trouble, let it be.

Later on that week I had to go back to my Doctor for more blood work and my sweet Mama made it a "day" for us, we ended up at Hobby Lobby where I found this plate bracelet (the band actually came from Michael's, but they had a wide variety at HL too). It's a quote from the book of Joshua in the Bible. I need this as a constant reminder. Not just about the miscarriage, but about lots of other things in my life, the anxieties and the depressions that sneak up on me... I wear this every single day, and I love it.

And I made a little time to pamper myself. I sent this goofy picture to my best friend and she just giggled. She wasn't sure what was sillier, the green face or the big glasses ON the green face! #blindgirlproblems


Ok, moving on to happier bits. Well, busier, in any case.

I've been pretty set on a few things since we found out about our miscarriage. First thing was myself. I decided to really take care of myself, enjoy not being pregnant. I know that sounds horrible. I know. But I've spent so much of the last 3 years hating myself for not being pregnant that I decided to take advantage of the situation. Tackle all the things I'd been putting of because I was either punishing myself or I thought I was pregnant - it was a vicious cycle every month. I've been back to my old "all of nothing" habits, late night cleaning sessions, crazy books, binge watching tv shows until the wee hours of the morning. And on top of it all, I've lost 17 pounds! That is pure insanity to me. I started gaining weight in college, but just the "freshman 15," and I managed to get it back off for our wedding with a LOT of effort, but it came off enough to where my dress did not have to be altered in the waist to become bigger. It seems like it was no time after we were married that the weight started packing back on, and this time I couldn't take it back off, and my eating habits and exercising habits hadn't changed at all. I won't say the number that I got up to, because it's still really embarrassing, even though there was a medical reason why I was gaining so quickly. After the PCOS diagnosis, it all made sense. So when my doctor put me on Metformin, she said it helped a lot for certain women in losing weight. Not gonna lie, I sat there in her office, clasped my little Southern Belle hands in front of my chest, gazed up towards the Heavens and said "please, Lord."


This side by side shows me before and after (at just 15 pounds down). Before was back in the late summer, just before I started Metformin. And this was 11/13 - the day before my Birthday, when Mom and I took our pre-buying trip to the hardware store. Yes, that's a thing, and I'll 'splain more in a bit.

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that the Je T'aime sweater might be a tad adolescent. But I march to the beat of my own drummer. I bought it two years ago at Kohl's without trying it on first, and I was so bummed when I got it home and tried it on and it was too small. I shoved it into my sweater drawer and said "if I can ever lose weight I'll wear this." BOOM. I was so tickled with myself! I can really tell the difference in my face in these two pictures. I'm hoping to drop another 10 pounds by Valentine's Day! I saw Valentine's cause, ain't nobody got time for a diet in November and December. Am I right?

 My 26th birthday was on the 14th, but we celebrated with our families after church on the 15th. We decided to go to Longhorn Steakhouse. Truth be told, the Metformin has changed my appetite so much that I honestly eat like a bird. I eat about a third of everything on my plate. IDK how I'm gonna survive Thanksgiving. So, I basically let our niece choose where we went. She said Longhorn, I said ok. Above is me with my sweetheart. This guy has been my ROCK and my STRENGTH for the past few weeks. We've really pulled together and clung together to help get each other through this, and I feel like we are stronger now than we ever have been. I don't know what I could do without him, and I still haven't figured out what I did to deserve him.

It was pretty dang chilly that day, but not cold like it is today. And because I've dropped some weight, I've been digging through my closet for things that I can't/won't/haven't worn in a while.

Now, please pardon the mess on the mirror. I promise I cleaned it the night before, I guess I was just too tired to notice I forgot to wipe that spot off! *WHOOPS* #housewifefail. But this dress was actually my Easter Dress. I bought it earlier in the year from Target because I loved the shape of it, the way it flared out at my hips. Again, I didn't try it on in the store and when I got home it was WAY too short. But I felt like it would be really cute with leggings, so I hung it in the back of the closet to wait for fall and winter. I paired it with navy leggings, a brown belt to match my brown boots (my only boots, I love them and they fit. I have a funky shaped leg after being so sick with MRSA when I was a teen that boots, unless I special order, are hard to come by) and then a navy sweater that I sort of forgot I had. I've been wearing it for years as a shirt, fully buttoned up, but I love it unbuttoned. #shopwhatchagot Everyone LOVED this outfit, Aaron said I looked gorgeous, so it got an A+ in my book, and it will probably be my Thanksgiving outfit because it's so forgiving!

Here's a side by side of then and now. My how we've changed! We've each lost 10 pounds in hair alone! ;) (I have a chin. That's nuts. I haven't been able to SEE my chin in a photo since I was 15. #metformindietplan)

HERE'S WHERE THE FUN BEGINS!

So, after my birthday money came in, I was ready to get to work on my house! As you probably know if you've been here for a minute, I haven't been wild about the color of my living room and hallway. Never. When we chose the color (Sherwin-Williams "Pottery Urn")  we were planning on decorating our house in the "primitive" style. It's a very very country look, and I was raised in a home that has primitive accents to it. My Mom made a comment one time that my home is more "Southern Living" and her's is more "Country Living." And she's totally right. The Pottery Urn was perfect against all the prim stuff I was looking at. But then we found the rug and everything changed. 

See the rug? We found it at Lowe's. It had every single paint color in our house on it and we loved it. So we had to rearrange our decor theme so that it would match with the feel of that rug. 

Moving on.... I'm spending way too much time on the rug. 

Our living room has looked mostly like this as long as we've lived here. The printed rug is what is in the room currently, and much of the decor elements have changed. But stay with me here.

 You get to see this years tree soon! Keep reading!!! And it's preeeeeeeetty!

I knew I NEEDED to lighten the walls up. I had painted everything white that I could, bought white curtains and hung up, had white photos hanging on the walls. But still, it felt dark in my living room, and I didn't like it. So, I decided that, to save on money, cause you all know that I don't do anything unless it's in the budget, I would wait until my birthday, when I got all my birthday money, and put it towards paint. That way no money would come out of our account at all. Aaron was totally on board with that. I may have mentioned it on here before, but he's great about me and my "projects." He works all day long every day (usually 8 - 10 hours a day), so he always says "as long as you are happy and don't hate me for not being able to help, and you don't hurt yourself, go for it." Thankfully I have a Mom who can do anything, literally anything. She helped us 6 years ago, every night for three months while we worked turning this place into our home, painting walls, and trim and ceilings and replacing countertops and lighting fixtures and hot water heaters, etc etc. We couldn't have done it without her. And she was still working full time too! These days, she has rightfully earned her retirement. She could probably still be working, but she had a really scary episode in January with her heart and esophagus, so I pretty much bullied her into retirement. It suits her so well. So, getting back on track, I gave my ol' Mama a call and told her what I wanted to do. Plus, she is pretty awesome about speaking her mind. If something looks stupid, she says so. 

My plan was, paint the walls a really super light greige color (grey/beige), new window treatments (still waiting on them to arrive, bummer), painting and rearranging all photographs hanging on my walls. She thought it was great. So on the 13th, we took a pre-planning trip to the hardware store. We scouted out the price for paint, the price for my curtains, we got some new decor items and we got a few Christmas decor items... not sure how that happened. They sort of just fell into our cart at Michael's. *shrugs*

Here's how it all worked out.

At 8am on Monday the 16th, Mom picked me up and we drove into town to the Ace Hardware. Let me take a minute to give them a plug. I've got anxiety problems. I've mentioned it before but not everyone in my life knows about it. Anyway, going to big stores like Lowe's or Home Depot nearly sends me into a panic attack. They're so big and so many people are there. At Ace, it's smaller, and they're is a steady stream of a few people in there at all times. A much smaller crowd that I can handle. Plus at Lowe's you have to stand at the paint counter for three days before anyone will help you. At Ace Hardware, we went in on Friday to check for paint samples and price check and get our plan together. We spoke to a nice lady at the paint counter who answered all of our questions and put our minds at ease for the weekend. On Monday when we bounced up in the place with no makeup on, dirty pulled back hair and painting clothes on, the same girl was there, remembered us, and remembered the color we had chosen and what brand of paint we decided to go with. I was amazed. Ace Hardware has all my business from now on. We ended up buying five gallons... which ended up being WAY MORE than we needed, but we have a plan for the leftover paint....

The hard part was moving my entertainment center. We knew it would be. We had planned ahead for this, remember. We decided that once we moved it out, the wall behind it got ONE coat of paint and then the entertainment center got moved back into place. It took us an hour to get it moved, an inch at a time, but we moved it out to where a ladder could go behind it. And then we took a break. :)

I suppose telling you what brand and color of paint I got would help.

Here's the swatch up against my kitchen cabinets and countertops.... It's an ACE exclusive Valspar color called "Brushed Cotton." It's the lightest greige you've ever laid your eyes on. Unless you've got it held up to a true white, you think it's white. Honestly I didn't think it would be as light as it turned out to be, but I really do love it. We ended up choosing the ACE brand paint as well. It's called ROYAL, and we were really pleased with it's performance, of course we got the paint and primer in one and in a lot of places we only needed one coat. Highly recommend.

Painting commenced around 10:30 that morning. My house was a disaster, Tabby was very confused, and Mom and I were jamming to 60's music. (see how the end piece of the E.Ctr comes off? That was very handy.)

Now our original plans were to take it a section at a time a day at a time. The "sitting area" of the living room comes first. Then the next day do the "entry/music" area. Then the next day do the hall. If we had enough paint left over, we would also paint the kitchen to match.

 The paint went on so easily we were halfway done with the hall before we even realized it! I trim, Mom rolls. It's a good arrangement. I have a steady hand for trimming and she doesn't anymore, I can't roll a wall to save my life, she can. She said something during painting that warmed my heart. My grandpa, her Dad, was a painter. He was a little bit of everything, actually -train conductor, solider, butcher, cook, painter etc.-, but for a long chunk of time, he was a sign painter. And he had stencils for a lot of his lettering, but a lot of it he did free hand, because his hands were so steady. Well, I was up on the ladder and she said "Your Grandpa would be so proud of the way you trim. Steady hands, just like his." I wanted to cry into my paint bucket.

I loved how my blue front door was now a focal point in the room. I kept joking that it was saying "BAM!"

 Thankfully, just as Aaron was getting home from work with our supper in hand (he brought us supper both days, y'all!) we were trying to move the E.Ctr back into place, and we were having trouble. Apparently my LR floor isn't super level. So we borrowed his muscle. I am IN LOVE with how it looks on that light wall. Before it, the floor, and the tops of the coffee table and end tables all sort of blended together. Now each is it's own individual piece!

That night, after Mom went home, I texted her this photo. The paint looked GREY! It looks different in different lights, and I think that's why I love it.

The next morning one of Aaron's sisters texted me asking me for an update, so I sent her the above photo, nothing was back on the walls, but all the furniture was back in place.

Here are a couple of the finished room.

 I chalk painted 24 picture frames for this gallery wall. It took Mom and I a little over 2 hours to get it all placed right and spaced out and hung up, but it's honestly one of my favorite parts of the new re-do.

 Simplified this area. Took down the wedding gallery and put the "Family Rules" up there. I'm on the hunt for something along the same lines but a bit brighter. Like I said earlier, everything I bought for so long was white because I was trying to lighten up the house. She's plenty light now! Bring on the color!

Have I told y'all the story about this picture? Mom has one exactly like it hanging over her bed. It's a Don Ensor print, and if you don't know, it's a magnolia. Super southern, right? yes.  So I'd been looking on line for one to buy but they're expensive. Mom got hers on eBay for  a steal, but I was having no such luck. During the last play I did, DW Live! Reloaded, we were set design hunting at a lady's apartment. This lady has been a part of every play I've ever done, and I love her so so dearly and was grateful to even be asked into her home. She's a Mississippi Belle, a for real live debutante, and after we searched her apartment for set pieces, she took us down into her storage unit. When my friend, the director, pulled this (frame and all) our of the storage unit, I nearly went to my knees. I told the lady that Mama had one just like it and I how much I loved it. I never said I wanted one. She took my hand and said "sweetheart if you love it that much, take it with you. You have to have it." I remember how all the air went out of that room for a minute as me, and my two girlfriends all stared at each other. The one was sitting on the ground with her eyes bugged out and the other who was standing next to me grabbed my hand in shock! I told her no, no, that I couldn't do that. She kept insisting, and almost started bullying me into it. I begged her to let me pay her for it. She wouldn't hear of it. I begged her to let me pay for the FRAME, cause she mentioned she had well over $700 in the frame alone. She wouldn't take any of my begging. She took my hand in one hand and cupped my cheek with the other and said "Darling, this print is going to sit right here in this storage unit until I die. I'm not going to hang it up anywhere in my apartment ever. I want you to have it because you love it. And it needs someone to love it. Don't hurt my feelings and not take it.you dearly." (That's a direct quote. I'll never forget it as long as I live.) I cried and gave in. I still can't believe it. Every time I walk past it I say "thank you" to the little ol' lady that loves me dearly. 

So it took one day to do the entire living room and hallway. We were shocked. So, we decided that with all the extra paint we had we may as well paint the kitchen to match. Honestly, you can't really tell a difference in the tone of the room, but the yellow-ness of the walls is gone. And I love it. It definitely looks more grey in the kitchen than it does in the LR.

STILL waiting on my cafe-tier curtains. I ordered them from Linens n Things online.... who else thought they were COMPLETELY out of business? I've not had a good experience so far. These kitchen valances are by Lorraine Home in the Adirondack Blue. Got them from Amazon. When I went back to order the cafe sets, they didn't have them in blue. But a Google search said Linens n Things did. I was shocked, but there they were, so I ordered them. On 11/10. Should have been here at the beginning of the next week, didn't ship until YESTERDAY. Oh well. What can you do? Lesson learned.

I LOVE how bright and crisp everything looks. But things were looking a little TOO bright and crisp there at our wedding collage.

Leftover door paint to the rescue! 10 minutes later, the blue adds some much needed color to the space.

Aaron loves the redo because we can shut the drapes now. We are actually getting NEW drapes that match better but we had these in storage and needed them right then.

Bought this new rug for the front door at Kohls.... $50 for $16. Yes... thank you. It is Tabby approved. She's not stopped laying on that one corner since we laid it down.

Thank you guys for reading and catching up with me! I'm actually heading over to write a Christmas Decor post right now!! So be sure you check back for that! I won't talk to you all until after Thanksgiving, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone! 

*ACE Hardware, Amazon, Lowe's Home Depot, Kohl's are not compensating me to talk about them.

Chalk Paint Kitchen Cabinets - KITCHEN EVOLUTION UPDATE

It occurred to me today, as I walked through the house for my much needed coffee, that I had never actually done a proper post about my experience with chalk painting my cabinets. So, there's no time like the present. Here we go.

I'm actually glad that it's taken me so long to do this post, because I can also address the wearability and longevity and staying power of this project.


Ok, so let's go back - way back - to 5 1/2 years ago, when Aaron and I got the keys to this house for the first time. If you haven't seen my KITCHEN EVOLUTION post, now might be the time to head over there and read that, to get all the details.  But our kitchen was majorly outdated, and in desperate need of a facelift.

The cabinets had been UNTOUCHED since the house was built in the 50's, and so all things considered, they were in great shape. The fridge was a disaster, it wouldn't even stay shut, so you had to kick it at the bottom to get it to seal. It worked fine for when we were working on the house for keeping cokes and bottled water chilled and for any snacks we might have.... and that was usually Subway.

The tile was mostly perfectly fine. It had been installed when my father in law purchased this house (remember, this is actually his house, we rent from him) he ripped the carpet up and uncovered our gorgeous wood floors, and replaced the old linoleum with this pretty tile. The stove could have worked for us, but we decided to replace it, since we were replacing the fridge anyway. And that avocado range hood had to go.

Have you ever seen anyone more tickled to be ripping down a wallpaper border than this gal? It's my first home, and I'm so proud of what we've done to it.


Ok, so we worked pretty steady for about 3 months, September to November. And we got married on the 12th of December. So we used those twelve days to move and get everything set up and put away etc etc.

So on December 20th, when we came home from our honeymoon and officially moved in (we did not live together before we got married, but because our house is right next door to Aaron's Dad, with whom he was living at the time, Aaron did spend a few nights in the house after we got all of our stuff moved in, just for safety's sake. It was so weird living at my Mom's house with literally nothing in my bedroom except a bed, a suitcase of clothes (since all mine I'd moved here) and my gigantic wedding dress taking up all of my closet for almost 2 weeks) this is what the kitchen looked like.

We painted the walls green, replaced the countertops to the black ones, painted the cabinets dark brown using oil based paint, we got new (actually scratch and dent) stainless steel appliances, we replaced every light fixture in the house.... I actually kind of regret getting rid of that table. It was a PERFECT size for the kitchen, but I do love our current table. Because now we don't have to buy a huge dining table when we buy our forever home.


Ok, so.... fast forward to September 2014. I decided I was freaking tired of the green walls and was longing for something that was a bit more bright and airy. My style was changing. No more was I into the dark colors and the modern influenced things.... I was going towards the bright, airy, country influenced, antique inspired looks. So I thought, to avoid painting the cabinets, which I felt like was going to be a huge undertaking, I would paint the walls and go from there.

Read my post about it HERE. I completely re-did the kitchen for under $80. I ended up using contact paper on our countertops to brighten up that space and for a while, I loved it.

And let me get brutally honest with you.... when the new wore off I kind of felt like my cabinets and countertops looked really cheap. Sort of like a badly manufactured mobile home. Some mobile homes these days are amazing, for reals, but this just had the feel of cheap cheap. But I loved the color of the walls and I loved the lighter countertops, but they were contact paper, it was obvious. And even though it was a "granite pattern," it was a sticky paper. C'mon. But it can be done. And it held up amazing for a year.


So I finally decided, you know what, I'm gonna paint my cabinets. I'd regretted painting them so dark almost from the beginning, and I just felt like something brighter fit us better. And I am all about your home fitting YOU.



April, 2015. I'd been doing lots of research  on chalk paint. I spent pretty much all day every day looking up chalk paint and learning all about it. And what I discovered was that DIY chalk paint was just as effective as Annie Sloan chalk paint. Plus it's WAY cheaper.

So I decided that the absolute cheapest way I could paint my kitchen cabinets was to DIY chalk paint them.

The recipe is so simple.
1 part flat (no primer) paint in the color of your choice - mine was Valspar "Gypsum."
2 parts Plaster of Paris
enough water to mix it all together

I ended up officially using two quarts of paint, 4 cups of Plaster of Paris and around 2 cups of water. You want to mix your PoP and water together separately, and mix it until it looks like pancake batter. Then add it to your paint. I actually bought a plastic bucket at Lowe's when I bought the paint, that had measurements on the side so I dumped my paint in there. (I mixed the rest of the paint into chalk paint a few weeks later, and it keeps pretty well if it's sealed really good.)


2 quarts of paint was all it took for three coats of paint on my cabinets. I had maybe half a cup left over when I was done. The paint is very runny, but you only need to barely dip your brush into the mix. Back brush all you want, get in there with it and use some elbow grease. Don't sand, don't prime. 
Literally slap the paint on. That's the amazing part about chalk paint. It's so easy to use.

I took all my cabinet doors off and all my drawers out (I just put my drawers on my countertop to paint them) and painted the base of the cabinets first. Chalk paint only takes about 20 minutes between coats to dry so while that was drying, I put my first coat on my doors and drawers.

Ok, so you've got the first coat done. And holy crap, you've ruined your cabinets. I should have taken a picture. It was terrifying. It looked like I'd done a really "crap-tastic" job of painting a primer on. It was splotchy and nasty looking. But I was already too far gone, so I just went with it.

The second coat covered up all sins. It started looking really amazing then.

I ended up doing three coats, just because it's a kitchen and I felt like it needed the extra stuff.

Now, once your done, you need to wax the cabinets to seal it all in. I used Minwax in the natural color. Just use an old lint free rag (I used one of Aaron's old cotton undershirts) and applied it in circular motions until my thumbs hurt.

It took me from 10am to 5am the next day to get everything painted, dried, put away and cleaned

THIS was the finished product.

Ok, so this shot was taken with me shoved up in the corner by the window, but it gave me the effect I wanted, entirely. As you can see I took some doors off and made some space for open shelving for our dishes and my antique glass. 

But look closely at this picture...... it STILL looks pretty dog gone cheap. And I couldn't understand why. So I got on Pinterest to look at photos of kitchens with white cabinets and I noticed a reoccurring theme. Black countertops. So after supper that evening, I asked Aaron what his opinion was. And he was pretty adamant about ripping that cheap contact paper up. "It looks like a bathroom!" He exclaimed. And when I showed him a picture of black counters and white cabinets from Pinterest, he got up, stomped into the kitchen and took out his pocket knife and started scoring the contact paper so we could rip it up. 

Ok. Aaron wins this one. It looked so much better that I could hardly contain myself. NOW I was in love with it. 

And here is what our kitchen is looking like today! Sorry for the crappy pictures, I was taking these for the #cleankitchenatnight challenge and they were just gonna get edited in Instagram anyway before I posted them.

As you can see in the above shot, I also swapped out the globes on my triple fixture above the sink. These were just $3 a piece from Lowe's and I LOVE them! They're bubbled glass, but clear, so it gives so much more light to the room! I also worked really hard to eliminate the clutter that was accumulating on top of my fridge. Since we don't have a cabinet up there, it tends to catch lots of random things. Now all that's up there is our air filter and two pottery pieces that were my Mom and Dad's. The cereal boxes you see peeking at you are actually on the top shelf of the Non-Pantry.

My kitchen is so much so my happy place these days. I love the look and the feel of the room, and love how country it is. Aaron tracked down an antique shop one afternoon and brought me home a box full of goodies so that I could decorate with them and I love it.

The only thing left to do is switch out my rugs and replace them with something a bit more country, and they're on order from Amazon. Be sure to follow me on Instagram to keep up with the latest, cause I'm always posting there! The trick to spicing up any space is keeping your overall color - i.e. wall color, cabinet color - pretty neutral and using accents to bring in color and personality. We have lots of aqua blues, some yellows, some pewter here and there, but this space is absolutely ME. And that's what I love about it. The kitchen is the heart of the home, it's the central space, it's THIS woman's domain. And I love it.

It's been several months since I tackled this project all on my own. The paint has held up great. I have nothing to report. I cook at least two meals a day in this room. And it's just as perfect now as it was then. Over time, should it get some wear on it, I'll be fine with it, because I like that look. And everyone loves it. I've had several girlfriends tackle their kitchens since I did mine, and each one with sparkling results. 

So don't be afraid to mix up a little chalk paint and go to work. Since then I've chalk painted some other pieces of furniture in my house and I am trying to resist painting more. I do love painted furniture. 

Verdict: I LOVE IT, it's EASY to mix, it's CHEAP to mix, and it looks SO GOOD!

Disclaimer: Painting is hard work. Painting cabinets is a time consuming process, don't think your gonna have this done in a few hours, cause your not. Plain and simple truth. 

I love y'all!

$80 Kitchen Remodel Reveal!

When I tell people I redid my kitchen, including now countertops, for around $80, they always look at me like I'm nuts. But it happened, and I've got to say I'm so proud of my thriftiness and creativity!

To get caught up to speed, you should probably read my post on my original PLAN for this room. I followed that up with a step by step of what I had decided to do in Let's Talk Kitchen Renovation! A lot of prices and products I used are listed in those posts.


This project was a LONG time overdue in happening, but now that's it's over I am kicking myself that I didn't do it like this when we originally did the room 5 years ago.  Remember how it looked before?? (The various was it looked before? haha!) To see how it looked in the VERY BEGINNING of our lives here, you can check out the KITCHEN EVOLUTION post.

Yeah, all that's gone now! I can't believe I lived like that for almost 5 whole years!

BUT HERE IT IS NOW!!

Let me show you around! - I would like to note that I got this project finished while I still had all my summer decor out, but now it's all fall-ish at my house, so things decor-wise may look a bit different now.

Yeah! It's so much brighter!! I love it!

I love how the table looks (it's showing up very red in this photo. It's not that red) with the new wall color, so much prettier!

I kept a lot of what I already had over my cabinets, including my big "BLESSED" that I got on sale at Hobby Lobby a few years ago.

It says "Missy's Kitchen, est. 2009" The bottle is a "Cheerwine" bottle. It's a lot like Cherry Coke but more cherry than coke. My Mom used to love it when she was in her early 20's and first married. I think she actually lived in the town where they made it, but I'm not sure. We found this at Cracker Barrel and bought a few bottles! And then the Mason Jar is filled with rocks that I picked up from out of the ocean in the Bahamas when we went in 2013.

My giant "R" was also from Hobby Lobby. I painted the bottle and the star blue with leftover front door paint! And, ya gotta have the glass "RC Cola" bottle. It's Aaron's favorite drink, ever! 

I thought it would be cute to have some photos of Aaron and I in the kitchen when we were little on display. This one is of him, ear to ear in chocolate pudding. How adorable?!

And this one is me, in my Dorothy costume, making biscuits with my Mama. I was probably 3 or 4. 

I change out this picture seasonally, but it's always a shot of me and my Dad. This one is a fun memory. He'd been fishing and pulled up in the driveway yelling for my Mom to bring me outside. He said "I caught a fish that's as big as my baby! Bring her out here and let's measure them up!" And, as you can see, the fish is as big as his baby. :)  Currently there's a shot of him and me, as Little Red Riding Hood, on Halloween in the frame by the window!

The pantry stands out so much more than it did before! It's easier for me to see what I have now!

Here's my iPad/TV set up in the kitchen! It's such a small space I wouldn't have room for a TV, unless it was teeny, so I just hook the iPad up to this iPod dock, put the iPad on an easel, and there ya have it, instant television! :) I use the heck out of this system! (I do need a less obnoxious easel though!)

 My microwave area! It's amazing to me how much easier this room is to keep clean now!! This section of the room was the first to get "finished" and for a moment I thought it was all too light, but after living with it for a few days, I had no regrets!

The stove (it's even prettier now!), and my little helper! She hung in there like a trooper with me while I was doing all of this! I did purchase the hand towel, and pot holder and oven mitt set specifically for the new kitchen and it was a $5 set from Dollar General!

I decided I was too tired to cook the day after it was all finished (I finished it around 2 or 3am, actually) so I stuck a meal in the crock pot! 

I leave this butcher block cutting board out all the time. It's arranged a bit differently now, for fall, but it's still out all the time. A very good idea, and super easy to clean up!

DIY EVERYTHING! Haha! DIY lotion, and DIY lamp! I painted both the lamp base and the shade! If I eventually find something I like better, ok, and if I don't I like this just fine! 

 MORE DIY! I did the "EAT" out of cardboard. I free-handed the letters, cut them out with an exact-o knife (it's not perfect but I didn't expect it to be), painted them blue with leftover front door paint and attached them to the wall with 3M tape! I LOVE it!  The curtains over the windows I found on sale at Dollar General for $5 a panel. I bought 3! (The one over the sink I cut in half and split up the middle!)

 My flowers and DIY table runner! My cooking utensils are actually living in the owl pitcher now, and I'm using my glass cake stand full of homemade cookies as a centerpiece! I loved that I could still use this runner! My Mom made it for me and monogrammed our last name initial onto each end. There's enough teal blue in it that it works!

 Chandelier is even more beautiful now!

The room is a small room. and we have a large table, but it all feels so much BIGGER now that it's so light!
 

I find myself WANTING to be in the kitchen now. I just LOVE how it all turned out.

Be sure to visit the posts linked above for prices on items (including my "new" countertops) and names of paint colors and such! I'm tickled pink and blue (wink wink) with this room and can't tell you how satisfying it was to completely change it for such a small price!

Thanks for catching up with me today! See y'all soon!