Style? What Style?

If eclectic crazy is a style then I am the master of it. If it’s not then I just invented it.

As I was doing dishes this morning I started looking around my living room and giggling to myself. My living room is all over the place in regards to style. While most women probably wouldn’t have the guts to pull off this look, I have learned to embrace it.

I can look through magazines all day long and appreciate a put together room where everything matches and is on point but for some reason I was never able to do it for myself. I believe the reason lies in the amount of things I love in my life. I think you need to see for yourself what I’m talking about.

Be Warned: What you are about to witness would make most home decorators cringe but maybe just maybe you can walk away a little braver and learn to stray a little bit from the norm. Or not.

Picture #1: I love all things shabby chic AND retro. So here we have a shabby chic cabinet with my retro record player on top.

Picture #2: I love my family as is evident with our pictures being on the wall.

Picture #3: I love the Lord and this plaque my hubby made pretty much sums that up.

Picture #4: I love gaming. Yes I’m 48 years old and still a gamer. I started way back when Atari was all the rage and still play when I get a chance today.

Picture #5: I love our country. Even though we have our troubles we are still very much a blessed nation.

Picture #6: I love football. Tommy boy is the GOAT! (greatest of all time). I have Patriots stuff peppered throughout the whole living room. Tommy goes up at the beginning of football season but has to come down when I put my Christmas stuff up because I love Christmas even more than football.

Picture #7: This is our living room and you can probably spot most everything I’ve showed you in this one picture. It’s all in here and then some. *smile*

Personally, I love walking into someone’s home for the first time and instantly gaining a feel of what they’re like. Who they are as a person. If that’s the case what is my house saying? Ha! Ha! Come join the crazy train! Woot! Woot!

So how about you? Is your living room Better Homes and Garden ready or a mishmash of stuff like mine?

I hope if nothing else, this post brought a smile to your face.
Have a lovely day my friends.
HUGS!

Kim

P.S. My love of God trumps all the other things that I “love”. FYI

My New Coffee Station

Hello everyone. Did ya think I dropped off the deep end? I’m not even sure if anyone still reads my blog any more but since it’s more like a journal to me I’m going to try to keep it up again. I love looking back and seeing how things have changed, how my children have grown, the trouble I’m getting into etc.
So with that in mind I wanted to show off my new little coffee station. Like most people I always had my coffee maker somewhere on my kitchen counter. And if you’re like me, kitchen counter space is VERY valuable. Like seriously prime real estate. 

But I had a dilemma. I didn’t know where else to put it. My dining area is very small and I didn’t want something my chair was going to hit every time I got up from the table so I couldn’t put a buffet table there because it would be to wide. My hutch that I have in there isn’t tall enough in the middle for me to open the coffee maker hatch. *sigh* I thought I was doomed to have it on my counter for the rest of my coffee lovin’ life. 

But alas, I had a brilliant idea. While sitting in my craft room one day I looked over at my cubby thingy. It stores all my yarn, unfinished projects etc. It seemed to be the perfect size for that space in the dining room. I got to emptying it off (I wanted to make sure it worked before I went out and bought another one) and quickly slid it into place. It was perfect. Not to wide and not to deep. And as a bonus I was able to get all my cookbooks in there so they are more assessable.

I also knew I wanted a chalkboard thing above it and as luck would have it my hubby had a picture frame out in his shop, so he painted it and put my chalkboard in it and I love it. I can change up what it says just for fun.
Enough jibber jabber. Here’s my new little coffee station/cookbook holder. 


Well there you have it.
Do you have a coffee/tea/cookbook station?
Have a lovely day!
Kim

The 5+5+5 Challenge!

Yes, I realize there are about 5 million and 2 challenges going on in blog world right now but none of them seemed to suit my needs right here, right now. So what does one do? She creates her own challenge in hopes that there is at least one person out there that hasn’t already done all the other 5 million and 2. Either way, I’m doing it and I’m going to blog about it to hold myself accountable.

Okay, here are the deets (that’s cool talk for details).

5 Days (because any more than that and I’m not gonna do it. I’ve already proven that).

5 Rooms (because most of us have at least 5 rooms right?)

5 Things (and by things I mean anything you don’t need or want anymore.)

Every year I go through a phase where I feel the urge to purge. I’m feeling the urge right now and I wanted to go for it before it passes. (That sentence just gets weirder and weirder the more you say it.) Anyhoo, if you’ve been wanting to go through your home and get rid of a “few” things (that’s why I picked 5 and not 10), then feel free to join in.

Next week, Monday-Friday I’m going to pick 5 rooms. (You pick whatever rooms you want)

These Rooms:

Monday: Kitchen

Tuesday: Closet

Wednesday: Kids room

Thursday: Office

Friday: Living Room

Then I’m going to gather my 5 (or more if I feel so led) things, take a picture (for justification) and then blog about my surreal experience of my purgefest.

If I have enough takers I’ll produce a linky at the bottom of my post for you to link up. If I don’t that’s okay too. I’m still gonna do it.

So what do you say? You in? If you don’t have a blog you can always just tell me in the comment section what you got rid of each day. That way you have some accountability.

Here’s the really sad button I made for it. Can you tell I was rushed or have no idea what I’m doing? Either way, here it is.

Hopefully I’ll see you next week.

Have a wonderful day my friends.

OXOX,

Kim

Homemade Laundry Detergent (The Dry Version)

Years ago I made the liquid version of this recipe and I personally didn’t like the way it cleaned the clothes or smelled. Some people love it and that’s okay. But it kind of turned me off to making my own detergent for awhile. That is until recently.

I came across a dry version of homemade laundry detergent and decided to give it a try. I’ve been using it for about 2 weeks now and I have to say that I really really love it. Really.

My clothes smell fresh and they are definitely clean. Even when I line dry I can still smell the freshness. That mixed in with that lovely outdoor sunshine smell and you’ll be in Heaven.

I had posted the recipe on my FB page and had one reader ask about using it in cold water. I did a test load and although there was one piece of soap residue on one shirt, the rest seemed to have dissolved just fine. So I will leave that totally up to you. I wash most of my clothes in warm and rinse in cold.

The money saved in using this recipe is out of this world since you only use 2 heaping TBS a load.

Here’s the recipe.

3 pounds of Super Washing Soda

2 pounds of Baking Soda

3 pound box of Borax

2 bars of Fels-Napa soup or Kirk's Castile Soap (Shredded)

I don't think there is an exact science. I just kind of eyeballed it.

Mix well in a large container.

Add two heaping tablespoons to each load of laundry.

So you think you’ll give it a try. It honestly took me all of about 5 minutes to make.

Have a lovely day my friends!

Yes, we bought another hutch!

It’s not my fault. Hutches ROCK! I can’t help it if hutches call out to me. I can’t help it if I answer as often as finances allow. I can’t help it if my goal is to have one in every room of the house. I don’t have a problem. Really. I don’t. Seriously.

Well I’m sure you’d like to know how hutch #7 came to live at our home, wouldn’t you?  You see in this house there is actually a laundry “room”. It’s small compared to others ,but it is an actual “room” for doing the laundry. Hence the term “laundry room”. So, that meant I had a “little” extra space. (It’s my goal to overemphasize the use of quotation marks in this post.)

When we first moved in I found a baker’s rack on Craigslist for $25.00 and thought that it would work. And it did, after I spray painted it red. But there was just one little problem. See if you can tell what it is.

The problem “I” see is that “you” can see everything on it. What if I don’t want you to know that I use Hefty bags instead of Ziploc? What if I don’t want you to know that I have party napkins dating back into the 90’s?

You see? It was just a little to exposed. But I was fine with it…..until…….my husband of all people asks me if I saw this hutch on Craigslist.

I said “No, no I didn’t.” And then I asked if I could have it. He was silent. So I just left it at that. But then I kept seeing it pop up for less and less money until it got to a point that I thought we could afford it and then I asked again. “Can I have it?” and he said, “Did you email them about it?” and then I said, “Why I was just going to do that right now.” because that sounded a lot like a yes to me in husband language.

Long story short.

Here it is taking it’s rightful place in my laundry “room”.

Isn’t that better? And anyone that knows me knows that red and white is my FAVORITE combo and one day when the left unseen side of this picture is organized, I’ll actually show you the rest of my laundry room so you can see exactly why this hutch was meant for this space.

The End.

I’m linking up with The Homemaker’s Challenge.

Tell Me Again WHY I Have Throw Pillows?

In theory, I love throw pillows. You see them in magazines all nicely placed here and there as if they belong there and all is well in the world.

For some reason it just doesn’t work out so well in my world. 98.45% of the time MY throw pillows look like this.

 

Even I will move them out of the way just to sit down. Which brings me to this question that maybe you can answer.

Throw pillows are good for………

Throwing?

Squishing down into the seat?

Decorating the coffee table?

Using up the fabric and stuffing of the world?

Setting your food on?

I personally use one of them to put under my knees when I’m working out and have to do push-ups. Yeah, that’s why I made them. OY!

Help a girl out. Tell me why throw pillows exist. Because in my house it isn’t for decoration. *sigh*

HAVE A LOVELY DAY MY FRIENDS!

31 Days to Clean Challenge. Days 5-9

I am still going strong with the 31 Days to Clean Challenge. It’s really giving me a sense of accomplishment each day. I love looking back and seeing what I’ve done.

The biggest challenge for me this week was cleaning out my pantry. I have to be honest. I don’t like my pantry. It’s to deep. I didn’t even know what I had back there. So before I started cleaning it out, I put the camera back as far as I could reach and took a couple of pictures.

This is what I found.

Gee wish I had known that parchment paper was there before I went and bought a brand new roll.

Anyway I did take before and after pictures because it’s always fun to snoop in other people’s cupboards. You know you’re looking at what’s in there. Don’t lie. Ha! Ha!

BEFORE (Top Part)

BEFORE (Bottom part)

Did anyone spot the 13.5lbs of baking soda? Okay it’s probably only 12.5lbs now. LOL! Only a few of you are going to get that.

AFTER (Top part)

LOL! I’m dying over here because it really doesn’t look that much better in the picture. Oh me! Let’s see the bottom half shall we?

Okay I can see a bit of a difference there. The main thing is that I took it all out and cleaned it. I sort of had to put things back close to where they were because I was pretty used to things being in a certain place. Oh and I only had 2 outdated cans. Yay me!

The kitchen part of the challenge is done. YAY!

But like I said before it’s not all about the cleaning challenges. The matters of the heart are getting a good cleaning too. She’s making me stop and think about specific things and it’s been really good. I’m getting a lot out of this.

Thanks for sticking it out with me.

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY!

31 Days to Clean! Days 1-4

I have to tell you that I am thoroughly enjoying this challenge. It’s the kick in the butt I needed to get these things done.

Here’s how I’m tackling this ebook of Sarah Mae’s.

I only print out the page that I’m working on that day. I like bite size pieces and this way doesn’t cause me to get overwhelmed.

I went ahead and put all the Martha challenges on a calendar. Some things didn’t pertain to me. (Like washing the kitchen window and curtains. I don’t have a window in my kitchen. My kitchen is in the middle of the house. LOL.) So I left those spaces blank and will use it for catch up if needed.

The challenge encourages posting each week for accountability, hence this post. So you will be seeing my progress as we go through the book.  I know you can’t wait! ;)

But this challenge isn’t all about cleaning. It’s also about the heart of homemaking. So it blends the heart of Mary and the heart of Martha in each daily lesson. Sarah Mae did a great job putting this together. It’s not to late to join if you feel so led.

One of the challenges this week was to clean out and clean your fridge. Ugh!

Well here it goes! The before and after pictures of my fridge. You’re welcome!

Actually you can’t see much from that far away, so let me get a close up of some grunge. Again, you’re welcome!

Now the after.

Nice and clean!

I also accomplished the task of thoroughly cleaning the outside of our cupboards. Something that needed to be done when we moved in but never happened.

I skipped cleaning the stove because we are going to be getting a new one soon and by golly I’m not going to put my effort into something that’s going bye bye. LOL!

Well that’s the update.

Come back tomorrow for Friday Funnies! Let’s end the week with a good laugh!

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY MY FRIENDS!