Blessings and Raindrops

seeking joy in the midst of the ordinary

The kitchen remodel. {Part 1}.

I have to admit, our kitchen is now my absolute favorite room in the house. The light in here is amazing and bright, we’ve tripled our cabinets and storage and the space is just so much more functional for our family. I was a bit hesitant to remove the kitchen island entirely but had a gut feeling it would work for us. And, it absolutely has. The kitchen table gets so much use and love and creative juices are constantly flowing there with craft projects and snacks and life taking place smack in the center of things.

And, you guys, I have FIVE completely EMPTY cabinets/drawers in my kitchen! <– UNHEARD OF in a 100+ year old house. Granted, I purged a ton in this process but there are so many cabinets that I don’t even have enough stuff to fill them all. I told Dave that the empty cabinets give me SO MUCH JOY that I never, ever want to fill them. I have a intense urge to create empty drawers and spaces everywhere. I’ve channeled my inner Marie Kondo and there’s no going back now.

I promise to share photos of the entire space soon, along with the plans and the thought process that went into the entire kitchen design (including all the challenges we faced along the way – par for the course with any remodel). For now, I’m stilllllllll waiting on my range (week of June 25th- I’m looking at you) so I’m holding off on sharing more until the kitchen is completely finished.

BUT, Dave just wrapped up building our brand new (STUNNING) kitchen table and I had to share because I’m so proud of him and how ridiculously talented he is!

This table is the center of the room that is the heart of our home so it had to be just right. A lot of thought and planning went into this design and I am so, so, so happy with how it turned out! Here is a look at the inspiration photos I compiled when we started designing the table…

Sources: Upper Right, Upper Left, Lower Right, Lower Left

As I compiled these images, a few things stood out: 1) I love light wood tones. 2) I want the space to feel airy and bright and casual…not at all stuffy or formal. 3) I love the look of raw, unfinished, slightly rustic wood, particularly against the clean contrast of our kitchen cabinets with inset doors and European inspired hardware.

Because the table is in the center of the room, we carefully planned out measurements to ensure the space didn’t feel confined or too tight for ample seating (we do have a lot of people who need to fit around this table every day…and growing ;)). I love the look of chairs around a table but also needed the space savings and extra seating a bench provides. I decided to mix and match with a bench on the side of the table facing the range (to save on space) and five chairs surrounding the table (Dave designed the legs with head chairs in consideration). A sweet friend picked these gorgeous vintage chairs up for me a couple months ago at Roundtop and I bought them via Facetime and hoped for the best … thankfully, they’re absolutely perfect!

Dave used silver maple to build the table and, in order to keep the raw look that I love, sealed it with a clear-finish epoxy. We actually used the exact same epoxy to seal our white oak floors – it’s awesome and creates a hard, durable finish without any sheen.

I can’t wait to share photos of the FINAL, final space once my long-awaited range arrives! I also promise to share more room tours soon. There’s still so much to do but we do have a few finished spaces that I can’t wait to share with you all.

Have an awesome week, friends!

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a farmhouse christmas. {2015}.

Dave was thrilled to lug all 50 billion totes of Christmas decor down from storage earlier this month {okay, yes, I tend to exaggerate…but it felt like 50 billion}. He was even more thrilled when I decided to dismiss 99.9% of the decorations he had just hefted down a flight of stairs.

This Christmas, I felt a need to simplify. Decor, calendar commitments, gifts… all of it. The Christmas season has increasingly become frenzied, lacking margin to simply slow down and breathe in the good gifts of the season. Recently, I embraced the phrase, “good enough is good enough.” And, do you know what I’ve learned? It’s true. Good enough really is good enough.

This means, my Christmas cards are yet to be mailed. And, if they don’t make it to my loved ones’ mailboxes before the 25th? It’s okay, they were sent with love and, that, my friends, is good enough.

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This means, my tree top is all kinds of droopy.

We had the best time cutting down our own tree this year. Dave helped the boys use the saw and we all cheered and yelled, “timber!” as the tree fell. Y’all, this tree. She certainly isn’t the sturdiest thing: ornaments consistently slide off the branches and she has already toppled over soaking the rug in lovely tree water.

Between the flimsy tree branches and all of the little hands in this house, she is most certainly not picture perfect. Even still, we love this goofy tree. She makes us all smile. And, that, my friends, is good enough.

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This means, when my littlest love is sick, I let the laundry pile up while I hold her and we sing Christmas carols together.

I know how quickly these adorablely, squishy, hilarious, frustrating toddler years will pass and I do not want to miss a moment. If she wants me to hold her and rock her, I will scoop her up and hold her tight.

So, when I take a photo of the no-frills Christmas centerpiece on our table and notice that I forgot to move the laundry basket out of the shot, it’s okay. I have a table to feed my loves and I have clean clothes for them to wear. And, I have photo documentation of both. That, my friends, is good enough.

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This means, when the wreath keeps falling from it’s perch above the kitchen sink and I decide to hang it on the back porch and it falls yet again, I can simply set it on the porch swing. Then, I will still see a pop of color as I’m doing dishes and looking out the window. That, my friends, is good enough.

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This means, when I tried to hang garland above the front door {but the darn command hook commercials are big, fat liars because they fall down EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. you hang anything weighing over 0.5 ounces}, I gave up and hung them below the crown molding.

And, then, I snapped a photo to document my accomplishment: I hung the garland that has been laying across my chair for two weeks. Hurray!

But, I tried to open the front door to let the dog out and realized this is not functional. I had to pull down the garland and accidentally ripped off two giant chunks of paint {command hooks! I’m talking to you!} and decided to just lay it across a table and pretend that was the plan all along. Because, well, who really cares about garland anyway? That, my friends, is good enough. 

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I forgot to take a picture of the second location but wasn’t it pretty above the door for five minutes?

You see, it’s all about perspective. About letting go of guilt and striving and perfection. Slowing down to soak in the joys of this season.

Deck the halls of your home: go all out or simply place a few small branches of pine in a glass jar. Do what is good enough for you.

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Keep some blank space on your calendar. Drink hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire {even if the weather is unseasonably warm and you have to open a window before you melt}. Turn off the lights, turn on Christmas music and sing along under the soft glow of the tree.

Read advent devotions to your kids, yet give yourself grace if you miss a day or two (or ten) and do a big catch up on the weekends.

My favorite advent devotional: The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp. We also read her family devotional during our Jesse Tree readings {this doesn’t happen every night and that’s okay, we do this as often as we can and let go of the guilt. Let’s face it, I can’t remember to do anything consistently every day…}.

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Have y’all seen these? They are pretend snowballs for indoor snowball fights. I feel like they are just giant cotton balls but my kids LOVE them.

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I’ve had these Christmas glasses since college. I worked at Pottery Barn and would buy the most random things with my discount since I lived in a 10X10 room and had no need for nice things. I’ve never unpacked them until our first Christmas here in the farmhouse because I finally had open shelving. Apparently, they are a classic that stood the test of time since it feels like college was decades ago.

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Wishing you all an intentional, joy-soaked Christmas season, my friends. <3

*Today, I’m linking up with Becky at This is Happiness for a Christmas Home Tour. 

 

the farmhouse {summer update}.

Because it’s sweltering hot, my boys are out of school and I am currently ignoring my “to-do” list, the boys and I decided to rearrange some furniture this morning. I was inspired reading The Nester’s post about creating a summer home and decided to start with one room.

Myquillyn’s confession hit home: “…when I knew I needed a change, my first thought was to run into Target or HomeGoods and buy some cute tchotchke to make it feel more summery–maybe a big ginger jar or a basket of shells or a fresh throw pillow? But I knew I needed a change with more impact than that. And that’s risky because I had to drive further, spend a little more take a bigger risk and do the work of hanging up new drapes.”

I could not agree more. Now, I didn’t hang new drapes but I did want a change without purchasing something new. I knew I simply needed to get creative and “shop my own home.” I often forget that bringing an item into a different space creates an entirely new feel to a room.

I decided to start with our family room. Other than the kitchen, this is the most hard-working room in our home and it needed a summer update. I didn’t take a “before” picture this morning. The photo below was taken not long after we moved in. It’s changed since {including new drapes} but this is a general idea of how the room looked “before” our little update:

And, the “after“…

The new sofa has been in here for several months and I had already moved the white chairs into this room {after Christmas – I decided to leave them here so we have additional seating}. I just changed out the lamps, added a footstool {again, extra seating} and swapped the side table. 

And, yes, I need new batteries for the clock. It has been 3 o’clock for a couple of weeks. Details. Details.

One of my absolute favorite things about spring and summer are fresh flowers. I am constantly cutting flowers and bringing them inside. I have them all over the house. They’re a free way to instantly brighten up any space.

I love this little end table from a friend’s shop. It was in our guest room but I wanted to move it downstairs so I can see it more often. It’s just too cute to hide away.

I liked the idea of creating a couple of distinct spaces within the room. Although it’s a fairly small room, we are able to cram a lot of people in here fairly comfortably. That’s important to us. We love having friends and family over and we want a space that is inviting and welcoming. 

A freshened up entry by swapping out the basket and lightening up the pillow and throw.

Have I ever confessed my love for glass jars of all shapes and sizes? Well, there. I said it. In addition to the flowers all over the house, there are glass jars everywhere. I love these apothecary jars that my little guys dug up on our land. There used to be an old home on the other side of our property and the boys are always digging up “treasures” over there. These jars were some of their favorite finds.

Just for fun, I’ll share this photo of more of their “treasures” in the guest bath. I’m telling you, it’s jars, jars everywhere you look.

Another summer update tradition around here: our summer bucket list. I have a feeling that summer is going to fly by this year and I want to soak up every single moment!

Thanks for stopping by for a little tour. I hope you have an awesome week, friends!

a farmhouse christmas.

I thought it would be fun to do a little Christmas tour of the farmhouse. It’s been cloudy and overcast for the past several days around here so I wanted to wait for better lighting to take these photos, but I gave up waiting for the weather to cooperate and decided to just take them. Ignore the awful lighting. 🙂

{It’s not Christmas decor, but I love my new Lindsay Letters‘ sign hanging in our kitchen}!

I adore receiving Christmas cards in the mail! I keep them all year and we choose one every so often to pray over that family because I can’t stand to throw them in the trash. They’re all so sweet!

I found this gorgeous Nativity a few years ago at a local boutique and it is my favorite piece of Christmas decor. 

We use our wood-burning stove all day, every day in the winter. {I would prefer for that basket to be all stacked with cut firewood because it looks super cozy but this is real life and we use the newspapers as kindling}.

{How cute is Chiquita curled up in front of the fire? This is her permanent spot in the winter. We have to carry her outside to use the bathroom because she refuses to budge most days}.

Our tree this year is all crazy lopsided and the branches keep drooping which causes the ornaments to fall off every few days. Oh well. It’s still super pretty lit up at night and smells amazing. I just look past the droopiness :).

The photo above was taken right before our new sofa was delivered this morning. The one below is Nathan confirming that it is a comfy one!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I have been on a hunt for the perfect sofa for this space for months. Our other one is cute but REALLY uncomfortable so we decided to replace it {and move the old one up to the new apartment above the garage}. Dave insisted on a leather sofa because the kids would ruin it otherwise. I couldn’t find one that I liked because leather is tough. They’re either too fluffy or too manly. I just couldn’t commit. I finally found this one a couple months ago when I was out looking with the girls while the boys were at school. There were multiple meltdowns occurring so I quickly ordered it and headed out to the safety of our car before the full-blown meltdowns kicked in. And, in the midst of the chaos, I forgot to make sure it was actually comfortable. Dave was thrilled with me. Lucky for all, it is comfy and it fits the space perfectly! Whew.

Look at that cute baby! 🙂

We’re a little behind on our Jesse Tree devotionals this year, we need to play catch up this weekend. 🙂

Hope you enjoyed the little tour. Merry Christmas, friends!