There is a nifty challenge from over at Crazyland [great blog name - and also the name of my homeland] and I wanted to try it on. The idea is to find a sappy sweet pic of yourself from when you were a kiddo. [You can look at me and tell that I never 'did

[...CLICK for more article goodness!---->] Childhood Dreams

There is a nifty challenge from over at Crazyland [great blog name - and also the name of my homeland] and I wanted to try it on. The idea is to find a sappy sweet pic of yourself from when you were a kiddo. [You can look at me and tell that I never 'did no wrong!'] Frame it and put it somewhere noticeable. Go back to who you were then. [Yes, I'm ad-libbing here] What did you look forward to most each day? Remember the energy you had? Remember? HA! It’s such a faint memory…I’m sure you were like me and had dreams, but hopefully they were less crazy than mine. So what were your dreams? What did you hope to have accomplished by the time you were an adult?

Ah, I was such a dreamer as a child that even in the middle of the night, instead of sleeping, I’d spend hours just thinking up my next idea, story, game to play, etc. Heck, I still do that sometimes. I did have dreams that I’ve accomplished or have been blessed with. The biggest things that come to mind is that I get to be a wife and mother. Not only that, but for some reason God felt that I should have the most awesome husband and children that a woman could ask for. Perfect? Nope! Have we had a problem-free existence? Nope! But are they wonderful people that I’m proud of? YES! And there are other dreams – some that have come true and some that haven’t.

I just wanted to pose that thought for today. Even though I’m not an old lady, I have seen that it is easy to totally forget who I was as a child and what my dreams were. Sometimes it’s hard to go back there, isn’t it? It’s important to remember, though. The sappy sweet picture will help. Write down some of your childhood dreams and resolve to let one come true.

This concludes your psychology exercise for the day.

If we had had the cute door knocker that you see above, then this post would never exist. But it DOES, so here we go~!

I’m going to use a pretty big word:

HATE.

And thaaaaaaaat pretty much sums up my feelings on our doorbell here.

Back when we were renting for umpteen years previous to building our dream

[...CLICK for more article goodness!---->] H8tin’ on the Doorbell.

If we had had the cute door knocker that you see above, then this post would never exist. But it DOES, so here we go~!

I’m going to use a pretty big word:

HATE.

And thaaaaaaaat pretty much sums up my feelings on our doorbell here.

Back when we were renting for umpteen years previous to building our dream home, I used to sit and think about what our future house would be like one day. I had stupid, romantic thoughts about how lovely it would be to have a doorbell to grandly announce the arrival of house guests. See, back then we didn’t have a doorbell at all. And so when someone would come over, they would have to knock on the door to alert us. Well, that was just too plain. Knocking? How primitive! Plus, what if I didn’t hear them knocking because it wasn’t loud enough? I wanted a melodious ding – dong – ding – ding – dong!

So now, I take that ALL BACK. I do NOT want melody…I do NOT want the noise…and I do NOT want a stinkin’ doorbell! I just want some stinkin’ quiet! And guess what? If someone happens to come to the door and primitively knocks on it and I don’t hear them – ? Oh well! Maybe I’ll catch ‘em next time!

It all looked so blissful and perfect in my mind BEFORE, but reality turned out to be something different. I can’t tell you how many times since we’ve lived here that someone has unexpectedly arrived and rung the doorbell…only to wake up one of my babies after I’ve spent all too much of my time trying to get them down to sleep. Does that make for a frustrated momma? No. It makes for an IRATE momma! I have found that it makes no difference if I either was or wasn’t expecting company, and if they previously did or didn’t know that there were sleeping babies in the house. It doesn’t matter. The problem is that if you see a lit-up doorbell when you arrive at someone’s house, it’s just too tempting NOT to push it. And if they don’t come to the door right away, then it’s just too tempting NOT to push it again – repeatedly! Because of that, I am bound and determined to remove all temptation. So I’ve been researching my options.

Here are some useful alternatives to the obnoxious doorbell:

First off, and this is something that I would love to switch to as soon as we can, and that’s this cute, rustic cast iron bird knocker for the door that you see pictured above. You can click here to see more info on it.

Second,you could try to KEEP your visitors from pushing in the doorbell:

But isn’t that just WEIRD looking?!?

Or how about signage of the threatening variety?

You can actually purchase this from an Etsy shop right here.

But yeah, what a welcome!

My last option – and possibly the one I will need to go with, at least for now – is to totally unhook the blasted doorbell. That will provide immediate relief, I know. Of course, we DID have a friend offer to come bash the doorbell in for us…and after all I’ve been through with that little button – I am about tempted to do that myself!

Do you have a doorbell and does it bother you? Or do you use something else? Give me more ideas!

Ever since hubby and myself first sat down to design this home, I knew exactly what I wanted in the kitchen and dining areas.

I knew I hoped for an open kitchen…and I wanted to forgo the whole separate nook and formal dining rooms. Instead we put those two spaces together to make one nice sized

[...CLICK for more article goodness!---->] Dreaming of a Farmhouse Table

Ever since hubby and myself first sat down to design this home, I knew exactly what I wanted in the kitchen and dining areas.

I knew I hoped for an open kitchen…and I wanted to forgo the whole separate nook and formal dining rooms. Instead we put those two spaces together to make one nice sized dining area. And in that dining area, I wanted…

… a Nice – Rustic – Textured – Unique – Solid Wood Farmhouse Table!

Why did I just capitalize the first letter of every word of the previous sentence?

Well, I guess that was my emotions getting the best of me.

You see, I really do get ridiculously giddy when I think about a rough, chunky table mingling with softly upholstered friends..

It makes my liver quiver to think about slipcovered wing chairs flanking the ends of a big table. And truly it doesn’t matter if you can see the wood tones or not. I’d definitely take a distressed painted table. But there IS something to be said for being able to see that yummy wood grain goodness:

I get weak in the knees to see many chandeliers all lined up in a row over top a pretty table!

And it’s a wonderful sight to behold when an old treasure is repurposed into a beautiful prep area in the kitchen.

Ah! So relaxed…yet somewhat dressy all at once.

When a punch of color is added in, it really makes your heart sing, doesn’t it?

Now let’s move on to what I am actually working with in our own home:

Yes, we have not one, but two tables in here. As you can see, they are opposing colors…which is something that I can more than likely fix with some leftover paint in the house. And then we have all of these chairs. I certainly don’t prefer the fold-up metal chairs, though they are nice to pull out in a pinch when we have extra guests dining in. Those will someday be replaced with chairs that have more character.

I bet I could make this all come together better if – as we’ve already established – I paint the two tables to match, then sew up a table covering for it all so the top of it flows better, and then round up a big batch of antique side chairs (all mismatched, but then I could paint them the same color), and then slipcover the wings on the ends. I could get the side chairs for cheap at a local “junk yard” that I’ve perused…and the fabric for the table cover and slipcovers at a local sewing salvage shop. So I’d still need a LITTLE money, but probably not as much as you’d think!

Also, the Nester posted something about hanging up a door on the wall to give interest and help protect it from little dirty feet…and I thought about trying that at our counter.

Do you think it would work for cabinets? The door that I have in mind is an antique solid wood door! I just don’t want that heavy door tearing up our cabinets and falling off, ya know? That would be a little problem. Teeny. But if I could make it work, then it would give that area some much needed architectural interest!

And these chairs were some that I scored on CraigsList! They have some cat scratch damage on the corners and told me that they will be somewhat embarrassed until I could get them either slipcovered or reupholstered.

I have shopped around for a true farmhouse table, and they are so pricey! We are talking $3,000 for a 14 foot long table, folks. I don’t know how YOUR money tree is producing this year, but we are still waiting on ours to catch up! I was ecstatic to find a guy about 15 minutes down the road who builds furniture from barnwood…and from the pics he’s sent me, it looks like good quality stuff! He still wants around a thousand smackaroos for a table. Yes, that is a good price compared to everyone else – but we just don’t have it yet. When you’re fighting just to keep your home, the last thing that really concerns you is a $1,000 farmhouse table. I can never say it enough, though -  – it NEVER ever ever hurts to dream! So I dream big! It’s a lot of fun and it keeps me young ‘n energized.

What have YOU been dreamin’ up big for your kitchen and dining areas?

Photo credits: DecorPad, VermontFarmTables, DecorDepot, Brooke Giannetti, Eleventh of Earl Mar, Home & Garden, Napanee Design