i taught language arts, or "english," (if you're old school) for many years.  and, i am not afraid to admit it, i still can't grasp the comma.  i mean, i love it, but it is one confusing little piece of punctuation.  it is probably the most mis-used grammatical issue out there.  in fact, if i was to grade myself so far on this post, i am sure i have already messed up a comma or two.  and now days, commas are even more difficult to figure out, because who has time to pause anyway?  we drink too much coffee to naturally pause while talking, so we can't hear where that comma goes.  we just want to plow through our speech like we want to plow through life.  but  i am here to tell you people, take time to PAUSE.  reflect.  savor.  rest. because it is good.  drink some decaf.  stay in bed.  read.  slow down.  it goes by too fast even in slow motion.  put, a, comma, any, where, you, want.  i, won't, count, off.  in, fact, i, will, give, you, bonus, points.


happy saturday

i have been busy...
we bought a beach house
while i was battling breast cancer,
then i started teaching middle school Bible.
and so now i'm back.

read, grade, teach.  repeat.  being a working girl is tough!  saturdays mornings are dedicated to shopping :) so i'm off... i'll get you my pretties....

candy corn.  sweet little costumes.  happy jack o'lanterns.  bite size chocolates.  trick or treating. hayrides.  the nip in the air.  bobbing for apples.  pumpkin patches.  excited children.

1. i didn't know it had been a month since i last posted. in my mind, i was keeping up with my blog. but then i saw that last date. i'm sorry. i want to be here. i want to do better.

a loyal reader (now friend) asked me if i had ever seen wallpaper on the ceiling.  interesting, your timing, my dear!  yes - and i love it!  one of the most beautifully decorated places i have EVER seen is bedford springs resort.  it re-opened last year after being lovingly restored.  the details are to die for!  i took so many pictures, my husband had to stop me.  i was driving him crazy!  

i can't do it.  i can't decide how to proceed with this blog, but the private thing just isn't going to happen.   i know some of you were thinking i didn't "invite" you.  nope, i didn't invite anyone!  i never got around to that...too much work!  i need an easier solution.  so until i can figure that out, i thought i would let you know our household has grown!  we have a new little handful.  his name is harrison.  kennedy is a big dog brother!  and elisabeth loves to train him.  we are all back to school here and my full time teaching job is going well.  i have always said i feel alive when i teach.  i'm alive!  yipppeee!  and by the looks of the picture above, i think teaching is in the genes, right, mom?

i am going to make my blog private after this post.  i think -  thanks to all of the e-mails,  i am going to have a lot of work to do!  but you guys are worth it.  i enjoy your comments so much.   kimber (from 3peanuts) if you are out there, will you please e-mail me?  i really want to keep in touch and i know you changed your information.  

some folks asked to see my new kitchen.  here is a rather fuzzy photo i just took with my phone. thought you could get the idea even with the fuzz.  :)

am i starting to ask for too much?

here is one photo from the ping-pong party. i have tried more than once to show you several, but blogger just will not let me. so i give up.

many of us have some ties to the beloved and belated preppy cafe, so i thought you would appreciate this.  on saturday, i am hosting some neighbors for my first annual preppy ping-pong party!  the invitation stated they must come in their "preppiest" attire and we are having a ping-pong tournament round robin style.  i have been trying to prep it up around here and thankfully target seems to be in the preppy entertainment mood, too!  i have found some fun accessories there this week.  i am hoping to get some great pictures of the event.  stay tuned :)

my sweet husband is out on a bike ride with the kids.
i love when he entertains them with exercise. so in this brief moment to myself, i thought i would tell you what i am doing on this beautiful saturday...

nice start, eh?

and i am wearing this:


which i thought i would show you because the last time i wore this very outfit someone said to me, "you don't dress anything like your house." i thought that was so funny.

and i am listening to this:

yes, indeed! part of our fixing up around here included adding surround sound with an ipod dock :) boy, do we enjoy it!

you want to know who i am listening to? my dear, mr. alan jackson. oh, i just adore him. and let me tell you there is nothing like a little alan blaring through a farmhouse. :)

have a happy saturday!

maybe you heard that a few weeks ago i got to meet my blog buddy, meg?  we had so much fun together.  don't we look like old friends?  i think so. 

1. is the chandelier and hardware on your sconces silver?
yes, it is all from restoration hardware.
2. are the wood floors the same? the floors are now provincial stain in matte finish. (they used to be more golden oak.)
3. what color paint did you use and brand? restoration hardware, silver sage.
4. did you have an actual picture to show someone for the room and mantel design or was it all in your mind? i drew the fireplace design. the builder discussed how it would be wise to mimic the mantel below on to the top design. i did not have a picture, but we chose the builder because they do this type of trim work around here and we like what they do.

and for sue..

we did not need new windows! they were in the right place for this new design.

and for all you sweet people...

thank you for the comments! i am so happy to be done with the big stuff. we are enjoying it so much. :)

here is what our house used to look like. i thought it would help explain what we have been doing the past several months. the picture above is taken from my kitchen sink. the room i am looking into is our family room. it had a two-story ceiling, but only over about 3/4ths of the room. the asymmetry always bugged us, as did the noise, the lack of coziness and the misuse of potential space. so we floored it over. we also added some trim work and reconfigured the kitchen a bit. i am still busy tweaking some things, especially in the kitchen, you know the small details are very important :) but i can show you the new family room even though it hasn't been properly adorned yet...

and maybe you noticed, but that light fixture is hanging from the ceiling, yes a ceiling! whoop whoop!! we love having a ceiling!

we are wrapping up our renovations here. i am told mr. port-a-john should be leaving our driveway this afternoon. we sure aren't going to miss him. bless his heart.

we are back home. i would say i am glad, but it was sure nice to be away from this mess for awhile. the floors look great, so we are now shopping for dog booties. how do you keep your floors scratch free? is it possible? i might just go to town on them myself for the distressed look. i like to be pro-active.

our sink is in. boy, what a stress ball that was. holly and i e-mailed a few times with our challenges. she has a similar sink and had some good advice. you see, that big lip is supposed to go over your counter top. but the builder convinced me this would be a much better placement. i think i agree with him, but he isn't finished yet, so i can't be positive. decisions, decisions.

happy saturday! :)

did i ever show you that i can now make more than pillow shams? i am telling you, the list of home-sewn goods is growing like crazy around here! haha. i will say there is nothing like the satisfaction of creating something from fabric. i just wish i could do it a little faster!

so, a big nope on "mission church pew." i did find a beautiful one at a local consignment store, but it was a wee too long, and a bit too wobbly. told ya.

thanks, nmb, for the info. i already received a few photos. but nothing like the deal hqm got - lucky duck! but, i will keep that contact on my list - great stuff!

someone asked about my painted cabinets. i had a lady paint them for us. i watched her work, so i can tell you this - she hand painted them with oil based paint. she removed the doors and laid them tilted up in my garage. they were dark wood originally and i know she did not sand them first, but i believe she did prime them. oh, why can't i remember exactly? i may have to ask her.

we are out of the house for a few days while our floors are being redone which was necessary due to the removal of some lower kitchen cabinetry (that had unfinished flooring underneath). there are definitely some perks to this crazy lifestyle:


the inability to cook and do laundry. it is a bit like a hometown vacation. no complaints here :)

they are sanding our entire downstairs today. which means it is empty. which means i sit here in an upstairs bedroom surrounded by the contents of my kitchen, my bedroom, my closet, my dining room, my family room, my husband's office...there are even some pantry items in here...hmmm, i think i will have some goldfish crackers. this isn't bad living. very convenient in many ways. but it is about to get very noisy. and dusty. so we are getting out of here. i couldn't think of anything to do that would take all day, so i decided to have a mission. assignment: find a church pew. i have always wanted a church pew. i have almost made the purchase several times, but then i think that one is too long or this one wobbles too much. i want the perfect church pew. see my mission got a little harder. think i can do it today? i will let you know.


photo from salvo.com

sans backsplash. but ahhhh. serenity now. i can already feel it.
:)

i hope everyone had a nice easter celebration.
we had a beautiful day here, perfect egg hunt weather :) i love egg hunts.
here are a few memorable moments:

finding a note for the easter bunny in (yes, in) the refrigerator...

seeing the delight as they dug into their baskets...

admiring as both learned to ride their two wheelers!
appreciating my husband for his patience to teach them :)

ashley wanted to see our progress around here. i didn't know what to say, so here are a few glimpses of our current situation.



and this truck...


just because i love it.

we are wearing our green here, but i have to be honest...we are more in the easter mode. easter has always been my favorite holiday and we aren't really going to be able to decorate for it this year with the mess around here. so i was happy to see that my son is decorating in any way he can - like this doodle on the shower door of the easter bunny. makes me want some peeps.

:)

i had the nicest lunch break. have you read it? it had been twelve years. and i loved it again.

i love clipboards. i think they make you look busy, and maybe, important. my class made these today. they decoupaged them, so here they are drying. it was a fun day, but something weird happened. in the biology class next door, the students were dissecting frogs. apparently, a boy ate a frog's heart. secretively. on a dare. with all the formaldehyde and other chemical garbage in that dead creature, when i heard this, i was very concerned. he went to the doctor and we hear he will be fine. but tell your children. sometimes we just assume they know things like, don't eat laboratory frogs, but you just never know.

more on this later...

oh, sorry, here i am! i forgot i needed to finish this.


you all gave me some great advice on the countertops. you really know your stuff! thank you! from what you shared, i decided there is no perfect surface, is there? i realized i was making a mistake by getting too committed to keeping the current backsplash. i mean, if you are going to go to all the trouble to rip out your granite, why on earth would you keep a backsplash you don't love? so we decided to rip that out too. and after we did that, we saw that we could really choose any counter top we wanted (since we no longer had to try to match the existing backsplash.)

now we are putting in a beadboard backsplash (just like we did in our last home) and so for the counters...
the carrara marble. duh, of course! because, really, what screams farmhouse like carrara and beadboard? and if nothing is perfect, then why not get the imperfect that you LOVE? so you all talked me into it. and i appreciate it so much. because i feel so happy about it. and you all are so nice.

:)

this is my sink. or maybe i should say, this will be my sink. i thought it might help you to see it as you consider the countertop options. i have gotten some great advice, please keep it coming. if there is something different you think i should consider, please let me know that too! we were supposed to decide this today and i just don't feel ready to do that. we are going to be behind in the project, but it has to be right, so these things cannot be rushed! and, oh, how i appreciate your help :)

we are trying to pick out our counter tops. i thought this would be easy, usually i know exactly what i like, but this is more difficult than i expected. i like little variation, which is why granite is not my thing. i'm looking for one smooth color, but i want it to look natural. i love things like limestone and slate, but i keep hearing how porous and breakable they are so they are not practical. we have stacks and stacks of samples here. we came across a fairly new product called caesar stone. i think i like it. i am also thinking of going really dark with it, which is surprising me. i love my light colors. anyway, does anyone out there know anything about caesar stone? do you have it? we are doing our island in wood/butcher block, so this is just for the perimeter. and since you all are always so helpful...which of the small squares above do you like the best? i kind of like the one in the bottom left corner.
et tu, brute?
:)

this is my kitchen with the big slab of cold rock that i have never loved (model was unavailable for permission).
this is my kitchen in its current state. no sink, but lots of promise :) we are trying out temporary islands to see what we find most livable. i have to say, i even like particle board better than granite. i know, i know. i'm odd.