{Not} Living Vicariously

Words of Wisdom - Walt Disney

It is very hard for me to pick just one Walt Disney quote as the man had a knack for speaking to my heart. Some of my favorites include:

I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse.
It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
Laughter is America's most important export.
If you can dream it, you can do it.

However, I'm going to focus on: The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. 

How true is this? And how often do we forget? I talk about doing a lot of things . . . and I absolutely LOVE creating "to-do" lists . . . but as far as actually doing something? Well it is much easier to talk about doing something than actually getting around to doing it. Recently I discovered the joy of a project going live at work. This was something I ended up managing because there was no one else to manage it. I had fun. Not only had I talked about what I wanted this project accomplish, I got to make it happen. And that feeling is (I hope) a bit addictive to me, enough so that I make more things happen both professionally and personally. Because at work, I have some new goals in sight and at home, I have some yard we want to landscape!

So let me tell you, Disney had a lot of good things to say and one of them definitely is: The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

Tuesday Tours - Dining "area"

Okay y'all . . . this barely counts as a room. I thought about including it last week, but thought maybe I could get some of the stuff up on the walls that is planned. That would be a no. Didn't happen. So this would be "not a before" and "not an after" post. Expect an update after some people turn in their homework . . . that will make sense later, I promise.

Since it is such a small area, it only needs one photo.

 
Y'all have already seen my plate storage and my serving storage under the headings of "creative storage" in previous posts. So there is not much more to talk about other than the dining table and chairs. They are pretty nifty pieces of furniture. The chairs actually are folding chairs that no one realizes until I prove it. And the table comes with two leaves which makes it much larger, however it also folds up to half the size it is now which was great when I was single and wanted to have a smaller footprint. While we do have our eyes out for a new (to us) dining set, I have a feeling this one will stick around as it will come in useful down the road either in my dreamed of screened in porch or just to set up more table space at gathering times.

I will brag that the weather is actually nice enough right now we have those windows open as well. I'm surprised the cat isn't sitting in one of the sills . . .

Note: while technically this does not conclude the tour, we have one more room in the house to show, I'm not sure I'm prepared to tackle that room next week . . . it is the office/craft/catchall room and not fit for internet eyes yet!

Date Night at Rumours East

We don't go out to eat very often, with two cooks in the family it is more fun to eat at home. However, once a year in October we make a point of going out to a fancy restaurant where I get to dress up. I even blow dry my hair and put on makeup which is a *huge* deal if you talk to my co-workers . . . this year we headed to Rumours East and you can check out the menu we enjoyed here.

 

I should have had a close-up to prove to y'all that I still know how to apply my eyeliner. Oh well, trust me, it was there. As well as eyeshadow, mascara, blush, and all the lipstick layers. As for the blow dryer, it is going back into hibernation for a while!

Enough about me, what about the guy I'm with? He even wore a tie. (And he bought me flowers, if we weren't already married, I'd have to marry him.)

Things I Love - Murfreesboro Greenway

I used to live up in Davidson County where they have a greenway system, however not much of it was convenient to where I lived other than the Mill Creek greenway which had a one mile loop and a one mile spur. Lindy and I spent quite a few afternoons on it and enjoyed getting to know some of the other regulars as well as walking with our friend W. After W got married and moved away . . . our walks there weren't quite as entertaining. However after I got married and we moved to Murfreesboro I discovered a much better Greenway system. With ten miles worth of trails (and critters) to enjoy, Lindy is happier than ever when we take her out. Some is along the river, other parts are are around lakes, and there are even wilderness trails to enjoy. My one regret about our new house is that it is no longer 5 minutes from the greenway and it takes us closer to 30 minutes to hit any of the trailheads. However it is still worth the drive and for any locals who have not yet enjoyed our Greenways down here, I highly recommend them. You can also become a friend if you so choose. I think it is a wonderful way to help out our local community! This definitely goes on the list of things I love!

Tuesday Tours 6 - Kitchen

 
Today is the kitchen. If you remember how small our old kitchen was, this one looks pretty big. There are definitely a lot more cabinets. And yet, somehow, I still don't have room for all our kitchen toys and gadgets. Oh well. As you might be able to tell from this picture,

 
the wall to the left continues straight into the living room. The living room used to be orange (with one red accent wall) and this room was a dark grey. They actually painted a line down the wall where opposite the stove wall and painted to the left one color and to the right the other. It was, um, interesting to say the least. The below picture shows it the best - and shows off the orange that I did not include in last week's tour.

Need I say more about the color? Anyway, we continued the Behr brand Pecan Sandie but used a semi-gloss in the kitchen. Originally I wanted a yellow kitchen (don't ask me why Mom, I don't know . . .) but with the countertops and floor I couldn't find a yellow I liked. I'm actually really happy with my Pecan Sandie and may keep it even if we do ever put down new floors and counters. 

 
The butcher block you see in the middle of the room came with my husband. His father and sister bought it sometime/somewhere many years ago. It has been well used and obviously was even flipped at one point as there is a similar divot on the underneath. Aaron's brother-in-law has even shaved some off the "now" top to even it out, yet you can still see where the heavy use. Although age is undetermined, we believe it is well over 100 years old.

Next week, our dining "area" because we don't have a dining room.

Tuesday Tours 5 - Living Room

I took a week off, hoping to have some better pictures to show of my living room. However I'm not sure when we'll ever get more things on the wall so I am just going to offer the tour of this room now and hope to get those other pieces hung soon.

 
Yes our couch is purple. I love the look and feel of the fabric, unfortunately it is a purple corduroy type fabric that holds on to all the hair from our fur babies. One of these days I'm going to give up the battle and either cover it or get a new couch. Yes covering it will be cheaper and more practical . . . except getting a new couch might allow for more seating in our living room. As you can tell, it is the only furniture we have to sit on which makes it hard to entertain large groups. (Luckily most of our groups hang out in the kitchen - not that we have any seating in there either. My goal is to create more seating somehow in this house!)

 The walls are painted Behr brand Pecan Sandie. Another tasty sounding paint color if you ask me. I love the neutral background it offers for the couch and holiday decor I expect to have up throughout the year. In my first house, the living room was painted the Scotland Road green I love so much and featured in my guest bedroom. While I do love that color, and I felt comfortable with the reds of Christmas, the oranges of Halloween and every other holiday in between . . . I think Pecan Sandie will offer even more flexibility.

 
This view shows off our piece I use to store all of our Mikasa Cheers glassware. I'm not sure exactly what this piece is. It has the glass front shelves, it also has three drawers, and it even has a pull down desk top. We really like it, even though we have filled it up completely already and have more items to store. Not a true china cabinet, even though it is what we use it for.

 
Last I'm showing off the part of the room between the couch and the front windows. This living room is very long and narrow which means we've been a bit creative with the furniture arrangement. We put the couch in the middle of the room for optimum distance from the television and then had this extra room. The buffet against the wall has bowls on it in this picture. Apparently I'm developing a collection of bowls made from natural elements: wood, grass, and bamboo plus one of twisted wire that is pretty unusual. We also have an antique table the cat has claimed as hers. The basket gets just the right amount of sun. And my cedar chest is under the front windows where the dog loves to watch out the window. The hummingbird feeder just off the porch might be a reason both fur babies enjoy this area of the house. Who needs animal planet when we have nature live?

Pumpkin Patch 2010: Gentry Farms

Once again this year, Aaron and I went to a pumpkin patch. This year it was Gentry Farms.

 

They are a fun place to visit in Franklin, TN and with a young infant (and her parents) it was a good place to choose as we were able to participate in all the fun they had in about 90 minutes. We did miss out on the hayride, but since it was 89 degrees out . . . we were okay with that. My one disappointment was the lack of variety at the concession stand. Last year we went to Honeysuckle Hill Farm and the year before that we went to Walden Farm, both of which had a huge variety of seasonal foods to offer: fried pies, chili dogs, etc. We had eaten a light lunch in anticipation of splurging on the foods and ended up needing an early dinner to compensate. However, that one comment aside . . . this was fun!

 
And it ended very peacefully with a pleasant view out over the lake. I do still want my fried pie though . . . 

Halloween Vignette 2010 - Take 2

Update on my Batty Branch . . . carved pumpkins rot very fast! I knew it would not last long, and that I would need to move it outside, however I waited a day or so too long. Aaron noticed it leaning a bit last night and when he touched it, the pumpkin melted and oozed into a huge mess. Unfortunately, that mess ended up all over our buffet, inside the drawers, and onto the floor. We spent more time than I will like to admit on cleaning it up. Furniture had to be moved in order to clean all the mess. The branch itself is now outside on the porch. I don't expect it to last as long as I'd like due to the fact that the bats are made out of paper, but they are cute flapping around in the breeze. And in the meantime, this is what my buffet now looks like.

 
I still have my candy jars, I have a halloween pillow cover that I quilted several years back (my first foray into quilting), and I have two fun Halloween books. I like the look. Not as creative as my branch, but it works for now. I knew I shouldn't have let Aaron carve the pumpkin!

Words of Wisdom - Abraham Lincoln

“Leave nothing for tomorrow that can be done today.” -- Abraham Lincoln

Once again reading a children's book, hey it's my job!, I came across this quote from Lincoln. It spoke to me, reminding me once again, how often I do leave something until tomorrow. Now if it is saving the last piece of dark chocolate to eat tomorrow instead of today - that could be a good thing. But if I'm honest, it usually isn't. Why is this?

And it isn't even as if I'm always leaving the "icky" . . . the "boring" . . . the "chores" of life until tomorrow. Even though that isn't good, at least it is understandable. However I often also postpone the good in life thinking "I'll do that tomorrow" and "tomorrow" never comes. So I end up robbing myself of some of the joy I deserve.

Not only is this not fair to me, it is not fair to those around me who don't get to participate in that joy or are treated unfairly by me due to my own disappointments. So even though I first read this quote and thought about all the chores I haven't done, I'm turning this one around and trying to decide what fun thing have I been putting off until "tomorrow" that could be done today!

What about you? What have you been putting off until tomorrow that, if you did it today, would give you and those around you some joy?

Halloween Vignette 2010

Remember my minimalistic approach to Halloween decorating last year? Well, this year I got to be a bit more creative. My inspiration came from Good Housekeeping.

 
While out walking the dog we found a tree branch on the ground that was perfect!

 
We spray painted it black and bought a huge pumpkin at the Farmer's Market (yes Aaron roasted the seeds!)

 
Next I took some basic bat shapes - I need to confess. I'm not good at drawing freehand so I take my shapes where I can find them. Some favorite places for this type of shape are simple coloring books and cookie cutters.

 
Then I used these shapes to cut my bats out of various Halloween scrapbook papers, always an easy way to get holiday color into a display. I used black thread to hang them from my branch and surrounded the pumpkin with some small candy dishes spruced up for the season with leftover ribbon from last year's display.

 

I'm very happy with how my decor turned out! I'm linking to these parties:

and the Fall Linky Par-tay at Tatortots and Jello.