I'm calling it

You know how in sports when games go so long, and everybody's just tired of playing but no one's won yet, but the ref just calls it so you can go home and get some sleep?  That's how I feel about our kitchen.

I'm callin it.  It's not done, but I got tired of looking at the mess on the kitchen table and I did something about it.

I also looked at the pictures of the living room from the last post and I did something about those too.  Behold! (You don't have to really behold; it just felt like I needed a 'behold' right there.  You can just look; that's fine too.)

I pulled the green chair from Sofia's nursery and put it out here for more seating.

The blue pillow is a bit big for the chair, but since I'm shopping

at the Use What You Have store, we're going with it.

It's hard to tell, but the trim on the buffet matches the mirror in the dining room.

How's that for a happy accident?

This was giving me anxiety attacks.  For real.

It looks SO much better now.  I feel like I can breathe again!

The sunflowers got a little haircut and they look so cute on the table.

We use the table for everything and having to move a centerpiece every time I want

to do something at the table annoys me, so these little guys are just right.

Also, I realized I didn't talk about our dining chairs.  You remember our dining room table from when we first moved into our old house?

It's hard to believe this was only three years ago.

In our old house, all that heavy wood was just fine and our table looked majestic.  In the new house, it was too much and I wanted to get something to lighten them up.  I'd seen these chairs at West Elm forever and just loved them, so I knew they'd be just the thing I needed to bring some softness to our dark chunky table.  I love them and they bring just enough sexy to our big ol' man table.

And the kitchen.  Lord a' mighty, the kitchen.  We still have to stain, but the damn thing is done.  It's done because I say it's done.

Thank goodness it doesn't look like this!

I wouldn't have had the energy to start from scratch.

Even though this ended up being a ton of work.

I'm glad we have pictures because I don't even remember it like this anymore.

Baby, look at me now.

I've cleaned up even more since this picture and it looks even better.

Now I actually use the desk area and it's become the bill-paying laptop spot and I love it.  I'm so happy with how things have turned out and the biggest project was the kitchen so it's all little stuff from here forward.  Just the way I like it.

So what do you think?  I know home stuff is really personal, and what I love, you may hate and I'm cool with that.  I'm just impressed with how much work this DIY stuff really is, and I didn't even do it!  All I did was stand off to the side and try not to get in the way.  I give huge props to people who get in there and do it all themselves, because I know Drew and I would have killed each other if it were up to us.  As it was, we got in a huge fight because I called him yelling because the grout for the backsplash looked pink as it was going in.  I was like, 'How in the hell could you have bought PINK grout?!  What were you thinking?!  Everything is ruined!  I'm burning the house down and we're starting over!'  

Then the grout dried and it was white.  I know nothing about home renovation.  I really should have just gone on vacation and come back when it was done.

But we all survived and I've done several little projects since then.  Little projects are more my speed - I know this now.  Perfect example:  Every time I open my drawer, I smile.

And on that note, let me show you a couple of my little projects!