Have a seat at my table

Let's talk dining room tables. I've been scrolling through Pinterest until my thumb aches, looking at beautifully decorated dining rooms. I've had a hard time finding inspiration because the majority of pins are geared towards formal dining rooms OR people with much more space than me. But if I search 'small space dining room', I'm flooded with eating spaces for tiny homes (like under 1000 sq. ft. tiny homes).  Here is the closet pin I found to match what I see in my mind:

So, I'm trying to piece together my own inspiration.

Our dining area is actually in our kitchen. I guess you'd say we have an eat-in kitchen. For as long as we've lived in this house we have had the same pedestal table with matching chairs. I'm rather in love with the table other than the hunter green base. It has a wood stained top and a drop leaf that folds into the table. I'd love to keep it and maybe re-paint the base to something lighter...white or the whatever blue we pick for the lower cabinets.

Now the chairs on the other hand. I can take them or leave them. They have the same wood stained as the table on the seats and the back and legs are the hunter green. So I could technically repaint the hunter green parts on them as well and just be done with it (which I still might do). OR, I could buy some new chairs. These are a few that have caught my eye:

I could go super modern on the chairs. Mix the traditional pedestal table with something much funkier. I really love the look of these chairs but I'm undecided about the practicality of them. We use our dining room table for much more than eating. It's like our hobby table as well (as you can see from the photo above), and I'm trying to imagine sitting for hours in one of these chairs (even though the reviews mention how comfortable they are).

I could keep it more traditional, but updated with an X-back dining chair. I like the different color options on this chair. I like the rattan seat as well.

I haven't quite decided which way I want to go. I guess I should probably talk it over with the husband (since he hasn't seen any of these pictures until now) and get his input.

I've also been looking at lighting. We have three different lightening set ups in our kitchen. We have the "chandelier" that goes over the dining room table, the main light that goes over the galley kitchen, and the task lightening over the sink. We have beautiful Tiffany-inspired light fixtures right now. As lovely as they are, they tint all the color coming out of them in a yellow hue. Against the yellow of the walls my kitchen has never been what you would call 'bright'.

So, I'm ready to lighten things up.

Right now we have a single flush-mount fixture in the kitchen. I want to update it with an "island" lightening. This will be all in the scale. I want something with multiple lights, but my kitchen can't handle a huge light fixture.

I like both of these fixtures. In one of the reviews on the top fixture, the customer actually removed the rounded bottom of the cage, so it was more like an open basket. That is always an option. Each of these will really rely on how close we can get them to the ceiling (there are no cathedral height ceilings here).

I like both of these for over the sink. They are pretty similar, so I think it's going to be easier to decide on the task lightening.

And then, the dining room "chandelier".  I looked at a lot of light fixtures. The range of chandelier styles kind of boggles my mind. It was easy to get drawn into the larger, more elaborate chandeliers. But I had to keep reminding myself of the space I was shopping for and the style I was trying to achieve. And I think I found the perfect thing.

It's simple. But stylish. It's not too large and has clean lines. I like that it won't interrupt the view of the room, but it's still eye-catching.
So what do y'all think of mix-and-matching chairs and tables? Do you like all of your chairs to match in style in color?

His and Hers Weekend Projects

I'm trying really hard to ignore the chaos that is the presidential race. Maybe if I ignore it, it will just go away..hhmm? Instead, I've been focusing on controlling the chaos of my own home and in my own head.

About two years ago, we remodeled the office/man cave. There were just two more things that needed to be done to finally wrap this room up. The old, old, very old rug and the floor. And the floor. This room was originally part of the kitchen. At some point, someone decided to put up a wall and make it into a very tiny room. But the floor was the still the same old linoleum that was in the kitchen. And that, my friends, is what we've been living with for all these years. Until now...

For Christmas, Jeremy brought home a new rug.

It looks pretty good. But, it made the fact that we still had ugly linoleum floors glaringly obvious. So, we finally decided to handle THAT problem.

And now the man cave is officially, officially complete.

The floating laminate floor went down pretty easy. It took Jeremy a weekend to do it by himself. While he was busy doing all of that, I was busy trying to stay out of the way. I kept myself busy with sewing a whole bunch of these burp clothes.

I know five ladies who are pregnant or who have very recently had babies. I've sent some of these to all of them. As someone who is new to sewing, I loved this project. It doesn't get any more straight forward, so it was really great practice and helped me get comfortable with my machine. Plus, if something happen to go a little off I didn't worry about it too much. These are for babies who will quickly grow out of needing them.

We have already moved on to other projects... both sewing and home remodeling. I'll be back to share all of that with you.

Love Cottage or Money Pit

Things are just getting back to normal from the re-tiling job that was not planned. Or, well, it was sort of planned...but not by choice. It was the re-tiling job we were forced to plan.

Earlier, in October, we attempted to replace the faucet in our shower. What should have taken 10 minutes and $10....took the entire day and ended with a hole in the wall. You see, the idiots that owned this house before us had done their own "updates" and one) they concreted the plumbing into place, and two) they didn't put any concrete board back up, but instead tiled over the concrete stuck in there for the plumbing.

Does it make any sense? No? It didn't to us either.All I know is that tiles started falling off the wall and next thing I know the husband and I could hold hands through the wall. There was just nothing behind the tiles. I'm not sure how they stayed on the wall for as long as they have.

Anyway, at the time, we had anticipated for a 10 minute/$10 job. We were not prepared to retile anything. But we couldn't leave a whole in our wall..so what to do? This is the best we could come up with on such short notice.

Yeah, I know. Lovely, right? It was....butt ass ugly. And not exactly waterproof. BUT, it worked in that moment and held until the beginning of this month. Although starting the bathroom remodel was not on the to-do list for this year, our hand was forced. So, with crow bar in hand...and a little trepidation, the husband started the retiling of our tub surround.

 

 

 We planned for it to be a three day job. But....as usual...the plumbing delayed us by an entire day. So, after a lot of waiting for stuff to dry just to put more stuff on that had to dry, and a handful of showers at my mom's house (thanks, mom!)...our shower was finally put back together.

 We have tentatively planned to finish the bathroom remodel sometime next year...unless this Money Pit throws another wrench in our plans.

Is anyone still here?

Hi.

I'm Jinny. You may remember me from back in the day when I actually posted regularly to this blog. Work totally and utterly devoured my life for about four months. Most everything outside of work came to a screeching halt. But that doesn't mean that nothing has been going on.

So, let me get you all caught up.

The hallway project we started in March has finally come to a (almost) finish. It's down to painting doors, so I'm calling it finished.

We've started on the bedroom but it's going at a snails pace. Which is fine, we aren't on any time schedule here.

We spruced up our outdoor space. The café table and chairs was actually a surprise birthday present from Jeremy. I went out of town for a weekend and when I got home this was waiting for me. I cried, I was so surprised.

I've been out of town a few times. I went to a wedding in Austin. So, Kenedi, the bride, met my sister when they were both in college. This is how I met Kenedi. Eventually Kenedi ended up in San Marcos and started going to the same church that my cousin and her husband work at. So now Kenedi is practically part of the family so when she got hitched this summer we all had to be there.

I went to Canyon, TX to see Texas, the musical, at Palo Duro Canyon. It was a charter bus trip and my Grandma invited me to go (who says no to their Grandma? Not this girl). It was a fun trip and I had a good time spending the weekend with the ladies of my family. I'm very thankful that my aunt Gail didn't laugh at me while I had a death grip on her hand when the charter bus drove us down into the canyon. It was pretty hair raising.

Aunt Bev, Grandma, Great Aunt Lynette

 My Mom and I went to Dallas to help my sister get her new apartment situated. She's lived in Dallas for many years now but this is the first time she has ever had an apartment by herself. After living with our cousin for years we have jokingly compared it to a divorce. I wasn't sure what she got to keep or what she needed to replace. So we went shopping and did manly things, like put together furniture.

We adopted a new family member! Ferguson, the fish. He's pretty low maintenance, doesn't make a peep, and doesn't need a lot of attention...no nail clippings or insulin shots, no grooming or heart guard meds, no walks or toys required. And he is pretty to look at.

We had to take Harley to get her teeth cleaned. I wouldn't even mention this but her recovery from the anesthesia and pain meds was unlike anything we've had to deal with before. If any of y'all have had to have a pet put under to have any type of work done, I'm sure you are familiar with the little speech the office people give you on the way out. "Keep them quiet", "They might not feel like eating", "They will probably be drowsy", etc. In the past, all of our pets have bounced back from being put under with ease, not even a hitch. But poor Harley girl, she's old and doesn't bounce like that. She couldn't walk, but she sure did try, and when she fell over she would just lay very still like 'I'm just going to stay right here'. She was the funniest little drunk kitty ever. But while it was funny, it was sad at the same time because we could tell her mouth was bothering her. They extracted 5 teeth and noted that there were others already missing. So now we call her Toothless.

So, you see, I haven't been a complete couch potato this summer (although there was plenty of couch wallowing). Overtime at work is easing off, for now, and I really hope to have more time to come back to this space. I've missed it.

 





Rambling Woman

Hey.

I'm still on overtime. I've officially worked 115 hours of overtime since the first of May...and there is no end in sight. People keep reminding me of the paychecks. And those are nice, but I don't think they quite understand the utter exhaustion from not only being at work so much but also feeling like you aren't getting anywhere. Honestly, I'm doing some of the most jacked up work I've ever had to do in the whole 16 years I've worked for this company. It just feels like spinning wheels. I'd be less frustrated if I felt like I got things done during all those work hours.

I went to the gym for the first time in...well..I can't really remember the last time I went to the gym. I did a 45 minute Body Combat class. It felt good to be up, moving around. Seeing my under arms jiggle as I punched was sobering. I'm back at a place I swore I'd never be again..a place of my weight creeping up, a place of me mindlessly stuffing my face, a place of being uncomfortable in all my clothes. I don't want to be HERE. And I definitely don't want it to get worse. So, I have to do something.

Sorry if I'm rambling.

My sister moved into her first apartment all by herself. She's been moved away from home for years now, but up until now she's always had a roommate. She lived with our cousin for four years. Them moving on separate from each other is kinda like a divorce, I'm not sure what she got to keep. lol. So we've been window shopping together via text message and pinterest boards. I hope to get up there soon to help her get things on the wall and shop for the odds and ends. It's nice to know I'm needed for something.

But before I go up there she will be coming here (along with our cousin) for a Doctor Who viewing party. I can tell you with a straight face that I never, ever thought I'd be into Doctor Who. But on New Year's Eve Jeremy and I started watching Season Five and we just kept going. Now we have Dalek and Tardis pillows and we are eagerly awaiting the Twelfth Doctor. Do you watch Doctor Who? Will you be watching on Aug. 23?

What is this wet stuff falling from the sky?

So, it's been raining.

Doesn't really seem like a big deal to most of y'all, I'm sure. But around here that is all anyone has been able to talk about for months. Water. And how we are running out of it. We haven't had a solid rain in months and months. Burn bans have been in place along with very strict watering restrictions.

But for the last two days it has been raining. Non-stop.

The end of our street on Friday evening.

Catching the rain, also Friday evening.

Our backyard today.

I can't knock the rain, since we need it so badly, but it has kept us home bound for the weekend. There isn't anything, short of a hospital visit, that would warrant driving around in flooded streets. So, we've been keeping ourselves busy inside.

That 'S' has been up there for years and years.

Finally getting around to putting up more letters.

Love it!

As always, I'd like to say that even though I don't usually agree with the politics of war and I could never enlist, I am forever thankful for those that can and do and have served our country. Happy Memorial Day.

Where am I? What day is it?

So...hey.


I think this is the longest I have ever gone without blogging something. To say that the last two months have been crazy hectic is a very sorry understatement. I honestly can't remember another time where our daily routine was so jacked up for such a long time. And it's STILL not back to normal.

First things first...

Precious has gone to another foster home. I am a foster failure. But not the good kind you hear about where they fall so in love with their foster that they adopt them. No, I'm the other kind. Precious was really coming out of her shell, but only as long as she was within the four walls of this house and with Jeremy and me. Take her outside the house, and she totally freaked out or shut down. Bring someone else into the house, total meltdown. And, she was feeling so very comfortable in the house that she started chasing our cats. Precious is a great dog, she was very attached to us and loved being with us. And by with us I mean glued to our side and in our face all of the time. We brought her as far as we could in her journey and I knew that she needed someone else to help her along for the next part. Someone who could work with her to socialize her better. Someone with no kitty cats. So, off she went on a new adventure. I can only hope that she is doing ok.

Second....

Jeremy had surgery. It was day surgery, but still surgery. We spent the first half of the day at the hospital. Thank goodness my Mother-in-law came to sit with me. It made the waiting go by so much faster. That was two weeks ago. Jeremy is doing great. All of his stiches were internal and dissolvable, only two butterfly bandages on the outside (which he was already able to remove). Once his incision heals completely, he and I will have matching belly button scars. Twinsies!

Third...

We are still working on the hallway. Jeremy has pretty much completed his part and so it was time for me to do my part. The words...the words on the wall.

We have Sparrows that come and try to make a nest under our patio every single year. The west Texas wind always blows it down, every single year. Not that it keeps them from trying. So we decided to help the birds out and put up two birdhouses under our patio. The sparrows are already building a nest in one.

And, just to wrap it up,...

We finally made it to Enchanted Rock for our 14th Anniversary this month. We tried going two years ago for our anniversary, but we made the fatal mistake of going on Saturday. The line to get into the park was down the road, so we bailed out. This time we played it safe and went on a Tuesday, our actual anniversary, and getting in was a breeze. No line! The weather was perfect, overcast but not cold. By the time we were leaving the park the clouds were gone and it warmed up, so we picked the perfect time to go. I was a little nervous climbing up that huge rock, it was pretty steep in some spots. But there were other people, some younger and some older than me, out there making the climb. So I kept telling myself if they could do it..I could do it too. Jeremy helped encourage me to keep going. And I'm glad I did. The view from the top was pretty amazing. I hope we get to go back some time to explore the park more.

I am hoping..and praying..that things get back to some type of normal very soon.