Because there are still a few little things that have yet to be completed, 
I kept putting off posting the "Big Kitchen Reveal". 

Most are little things, like kick plates, trim around the window, and the moulding at the top of the cabinets, while the flooring patch, and the backsplash are bigger jobs. Those things are to be continued... 

I could hold off posting until every little job is complete, but I can't wait any longer. So here it is!

Reality is, I have a new, wonderful, functioning kitchen that I love!

I don't think I could even tell you what my favourite part is about the new kitchen. It is so much lighter and open. Removing the closet opened the kitchen up to the living room so much. And to think, there once was a door separating the kitchen from the rest of the house!  I'm glad those days are behind us. I feel like we have started living again. I missed having people over for dinner parties and other types of parties. 

But as it is with life, regardless of being ready or not, we are living in and loving our kitchen. 

Halloween. The time of year that creeps me out more than anything. Horror movies horrify me, leaving me sleepless and scared for weeks to come. And of course, that's all that's on TV the week of Halloween, and I can't even handle the previews. I prefer to embrace the cute and cuddly aspects of Halloween and dressing up.

Since I am not really a fan of the smell and slime of pumpkin, Adam totally jumped on this one. It's actually the first pumpkin I've ever gotten myself, and I only got it because I won it at the grocery store. Score!

I convinced Adam to go with a pretty pumpkin instead of a scary one. He did pretty awesome at pumpkin drilling, if I do say so myself.

I used some canola oil to coat them and sprinkled seasoning all over them. I used this Jamaican seasoning called Cool Runnings. I loved that movie. Adam grabbed the seasoning when we were shopping and had I seen it, I would have bought it just for the name. I'm thinking that great minds think alike.

I threw them into the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. 

In all honesty, I feel like I haven't done much around the house lately worth talking about. Being back to work means my energy is somewhat distracted when it comes to jobs around the house.

Just staying somewhat on top of the laundry is enough, and by that, I mean I get a load in at least once a week. We are currently out of tea towels. I should get on that.

Projects are still happening, but slower and on smaller scales. 
Touch up painting that never seems to end. Patching walls, that again, never seems to end. 
Cleaning, brainstorming, and planning.  

My office space has really come along. It's finally to the point that I can actually use it, and I've been able to create some new art work and creations, which I'm excited about. 
More of that to come... 

I finally got around to painting the top of the shelf in our front entrance. I had painted the bottom and front white but since I am short, I left it at that. Because, you know... out of sight, out of mind. Unfortunately for me, the majority of the world is a few inches taller than me, so it looked half painted and ridiculous to everyone else. It was on the "to do" list for a while, and finally got it done.

When we bought our house, it was a little rough around the edges. We managed to fix it up, with the exception of a few major upgrades we have yet to work on 
(aka afford...)

Major upgrades that could still be done?

Countertops
Windows
Siding

Someday... Someday.

It is times like this where I wish I could follow instructions, but of course, I like to learn the hard way, which has me ripping out stitches and try, try, trying again. I originally saw the Roman Blind tutorial by Martha Stewart, but I just wanted a fake one, so I didn't follow any instructions in the end.

 I'll be brief and let you know what worked, and leave out most of the exciting failure stories.

I went with a three inch pleat for the top. The seam at the top was a straighter than I expected it would be (score for me!) and I only had to sew it once. I also did a simple zig zag stitch on the raw end so the top wouldn't unravel.

I used a scrap piece of wood that conveniently fit inside the window frame after a little chop saw action. Then I got out the staple gun and started stapling away. I feel like I'm cheating on a project using a staple gun. It's just so easy! But it's what the job needed, so I just did what I had to do. Bam!

Next tool up was the hand saw. Oh boy. You'd think a 1/4" dowel would be easy to saw through. I did it, but it looked like a beaver on crack got at it. At least a little sandpaper fixed that hack job and it wasn't going to be seen anyways...

Adam screwed the shade up for me, and it was looking good. So was he! Not much sexier than a man with power tools listening to me telling him what to do.

A simple fold over the dowel, and there ya have it! A broken window hider. I was pretty excited. 

All in all, this cost about eight or nine dollars. $4 for the sheet, and $5 for the three dowels I bought, but I really only used two. That, of course, is not including the $21 per yard of material I had originally bought for the project. I'm still kicking myself over that, but now I just need to brainstorm what I could do with that one yard of material I've got. Basement bathroom window? Perhaps... 

I am constantly on the look out for great ideas and finds. For that reason, I just cannot throw out my Style at Home or House and Home magazines. (Or another other decor magazine, for that matter...)

When I lived in Switzerland, I think my mom may have thrown some of them out. I had carelessly told her just to get rid of them, not thinking about how much I wish I still had them. Even if they were from ten years ago! It's a huge part of what started my love for design, and I'd love to go back. Some design is so classic too, it will never go out of style.

You never know where you will find that inspiration, and sometimes it is in the oddest of places. For instance, the feature wall in our house was fully inspired by a peacock.

There you have it. 

Your "save" option at $2,362.80 or 
your "splurge" option at $9,052.00. 

That's a difference of $6,689.20! I definitely appreciate splurging on certain things, but with smart shopping, you could get very similar looks for a lot less. 

Happy Smart Shopping!

Jena xo

Then I remembered a trick we used to do when we went camping. A great camping tradition we enjoyed was some Bailey's or Caroline's in our coffee. Sometimes, we would just have it on the rocks. But with coffee ice cubes. Mmmm. So refreshing and more importantly, cold! So since it is going to be a hot week, I made a little extra coffee and made some coffee cubes. Bring on the iced coffees!

So, I turned this....