How to decorate your kitchen... Let a Kitchen be a Kitchen!

So decorating kitchen and bathrooms seems to be my weak spots. I've done the traditional and the eclectic. I now combined my personal wishes for the flow of the room and heavily sprinkled it with design 101 from the experts. Genevieve says that when decorating a kitchen try to minimize elements that don't 'fit' a kitchen flow. Use foods and natural materials that you would already see in a kitchen. Basically Let a kitchen be a Kitchen!  So here were some things we had already had in our kitchen. We used a vintage cutting board in the shape of a pepper(Thrift store)  to display. For our soap, I use a olive oil dispenser (Target, a Caroline tip) And yes, that is a picture of a steak in the shape of USA(Urban Outfitters).

Last weekend R and I were watching HGTV's Dear Genevieve. She had remodeled a young couples kitchen from top to bottom. She chose a lot of options from Ikea's home kitchens which is budget friendly and you can add more drama with nicer knobs, a great sink, appliances, etc.  She put old wood floors from a previous home on the ceiling. HUGE drama and it worked great because the kitchen was a tall narrow room. Had a lot of light in cabinets as well as under cabinets along the back splash. The countertops were butcher block and a killer porcelain sink. I am a big fan of the handles on the drawers and I love all the natural light and open shelving. These are all my Fave's for a kitchen!

Because we are still renting I won't see anything close to these kitchens for a while but that gives us time to figure out exactly how we would remodel our kitchen to where its Leetastic. 

Is it better to recycle or buy new?

Question....

Do you buy recycled plastic products or do you bypass plastics all together and get a sustainable metal (such as stainless steel) wood or glass?

We do have plastics lingering in our home and not all are bpa and pvc free. Does this irk me, yes to no end. I look at our appliances, laundry baskets, and kids toys that are made of plastic. It is unavoidable to have it somewhere in your life BUT doing your research, shopping at thrift stores and finding vintage toys and home products ( watch out for lead painted items, anything before 1980's) it can be more manageable.

I was asked this weekend if I had always wanted 3 kids. I burst into a laugh, "No!" I answered, I have never been a person to believe our future is really in our hands.


https://greenfrogrecycledplasticoutdoorfurniture.wordpress.com/

Being a mom makes you question every decision you ever make and how to make those situations easier and less painful for your children, even down to how much chemical intake they must absorb. We try to have a minimal amount in our home because like everything you can't control what's in the world.

Spring brings new beginnings and potential debacles

It's almost March and I reviewed over what we were doing a year ago this time. The baby was only 3 months. I scrolled through iphoto to find a picture of them last year... It's amazing how fast they develop. I'm amazed how the human body works, did you know focusing muscles in the eye are estimated to move over 100,000 times each day?

We are looking forward to new beginnings as our family continues to prayerfully plan for a move( I'll get into that later) new opportunities, new perspective and continued growth in relationships. I have realized what caused my migraines a couple of springs ago, I have allergies to trees. I don't get a runny nose, irritated eyes, cough, I only get migraines but they started in 07 and have thus continued to re-envite itself to my life each spring. I had migraines as a kid but always thought it was an eye problem. I'm glad it only took me 24 1/2 years to figure this out... ahh isn't life funny that way.

I have a love/hate relationship with Georgia at the moment. I LOVE how beautiful it gets here, the flowers blooming, the trees becoming getting new treehair (leaves) as our son used to say. But I dislike how much of a tole it is to me and my families lives just trying to enjoy a spring day outside. I have sadly given my allergy issues to my youngest daughter. My dad said my nose would run like a faucet at certain times of the year and now Q's nose has also been replaced with a faucet.

I managed to have minimal side effects once I started elementary school and even after  high school.  My father in law has told me that your body changes every 7 years, it seems to be true for most people. We knew a guy who was deathly allergic to egg, and now he's not allergic at all. I feel there is the potential for beauty and growth in almost everything and springtime here and our bodies fall into both categories for me.

"To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree." Charles Darwin


http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/09/darwin.eye

patience makes perfect....right?

Patience is a virtue, practice makes perfect, patience patience patience. They all are essentially screaming to you to not scream but rather be patient with whom you're wanting to scream at. Well I'm trying... As confident as I am in my values, morals, life views all together I am still working on being confident in when sharing my opinion. I have a lot of friends asking me for advice and sharing situations with me that I genuinely am passionate about so when to hold my tongue and when to spill it?

I am hoping for a time where I can show my family the same grace I show complete strangers when they annoy me. I really don't like the phrase " It's okay we're family." Because by living in that mindset you are deciding that "your family" is less important to show your manners than strangers of friends. I feel like everyone deserves manners, second,third and forth chances, just mainly love. Sometimes people DO need to hear advice but just not at that moment or maybe not from me. Even if I have good advice to give.

Nothing has helped me more with this than being a mom. My kids will ask me about life, death, how they came out of my stomach, who they will be and do when they get older. Yes, he is only 6 and she is not even 3, I know it's frightening. I want to answer all their questions and ease their worries but I know even when I have a fantastic answer for them they are not capable of knowing what I tell them. For now anyway, I have to be patient. Which f you haven't noticed the repetitiveness of my weary writing on the subject is not my strong suit.

I am very confident and opinionated but I'm even more confident to be opinionated about quietly, lovingly, sharing a listening ear and a prayerful heart.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. -- Plato

Public schools, yes some say you are free.  But technically you're not. Our tax dollars go to support a system that is run with low paying, over extended teachers in unclean environments where the drive to see kids excel as individuals has died long ago with bringing apples for your teacher.

I say all this because I have had the best of both worlds. I started my schooling in montessori with was more amazing and memorable than I can explain. Montessori offers the concept of being a responsible human being without any religious guidelines of why. Just simply be a thoughtful and knowledgeable human because you should. It's only when I talk to someone else who has been apart of a montessori environment do they know my enthusiasm for it.

Afterwards I transitioned to private non denominational schools, ( again I am HUGE supporter of) They have small classrooms, more time for each students individual needs as well as custom learning plans. They also provide the concept of being a responsible human being without any religion to support it, again I lean towards agreeing that faith although important is a responsibility to the parents not the teachers and staff. They already have your child for 6+ hours, when is it enough?

I dabbled into the public school arena for a part of 1st grade and immediately lost interest in school. I actually remember getting away with erasing other classmates names off their papers and re-writing mine. Don't ask where I got the idea, I have just always been pretty creative. : ) Then played ping pong between private and public for about 6 years until I resided at  a nondenominational private school subtly by a river. It gave me the knowledge and confidence in the standards I have of my children's education. This is also where I met my husband, had some of my most impressionable teachers in my life and met one of my closet friends. So I could be a little bias but still!

Now Richard and I are planning and praying to move our family to a new place where the schools are very small and the lifestyle is about being who are you, whoever that may be. We desire this element of living to surround and inspire our whole family. I makes me wonder, do people get tired of blending, doing what you SHOULD do even when your heart isn't in it? We aren't meant to blend nor are we meant to seek approval by others, only when you are at peace with your life can you be at peace knowing what will happen next.

Making pillows from trees

So I recently got a new sewing machine which I can't be happier with.  Our new one is a Singer Stylist and I highly recommend it for beginner sewers as well as advanced sewers. The best part... a speed setting, so convenient!

I went to the local fabric store and bought some natural Bamboo fill to stuff for the kids pillows. I have had such a guilt about them sleeping on polyester pillows and breathing that in for 8+ hours of their day. I was able to get the fill on clearance (awesome) and used old organic bamboo sheets and organic cotton pillow case for the casing of the pillow insert. You will be able to tell which was the original pillow case because it looks ten times better but whatev right! It's for the inside anyway.

Bamboo is a heavier material and is bouncy believe it or not, it almost gives of a memory foam experience. It cost me less than $25 dollars and an average organic pillow can be over $100 and I made two. Here are some pictures of all the things that I *needed* to make them.

 old pillow case & old fitted sheet
 bamboo natural fill or organic cotton natural fill
 sewing machine
 Mason Jennings Birds Fly Away album

Love with no fear

 I didn't really want to start off by writing something to typical but here it goes...

I recently read a friends blog that I have read off and on. http://www.feetonsolidground.com/
I have wanted to start one for a while but never seemed to sit down and just start it you know? I am such a productive person in so many ways but in making decisions that I know are long term commitments I always seem to hesitate. Re-thinking my steps of what lead me to that particular point. So after being inspired from a friends bold entry of personal struggles which she has excepted as "a part of life" I played with this notion.

  If I make one and it sucks, like no one follows, not even my sister, than that would suck. But it would still be a great way for me to write and express my thoughts and maybe not overwhelm Richard with all the things I've been desperately wanting to say all day but the girls would not be able to discuss with me. I also believe that by choosing any growth in your life is always better than stagnantly laying by the waste side. 

So here I am, writing to no one but myself and feeling satisfied even with Quin trying to press keys while she sits in my lap I am still dare I say... relieved.  I actually did something in the spur of the moment and didn't contemplate it for more than a couple of minutes. I have a lot whirling in my mind and pretty quick typing hands, well hand, I am normally holding one of the girls. If you want to know what our life is like on a weekly basis or just to see what off the wall topics I can bounce from one day to the next I welcome you to follow me in writing about our family from my eyes.