But that usually means that we get stuck with passing out the leftover candy  that is still sitting on the shelf the day before Halloween, and so I thought I'd be a little bit smarter this year. Yesterday, I hit up the "buy one, get one free" candy sale at Publix on my lunch break. Big mistake. I ate four pieces in the half mile drive back to my office. And two more at my desk. And three more while sitting in traffic on my way home. Let's be honest, I have no self control when it comes to mini Kit Kat and Butterfinger bars. Ahh! Attack of the Halloween candy.

I have to share my Halloween costume from last year. The big VMA scandal had just occured and so the hubby and I had to monopolize on the opportunity to argue over a Moon Man all night (did I say Moon Man? I mean an old soccer trophy!). Remember this?

image via

Well here we are, our own Kanye West and Taylor Swift.

Cue laughing and lots of blackmail for actually sharing this picture! :)

The picture's a little blurry and you can't quite see our awesome Taylor cowboy boots and hot pink Kanye tennis shoes, but you get the drift. Remind me to never dye my hair blonde- that wig is horrendous on me!

This year, we'll simply be dressing up in red and black as two University of Georgia fans at the UGA v. Florida football game in Jacksonville, Florida. I am so excited for a fun little weekend away. Go Dawgs! The hubby will definitely be wearing his game day shoes. Hilarious, right?!


And we'll be back on Sunday, just in time to pass out candy to the little neighborhood kiddos... if there's any left by then :)

What are ya'll dressing up as for Halloween?

Thanks to all of you for your sweet comments about step one of our kitchen/breakfast room/dining room makeover. One of my favorite parts about blogging is how kind and supportive (not to mention inspirational!) all of you are. You guys rock.

So, I actually got home from work while it was still daylight yesterday and I noticed a little something in the front of our house... those beautiful fall leaves that have graced our treetops over the last few weeks are starting to pile up on the ground. Ladies and gents- I think it's time to get out the rake blower and do a little fall lawn maintenance!

Here's my view of the yard yesterday.

Hello!

I'll have to be short and sweet today, but I've got two fun photos to share.

As I mentioned, we've got Operation Paint Project going on here at our house. It will be a three stage process over the next few weeks: 1) the kitchen cabinets, 2) the breakfast room and 3) the adjoining dining room.

Today, I've got a fun before and after of Part One- the kitchen cabinet makeover! Phew. No one told me how difficult it is to paint cabinets! I'm hoping that it will make painting the walls a breeze, in comparison.

And it makes it really difficult when you are painting cabinets lime green! Ha. Only kidding. We actually took the cabinets from a dingy, off-white beige to a stark, bright white.

Ready for the big reveal? Voila!

Here's the not-so-white before (if only the picture could capture how dingy/yucky/not crisp and clean this color really is!).

And the oh-so-white after.

You'll also notice that we are getting rid of the orange/salmon/pink color that currently graces our kitchen walls (check out our House Tour for more pictures of this vivid kitchen/breakfast room color). Our "out with the salmon, in with the grey" theory is a huge part of Part Two, so get excited, because I certainly am! :)

So, what do you think so far?

How much do you love a beautiful fall weekend? It makes starting the week (especially on a rainy, dreary Monday!) a little bit easier. This weekend, I did so many fun things- spent some amazing quality time with my nieces, watched UGA win against Kentucky (Go Dawgs!), walked away from church Sunday morning filled with joy-- we sang "How Great Is Our God", which is one of my favorites!, and got a lot of things done around the house.

On Saturday, David and I, along with my brother-in-law, Greggory and his girlfriend, Brooke, took our nieces to Jaemor Farms.  The farm has a corn maze, pumpkin patch, tractor hayrides, a food market, and lots of fun games for the kiddos.

Of course, I took a ton of pictures. Here are the twins celebrating a victorious turn in the middle of the corn maze (we let them lead the way, which actually got us through in less than an hour!).



The pumpkin patch.

And here are the sweet little pumpkins we picked out, already out on our front porch steps.

The farmers market part of the farm was definitely my personal favorite.

The market had lots of fun fall gourds.

And, of course, lots of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.

They had some absolutely beautiful mums.

And ohhhh, the Southern food.

Boiled peanuts.

Fried peach pies.

And yes, the fried peach pie tasted as good as it looks :) We also got some homemade apple butter, which is just perfection on top of a fresh, homemade biscuit.

On the home front, I'm excited to say that I'll have our big reveal pictures of Operation Paint Project: Part One ready tomorrow! I'm so excited to share- our work is finally paying off and we're more than happy with the results so far.

What kind of fun did you get into this weekend?

As I was falling asleep last night, I started thinking thoughts like- oh! I never finished this project or oh! I never wrote that blog post. To be quite honest, I constantly feel as if I am pushing against time and it just pushes right back! Why oh why isn't there 30 hours in the day?

So. I decided that instead of being negative about what I have not accomplished this week, I thought I'd be positive and think about what I have accomplished since I woke up Monday morning.

I have...

worked fifty some-odd hours... presented at a community council hearing... cooked our favorite spinach pesto pasta (on the one night I was home from work before 8 pm!)... paid our bills... loved on our pups... helped my college-aged sister handle a crisis about which boy she should let take her out to dinner on her birthday (I know, the problems we have when we're only 19!)... wrote my sister a beautiful birthday card... had a lovely conversation with my beautiful grandmother on her birthday... loved on my husband when he had a bad day... watched an episode of Sister Wives (has anyone else seen that show? crazy!)... attended a home owners association meeting... created a "looks for less" mood board... had lunch with a Georgia Supreme Court Justice... and worked on our big painting project.

How's that for a to-do list?! Now that I'm taking a positive perspective, I see that I should be patting myself on the back instead of being frustrated at myself for not getting everything done. Sometimes all we need is a little bit of positive.

Now to the fun stuff. As I mentioned, we've got a big painting project going. Let's dramatize this- we are actually in the middle of

at our house! Our project will be a three stage process. And, of course, you all know about and have given me some incredible input on stage three of the project.  Hopefully we'll be ready to unveil

Operation Paint Project 2010:
Phase One

Let's just be honest here. For me, finding a bargain on home decor is kind of like winning the lottery. I love it like a fat kid loves cake. Or as much as I love cake... which is a lot.

I've shared some of the bargains we've found and put into use in our house- for example, our living room is filled with fabulous Craigslist, Target, and Ebay finds. But I thought I'd try something a little different today.

Today, I'm going to try and get this West Elm look:

1. Overstock.com desk: $176.99

2. Ikea ottoman: $129.00

3. World Market pashmina: $25.99

4. Pier 1 rug: $79.95

5. Etsy recycled wine bottles: $25.00 each (account for two)

6. Ikea bottles: $9.99 for three

7. Pier 1 mirror: $129.99 (on sale!!)

_______________________

TOTAL: $601.91

And there are always some free alternatives to any of these fun items. Add in a couple of your favorite hardbacks (or the prettiest ones!) from your library and stack them up on the desk or on the ottoman. Or opt to recycle some of your favorite glass wine or sparkling water bottles instead of purchasing anything new (you can see where we did that, here!).

Like I said, it's always fun to get a deal and create a look for less! What do you guys think? Have any of you found any good steals lately?

If that isn't true love, I don't know what is! Thank you, honey!!!! You rock!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this weekend's handywork ready to share yet, but check out this post or this post for updates on our bathroom renovations thus far!

PS. Thanks to Rambling Renovators for featuring our office on their "Love List!" Such an honor :)

the fabulous voice of Missy Higgins

blankets that look like sweaters

I need help! Well, in a million more ways than one, but that's another story for another day.

Even though I wake up each morning and the first thing I see is a tarp covering the entrance to a completely-stripped-down-to-the-floor-joists master bathroom and my yard is a mess because we've started seeding in hopes to have grass in the spring and I'm still continuing to dress up our guest bedroom and the hubby and I have each been working a bazillion hours lately, I've started another project. [See! I told you that I'm completely insane I need help!]

My new project is pretty simple: paint. A couple of the rooms in our house (namely: the kitchen and dining room) need to be freshened up with a little paint. See?! Not too big of a project... and since the bathroom renovation is at the point where we need some professional plumbing work and about twelve plus hours of man power, it is on the back burner. Don't worry, it will get some attention this weekend.

Back to the paint. Some time ago, I ran across this picture (and I can't, for the life of me, remember the source?!).

Amazing, isn't it? Up until, oh, about 8:30 last night, I was hands-down, 100%, most certainly planning to paint our dining room this fabulous navy color. I thought it would work perfectly with the neutral rooms that are adjacent to the dining room.

Our neutral living room plus a bit of yellow (which, of course, would go fabulously with navy).

So what is the painting hold up? Well, I started picturing the navy dining room with furniture in it. Our previous house did not have a formal dining room and so we currently do not have any dining room furniture (only a breakfast table). David and I have a pretty good idea what kind of furniture we want for the dining room, though. And it goes a little something like this.

Yes, the outside of a barn is our dream dining room. So pretty, isn't it? But not too formal. Nothing about our home is too formal, so that certainly suits our fancy. BUT, when you look at all of the pretty furniture in my navy-dining-room-inspiration picture, you see furniture that is delicate. Light. Fancy. Formal. Certainly not farmhouse style. With that said, I am now worried that the type of furniture we want in the dining room will be too bold and heavy for the navy walls. Especially in such a small little room as our (empty!) dining room.

Just for an idea, here is our dining room with the previous owner's furniture in it (don't worry, the chandelier is going to go- it's already on Craigslist!).

So, I'm in a conundrum. I think I have to drop my beautiful navy. I just don't think it will fit in. But I have absolutely no clue what color to replace it with. And it will have to be a fabulous paint color in order to repair my sans-navy broken heart!

What do you think? I seriously need some help! Go with the navy? Is the navy too much? Do you have any suggestions for any other fun colors? I really would love to know what all of you think. And please email me pictures if you've got any inspiration photos!