lovely chaos

I HAVE MOVED OFFICIALLY AND FINALLY!

YOU CAN NOW FIND ME AT THE NEW AND IMPROVED LOVEY CHAOS

And of course I'm still at A Birth Story Blog too!

...and i'm back again.

i just can't stay away. i love this blog thing too much. or perhaps it's just the writing that i love...feeling my fingers flying over the keyboard. it's therapy. however, i'm not going to pressure myself. so please don't have high expectations for me, blog world. i have a five year old and a three year old, and they are, well, present. very present.

i'm also moving...sort of. i already have another established blog over at abirthstoryblog.com. so i'm just going to add on there. check it out and enjoy...or not! (the move also explains why this blog doesn't look...professional anymore. i have the free version. don't judge. :))

OH! and while i'm at it, let me brag just a bit. my home, that many of you followed for a couple of years while it was being renovated, is now featured in desha peacock's brand new and amazing book Create the Style You Crave on A Budget You Can Afford! my fabulous photographer and friend's home is also featured in the book. check it out! and desha is coming to springfield, mo on july 22! so go on over to a birth story blog for more info on that.

goodbye, blog world!

well, this is it. this is goodbye. i'll miss you, blog world, but not enough to keep up with you. you kept me from being lonely and crazy when i was a new mom. you helped me keep my writing up...especially my spontaneous, no-editing writing. it was fun to keep a little online journal of my family and the things we were doing, but it was always a little creepy that people knew about our lives...even though it was me who was sharing our lives with the world!

but now it's time to move on. i have bigger and better things to do. things that have been waiting in the wings for much too long. i no longer feel the need to decorate my house in the hopes that someone will pin it and say something nice about it. it's time to decorate and renovate and write and live for me and my family. and that should be enough. it is enough! i'm excited to be a hermit again. to be a mysterious recluse. it's fun to be mysterious. so here i go...

thanks for your support, blog world. thanks for being there for me when i needed you...in those early days of motherhood when you feel completely isolated and alone and surrounded by poopy diapers. it's time to let you go. so this is goodbye.

starting renovations and enjoying life in the country at mule days.

this past weekend (or maybe it was two weekends ago!) jay jumped into the beginnings of one of our major renovations: adding a bathroom upstairs. it'd probably be nice if i finished our new home tour so you'd have some context for what i'm talking about, but...i've been a bit lazy lately!

here jay is taking down a little part of wall just to the left of the top of the staircase. this will eventually be the door into diesel's room. but for now it's just a big hole which the kids love going in and out of, of course!

the reason i've been lazy? country life suits me just fine! it's so quiet and peaceful out here that i've just kind of been basking in the silence. really enjoying my kids and my surroundings. it's been lovely.

over labor day weekend we joined some brave folks and hit up mule days. the family went friday night and i took the kids back saturday morning while jay tore through that wall. it was SO hot!!! but it was a lot of fun.

one of the events was a pole jump which sounds like exactly what it was: mules jumping over poles! the next day lula set up her own pole jump for her and diesel!

another event was the chicken scramble. this consisted of all the little kids getting into the arena and chasing chickens. whoever caught a chicken got a coupon for free ice cream. the kids were SO excited, but it kind of ended with tragedy. 

you see lula was trying to help diesel, holding his hand and urging him on. so she was running full speed when she head butted another kid running full speed! the other kid went down and lula kept running for a minute until her head started throbbing and she left the arena sobbing!

poor little d was left out there all alone with those big kids wondering why he couldn't find any chickens! jay had to go in and get him. he had no idea what was going on! and the rest of the night he had his bottom lip out pouting while saying, "i want a chicken!" i think he thought everybody got to take one home!

choosing an eclectic mix of dining room chairs.

i bought a table...a table from anthropologie! it's my first big purchase from my favorite furniture store and we got a great deal on it. it was actually much less than what it's priced at now. anyway...this is our new table:

it's simple, but i love it. and it seats eight! i've always wanted an eclectic mix of dining chairs like this and this and this. so here's my big chance, and i don't want to mess it up! our home has ten foot ceilings with big white trim and light wood floors....just to give you the set up!

i'm planning to reupholster these pink victorian chairs in an antique ethnic rug-type fabric that has very muted pinks and purples and put them at the ends of the table:

so we need six more chairs. actually five since we found one in the basement that i loved! here are some options. they ranged from $15-37. thoughts?

set of one

set of one

set of one...similar to the one from our basement

set of two

set of one

set of three but would only buy one that is sturdy

set of one

set of two

set of four

set of one

 

the trials of finding and using vintage kids glasses. part two.

(and people think lula is serious!)

...and the results are... they worked! the eye specialist was a bit skeptical about replacing the lenses in the pink vintage eyeglasses. so we ordered a new pair along with the vintage ones just in case. here are lula's new glasses that she wears most of the time. she really liked the pink polka dots on the inside of the frames.

it's really hard to find cute kids eyeglasses (unless you look in france!). most kids don't wear glasses, and many parents aren't willing to spend a lot on "cool" glasses. so there isn't much of a market for kids glasses. however, sometimes your vision clinic can show you other options they have available that aren't on the floor. that's how we found these. just ask and you might be able to find something you like better.

and for the vintage ones? they were able to put lula's prescription lenses in these and they held together! (i know...there's a lot of pics here. but she's just so stinkin' cute!)

the trials of finding and using vintage kids glasses. part one.

it was time for lula to get new prescription glasses. i really wanted to find her some cat eye style vintage glasses, but knew going that route might be tricky. i searched on etsy and found some really cute ones. the prices ranged depending on the condition they were in.

i found these adorable blue ones at pieces of pastimes. julie was kind enough to send them to me courtesy so we could find out how replacing the lenses in vintage glasses would work.

one of the problems with vintage eye glasses is that the plastic becomes crystallized over time and can easily break. these particular glasses were very bent when we received them, and as i tried to gently bend them back, they quickly snapped and broke! bummer! pair one down!

another problem with vintage prescription glasses is that the plastic part yellows over time too...as you can see in the above picture. there are tips all over online for cleaning that up, but i'm not sure if it actually works or not.

i also ordered another pair of pink glitter cat eye glasses hoping at least one of the pairs would work out. these were in a little better shape. in part two, i'll let you know if they worked out!

home tour. living room and parlor - before.

i must once again apologize for my unprofessional pictures. there are so many huge windows in our new house, and i didn't really get to select the time of day that i took these photos. so they're not that great, but at least you can get an idea of what our new house looks like. i had about ten minutes to shoot the entire house before the movers came. so again...not the best they could be, but they're just the "before" photos.

our house has two front doors that form an L shape on the front porch. one door goes into the living room. the other into the parlor. we don't use the parlor door. so the living room door is our main entrance.

the bottom floor is basically a big square. the front two rooms are the living room and parlor. the back two rooms are the kitchen and dining room. basically... :)

here's the living room.

standing at the front door, there is a door in the opposite corner that leads to the upstairs. on the outside wall there are three huge windows (which no longer have those lovely window coverings! :))

front door. no, it's not real stained glass, but just a film thing that we took off right away.

just beside the front door is the door leading into the parlor, which we're currently using as a playroom and will eventually use as an office once we sell half of our toys!

this is just to the left of the front door. the left door goes to the parlor; the right door goes to the dining room. this is where the fireplace used to be, but they took it out long ago.

the door on the left goes into the dining room; the door on the right goes into the kitchen. if you continue to the right, you'll be back at the doorway leading to the stairs.

here is the parlor.

there is a small closet (the door on the left). the open door is looking back into the living room.

this is the other front door that is now covered by our ikea bookcases.

there is a massive window on the front of the house. it's huge! i'm not sure how we're going to dress it, but i absolutely love it. it's so beautiful and one of my favorite features of the house. eventually i'd like to have built in bookcases on this wall with a large, comfy window seat at that window.

a smaller window on the next wall.

moving to the right, the next wall has a huge opening with massive pocket doors. this looks into the dining room. notice the light on the ceiling. just a little off center! :) oh the randomness of old houses!

the pocket doors leading to the dining room. if you keep moving to the right, you'll be back at the closet and living room door.

thus ends the front of the house home tour! more to come soon.

beautiful vintage jewelry from madison honey vintage

flower locket

searching for a delicate cross necklace similar to my sister-in-law's, i stumbled upon madison honey vintage on etsy. kimberley makes such lovely pieces of vintage and modern jewelry. i fell in love with her shop.

kimberley sent me this delicate cross necklace courtesy of so that i could share her gorgeous jewelry with you. (i'm sure you'll see it featured in some up and coming how we dress posts!) here are some of my favorite pieces from her shop:

horse cameo necklace

i love you vintage heart locket necklace

blue bird and round brass locket

madison honey vintage also sells lovely bridesmaid gift sets such as these:

thanks, kimberley, for letting us share your sweet jewelry!

how we dress. lamb coats in the middle of summer.

a few weeks ago, we had a "cold front" come through. it was in the low 70s during the day and wonderfully cool at night and early morning. it was heavenly. i wore long sleeves for a week in the middle of summer.

one morning we were headed out to try a famous local joint for breakfast, rosie jo's, and lula came down with shorts and a tank top on! after mentioning it'd be rather chilly out, she donned her harajuku mini lamb coat. isn't she adorable! i just wanted to snuggle her up...but she's not much of a snuggler!