Chairish Style Challenge

A few days ago I received an email from someone working at Chairish...
Have you heard of it?
It's only one of the coolest and most unique collection of vintage pieces for sale out there right now!  They have the best Vintage Furniture that is so easy to style!

Well anyways, they invited me to participate in a Style Challenge and I gladly accepted!  Admittedly, I have not purchased anything from Chairish but only because it would involve shipping furniture which is never cheap or a drive to Chicago which I'm usually up for, but nothing really fits in my car...so I'll have to wait until I have a truck.   hah.

They sent me a list of items and I was supposed to pick my favorite...

The winner... ???
Tada!

I'm not sure why but I was just drawn to it.  I love the subtle curve in the back and of course tufting makes me swoon.

Then I needed to design a room around it.  I used Olioboard to create it so I will say that some of these extra pieces are from places like One Kings Lane and are probably not available exactly as is, but I'm sure you can find similar pieces that probably would work and at even better prices if you look.  I love to look at thrift stores and on craigslist for deals!  The key... keep looking always!  Everyday!

Ok... so can I just say how much I would love to put this room in my house somewhere right now?!?

Seriously it's making my little heart pitter patter. 

I love that the sofa, even though it's gold, acts as a neutral and works with many different warm colors.  

I tried to think of something that would work for my family but also had a touch of whimsy as well as different textures and patterns which I love to mix.  

Every room in my house has a basket and this one would be no different.  

I love jute rugs (from Chairish), but the cowhide (also from Chairish) really warms and softens it up. 

The leather chair on the right has some wear to it which I love.  I did worry that two leather chairs in one room might be too much but I think in this case it works only because the colors of leather are so different and the wood tones on the carmel colored chair really differentiate it from the dark more traditional chair.  

I've also got a major crush on Aztec prints these days which is why I choose this ottoman as the coffee table.  

It lightens the space up a little bit, but also ties in with all the coordinating colors of the chairs.  

This one was listed through One Kings Lane on Olioboard, but I bet you could either find one, probably on Chairish, or reupholster one to resemble this. 

Besides the sofa, I am loving the cute little patterned stool in front of the leather chair.

  I have a really odd love for stools and I swear there is one in almost every room of my house, but I love this little guy.  Along with the bulldog statue, it adds that bit of whimsy which I appreciate in any room.  

I'm not a fan of NEW and Matchy Matchy so this challenge was right up my alley.  

I decided to keep the furniture and "staples" of the room more neutral so that you can constantly change up accessories and the look of the room without having to spend a fortune.  

Like look how cute it looks all dolled up for the holidays?

Well what do you think?  Do you like this space? 

Was the sofa your favorite piece? 

Can't wait to hear what you think!  

And a huge thanks to Holly at Chairish for inviting me to participate in this style challenge!  

Can't wait to keep watching all the Vintage Furniture on their site! 

Moving My Gallery Wall

Things tend to move around in my house.  My husband hates it.  

I swear he secretly likes the element of surprise I keep in the relationship hahaha!  

But recently I gained a new piece and had to take down this gallery wall. 

Which left me with a ton of frames that I had no idea what to do with.

So.... at the moment I have a bunch of frames laying all over and leaning against walls needing a new home... 

And until I figure out exactly what to do with them, here's a few gallery walls that I'm loving... 

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DIY Halloween Cemetery Fence

This year we decided to change things up just a little bit at the Kellermeyer Haunted Halloween Abode.  That's a long name...  But we decided we were going to work on a few things ourselves to try to make the house look a little different from year to year. 


There were a ton of things I really wanted to do, but budget constraints and minimal storage puts the kibosh on a lot of things.  So we decided to enclose our cemetery this year.  In the past we've used lights, but this year we made a fence.  And it was pretty easy...





Mr K did it mostly since Halloween is his big gig, but I did my best to get pictures along the way.


You'll need 1x2 wood pieces that are cut to the desired length of your fence. 
A drill
PVC pipe
Some sort of tape (or glue)
Spray Paint


First, drill holes through your wood.  Be careful not to get to big that it splits the wood but the right size for your PVC.

We decided to cut our PVC in offset sizes.  It gave the fence a better "look" we thought.

Then you just stick the PVC through the holes. 

We used hockey tape around the bottoms of the wood to make sure the pipes didn't move too much. 

You could use dabs of glue I'm guessing or duct tape.

Then this is how my hubs decided to spray paint them. 

We used a brown Rustoluem primer as well as a black metallic. 

Hoping to give it some sort of aged patina.

And our little helper trying to hold it up... and failing.

And the final product. 

So the sides were a little different lengths because we had initially wanted to line our sidewalk with them, but then changed our minds to do it this way.  We made the gate doors using the same process.

Ells isn't too sure of the gatekeeper.  Rodger is his name.  He comes out every year and moves around the yard.

In the end around $30 and pretty easy to store since it's flat.  Now to clean up the garage {again}.

Only 2 days until Halloween!  Yay!

Fall Family Pictures - Outfitting

It's that time of year for fall family pictures and picking one out for the Christmas cards...
My friend Amy said she'd take ours this season... I asked her after I realized we haven't had family pictures taken since Ella was 4 months old.  Oops! 


I also have a couple of Maeve pieces sitting in the garage so we are going to take full advantage of those and utilize them if we can!  That was the easy part...


Outfitting the session is always SO hard for me.  I don't like to think I have awful style, but I know I have an awfully put together closet!  haha... Well at least I like to think so since I feel like I can't ever put anything together really!  And Mr K really doesn't have much these days either... so finding 3 outifts that are somewhat color coordinated and don't clash with each other is a project. 


I've been laying outfits out for over a week now... 

And I wasn't really liking much of anything...


But here's what I've finally come up with...


Option 1 : Rain Boots (which Ella has but I don't so I'd have to go buy)

I love the idea of the rain boots, but the fact that I don't own them yet makes me feel like I'll be running around again looking for them. 

Sources ::

Me :: Dress (similar) // Boots
Ells :: Dress // Boots
Mr K's Outfit :: Shirt // Sweater // Jeans // Shoes (similar) {same in all pics}

Option 2 : Denim All Around 

This option is a little more casual for Ells.  I do like how this one kind of all flows together though...

Sources ::

Me :: Dress (similar) // Boots // Belt (similar)
Ells :: Shirt // Vest (similar) // Jeans // Booties (similar)


Option 3 : Chambray & Boots

Booties looks so cute right now with all the dresses -- unfortunately my legs are uber white so unless I get a spray tan (or Amy can Photoshop tan on my legs) I might look like a ghost. 

Sources ::

Me :: Dress (similar) // Boots // Belt (similar)
Ells :: Dress // Boots (similar)


Options 4 : Mint Skirt & Birdsong



So the Birdsong at Dawn Dress which Ells has mixes with the mint skirt because there's tiny hints of mint in that dress... But is the mint too much?  I'm thinking so... especially when looking at it here.  I just thought it might add a touch of bohemian which I usually adore. I was hoping to find the nude color in the skirt but they didn't have my size...

Sources ::

Me :: Skirt (similar) // Sweater // Booties
Ells :: Dress // Boots (similar)


Have a favorite?  I'd love the help! 

A Blog Is a Reflection Of One's Self

I'm about 5 years in (I think) and I have to say that I think my blog has come a long ways.  It's not necessarily better or worse, but we've gone through many stages of life.  I don't have many followers.  I'm sure my content is about on part with others.  I usually don't LOVE my posts, but I'm glad I've posted something.  When I first started blogging I had high hopes for myself, but you know... life gets in the way.  This blog has carried me through single life, marriage, jobs, and a baby.  I had hoped to reach a 110+ followers pretty quickly after starting. That didn't happen.  I had hoped to blog 5x a week.  That didn't always happen.  I had hoped to be featured somewhere.  I don't really know if that happened.  I still hope for all these things.  I have 44 followers no idea if anyone reads what I write besides my mom and occasionally my sister. 

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The other day I was reading this article on Blog Her.  It's a post about blogging one year after starting.  Things she learned :: 5 Things :: 

(1) Just because you talk a lot, you can still run out of things to say
(2) Blogging is hard.
(3) Not every idea needs it's own blog
(4) Don't get discouraged because you blog isn't a hit from the get-go!
(5) A blog is a reflection of ones self. 


Number 5 made me think... "A Blog is a reflection of one's self..."
I often feel like my blog is an afterthought these days.  I try to take care of everything else before this blog and the same probably goes for myself. 


My life is somewhat chaotic.  As much as I'd like it to go as planned, it never does.  My house is constantly a mess.  There are always projects to be done, dinners to be made, and playing to be going on with my kiddo.  My husband could probably use more loving on too.  I feel like I'm always trying to take on the world... I think that's what mothers just do.  Especially working mothers.   


Well, there's always more that we can do.  In every aspect of life, but how's that for living?  Always looking to do more and more and more?  And never actually enjoying the little we have?  What ever happened to less is more?    Quality over Quantity?  Not saying that everything I post is "quality" but I'd rather share 3 good posts a week than 5 bad ones AND not miss out on playing Clippity Clop Princesses with my daughter or a quality dinner with my family...


Blogging is hard (#2) and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  It's time consuming, it takes research, following, commenting, learning, sometimes technical skills, and probably a hundred other things.  It's not so hard that not everyone can do it, but it does take commitment and time.  And sometimes I have very little time if I ever want to sleep at all.  These stay at home bloggers sometimes irk me.  Yes, if I had a nice ginormous house and was home all day I would surely have 4-5 posts a week of GORGEOUS content and pictures.  But I get to go to work and sit at a desk all day and then come home and attempt to sit at a computer {again} to get in a blog post as well as making dinner, doing laundry, and playing dress up.  I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's really hard even outside of the technical aspects of blogging. 


I try to keep this a blog about good things mostly so this isn't a whine, but it is a reality check.  I've been blogging for 5 years or so and it's hard and a little discouraging to not get lots of comments and to spend time to try to find creative and new things to feature.  It is hard to do something for so long and not reap any benefit really...


But maybe there have been benefits... 
I know more now than I knew then.  I have documented so many things like our house, my baby, my life, my projects that I otherwise wouldn't have documented.  I've made a few friends along the way.  I've found other blogs that I can't go a day without checking because I love them so much.  I will have something to show my daughter some day.  Not everyone has a blog but I do (even if it only has 44 followers)... ! 


And while I haven't really been featured anywhere or written about or made any top blogging lists, that just leaves me something to strive for, right?!  I can imagine it might be hard to live up to that one huge blog post that blows up the blogosphere right when you start and then what do you write about every day after that?!  Slow & Steady...


For now I'll just stay with slow and steady and maybe someday {soon} I'll have that posts that blows up.  But for now I'm good with just keeping this blog of good things  -- a reflection of me -- that comes from the lifestyles of the rich and famous the working mommy {wannabe famous} blogger who does tries to do it all and sometimes doesn't succeed because that's just how it is!


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And if you read my blog or are one of my 44 followers, leave a quick hello!  I'd love to say hi back! 

DIY Halloween Costume Ideas

Yesterday we attended a Pumpkin Party at our local Gymboree Play & Music and I spent most of the morning prepping the pretty much prepped Rapunzel costume that I somehow got my daughter to wear.  It turned out pretty cute.  We had everything but shoes so we had to stop and get those, but outside of that it was a pretty easy costume.  We even borrowed a frying pan from the play kitchen because we all know how many times that came in handy for Rapunzel & Flynn Rider. 

But with that it got me thinking about costumes of the old days...
Or how much fun it is to make costumes...
To spend a few nights scouring the local Goodwill or Thrift Shops for pieces you need...




I feel like my mom always used to make us costumes.  I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I remember my brother had this awesome werewolf costume one year that she made -- She ripped the jeans, killed a few stuffed animals for fur, and found some great glove hands for him.  That was a good one.  And I think I was a cheerleader one year... And my sister a hippie.  She always came through in the costume department and if I remember correctly we RARELY purchased premade costumes if ever.




Deep down I was kind of sad that Ella wanted to be a princess... While I was excited it was something we had on hand and wouldn't be costing me much of anything, I wanted to try to make something fun... And then this morning on my way into work I was reminded by Style Me Pretty that there are so many great DIY options out there!  Tear.




Here are a few of my favorites...


Anna Wintour

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Hot Air Balloon Ride

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Jellyfish

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And a true favorite :: A bouquet of flowers

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I mean, what's not to like about these different and easy (well seemingly) costumes!  I adore them.


And then what about family ideas?!  Do you and your entire family dress up for Halloween?  I haven't before, but I'm not opposed to it... and here are some good ideas...


A Rainbow.  

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This one is so cheezy and so easy!  My husband would never wear that blue sweat suit! 

Mary Poppins Characters. 

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Ells would love this.


A BLT. 

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So cute.


And of course I would be this... 

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This is awesome.  Anyone else have a crazy love for Beatlejuice?  I'd have to start making those heads now for next year! 




So anything you liked?  Anything you are trying?  Or do you dress up with your family? 
Maybe Mr K & I will go as Mother Gothel & Flynn Rider (with a beer gut of course)... I could make that happen.




Happy Monday!

Halloween Potion Bottles

If you haven't figured it out by now, we love to decorate for Halloween.  This year we are a little behind on the outdoor décor, but don't you worry, it'll come together. 

Anyways, I've always loved those little potion bottles you see everywhere. 

Like Home Goods...

And Michaels...

They are so cute and fun! 

But they are still kind of expensive! 

So you know me... I headed on over to Goodwill to see what I could come up with.

And lucky for me, I found all 6 of these on my first trip!  Thank goodness!

It's actually quite simple to make these. 

I think I might make a few more every year so that I can have a large collection some day! 

I'm definitely going to need a bigger garage or attic because of how we have decided to decorate for the holidays!

I took the above glass containers outside and gave them a light spray paint. 

I didn't want them to be perfect.  I felt like the lighter the spray, the older they might look in the end... Like they were worn and used.

Then I scoured the internet for some labels to use. 

You can find labels all over the place -- just google "free potion bottle printables."

I printed out these from Itsy Bitsy Fun but didn't use them this round.  They are cute though.

I ended up having a ton saved to my computer from last year and found a few more over at Dancing Barefoot in Sand & Snow that I used too!

Next I cut them out and figured out which label would go on which bottle. 

Then I cut them out as close to the edges as I could and stuck them on with Modge Podge. 

It's a little messy process because I just used my fingers to smooth over the labels.

I really do like how they turned out. 

Would you believe that Insectodeth one used to have a Christmas tree on it?!  Right?!

I felt they needed a little bit of love around them so I pulled out some cockroaches and worms.

In the end, I like them. 

They are dark and interesting. 

Here's a cost breakdown::

Bottles - 6 in total - $6

Labels - Free

Black Spray Paint - Already Had

Modge Podge - $8

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Total $14 for 6 bottles

Not bad... $15 for some new Halloween décor that no one else has the exact same of!