Flea Market Polka Dot Rainbow Farmhouse Style

I had a rather important realization this weekend.

I can like a style without it being my style.

Some background is probably in order so you can understand why this is such an ephiphany.

I've been working of figuring out what I want to do with our kitchen for a while since before we bought the house. I've google searched and pinned and I just can't make any decisions. I think I've made them and then I change my mind. And then I change it back.

This weekend I finally realized the problem.

I pin kitchens like this (by the way Di, I think this might meet the criteria for Georgia Plantation Meets Kansas Farmhouse)

                                                                       Source: georgianadesign.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

and this

                                                                                         Source: instyle.com via Amber on Pinterest

and this

                                                                                            Source: bhg.com via Amber on Pinterest

but what makes my heart smile is things like this

Source: Real Simple, www.realsimple.com

and this

                                                                                             Source: etsy.com via Amber on Pinterest

The reason I keep feeling meh about kitchen ideas is that they are beautiful kitchens for someone who is not me. I had this idea that I was elegant and timeless, but in reality I'm just way more fun than that (not unlike my realization about my blog name).

I tried to come up with a way to describe what I actually style is and "Flea Market Polka Dot Rainbow Farmhouse Style" was the most suscint thing I could come up with.

So I googled "polka dot kitchen" and found a ton of hideously over the top stuff, and this one lovely image

                                                                                                    Source: flickr.com via Amber on Pinterest

It's not quite what I'm going for, but it's a hell of a lot closer to matching who I am than my previous attempts. We'll stick with it for now.

Finally. Or Who Knew Buying Blind Brackets Could be so Hard

That's right. It took way longer than expected but I finally put up the blinds in our bedroom. Who knew such a little thing could take so freaking long to get done. 

I'm pretty sure they've been down since before I gave birth. I was so excited I took a picture and sent it to my mom. If she wasn't as obsessed with house stuff as I am she would think I'm nuts.

I tried to cross this one off the list the very first day of my Projects rampage. I stopped into Home Depot over lunch the very next day. They didn't carry the fancy smancy bracket I needed for my pleated blinds. The guy I talked to suggested I find out the brand of the blinds and contact them. Good thinking, right?

I went home and looked at the blinds that night. They didn't list a brand, but they did have a sticker that said "www.decoratetoday.com." The site automatically forwards you to www.americanblinds.com. I think they bought out decorate today or maybe they just changed their name. I don't really know. I tried searching for replacement parts on the website. After a while I gave up and just called them.

Guess what the lovely woman who answered my call told me?

They don't sell replacement parts.They have the parts and they will send them to you if your order was missing them or they broke, but you can't just give them money in exchange for them if the blinds came with your house.

Great.

She did give me the names of a couple of websites I could try. If you end up in this situation just go to www.fixmyblinds.com.

That was on October 15th. All I had to do was figure out which bracket was the one I needed and order it.

It only took me 33 days to measure the brackets I had. I placed the order on November 17th and they came in the mail while we were in Denver for Thanksgiving. I installed them first thing Saturday morning. 

Rehang blinds: check!

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

Kansas Agriculture and Health Summit

I'm having a hard time verbalizing everything I want to express about my experience yesterday, so bear with me. It was just so awesome and I got so excited that I'm having a hard time organizing it into a coherent set of thoughts. I tried last night, but I couldn't make it work so I'm up early this morning having another go at it.

Deep breaths. Lets start with the context.

Yesterday I went to the Kansas Agriculture and HealthSummit. I got an email early this week promoting it as an event to

 "kick off the conversation in Kansas about the intersection of food, farming, health care and public health" 

If you've read by blog for a while I'm sure you've noticed that food and gardening are two of my passions,but what you probably don't know is that my CV lists my "Research Interests" as

"Human interaction with the environment through agriculture as it relates to the experience of health and disease..."

Are you starting to see why I got all excited yesterday?

I was very interested in talking about agricultural policy and health in Kansas, but it really got me thinking about things a little closer to home.

Like growing food for my family and feeding them the way I want to feed them instead of the default which seems to be eating whatever we can scrap together in the half hour between when I get home and when Norie needs to be fed and put to bed. Don't get me wrong. It's generally been pretty tasty, but it hasn't exactly been produce heavy.

I also got reinspired to help other people with traditional skills like growing food and cooking it and canning and home dairying and sewing and all those things our grandparents know or knew exactly how to do but are incredibly rare skills in my generation.

Don't worry. I'm still really excited about decorating and building and you'll see tons of posts about that you'll just also start seeing more about gardening and food. They all work together in making a family and a home and that's just the stuff that I love to share here.

On my to do list for today:

• Take the puppies and Norie for a walk
• Read this week's entry in my Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook and actually do the things it says I should do this week
• Measure for the bracket for those blinds
• Love on Norie
• Work on my Birthday Desk
• Clean the kitchen
• Fold and put away laundry
• Add things to my birthday/Christmas wishlist on Pinterest

I better get started.