wanted: poodle skirt. a dining table makeover.

in the sixth grade, i met blondie. i spent lots of time at her house and always marveled at the fact that no matter what, her family ate dinner at five o'clock. every day. for reals. so perfectly 1950's. so perfectly awesome. despite my mom's best efforts, our family drifted to the opposite extreme. occasionally we all ate dinner together, but more often then not, my mom had to catch us between our comings and goings to gymnastics, volleyball, hockey, etc. we ate at the kitchen table, kitchen counter, or sitting on the couch. at some point along the way, i decided that when i had a family, i was aiming for the 1950's version of dinner time. right.

my DIY assistant.

when the mister and i got married we had no table. we ate sitting on the couch or at the kitchen counter. but i wanted us to be able to gaze adoringly into each other's eyes over our plate of macaroni and cheese, so the day our ikea opened, we went and bought a little table and chairs. it was great for a few minutes, until our life swallowed it. and then big-E rolled in and that was the end of even thinking of dining at that table.

our starter dining set.

we ate all of our meals on the coffee table, sitting on the couch. we even bought the little guy his own chair, perfectly sized for him to join us at the coffee table. and when people came over, they joined us, on the couch. oy vey.

literally 1950's. no, thank you.

we have a lot of furniture. a lot. we had a full house of furniture and then a few years ago my grandmother passed away and we acquired more. the arrival of big-E exasperated the problem, but last week, as i was sewing at our "dining" table, i had an epiphany. get rid of all the little bits of unnecessary furniture cluttering up our two rooms and buy one big dining set. oh, and did i mention that we had no money for this? seriously, zero cents.

the mister painting the base coat under close supervision.

enter craigslist. i posted some of our excess furniture for sale and voila! moolah!! we even spontaneously sold our coffee table. exciting, although it was a rash move, because our living area is now devoid of all tables. oops. anyhow, we took our greenbacks and went shopping. we found an old queen anne-ish style dining set. probably built in the 1950's. $50. yes, please. SOLD.

transformation.

we bought it. dismantled it. recovered the seats. repaired it. and painted it. now, it is so delectable. and we can all eat together at a proper table. we can even invite friends! and we can teach big-E some proper table manners. happy mama. now i just need a poodle skirt.

swoon.
(ignore the lack of any other decor. we have a toddler.)

declutterization.

it has been about a year since i felt any inclination to clean our house. wait, let me try that again, lest you think that the hubby and i are living in filth. to rephrase, it has been a loooooong time since i had any motivation to put away all the nonsense that finds its way into our living space. the mister regularly (okay, semi-regularly) cleans the house, as in sweeps, dusts, mops, etcetera. unfortunately, he is not typically given to putting away "stuff." clearly it does not help that yours truly is a wee bit particular about how and where things are put away.

the end result is that we start creating little heaps of things. unfortunately those collections are like the spawn of the devil, because they grow and grow until they have babies and the next thing you know, you are living in a house of heaps. everywhere you turn there is a conglomeration of stuff that is wanting to be dealt with. needless to say, after twelve months we had about oodles of these jumbled collections.

but NO MORE! as if by magic, i woke up on saturday morning with a sudden inclination to put everything away and get rid of all the stuff we do not need. whaaat?!?!?! yes. you read that correctly. i am not sure what prompted this, but i went with it and surprisingly, this impulse persisted throughout the weekend. thus far i have cleared off the dumping grounds otherwise known as our kitchen counter and dining room table, whisked away the chaos that was the top of our dressers, reorganized my entire paper stash (gasp!! although some might think it as muddled as ever), and rearranged our "office." next up? the closets. ah well, if this motivation persists, i might need to pursue a second job, otherwise you might come knocking at our door and find us living in an empty shell. maybe then my life would qualify for the 100 things challenge. sadly, short of exempting my crafting supplies from the challenge, which would probably be considered cheating, i am probably incapable of living without all my goodies. i love the notion of simple living, but hate the reality.