Photo Dump and Nonsense

I know, I know.  The blogging break hasn't been intentional, but the last few weeks I feel like I've been barely hanging on.  All the usual stuff is getting done, but none of the extra stuff.  Now that soccer is over (hooray!) I'll have my Saturdays back, plus another free afternoon each week, and hopefully I can pull myself together and get a few more projects done in the next month.  

Speaking of which:

Team "Blue Thunder" ended the season at 5-1-1.  

This was a U-10 team, and had a number of players at a skill level above hers.  I think it was good, as it pushed her to work to improve.  She did awesome! 

And guess who is ready to sign up for Spring soccer?  Let's hope that practice will be on the same nights for both of them.  

Fall has peaked, but is still so beautiful here.  We've been enjoying a bit of Indian Summer (it's supposed to be 81 today), and the local colors have been spectacular.  

I've totally slacked on my William Morris posts.  But I did buy a shower curtain for the downstairs bath!  It's really out of my color comfort zone, but I looooove it and now I can't wait to get the bath all finished up (which means board & batten, painting, staining the vanity, and a new light & mirror).  

Oh yeah, and we bought curtains for the front room.  Amazingly, they go perfectly with the dark brown door and mushroom-y walls.  As you can clearly see I managed to wash them but not steam or hem them yet.  It's on the to-do list.  Yes, it's a long list. And the pile of shoes on the floor?   Just keepin' it real, y'all.  

I signed up for Birchbox and finally got my first box this month.  I was dying with anticipation!

For October there was an option to have the "regular" box, or a limited edition box curated by the folks at Goop.  I don't remember choosing this one, but it all ended well.  

I received a Luna bar, Chantecaille mascara, Eve Lom face wash with a muslin cloth, hair mask, and DDF moisturizer.  It's a win!  And Birchbox makes a lovely gift at a very reasonable price ($10/month) (hint, hint).  

This has been the extent of my Halloween decorating.  It looked weird until we hung the curtains behind, and now it looks awesome.  Also looks amazing when the curtains are open, and the moon shines through the window, casting bat shadows on the inside walls.  Spoooooooky!

I been suffering from a case of "perfectionism procrastination" in the kitchen/ dining room.  I was sure I wanted to paint it blue-ish, and even went so far as to buy color samples.... then didn't like them.  So I've had patches of blue paint on my walls for about a month while I mull over my options.  And this is why I don't have people over very often.  

Blue is out, and I'm about ready to just take the leftover gallon of paint from the front room & swath the kitchen/ dining room in Creamy Mushroom.  Stayed tuned for more (hopefully sooner rather than later). 

Oh hey, since we're talking about the kitchen, let's talk about what happens when your dishwasher leaks all over your laminate floor: Unsightly bubbles and a ruined floor!  Whomever thought laminate was appropriate for a kitchen was w-r-o-n-g.  So now we've got a new dishwasher on order, and have to (eventually) replace the floor in the kitchen.  It's really only bad around the dishwasher, so we're going to hold off until after the holidays ($$$$).  In the meantime I grabbed 2 samples of a faux-cork floor.  My cabinets are a brown similar to the floor (seen here), so I thought these might provide a nice contrast to all.the.brown.  This material is a vinyl plank that looks like cork.  We used the vinyl plank in our master bath, and it is fab and really reasonable in price.  I'm also thinking that the cork would provide a nice contrast against the existing laminate, as we will only replace the kitchen area, creating a transition between the dining room and kitchen (all one area).  

Finally, I've been enjoying the gorgeous weather by taking walks in the evening.  Yesterday I mixed things up by taking M to dance, then parking in a downtown residential neighborhood.  I walked the surrounding blocks, and marveled at the gorgeous homes, fall colors, and unique features of our tiny town.  

This is Mound Cemetery.  The large hill seen here is an "earthwork" built between 800BC and 700AD.  It is a national landmark, and the grounds surrounding it contain, among others, the highest number of Revolutionary War officers of any cemetery in the nation.