Kitchen Cabinet Reveal!

It has been a long time coming, but I am finally ready to reveal our updated kitchen cabinets!

After a hectic week at camp with my fifth graders, I was able to muster up the energy to put the finishing touches on the longest cabinet redo ever.

I had mentioned before that we were going to go for more modern look with grey cabinets and white counters, but after some talking it through, we decided to go with our favorite stain; General Finishes Java Gel Stain.

Yes, a sleek white kitchen would be so dreamy, but Chris and I are far from sleek, or dreamy. Our house is not built to have a million dollar kitchen. We live in a neighborhood where our same house is a couple houses down. Realistically speaking, we don't want to put too much money into this house since we don't plan on being here forever. We still plan on going with a light granite and back-splash, so that should keep things bright!

We already had the stain since we have used it to transform our bathroom cabinets and our nightstands, so this whole cabinet renovation cost zero dollars. That was another major plus to going this route instead of painting them.

Another deciding factor; the Texas humidity. Seriously, it takes paint for-ev-er and a day to dry here and I didn't want to chance God knows what flying into our freshly painted cabinets while they would be drying for an eternity out in our garage.

After two full weekends of hard work, I am happy to say that this project is complete. Having the cabinets done makes us want to put a rush on getting granite, new floors, and an island, so we are starting to get the ball rolling in those areas!

Here is a look back at what they were before:

PS: the color is not as black as it comes off in pictures.

Linking up with Leann and Kimberlee!

WIWW: The Lovely Lookbook Fall Colors Edition

Today Caitlin will be talking to y'all about this month's link up. Enjoy!

Welcome to The Lovely Lookbook, a monthly link up to share your style and find outfit inspiration!

Our goal for The Lovely Lookbook is to help women of all shapes, sizes, and styles share their looks and find new outfits based on the theme of the month.

For each Lovely Lookbook, Sarah and I will share our height and the size of clothing we’re wearing as a reference to help show you how to dress your body.

We hope you’ll join us! We want you to share your style to inspire others, and if you’re trying to figure out your style, we want to help you look and feel amazing in your own skin and clothing!

October's Lovely Lookbook features fall colors, and here are our looks:

I love that Sarah chose the neutral gray and cognac to pair with her bright pants. This outfit just feels like fall, you know? :) She's so petite, but always doing things that make her look taller, like the v-neck cut of her sweater, and the half-moon hemline of her top. That creates an emphasis on her tiny waist, even with a little bit of a slouchy sweater. Adorable!

Sarah’s top here is a size small and it’s a hand me down. Her pants are size 4 from Target. The boots are Chinese Laundry from Nordstrom. She’s 5’3″.

For my look, I wanted to pick colors that I haven't paired together yet, so I opted for this olive green and rich burgundy. It's been really hot here still, so I'm grabbing light weight pieces in fall colors to cling to the hope that it really will FEEL like fall soon! I added a few neutrals to balance out the unexpected color combo. Leopard is a go-to for me when I want to add a little more interest with a neutral. Because it's made up of neutral colors, you can treat it like one even though it's a print.

 

This top is a size medium from Old Navy, and the pants are J. Crew via The Clothes Mentor, and a size 4. The cardigan is a small from Old Navy, and my shoes were on crazy clearance at the Cole Haan Outlet ($50 down from almost $200.) Don't you love a deal like that?! Oh! And I’m 5’11.

So there you have it, two looks featuring fall colors styled differently and for two different body types. Let’s see yours!

Oh! And a little reminder from us to y'all! We wear all kind of sizes to make sure we can get the fit of things right. Every designer’s sizing is different. No one else sees the size on the tag, and if the items fit, all they notice is that you look put together! Don't be held captive to a size.

A quick reminder of how The Lovely Lookbook will work:

The link up begins on the 1st of every month. So, on the 1st, visit Greater Than Rubies or Tucker Up to link up your styled item. We want you to share your style and/or find inspiration from how others styled their looks. Feel free to link up as many looks as you’d like. If you wear fall colors every day for the next two weeks and want to link up each one, awesome. Just one? Perfect. If you aren't a blogger, feel free to just stop by for some inspiration!

The link up will run for two weeks (today’s closes on October 14th). Also, from the 1st through the 14th, you can vote for the next month’s topic. (Starting today, you’ll vote for November's.)

On the 15th of every month, we’ll do a recap post and announce the following month’s theme.

All we ask is that you link your post(s) back to both of our blogs (Tucker Up and Greater Than Rubies) or grab our buttons from our sidebars. You don’t have to follow us, or give us your first born child to participate. :)

If you Instagram, you can use the hashtag #thelovelylookbook to share your style for all to see (or get people to vote for the theme you want next month!) and follow us @TheLovelyLookbook if you like!

We’re so excited about this opportunity to showcase a bunch of different ways that women style items they already own! Now link up those fall colors, browse for inspiration, and cast your vote! (Click here to go to Caitlin's blog and vote!)

What do you want to wear and see styled for the November 1st Lovely Lookbook?

PS We are having trouble finding a poll that works across Wordpress and Blogger. If you know of one, please let us know!

Linking up with Because Shanna Said So, Get Your Pretty On, The Pleated Poppy.

Hair Problems, Solved

I spy a Wrigley booty...

I am having major hair problems. The length is in that super awkward stage where you can't do anything to it without it flipping out. Couple that with hair that is as thick as a horse's mane and it ends up in a pony tail all the time.

Last week I curled my hair one day and I literally got over 30 comments on how good it looked. To be honest, I only curled the top layer because I had slept with it wet and the bottom layer was still curly. One of my kids said they had never seen me without a pony tail and another student thought I was a substitute. Winning, I tell ya, winning.

I have learned that even if I wanted to, I am not going to fix my hair for my job, so I need some way for it to look not so much like I just rolled out of bed.

Thanks to the sweet Tessa at Sweet T Shoppe, I can now throw on this cute head wrap and head out the door looking put together. No one has to know that it took me .74 seconds to do my hair, and I may have not washed it after the gym. (Guilty)

How do you deal with mid-length hair? I am growing it out, so I have a many more months of the middle stage!