the project-per-month PROJECT month 10

Project-Per-Month Project HOW IT WORKS... If you want to join in the project project, and you totally should, here are the rules...
- Pick a single, manageable project off your to-do list, just one.
- Determine that you WILL do it, come hell or high water, even if you have to stay up late one night
- Give yourself specific goals.
- Give yourself a deadline: the end of the month.
- Give yourself a budget.
- Do yourself proud.

My November project was to add a little warmth and personality to my kitchen, a room that holds a big place in my heart. We are renting the perfect house, in my taste, tall ceilings, white walls, old wood floors, and architectural details galore... and if I could I would live here forever, reinforce the 101 year old windows (because Hello heating bills) and spend the rest of my life happily updating countertops and fixtures and turning the yard into a food garden that I don't kill (one can dream!).

My updates were simple, a large format print over the oven that really embodies the way I want to approach feeding myself and my family and then a huge office plant and succulents near the sink to add some life. I really love how it turned out.

Yes we actually use our kitchens and ain't nobody got time to stage their counters and do their dishes for a photoshoot, haha. This is real life :)

My favorite part of this project is the way the "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." poster came out. Isn't it awesome?! I came across this phrase on Pinterest and found it came from Michael Pollan, someone I read recently (although I read The Omnivore's Dilemma and this phrase came from In Defense of Food which is now on my reading list). I reached out to Jess from I Rock So What to hand-letter the print (she does this on Fiverr) and can I just say THAT WOMAN IS A-FREAKING-MAZING. Thank you, Jess!

My whole budget for this project was supposed to be $40 and I spent $43 including plants, plant pots (thrift store ftw) and the print. I'm lucky though, my work was able to do the print on scrap so I didn't have to pay the fortune that Kinko's wanted. ::clicks heels::

I always loved my kitchen but now when I'm in there I like really, really love it. It feels personal and simple and just right.

For December Rob is joining in with me on our project, which is to turn Loretta's bookcase into a dollhouse as her Christmas gift. I can't wait to see how it comes out!

For those of you joining in on these projects here and there, please do let me know. I started a Pinterest board for us, although I'm pretty sure I missed some. Send me links and I'll add your projects to the board! Also, because there was a request (that basically MADE MY MONTH haha) there is now a project-per-month PROJECT button you can grab on the right sidebar.

And now for a moment of CAMERA-RELATED REFLECTION... I just wanted to take a moment to gripe about the image quality of these pics. More and more I consider myself an amateur photographer and I really care about how my photos turn out. I recently ordered a zoom lens for my camera and was so excited to FINALLY be able to take inside shots that weren't at 55mm (my original lens) which is really too zoomed in to show any kind of context in our small-roomed house. Well, the new lens zooms from 18 to 55mm alright, but that's about the extent of it. The pictures I took turned out grainy and I'm really unhappy with them. I'd hoped to take family pictures with this lens in a few weeks and now I'm pretty sure I'll be taking all of those shots at 55mm, which is fine, but I'm just annoyed. A word of warning, you get what you pay for and Amazon reviews can be misleading. A cheap 18-55mm zoom lens is a cheap 18-55mm zoom lens. Don't fall for that baloney. 

CLOSED - CSN Stores $35 Gift Card Giveaway!

So my dream kitchen (which WILL HAPPEN one day and for which I have a scrappy notebook full of clippings from Martha Stewart Living and the Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn catalogues) is big and open and "in the French style" with huge, individually-paned windows looking out onto a big back yard where there is a cherry tree & it's always spring and drizzling and the tree is always blooming. It's verrrrry shabby and fairly chic and the focal point is an oversized island where my family can gather around & chat while we each sit on a gorgeous, antiqued (or antique) bar stool, and I can roll pie dough while I guzzle apricot ale & gaze outside through my giant paned windows while someone* else cleans it. (*I don't know who, probably George Clooney, and he also gives me back rubs.) It looks something like this:


I found this image on the blog Dream Within Reach and, well, I die!


But wait, I need to focus - This is a CSN Stores Giveaway! 

That's right, the lovely people over at CSN Stores have offered TidbitsParenting readers an opportunity to win a $35 Gift Certificate! The winner can use it towards gorgeous bar stools like these...

Or cool wooden kids toys like this set I recently ordered from CSN Stores for Otto (getting a jump on holiday shopping for the first time in my life)...

Or anything else they may find. The CSN Stores world will be their oyster.

How to Enter The Giveaway...

Many Entry Opportunities (none of these is mandatory; pick and choose the modes of entry that you like, and enter as many times as you like!):

- Tell me what you think you might get from CSN Stores if you won the gift certificate

- Follow CSN Stores on Twitter (2 entries)

- Follow TidbitsParenting via Google Friend Connect (see right sidebar) (if you already follow that counts too) (2 entries)

- Follow @OttosMomBlogs on Twitter (if you already follow that counts too)

- Tweet the following and in your comment, put a link to your tweet (up to 3 bonus entries per day / 1 per tweet / 30 min apart or more please):

Win a $35 @CSNStores Gift Certificate - ends 11/11 http://tinyurl.com/2eu5qsg @OttosMomBlogs #Giveaway !

- "Like" TidbitsParenting on Facebook (if you already like us that counts too) (2 bonus entries)

- Grab the TidbitsParenting badge (on the right) and in your comment leave a link to your badged up blog homepage (3 bonus entries) (if you've already got the badge that counts too)

- Vote for this blog on Picket Fence Blogs (by clicking the Picket Fence Blogs icon in the right sidebar) you can do this once per day (unlimited bonus entries, well ... 1 per vote til the contest ends)

Please Note:

Remember to leave a comment for EACH entry. For example, if you follow CSN Stores on Twitter, since that's worth 2 bonus entries make sure you leave 2 comments for that.

Make sure that I can reach you if you win - please put your email address or Twitter name in each comment so that I can reach you if you win. I will contact the winner at some point on November 12 and they will have 48 hours to claim the prize or we will choose a different winner.

Giveaway will be closed for new entries at 11:59pm Pacific Time on Novem

ber 11. Open to US & Canada. I will use Random.org to choose a winner and will verify that the winning entrant has played by the rules so it only makes sense to be honest! Note: I was in no way compensated for this post other than CSN Stores generously prov

iding a gift certificate to the winner. The opinions are my own.

CONGRATS TO JUDY, WITH COMMENT #222 YOU ARE THE WINNER OF THIS GIVEAWAY!