Scary witch

For some reason, Hannah absolutely LOVES Halloween. I don't understand why. I like cute pumpkins and friendly decorations, but I really don't like to be scared. I guess I haven't collected enough Halloween decorations for her taste because she decided she wants to make a new decoration each day of October. She even got a head start and already made this life-size witch for our front door. Every time I walk around the corner, or come down the stairs in the dark this thing scares me to pieces. I catch a glimpse of this dark silhouette standing at the door, and I jump every time. I wonder what would happen if I hung it up on her closet door! :)

Laundry or ...

This one is for Kellee. My excuse for avoiding laundry this week had nothing to do with making improvements to the house. This was a book that definitely topped doing any housework. Nate's just glad that I've finished it and Book 2 hasn't come in to the library for me yet. It's a fantasy novel, and I know you like those, Kellee -- if only you had some extra time these days! I thought it was a really fun and captivating read. The author is a professor at BYU and lives in Orem, which I thought was fun since I went to BYU and I lived in Orem. :)  It had some "Oceans 11" kind of elements along with some mystical powers thrown in with some great action scenes. (Now we see why I'm not a writer, with sentences like that!) Okay, now I guess I'll go sort my Mt. Washmore.

What do you think?

So, really these pictures are for my own good. I plan to come back often and remind myself that we really have come a long way on this house since we moved in. However, I do need some advice on my light fixture over the kitchen table, so feel free to just skip to the bottom if you need the shortened version of this post.

First, the kitchen cabinets. It's a bit ridiculous how long it took me to finish painting these, and add on top of that the fact that I still hate them and can't wait to replace them... well, I'm just glad this is done.

I don't think anyone who did not have the pleasure of scraping grime off of these cabinet doors with a razor blade and then sanding off still more grime can fully understand my loathing of these cabinets. Anyway, moving on!

The kitchen walls (which you already saw in the cabinet pictures, but I'm posting these anyway)...

I've been pretty wishy-washy on what I think of the color I painted the kitchen walls. The lighting in that room is terrible, so I need something light. But I'm just afraid of extending that color into the living room and then deciding I really hate it.

Now, I have to post a before picture of the chandelier I just hung up over the table. I thought I had a good picture of it, but this is all I can find. You can kind of see it on the left side of the picture hanging in the formal dining room. It was an ugly brass monster, and I wanted to spray paint it to have an antique brass finish.

(this ugly foyer leads me to posting this finished picture of it)

Okay, so here is a better look at the chandelier. This is my question: What do you think of this color? Well, I'm not sure the coloring on the computer will come out very well. This isn't exactly the finish I was expecting, but you know there are no labels on spray paint cans of what color it is. Looking at the tops did not help me much in this situation. I also bought some black spray paint, so if you think this is ugly feel free to say so. I have to take it back down anyway because I forgot to put the nut back on the chain that holds the cover up against the ceiling. And yes, I have to replace some of the lightbulbs, too.