Dining room paint color-opinions wanted!!

Hey y'all!! I so want to paint these ugly, blah walls in my formal dining room. Preferably right after Thanksgiving. I am not totally sure what color I want to do. I always wanted a red dining room, but now I am undecided. I am possibly thinking chocolate. Maybe green. The only reason I wouldn't do green is because we are thinking about painting the kitchen and living room green. We get a lot of natural light in there, so I think it could handle being a darker color. Currently, we don't have a table, but I want a picnic table painted antique white. I would do mis-matched chairs. My china cabinet is black, but could be painted green.


I know its hard to tell the color on a small paint chip, but this is the darker chocolate color.

This is the lighter shade, a bit more on the cocoa side. If we paint the walls brown, I will make curtains out of brown and cream toile. If we paint them red, I will make the curtains from the floral fabric from my ottoman(pictured below).

Okay, so what do you think??

Edited: I love Shannon's dining room color.
Edited again: I really love Katie's color.

My dining room is talking to me...

and she really, really wants this chandelier from Pottery Barn. Isn't it gorgeous?? Since Pottery Barn is just not in my budget, I have to make do. :(
Scroll down to see what I came up with.

Plain Jane before. I added a little crystal garland I already had and while its nothing like the one I really want, it was affordable!! It adds a little sparkle and for now it will do.
What do y'all think?? Oh, and I am very aware of the blah walls, but that is another post.

A Few Fall Touches

Y'all, I am sooo ready to decorate for Christmas, but first wanted to show y'all a little Fall around the ole' homestead. My friend, Michelle, painted the Pumpkin Thyme sign for me. I saw a similar one in Country Sampler magazine. I got the wood(cabinet door-?) at a yard sale for a $1!! Jenny made the FALL banner for me for the Thanksgiving (not so) Mini Swap. I got the snow angel from one of my antique shops' Christmas open house. I know she is technically a Christmas decoration, but I was too lazy to go unpack more boxes to find some more fally. The jars are holding rosehips and cinnamon sticks and a votive candle.

I actually didn't do this next one. I came down stairs and was going to turn the light off and found my acorn ornament on here. My kids make me laugh!!

Here I just tied a candle ring from Michael's on the bunny weathervane with chocolate ribbon. I love the look. Again, the armoire is a little sparse, but I really didn't feel like hauling everything out.

My kitchen counter...The pot that Monica made for me for the Harvest Swap. The acorn and turkey bowl filler that Jenny made for me. The tag in the dough bowl came in a giveaway I won from Joyfullness. I thought it was so cute and it matched. I plan on using this idea on Christmas presents. The little muffin tin I got recently from The Potter's House Thrift Store for 77 cents!! I love the design. Not sure if you can tell, but maybe if you click on the picture to see it bigger you will see the detail. I just filled every other well with pumpkin pods and votives. Same for the tart tins. I love this section of my counter. Its so funny, because last week I had this vingette in my corner and my microwave on the side counter. My mom visited last weekend to help unpack and I left the room and came back to see my microwave in the corner and this in its place. I laughed and my mom knew exactly what I was laughing about. I actually did this in my in-law's home. Like mother, like daughter!! Do y'all ever tweak someone else's home?? I know I am guilty. I have moved two firescreens in two different friends' homes. For the record, they did look better afterward. ;)

This photo is a little dark, but it is a brown leaf plate with acorn salt and pepper shakers. Its so simple but makes me happy. Apparently, it doesn't take much!!

I hope you are all having a happy week!! ABC Family has started their Christmas programs and I am getting so excited!!

Harvest Swap-What I Gave

Just wanted to show y'all what I gave Monica for the Harvest Swap. I made the Harvest verse craft. That was inspired by another project that Monica taught us to make. Her favorite Chai is packaged up already. I got her a magazine, chocolate cookbook, Thanksgiving stickers, napkins(is it bad that I push one of my obsessions onto other people??), turkey spreaders with two of my favorite spreader-needing appetizers, goody bags for her little ladies, and a pumpkin made from dried natural materials. I actually found a bunch of those pumpkins and other similar ones at Garden Ridge a few summers ago for a penny each!! Can you believe it?!?! I got at least 5o of them. If you didn't see what Monica got me, just click here.

I loved being able to tie in this verse into the swap. I feel its a very fitting verse for Monica also, as I view her blog as her mission field somewhat.

I stenciled "punkin" on an old shutter slat.

All packaged up and ready to go. I have to say, I quite love making tags now. I have two more swaps to go and I am finished!! Whew, its been a crazy, swappy season for me.

Christine

is the first name that doesn't suit me...Thankfully, my mom opted to call me Elise. No offense to all you Christine's out there. I think its a pretty name and a little old-fashioned(I love old-fashion names), but just not me.


Totally unrelated...this is Fisher playing guitar with Daddy. He always looks so curious with those eyebrows. He gets those from his Daddy. Other times, I think he looks like Jackson and my oldest brother.



Ted, my oldest brother...Fisher reminds me more of Ted's baby pictures and sometimes of one of his daughter's, but I cannot cough up one of those photos for y'all right now.

6 years

My oldest, my sweet boy, turned 6 on October 27th. Yeah, I am a little late posting this. I couldn't not post about Jackson's birthday though. What kind of mother would I be?? We started the day off with pancakes at the birthday boys request.

Big 6. Where has the time gone??

I asked Jackson if he minded a birthday brownie since we had cake for his party that Saturday before. He said, "Sure, but I want a monster brownie." Okay...This is my feeble attempt at a monster.

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Jackson, happy birthday to you.

The boy wanted the monster piece of course. He also needed to act like one for the picture!!

My husband and I were married on November 3rd, 2001. We wanted to wait a few years to have children. I decided to get birth control in January. A little too late...I was waiting to start and never did. Uh, huh. I bought a test and sure enough it was positive. We were both excited and nervous. Jackson came exactly a week before our first anniversary. In fact, while I was laid up at home, healing from the c-section, my husband and his friend went out to eat that first anniversary. I did give him permission. Sort of. It was all very romantic as you can imagine. ;)
Its been a great and trying six years. Raising children is nothing like I thought it would be, but it is rewarding.
Happy 6th Birthday, Jackson!! We love you!!

Harvest Swap

When Monica at The Homespun Heart and her sister, Carrie, posted about their upcoming Harvest swap I just knew I had to join. Big surprise, right?!?! This blog has become nothing but swappy almost. Anyway, I was fortunate to be paired up with Monica herself. I was so excited!! This girl is like Martha but so sweet and thrifty. Anyhow, this is what she got me. Knowing I love embroidery hoops, she made a stitchery and framed it in an old metal one(which I have never seen before.) Let's see...she also got me stickers, a leaf punch(my kids love this-they could punch all day), a fun Harvest notepad, ribbon(I do love me some ribbon!), vintage cookbooks(love 'em), some food markers that she made(I loved these ever since I saw them on her Anne post-I tried to link directly to the post, but it won't let me. Its in her September 2008 archives.), a pot with a cute fall mini wreath, a card making kit, a candle(its French, what, you've never heard of Glade'-hee, hee!! Sorry, couldn't resist!!), Indian corn, and a cute crate that says Thanks in orange glitter letters with a pumpkin pod. Love it all!!

The cookbooks...

Fabulous Fall ribbon, the punch...

I love the wreath on the pot-I have never seen one like that before...

I love the Harvest of Thanks stitchery and the food markers. I suppose I could use them for something else also. They have cute little acorns on them. I tell you, Jenny's love of acorns are seriously rubbing off on me!!
Thank you, Monica, for a fun package!!

Edited to add: If you want to see what I got for Monica, just click here or here.