Behind Closed Doors

By the title of this post you may think I'm going to touch on something lewd, risque, or emotionally breaking - not quite, but after the past 3 days, I might just view it as emotionally breaking. These are the doors you do not need to open when you go look at a house, and what I'd like to share is how we, as living breathing human beings, can keep the door you shouldn't open from being the front one. What does life look like in this situation?
Absolute.
Utter.
Unpredictable.
Chaos.
It was "bad enough" to have to get about a third of our "stuff" into one of those POD things and out of the house to have the pictures taken for the listing. Sure, that may make us sound like some sort of hoarder family, and yes I have my fair share (plus some) of Christmas decorations, but showing a house is an art form. Especially, let me reiterate, ESPECIALLY when you're competing with new construction.
Pictures went well enough, and then we had open houses on back to back weekends. Simple enough in itself, right? Sure! The dogs were boarded, the times were predictable, we had Dablet set up with other activities.
No Problem!
But then the rest of showing a house sets in....and you literally lose your mind.
Ok...I should have a warning label on my forehead when it comes to things like this:

Note: It's not because things are disastrous, but if my home is on display I know how these things work. Prospective buyers have CRAZY expectations of what a home should look like. It should be a display piece, with no dust, no dishes, no laundry (or clothes for that matter), no signs of life. So when you're actually LIVING in a house while it's on the market, life is more like this:

Case in point:

This past Saturday was a FULL day of Mary Kay appointments, a quick stop by the softball complex in Raleigh to watch Kyle play for a bit, and a day with Dablet. Finally ended up back at home around 5:15 excited to put Dablet to bed and relax for a bit since we have spent the last two weeks traveling and fighting off a toddler with a 106 fever...or is it a 106 fever in a toddler....either way....CHAOS.

The clock strikes 5:45 and my phone buzzes....Centralized Showing Service....showing request for your home at 6:30.

Instant. Brain. Explosion.

45 minutes to....I can't even process everything on the list. Immediately respond with "NO" to cancel the request. Here's the thing about trying to sell your house though, it REALLY helps if people can get into see it! So I called and said that if they REALLY wanted to come see it, we could do 7:30 with a window extending until 8:30 - at which point we could go back in the house. 

Showing time ACCEPTED....back to freak out mode.

The next hour and a half is what I like to call Operation Flash! I don't know much about comics, but I know Flash moves VERY quickly! What exactly had to happen in an hour and a half while I was home by myself with Dablet, THREE DOGS, and THREE CATS?!?! Well, let's see.....

Hide all the laundry that had piled up, the dishwasher was already full of dirty dishes, so the dirty dishes that were filling the sink from the dinner party the night before were met with a fighting stare from me before I decided there was no use. Scrub the glass shower (always a pointless task...will never have clear glass again), get rid of the trash, diapers, recycling, and clean the playroom. And there were those stinkin dishes still sitting there....By this time my mom had arrived to give Dablet dinner. Back to shoving things into drawers, cabinets that never get opened, and wiping down EVERY. SINGLE. SURFACE. in the house...maybe you're thinking that isn't such a big deal...like I said...we have THREE DOGS who have made it their mission in life to find a way to get hair on every single surface within 10 minutes of said surfaces being cleaned.

Time to get the cats in carriers and kick them out with my mom and Dablet...and of course, Dablet thinks it's fun to try and play with the kitties, so she unzipped a carrier and Meow had an attempted escape in our front lawn...insert four letter words loud enough for the neighborhood to hear uttered by my mom as she grabbed her mid-air on the lawn...perfect....

OK, now to hide any evidence that those cats live in our house, because let's be honest...showing a home that pets live in is like trying to Windex the cages monkeys live in at the zoo so a toddler could lick the glass at a moment's notice...

By this time I'm more than sweating...literally RUNNING around my house to get things done. Time to stick the dogs in the car, but where in the world are the leashes?!?! Grab scarves to get them out there into my mom's car because Kyle has our big SUV at a softball tournament. Fabulous. With 5 minutes to go before I have to be out of the house it's a standoff between vacuuming our red rug in the living room, or doing the dishes in the sink. Let's face it, not even Flash can wash, dry, and put away a sink full of dishes in 5 minutes. The rug wins and I resorted to putting the dishes in reusable shopping bags and hiding them in our garage. There is NO shame to "make it work" when in crisis like this!

Blitz out of the house after a literal run through to blow out all of the Fall scented candles with no time to let them go out on their own. You know what I'm talking about, that candle that can't make up its mind if you blew hard enough so it smokes for a while...so I licked my fingers and pinched each one out. I'm honestly not sure if I used a new finger each time, or if I had soot on my face after...and make sure I didn't leave anything at our front entry table...and I'm in the car.

It wasn't until I got out of our neighborhood that I realized I didn't have my shoes.... and I was wearing all gray...I looked like I had just escaped an institution.

Meet up with my mom at a gas station, because my car that she took was on fumes (of course). Got to pump gas under full florescent lighting in my gray getup with no shoes...while one of the cats puked and did other unmentionable things in his carrier...he used to be my favorite.

There was a lot more that happened after that, but the moral is, you really can't LIVE in your home while it's on the market if you want to show it in a competitive place. Never mind have a toddler who has a mission in life to destroy anything you put in its place. And FORGET about having even a single pet...let alone 6 in the house....When I did the math, we have 30 legs to get out of the house at any given moment.

I went back to a beautiful breathtaking photo Kyle showed me a few days ago, and it's now at the top of my Christmas wishlist.....

Someone come organize a cleaning closet like this for me. I'm great at organizing...but way too much of a perfectionist for my own projects to ever start and finish something this spectacular for myself. Unfortunately, I can't have a cleaning lady on call during this process...so life will have to go on! We had another showing today...this time we had almost 2 hours, but I was only home for the last hour...we survived, and I remembered my shoes!

Falling Back

I've been flying under the radar for the last couple of weeks dealing with family things, work things, trying not to get sick, and planning a first birthday for Dablet! I've pulled up my "compose screen" a couple of times to get back into the blog, and nothing felt quite right. I told you all that my aunt passed away recently, and I'm trying my best to find a way to process that. I was driving to Kyle's softball game last night and I found myself talking....make that carrying a conversation...with myself. Odd, I know, but I'm sure every once in a while someone else out there does the same thing. I was trying to figure out how I can take the lessons and vivacity for life that she passed on to all of us and make myself more inspiring because of them.
I have always had a strong love for the Fall season! Not only because of the weather, but also because of the color and how the world seems to wipe the slate clean for the next cycle. The leaves turn brilliant colors and fall to the ground; sometimes we use them to decorate our homes allowing for a continued presence. My Aunt always asked us to mail her Fall leaves, because she lives in Arizona and doesn't get many, she loved the colors!

To shop this board click here

One of my favorite parts about Fall is the flavors and smells! I always swap out my candles from the floral, beach, clean smells of summer to the crisp, rich, and indulgent smells of Fall! Here are some of my favorite Yankee Candle smells for Fall:

For more on decorating with candles check out my Fall Feasts board on Pinterest and this pin 

from my Fall Tablescapes blog entry:

Pinned here

Now it's time for me to light my candles and get back into the world of purple and tulle for Dablet's first birthday party this Saturday! I will have plenty of pictures to share from her extravaganza! Keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds for us!

Focus On: Thanksgiving Tablescapes

Happy Hump Day! It's a day of link ups with two other fabulous ladies, Lynda of Focal Point Styling and Julie of Simply Savvy to talk about the "Big Three Before the Tree: Fall Decor, Halloween, and Thanksgiving". I jumped at not only to opportunity to join forces with them, but also to snag Thanksgiving! There are so many ways to turn your family gatherings, even if it's a small gathering, into a stylish event quickly, reflective of your own taste, and in an affordable way!

Candles:

You have them around the house, in drawers, and guess what?! You can use and reuse them seasonally by changing how you display them! The top three show you ways of setting candles in common Fall things in somewhat more involved ways, but still very user friendly. What I love about the bottom three is that you could have had the same candles out the week before on the same table but with different accents. Grab your favorite shaped glass vase or small bowl, some dried corn, cranberries, or coffee, and you have instant centerpieces for your Thanksgiving table!

Leaves:

Let's face it, if we look out our windows the in the Fall (at least in all of the places I remember living) you see leaves! They're iconic Fall colors, textures, shapes, and even the delicate nature of the passing season come across from the outdoor foliage. My favorite three from this assortment are the pears (top right), napkins (bottom left), and the vase (bottom right). Each of these can be executed in less than 5 minutes to add color, texture, and the perfect Fall element to your table!

Pumpkins:

I've mentioned the importance of bringing color and texture to your table already, and pumpkins are perfect for that as well! We'll go ahead and include gourds in this too! I always love going to our local pumpkin patch and fishing through the bins of gourds to find the oddest shaped ones for decoration! Pumpkins are also perfect for painting, as seen in the bottom right photo to bring whatever color scheme you are going for possible with Fall nature. Not only can you paint them, but you can also add some bling with glitter (top left) as well! Maybe you're not the glitter type, but this would be a lot of fun for a kids' table! Just like the leaves you can stack them in tall glass vases for an easy way to bring color and height without fuss to your Thanksgiving table.

I thought this was genius and had to share! If you're lucky enough to entertain outside for Thanksgiving, use tiny pumpkins as table weights for your linens!

I know my "Focus" is supposed to be on Thanksgiving tables, but I warned Lynda and Julie when we teamed up that I would not be able to talk about the table without talking about the food you put on it! Every year I make the turkey and all of the things that go with it, and every year I wonder why I only do it at Thanksgiving! I LOVE everything associated with Thanksgiving cooking, and all of the Fall flavors! 

Here's the recipe for these Pumpkin Spice Pancakes:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 
  

• Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
  2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Recipe from AllRecipes.com

There is an infamous story in my family about stuffing a turkey! Apparently one year sometime before I was born my dad and my aunt (his sister who recently passed) got into it about which kind of stuffing would be made for the turkey and if the bird should be roasted breast up or breast down. It ended with my aunt getting to stuff the cavity and my dad getting to stuff the neck (it was a large turkey), and it was roasted breast up. Since then, we always have two kinds of stuffing at Thanksgiving which I love because it means more leftovers! Here are a few fun ideas I found for leftovers this Thanksgiving season:

Boxed leftovers to go with your guests names! This way you don't have to worry about not getting your tupperware back!

You don't always want to keep eating "heavy" food, so a shredded turkey salad with cranberry relish is a perfect option!

Thanksgiving leftover pie! For more info on this treat click here

I don't think I need to get into the pie recipes (yet!), but I'll share a couple great dessert table displays with you!

Even if you have simple desserts, remember to use varying height to make your table a bit more fun! Check out your local Goodwill store for cake stands, fun chargers for layering, and even short vases you can use as makeshift stands for plates. Just because you want to change your table decor for the season does not mean you can't reuse the same items year round! 

For even more inspiration check out my Fall Feasts board on Pinterest and head over to Olioboard to play around with some decor ideas there! 

To see this board and shop the look click here

As I mentioned before I've teamed up with to fabulous ladies today for the "Big Three Before the Tree". You can follow the buzz and join us on twitter by using the hashtag #Big3B4TheTree and check out the other blogs here:

Focus On: Halloween Steampunk Style

Simply Savvy

Focus On: Fall Decor