House Tour - the Kitchen + A Giveaway!

Let's giveaway a pillow! The winner is... # 8! I swear that says 8 above.

Congrats Ramona! Email me at oh.thats.swell at gmail dot com.

And don't feel left out in the cold if you aren't Ramona, cause I've got another little goodie to giveaway. Since we'll be meandering through my kitchen today, I thought these would be appropriate. Just leave a comment from now until Thursday night at 9 EST to win this set of 2 Gilded Birdcage Cotton Bar Towels from another cute little Etsy shop, Branch Handmade. They do original screenprints on home textiles and clothes too and they're awesome.

So yes, welcome to the kitchen...where not a whole lot of cooking gets done but it *is* where we store our takeout menus. If I were to be so inclined to cook however, I think we've got a pretty good set-up. Once again, the kitchen pretty much is the same as how we found it. Awesomely high ceilings, plenty of light, both natural and on the tracks. This was a huge selling point for me. In our old house, our kitchen was nestled in the middle of the house, and since it was a townhouse, that means there were no windows. And I hated that. I hated washing dishes staring at the wall in front of me. Now I look out over the side yard and driveway and it makes that task a little more bearable.

This kitchen came with new cabinets, new countertops and although the appliances were only a few years old, John got his way and we ordered all new ones...so they'd match. If you'll remember, I allowed this un-necessary purchase so that when the time comes for my hot tub purchase, there will be no resistance. I'm a smart cookie, thinkin' ahead and all...

Anyway, ignore my giant fork and focus on the big picture here. See how the kitchen overlooks the whole addition? That's what I'm talkin about. I love being able to be in the kitchen and see out over the whole thing. This also goes back to my hatred of my old secluded, boxed-in kitchen of the past. You, new kitchen, are the future and you, are good.

As you step down from the kitchen, you head to our main entrance of the house, the side door. So I picked up this little table at Target because it has a mini drawer, perfect for holding car keys.

Oh and finally, one of my favorite little purchases. We ordered this cart from JC Penney online for maybe $180? I highly recommend JCP's pre-fab furniture. The quality is so much better than Ikea and 700 times easier to put together. Anyway, this area next to the refrigerator was begging for a cart of some kind so this fit perfectly. Throw our little charging station and mail cubby on top and all clutter gets corraled here. And if you know me, you know this is absolutely needed. I despise clutter...mail, coupons, anything, laying on my kitchen counters. I know, there's a name for that sort of behavior but I'll just say I'm particular.

Ok, well that's bout all for the kitchen. Not pictured: our white porcelain sink that makes me mad on a daily basis. It gets so dirty so easily and I'm terrified of chipping it. Oh and most of our refrigerator. Yeah, it's covered in finger prints and I didn't feel like cleaning it. Oh well, you've seen one SS fridge, you've seen em all...

Tomorrow, we'll take a trip to the place where the magic happens we sleep and keep our clothing. You can barely contain your excitement, can you?