Autumn Blues || Feat Donna London Vintage

As I write this we have finally received the go-ahead to move into our home. While we aren’t closing on the sale just yet, we do get to rent from the owner while everything gets sorted out. The lot lines need moving, which could take months, and we don’t want to be moving and remodeling in November! Renting while we wait is the perfect solution, and the sweet woman we are buying the home from is more than eager to have us live there and do whatever we want to do to make it home.

So these past two or so weeks we have been doing the necessary renovations in order to move in. We have pulled out the carpet, put an archway into the living room wall, patched the floor, scraped off the old felt backing that stuck to the wood floors from linoleum; we have painted every room (mostly, white until I can decide what color schemes I want – but in the living room, one beautiful hobbity green wall); we have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more. The very last steps are finally here, and they are the most time consuming: refinishing the original wood floors.

Dress, c/o Donna London Vintage (similar) | Boots, BAIT Footwear | Scarf, thrifted (similar) |  Belt, thrifted (similar) | Earrings, thrifted (similar)

This step will take approximately a week, if not longer. First, we must clear out everything we have in the house. Various toys the kids were playing with, garbage that has accumulated from our work, tools, etc. Then, we need to plastic off the pellet stove, the fireplace, and the kitchen opening to keep the dust from getting to things we cannot clean. Then, sand the floors. I don’t know how long this part will take, as there are four layers of killz on the living room floor (a previous renter was a smoker, and the owner’s daughter didn’t know what to do to save the floors so put in carpet), there is still some felt in the dining room. The kids’ room will be the easiest to sand, as it has minimal paint on it and should come up easily.

After sanding, the application of a finish begins. This will likely take the longest and feel the most torturous, as each layer needs a day to dry, and we need to apply at least three layers. Once the final layer is applied, we have to wait two days for the floors to cure… and then, finally – finally –  we will be able to move in!

We moved out of our old rental on July 1, and have been moving around to different places ever since. The prospect of finally being settled into our home is such an exciting thing. And our family will have grown by then too – by three kittens! It has been a long eleven weeks of waiting, waiting, and waiting some more. Having something to do these last two weeks has been a blessing; but makes the prospect of waiting just a tiny bit longer seem so arduous and long!

Meanwhile, we took three kittens from my cousins who needed a home and are currently housing them in the pantry while we wait to move in. They will eventually be outside cats – the mice and moles and various other critters need some corralling! – but for now they’re going to be a little bit spoiled as inside kitties. They are about eight weeks old, and still a bit too vulnerable to live outside in a new place. Especially our one boy kitty, who is a little bit wild and entirely unsure about us humans. He tries to hide in whatever he can – the blanket we’ve given them to sleep in, the crook of whomever’s arm that holds him, beneath the other kittens. Since he’s such a timid little thing, we’ve decided to name him Bilbo Baggins.

All of our kittens are named hobbit names. We have a soft gray fluffy girl, whose eyes are as soft and gray as her fur, and she is named after Samwise Gamgee’s wife – Rosie Cotton. Then, we’ve got an even fluffier little black furred sweetheart, who is by far the friendliest of the three, and her name is Belladonna Took. Then, our third, a timid and afraid slightly wild little long-haired Siamese boy, with white tips on his hind toes, who we have named Bilbo Baggins. Eventually, we hope he’ll love adventures.

I am so excited to jump straight into the farm life – with the kittens, with the highly producing apple trees that will make some fine applesauce, apple juice, apple cakes, apple pies… anything apple you can think of! – and to finally settle into our forever home. While we wait, here are finally the last photos of my collaboration with Donna London Vintage -and the outfit that people seemed to respond to the most!

Funnily enough, because I had a harder time styling this dusty blue dress than with the other two. It is gorgeous and now that I’ve styled it once I’ve been hit with a million more ideas to wear it again. But the color isn’t something I have a lot of, and the high neck combined with the blousy top and wider sleeves stumped me at first! It’s not a silhouette I would normally pick. Then again, this is why I LOVED collaborating with DLV – every piece she chose for me was beautiful, and challenged my sense of style, and made me think far outside the box. In the end, I fell in love with the outfit. The way it flows, the way it matches (inadvertently) the 1943 copy of Jane Eyre my husband found me, the way the colors are so unexpected yet perfect for fall.

I hope you all don’t mind my very long and rambling post; when we move into our new house I have SO many ideas for this blog and for outfit upon outfit! I can’t wait!

Dress, c/o Donna London Vintage (similar) | Boots, BAIT Footwear | Scarf, thrifted (similar) |  Belt, thrifted (similar) | Earrings, thrifted (similar)