My Fall Trip To Ikea

Hi. I'm back after a few days away and I have missed being here with you. Last week I was attending a military spouse event and had the very rare occasion of a couple of hours beforehand to just wander around in that neighborhood. So I decided it was the perfect time to visit Ikea and check out the holiday decorations and new fall products.

It was a lesson in changing tastes. I found myself drawn to the lighter woods again. My days of loving dark woods may be limited. I really liked this table, mostly for the shape of the legs. I love that they are different and have a little more visual interest to them.

The size of this table is nice with the large, attached fold-down although I don't like that the legs would not be centered at the table's full length. That would just bug my eyes a little bit. I really liked the bench a lot. I'm thinking for our next dining table I'd like beautiful chairs on the ends and benches on both sides. We'll see what happens. I still dream of the day we get rid of the table that we've got right now. That will be a historically happy day for me!

I like the look of these pendant lamps. I think they would look so great in multiples over a kitchen island or dining table. They would go well paired with natural wood tones too.

This was another fun lighting fixture that caught my eye. I have draperies with the same pattern on them, so I definitely see that it's one that works for me. It would be fun over a side table or in a corner sitting area...or if the ceilings were tall enough, over a kitchen island.

Because we're living in a small space and already have quite a few holiday decorations I didn't get anything in the holiday department. But you can get a good look at all the fun holiday decor at Poppytalk where they did a preview of all the holiday goods.

It was lovely to get in my quarterly trip to IKEA. Always something new to inspire the design mind.

Blogiversary:Thank You For Five Amazing Years

I have been looking forward to this day for a couple of months now. Not because it was going to be a big day, but that it was a moment to look back, evaluate and be grateful for the journey. Five years ago to day I posted my first post here on this blog. It's my fifth blogiversary.

I find it rather strange that I posted my first time on Halloween day. It seems like that would've been a bit of a busy day to start up a "life project." Funny. This blog was set up for a few months before I actually stepped out from the shadows and did something with it on Halloween Day 2009.

I feel like this blog was with me long before I met The Man, but today I realized I'd already been with The Man for nearly 18 months by the time I started blogging here. That is mind-boggling. I cannot even fathom that. Of course if you count the days The Man and I have been apart geographically in that amount of time, I've spent way, way, WAY more time with this blog in the past five years. Sigh.

When I look back at the humble beginnings I cringe at the photography and the minuscule size of the photos. I still feel the growing pains when I see experimental use of text sizes and other "inspirations" gleaned from articles read by "blogging experts." I have to thank Leslie Shewring, the genius behind A Creative Mint, for being the one person who has taught me more about photography than any other. Her lessons in Holly Becker's BYW classes were life and blog changing.

As I've been looking back I have lots to be grateful for since the birth of kalanicut. I've had a place to write and publish whenever I want to. As a life-long writer, that is am amazing gift and something that was not available to writers even a few decades ago.

Because of kalanicut I have renewed old friendships and stayed in closer contact with friends and family. I've also made some amazing friends who have had such a positive impact on my life, including many from BYW classes, like Kelly, Jenn, Glenda and Jane.

There are so many others who I've crossed paths with online over the past few years who have added amazing new things to my world and I am so grateful. Many I've had the chance to meet in person. It's also been sad to see a lot of people I really admired walk away from blogging in the past 18 months or so.

As a blogger I have some idea of the pressures and time it takes to put something together every day or even once a week. But I miss them and I've definitely been impacted by the quickly changing nature of blogging in the past two years.

Everything I was reading about declining readerships over the past year got me quite discouraged and for a good long time I anticipated the demise of kalanicut and how I wanted that to happen and how soon. Readership dipped, everyone was talking death upon blogging and it seemed like a natural progression that would be unavoidable in the near future.

But then one day last summer I came to the realization that all the reasons I had for beginning this blog, all the motivations and joys were still intact. That I wanted to keep this place alive if for no other reason than for me to have a place to write and share ideas.

So I went back to basics and started studying up again on all the ways to fuel a great blog and then I started employing them. And guess what, within about eight weeks my blog readership had doubled and was on it's way to tripling. Then my kalanicut Facebook page numbers started growing, and so did my Pinterest following.

Twitter has also grown although a little more slowly. But based on what I've seen and read about Twitter, things are changing there now with slower growth. I've also noticed that there seems to be less organic conversation and more pure promotion on Twitter than in the old days. I think everyone finds that a little less interesting than connecting with people in real conversations.

So blogging is not dead, this blog is not dead and I am excited to continue to write, grow and enjoy the journey. The biggest thanks of all has to go to you supportive readers. I will bump into one of you now and again or hear from you online and as silly as it is, when you tell me you read every day or that you liked a particular post it sort of strikes me with surprise. People are totally up to date on what goes on here and with my life? Really? I should know better, I see the numbers but it still catches me off guard and I feel a little sheepish.

Thank you, dear supportive readers... FRIENDS for being here these five years. I hope to continue the journey with you for many more. Thanks for sharing this amazing time with me. Now I am going to go and find some fun way to celebrate the day. Happy Halloween!