Last week I made the announcement. This week the real fun begins as I start to share the journey. The cooking won’t start for five weeks, but we have a lot of ground to cover between now and then! So many things to share and show….
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This past week I began to clean out my kitchen at home. Half of the cooking for this project is going to happen at Hurley House, and half of it will be in my home kitchen. WHICH, as it turns out, is exactly where Hurley House began.
If you don’t know the story, I began Hurley House in my home, and ran the entire operation from our kitchen for three years. It still kind of makes my stomach turn every time I think about it because our kitchen is so small…I’m not sure how we did it.
That being said, I want to share something very vulnerable. The truth is, I wish I had a different kitchen. Every day I want it to be bigger, better, prettier. It is small, outdated, and kind of ugly. There. I said it. And the fact that I am about to invite you in to see it on a regular basis makes me squirm. I know my kitchen doesn’t name me, but it doesn’t stop me from struggling with the fact that I want something different than what I have. So when you see me smiling in front of my chipped cabinet doors and gold granite countertops, know that I’m working hard to be grateful for what I have.
Anyways, this past week, in light of the coming wave of cooking, I decided to go ahead and purge some items. For such a small kitchen, we really do have quite a lot of storage space, and over the past five years I have accumulated too much. I am trying my best to only keep tools and gadgets that are absolutely necessary because I dislike stockpiling items that never get used. One weekend in, and I’m already feeling better. Purging is good for the soul.
I also replaced the curtains over our kitchen sink. I know it sounds silly, but it made the biggest difference. One of my core issues with our kitchen is how the color palette is full of warm tones. I am a cool tone person, and I like everything to be light and airy. While I can’t do a full kitchen remodel, I can change the curtains. So I did! And I discovered that the simple act of lightening up the window dressing helped tremendously.
Lastly, I have the first of five little prequel video episodes to share with you! Before the project was a done deal, before I even knew if it would pan out and become a reality, I decided to record some videos on how I was feeling in the moment, what I was contemplating, and where we were in the process of planning.
The first of these videos is below. I hope you can tell how heavy I felt emotionally when I recorded this. The struggle is all over my face. So much angst happening below the surface. The fun and excitement you see in me today came after weeks of wrestling with the idea, trying to decide if I could navigate this project well, and whether or not I could make it work. The rawness of this video is not manufactured. Real time. Real feelings.
Thank you for reading and watching! I am so excited to have you on this journey with me!!
Look for another update next Monday!
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