Happy Autumn!

Alright, so money is, well I hate to say tight because thats not entirely true. I know what its like to have money be tight. Lets just say money isn't currently as abundant or comfortable as we would like it to be, so we're trying to save and penny pinch where we can. I suppose it has a lot to do with our big list of dreams, like fencing in 1/4 of an acre on our property so our dogs can run around (fences are way more expensive than I thought!), ripping up all our carpeting and laying new hardwood floors (about half the house), painting (again), then the usual things like slowly chipping away at car payments and student loans. Car payments and student loans are not as bad as they could be, though I still hate considering them 'debt' and I just wish to be debt free. It seems sometimes you have to dig yourself in a bit further before you can dig yourself out. Hopefully soon enough I'll be working a real grown up job (excited!) instead of my usual holiday part time (not that I don't love that either).

But just because we like to pinch pennies doesn't mean I want to live in the saddest least festive house in the neighborhood, so armed with coupons and a strict budget of $20 I went to Michaels with the determination of making a wreath... and I totally won. Made this cute little guy, for around $11!!!

Wreath: $4.99 + 40% off coupon
Felt: 2 sheets @ $0.29 each.
(I actually bought 4 ivory, 3 gold, and 3 purple but only used 1 ivory and 1 gold)
Needles: Around $2
Thread: Around $2
I already had a hot glue gun so all I had to do was follow the simple instructions to make the flowers that I found here. I added a step though!

When I finished looping on the 5th petal I put the needle and thread back through the first petal (to secure it, then I tugged it tight, lay the thread across the back of the flower diagonally, hot glued it down, then snipped off the end of the thread. I just wanted to make sure the flowers stayed tight and I wasn't taking it down and fixing it all fall.

When I finished doing that to all the flowers I rearranged them a million times and finally glued them onto the wreath. I think it looks a lot better than a naked door.

Happy Autumn! I think I like the asymmetry of it, but should I add a few scattered flowers on the other side?

Someday Maybe...

Welp, it's been a few weeks ... so that means its time to redo our bedroom!

Sadly, I'm quite serious. Can't stick to just one thing. I had done it over with a beautiful quilt from target, really soft teal sheets, and light seafoam walls. Very relaxy and such. Hubby says its too bright. Black and white it is! I know that can be very bright but he seems the like the idea better. More masculine, though he claims he doesn't care.

Right now I'm just looking for inspiration, it will be a while til we can get that done because our little fur-baby had a suprise $1,500 trip to the vet for emergency surgery. He's fine now but that set us back quite a bit.

Do you have any rooms in your house/bookmarked favorite inspiration in black and white? Even with some neutrals mixed in! If anyone can leave me with comments of images or ideas I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!

It's Been Months! ... Not Much Has Changed

So I feel awful logging in this morning and seeing I haven't updated on here in over 2 months. Not that many people will notice but I feel like that is a terribly long time. Even so I'm going to update now. Not much in the house has changed. Still floundering on paint colors, can't make a decision on window treatments, currently not working, but did buy a new car. Go figure!

My most recent change would have to be this.

My husband's first reaction was 'it looks like a kids table' (he did like it though when I asked him yes or no, his favorite color is green!) but I like the pop of color, and if we have kids it will be fun. I considered changing either the table or the chairs to white but for the time being I like it a lot better than it was. The legs were black and the table top and chair top were a brown wood grain. Only problem was the finish was completely ruined. But let me back up my decision on the bold colors here. The entire room is going to be inspired off of this small kitchen rug my husband found.

The colors are much more vibrant in person. Darn iphones. The walls of the room are neutral and I want to do fairly neutral curtains because I change my mind too often, but I really wanted to get lots of blues and greens into the room. We live in a new subdivision where every house is more or less the same inside. I want mine to look as different as possible from the cookie cutter that everyone fills in. DH and I love blues and greens so why not!

The only other thing I've really done since then was yesterday was my friend's son's first birthday! I made him cupcakes, that was interesting.

Mickey Mouse themed party! He liked them, that was all I needed.

What has everyone else been up to these past few months?

My Living Room Disaster Area

I desperately need to find stuff to finish my living room. If you saw it now you'd probably have a decorators heart attack and die. I will post a quick picture just so you can see how badly I'm suffering.

Now this is a good news bad news thing. Good news, it looks way better in the picture than it does in person! Bad news, it looks way better in the picture than it does in person!

Lets splain. I do everything at the same time, or nothing at all. Example. Didn't date for 19 years. At all. What so ever. Met, Drew. "Dated" (long distance, emails, skype dates while he was deployed with no official relationship status), dated in person: 3 hours, got engaged, 2 months later moved, 1 month later married. BAM. Thats how I get things done.

And that is how things end up like this. Messy. (Not our marriage, our marriage is awesome! I found the only guy in the world who can handle me for long periods of time, can make me laugh even when I'm super grumpy, shares my appreciation for the ninja turtles, and loves egg salad sandwiches. eHarmony can't give you that kind of chemistry!)

So what happened hear is kitchen table (bottom left corner). Shortly after moving in (like an hour) mover lady knocked over one of my scented wall things and I didn't notice til the next day. Finish on the table was ruined in a few ugly blobs. We still blame me for this and I'm okay with it. in the old house I bought a runner to cover it, in this house the runner isn't good enough so I grab a bucket of white paint and paint the top of the table. I don't like it. Haven't finished yet, either painting it black and adding a few coats of poly or getting rid of it. Can't decide, need to decide on colors for the rest of the room first. Also Drew kindly sanded down the chairs a bit for me so I could paint them, so I have super smooth chairs that look awful because th finish is gone, and a table that doesn't look good.

Giant blue thing. Started like this.

Ugly. So I painted it. Blue. Took it outside and happily doused it in paint while getting a sunburn. I decided to start this project at 2 in the afternoon. It was 96 degrees out and according to the weather 'felt like 102'. I ran back and forth a lot. Unfortunately we do not have a garage we can do this in. As I continue to paint, and am about to put on a coat of poly.... here come rainclouds. We hadn't had rain for about 2... 2 and a half weeks. Grabbed Drew and we ran it back inside and put it on trash bags in the middle of our kitchen floor so it wouldn't get ruined. I would put the poly on inside to just get it done and deal with the suffocation, but my fur babies would totally rub against it, ruin it, and their fur.

Since then... as of some sort of miracle... we have not had a SINGLE day where it hasn't been predicted not to rain. Good news! Thursday looks like my day! Then I just have to buy new drawer pulls!

Now addressing, giant cardboard boxes (yes, there are 2... its Wheres Waldo! Can you find them both?) Couch (grey couch, who has its back facing us) just got here from O.co the other day (yeaaa $2.95 shipping!) and I'm in loooove. We just set it up and its awesome. Of course, our trash/recycle day was yesterday, and my husband does the breaking down of boxes, because he came home one day right before our real wedding and he saw me breaking down boxes of wedding gifts with an old dull kitchen knife and I almost sliced my wrist open. Well, he didn't break down these boxes... and now he will say that they won't pick it up until Monday so he will break them down on Sunday. I disagree. This needs to get done now...so we don't look so trashy.

Small ugly carpet. $20 at Walmart. It was brown, on sale, and it helps muffle some of the sound. Giant golden fluffy retriever has already eaten a corner. Good thing I didn't get that awesome West Elm rug first!

Very masculine leather couch in front of the windows. Is on its way out. Husbands couch from before we were married, super comfy... except for the bottomless pit corner where his old dog ate through the leather and a lot of the stuffing, then yellow fluffy dog helped the process and ripped out more stuffing when he was a baby. So super comfy, but destroyed. Also much too masculine for what I want in the main room... and its too big to fit down the hall into the man-cave as it barely fit in our front door.

Ugly red curtains on tension rods. Well, those windows behind them are 24'' wide, we will have to attach blinds to the top because they don't have sides unless I can find an 84'' blind... we have 3 of those windows, 84'' blinds are approx $350 per window... $350 * 3 = WAAAAY TOO MUCH MONEY ($1050 before tax) though if we get them at Lowes I think we can get the auto 10% discount on custom blinds and 10% military discount. Which should bring it to $850.50... but thats only if we get both discounts and then add tax. Still too expensive. So we're trying to figure out how to make 27'' blinds work (they sort of will?) and then add a non-obtrusive curtain rod and find pannels that I like. Red curtains are up there only because you can see in our front windows to our bedroom at night and we don't like that, there is a glare on the tv without them because its super sunny, tension rods are only $5 at target and I already have had those red curtains for about 10 years, and Husband likes to live in a cave.

Things you can see in the room? Giant dog fur dust bunnies that could eat small children (even though I groomed the dogs outside 2 days ago and vacuumed yesterday), the fact that my sink is full of dishes because I made popcorn last night after running the dishwasher and didn't feel like emptying it (stove top popcorn is the best), my pretty white table (from my first post) with all of Husband's work hats (because apparently thats what its for... now that I made it pretty), and the large paint sample we painted on the wall. But that last part is good, because now I don't think it's going to work!

Phew! That took a while. Well, I'm still planning different ideas for the room. I think we're leaning towards green and blue accents but I want to keep the room bright! I found all this black furniture I love, I just wish it came in white. It seems silly to buy $80 end tables just to paint them.

I'll be posting some ideas up soon and I could really use some options and advice, so please check back!!

Paint It White!

I have this problem where I so desperately want my house to look bright and clean that I just want to paint everything WHITE! Problem is.. well a few things. 1. I have 2 dogs... 2 dogs who like to shed.

Cute, right? No. There is SO MUCH EVIL packed into these two dogs. But I love them. Sorry for the bad quality photos, these were taken on my phone. My Golden Retriever is about to turn 1 in a few weeks, and my Corgi turns 7 in August. Corgi was born and raised in New England, now that we live in NC hes having a hard time adapting to the heat, he has a double coat (blessed with a thick head of hair like his mama) which already shed a lot, now I do marathon brushings every day, vacuum every other day, and I still look like I have dust bunnies that could eat small children.

So I had to say no to white furniture, and pretty much everything clean looking. The Golden sheds hairs longer than my hair. He also likes to run around and whip up all the fur he can into the air, and roll around on my bed... a lot.

2. My husband can get dirty at work and his boots come in the house and his uniforms get tossed aside and sometimes they are dirty too. I don't want them ruining everything!

I'd love to have a fuzzy white rug in our living area but that seems to just be asking for trouble with the dogs, the husband, and in the future children...

So now I'm stumped on how to make my living room look bright. I have a gray sofa we just bought, I'm in love with it because fur just brushes right off. I figured I could add a white throw pillow to brighten in, but I can't decide on colors for the rest of the room. I like blues and greens but I want it to stay bright. If anyone has any inspiration photos please let me know! My living room is a disaster at the moment.

My Menagerie

So, you all probably don't know, but might have received a hint from previous posts that I have an obsession with white ceramic/glass animals. So much so that my best friend and I designed an entire kitchen and living room around a ceramic glass owl pitcher that she bought (for $40 and it was SO worth it) before I got married. We never got our apartment together because things started to move a bit faster with Drew and I, but I miss her, and that pitcher.

Then recently I bought my white giraffe lamp (you can see it in 'The Deals' tab, or in my older TJ Maxx post!) which I am in love with, and trying to be good I passed over a white ceramic owl the other day at TJ Maxx. Woke up at 5 am the next day, regretting it, and was at TJ Maxx for when they opened to find out that someone else bought it!!! (I trolled the aisles for over an hour.. and my TJ Maxx is small).

Well, I am crippled here because we only have 1 small TJ Maxx and nothing else. No Marshalls, no HomeGoods. Rarely does my TJ Maxx have good stuff. Though I did find a ton of furniture I LOVED the other day, my couch isn't here yet so I don't know what will go. I found a gray nail head bench that would make an adorable window seat but the bottom is a bit flimsy, as in I sit on it and I feel like my butt is going to fall through the other side. I would pay $40-50 for it, but not $80 because my Golden Retriever will probably hop on it and break it.

I've had to expand my search for awesome ceramic animals to online. I have found a few things I love and I thought I would share it with you. (Also, I am very picky about type of animal, go figure.)

Elephant Teapot : Amazon.com $15.99. 

If Drew asks this is what I want for our 1 year anniversary!

Large Owl Pitcher: $25.43 from amazon.com

This is the same pitcher she bought for $40 a year ago!

Owl Umbrella Stand/Vase: $134.41 from amazon.com

I've seen this in person... and its awesome!!

Ceramic Giraffe Sculplture: Jonathan Adler $120 

This giraffe also comes in lamps and wall sconces!

Elephant Salt and Pepper Shakers: Jonathan Adler $48 

SO CUTE!!

Whale Pitcher: Jonathan Adler $95

This is so so so so so cute!

Jonathan Adler's website has so may cute animals its really worth it to go check it out! That and lots of other lovely things!!!

Hope you're all having a great day! 

If I Could Do It All Again: Wedding

I would still marry the same guy. Hands down, the best man I've ever known (next to my daddy!) and I'm so lucky to have him, but my wedding day wasn't what I expected it to be. I had dreams of a grand wedding, and dreams of an adorable backyard wedding. My wedding fell in between, and not a good in between. I had fun, but I wish I had spent so much less on it doing what I wanted rather than what it seemed like my family was pushing and pulling for.

Drew and I were married in October in the courthouse, my family pushed for a 'wedding' within 6 months. I wanted a wedding in April or May but his parents were busy and wouldn't have been able to come. I would have been happy to keep waiting for any time during the summer. I'm glad it's done and that we can move on, but in the house we are in now it would have been perfect. We would have been married on the front steps. And I've already picked out clothes again!

Wedding Dress: $150 on Modcloth.com
My dress was $1,600 Paloma Blanca

 Maid Of Honor Dress: JCrew $168
My sister is a redhead so would object to wearing coral, but would wear coral accents. Besides, I like pattern and shes special so I would have wanted her to stand out if it wasn't just her.

Bridesmaids would have worn a bright red coral. This dress is from Modcloth as well. $137.99  My sisters dress as my maid of honor was less expensive than this, but still. I could have also had my best friend be a bridesmaid instead of just my sister at my side.

My wedding was lovely, but I wanted to carry big red gerber daisies, wear coral heels with white polka dots, have a big bbq with my family in my backyard and dance under the stars. If I could do it all again I would. And spend only a fraction of what I spent, and I think everyone would have had more fun too!

THIS IS MY EXCITED FACE!

Thank you all my dear darling nestie friends who convinced me to look further online for furniture. You were right, I was wrong, and I did find something I think I'm going to like. We ordered a new sofa online last night! Thank you o.co I always wanted a sofa shipped for only $2.95 instead of the $150-200 other places were quoting! I can't wait to see it. Even though Drew and I are avid haters of microfiber, we ordered a microfiber couch. Yes, now we are hypocrites but all the review's said that is was really nice quality microfiber so we're assuming by nice quality they mean it doesn't look like microfiber. The only real complaint I have with that material is the fact that if it's brushed in all different directions then it looks dirty.

I had planned out most of my living room yesterday, I liked the idea of doing a very bright living room, but then reality sank in. I have two dogs, and someday we will have children, and we cannot replace expensive sofas all the time. So instead of my beautiful cream colored fabric sofa we opted to get a dark grey microfiber one... that cost about half as much. Yea cheaper! So if we have to replace it, it won't hurt as much, but we're also much less likely to replace it.

Dreamed: Pottery Barn Sofa

Price: $899 plus shipping

Ordered: O.co Sofa

Price: $532.99 (plus $49.50 for 5 year replacement warranty) and $2.95 in shipping.

So if we're playing the 'How I'm Saving A Ton of Money This Summer' game, then I just saved  about $513. Go me!

Awesome Sale Items I Can't Afford Right Now...

So I'm trying to penny pinch since I quit my job (for good reasons). I'm a SAHW for the time being, but getting a lot done with helping to train our puppy (who is turning one next month!) better, keeping the house clean and organized, actually organizing the things we never organized when we moved in, and redecorating. I'm trying to be good about finding ways to reuse the things we have and make them look good but I can't resist the urge of wanting something new. Lately I haven't done much besides look through the sale departments (I won't even let myself window shop full price).

Here are the awesome things I've come across.

West Elm : Ruffle Border Shower Curtain

Was: $49.00 (I was going to buy it full price)

Now: $39.99

It has just that hint of feminine that I love so much.

West Elm: Songbird Duvet Cover & Pillows

Was: $69 (full/queen)

Now: $49.99

Pillow Sham

Was: $19

Now: $14.99

I would have loved to put this in my guest room. It's still such a good deal!! I really want it.

Anthropologie: Aged Zinnia Knob

Was: $6.00 (each)

Now: $2.95 (each)

World Market: Maldives Occasional Bench

Was: $229

Now: $114

We need outside furniture and I really love the simplicity of this!

Nailed It!

I finally figured out the difficult equation of me +  x style of couch = love. I know Drew wants a sectional but I didn't know what exactly made a couch appealing to me, then I realized this morning as I was half awake standing in my yard with my puppy, the answer is FEET. I like visible feet on couches. I do not like the bed skirt equivalent on couches, I want to see their feet. It makes them get a bit dirtier underneath but it also makes them easier to clean underneath, easier to find when dogs lose their toys underneath, and there is less fabric for dog fur to get stuck to.

Our original plan was to get a KARLSTAD sectional from IKEA. I was hoping we could fit a giant one but it doesn't look like it, so we would be sticking to the sofa/chaise combo, which is really more of a couch with an ottoman... just attached. The closest IKEA to us is 4+ hours away in each direction though so we'd have to get shipping (the gas wouldn't be worth it and we'd probably have to rent a moving van) and shipping is $200 so we would need to buy a lot of stuff to be worth it. We were planning on a new dresser, we wanted end tables and a kitchen table and chairs too but you can't buy those online.

But since I now know that I just want a sofa with feet I'm going to see if Drew would be willing to settle for a sofa and an ottoman, and we can probably save a million dollars in shipping. Finding a dresser is the only issue now.

And my next task is acquiring a large canvas to use as a headboard for our bed! Projects for some day when I have a little bit of money.

Inspiration

The living/kitchen/dining room is the next room that Drew and I plan to tackle. We still have some things to finish up in the bedroom (there is NOTHING) hanging on the walls. But the problem is we don't even have window treatments in the living room and at night you can see all the way into our bedroom. To him its simple, we get some blinds, slap them up, solved. I don't want to spend the money twice buying everything though so I know I really need to nail down a color scheme quickly so I know what to go for. So I've been dancing around the internet collecting pictures, trying to nail down my style and what I really want.

Drew always laughs when I tell him I'm doing this, he says that I want to 'live in a magazine photo, but you can't do that.' I disagree. I left my job yesterday and he said that if I don't want to I don't have to work any more. Well I do want to work, but I need some time. But for now that frees me up to clean all I want and actually live in a magazine photo... on a budget.

The hardest part about this room though is the fact that is it part kitchen. I want to create a really comfortable feel in there, like both he and I can step in and know we are 'home.' Because at some point or other both of us will be spending a lot of time here alone. For Drew it's when I have to go to weddings or the like back up North in my home and he can't get time off of work, and me when he deploys. I will be spending more time alone than he does, but more importantly I want him to feel really comfortable when hes here... without making it a giant man-cave with blackout curtains, surround sound, and beat up old leather chairs.

We already picked a color for in there... but we haven't actually started painting more than just a swatch (we have to hire someone to do it, the 18' ceilings are a bit daunting). But this is what we picked.

Which is funny. On here it looks more greige or purple but in the natural light of our room it looks quite blue, and in the evening it looks more grey. Perhaps I'll slash more of the swatch on the wall and try to take a decent picture to show you later on.

But these are what I pulled for inspiration. We were thinking going with more of a blue and green theme because I'm fond of my new Anthropologie knobs I got for my table (I got a second pair!)

I got the ceramic instead of the acrylic for the table because the color matched my awesome coral lamp (look at comparables or the TJ Maxx and Anthropologie post!) better. Those two pieces I would love to keep in the room as well. So they are pretty much our jumping off point!

Without further ado, these are the rooms I was drawn to.

We are planning on doing the blind/curtain duo like the last photograph. Though I'm a bit nervous. Our trim and crown molding is white, which is good, but its hard to match whites for blinds so we were probably going to go with dark wood, and I wanted to bring in the color and pattern with the curtains... but I'm afraid it might be TOO dark. 

What do you think? Should I go white with the curtains and bring the pattern elsewhere? Try to make my own romans and pick a fabric I like?

I Like My 'To Do' Lists!

I get excited when I have an entire list of projects for myself, and that is why I'm glad the house is all one color. Most of my list is painting every room but first I have to decide colors. Of course that will take a while so for now I'm just finishing one room and moving onto the next. Sort of. I want to make the house look nice for when we have friends and family stopping by.

I only work for a few hours this afternoon and into the evening so I have some time to do stuff this morning. I'm not 100% sure if I will actually get things done or just sit here like a lazy bump, but thats alright. I have tomorrow off too!

For our Master Bedroom I have to touch up a few spots that I noticed in the glow of the TV last night then paint the shelf I got for $3 at TJ Maxx and paint my $20 Target Mirror. Both of those have to be hung up and then we need something else for the walls in our room. I'd like to actually frame some of our wedding pictures but I'm afraid of making the walls look cluttered. We will see.

But my biggest thing right now is trying to figure out what I want to put in the guest bathroom.

It's really more beige than yellow in there. I know I need something for over the back of the toilet to make it look better but I don't know what to put there. I intend on framing out the giant square bathroom mirror but I don't know if I should hang some art or put a floating mirror or what. The colors are beiges and blues. And I am in love with that rug in front of the sink. I mentioned I liked it when Drew and I were at TJ Maxx the other day and he insisted on buying it. I said to put it back but he refused and just carried it around the store. Best $40 ever. My husband is so smart!

Victory!

There is never a happy medium with me. Either I do nothing or I do everything at once. As my dad has been telling me lately I live "life in hyper-speed" and I kind of have to agree. A year ago he wasn't sure if I was dating anyone and now I moved 800 miles away, got married, bought a house. Now I guess I'm decorating in hyper-speed.

Well we stopped painting after that one wall in the master bedroom the other day. We were both tired and I had at least taped off most of the walls. I had bought satin finish paint because the lady at Lowes told me we could magic erased the heck out of them and they would be fine, this is good because Atlas is a messy puppy and Drew swears by magic erasers. I was worries about streaks though so I wanted to let it dry and see how it looked.

The streaks were visible but not awful, you didn't see them unless you really looked for them. But I let it sit for a few days. Yesterday I decided to finish. Other than taking care of the dogs, I locked myself in the room all day and painted while Drew wasn't home. I wanted to surprise him and be finished when he got home but I couldn't move the big furniture without him.

I finishes by about 9:30 last night, removing the tape and all! I just have to finish touching up the trim and decorating and then I can move onto the next room! Once I finish I will be sure to post pictures. When I get home I might post some before and progress pictures though!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Molly & Drew Vs. Satin Paint

So, at 3 pm yesterday I decided I wanted to paint our bedroom. By 4:30 we had picked out paint, I'd gone to Lowes (we don't have a Home Depot around here and Lowes does do a 10% military discount! Yea!), chatted with the paint lady, been convinced to go with a satin over an eggshell finish because you can magic eraser the heck out of a satin finish and she says it will be okay (so in other words, satin finish is Atlas approved), picked up some rollers, drop cloths, painters tape (yes I went with the blue), stopped at Target to get us some painting beverages (Yuengling for him Mikes Hard Lemondade for me!), come home, discovered that Drew had never painted before, and slapped on two coats of paint. I'd say thats pretty good. Thats kind of a lot. So at 4:30 I got myself a drink and stood there analyzing the paint strokes in the sunlight.

And getting grumpy.

Paint lady at Lowes method didn't work for me the first time, but I figured I would let it dry and see if the strokes were a bit less noticeable. Instead I taped off most of the rest of the room while watching 'The Little Couple' on TLC. The only thing that isn't taped are the parts behind the dresser and the bed which I plan on taping out when Drew gets home from work. There is not chance I'll finish the painting today but maybe Friday (which I also have off of work) or Saturday I'm home by 4:30. Plenty of time!

We decided to paint it

Which on here looks khaki or yellow, on the can looks light green and in our room looks a bit more aqua. Though that may be the reflection from the sheets or the curtains. Regardless that is what is going on our walls and I'm happy for the time being. Less warm tones and more cool tones in our house is EXACTLY what I want. But knowing me I will be changing it probably as soon as I change out our window treatments because it probably won't work with the new ones.

I haven't taken any pictures of the room as it looks now but I will be sure to get around to putting some of those up later this afternoon. Wish me luck!

Anthropologie and TJ Maxx

I was really excited Friday when I checked the mail because the knobs I ordered from Anthropologie were there. I didn't have time to look at them before work so I took them with me. Thats okay because my job is literally waiting for the phone to ring, then answering it, and giving it to someone else because no one calls a car dealership to actually talk to a receptionist. So I spent a lot of time just looking at my new knobs and I showed just about everyone who would look because I was really excited. Finally I got to go home and I immediately put them on the table.

I was a bit uncertain at first but I'm fairly sure I really like them and will just like them a whole lot more when the house is painted and they match the decor better. Hopefully it won't be much longer until we get that room painted at least. We've picked out a color but we aren't 100% certain we will be going with the Valspar paint. It is the easiest for us to get but we're going much lighter than the walls are right now so it will take at least 2 maybe even 3 coats to cover as we would like to. And that could be a bit pricey, especially considering we're going to hire someone to paint the room for us. This is the only room we're not painting ourselves because I'm afraid of heights and the 18 foot ceilings are a bit scary. That and I'm not about to buy a ladder that big just to paint the ceilings (and someday soon hopefully switch out the chandelier over the dining table that I'm not all that fond of.)

But the real exciting purchase was something Drew and I stumbled upon ourselves! Monday when we were out buying his birthday present (a new computer chair) super early because he really needed it Drew and I decided to wander through TJ Maxx because it's my favorite and it was on the way. We found this super cute coral lamp that BOTH of us actually thought was pretty cool. It was $40 with the shade which is actually an awesome price for a cool lamp, but I didn't feel like spending $40 at the time. So we wandered to the clearance section and it was love at first sight with this ADORABLE giraffe lamp. I'd been looking at one online a year or so back that wasn't even as cute and I considered paying $150 for it after shipping.

This little lamp had seen better days as it was cracked and dirty. I wanted to bring it home and save it but Drew was convinced if he picked it up by its neck the head was going to fall off and that the wiring was probably damaged. I disagreed but left the giraffe lamp anyway.

Fast-forward to yesterday (Saturday). I woke up in the morning and couldn't stop thinking about that coral lamp so finally I frantically dove through a shower and headed out to TJ Maxx as it is Memorial Day weekend and shoppers are crazy, that and I had plans in the afternoon. But I just HAD to have this lamp. I got there (in the pouring rain) almost slipped and fell on my butt, but I made it back to the lamp section. And it was gone. To add insult to injury though they had other aquatic lamps and figurines. They had an ugly white statue of coral (blech!) an even uglier cobalt/teal metalic spray painted realistic coral lamp on a black base with a white shade (double blech) and then a lamp with a starfish that was spray painted silver... I grew up on Cape Cod. Starfish are not silver.

I was sad... so I wandered around sad trying to find something to buy as a pick me up, so I headed to the clearance sections again (for some reason I generally find it a waste to buy anything that isn't on clearance at TJ Maxx... except I would have made an exception for that lamp.)

Then I suddenly got super excited and rushed past to ladies that were moseying over to the clearance section. Why? Because there was ANOTHER GIRAFFE LAMP! And it was waaaaaaay less broken than the other one. A bit more dirty, and still a little broken, but I could totally glue it back together and give it a new coat of paint! Yeay! The best part? It too was marked down to $10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I plan on (maybe) switching out the shade but keeping this little guy as my desk lamp until I have kids, and then this will be a nursery lamp. He's just so cute though, I fell in love.

I was still a bit sad about the coral lamp though, but I just clutched my giraffe lamp and kept wandering around the store, checking the kitchen clearance aisle and so on... and then... Hidden behind a bunch of other stuff... I found MY CORAL LAMP!

 

Sorry the picture is a bit dark, it was still 6 am when I took this picture. But it really is splendidly cool. And as I approach the register with these two ultra funky lamps I look like either A. I have a very interesting modern/contemporary style that people WISH they could duplicate, or B. My house looks like a 5 year-olds imagination exploded onto it. I'd like to think more of option A. And it did seem that the cashier really liked the lamps too! She said nice things.

So then I packed my new lamps carefully into my car and headed home. Even called Drew on the way home to be excited because I couldn't wait til I got there. Victory.

Seriously, though. When was the last time you got two awesome lamps with shades for $55 including tax? The ones at Target that are super plain cost about that much just for the base! I call this... success!

The Giant Checklist

I'm working this afternoon and probably not going to get much done for the house today aside from the ordinary every day cleaning but I figured it would be beneficial for me to make an awesome giant checklist of things I want to accomplish within the next year for the house. I'm giving myself a year time line because it's a lot. It might take longer than that but I think I'm finding staying in on the weekends and doing things around the house is more fun than going out. And avoiding doing both we can save money a lot faster! So here we go, giant checklist.

1. Build fence for the dogs.
2. Decide on colors for all bedrooms.
3. Paint guest room bed frame.
4. Make 2 new desks for the office. (Click!)
5. Build kitchen table. (Click!)
6. Purchase and install new pendant lamp. (Click!)
7. Spiff up the front yard.
8. Fancy up the mailbox.
9. Paint Master Bedroom.
10. New Master Bedroom Furniture.
11. Sectional for the living room.
12. Paint laundry room.
13. Make window coverings/treatments for all of my awkward sized windows.
14. Buy real curtains for windows that can support them.
15. Improve on Master Bathroom (switch out knobs, paint?)
16. Guest bathroom, in general.
17. Make a gallery wall in living room.
18. Make headboard or bed frame for Master Bedroom.
19. Build cool bookshelves for around the fireplace! (Click!)
20. Build entryway table. (Click!)
21. Build bookshelves for closet storage! (Click!)
22. Switch out mirrors in Master Bathroom for 2 individual mirrors.
23. Switch out light fixtures in Master Bathroom.
24. Build shelves for attic.
25. Paint end tables.
26. Make new (cute) dog beds.
27. Pretty area rug for the living room!

More will be added I'm sure. Probably the first things conquered will be deciding on colors and painting the laundry room because those are things I can easily do on my own. Wish me luck! This list will probably grow, and also take me well over a year, but it's exciting to do things!

Home Sweet Ours!

I'm so excited to actually be in our home now! Even though we moved in two weeks ago today, between today and yesterday was the first real dedicated time I had to enjoy it. I've only had one other day off since. But now it's really real to me and I'm so unbelievably excited!!!


I want to do everything at once but of course we have to prioritize. We finished (mostly) unpacking throughout the week when we got home from work, running around a bit like chickens and finally falling in bed at night completely exhausted but so happy. Really the biggest and scariest part of unpacking was our closets, and thanks to the fact that we decided large rubber bins were much better than moving boxes even that wasn't so bad. Now we can swap out winter and summer clothes into our giant attic with no worries! (Even though our closet could easily fit both of our full wardrobes!)


So with half of our clothes in the attic and the other half tucked away neatly in our closet, we are starting to feel like we're really living here.


We're still waiting on our quote on our fence, neither of us can wait until we can open the door and just let the pups out into the backyard. We're certain Atlas will enjoy spending the majority of the day running though the sprinkler and Oliver will probably just elect to be inside, but thats fine by us. If Atlas can be out there frolicking we're going to be a happy family!


Once the fence is installed and we have recovered (financially) we will be moving on to other things like panting and buying some well deserved new furniture, like a grown up dresser and a comfy sectional for the living room! All very exciting, but this will take some time.


Speaking of, the quote on the fence just came in at $4,800 so it will probably be a while before we get a fence. Either we will do it ourselves or have to get another quote from another company. In this North Carolina humidity it's not worth shelling out that much money for a fence that may only last 2-3 year if will protected.


It will be another adventure then! Building our own fence! Maybe!


For now we're sticking to small things. Slowly deciding on color schemes for rooms (because I can't stand an all beige house) and working with what we have/what we can make. We're planning on making 2 new desks for our office with this tutorial I found on ana-white.com when we have some time off together, and todays project for me was finally painting a table that I've been lugging around with me for 8 years. Have a look!

 

Before 

& early this morning! I started at 7 am after I fed the dogs and took them out. 

After 

I had finished this by 9 am when Drew was still in bed, I felt very successful!! Of course this was later in the day once I had dried, and Drew helped me carry it back into the house. We're not sure if this is where it's staying and obviously it's not centered and the room needs more decoration but I think it's a good first step! I'm pretty excited, as this moment was 8 years in the making!


And what do you know, it only needed 4 coats of paint! The paint was the trim paint left over by the builder so that didn't cost me a thing. The table was purchased 8 years ago for somewhere between $40-70 I can't really recall, and the paintbrushes cost me $2.50. I think it was a pretty good deal overall.


I did splurge a little though. I ordered new knobs for it from Anthropologie at $8 per knob, plus shipping, but I feel like I deserve it, as they are really the only thing I've purchased for myself recently.

 

I ordered the brass one. More pictures when they get here of course!


Well, with the set back on the fence painting this room might come sooner than we thought! Fingers crossed!!


-Molly Kate