Generosity

A few weeks ago, I got pretty lucky.

I've posted several times about the beautiful bridesmaids dresses we ordered from etsian sohomode. When the shop owner, Louise, asked if she could get some photographs of my ladies in their dresses for her blog, I said heck yeah! I thought it'd be a great opportunity for our photographer to get some added exposure and, well, the ladies looked great, so why not?

By the way, if you're looking for a photographer in the Baltimore/DC area, definitely check out her site. She was extremely responsive from the beginning, sent tons of original engagement session shoot ideas (included in our package), and was very accommodating when our engagement session had to be postponed. She works with her husband, and they're just the sweetest. I could so see us being friends in real life. I'll admit, it's a bit awkward having someone stare at you, waiting for the perfect photographic moments as you're getting your makeup applied, hair curled, and getting down to your unmentionables as you get into your dress, but Serena made it all feel as natural as it could. I can't wait to work with her again.

Here's her blog, too, if you're interested.

But back to Louise and her shop. She requested these photographs, and I agreed to send them to her once I got home from work:





We continued to talk about lovely the dresses turned out in our etsy convo when I mentioned that I loved this dress, available in her shop:


That's when she offered a 99% coupon code to me as long as I provided my photographs. Uhhh what? Her dresses are $110 to $150 typically. This one was $110, something I certainly wouldn't pay for a dress I'd wear once or twice. Because, oh yeah, it's a maternity dress. One that I'm hoping to wear to my baby shower. Because J and I are pregnant!

We're due in February. Of course we're excited, but I'm not going to deny that I'm nervous!

AND I'm super excited about my new dress and the generosity of etsy sellers. Louise, you rock! So go check out her shop. She'll be back from vacation by early September.

I'm Back

Alright, I know I've been MIA for the past, well, weeks, but my little sister's asked me to start posting again and I think I'm down.

The wedding was a huge success! I know I kind of fell off on the posting right when things were getting juicy, but a poor internet connection at work along with my negative desire to sit in front of another computer when I get home led to zero posts.

So let's see if we can get this party started again.

You all remember that I ordered our bridesmaid dresses from etsian sohomode, right? Well, she recently sent me a convo via etsy asking if she could share my wedding photographs on her blog. Ummm... heck yeah! But also, how in the heck did she find my wedding photos? I've never been big into facebook and definitely haven't posted my photos here so I started to get that eery the-internet's-really-Big-Brother feeling.

I told her that of course she could post my photos but oh, how did you get those again? She said my photographer posted them, and she turned them up in a Google search. Ah, okay, phew.

In an ease-me-back-into-blogging effort to get my first post back out there, I recommend you all go check them out there! And because I can't seem to view or post photographs anymore at work, I'll post some from her blog when I'm home.

Enjoy!

Hemming and Hawing

I am extremely embarrassed to tell you that these curtains - and the fabulous deal I got them for - arrived today and, much to my surprise, the amazing deal was for just one, not two, panels.

I feel like an idiot.

But since they, ahem, it was so cheap, at $11 with shipping, I figured I'd just shimmy over to buy another.

But of course the length and color I need is THE ONLY one unavailable. Absolutely ridiculous!

I just bought a longer one for a few more dollars - since the coupon codes I used before are no longer available - and I'm going to have to do the dreaded hem again. Not looking forward to that.

I feel exhausted!

Curtones

Double score.

The curtains that I've chosen in the past few months have been plaguing me. In addition to picking the wrong ones and not realizing it until I'd hemmed six pairs (that's 12 curtains, people), we also chose some really heavy white ones for the living room that are too long. After the hemming fiasco, though, I really wasn't down to hem any more, so the living room curtains are just dragging the floor by about 5" at the moment. Not cool.

J and I have been eyeballing them for a few weeks, muttering how ugly they are and how heavy they look. So I perused west elm (my favorite for curtains!) and found these bad boys (Y, I know you're laughing at me right now!):


Nice, airy, and green - our main accent color for the living room. What's better is that the size and color we want are on sale from the already good $29 regular price down to $12.99. And (here's where the 'double score' comes in!) then I found a coupon code for 20% off (20MORE) items already on sale. PLUS, they come with free shipping. So really it should be 'triple score'!

The grand total: $11.01. Can't beat that!

They'll need a little hemming (sigh), but I think I'll actually fake a serge just to keep things in tact without weighing down these lovely light guys with a heavy hem. Wish me luck with that!

Everybody Needs a Bosom

Our bedroom has needed work since the day we moved in.

We were mostly focused on making the upstairs livable after buying our 1950s rancher. We replaced all the electrical, knocked out some walls, added some walls, adding crown molding, painted, and removed the carpet to have the hardwood floors refinished. Once that was done, we moved in.

Our stuff is mostly a collection of second- or third-hand furniture with a few IKEA pieces thrown in. Fine with me for now as we save for our wedding, honeymoon, and finishing the basement. Still, we want our space to feel as cozy as it can on a limited budget.

For Christmas, we asked for IKEA gift cards so we could get a bedframe. I hope to post some pictures soon, once the bedroom is more complete. But for now I thought I'd share my quick-ish project from last night.

I bought these pillows (Crate + Barrel) from the thrift store a few years ago. They're down filled:

One side is the lighter design and the other side is inverted. They're pretty thick, and the fabric is silky. Plus, they're brown, which means I love them. However, they weren't quite flowing with our light blue walls and white trim.

I bought some fabric to recover a chair I got from the thrift store (that I haven't gotten around to recovering yet). But it was calling to me. So last night, after buying some white zippers, I transformed the pillows into these:


Okay, so I know I sewed a few straight lines and two zippers, but still! Aren't they pretty? The blue-purple in them pick up the duvet and the colors in the walls perfectly. And you can't quite tell, but the pillows behind them are dark purple and compliment them very well.

I'm hoping for a bigger "reveal" of the bedroom in a few weeks. Stay tuned!

The Nook

Let me introduce you to my new favorite nook of our house:


Sure, there's nowhere to sit and it may be a bit small, but I love it! All my scouring (and eventually finding our first choice back in stock) for something to go in the little nook past the front door finally paid off. The wall is just a bit short for a "foyer table", so this EDLAND IKEA nightstand was the perfect fit.



I love the bright white with the dark grey nightstand that blends well with the walls. The vase and flowers are from my bff, R. Thanks, R! The flowers keep the nightstand bright.

So far, I only have some dog bags, leashes, and sweaters in one of the drawers. Ahh, it feels nice to have some empty storage.

Now for the break-down:

{} nightstand, IKEA: $149
{} mirror, Home Goods: $40
{} small silver "key" bowl, West Elm: $4
{} vase and flowers, Home Goods (gift): $0

= $193

The pine cones and decorations on the right side of the night stand are seasonal, so I don't consider them part of the design; I meant to get a picture earlier, but it's hard to get one during winter after work.

We also recently got a new bed - pictures coming!

Holiday Cheer

Happy Holidays from me, J, and our babies!



This was our holiday postcard that went out to family and friends. While it may not quite rival last year's in holiday cheer, we thought it well made up for it in absurdity.

I wanted to find holiday-themed shower caps but couldn't. I did include some holiday loofahs in their bubble bath, but we chose one of the close-ups, so they're no where to be found. I worry some recipients won't even understand that our babies are taking a bath! But I still think this would be a card I'd be happy to receive!

Enjoy the next few days!

Vintage Treats

Check out one of my new favorite pieces for the shop:

Wouldn't it be so glamorous at a holiday party? With a black cocktail dress?

I suppose I should've posted it on my shop earlier than this week. Whoops. I'm still not very good at this whole shop ownership thing.

Fellow etsians and bloggers of Mae +Day featured a pair of my earrings on their blog this week, and I'm so happy they did because I was able to discover their blog and their shop. I was blown away by their vintage finds. Here are some of my favorites:

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Some days I want my home to be modern and bright. Other days I could live with stacks of vintage finds and be perfectly content. Do you ever have that struggle? I think I'll strive for a happy medium.

Pin-Up

Annnnd another project.

Aren't you guys some lucky ducks*?

This bad boy wasn't too hard at all. Except for the fact that it was my project, which automatically makes it about 3 times harder.

Here's the before (from my mom's house, before we moved):


Just a regular bulletin board. Plain. Boring. Ugly. But functional.

And here's the after, covered in some fun and simple IKEA fabric:


I used my trusty staple gun to secure a layer of white fabric underneath the IKEA fabric. Since the IKEA fabric is relatively thin, I wanted to mask the transition between the cork and the metal edging of the board as much as possible. Plus I wanted to sturdy up the fabric a bit so it'd be less abused after all those pins get to it.

As for making this project difficult, after stapling one side of material, I checked to make sure the hooks on the back of the board would be on the right end for hanging - since the fabric has an obvious "up" and "upside down". But because I was looking at the fabric from the back, where it wrapped around, I confirmed incorrectly that it was on right. And once I finished I realized my error. If you look really closely, you can see the little hook sticking out of the bottom of the bulletin board in the close-up. That's a little L bracket that I painted the color of the wall. I hung two, and they're acting as a miniature shelf to hold the bulletin board up. It works fine for now, but when I pin something up I have to be careful not to knock the whole thing down. Silly me.

And speaking of making things harder, J and I went to put together this IKEA lamp this weekend (which came without a shade, by the way), and it was totally crooked.

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Then we tried attaching the lampshade we bought to it, and it didn't fit! We figured we could ghetto-rig it and position it where no one could see its wonkiness, but then when we plugged it in, it wouldn't turn on! The light bulb couldn't get screwed down enough into the base at first. We finally got it to work, then it turned off again, so J screwed a little tighter, and the bulb burst everywhere! Thank goodness the babies were safe!

And then J went to hang the curtains in the living room tonight, and the rods we bought are too short. What a freakin' idiot I am! Back to IKEA I go.


I'll post about my first wedding dress shopping experience later this week. I know that's what you're here for - not my staple gun craziness!


*Pun unintended but perfect!

Check

I have been so excited to show you guys this project. It just took me a while to actually complete it. Like three months, a while.

I bought this chair at the thrift store for about $6. I thought it would be a good starter project for learning how to paint wooden furniture and recover cushions.


There was another one, too, with arms. I was so tempted. So tempted. But I held back. Baby steps. Because who knew how this one would turn out once I got my messy mitts on it.

I decided to paint it mustard yellow. Leftover paint from a bookshelf J was doing for me earlier this year (and which is still sitting at his warehouse waiting for its finishing coat. It'll be a great addition to my craft room!). I then hunted down a really nice print in mustard yellow from etsy to go over the cushion.

Here's a collage of the "during" process - including primer, fancy!:


Annnnnnd here's the finished piece:


I could not be more happy with the results! Granted, there are mad paint drips and I missed some spots on the undercarriage, but I think the fabric goes really well with the paint we already had. Plus, it goes well with my yellow pops in my slowly-but-surely-coming-along craft room.

Here's a breakdown of the total cost of the project:

{ chair } $6
{ fabric, 1 yard } $8
{ sanding block } $2.50*
{ Kilz primer, HUGE container } $15*
{ staple gun } $15*
{ staples } $10

*I already had two of these things so really I didn't have to pay for them again, but you can see that this project is totally affordable. The Kilz container is literally so big that we primed a few rooms with it. Definitely way more than what you need for a little chair like this. And you could probably get away with using a regular stapler, but I was having serious trouble. J and I had already bought a staple gun before but never bought the staples, so I bought those for this project.

Grand total: $56.50

Okay, so maybe that's a bit high for redoing a chair, but it looks exactly like I want and a lot of these items are reusable.

For my next project, I have an antique vanity bench with a similar upholstery to the original on this chair that I'm going to remove. I'll repaint the bench as well. I'm still trying to decide, though, what style to go for. I recently bought a modern grey print fabric from IKEA with the bench in mind, but I really like how this bright chair turned out and might want to stick with the bright style.

But then I think about how much I like how this chair turned out that I'm leaning toward matching the bench. I also have a huge antique wardrobe that I want to refinish in mustard as well, but I know that's going to be a HUGE project so I'm putting it off. Again, baby steps. I just have to remind myself of that.


"Baby steps" reminds me of What About Bob? Anyone else?

Curtain Craze, Continued

Still dreaming about curtains over here.

I’m thinking of these for our bedroom:

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Too bad they’re $50 a pair, and we’d need two pairs.

I’m kind of eyeballing these, too, from West Elm:

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The very first day that J and I owned the house, we went over and removed all the doors. Bedroom doors, closet doors, everything – with the exception of the bathroom door. What? I’m modest.

So now almost all of our closets are still gaping open, though I’ve since used some of the beat curtains that I messed up for my craft room closet.

J’s thinking about something like this, on a track, for his closet (in our master bedroom):

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I love the texture and think it’d look great against our purpley blue walls.

As for the office, the walls are currently papaya (a fun orange) and the ceiling is a very light blue-green. Sounds horrible, I know, but it’s actually quite fun. J installed our blinds in their yesterday, which look like this:

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… and I got the inspiration to find some curtains that are mostly white with some flecks of blue – to bring out the color of the ceiling, since a lot of people have said they don’t really notice it.

Still trolling for those. I’ll keep you posted on all my curtain adventures, though – don’t you worry!


Once I have a few more of these things done, despite having stuff crap scattered about, I’ll begin posting some “after”s. Though I don’t think we’ll have true afters for a few years (!).

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Here's the 2009 Christmas card photograph, as promised:


We seriously got 20x the amount of positive feedback on this one as compared to years' past, where J and I included ourselves in the photograph. How dare you!, we've learned. Only dogs is definitely the way to go.

It'll be hard to top last year's photograph this year, but I already have an idea. Wha ha ha.

Stumped

Happy Monday, everyone. Hopefully you're not having a case of the Mondays too bad.

I thought I'd start off the week with a crash. Pun intended. You'll see.

This is what the back of our house looked like when we bought it:

It was covered in greenery (which I kind of liked - oooh! a jungle!) and algae caused by the side of the house always staying damp, never seeing sunlight, because of this huge tree:

Jeremy has been itching to take this tree out since literally the first day we saw the house. He thought it was too big and took up too much of the front portion of the back yard. Plus, our bedroom and the office never receive any natural light from this side of the house because of the tree - which is not cool for a natural light freak like me.

While I thought the tree was nice because I like all trees, I could see his point. Plus, we have PLENTY of other trees in the yard, so it's not like it'd be totally barren once it was gone.

Last Wednesday, J and his dad got to work on removing part of the tree, which shared one large stump but was actually two trees. By the time they were done, one tree was left... the tree that was much closer to the house and was actually leaning toward the house. Scary for me.

They decided to tackle the second tree Thursday, so I got out the video camera because I wanted to document them either crushing our house with the tree as they cut it down or to document them successfully cutting it down. Watch the video to determine the result. (Sorry I couldn't make it bigger - it's my first time uploading my own video.

And by the way, there is actually a cable tied around the tree and attached to the back of the little green truck, which is being driven by J away from the house in an attempt to get the tree to fall away from the house. J's dad is manning the chainsaw, and J's brother-in-law is instructing J from the bridge. So nerve-wracking to watch!

At about 1:04, you can see the tree start to sway. Around 1:23, you hear me sarcastically say "Great" because I'm envisioning sleeping with a tree that night in our bed in the master bedroom that's about to be crushed.

This is what our backyard looks like now:

There was tons of ivy all around the stump, so J spent the majority of Saturday afternoon cutting and pulling all of that out. I think he took about seven full trash cans of yard waste to our compost pile and then filled up the back of his work truck with all of the vines. I helped for about forty five minutes and was sore for the rest of the weekend.

He uncovered these, too, as he was cleaning the area under the tree:

A stone bunny with a detached ear, a dirty baby doll (creepy), and a trash bag full of pots and pans. I told you it was a big tree!

IKEAland

Damn you, IKEA.

J and I went there the other day to get two things: curtains and a front "foyer" table that we had already picked out.

They were out of stock of both. Sooo frustrating.

What's more frustrating is that we shouldn't have needed new curtains. We bought these - actually, I think I pressured him into buying them before we even closed on the house - months ago from IKEA:

For some reason, I thought I had bought these WILMA curtains before. Which I think I had. I remember previously cutting off the loops at the top because I don't like them and just sticking my curtain rod through the top hem - as though the tops were designed for either-or.

So J and I brought home the only six packages they had, and I got to work. I went through and cut of all of the loops and then sewed them back up so they wouldn't look half-assed.

The first place I tried hanging them was in my craft room closet, since we removed the doors on our first night. And guess what? They didn't fit.

The reason they didn't fit was because that top hem wasn't meant for hanging. It really was just a hem.

After a few more painstaking attempts at fixing a pair, literally starting over, I got one set hung up for my craft closet. I tackled one more pair and gave up.

So we wasted $60 and probably 4.5 hours of my time on these stupid curtains. This Sunday, I was fuming!

One of my goals, then, on our trip this week was to buy these:

At three dollars more per pair, these VIVAN curtains appeared very similar in quality to the WILMA pair, but these have the loops concealed behind the hem, which doesn't bother me at all. I should have bought these in the first place.

These were the ones that were out of stock. So we were faced with a dilemma.

We checked these LILL curtains out, at $4.99 a pair, but they reminded me so much of mosquito netting that there was no way I could buy them.

And then we found them. At $14.99 a pair, the LENDA curtains were much more substantial in weight, which I liked.

Though I thought I wanted light, airy curtains, when I felt these I knew they would be a good choice. A negative is that I'm stuck again with the loops on top, but I could probably sleep under the weight of these, so I thought the trade-off was worth it. We bought two sets since our front living room window is quite wide and one pair would only barely cover it if they were pulled taut to the max.

Whew. With that curtain drama done, we were off to find out "foyer" table. We had found the EDLAND "nightstand" before in, surprisingly, the dresser section, so this week we trucked over and found it. AND it was cheaper than I remembered, at $149. PS: It's more of a grey than black, like it looks in this photo:

However, it was missing its slip which tells you where to fetch it. We figured it was a mistake, so we just checked the slips of the pieces around it (from the same series) and assumed we could find it that way.

But of course that bugger was sold out! And IKEA's website says it's still sold out of the College Park location. Total bummer. And I'm too lazy to drive to Owings Mills if it's in stock there. Though I am going to Baltimore this weekend.....

Ah, the woes* of IKEA shopping.

*Thanks, Angie, for sharing. So funny I wish I'd come up with it.

Fave Finds

Sorry I've been MIA the past few days.

I got a wicked cold last week that I'm still recovering from. The weekend was spent sleeping, blowing my nose, and putting stuff away in the house. The progress is slowing but at least it's something.

Because of all of our renovations, our pockets have shallowed enormously. But that won't stop me from doing a little window shopping a la the pages of etsy for some new house goodies. Check out my top ten favorites below (which would also double as an amazing wedding or host's holiday gift-guide!):

{1} This tub caddy would be fan-freakin-tastic. I'd have perma-wrinkles from all the soaking I'd do. But if I ever actually get this item checked off my wishlist, I'd also need a soaking tub. Something tells me this caddy wouldn't work in our 1958 shallow shower tub.

{2} Though I always dreamed of having whatever the heck I wanted in my own home, I know that I would like some consistency in the styling. But perhaps I could find a place to squeak this in? Or maybe I could frenchize my future nursery? Le bebe wouldn't care. I bet it's been done.

{3} Holy cannoli. If I could get three of these bad boys - two pugs and a chihuahua - for my babies, that'd be awesome. And this green is a perfect pop for our developing living room.

{4} I would strain for days with this hot tamale!

{5} This gorgeous table runner would be happy on my future dining room table. Too bad our dining room probably won't be renovated for a few years. Unfortunately for my tummy, it's not high on our to-do list.

{6} Though I feel like I'm not a big fan of text on the walls, I'd totally hang this sappy sap up in the living room. Maybe right over the hall table where you grab your keys in the morning?




{7} These sweet nesting bowls would make a fabulous wedding gift since I couldn't swing the hefty price tag on my own. Then again, neither could guests. But a girl can dream.

{8} So freakin' cool. This would make a great clock for J's office. Hmmm... Have I just started a gift guide of my own? Shhh, don't tell J.

{9} There is something so warmingly juvenile about this print. It reminds me of one of my favorite books as a child, If You Give A Moose A Muffin. I think these would be more great nursery additions - both the print and the book. You think this moose could be french?

photo from here

{10} And a print from on my favorite etsy shops (and favorite bloggers) to finish it off. One of her bright prints would look great in my future closet (which J and I have coined my "boutique"). I think looking at it would inspire me to pick more exciting outfits.

Do you guys have any home decor items that you have your eyeballs on? I'd love to see them!