Surprise! You are having a dining room instead!

It has been a busy April so far! While the weather is still decidedly winter-ish, The Husband and I are prepping for our first spring and summer in our home. A few weeks ago, he says to me "I have something I want to do, but I don't know how to pull it off without telling you about it." Uh, okay... He then proceeds to tell me he wanted to THROW ME A SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY!!! Such a sweetheart...but he's right. There really is no way for him to pull it off without me knowing. You see, The Husband is a blue-collar worker. He doesn't sit at a desk, in front of a computer all day, like me and honestly, he can't even remember his username and password for the iTunes account he set up. He really is not computer savvy at all. Needless to say, I pay all the bills online and both our checks are directly deposited. So, I would see the money being withdrawn in large amounts and grow suspicious and ask millions of questions (which I am known to do around birthday and holiday time - LOL!). Anyway, we decide that we will continue on with the party, even though I am well aware of it, and figure it's good motivation to finally get the family room painted.

In order to get started on painting this past weekend, I needed to finalize the paint color for the rest of the room. I figured I would do a tan/beig/sand color, because it's neutral and easy to change up with accessories. However, I did not want a tan with red or pink in it. Since The Husband is colorblind, I enlisted the help of a high school friend with whom I have similar taste in home decoratin. We had breakfast plans the following morning anyway, so she just came over to help choose a color. (Funny sidestory: When we first moved in, she came over to help paint one of our bedrooms and saw all the colors we had picked and painted so far. THREE of our colors are colors she already had in HER house! So, when I say we have similar taste, I mean we REALLY have similar taste).

My friend comes over the next morning and she is really not a fan of the layout of the family room. It is an awkward space, I'll give you that. Everything seems to be off center. The fireplace and doorwall placement make it difficult to fit any decent size couch in there, so we had a loveseat and oversized chair. Our favorite couch was placed in the living room/dining room combination just on the other side of the family room fireplace. The space in there just didn't flow, though, and we barely spent any time in there so it was also wasted. My friend starts to talk about how the family room would make a great dining room and that the recently acquired 50" TV we have would fit so much better in the living room. After some questions, solutions and chosen paint colors, we are now turning the family room into a dining room and the dining/living room into the family room. Holy hot mess! To be fair, we considered this option when we first bought the house, but I always thought it would be cozy and fun to spend most of our time in the fireplace room, especially in the winter. But after our first gas bill (!!!) the fireplace stayed off for the rest of the winter (minus one night). There was also no cable outlet in the living room, but since The Husband is super handy, that was easily fixable.

So now here we are, five days later. The room was a B***H and a half to paint (the entire room took one coat of primer, the lower half of the walls took three coats and all of the trim took three coats), but we are finally (mostly) finished. I am still unsure of how I feel about it. It's difficult for me to accept it as a dining room and I'm not sure why. The ceiling fan was replaced with a chandelier last night, so that definitely helps. Once it's accessoried and curtains are added, maybe I will be more used to it. Either way, I don't think my husband will ever want to paint it again. We have had quite a few VERY long days and after all his hard work and lack of sleep, The Husband now has a case of acute bronchitis and has been ordered to lay around until Monday. Lucky guy! :)

Here are a few before and after shots. The top half of the walls are a chocolate brown, the bottom half and fireplace wall are all a semi-gloss white. These pictuers were taken before the chandelier and some accessories were added, and the doors still need to be painted white. I will hopefully share more once the curtains are up and some accessories are out and up on the walls.

Before (and obviously decorated for the holidays):



After:




So, what do you think? Still lots to do... The party is set for Saturday, April 16th (my actual birthday) and we are slowly getting the house ready for it's first bash! I got a lovely patio table and chairs from my parents as a birthday gift and we have scored some great deals on other outdoor accessories/furniture to really help us enjoy our first spring and summer here!

Spring Time Giveaway!

I found another great blog just today and boy did I luck out! Sweet Carolina Girl is doing an awesome giveaway and I found her blog just in time to enter! She is gifting a Lilly Pulitzer laptop tote in the Patch Day print to one lucky reader and it is super cute! See? Super cute, right? I have never owned anything Lilly, but have loved their accessories and prints for a while now. This would be a perfect first piece :) Head on over if you want to enter!

Pillow Junkie

I am a pillow junkie. I change them out in accordance with the season. The Husband tries to put his foot down by saying “No more pillows for…” and then tacks on a X amount of time (i.e. five months or until the end of the year), but it never sticks. I can’t help it! I seriously love pillows – for the couches, chairs and beds in our house. I have always been the kind of person who tends to lean toward neutral colors on the wall and adds color(s) with accessories like curtains, wall art, accent furniture, pictures, lamps, rugs…and pillows! Seriously, you can change an entire room up with pillows and some well placed accessories.

I think part of The Husband’s issue is that I sometimes purchase pillows that are so nice and beautiful and, because I want to keep them that way, I tell him he can’t lay on them! Is that bad…? :)

Here are some awesome pillows that I am currently coveting (and apparently, I am a huge fan of Pier One pillows):

Fuzzy round pillow (Pier One)

I have a few oh-so-soft pillows that I bring out in November and leave out until spring and this one would fit in very nicely. Same texture/material, different shape. Plus, one of the other pillows I already have (also from Pier One) has pom-poms on it so this big, round pillow goes perfectly.


Rosey Patch Cream Toss Pillow (Bed, Bath and Beyond)

This beautiful and soft pillow would look so pretty on the new green, lightweight quilt we purchased to change out with our heavy duvet once spring hits.


Bright Floral Chainstitch Pillow (Pier One)

This one would go so nicely with the colors already in our house and our couches. It would be the perfect splash of color for spring and summer.


Tie Dye Stripe Pillow Cover (West Elm)

Reminds me of the shirts I used to make at summer camp. Love the bright colors.


Water Splash Pillow Cover (West Elm)

Love the literal splashes of color on the front of this small, rectangular pillow. Great accent piece with the Tie Dye Stripe pillow above!


Outdoor Kaeden Pillow (Pier One)

Really loving this pillow for our backyard patio! Since we moved into our house just this past November, we haven’t been able to work on the outside at all. I really can’t wait to get outside and clean up our yard and landscaping and also turn our covered back patio into some extra living space with lots of splashes of color. There is an old swing that the previous owner left hanging and I want to paint it this spring (either white or a bright color like lime green or yellow) and this pillow would make such a great addition. Plus, I love the rope trim. I can totally picture it in sitting in the corner of the swing.


Added later, after the part above was already written:
Over the weekend, I headed to Pier One to see if I could make some of these a reality, but I ended up choosing totally different pillows for our front and back porches:






I also got this pillow:


but with a bright white background, instead of yellow, like this one:




Pictures courtesy of: Pier One (obvi), West Elm and Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Giveaways

Just wanted to share with my lovely 7 (!!!) follwers that I was lucky enough to win not one, but TWO giveaways last week! How awesome is that?

First, over at Chic & Pink, I won a monogrammed Derby Floppy hat from Marley Lilly!

I picked up a new beach bag while in North Carolina a few weeks ago and it has orange and turquoise coral on it, so I picked hat colors to match.

I am a new reader to Jules' blog, but I've enjoyed it so far and can't wait to read more about her and her little family!

Second, I scored some awesome Picky Stickys from a giveaway over at Katie's blog, Katie's Keepers. Since we are not currently pregnant, I picked a gender nuetral set of numbers to use when our first little one arrives!

I have been reading Katie's blog for a while now and she is a beautiful woman with such a heartbreaking story. I really enjoy reading about her ups and downs and how she has ultimately dealt with one of the biggest tragedies a person can experience.

Both items are on their way and I will try to remember to take pictures once they've been received. Thanks again for such awesome giveaways, ladies!

Has it really only been 10 years?

I have always been a lover of books. I love everything about them – the way they feel, the way the pages sound when it’s turned, the way they smell when you first open them. I hate to crease my books, though I know it’s inevitable. I am the person who takes the dust jacket off while reading it so it doesn’t get damaged. Yes, I know I’m weird. Moving on…
When I was a young girl in elementary school and middle school, I lived for the days when we’d get the new issue of Scholastic or Troll book clubs and my parents would allow me to select a book or two. Then I counted down the days until the box appeared and the teacher would go through the orders and call out the names of those who were lucky enough to receive something. After school, I would rush home and lock myself in my bedroom and read for hours. Though, that last part occurred much more often than just on the days when I’d receive a new book from Scholastic. Seriously, I devoured books and way faster than I care to admit. I would read for hours about the adventures of the BSC, Jessica and Elizabeth, The Fabulous Five, Ramona and Beezus, Fudge, Taffy Sinclair , and The Unicorns. I probably read all those books half a dozen times each, at least. I LOVED them.
Am I the only one who is super excited for the all-new Sweet Valley Confidential: 10 years Later book to come out on March 29th?!?! I am one of the geeky fans who read the first chapter and cannot wait to find out what Jessica did that was so bad that Elizabeth stopped talking to her. We all know that no matter what silly or awful thing Jessica did, Elizabeth ALWAYS forgave her. Did she make a pass at Todd Wilkins…again? Or worse, did she sleep with him??? Why is Elizabeth’s only friend Bruce Patman and, most of all, why is Elizabeth talking about orgasms? Isn’t she wholesome and, uh, a virgin? Apparently not anymore…
Are you going to read along with the rest of America? Don’t you want to find out if they are still a perfect size 6 with eyes the color of the Pacific Ocean? Is Elizabeth the level-headed one, while Jessica only parties it up? Do they still wear their matching lavalieres? These are the questions I need the answers to, people!
In honor of this long-awaited comeback, I figured I would share some of my favorite books or series from my favorite days of having nothing else to do BUT read. Those days are long gone by now, but my love for these books and characters are not. God, I really wish I would’ve kept all these beloved books from my childhood. I’d give anything to re-read them all again now. Would they still be as good? My guess is no, but the memories they hold are priceless.

The Fabulous Five I know not a lot of people enjoyed this series, but I loved it! I really liked the rivalry between The Fabulous Five and the Fantastic Foursome and how Funny and Jana crossed enemy lines to become friends. I was in middle school when this series started, so the scandals were all very age-appropriate.

Any of the Ramona books
I was such a fan of this crazy girl! I ate up any and all of the books: Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Beezus and Ramon, Henry Huggins, Ramona and her Father. Such a great series!

Otherwise Known as Sheila The Great (and pretty much anything else by Judy Blume, including Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge) I thought this series of books was particularly funny, especially with Fudge in the picture! Easy to read, light and fun. I really wish I still had these around for our future kids to read.

Last, but certainly not least: Sweet Dreams!
Does anyone else remember this series? I seriously LOVED it! These were different from SV Twins, SV High and BSC because they were stand alones. The characters were always different from book to book and the stories never overlapped, except for the few sequels from previous stories. I would spend hours at the library, searching the racks for books I hadn't already read.

What are some of your favorite oldies?

P.S. I think it has been much longer then 10 years since I last read a SV High book, but maybe the "10 Years Later" refers to how long it's been since Francine Pascal stopped writing them?

Some new Southern obsessions!

Am I the only one who didn't know much about Tervis? You don't see them much up north here (at least I don't), but while visiting North Carolina last weekend, they were all over the place! I fell in love, fast and hard. The Husband and I each purchased one (with a lid!) and the cost came to $43! While I know they will last forever and have magical powers (keeps cold drinks cold and hot drinks hot!) I still had a hard time justifying the cost. I haven't used mine yet, but I love the glass I got:


My other new love is Belk. My mom has been going on and on about this store for a few years now, but I had never stepped foot inside one until this past weekend. It was raining on Sunday so I said "Okay, mom, I'll go." Well, she told me! Seriously, how come we don't have this store in the northern states? Loved the clothes, loved the prices! It's kind of like Kohl's but the clothes seemed to be of higher quality and a lot more modern and designer-like. I got a couple of great pieces, including this cardigan:

Hot Damn! Another Giveaway...

I found yet another awesome giveaway today! Over at The Undomestic Momma, she is giving away 2 Foley + Corinna handbags! WOWZA!!! This bag is beautiful, with its leather-wrapped rope handles and awesome colors. I also love that the top can fold over. Seriously, I am drooling!