Living Room Accessories...

The progress in the living room continues. We have made a lot of decisions and things are starting to take shape.
We were going to buy a console table for the angled wall, but we had a glass ware storage issue when we received and filled the dining room buffet. So we wondered, 'Why not buy another Buffet instead of a console table and use that to store glass ware?'... Well, it turns out that it was a great idea.
Steven found this little gem and we are very happy with it now that it is in our space. We saw, decided and purchased based on something that we only saw online...I think that it turned out pretty good. It was a little time consuming to put together but we are IKEA pros and so it didn't really phase us too much. This is not an IKEA piece, but the assembly was similar.

There ended up being plenty of space for our glassware and a few other things, so I'm happy. Plus it is wider and taller than anything else I was looking at and ended up being less expensive.After we got the buffet in place then I went and picked up the other few things we were serious about. I love the whimsy of this coat rack. I'm also glad to be rid of the other one we had. This is metal and feels like it will last us a long time. The details are difficult to gather in this photo, but there is a ledge at mid height and it is perfect for umbrellas and bags.

I wasn't sure between this lamp and another one, but my friend Mel came with me and once she saw that you can actually put stuff inside this one she exclaimed, "This one! This one!" "There better be holiday stuff in here next time I come over!!"... I'm working on my Easter decor already, so that shouldn't be too hard to comply with. Some vanilla colored candles complete the candlestick holders, which were wedding gifts.I am so in love with this bar. I still can't believe the price I got this for. I thought it was being discontinued, but I just saw it at the store a few days ago for full price. So I really ended up with a deal. It is right at home and I love it.
I also love my special glass ware. Steven has his whiskey glasses and I have my classic cocktail glasses. I don't use them very often, but I love the few times that I do.
Finally, we are actually putting stuff on the walls! Hurray! We picked out some prints yesterday online and we will get and frame those soon, there are three prints in a series for above the new buffet and a larger print for the long wall. When we pick up our last chair then it will go above that.
For the dining room we picked up this lovely mirror at Target. I thought that I would put a mirror in the living room, but when we were looking at prints that we liked we decided that this wall would be better for a mirror. Steven has plans for a gallery wall on the opposite side of the table. He's been putting together our collection of "landmark" photos. It is looking like it is going to be really special. I hope to have something to show soon.

Gardening!

We had such a fantastic clear Saturday this last weekend. So Steven and I decided to go out and do some yard work. He worked on trimming hedges and my hydrangea and I worked on weeding and cleaning up stray leaves and other crud in our yard.

I had been staring at our sad looking hydrangea plant since we moved in and I felt so bad for it. So when I saw it after Steven cut it back I was impressed. He was shocked that it was already blooming leaves and had green spots all over it. I've been warned that it might not produce flowers this year, but I'm ok with that. I am just happy to have it in the yard and that its being brought back to life! We shall see on the flowers.

Our yard debris container was overflowing with all the dead hydrangea bits and the hedge trimmings and I put it over the top with my weeding and stray dead leaves. It is a lot of hard work cleaning up the left over bits, but because we moved in in December it wasn't really a great time to get out and clean up the yard. Also, we were really concentrating on the inside of the house because I knew that I'd want to be outside as soon as it was nice. I was right.

There is a lined bed on the side of the house by the air conditioner unit and where we keep the garbage cans. We plan to level the area next to our fence and use it as storage for all the cans. Right now there is only a small area covered with stones and it is not level, which makes it difficult to move the cans out and back in. I discovered this when I had to put the cans out while Steven was out of town. Yuck! Well the whole area on the side of the house was full of weeds, the raised bed was weeds, leaves and garbage and the bark needs a new dusting. At least for now it is fully weeded and racked and it looks a lot brighter. The other side of the house had blackberry bushes that were SO overgrown. We took that on right away and now they are only stumps. We'll have to be careful about removing all of the pieces so that they don't come back. They are so hard to kill and so bad to have on the side of the house. Thankfully now they are gone.

I also removed a bunch of piled up leaves from the back of the porch area in the backyard. There are three rose bushes and a medium tree that is starting to bloom. I need to cut the roses back and make sure the tree isn't going to damage the siding. Then I'll have to start the area around the back of the yard. We have some ferns and mystery grasses to remove as well as decide our final plan for my raised beds for veggies and herbs. We have talked about removing a portion of the grass and creating a stone pathway and 3 large raised beds. We need to decide soon so that we can work on removing the grass and making the beds before planting season, which is going to be here before we know it.

Well after all this sunshine and yard work it went right to my head and I got so excited. I know it is WAY too early to plant outside, but I do have a garden window in the kitchen, so I cleaned out some of my old pots and we went to the store. It is too early for 'starts' of any herbs, so we tried planting seeds. This is my first seed plant and I'm excited to see what comes of it! I'll try to post pictures if they start seeding. Supposed to be in the next few weeks. Here's hoping. Photos of the yard to follow as well...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I LOVE Valentine's Day!

Here are some "Valentine-sy" Photos for you:

In Paris, the city of Love...

A kissy pic...
My funny valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day from us to you. Tonight we'll be making dinner in and enjoying some relaxing time.

Work in Progress...

Way back in 2007 we had about a week where we went without anything in our main room to sit on:A few days later we picked up our first large purchase as a "couple", a new couch, love seat and easy chair. Steven was so thankful to not have to enjoy TV night like this. I was too! How far we've come!

That's why it was a little easier waiting on our next sofa purchase...

I'm so thankful to have a little place of my own to read and enjoy my tea and relax. We still have our tv area and we love that too, but it is just so nice to have another place to relax. I am so excited to decorate this with softer touches. Our Family Room is all red/orange/green/yellow, such vibrant colors. I wanted this to be muted, soft blues and greens and feel really relaxing.

I found these chairs at Cost Plus on a whim. I went in just to look around and found this bar (the black piece on the wall):
I hadn't intended to really replace our old bar, at least not yet. This is mostly because all the new "bars" are huge and very expensive. It wasn't going to fit into my budget and I wasn't sure how I was going to make it work. Then I found this one. On clearance. I was amazed. So I asked if I could buy it and I got a run around about it. Finally I picked it up at another store, but it was SUCH a long day and a tiring experience. I thought it was at one store, but it ended up being at another and long story short- I finally got it. And I got it for an additional 10% off. Go me!

While I was investigating the bar, I tried to log on to their website to show Steven the bar I found. I couldn't find the bar, but I found this chair and loved it. So I looked at it while I was trying to buy the bar. I ended up telling the sales lady that if she could give me 10% off the chairs AND fit two of them into my car then I would buy the chairs and the bar. She did it. So I bought them. I love them! I'm also amazed that I got two chairs and the bar, all flat packed, into my little car. I found these pillows at Target in the bedding section. They are just the right size for the little slipper chairs. They also have a little bit of cashmere in them. So very soft.Did I mention that I also got 10% off my sofa? Pretty much every piece of furniture in this room has been purchased at 10% off. Including the dining table/chairs/buffet! I'm so awesome at rocking my budget.

I'm shocked at how unbelievable comfortable this sofa is. It doesn't even have any throw pillows on it yet and I'm already in love.
We pulled those chairs in to face the sofa, we just had to push them to the side so the delivery people could bring the couch in. They even took all their garbage with them. Score!

Here is how the space looked last Friday after putting furniture together:
Poor Steven had to help me with assembling the bar, chair and side table. The side table SHOULD have been the easiest (from Target), but when I opened the package, I got this:
FAIL! So I took it back and thankfully they had one left. I opened it and it was perfect, which is good because I love the look of it.

Finally, we have the dining table and chairs:
We can't forget about those. The matching buffet comes next week, so I'm looking forward to putting my china away and starting to host a bunch of dinner parties!

For anyone wondering, my living/dining room decorating to-do list still includes finding:
*coffee table
*console or buffet
*2 lamps
*curtains
*artwork for the walls
*new coat rack

Thankfully I already have ideas about each of them... That's all I know for now. Going to go relax on my fabulous new sofa and drink some tea.