Living Room Update

Over the summer I found the perfect sofa, but making my perfect sofa work in my living room has been quite a long process, and just shy of remodeling, this is the biggest transformation this room could have.

Here's what I've created so far, but there's so much more to go.

On to the drawn out process.

After having Little Dude, I found myself spending a lot of time on the couch: breastfeeding, napping, eating. Everything happened on the couch. Turns out couches from discount furniture stores aren't exactly meant to live through 6 years of serious wear and tear. So, while sitting on my discount sofa I,  more often than not, ended up needing help pulling myself out of the couch's black hole of a seat. Furniture shopping here I come!

The search for a new sofa isn't easy. In fact, buying a car was easier than choosing a sofa, wth? So, when I finally found the couch I wanted, I realized I'd have to change everything about my living room's current decor. Totally worthy sacrifice for my sofa.

 

Here's what the fabric looks like in real-life.

First thing to go was wall color. There is such a thing as too much beige and I was crossing that line.

From this:

To this:

 

Which really looks like this.

I settled on this color after trying two others...yup two living room paintings

Next, the coffee table. A toddler and coffee table corners can only end badly. Not to mention our huge, gorgeous, thrift store table just didn't fit anymore. Padded corner ottoman here we come.

 Then, everything else was fair game. Take a peek...

The Hubs insisted we have a chair for this little spot near the fireplace...I wasn't sold on the idea thinking it might be too cramped, but this adorable, armless number fits perfectly. 

Cute little window cove.  Little Dude loves to play back here.

After several configurations and and many holes in the wall, I settle on this. I cut flowers with my silhouette (I cannot wait to share with you how friggin' awesome that machine is) on card stock and hung those in the  places that frames just didn't work.

The view from the dining room.

It's really come together. Now I'm waiting for: the perfect rug. That will help break up the beige a bit more; a couple more frames to hang near the lamp; someone to paint my trim white; and, a slimmer end table. Phew, looove.

Oh, and THIS is what it looked like before. Big Change, right?

 

And before I go, I apologize for the rough-around-the-edges photos. Little Dude snatched my camera from the cabinet and I've yet to find it. Hmm..

EDIT** I bought a new camera. It's amazing. So, most of the pictures you see (with the exception of the blurry ones) are from the new camera. Yippie!!

<3 dani

First Birthday Bash, kind of...

My Little Dude turned one. Ah, what a milestone, what a moment, what a memory...what a time to be sick!

I had all these wonderful plans. Everything was going to fall into place the night before (because anyone who has a little one running around knows that a little thing called preparation no longer exists) and then BAM out of nowhere, I get a wicked cold, and by wicked I mean two steps away from death kinda cold.

My original plan included a pool party at The Four Seasons, then hanging out and snacking in a banquet room. Baby hotel party, mmhmm, yes please! The theme was Fish, because Little Dude adores swimming, and all the little snacks were going to be pool/fish related. I was going to take cute little photos and give step-by-step tutorials...umm, nope DID NOT HAPPEN.

While most of my party plans played out, it certainly didn't end up as 'perfect' as I wanted it. And if it weren't for my bestie Grace, I would have canceled the whole deal. Thank goodness Little Dude won't remember it.

I was so sick that even my pictures turned out pretty awful. I'm going way outside of my comfort zone even posting these. But hey, ima keep it real up in here.

 

 

Grace made the gorgeous cake. Word to the wise, do not try to create a personalized cake  out of homemade carrot cake. If Grace wasn't so patient, this cake wouldn't have happened. I gave up after ten minutes (could have been the fever getting the best of me, hmm) but Grace kept at it and it turned out beautiful.

Blurry, I couldn't even hold my phone steady enough to get a decent picture. eek!

Here's the breakdown of our cute little snackies. This is where I planned on taking tons of photos and explaining everything -- I barely made it to the hotel to decorate. Photos were about the last thing on my mind, right there next to eating and staying awake -- I also bought gold fish bowls and put (edible) goldfish in them on each table.

Little Dude realizing he had an entire pool to himself.

Not so much the "bash" I had planned up, but Little Dude had a grand time, a wee bit overwhelming, but fun nonetheless. Here's hoping next year I stay healthy and have better photos to show you.

<3 dani

Half Birthday

Today my little dude is 7 months old. I know it's cliche, but time really does fly. Each day The Hubs reminds me to live in the moment. Sometimes we spend so much time thinking about the future, we forget to appreciate what's happening right in front of us and sometimes what's in front of us goes so quickly.

But enough with the sentimental stuff, not really my thing, but this kid brings out some weird shit in me.

Last month, we celebrated 6 months of Little Dude's life with a party. I searched Pinterest and the regular ol interwebs for hours trying to make this the most adorable, quaint little party possible. The entire party was inspired by a wonderful post I found on Pinterest. Hank and Hunt shared some amazing ideas. I don't even come close to doing justice to the party this girl put on. Check it out.

Here's Little Dude waiting patiently for his family to arrive.

And the set up. I used the stairwell to the basement as my backdrop. Really for no other reason than that it was the only possible spot in the entire house to hang these friggin awesome circle thingies (i.e. construction paper hot glued on to coordinating ribbon)

The half cake...get it? Of course you do.

The Hubs decorated these Half Sized cupcakes (okay, so they're just mini cupcakes, but that doesn't go with the damn theme). If you ask me, the sprinkles really set these apart from any other mini, ahem, Half Sized cupcakes I've ever seen.

Little Dude enjoying some time with Grammy.

Those awesome little springy thingamajigs on his cake last about 2.8 seconds after this photo. Oops.

Because it was only a half birthday and the chances of Little Dude remembering any of it were slim, I didn't want to spend too much cheddah on the decorations, so I bought things from the dollar store and scoured my craft supplies to come up with everything you see. (longest run-on sentence ever? perhaps.) I bought boxed cake (to save time and my sanity...I get so nervous baking stuff from scratch. Not once has anything turned out edible). I bought tablecloths, plates, napkins, balloons, cups and straws from the DS and everything else I already had.

Such a sweet afternoon with the boy and the family. Ah, memories. Wonderful.

<3 dani

Front Door Update

This was such a quick, simple update. I was able to do it while the little one took a nap.

The Kid and I went to the store for one thing: a pool skimmer. We left with more, obviously. If I had enough self-control, I could walk right to the item I need without looking at anything and turn right around and leave. bing bang boom. But nope. Impossible. Whatever. I've accepted it. It's fine. Besides, I wanted to try out The Kid's new grocery cart cover. No point in making a quick trip if I'm going through the trouble of hooking him in, right?

Anyhow, as usual, I end up in the Clearance aisle and like any craft hoarder, I pick up everything going through all the crafty possibilities before I talk myself out of it and move on. Today though, I grabbed a Styrofoam wreath that was flat on one side and already covered with burlap for $3. Sold. But of course, you could grab a plan wreath at the ol' dollar store and cover it with whatever to get a similar product.

When The Kid went down for his nap, I ran to the kitchen, grabbed the coffee filters and threw together a new wreath.

I just kind of scrunched the filters up until they resembled flowers (if you squint your eyes).

Then I secured them to each other in small bunches with twist ties (no time to run to the basement for the glue gun).

Then I secured all the little bunches together as a big bunch.

And used several twist ties to wrap around the wreath and connect the filter flowers to it.

Yay. And all before The Kid woke up. Success.

<3 dani