225 days

{project type}



I don't think I will ever become addicted to Pinterest. Work blocks the site and since I spend 9 hours a day on the computer up here, the last thing I really want to do is get home and spend even more time staring at the screen. Work blocks "time wasters" so by good measure, Pinterest was blocked almost immediately and it's just not the same on the phone. However, what work hasn't blocked yet is etsy.

Oh lovely, time waster, black hole of creativity, etsy.

I find myself losing hours to etsy... and this print made me laugh out loud. I was actually perusing the store looking at this print because, you see, we need something here:

It's barren and empty and I figure it needs something simple, substantial, and neutral - as to not compete with the rug. The lovely, so comfy under the feet, rug.

Yup, still love it.

This weekend is more house work. 225 days until we become Mr. and Mrs. Yay :).

Underfoot

Our living room. Just keeping it real. Yes, you spot:

• New clothes
• Unfolded clean clothes
• Ironing Board and Iron
• Picture ledge, taken down from the master bedroom wall
• Rouge pillows
• Single socks, pairs unknown and
• An iPhone - one of two lurking around this house

But what you also see... the rug. Huynh bought this rug from BB&B when he moved in and while we liked it fine, we didn't like that Gatsby's hair showed, Gatsby's bone residue stained, it was a tad too small, and it was, well, old. We get tired of things around here. It was time for a change.

So it was out with the old, in with the new! I love our floors but, we know that we spend so much time here on the couch and floor that a rug was a necessity.

Isn't she a beauty? We always thought that we were going to do shag; we actually had it in our basket. But when we walked by this rug, we both stopped and quickly changed our minds. This rug is the perfect size, has all the colors of our house, is comfy underfoot, and, most importantly, is a light neutral. It has already won Gatsby's seal of approval.

So, would you believe it if we told you it came from IKEA? Us either. It's not even online yet (and, truth be told, it was a rather un-IKEA price). We are rather excited about our snag; though as of late, it has been buried under wood and remodel. More pictures to come when the room looks like a living room again and not a tool shop. I'm off to make rug angels.

Coffee table fun

{stationery studio}

It's a long week at work... okay not long to most but long to those of us that really enjoy their 9-80s and the 36-hour week every other week that comes with it. This weekend we are planning on actually stripping, sanding, and staining the coffee table that my parents gave us that, yes, is still sitting in the garage. It has clean lines with zero storage so I have been eyeing this Jonathan Adler tray for a while now. I'm loving the greek key pattern in navy. Hawt.

Contrary to popular belief, we are working on the house still - and even now with more urgency at the upcoming onslaught of guests that will surely be pouring in at the end of the year. So this weekend, I am also going to clean out the coat closet and even give Gatsby a bath. He be stinky. More to come.

Five things; smells like...

These oriental lilies that Huynh got me "just because" (or as he put it for our "14 month and a day anniversary" if you are counting) are rocking my world. They are making my entry way table beautiful and my living room smell like a field of fresh flowers. Delicious. 

What other smells do I have lurking around our house that I just can't get enough of?

{tyler candle company - birthday cake; teskey's sadle shop}

{yankee candle}



{bath and body works}

{jb candles}

I am drawn to warm, clean scents for the house - probably due to the fact that in my house growing up, we didn't have a single candle. My mom is a rock star when it comes to not only cleaning her house but keeping it clean and smelling fresh.

Me, on the other hand, who tends to overcook bacon and has a dog that regularly emits smells that would knock you down, needs a candle or two to keep the house under control. Too fragrant gives me a headache so I like to keep it fresh when it comes to what wick I burn.

How do you keep your house smelling squeaky clean? Au naturale? Or do you regularly bake cookies? If so, I'm coming over.

Brr and other randomness

{williams-sonoma home}

With the weather finally dropping here in Texas, it's probably about time to bust out the blankets. How deliciously gorgeous are these from Williams-Sonoma? They are cashmere, monogramable, and the colors... swoon. Me likey.

In other news, we watched 2 out of the 18 Black Friday movies we snagged... Horrible Bosses and Hall Pass. I think we laughed but in our antibiotic delirium, you can't be sure if they were actually funny. Regardless, mindless enjoyability all the same.

Anyone else watching New Girl? Hilarious. Schmidt is my favorite - the dude drink Midori Sours. Not that I'm dissing those green drinks of deliciousness, I have been known to enjoy them back in the day. But come on! So funny. I cracked up at:

"Do you really want to go down this path?" - Nick

"Is this a path you recently fixed?" - Schmidt

"Wait, I need to grab my cardigan" - Schmidt

Haaaaaaaaaaaa. I could keep going but I will spare you the laughter. Don't want you drawing attention to yourself at your desk, now do I? :)

Happy December 1st! I'm slightly freaked - we still have 5 more people to purchase gifts for - not including ourselves or Gatsby - but thrilled to be spending my first Christmas with Huynh's family! I can't wait to learn their traditions and eat dumplings. Yum.

Deal-licious

Swoon... Black Friday.

{amazon - still on sale!}

Knowing us, you know we stocked up on Movies... 18 to be exact. I saved the most on Water for Elephants on Blu-ray (29 smackeroos to be exact) and most excited about North by Northwest (one movie closer to collecting all 100!). We were at Wal-mart and 10p on Thursday, Target at midnight, Amazon.com at 2am. Not too shabby. So, what all did we snag? Provided in alphabetical order:

• Bad Teacher DVD (spent $10, saved $9.99)
• Bride Wars DVD (spent $1.96, saved $3.04)
• Ghostbusters Blu-Ray (spent $9.99, saved $10)
• Gremlins Blu-Ray (spent $9.99, saved $14.99)
• Hall Pass Blu-Ray (spent $10, saved $10)
• Horrible Bosses DVD (spent $9, saved $6)
• HIMYM Season 6 DVD (spent $12.99, saved $17)
• Inception Blu-Ray (spent $7.99, saved $12)
• Knight and Day Blu-Ray (spent $7.99, saved $22)
• Letters to Juliet DVD (spent $3.99, saved $9.01)
• Modern Family Season 2 DVD (spent $12.99, saved $27)
• North by Northwest Blu-Ray (spent $13.99, saved $21)
• Pulp Fiction Blu-Ray (spent $3.99, saved $11)
• Shawshank Redemption Blu-Ray (spent $5.99, saved $14)
• Sherlock Holmes Blu-Ray (spent $7.99, saved $12)
• The Time Traveler's Wife DVD (spent $3.99, saved $5.01)
• Water for Elephants Blu-Ray (spent $10.99, saved $29)
• Weeds Season 6 Blu-Ray (spent $13.99, saved $25.98)

Phew. Busting out my calculator and including those things which were taxed - five we bought on Amazon so tax-free!, we WOULD have spent $438.04... but didn't. Total came to $165.98 with a total savings of $272.06. Bam.

I love this holiday.

We also hit up Sears the following morning for a tool chest and scored this one for 50% off!

{sears}

Yup. I know nothing about it other than Huynh was excited (he had been looking for one for awhile) and we had to haul it all the way back from WF to Houston down I-35 in holiday traffic. But you know there will be pictures soon... as soon as we both shake strep throat. It appears we shared more with family then why we were thankful for them.

You know what this means then... we will be reorganzing the garage, reorganizing the entertainment center, and lying on the couch watching movies and eating ice cream... you know... for our throats.

Coffee Tables

I mean, really. It's as if I barely finish mad searching for one thing before I am all gung-ho to switch rooms and start another.

The latest? A coffee table.

{pottery barn}

{anthropologie}

{west elm}

{williams-sonoma home}

{restoration hardware}

Or, throw out all of those ideas and build our own!

{ana white}

Are we crazy if we are actually leaning towards handcrafted?

P.S. If that's not enough, I LOVE this console table! Think I could convince Huynh to do both??

Chair-joy

Back in April, when our friends Pam and Jason got hitched, we spent the weekend in Austin, eating brunch, munching on cookies, and even managed to squeeze in a trip to West Elm.

{west elm}

Enter this chair. I sat in this chair in the Austin showroom and desperately wanted it. But at the time, we weren't quite in the market for new furniture, coupled with that we were out of town, we walked out of the store with just living room couch pillows.

But I never stopped thinking about that chair.

So when we finally bit the bullet so to speak and bought a new dining room table, I knew that my time had come to also pick up this chair.

It is so comfortable and fits in perfectly with the decor. We tossed on a couch pillow and also got the Martini Side Table to sit next to it.

I absolutely love it.

As does Gatsby. Can't you tell with his thrilled look of excitement?

We aren't close to being finished with this room but my indecisiveness in picking out a rug along with my seemingly inability to pick out a coffee table has definitely made it feel like we have been working on this room for months. And if you go back to the original list for this room, it looks like we have made zero progress:

• New rug
• Sideboard
• Side table
• New coffee table
• TLC

So, I guess by definition this addition falls under "TLC" and probably "Side table". Regardless, every little bit helps!

Painted furniture

{pottery barn}

I have been in love with the Pottery Barn Nautical Entryway Cabinet since it first came out... in 2008. At the time, I wasn't quite in the position to drop $900 on a piece of furniture for my teeny apartment and once I moved into the house I knew for a fact that Huynh and his brother would have laughed it right out the front door.

But I love it and all of its whimsy glory.

We have discussed building a fauxdenza for this wall in the living room but the more I think about that blue painted piece, the more I am leaning towards craiglisting a buffet - found a 71.5" dream last night and hopefully will get a response soon! - and painting it navy. I know, dark rich colors are near to impossible to paint evenly so I've already started reading up on tips.

{cabinet hardware universe}

And I'm even beginning to eye hardware that will help to steer clear of going too far nautical. What do you think? Think I am crazy for wanting to tackle another furniture refinish job?

Shag baby.

I have rugs on the brain.

{overstock}

I went to sleep last night thinking about the white rug... woke up this morning thinking that was a terrible idea. But with Gatsby's hair, neutral color is a must, but white?! Am I crazy?

So while I toss and turn over rug colors, some of my other rug favorites from across the web so maybe, just maybe, I can finally make a decision.

{west elm}

{west elm}

{pottery barn}

{home decorators}

{home decorators}

Can you believe it's only Wednesday? It's as if this week knows I'm excited about this weekend. It's 7:00AM and O.U. still sucks!!

Varsity China

On our recent home tour, you snuck a peek at four plates, framed, and hung on a wall.

I absolutely LOVE this plates. The are made by Varsity China and commemorate our alma mater perfectly. I am on the lookout for the perfect sideboard to put on this wall for our kitchen storage needs - since right now, the tops of the cabinets really isn't cutting it. Oops.

So we are pre-emptive in decorating for above such a cabinet with these plates. When we originally decided to opt for the framing route, we were quoted $250 per plate! Not a typo. Picking our jaw up off the table, we decided to try our hand at framing them ourselves.

We got the frames at Aaron Brothers and tried double sided tape. After HOURS of attempting to hang equidistant which included thinking that our frames were 14" by 14" when really that was the inside measurement and not the outside measurement which is closer to 15" by 15", then coupled with fact that one plate was adhered to the backing board upside down so we had to add our own picture hangers which were uneven, oh and having to dance with the A/C unit control, we finally broke down and drew a picture of the exact placement of the frames with regards to the wall.

We nailed more holes then we would like to admit - thank goodness for extra paint and spackle - but we finally got the frames up, straight, and centered. Victory.

Then, because it wouldn't have been a project without more hiccups, we woke up the next morning to find that a plate had become unstuck and fallen, but stayed inside the frame and still was hung on the wall. Close call; all the frames came down and another trip to Hobby Lobby was in store.

For the second go around, we picked up this glue that promised to adhere to any surface - including ceramics - and due to the small surface area that there was to adhere to, we were hopeful that the glue would spread out and cover more surface area than the tape thus making it more secure.

It took 24 hours for the glue to set and after two weeks, I am happy to report that all of the plates are still where they should be.

Swoon.