O-H!

My absolute favorite part of Fall (with the exception of my little Pumpkin's Halloween Birthday) is

Ohio State Buckeye Football!!!

And, tonight is the first game of the season so you can imagine my excitement. Can I get a "hell yeah" from any of you ladies that are football fans?! ;)

GO BUCKS!

living room and, driftwood?

I should probably admit I've been putting off sharing the full view of the living room because I'm still not even close to being in love with it, but I'm slowly on my way. Remember when the living room looked like this:

Just a big, blank space lacking any character at all. Well although it's not anything to "write home about", it's certainly an improvement.

Oh, what is that you see? Driftwood? Inspired by (& copied from) Holly at Life In The Fun Lane. The moment I saw that post of hers I knew I wanted to do the same thing. The problem? We live in, Ohio. Can't say I figured there'd be a ton of places nearby to search for driftwood. But, when my parents visited from Florida earlier in the summer they stayed at a beautiful campground on the Ohio River and thanks to a dad with some muscles and a supportive stepmom, I came home with driftwood to spare.

Is it too much? Honestly. I started to feel like the walls are now looking too "busy". And I'm not one for a "cluttered" space. So the Ikea shelves and my recent made over bookcase looked like this before:

And after removing some "clutter":

Better, right? My only issue has been wondering if the photo shelves are too 'modern' for what I'm going for. Since a slipcovered sectional is not in the budget right now, the plan going forward is to...

• remove the white sofa
• remove the recliner (for sure!)
• repaint the buffet turned media cabinet white to match the coffee table
• move the sofa so it faces the tv
• put two slipcovered wingback chairs where the leather sofa is now
• prime, paint, and distress a side table I recently purchased to sit between the wingbacks
• and, finally get pillow covers made for the leather sofa pillows

Other than that I'm still trying to decide on what to do about those photo shelves. Leave them? Remove them and hang the driftwood there? Remove them, leave the driftwood in place and hang a vintage sailboat painting there? (More on that in an upcoming blog post. *wink) Maybe with a few baskets lined up below it filled with pillows and blankets for movie nights/snugglefests/guests to cozy up with? I'd LOVE to replace the ceiling fan with a lovely iron chandelier but Travis isn't having that. He says we "need the air to circulate since this is such a big room". Blah. :) And, the light that hangs above the entry, that can go too.

Before I end this less-than-exciting post about the 'always a work in progress' living room, I wanted to add that I've seen a few posts from fellow bloggers lately about heirlooms or things in their homes that have a special meaning and it inspired me to share a couple of mine. That conch shell you see on the bottom photo ledge? That belonged to my aunt we lost many years ago to breast cancer. Mid-thirties. Healthy. A huge heart. And, a caring soul. Taken so quickly from us. My uncle eventually remarried and understandably passed on some of the posessions he shared with my aunt to other family members. Recently my grandmother passed the conch shell to me. And it shall forever remind me not only of my love for anything ocean related, but of my love for my aunt who will always be missed. And, although the driftwood isn't something passed down to me by family, the memory of that morning near the river with my dad, stepmom, youngest brother, and Jack all walking along collecting the "prettiest" pieces while they affectionately laughed at my adventures will never be forgotten. It really is the little things in life that mean the most...

living room sneak peak.

I am obsessed with stripes. Fabrics. Walls. Rugs. Doesn't matter; if it's striped, I'm sure to love it. So in thinking about what to do with our sofa pillows and searching for fabrics I've started leaning toward doing striped linen opposed to solid white linen. I mean how could one not want a little dose of this kind of lovlieness...

                 

*all images courtesy of decorpad

Soooo, what do you ladies think?

*this* (the wide striped linen) for the large pillows covering the back of the sofa?

Or simple white linen for the large suede pillows with just a few striped toss pillows added?

By the way, recognize that coffee table? My $20 Craigslist find that used to look like this? And, the rug that all of my closest Ikea stores were sold out of but with a $29.99 price tag, it was worth my parents going an hour out of their way on their visit home from Florida this summer to pick one up for me at the Orlando Ikea. Check them out here.

So, there's a minor sneak peak of the always under construction living room. The dilemma now is, solid or stripes? Help. :)

sandpiper.

It's not anything new that my thoughts on what to do with our akward living room change frequently. But, I think I've started to accept that our giant leather (less than three years old) sofa must stay. Emphasis on started to accept. So, I've been going over ideas in my head and searching blogs and images online trying to find ideas that will make me not hate the giant dark beast that feels like an eyesore in our living room.

Recently I did come across an image on Rebecca's blog from a visit to her aunt and uncle's house that made me looove the look of their leather furniture with gorgeous gray walls and lots and lots of WHITE!

I am in love with this room. Leather and all. :) That chandelier. The linen romans and drapes. Giant picturesque windows. Dark hardwood floors. The fireplace. Um, that sailboat! I dream of it all. Buuuuut, since I only have the leather furniture and linen drapes, I'm thinking that may be a good enough starting point to go ahead and embrace accept our leather sofa and make it work for us. So, no slipcovered sectional for me just yet and back to the game plan of having white linen pillow covers made for the suede pillows that serve as the back of the couch we already have. I've decided though I want decorative pillows as well and in my search for "striped linen fabric" for those, I came across a darling little fabric store, right.here.in.Columbus.

Sew To Speak fabric store not more than thirty minutes from our home! AND, she has a blog!

Despite not having found any simple linen stripe fabric like I thought I wanted, I did find this:

Not only am I obsessed with stripes, but I have a new found love of yellow. And, how could this NOT remind me of the beach??? Completely unlike my typical simple style, I think I need this fabric for fun summery toss pillows. Looks like a trip to a certain nearby fabulous little fabric store is in order...

Helloooo lovelies. I went on the hunt for a few new blogs to love recently and came across Stephanie's blog Under The Table And Dreaming. I found tons of ideas from her and her talented readers who submit projects of their own regularly. I mean I've seen everything from an armoire turned baby changing station to free printables to recreate the beautiful collage she has hanging in her kitchen.

You can find the complete post including free printables HERE. Along with tons of other crafty ideas on her blog.

I've been having quite a difficult time figuring out what to do with our kitchen walls which recently turned into this disaster.

Nevermind the dishes and misc. items, the real problem here are all the holes in the walls that I've patched. So I'm hoping I can make some new ideas I've seen come to life and share a second reveal of the kitchen with you all soon. There are a few new features you may already notice. ;)

As excited as I was to simply find new ideas on Stephanie's blog I also entered myself into a giveaway for a $25 gift certificate to The Pleated Poppy and WON!

The tough fun part is deciding what I want to use that gift certificate toward!

 

A big THANK YOU to Stephanie and The Pleated Poppy for such a darling surprise!

What would you ladies choose??? And, any ideas for my now bare kitchen walls???

good morning sunshine (award).

I feel like my blog has been less than up to par lately so you can imagine my surprise this morning when I saw that Jessica from Sea To My Heart gave me the Sunshine Award. Thank you Jessica, that surely was sweet.

This award comes with really fun rules:

1. Thank the blogger that gave you the award.

2. List 7 things about yourself people may not know.

3. Share the award with three other deserving bloggers you've recently discovered (and love).

4. Let the recipients know you gave them an award.

Soooo, I get to share fun facts about myself AND share a few new favorite blogs? Um, yes please.

Random facts about moi:

1. I truly believe I belong by the sea. I'm a different person when I'm near the ocean.

2. I met my husband when I was only 15. Which means we've been together nearly 11 years! Married for nearly 3. That's exhasuting just to think about. ;)

3. I am hands down the most fickle person I know. Gemini.

4. My grandparents raised me.

5. I think I'm addicted to furniture. Seriously.

6. I have very few close friends, and hate that fact.

7. When I was young I was afraid of dogs. Having recently lost my first dog, I learned just how much you truly can love an animal.

Now that I've bored you all to death here are three favorite "new to me" blogs for you to check out! AND, be sure to head on over and see what Jessica has been up to at Sea To My Heart. She's been up to some lovely transforming that I just know you all will love. Example:

A few other lovelies to meet are:

1. Michelle at Three Men and a Lady (whose striped hallway has been seen on blogs everywhere and still amazes me every time.)

2. Anonymous ;) at Shabby Addict (who just revealed the adorable nursery she created for her daughter)

*I'm such a new follower I've not yet even figured out your name. I'm sorry!

3. Jessica at Living Bettter Together (although her blog is not that new to me, she throws parties I can only dream of attending. they're adorable and seem like so much FUN! so you girls should check her out too.)

I'm inspired by each and every blog I follow and although seeing so much talent sometimes makes it hard on this fickle girl to decide which direction she'd like to take her home in, the good stuff you all share sure does help!

Have a sunshining Saturday lovelies!

simple inspiration.

Last week sometime Jack and I went out for our occasional Marshall's/TJ Maxx/Home Goods shopping excursion to see what kind of goodies we could find (at discounted prices of course). I was happy to come home with a new pair of jeans that are super long which is a rare find for me, and a couple decorative items for his soon to be transformed bedroom. But the one thing I didn't come home with, I've been thinking about ever since.

The very moment I set eyes on this little linen pillow I was in an instant daydream envisioning it in the sweetest baby girl nursery. I imagined tons and tons of white (no surprise there) with this lovely little pillow resting on a slipcovered white chair where I would sing the sweetest of lullabies as Jack played nearby. Of course the short attention spanned toddler in my cart put a quick stop to that daydream as he got bored with his bowl and spoon he'd been occupied with thus far. But then, today he says this:

Right after that he said he wanted a "sister baby" but the video got cut off. I mean if that isn't inspiration, I don't know what is. Hahaha. Just a daydream at this point ladies, just a daydream. :)

I've found a few new blogs I love recently and I'm looking forward to sharing some of my favorite inspiration from them soon.

Have a lovely weekend!