Living Room Decor... Finally!

My husband and I have owned our home a little

over 3 years, and I finally got around to decorating

our living room! Even though it's not completely

done, I'm probably not going to do anything else to it

for a while because I'm kinda sick of working on it!

 

Some things I knew before I decided to decorate this room:

I knew that I was keeping my curtains (they were custom

ordered to fit the large window not too long ago, so I knew I

wouldn't be changing those any time soon!!). I also needed to

keep the piano, because it doesn't work in any other room in the

house. I already had 2 lamps that I love, so I wanted to make sure

they would be used. I also kept a mirror that my husband bought

for us - it's a little fancier than I was wanting for the room, but

maybe later on down the road, when I decide to finish the room,

I will switch that out. I also knew that the paint color would not be

changing - we had the whole house professionally painted a couple

years ago, so it just hasn't been long enough to get our money's worth!

 

So I really just had a very hard time making any decisions

when it came to this room. I just couldn't figure out where to

start - that's probably why it's taken me over 3 years!

 So, thankfully, my friend Bethany came over and helped me

figure out what to do in the room. She's just VERY good at this

kind of stuff, and was a huge help! She gave me some suggestions

of what to do in the room, and ideas of what to purchase. She also

had me "stage" the room with stuff I already had to get an idea of

the spacing in the room. So that's what I did below.

 

The white leather furniture pictured above is now at our family

cabin and works perfectly there. But at the time, I arranged the

couch and loveseat in the dimensions of a sectional that I found to

see how it would fit in the room. I'm kind of embarrassed for you to

see the gallery photo wall that I attempted a couple years ago - the

arrangement of the frames isn't good at all, and I never put a single photo

in any of the frames! The frames are also fancier than what I really wanted

to do in the room, so I knew I'd be coming up with something different!

And seriously, the fake ficus tree. What was I thinking?!?

 

The first thing that I found for the room was 2 large matching

canvas paintings. They were on clearance at Pier 1 Imports.

I needed tall pictures because our ceilings are tall in the living

room. I also didn't want any fancy artwork because I wanted

the room be feel comfy and laidback. They incorporated

enough color too, and that's something that I really needed.

 

So this next picture gives me a huge headache... there is so

much stuff going on in here and NONE of it works together!

But seriously, things usually look worse before they look better

when I'm in the process of redecorating. I bought SO MUCH

stuff, tried it in the room, then took it back. But I think I took this

picture because it was a low point for me with the room!!!

 

 I had attempted to see what a dark sofa would look like

by putting a brown blanket over the white furniture - yeah, that

didn't really help me at all! But I trusted Bethany, and she said

that a dark brown sectional would work well in the room.

So, here's the sectional we ended up with:

 

My husband helped me hang the pictures from Pier 1

over the sofa. Then I decided to stage some more.  I tried

out another rug, and brought in a coffee table, end tables,

and an ottoman from my family room and 2 kitchen chairs

 to see what might work in the living room.  The ficus tree

even found its way to another place in the room....

 

I actually liked the rug, but it was just too busy with the

pictures we hung. So we decided to go without a rug at all.

If this room had hardwood floors, we definitely would have

gotten a rug, but since it's carpet, it didn't really need one.

 

I also decided that an ottoman instead of a coffee table

would be the better choice for the room. The sofa actually

had a matching ottoman available, but it did not include any

storage. So I found this ottoman at Home Goods, with storage.

It's not an exact perfect match to the sectional, but it's so close!

I added a blanket to the ottoman, and I think it helps disguise the

fact that they aren't exactly the same color. The ottoman also

included a tray that can be used for drinks or whatever else.

 

I wanted a couple chairs in front of the window to help

finish out a conversation area. I originally had wanted

fabric chairs. I found the ones below at TJ Maxx. But when

I got them in the room, they were just too small compared

to the sectional. And I couldn't find any larger fabric chairs

that I liked (print-wise, color-wise, and price-wise). 

 

So I changed directions and looked at leather chairs. I found one with

the same nailhead trim as the ottoman. I added a light colored throw

and a pillow, and I think it softened up the chair enough to use it. BUT...

I decided that I needed another one right next to it! It took quite a few

phone calls to multiple stores to get the same chair (it was on clearance and

could not be ordered). It was also a pain to find another identical blanket

(I called 7 TJ Maxx stores in 2 states), but I found it! 

 

I considered putting colorful pillows on the sectional, and maybe

I still will. But for right now, I like that the light colored pillows

seem to make the sectional not so "heavy." I already had the

checkered ones and the light green swirled ones. I found a couple nailhead

pillows at Target, and thought that it helped tie in the nailhead trim on

the ottoman and chairs.

 

To replace the previous, ornate gallery wall, I decided to make

a small grid using 6 identical frames that I found at Target.

I didn't have hardly any wedding pictures displayed in our home,

so I ordered 8x10 sized photos to go in the frames. At first I was

nervous that the pictures would be too big, but I'm so glad I didn't

go any smaller than 8x10.  Because the room is so big, anything

smaller wouldn't have had much of an impact in the room, in my opinion.

Once we have kids, I'm sure the photos will be switched out

with pictures of them - but until then, I love having these displayed.

 

There was some space left on the wall that the larger part of

the sectional is on... it wasn't big enough to put another piece of

furniture, but it was too big to leave blank. So I bought 11x14 sized

frames in the same finish as the wedding picture frames and hung them

in a column. My husband took a trip to Utah this summer, and he took

some beautiful pictures - so we chose 3 of them, had them printed at

Wal-Mart.com, and they look stunning! It's definitely my favorite

part of the room! I also found some red twigs 6 feet tall that worked well

in a vase in the corner. It adds a little bit more color in the room too. 

Finding end tables that I liked wasn't easy. I found one that

I liked - it's fairly small, the top of it is interesting without

competing with the lampstand, and there is a shelf on the bottom

to store things, with the option of putting a basket underneath.

It also has rounded edges - and knowing that we want kids some day,

this was something that I purposefully looked for.  Only problem - I could

only find ONE! I bought it, and decided to use a table that we already had

at the house as the other end table. And I'm kind of OK with the fact that

I don't have matching end tables. But, if I get serious about finishing up

this room, I will probably look for the same table again.

 

The other side of the room definitely still needs more work.

This is the side that the mirror and piano is on. The mirror was

originally hung with the white leather couch underneath it. When

I decided to get a sectional, we had to move the piano under the

mirror, and now the mirror is a little lower than I would like. But the

mirror is actually very heavy, so it's going to be such a hassle to raise

it up just a little bit, so I decided it would be fine where it is, for now. 

I'm probably going to change the mirror one day anyways, so when I

change it up, I will get to hang it how I want it! Plus, the piano is my

sister's, so the day that she is ready to have it back, I will have to get

something else to go in that spot anyways. So this is a temporary look.

 

Originally, I thought I would put a chair in the corner by the piano.

That was before I picked out the leather chairs to go in front of the

window. But I ended up putting an accent table there instead. I already had

the table thinking I would use it with the leather chair... but the table is too

big to go beside the leather chairs. I needed something beside the

piano, so it worked.  I added a couple candlesticks that used to be in our

bathroom, and a small wedding picture I already had framed. I still think

I need something on the walls on both sides of the mirror,

but haven't found anything I am pleased with yet.

So that's it! I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out

so far... and even though I'm not finished, I can't bring

myself to work on it anymore for a while! I did all of this in

about 2 weeks - maybe it sounds like plenty of time to you,

but that's a ton of looking, comparing, buying, staging, deciding,

returning, and buying some more!!!

 



Breakfast Casserole Recipe

I made my very first breakfast casserole over the

weekend and it was a success! Thanks to my coworker,

Amy, for sharing her recipe with me =)

 

Ingredients:

sausage

bread slices (about 6)

1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese

1 large carton (or 2 small cartons)

of Southwestern egg beaters

 

Directions:

Brown sausage and drain. Put bread slices

in the bottom of a casserole dish. Add cooked

sausage. Pour the southwestern egg beaters

over the sausage, and top with cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and golden

brown, approximately 40 minutes. Simple as that!

 

 The southwestern egg beaters have green peppers,

red peppers, and onions already in the mix, so it gives
the breakfast casserole a Mexican kick to it.
Enjoy!!



Garden Theme Bridal Shower

Another bridal shower is in the books! Over the weekend,

my sister and I hosted a Garden theme bridal shower for a
family friend, Miss Samantha Yocke. It turned out better than I

imagined and is one of my favorite showers yet! My sister came
up with the Garden theme. It took some time for me to get on
board with it, but I'm so glad she talked me into it.

The invitation for the shower included the quote

"Life is a Garden and Love is in Bloom."

Here's a couple pictures to show the overhead view of the room:

 

One of the first decisions we made was the table runners. Instead

of using one long runner the length of the table, we decided to

have multiple table runners across the width of the tables.

Rebekah and my mom picked out a few different floral print

fabrics, and Rebekah made all the runners. It was time

consuming and a lot of work (for her!), but they looked great!

 

 The centerpieces was one of the last decisions we made. We

just couldn't decide what we wanted, but in the end, we decided

that we needed to incorporate more REAL flowers in the shower,

so flower centerpieces were the best way to do this. The tall vases

are from my wedding. The mini mason jars, which are probably the

 cutest little things ever, Rebekah found for FREE. Most of the flowers

came from a friend's yard (thanks Judy!), and I just bought a few purple

and yellow austemaria flowers to help complete the arrangements.

 

 The favors at this shower may be my favorite ones we've ever done!

Gardening gloves! Perfect, right?!? We already had all the white boxes

from my sister's wedding (5 years ago!). I added a ribbon and tissue paper

flower around each box, and Rebekah arranged the gloves in them.

I ordered the gloves online for about $1 each and loved the different prints! 

 

The felt flowers that we attached to the backs of the chair covers

were ones we already had from previous parties, but since they

worked perfectly with this theme, we just had to use them again!  



I thought the present-opening area was adorable- we used a bench

that was already in the church, added three pillows (took them off our
mom's back porch), and in front, put a rug. Rebekah also got this rug for
FREE.... can't get much better than that!!!  On the lattice, we hung scrap
fabric banners that Rebekah made - I love how they look!

 Thankfully, we had so many people offer to help us with the shower, and

we ended up not having to do any of the food or drinks! But we knew what

we wanted done for it - a Make Your Own Garden Salad Bar. Goes with

the theme perfect, huh? The shower was at 4:00 pm, so we didn't have to

provide a dinner meal, but we still wanted to serve something pretty substantial.
 

So the ladies in charge of the food put together the salad and all the

fixing's and even went the extra mile and provided fruit salad, potato salad,

and pasta salad! We also thought mini dirt cakes in terracotta pots would be

adorable... we already had a bunch of the pots from a previous shower, so

we didn't have to get many more. It was a fun touch! Also, a good friend of

the bride's mother makes delicious cookies - she made wedding cake cookies
for each person to take with them - and they tasted as good as they looked!

 

Behind the food table we hung pennants that had the
same quote as the invitations, along with a couple wreaths.

 

For the drinks, we had sweet tea, lemonade, water, and coffee. Our cups

were mason jars, tied with a scrap piece of fabric leftover from the table runners.

We added peach striped straws, which were a big hit - had lots of people ask

where we got them! (answer-Jo Ann Fabrics, but they're at Hobby Lobby too)

 

 A big huge thank you, thank you, and thank you again to Judy Gibbs, Debi Herbert,

Kathy Vallance, Sherri Taliaferro, and Linda Brewster for all your hard work!

 

I'd have to say, though, probably my favorite thing about this shower were

all the display areas we made. There were six areas total. There's so many

different elements that we used in the display areas that I think

I'm just going to point them out in each different area.

The first display area was at the entrace, right inside the door where

guests would arrive. For this area, we decorated with a pallet, paper rosette
ribbons, a mason jar of hibiscus flowers on a basket, a piece of wood

with the couples initials, and a sign pointing people which way to go.

  

The largest display area included 3 pallets, a "love" sign made out of

cardboard and moss, hot glued to the largest center pallet. There was a

water fountain, given to us by a friend of my mom's. My sister made a

mini pennant with the groom's last name that I stuck in a plantar topped

with moss. We hung some pictures on the pallets - one of the bride and

groom, and some of flowers that we dried and pressed. They turned out

so nice! We added candles, an arrangement of flowers resembling

the centerpieces, a wooden birdhouse, a tin can and a mason jar with hibiscus

flowers from my mom's yard, a moss and burlap wreath, and a wood block photo

of the couple. Some of these things were elevated by various things - a basket from
my house, an apple crate we borrowed, and a box from the church covered in fabric.  

 

 

 

(click HERE for a tutorial on making the wood block photo)

The next display area included 2 pallets, some more pressed flowers,

candles, birdhouse, wood block picture of bride and groom, a tin

tray with purple flowers, a wooden miniature chair, and another wreath.

 

 The third display area took some work. We knew we wanted to use this large

flower arrangement of my mom's. It needed to be elevated because of the

cascading vines, so we found a small table at the church and covered it with fabric.

We also added a small wagon with flowers (it's my mom's too) and more purple

plants in terracotta pots. But it just didn't look finished. Adding a pallet behind

the plant helped a lot. Then I grabbed a piece of scrap wood from my house, and

Rebekah used the couples initials and wrote M+S=<3. A birdhouse on the table

completed this area (all the birdhouses we used were already in the church attic!).

 

The fourth display area had a couple pallets, a purple potted plant from my mom's

house, more purple terracotta plants, and a picture of the place the bride

 and groom are getting married. We put a large pink floral plantar next to this

area - that came off my front porch.

We like to provide the paper and pencil for the gift list. Pretty cute huh?
The pencils were already wrapped in twine, leftover from a baby shower
that some friends of ours did a while back!

The gift table just had a picture of the bride and groom, and some flowers.
We knew there would be a lot of presents, so we didn't want to have much
of anything on the table. But it needed a little something!

 

The last display area in the room had one pallet. We used a couple apple crates

 and a fabric covered box for elevation. Here we displayed the door prizes that

we gave away... three of the prizes were chip and dip trays. They fit the theme

so well, and already came with a twine bow, so we decided not to wrap them.

The last door prize was from the parent's of the bride, and was a goodie basket

of coffee and treats. A few candles, flowers, and pictures finished this

area up, along with another pink floral plantar from my house. 

  

 

 The door prizes were handed out to the first person to RSVP (FYI, this is kind

of a staple at shower's we throw, because it's so important to RSVP!), the person

who had 3 flowers on the back of their chair cover, the person who brought

the 24th gift that the bride and groom opened (they picked the number), and the

 winner of the game that we played.

 

I'm not quite sure what to call the game that we played - basically, Rebekah

and I came up with a bunch of multiple choice questions. There were 6 tables

set up at the shower, so to begin with, each table was on a team. One

person from each team was the "spokesperson," and got 3 cards each with

A, B, and C on them. The bride and groom were their own team. Rebekah

would ask a multiple choice question about the bride and groom, and each

table's spokesperson had to hold up their answer. Then, the bride and groom

would hold up theirs. If you answered wrong, you were out. After the very

first question, only two tables remained! When only one table remained (which

was only a couple questions later), the game switched to where each

individual table member got their own set of cards and were playing against

each other - and they were still out if they guessed wrong.  

 

The questions were pretty silly ones - a few examples are:

1. What was Samantha's favorite part of Marc's proposal?

A. the location, B. the ring, or C. his creativity

 

2. Describe the first time Samantha and Marc met.

A. Awkward, B. Breathtaking, or C. Crazy

 

3. If Samantha and Marc got separated in Wal-Mart,

where is Marc most likely to be?

A. in the cookie aisle, B. in the movie aisle, or C. in the bathroom

 

After the game, we moved into the beginning part of the gift giving.

Rebekah and I had a gag gift for Samantha. As I read a poem,

Samantha kept opening her gift to reveal what the poem was

describing, and Rebekah would hang them up... so here's the poem, partially

from websites, but mainly written by our dad of all people! HAHAHA!

 PANTY POEM:
These undies are to last you all throughout your life
And Marc will be pleased to say, he has a sexy wife.

So listen up to hear about your lifelong panty plan
This underwear, we have no doubt, will last your whole life span.

The first are for your wedding day, of course they are pure white.
We know that Marc will shout "Hooray!" when he sees you on that night.

The next are for your honeymoon, they're sexy and all lace
But we hope you'll leave your room, 'cause Jamaica's a gorgeous place!

On Valentine's Day you'll wear this pair before you hit the bed
'Cause Cupid's arrow in the air shoots tushies that are red.

After a year has passed you'll face anniversary number one
With these you'll surely have a blast 'cause leopard's so much fun!

When year five comes rollin' in, don't worry, don't you fret
You'll still be young and beautiful; this bikini is your best bet.

Then when the time is right, and don't be saying, "maybe"
You'll wear your little pink or blue in honor of your baby.

When ten years pass, they will fly by; the flame will still be burnin'
This two-tone pair will light the fire, that's for sure and certain!

When your years together become 25, things sag and turn to cellulite
Please don't panic, just put these on, these Spanx will hold it all tight!

When finally you're old and gray, with these you can't go wrong
'Cause sorry Sam, but at that age, you just can't wear a thong!

The time will come, a long way off, when panties just won't do
The bladder just won't hold it all, so these Depends will work for you!

Life is truly an uncertain thing, you might live in a mansion or shanty
But one thing for sure you know, you'll have a lifetime span of panties!

 

We just loved doing this shower, but even more, we love the bride and

her parents! They are a wonderful family and we were so glad to get to

throw this shower for them! And the groom was very precious - I can

tell that Miss Samantha Yocke is going to be well taken care of by him!

Aren't they so cute together?!?

 

And the VERY BEST part of throwing showers is

getting to spend more time with my sister!!!