Coffee Talk

I've been pretty happy with the living room set up lately, except for one thing. Every time Lucy runs around the coffee table I have a mini panic attack. I picture her slipping, falling and hurting herself on the corner of the table.  

My parents have had this round coffee table in their attic as long as I can remember. I honestly don't even know where they used to have it. I don't remember seeing it in either of the houses I grew up in. It was just one of those pieces of furniture I would scoot around, lean over, and move past when looking for treasures in my parents' attic over the years.

I knew for my sanity that I needed to swap out the old Ikea coffee table for something a little less 'dangerous', but I'm not ready to shell out a ton of money on a brand new table. I can't even remember exactly how I thought of this table. I'm pretty sure it was one night in Lucy's room rocking her to sleep. As odd as it may sound, I get some of my best ideas when I'm sitting in Lucy's dark bedroom, snuggling my girl to sleep. That or in the shower. I literally would force myself to shower when I needed inspiration for a school project or an idea for a gift for someone or some other odd thing like that. 

Anyway... I texted my mom immediately and she told me the table was mine. 

It's a little beat up. And I like that. I'm not crazy about the fact that there are wheels on it. Furniture that moves is not ideal with a toddler, but she hasn't discovered that it is mobile, so we are good for now. I fear the wheels will scratch our pretty and (effing expensive) wood floor. So I'd like to eventually remove them, but need an alternative solution if I lose too much height knocking the table down an inch and a half or so. 

I really like the color of the table in the room. I'm so over the 'let's have matching dark Ikea furniture in every room' kick I apparently went on when I moved here several years ago.  Seriously, have you seen our bedroom? That's why we needed to swap the beds. It was a dark dungeon. I love mixing and matching different wood finishes and this table definitely breaks up the monotony of the room. You would all see this if I had taken a better photo. just realized I zoomed a bit too much on the above picture and cut out the side tables.

What do you all think? It's a temporary fix, but it's doing the trick. I like the character of the flaws, but keep wondering if I should do something to it. Should I paint it? Leave it? 

DIY Floral Arrangement

I don't have a green thumb. I will probably never be able to maintain a successful garden. I don't even know the names of most flowers. What I do know is what looks pretty. I also know how to take something done professionally and learn to DIY it for less. 

My grandmother's birthday was last month. Buying gifts for my grandparents is hard. Really hard. What do you get for an 82 year old woman who has everything she needs, needs nothing, and even has everything she doesn't need? A pretty flower arrangement. And why spend a fortune on one when you can do it yourself? 

This DIY was super easy and super inexpensive. Anytime I get flowers from Jordan I always keep the vase. I have tons of vases that I've collected over the years. I never had a plan for them but knew I would figure something out down the line. All I needed to buy was some tape and the actual flowers. 

First step is the most important and pretty much what makes or breaks the arrangement. I took clear duct tape and cut it into quarters making skinny strips. I'm sure there's fancy professional florist tape that actually is this size, but I settled for the duct tape purchased for cheap from Walgreen and the tedious task of cutting it into pieces. Ah, well..

Once I had my strips cut I ran them across the top of the vase, criss-crossing them like the top of a pie leaving small square openings between the strips. 

Now you could do this project using just one regular sized mixed bouquet found at the store. I bought two because I wanted to add sunflowers to be a statement flower and of course they were in a separate bouquet than the one I wanted to use. I spent $15 in total on the flowers for two bouquets, but you don't even need to spend this much. I had some leftover flowers that I stuck in a vase for myself. Side note: Whole Foods has some of the best flowers. I highly recommend. 

I trimmed all the flowers to the necessary length. To start, I picked the largest, statement flowers and put them into the vase through the holes between the tape, spacing them out as I saw fit. The criss-cross tape holds the flowers upright so you don't have a bunch of droopy flowers bumping into each other and moving around.

After the large flowers were in, I started to fill in with the next size and worked my way smaller: in this case it was roses, followed by daises, carnations, etc. 

Lastly, I added in all the accent pieces, or fillers: spider mums and whatever those green stemmed things are below. Like I said, I don't know the names of most flowers. I just had to 'google' spider mum. You want to just move pieces around and mess with it a bit until it looks pretty and finished. One thing I would add to the arragement that I did not originally do is find a piece of ribbon that matches the arrangement and tie it around the neck of the vase, covering the ends of the tape so they don't peek through the flowers.

That's it. Honestly. The hardest part was cutting the strips of tape, and to even call that task hard is stretching the truth a bit. If you come across actual florist tape, the time it took me for this project could be cut in half. My grandmother absolutely loved the flowers. She was so pleased with the arrangement and the fact that they lasted almost three weeks that she requested I make her more! 

Here are a few quick shots of the arrangement I made for her last week.

 

Girl Crush: Carole Radziwill

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I should start this post by admitting that sometimes I watch trashy tv. Yup, I've been known to catch a few episodes of Kardashians, Giuliana and Bill, Bethenney, and really any season of Housewives. It's my guilty pleasure. I'm not necessarily proud of it, but recently I've found myself catching up on tons of episodes of Real Housewives of NY on demand - not to watch the awkward, catty fights, but to see what Carole Radziwill is wearing. Who is Carole Radziwill? My new girl crush.

Carole can pull off the effortless, chic Jennifer Aniston jeans and leather jacket look paired with the bold, Carrie Bradshaw-esque sense of style and sex appeal - the perfect combination in my opinion and pretty much the look I've been desperately trying to pull off (probably unsuccessfully I'll admit). Who else can wear the lace dress below with what looks like underwear underneath? And she's rocking it flawlessly at 48. Even in just a tank and jeans Carole looks so put together without even trying. I only wish I can look that great at her age. Also, her hair is AMAZING. Seriously, the cut, the color, the style. I have major hair envy. 

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Who is your current girl crush?

 

Is It Really Only Wednesday?

 

Sorry for another slow week. Things have been so hectic and busy at work that I fell asleep the same time Lucy went to bed last night and didn't get a chance to prep today's post. I'm also working on a custom painting for a reader that I need finished to ship out this weekend so even my free time is occupied. I'll be sure to step it up for the remainder of the week. Happy hump day! 

Guest Bathrom - FINISHED!

When I last showed you, the guest bathroom was sort of in limbo. I had painted the walls a soft grey, but kept most of the progress a secret until it was complete (with the exception of two sneak peek projects). 

What started out as window shopping shower curtains at West Elm soon became a full blown room redo. I'm proud to say the room is complete (at least for now). I opted not to tackle painting the countertops just yet. The light fixture could use a replacement, but for now I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

Note: I tried to take as many photos as I could with natural light so you could see the real shade of the paint color, but since there are no windows anywhere near the guest bathroom I eventually had to suck it up and take a few photos using the icky bathroom light. The ones I did take in the natural light have a little blur to them. (Any photographers out there have any tips?)

Let's take a mini tour and share some resources, shall we? In case you were curious, the paint is 'Silver Sateen' by Behr. 

Along with giving the walls a fresh coat of paint, I wanted to replace the ugly beige outlet colors with crisp, clean white ones. I opted for the clean lines and modern look of the flat switch as opposed to the traditional light switch. The replacements cost a little more than the others, but not so much that I felt guilty for the upgrade. This picture also gives you a good idea of the paint color. It wasn't my intention, but in person there seems to be a slight blue tint to the gray, which I'm fine with considering the whole color scheme.

 

 

Octopus hook, Anthropologie | hand towel, West Elm | 'D' dish, West Elm | glass storage jars, Homegoods | light switch & outlet, Home Depot

basket, Homegoods | white linens, Homegoods | sea sponges, Amazon | soaps, Amazon

oar, DIY (here) | metal 'D', Urban Outfitters | matted frame left, Target | matted frame right, Pottery Barn | thick wood frame, Target | metal round frame, Homegoods | painting, painted by my grandfather with DIY frame (here) | white frame, old repainetd white | metal door knocker, Pottery Barn | key, thrift

 

 

shower curtain, West Elm | bathmat, West Elm | yellow metal storage crate, Homegoods (love the little pop of yellow!) | candle, Anthropologie | white towels, wedding gift

 

 

ceramic tray, West Elm | glass, Anthropologie | wooden toothbrushes, Amazon | frame, thrifted | soap, Amazon

 

One of my favorite aspects of this room is the fact that I snuck in a number of items that are sentimental to both Jordan and myself - specifically pictures of our grandparents.

 

 

Left: Jordan's maternal grandparents (Target frame)

Right: Jordan's paternal grandparents (Homegoods frame)

 

 

Left: My maternal grandfather (thrifted frame)

Right: My maternal grandmother (really old frame I painted white)

 

 

Above: My paternal grandparents. (Pottery Barn frame) They are the only grandparents that are still alive. I see them every Sunday morning for brunch.

 

There you have it. The guest bathroom is complete, and I love it.