Apartment Update

Renting a two bedroom apartment definitely has it's pros and cons. On one hand I can vacuum the entire apartment while leaving the vacuum plugged into one outlet, on the other hand there isn't much leeway on re doing areas of the house. Some people do small things like update their throw pillows every few years, or they have major projects on their to do list that they may not get to for several years. I however have nothing that needs to be done, or frankly that I want to have done, so I was kind of excited when my Noir dining room chair seats started splitting at the seams. I should have been annoyed that our chairs were not holding up well, especially since the Mr. and I rarely ever sit down to actually eat in the "dining room,"  but instead I was excited. It gave me an excuse to do a project, and I had the chairs reupholstered, well part of them anyway... Surprise surprise I decided to use a Cowtan and Tout animal print!

 Another update- Hank is huge!

Friday Favs

Remember when my sweet Mama got me the knock-off version of the Oly Studio Pipa cocktail table for Christmas 2011? I posted about it here, and to this day we always regretted getting the smaller table and giving the big one to a client. Mom and I have been hunting Home Goods stores weekly (Mom almost drove out of state when a store in Delaware had one, but the fools wouldn't take a credit card over the phone to reserve it, thats how insane we are) so when the bigger version didn't turn up, I bit the bullet and ordered the real deal last summer at Market. Seven months later I finally got the call that the table was ready! I had the whole thing planned out, I pushed some of the furniture to the outside of the living room to make it feel bigger so when the new much larger table arrived the Mr. wouldn't even notice the ol switcharo. No such luck. The table was delivered last Friday and when he got home from work the first thing he said was Woo did you carry that up all by yourself?? Then proceeded to ask me why we needed two versions of the same table. Technically if if you look closely they are not exactly the same table, not just in size but color and texture. Enough of a difference to spend the extra mullah on one vs the other? Probably not, but I have been eyeing this puppy for years and I don't regret it for a second. Plus, as I pointed out to him, the odds of us having a living room big enough to fit the 42" table in, in our first home some day is probably slim to none, so I need to keep the smaller version just in case. Personally I think he is lucky to have a wife who plans ahead...

Old 

New

Just to give you an idea of how much bigger the new table is, the same books are on here as there were on the 32" version above. The Vera Wang book is now under the gray and white box (Henry) and the doggie book is under the novel and the shell. 

Friday Favs

Friday Favs, so much to be thankful for...

our nana dog Hank nursing the Mr. and I back to health

watching the national dog show on the big screen

not having to cook when you don't feel well, and still looking like Martha Stewart

having an in unit washer/ dryer and a Grandma who taught me hospital corners

my best friend Henry who made me the happiest girl on earth, 

and my little man Hank who is hands down the best birthday gift of all time

In The Weeds

Lately Mom and I have been completely in the weeds. I am not complaining, being busy is way better than the alternative, but with all the work going on I have had absolutely no time for anything else. We are working on launching a new website which has taken my attention away from the blog, but I am going to try to get back into more frequent posts. For now here is an update on my dog bed dilemma! I had a Pottery Barn gift card that I forgot about left over from Christmas so I decided to spend it on our little man and I purchased this bed

Since I don't looove the PB dog bed cover options I decided to have one made. I wanted to do the Schumacher Chenoncaue fabric but there is no way I am spending that kind of mullah on a dog bed, at least while he is still in puppy phase anyway...  So I settled on the Imperial Trellis, cliché I know, but with so many knock offs out there I figured why not. I found the trellis knock off (is this even legal?) on Spoon Flower and chose to upgrade to the heavy cotton twill fabric so it would be more durable. That bumped up the cost to $32 per yard but still no where near the cost of ordering the real deal. Long story short I think the bed turned out perfectly but I would have been disappointed if I was purchasing the fabric for anything other than a dog bed. 

  Schumacher                             vs.                         Spoonflower 

 Clara did an amazing job at hiding the lines in the fabric with the piping. 

In the end the only thing that matters is a happy puppy dog! 

Pet's on Furniture, Do or Don't?

Monday's post about adorable Nursery's got me thinking about how the Mr. and I are completely not ready for kids right now. The main reason? He's a push over when it comes down to saying no to Hank. One of my favorite blogs Desire To Inspire, does a segment that features pets on furniture, which is adorable, but I am on the fence about the issue. My beloved Henry, who was positively perfect in every way, knew never to get on furniture except the bed; which the Mr. and I referred to as our "Time Share." The bed was Henry's from 8:00am to 9:00pm, obviously we were free to join him during those hours but only if it didn't disturb him. Hank on the other hand is one cheeky little monkey. All this kid wants to do is get on the furniture with us. There is one chair in particular which he thinks is his, it's like in the Flintstones when Fred throws his pet out the front door and he jumps back in through the window... The other night I made Hank get off the chair six times, until he decided that maybe sitting next to me on the sofa would be better. I'm trying to be firm, and it's hard to say no to that face, but it's even harder when your husband wont say no. Even the threat of me buying a new sofa, in the likely event that Hank ruins it, has not swayed his feelings on the topic. Then again if he knew how much the living room furniture cost he might agree, or kill me. So I can't decide, let Hank join us on the sofa, or splurge on a posh doggie bed and hope he stays on the floor? 

A phone pic the Mr. sent me while I was at work to taunt me. Thats not an app to 

make the image look vintage, he literally has an old school flip phone with gravel embedded in the lens. 

Cute yes. Practical? Not so much. Who wants to come over for cocktails to sit in a dog chair?

My idea to remedy our situation...

Until we (I) figure it out, Hank will have to deal with Henry's spot...

Henry my love- we miss you buddy! 

Doggie beds via here and here

The Best Birthday Gift Ever

Hello all! First of all, I want to tell you how much it meant to me, and how much it would have meant to Henry, for the sweet comments and emails I received following his passing. He truly was the most amazing pup I could have ever asked for; our 7 happy years together bring a smile to my face every time I think of my little man. For the past week instead of throwing myself a pity party, I have been running around chasing after the newest member of our family, Hank! The Mr. decided that if chocolate and peanut butter for breakfast in bed every morning wasn't going to cheer me up, he had to resort to more drastic measures. Yes, I officially have the sweetest husband ever, and now the sweetest new puppy ever. Hank Boland is now 10 weeks old and basically running our lives. I told the Mr. he is lucky I am not quitting my job to be a stay at home Mom!

Mix and Chic Apartment Feature

Jessie from Mix and Chic featured our apartment on her lovely blog today! I am always in awe of Jessie and how frequent and detailed her posts are. As most bloggers know, it is not easy to produce daily content filled with gobs of eye candy and personal commentary that is fresh and new to your readers. The only theory I can come up with is that she must never sleep! Head on over to Mix and Chic to see the apartment, and while my fabulous Haute Indoor Couture followers will recognize the subtle changes in the pad, for those of you who are just stopping by, I thought I would share them with you.

The drapes here I love, but I ended up moving them into the Living Room add
 a little color in there. The mix matched bed side tables drove me crazy which led 
to my corbel night stand project

My Pottery Barn Peyton drapes from the Living Room have been repurposed
 here after my seamstress added 24" of  Burlap to the bottom of each panel. 
Small detail big impact. 

Notice my two different drapery rods?? I waited for-ev-er for the second bamboo rod! 
 Also the new seat cushion on the sofa arrived a few months after this photo was taken. 
Apartment wall color is Benjamin Moore White Ice OC 58

Personally I feel like the room is so much brighter after moving the
 shield into Henry's room. 

Henry's Room when Henry isn't actually sleeping...

 This is what the room usually looks like, and yes that is a sheet covering the sofa,
 which is on top of a white cotton duck slip cover which protects the vintage 1930's 
plaid sofa.The coffee table is courtesy of my Mama, best Christmas Present ever! 

Thanks for featuring us Jessie! 

Friday Favs

My Friday Favorite feature before Christmas was of the fab Oly Pipa Cocktail table Mom gave me, today's Friday Fav is this gorgeous painting of Henry from my Mother in Law! She sent a picture of Henry from when he was a puppy to a local artist who created this adorable masterpiece. 

I have two other paintings that I have yet to frame, and I don't really want to clutter up the walls in the apartment anyway, so I decided to create a few dresser vignettes with my unframed works of art. The colorful canvases propped on table tops, mixed in with books and pictures frames are the perfect pop in Henry's room. 

Here are a few other examples of un-hung artwork vignettes from Lonny that make me smile

Happy Friday!!

Friday Favs

Notice the trend in all these lovely photo's? The Oly Studio Pipa cocktail table, one of my favorite coffee tables of all time, has just become my favorite Christmas present of all time. Due to the fact that my gift would not have fit under the tree, my darling Mother gave me my Christmas present early this year. What is even more fabulous about this statement piece is that it retails for $1,980 and my Mom found it at HomeGoods! You heard me, HomeGoods baby! I wont bore you with pictures of my entire living room because the only new change is the table, but seriously, hands down Best Christmas Present Ev-er ;-) 

Images: House Beautiful, Lonny, Pinterest, and my iPhone

Christmas At The Apartment

One of my favorite Christmas traditions of all time is going to 4 o'clock mass on Christmas Eve. Every year I listen to Christmas music non stop throughout the month of December, I watch cheesy holiday movies and attend fabulous holiday cocktail parties, but nothing gets me more pumped for Christmas than Christmas Eve Mass. The music gives me goose bumps and the fresh trees with plain white lights on either side of the alter are always breathtaking. It is the most beautiful Christmas display I could ever imagine, so this year I've decided to go with the whole less is more theme approach for our Christmas decor.