Stripes!

If I had a dollar for every navy and white stripe shirt I owned, the Mr. and I would probably have a house by now. Growing up going to Catholic school I got lazy comfortable not having to pick out a different outfit for every day of the week. Now my answer for everything is a navy and white, black and white, or gray and white stripe shirt paired with jeans, so you can image how excited I was when my new Gina & May elephant stripes umbrella arrived from One Kings Lane the other week. FYI, if it looks like I am wearing the same outfit day after day, I'm not!! I really do have that many stripe shirts.

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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!

True Story

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Son Of A ....

 Speaking of not having a living room big enough one day to fit the new Pipa cocktail table, my favorite  house ever came on the market the other week (10 years too early for the Mr. and I to be able to afford it) and it's already under contract. For my friends who live in other parts of the country I would like you to know how insane DC is... the 1920's Spanish Style home was apparently such an "Incredible renovation opportunity" aka a total fixer upper, that they had no interior pictures online. Not one flipping photo of the inside of the house I drive by almost every day, not one, and to top it off they didn't even have an open house! For the love, how's a girl going to stalk and plan the layout of her future home if she can't even see inside the damn place?  So what does a 4 bedroom fixer upper go for around here? Oh just a cool 950 thousand dollars, hence the title of today's post. Anyway this the house, and since I didn't get to see what the inside looks like, below you'll find a rendition of how it might look if Hank the Mr. and I lived there. 

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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

Finally, Matching Bedside Tables!

A month ago I did a post here about my inspiration for two bedside tables I planed on making. In the post I said I would reveal the finished product the following week, however, work, life, work, and more work prevented me from actually devoting time to my do it yourself project. Determined to get this done before 2012, I went to the local glass place and had two mirrored tops cut to the shape of my board's that my contractor cut out for me. Yesterday I picked up the mirrors, some scrap wood to glue on the side for trim, paint, and a tube of liquid nails. I skipped my nightly gym routine and finally finished my tables! In retrospect I should have probably made the wood tops a little thicker, and if you look closely you can definitely tell they are DIY, but I think once I find a better paint to match the base of the corbels they will be perfect. 

Eventually I will paint the tops to match the base but they don't bother me
as much in person as they do in this picture. 

New bedside tables plus a new painting above the
Mr's dresser from my Mama equals a finished (for now) Master Bedroom 

Design Dilemma

If you have been following the blog for a while you know my major design dilemma has been finding bedside tables for our mater bedroom. The tables I had my heart set on ended up being way too big for the space, and everything else in my price range just looks like a regular old plane jane piece of furniture. I am over the search, so I have decided to put together fabulous custom tables instead of waiting for the right ones to come along. By custom I don't literally mean that I will make them or pay to have them made. My plan is to have wooden tops cut for two vintage wall corbels- the uber pricey Restoration Hardware Corbel Glass Console is my inspiration piece. Hopefully they will not turn out looking like a kindergarten art project so I can post pictures of the finished product next week!

The Newlywed's Pad

   I thought living in an all white apartment would be sterile but there is something soothing about the monochromatic palate, painting the rooms and having to repaint them when we move out seemed silly anyway. I have fallen in love with the one color for every room look that nine times out of ten I never recommend for my clients. The apartment is not totally finished but then again what place ever is? I am constantly finding new things and adding bits here and there. We don't have bedside tables yet but running out and purchasing cheap pieces just to finish a room has never been my style. Ultimately you end up settling for something you don't love and you feel guilty spending money on the perfect thing when you finally find it. Henry and the Mr. don't seem to mind the fact that our lamps are uneven in the bedroom so why should it bother me? Married life is good, and our first place is a dream come true. 

Most girls my age have fabulous wardrobes, but when I get a little money to
spend I go straight for lamps and vintage furniture.

Grandma Lizzie's glamorous lamp is one of my favorite thing's in the apartment!

If it wasn't a rental I would tear that fan out of the ceiling and replace it with a chandelier in a heart beat! I hate ceiling fans, and ceiling fans with lights? BARF! I took the light bulbs out of the fans in both bedrooms so that even if the Mr. wanted to turn them on he couldn't ;-)

Still waiting for the other bamboo rod to arrive, grrrr