Sunday, December 29, 2013

coming out of the holiday coma







Tomorrow I will unpack bags, trek to the grocery store, and begin the long process of packing away Christmas decorations in preparation for a new year. It's always a little bittersweet...a mix of sadness over leaving family and friends states away and excitement for what all the coming year may hold. There's also so much to do when we return from our holiday travels that it always feels a little overwhelming. (Not so awesome example: our deep freezer died while we were gone. hello garage full of rotting food. yikes.) Tonight though...tonight I'll have a glass of wine, burn my final Christmas candle, and enjoy these last sweet holiday moments. Everything else can wait until tomorrow. (Except the rotting food. We definitely handled that first thing.)


Monday, October 7, 2013

7 things

You know what makes for a pretty great Monday? Let's make a list. 

1. we bought a zoo movie night
2. a short (THREE day) work week. yay for conferences!
3. marking things off my to do list
5. copious amount of tea
6. fall scented...everything

and last but not least...


7. late afternoon snuggles with this lady ^^

seven days into october and it's been glorious thus far. huzzah!

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

coming out of the daze

I get sick at the beginning of school every year. Never fails. Always sucks. I've been nursing some version of the allergy monster / stomach bug / achy joint old person crud preeeeetty much since the beginning of September. 

BUT it's October now, and I am claiming that this mess be gone. Done-zo. Not gonna do it anymore. 

So there. 

I will say there are some parts of being sick that haven't been so bad. There have been lots of puppy cuddles, cool nights with spicy candles, and quite a few afternoon naps.

I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite napping buddy. 


She's my favorite. Happy October!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

this weekend I...




hosted an old roommate and dear friend for an evening
decided it may be time to reread the Harry Potter series
had the laziest saturday afternoon on the planet
watched so much football I thought my head might explode
received hand-written notes from friends (and replied!)
started decorating for fall
completed THREE crafty pants projects
took my winter clothes out of storage...even though it's still triple digit temps around here


a successful weekend in my book! tomorrow is back to work, and i'm definitely wishing we could relive labor day every monday. i'll be back later this week with some new project recaps. hope you all had wonderful weekends! 





Thursday, September 5, 2013

weekend recap and some pictures of life lately

Now that it's back to work time, I take advantage of every opportunity in my brief, precious long weekends. This weekend my mom came into town!

!!!!!!!!

You just don't know how much you'll miss your momma until you move away, y'all. I'm telling you. It was so, so good to have her here. Even if the weekend didn't go exactly as planned.

Promptly after my sweet madre arrived on friday night, our air conditioner compressor decided to die. Welcome to Waco, Mom! On a friday evening. Of a long weekend. During the hottest week of the summer. The temperature in our house at midnight was 90-freaking-degrees. Gag. We moved our adorable industrial fan into the living room and snacked on watermelon while we discussed what in the world we were going to do if the air conditioning man couldn't visit us until tuesday. Did I mention that is was opening weekend for football in our sweet little college town? Three cheers for sold out games and no vacancy hotels! Sic em.

In a beautiful twist of fate, Mr. Air Conditioning Man was working the weekend! And we had a beautifully working AC by dinner time on saturday night.

We spent our day hiding out from the heat in shopping malls while we looked for the perfect fabrics to knock out a little ottoman slipcover diy. (Curtain panels are where it's at!) And we spent the evening watching a little Baylor football with some dear friends. On sunday, my sweet mother-in-law came into town for breakfast and then we spent the rest of the day being gloriously lazy, which is truly the best way to spend a sunday.

We broke out the sewing machine on monday and ended the day with two new slipcovers. I loooooooove them. And will post pictures soon.

Having family in town makes me a the happiest. They should probably just move here.

Some pictures of life lately. :)








Thursday, August 29, 2013

a little glimpse into our front room...



Which is coming right along!
Next up on the list I hope to see our wood floors extended into this room and something fun on the ceiling. Feeling inspired by these RIDICULOUS images. 




1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Happy sigh. 

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

a summer bbq

While we were in Alabama for my sweet cousin's wedding, we had the chance to get together for a small, family barbecue at my aunt and uncle's home on our last night in town. It was a warm, nearly perfect, July night complete with three kinds of pie, cheddar biscuits, and the sweetest sangria to ever touch your lips. We told stories and caught up on each others lives under twinkle lights while thunder rolled in the background. It was one of those nights I won't soon forget. 








Monday, August 26, 2013

list love: back to school...er...work.

back to work


I'm in the market for a new office chair after a cat took its claws to the arms of mine...this one would make me happy every time I sat down. / My water bottle is attached to my hip while I'm visiting campuses. Cheers to staying hydrated! / A happy print brightens any work day spent in front of a computer. I'm thinking I need to add this one to my collection this year. Maybe in a bright, cheerful frame. / A large work tote is a much for carrying files, snacks, and electronics around to campus meetings. I love how structured this one is! /  My Erin Condren Day Planner is --hands down-- my most favorite work item. It's my birthday present to myself every year, and I couldn't stay organized without it. I can not recommend this handy little book enough. 

Thursday, August 15, 2013

quickie update

This is just a quick post to say that going back to work is HARD. I know. I know. You don't feel sorry for me. That's okay. Just let me be sad for a minute and mourn for my summer. And for the fact that our office has moved into a tiny, tin building being held up by cinder blocks. I'm missing my window something fierce right about now.


This is also a quick post to say that I painted our bedroom twice in one week. First green, then purple grey. Also that I should make my pillows prettier before taking photos. That's real life, y'all. 


And that I started a new project with an old mirror! Go ahead and disregard the crap in the floor. K thanks. 


AND that the lemon tree we thought we killed has come back to life with a vengeance! My black thumb is feeling quite green and a bit self righteous right about now. 

Will be back with a finished product, prettier pictures, and wittier words just as soon as I come up for air from the first-week-back-to-school crazies. Which, lets be honest, last much longer than a week. 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

welcome to slipcover hell...(or the story of how I came to spend my birthday cleaning furniture)

Y'all. It's bad.

I haven't shared much about my current living room furniture exploits, because....honestly, it's been a bit of a sore spot. Lots of highs and lows. I've cried a few times. I consumed a lot. of wine. A lot. Today things got a bit out of control, and so I decided it was finally time to put it all out there. I need a frustration outlet other than the fella. I think he would appreciate that.

So settle in...this is bound to be a long one.

We'll start with a quick review of my dream living room. When we moved into the new house it was obvious we needed new furniture. We had all this extra space and a bunch of old, dirty furniture we'd collected separately and then just thrown together once we were married. We were definitely due for a grownup upgrade. And so I started pinning my little heart out and dreaming of ways we could beautify our new space. I pinned a lot of things like this:





1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Anyone else seeing a pattern? Hello, slipcover obsession. Get.in.my.living room.

So naturally we went out and bought a giant, expensive leather couch. That's right. #idiot #idiot #idiot 
It was just so comfy in the store....and so easy to clean...and it came in an extra large depth that would be perfect for curling up and watching movies. And so we spent all our pennies to buy this rustic monster of a couch, which I am now trying to make fit with my light, bright cottage home dreams. 

Terrible decision. But it's okay. We have a leather couch. I've accepted that. We'll own it until we die, because I intend to squeeze every last penny out of those extra deep cushions. 

We also have a pair of (p)leather club chairs in our living room that we picked up at target a few years back. I've never intended for these guys to stay in the living room...it's just too much leather. And coupled with the dark floors it feels like living in a dungeon. I've been on the hunt for the perfect chair or love seat to complete the space for a while now, and after getting some color on the walls earlier this summer I was ready to finally commit to my love of slipcovers. I stalked the internet for the best slipcovered furniture out there and read every comment I could find comparing the Pottery Barn collections to the Ikea Ektorp collection. I read and researched until I thought my brain would explode. 

Finally, I convinced the boy to road trip to Ikea with me last weekend (for my birthday! whoop!) to sit on the Ektorp and Hovas armchairs. The prices were so great...we just needed to see for ourselves. The verdict--we hated the Ektorp. The cushions were so thin! We felt like we were sitting on a wooden bench. Terrible. The Hovas though....it had a deeper seat and a thicker cushion. If felt like a chair I could curl up in. The only con to the Hovas line was that it didn't come in the linen blend like the Ektorp collection, and I really had my heart set on linen. In the end, I decided to let go of my love for linen and just get the chair anyway. They had a nice off-white color that we both really liked, and I figured I could always have a linen slipcover made at a later date if I really wanted. And so we trekked down to the warehouse section to buy two of the Hovas chairs in "white". 

You know where this is going.... 

Unfortunately, everyone on the planet also thought the Hovas armchair in white would look good in their living room. In fact, so many people had this idea that Ikea had sold out of the slipcover in this color. Indefinitely. I could still get the chair if I wanted to buy one with a horrid corduroy cover on it. No thanks. We left empty handed. Happy birthday to me. And so we made the trip back to Waco where Tanner proceeded to take a nap while I scoured the internet for the perfect slipcovered furniture. Like a dog with a bone. At some point I found myself on Craigslist looking at an ad for a slipcovered chair, ottoman, and love seat with "normal wear and tear" for a bargain. !!! It was even marked down, because she was moving the next day! It felt like a special birthday miracle. 

I texted the owner immediately (which is something I never do), who told me the furniture was still available but that we would need to come see it that evening. I woke up the boy, bouncing and carrying on about the marvelous deal I found and how we were going to end up with three pieces of furniture for the price of one. He wasn't nearly as excited as I was, but he humored me and we worked it out where we could borrow a friend's truck to go check out the goods. The entire drive to the lady's apartment I kept thinking about how I couldn't believe my luck. Tanner kept trying to prepare me for the possibility that the furniture may not be what we were looking for, but I wasn't hearing him. In my mind, there was absolutely no way we were leaving without that furniture. I'd seen a picture! It couldn't be in that bad of condition. 

It was bad, guys. Really bad. The woman was a smoker with cats. The slipcovers, which she reported as being "off-white", were now a rusty red color. "Normal wear and tear" included disintegrated cushions, cigarette burns, and stains that I can not even describe to you. There are no words. I had a small panic attack in this poor lady's apartment. Tanner was looking at me...she was looking at me...the smoke smell was making me queasy... We bought the furniture. She just looked so pitiful and nice...I couldn't tell her no. I'm a sucker. It was awful. And so we paid (what I now consider an outrageously overpriced amount of money) for this furniture, packed it into the truck, and took it home. I am never allowed to go on a Craigslist run again. 

I tried to be positive. I told Tanner that I thought we could probably get by with just replacing the back cushions and slipcovers. I told him I still thought we could save the furniture and that in the end it would be worth it...but it smelled so bad. It was so stained and dirty and stinky that I refused to take it any further than the garage. And after removing and disposing of the slipcovers, we discovered that none of the cushions were salvageable. 

At this point I was no longer hopeful. I felt stupid and foolish and I was pretty sure we had just made a terrible mistake. Tanner still felt like the pieces could be saved, bless him, and we spent the next day (my actual birthday) deep cleaning our new furniture. We rented a carpet/upholstery cleaner from our local grocery store and got to work. We cleaned...and we bleached...and we sprayed with Odo-Ban...and we sprinkled with baking soda...and by the end of the day the smoke smell was gone as were nearly all of the stains. I didn't take any before pictures of the furniture, mostly because I didn't think any of our friends would sit on it if they knew how it looked before. Much better to just leave that to their imaginations, right?

All three pieces looked much better after their deep cleaning and my confidence returned. I ordered some upholstery foam and batting for cushions and started researching slipcovers. We settled on a set of linen slipcovers from Ballard Designs. They were beautiful and much more affordable than other places I had looked. Well...those slipcovers showed up today, and wouldn't ya now it, they don't fit. Now, I'm not the greatest at working with numbers, but I measured and counted and checked and checked and checked my math on this. I was certain I had it right--down to the half inch. But no...no, I missed one little thing. Let's take a look.

Here is an awesome iphone photo of our newly cleaned chair hanging out in the living room:


Notice it's still discolored in some areas. I am not a wizard. 

And here is the slipcover we purchased from Ballard:


How about those extra short arms on the Ballard chair? Yea. That took us hours to figure out. HOURS. The slipcover fit perfectly along the back and over the arms, but we couldn't get the sucker to fit over both at the same time. No wonder, right? Le sigh. 

So we're sending them back. I spent some time researching other options last night...I called our local Pottery Barn and talked to the most unhelpful salesperson ever. I read and reread return policies. (Heads up--special orders (like slipcovers) can not be returned to Pottery Barn.) I looked up information on custom slipcover makers. I cried for our bank account. When Tanner suggested we wrap the frames in fabric and staple it to the bottom I started feeling a little desperate. Finally, I came across a set of JCPenney slipcovers for their Linden Street line, which is very similar to the Pottery Barn collections in style and size. (Yay!) And I can return them to our local store if they don't work. (Double Yay!) Sadly, they do not come in linen...but at this point I do not care. Bring on the twill! All in all, I'm feeling a little better about things this morning. I can't say at this point that my slipcover obsession is worth all this trouble. I'll let ya know once the new covers are in and I've tried my hand at making cushions. Our leather monster of a sofa is looking pretty good about now. 

Kudos to those of you who made it to the end of my little novel rant! It was quite therapeutic. 

Today I'll be chilling in front of an industrial fan trying not to sweat my face off while waiting for the air conditioning man to pay us a visit. In the midst of last night's slipcover drama, our AC unit started leaking water everywhere. A little internet research suggests that some duct thing located somewhere is clogged. Awesome. Tanner swears he saw a frog living in the pipe. I guess we'll see?

***UPDATE***
AC man came and it went and it was not the frog! Just a run of the mill clog. Easy fix! 
Live on little froggie, live on. 

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

for nostalgia's sake

Two years of family photos!

Year One

Year Two

Anyone else notice that Tanner is wearing the same shirt in both photos? Weird. And totally not planned. Now though...now I may have to make him wear it again next year. Marriage is good and I love my little family. I'm so thankful for my sweet, kind-hearted mister. Doing life with him is fun! Even on the not-so-fun days.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

because every good list maker needs a birthday list...

Here's mine!


  1. Buy something at an auction
  2. Paint something for our walls
  3. Read a new book
  4. Stay at the Dixie Daisy
  5. Learn to use my sewing machine
  6. Give our backyard a makeover
  7. Make a cake from scratch
  8. Nest! Continue making our home a place we love living
  9. Take a doggie obedience class
  10. Eat somewhere new in Waco
  11. Go on a boat ride
  12. Take a photograph worthy of displaying in our home (and display it!)
  13. Tour a winery
  14. Attend a Baylor sporting event
  15. Surprise a friend
  16. Buy a new board game
  17. Attempt something out of my comfort zone
  18. Go hear live music
  19. Attend my 10 year high school reunion (YIKES.)
  20. Take my BCBA exam (and pass it!)
  21. Plant a herb garden
  22. Volunteer my time
  23. Throw a dinner party with a theme
  24. Divergent the movie!
  25. Upcycle a thrift store treasure
  26. Visit a beach
  27. Make a new friend

I gotta say, I'm feeling pretty excited about this list. Here's to a great year! 

Friday, August 2, 2013

life recently according to my iphone











a simple breakfast/sweet in-laws/a homestead tour/visiting a greenhouse/my weird sleeper/a sweet father daughter dance/cool mornings on the harbor/family visits/a new pillow

It's my birthday weekend! I'm excited for pool time, a new book, and maybe a sushi date. I guess life really does simplify with the age.:)

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

bathroom envy

So I have this aunt who is amazingly crafty. She's been making rugs and wreaths and other pretty things for as long as I can remember. She's also a landscape designer and has a yard that looks like it's straight out of a magazine (waterfalls and all). And she has the cutest little shop on her property where she sells candles, lanterns, and other little knick knacks. She's pretty adorable.

We had a chance to gather at my aunt and uncle's home while I was in town for my cousin's wedding last weekend and I was BLOWN AWAY by her new bathroom remodel. After I picked up my jaw, I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. Lookit!







I am so sad I don't have a before picture to share. The bathroom was about half this size with no window, a tiny one person vanity and a shower/tub combo against the back wall. My uncle borrowed some extra square footage from a back bedroom to make this space roomy and inviting. My aunt found the buffet-turned-vanity while at thrifting one day. She didn't even have to paint it! They saved pennies by buying scratch and dent with the tub and shower doors and doing all of the remodel themselves. So cool. I also fell in love with the floors, which are a hand-scraped tile. I'd like to do something similar in our kitchen. And the wall paneling? That's from my great grandmother's home that was torn down earlier this spring. Amazing. And so special!

I love pretty much everything about it. The colors worked beautifully together and I want to live in that bathtub.