the big reveal...

come on into my home,
make yourself comfy
i'll get you a big bowl of cookie dough ice cream...
or i have some skinny cow ice cream sandwiches if you're watching your weight...
or, i have oodles of easter candy, if you're lactose intolerant.
we can talk while the kids fight over an etch a sketch


i've been re-doing my front room for a while now, & i'd love to show you, now that it's done.
it's a small space. only about 10 feet wide and 12 feet deep.

the motivation for the makeover was this here brown couch.
it might look ok, but it turns into the devil when you want to sit or lay on it.
it wasn't terribly uncommon for a cheek to fall asleep while sitting on it because it has bars under it that hit you in all the wrong places.
it's super uncomfy. and brown.
quite frankly, it was boring in there.

i had to find the perfect couch that would fit the room and fit our budget.
we were searching for a grey leather couch with a vintage modern vibe.
it had to be leather, because of it's proximity to the kitchen (and inevitable spills)
and it had to be 35" deep or narrower
it had to be comfortable
and hopefully under $1000.
(which is a hard price point when looking for super adorable grey leather couches)

our search ended when we found this pretty leather number.

I added some random, pretty grey and turquoise stripes to the wall.
I had all these paint colors on hand and didn't have to go buy any, which was nice.
I'm loving the stripes.

1. We found the leather sofa at Macys.com 
it's the Claudia sofa in Taupe
we had to wait about 3 weeks for the sample to come in the mail.
we were worried the taupe would be too brown.
but, when the sample came it was a nice warm grey so we went for it.
and, since we have a history of getting credit cards and never activating them, 
we decided to go ahead and get the macys card to save an extra $100
it ended up being $899 plus tax and shipping (around $1000)
(which is waaaaay better price-wise than the other sofas I had looked at)
2.  Pillow from Moxie Mandie more info HERE
3. IKEA
4. Pillows from Mindy Mae's Market (they sell all sorts of awesome stuff at discounted prices online...follow them on facebook & you won't regret it!)
5. Oh, how I love these paintings! Jeremy (my husband who is an artist) painted these of each of our kiddos :)  They make me happy!  To see more of his work click HERE

I kept the same Danish Modern side chair because the chair wasn't too terribly uncomfortable, and i happen to LOVE danish modern furniture.

I just added some bright reddish orange-ish color fabric and more pillows from ikea and some chevron from MMM. (since re-upholstering this, i've noticed this color ALLOVER the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Price  (& if you don't know what SCDP is, i feel so sad for you.))

Dont' look too closely at my reupholster job...it was my first crack at sewing upholstery with piping...yeah, it's perfectly imperfect, just the way i like it ;)

Then, I wanted to add a little extra seating for when we have company.
With only the sofa and side chair, there just wasn't enough.
So, I went on the search for a table/bench that could be used as a coffee table OR a small bench for the kids to sit on.  I found the perfect one at IKEA

IKEA Molger bench in brown

it's decorated with another snazzy pillow from IKEA..(did I mention that I found those pillows for $2.99 each?? crayzay! that may be why there are 3 in this small space) and here's the third beautiful copper item that i was talkin about the other day...and some adorable vintage childrens books and some coasters.

The armoir also got a makeover, making it a lovely shade of yellow.
open it up, and it's (surprise, surprise) turquoise :)

some things we kept the same:
the turquoise table with our copper antiquities (no way i was getting rid of that!)

our collection of ebony elephants that we've been collecting each year on our anniversary, our lamp we bought when we were first married, our vase from downeast

 and some cool Aesop's fables illustrations from Jeremy's dad

and, in an effort to keep it real, i'll show you what it will really look like when you stop by:

so, come on over.  we can watch an episode of the new girl, or what not to wear (as seen here), or once upon a time ( i have them all recorded on our dvr :)  or, maybe we could watch madmen...or just gossip about WTFreakityFreak is going on with Don Draper...hope to see you soon!

just a little colorful makeover...

a few weeks ago i found this cool chair while at a thrift store

I was lovin' the pretty yellow vinyl
and the price was right ($3)

and i absolutely adore the copper feet on this baby

and i remembered seeing this beauty on pinterest

Source: thesweetsurvival.blogspot.com via Morgan/Meet Virginia on Pinterest

so, i decided i'd give the robin's egg blue with mustard color chair a try.
the chair needed a little minor repair on the top
a few carefully placed staples took care of that
(also, a more-careful-than-me husband is a handy thing to own)
then, i just sanded and painted

i like how the blue makes the copper stand out more

(i've been a bit obsessed with copper lately)

whattaya think?


also, i won this simple, pretty pillow cover from MoxieMandie
(you should follow her, she's awesome:)

when i got my new sewing machine i just couldn't resist sewing on this blank canvas
i saw this lovely west elm pillow in an ad & was inspired

via West Elm

so, using the west elm pillow as inspiration i turned the plain linen pillow into this:

here's a close-up look at the stitching
i'm totally excited by all the fun things my new sewing machine can do
here are 2 of the new stitches, a kinda snowflake lookin flower and another flower

have you been doing any upcycling lately?
i'd love to see your handiwork!

an unforseen bit of fortune

I've been a little crafty mama as of late...
I'm redecorating our front room.
It's almost done, just need to refinish one more chair cushion :)

anywhooo...I wanted to show you a little sneak peek of what's going on in there,
I have had a beautiful little turquoise table in there
a gift from my sisters last year
and I've been looking and looking for weeeeeks trying to find something to decorate this table
something the children wouldn't destroy
my 1st thought was something made of metal, ya know like copper or brass or something...
it's pretty hard to destroy...but everything online was out of my price range

my 2nd thought was a matryoshka doll
they could play with them and then put them back and they'd look real pretty and colorful

via

so, I went to work searching for something cool and not breakable
i checked retail stores, discount stores, thrift store, antique stores....
basically a LOT of shopping
with no luck
We spent the 4 days before my birthday scouring SLC for something cool and not breakable
then, my birthday came around and we were exhausted
there's only so much shopping a 3, 5, & 7 year old can handle
But, it was my birthday & it was time for lunch..
and, heck, i didn't want to make lunch on my birthday, right?
so we headed to Panda Express
after a delicious meal of orange chicken and honey shrimp
my fortune read "an unforseen bit of fortune is heading your way"
& I was able to talk the kids into one more last ditch effort at finding something cool and not breakable
we headed to an antique store I'd never been to before
and there we searched for a good 45 minutes....
and, finally we found the holy grail of beautiful copper pieces!
there were 3 pieces ranging in price from $20-$65  that we were trying to narrow down
trying to figure out which one we I couldn't live without.
then, the owner of the store came over and said
"you're in luck, the guy who owns this booth just decided to mark these down
everything in this section is 50% off"
she said if we would have come in an hour earlier, we would have missed this sale!
wowza! i was so excited!
I told the lady (with tears in my eyes) that i felt like i had just won the lottery
which was only slightly awkward for her
anyway,
I decided to get all three of the beautiful copper pieces i had been eyeing...
and altogether, it was $65
score.
there was my unforseen bit of fortune, yo!
I found this beautiful copper tea kettle

 I adore how it's turning turquoise in all the right places
ooooh baby

and I LOVE the handle on this copper pitcher....it's screams art deco to me :)
and the antique pewter bowl I already had,
we inherited it from Jeremy's grandpa
I am glad to have a place to display it now :)

and the same awesome sister that gave me this purty turquoise table
gave me a pretty platter that was perfect for setting this whole scene on
it looks breakable, but it's not (it's from target, me thinks)

I love the look!
and my kids can't break anything!
yay!
so, if you're keeping track,
I've shown you only 2 pieces of copper awesomeness
but I bought three
I'll share with you the other one later this week
when i reveal the room in it's entirety
stay tuned!

ps: all of this talk about copper reminded me, i still have a coupon code for 20% off my shop when you use the code LUCKYPENNY