I'm Back! :)

Hello! Hello!

I’m back!  Let’s hope for the long haul!  It’s been a while so first off we’ll do a quick recap of events that have taken place since we last met! 

The last time I wrote was last September. That’s a long time ago.  It feels like forever ago.  Since then a lot has happened… (and in no particular order)

I went to Nashville for a VR conference.

I had a baby – Olive.

My other little, Ella, graduated Pre-K (tear).  They grow up so fast.

I actually did  A LOT around our house before the baby came - Including backing an island, painting cabinets, finishing a nursery, adding shelves in our laundry room, redoing out bathroom, among other things... 

We created a really pretty nursery – I think.

We’ve started another patio redo.

My husband starting working at UPS.

Louie had his dew claw chopped off at the groomer.

Louie went to emergency vet.

We got a free grooming. Hahah

I blogged a few times over at The City Moms.

My brother graduated from High School.

My sister got a new sweet gig.

My other brother moved to Texas (1.5 hrs from Magnolia which might mean ROAD TRIP).

That’s all I can think of at the moment but it’s a good recap. I'll be sharing about some of these things soon!

So it’s good to be back, I hope you’ll hang around and I hope I do too! 

xo!

House Updates :: Living Room

It's been a long while since I remember posting anything about our house and if you ask me, there have been quite a few changes.  Even if they are small, they are changes and I'm really kind of liking them. 

So this week, we'll go through three rooms that have received major and minor updates.

To start :: The Living Room. 
It's been a long time coming.  It was time to grow up a bit.  While I'm sure I'll always be in Craigslist Hunt mode, I do love the idea of NEW things... Just ask my husband.  But I was feeling like with our space we weren't really utilizing it the best way we could.  So... Enter Karls. 
We splurged on the Karlstad Sofa from IKEA and 4 months later are still in love.  I seriously can't believe how EVERYONE can fit on it at the same time.  It's comfortable.  It seems to be holding up pretty well, and it just overall works for us! 

I had painted all the wood dressers and tables in the room this gray at one point to achieve some uniformity, but then I remembered why I bought the pieces in the first place and it was because I hated uniformity.  So... while the horse stayed gray, the dresser was stripped.

Still one of my favorite craigslist finds, this leather chair.  The wheels have fallen off, there are cracks on the seat, the ottoman is now been buried in the garage (RIP), and it's missing a button cover, but we just really like this guy. 

We haven't really tackled the cord situation in here yet -- that will come shortly -- but for now this is one way I hide the ones by the tv. 

And here you see the ones I haven't hidden yet. 

I'm a little unsure what to do with them until wireless lights are invented.

Right now I'm really happy with how it's looking.  The new pieces really add new life to the room as well as giving us more comfortable seating.  I really love how the dark sofa just kind of pops in here with the light gray walls.  Next up, pillows and changing the wall decorations.  I'm not sure on those mirrors anymore...


xoxo,
Abby

New Pillows from H&M

I love mail...
Well, I love mail when it's not bills.
I should rephrase that to say that I love packages! 

Recently I made my first purchase from H&M online!  First... let's just discuss... LOVE.  I like H&M period, but usually the store that we have is a hot mess or I only can find one item and then the line is forever long so I give up on waiting.  This online thing is really going to work in my favor.  Clean.  Organized.  Affordable. 

So I went online and found a few things... Initially my cart had around $200 of items in it... mostly for E, but then some was for me or the playroom.  I ended up editing it down to about $35.  I got two striped pillowcases and one that looks embroidered but isn't really.  They were for Playland.

So here is the before shot...

(I can't believe it looks this clean)

And here is the change-up...

Even though they are black and white, they look a little gray and I like the texture they add to the room. The embroidered looking one I just thought was cute and a fun little saying for a cute little playland, plus it adds a little color too.   Now to just figure out this sofa situation... anyone selling a cute mini denim sectional ?  And by mini I just mean for small spaces, not for children necessarily... 

And why not start every day like it's your birthday?  That's a good motto until you are about 29... then you don't really want them anymore...

But maybe start this Monday like it's your Birthday and it'll make for a good week! 

Xoxo,

Abby

Hanging Around

Happy Tuesday!

No?  Me either.  Tuesdays are rough for me.  Longer than Mondays always! 

And so far today has started on the wrong foot. 

(1) Our garage door is broken and I didn't know how to unlock it besides with the automatic thingy so that put me behind a bit this morning. Had to run back upstairs and wake up the husband to ask how to do it.

(2) I forgot my chap stick and my lips are beyond chapped.

(3) Due to running late, I was not able to get coffee -- MAJOR FAIL.

(4) I didn't know it was jeans day at work AND forgot my item for the pitch-in.  I'm "oh well-ing" this one.

(5) And I left my debit card with my husband.  <-- fail.="fail.">

So... moving on with my fun life.

We've always had our TV just sitting on the little bench/TV stand we got from IKEA.

It used to be on the other wall -- I probably should have started with that post, but couldn't find the pictures in a timely manner.  Anyways, it's always been sitting there on a stand.  And no matter how tight we made the stand, the TV always leaned a little towards the front.  And with Baby Kakes getting bigger, we thought we might need a new system. So... we researched a few wall mounts and I made Mr. K go pick it up.

When he got back he had a completely different one than what we had talked about, but he kept calling it "fool proof."  And wouldn't you know, I forget the name of it. Oh yea, it was called the EZ Wall Mount. And it was just that.

We started with this situation -- and there is no judging on the lack of organization going on in my living room right here... = ZERO.

A leaning TV, low to the ground, large and in charge...

And a little Jake Gyllenhaal, why not?!?

To this -- A lovely wall mounted almost perfectly sized for our wall TV. 

It was like it was meant to be. 

And we kinda love it.

There are a few things that bother me...

Sometimes it's hard to see being in between the windows, but nothing that a little blinds can't fix.

And it's kind of a crap TV... only because the volume is funky and the color sometimes changes...

But, alas, we are poor so a new one is not in our near future.

And you might have noticed we actually swapped it out for a different one.  The original one in the top picture did not fit in between the windows so we grabbed one from upstairs and moved it here. 

Voila!

The EZ Mount was really that EZ.

For the first week, we were just waiting to come home to a broken wall and TV as we were sure it would fall off, but about a month later it's still hanging around.