Pinteresting Day

I want to keep up with posting, but I am so tired I haven't been doing much projecting. The good news is, yesterday Abigail and I had a great day. I finally got to spend some real, quality time with her. We played outside for a while, read lots of stories, and had a great bedtime that wasn't rushed. It was definitely a much needed day with my baby girl! I can't wait to get that print from my last post up in a frame next to my bed to remind me every day to enjoy my sweet babies.

T Patrick is going to be crawling any day now. He is up on all fours like a champ, has been for like a month now, and now he is really rocking and ready to go. He just has to figure out how to do it :-) We brought out the pack n play last night to try getting him used to sleeping on a flat surface again. He slept pretty well last night really. I think he only woke up once at 3, but I could be wrong. I had to let Stewie outside at 12:30, and everything in the middle of the night just kind of runs together for me. So we'll just be optimistic and say he only woke up once. I brought a dining room chair in our room for now to nurse him in until we can get the Tullsta chair from Ikea. Which I've discovered is really a necessity, because I almost fell off the dining chair multiple times during our nursing session last night. I am pretty wobbly when I'm half asleep, so arms to keep my contained are a must!

Abigail had daycare this morning, so I was able to get a bit of work done on my friend's curtains. I am inching my way towards being done, but it is taken much longer than I hoped it would. So I think a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to Lindsey is necessary for having patience with me!

Once Abigail got home, I got to work on painting the bottom of our kitchen table. I will be writing a full post on that sometime when I can get the photos together.

And now, for the meat of this post, I am leaving you with some stuff I am LOVING on Pinterest right now. Because who doesn't love some house eye candy??

Source: younghouselove.com via Amy on Pinterest

Isn't that kitchen amazing? Click on the source to see the before and be even more amazed. Best thing is that it only cost a little over $1000! It looks pretty easy to turn your kitchen into something light and bright like this! (Although there is nothing easy about painting cabinets when you have two kids under two!)

Source: kerrisdaledesign.com via Amy on Pinterest

This night stand is awesome. And also kind of simple. I think maybe I will make it one day...? I emailed the designer about it, and apparently it's SUPER SPECIAL because it cost over $1000. Yep. I REALLY think I could make this though...stay tuned! I also love that pillow fabric.

Source: etsy.com via Amy on Pinterest

I want these so bad for Abigail's room! They totally go with her new curtains I made her recently and that pin board. Love.

Source: justagirlblog.com via Amy on Pinterest

I have been drooling over board and batten lately. It's everywhere, everyone's doing it, and consider me on board. I love it! I really think I want to do it in our entry. We'll see if that happens this winter. If not, I will definitely be doing some in our next abode!

That's all for now folks, little bubba is calling me.

Gallery Wall, Take Two

I LOVE gallery walls. The only reason I had a big wedding, and had babies is so I could have tons of lovely photos to fill up gallery walls all over my house! Ok, that is not the only reason, but it is a happy by-product of those life events! Anyway, I thought the wall about my sofa in the the living room would be a great place for a gallery wall. Original, I know. I really liked the idea of this project from Iheart Organizing:

I like how the clips add some interest, and allow you to change the artwork/photos on a whim, without the work of picking those little tabs and taking out the old photos, getting the frame back in the right spot, etc. 

Then there is this cute wall, from younghouselove:

And also from younghouselove, the ultimate gallery wall, it's like picture frame wallpaper! 

Now that I've shared with you my inspiration, let me show you my first attempt at a gallery wall:

Not very pretty, is it? I bought a bunch of these frames from Ikea a long time ago in anticipation of some great family photos after Tee Patrick was born. (That's cajun for Little Patrick, and it's what we decided to call him after nobody in either of our families was thrilled about calling him PJ.) Oh, and there used to be a vertical white 8x10 frame hanging in that blank spot, but I stole it for some art in Abigail's room because this wall was stupid anyway. 

I used that photo hanging thing, I forget what it's called, but it has an infomercial, it's like a little thumbtack gun you hit with a hammer and it puts an angled tack into the wall...anyway, not worth it, if you are considering getting one, don't waste your time! The other big problems with this wall are, in no particular order: the black thing that makes the frame able to stand on a table skews the frame and makes them all look wonky and slanted, I do not exactly have the most artistic eye when it comes to making "random" arrangements like this, and I didn't measure. Woops. However, I did at least lay them out on my kitchen table in an arrangement I was fairly happy with. I guess something got lost in translation from the table to the wall! 

All that to say, I have new plans for a different arrangement with different frames. I am going to get some flat white frames from Ikea soon and use those. I think I will still keep my eye out at our local ReStore (habitat for humanity) for some plain cabinet doors for a future project though! 

I don't have an after photo yet, but I did get my prints in the mail, and I think this is the arrangement I have settled on:

What do you all think? Yay or nay? Also, does anyone know of a REALLY GOOD photo printing site? I have been really unhappy with Riteaid lately, and ordered these prints from snapfish.com, and they are very grainy. Anyone have any better luck with another company? Please let me know! thanks :-)

Need to get something off my chest...

I am crushing majorly on a sofa right now. Is that weird? I came thisclose to committing $2k on my credit card for this beauty and the matching loveseat:

It's the Ella leather sofa from Macy's, and is beautiful, and super long, and relatively inexpensive for such a nice looking leather sofa. BUT it is a closeout, which means that since I'm not buying it now I will never be able to buy it. Insert major sad face here. So, to heal my broken sofa heart, I started searching for others that I liked as much to remind myself that there are other fish in the sea. I came across this one, and I really like it too:

It's the Thomasville Carina sofa. But it does not come in leather, so that stinks. I think it would slip cover nicely though. We plan to move sometime next year, so I am trying to make myself feel better about my crappy sofa by knowing that I won't be sad if it gets messed up in the move. Or better yet, we can sell it right before and not even have to move it at all. We'll see! Anyone else have a furniture obsession? Anyone else have a problem trying to find something cheap that is "close enough" to the thing they REALLY want that is pricier, only to find that you should have just waited and saved your pennies for what you really wanted in the first place? Sigh. I have definitely learned some VERY expensive lessons throughout my experience as a first time home buyer and home furnish-er. 

Oh, and maybe leave me a comment and tell me which one you like better! I'm curious which one would be more popular...