Pretty Things

Things I am loving right now are mainly house-related. Organizational items, furniture, cleaning supplies etc. I have a LOT to do by this weekend so that's my main focus at the moment.

However in my search for furniture and accessories I went to one of my favorite places for home decor, jewelry, and a plethora of pop culture and nerd-related stuffs that make me quite excited, FAB.com If you haven't been to fab yet, you are missing out. You really are.

Fabs mission is to help people with amazing design solutions which is precisely my goal. Every week they have a ton of new sales from different designers (single artists to big companies) and you can get some fantastic original and/or limited edition artwork for your home!

This week I sort of fell in love with these prints by Paper Sparrow. She has amazing music related and whimsical art prints for an equally amazing price. Some of my favorites are below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Sweet Dreams little one 11x14 $18. I don't have any children of my own but how darling would this print look above a crib in a nursery?

2. Narwhal's Aquarelle 11x14 $18 Being a redditor, I'm automatically connected to anything Narwhal or bacon related so this sweet print of a narwhal playing a banjo in the water is quite the perfect print.

3. Not All Who Wander are Lost 13x19 $23 I don't know if it's the hippie in me or feathers are just a thing now but I love these colorful avian things so much. Also a fan of the Tolkien quote, of course, but I really like the design aesthetic she used in the theme of the poster.

4. Arctic Fox 11x14 $18 The warm yellows and blues of this print give it such a great vintage vibe. I'd love to put this anywhere in my house but I think it would look particularly great in a living room or family room!

5. Climb Every Mountain 13x19 $23 This print is perfect since I climb (although not as much as I used to) It would also make a great gift for any of my climbing girls.

I know I'm supposed to be focusing on house things and furniture and paint and cleaning and keeping my budget down since I won't be working for a few weeks but I might just have to get a few of these beauties. It's not like it's a total random purchase, it is for the house after all! ; )

We bought a house!

Home Sweet Home!

We did it! We finally found a home! It was a long and exhausting and sometimes frustrating experience (especially towards the end) but we finally found a house that will truly be worth calling a home! We are absolutely thrilled and completely overwhelmed with the excitement this stage in our lives has brought and cannot wait until move-in day! 

It's also kind of crazy how quickly this happened. We have been searching, like really searching for over a year. We are kind of picky and didn't want to sacrifice on the things that were important to us.  When we found this home, we decided over lunch to make an offer. On the 13th (a Sunday and one day before Shaun's birthday) a foggy, dreary, misty day we put in an offer. The following day, on Shaun's birthday we negotiated and they accepted our offer. By Wednesday we had financing approved and the following Thursday was the walk-through!

It's a terribly exciting time in our lives but also a crazy and hectic one. My last week of work at the shop is this week and Friday the movers will be coming to move all of our life (which is in boxes at the moment) to our new home. Saturday will be the first day I am in the house when it is mine and the first day I will be setting everything up. 

I feel like I've been on edge (but in a good way) for quite some time now. Ever since we put in the offer 2 weeks ago. I've been anxious and stressed anticipating the final settlement date (that was Tuesday!) and the craziness of moving all of our belongings into a new place and taking a few weeks (to a month) off of work to get our home in order.  The excitement of moving and planning and decorating and organizing almst overcomes the fact that I will not have a regular 9-5 job for an undetermined amount of time. I guess it's time to kick the etsy shop into overdrive!

I'll post pictures next Monday when our internet has been installed of all our empty space and sad lack of furniture, I'll also post pictures of the new things that are being delivered as well as the painting process, cleaning, organizing, breakdowns and panic attacks and little squabbles with Shaun.

Well I probably won't post the latter but I'm certain that all 3 will happen.

 

Mondays Music (a few days late)

I've been trying to keep up with blogging, I really have. It's not like I procrastinate on purpose, I really enjoy blogging but it's been a hectic week with house stuffs, canceling our internet to get it set up at the new house and packing our entire lives into cardboard boxes.

 

So next week (Monday) when I have internet again I should be good to go for blogging a couple times a week when I actually intend to blog.

 

For now it will have to be a very belated Monday's Music to not only help me start my week but finish it.

 

 

The Pretenders-Brass in Pocket

 

 

Pretty Things

Can you tell that I catch up on my blogging on Sundays?

Since I've been in crazy house hunting/painting/decorating mode the past few weeks I wanted to share some of the amazing things I found from my favorite ever furniture store, West Elm. They are like the grown up, unisex furniture version of Anthropologie. I told Shaun the last time we went there (last night) that he could literally buy anything in that store and I would be happy with it.

Since I can't show you the whole store, I've narrowed it down to my favorite few items for people looking to furnish a house or just for some nice accesorries!

1. Glass Terrariums

These pretty glass terrariums have a great metal base to hold them up from a table and give them an elevated, clean look while still remaining organic and beautiful. I can imagine these on the desk in the office, in my craft room, on the mantle or the kitchen window above the sink.  Anywhere you put these beauties they bring a great organic, green feel to your home. $59-$99


2. Organic Cotton Pintuck Duvet Covers and Shams

I have always loved the scrunchy, pin-tucked look of these type of bed dressings. I love the light grey because it works with almost every type of room from warm colors to neutrals to cools. Light grey is a universal safe color. You can paint that wall anything except neon and it will look elegant, cozy and wonderful.

You wanna know what's even better about this set right now? It's 20% until Monday! Since Shaun won't let me go too frilly for the master bedroom, I may just have to pick these up for the guest room! $19-$111


3. Mid-Century 6-drawer Dresser

This is clearly more of a splurge item. But I really really think a dresser can make or break a room. I love the warm tone of this wood dresser and obviously the mid-century theme of it's styling. The wonderful thing about mid-century pieces (or those that are designed like it) is that they work so well with a vintage or modern themed room. This can easily be dressed up with a shiny metal lamp, statue or mirror to give it a modern feel. It can also be easily paired with vintage pieces to give it a classic, vintage feel. The possibilities really are endless. Also, where you go with a basic, inexpensive bed frame you can build a pallet headboard and stain it to match this piece. This is definitely suited for a master suite. $799

4. Adjustable Metal Floor Lamp

You guys, can we talk about lighting for a second? As much as I think furniture and placement make a room my true belief is that no matter how you style something, anything, the lighting is what can make a room look like a brilliant HGTV designer room or a torture dungeon. Lighting is essential to a rooms decor. If you have a beautifully styled room with no natural light and dim, yellow lamps or even worse, a terrible globe in the middle of the ceiling it will ruin everything.  This lamp is a floor standing unit with clean lines and a wonderful adjustable base so depending on how high your furniture is or at what angle you want the light to come from you can adjust it. Again, these piece works well with classic or modern design and fits perfectly into almost any room in the house. But I would most definitely put this in the living room or entertaining space to show off it's great architectural style. $169

5. ZigZag rug-platinum/ivory/citron

I have been crushing on chevron for quite some time now and so when we decided we were buying a house I figured it was the perfect time to go chevron crazy on every single item I could find.  Shaun, however, does not share my chevron-crazed sentiment so I had to compromise. In my opinion, this rug is a great compromise. It has light, neutral colors that work with any decor with a great pop of yellow at both ends. Great for a family room or living room and it's low pile so cleanup and animal fur are not a problem! $49-$749

Pieces of a Day Alexandria, Va

This is actually a couple weeks ago but since I'm inside the house by myself today while Shaun is at work I figured what better time than now to finally post all of the pictures of our brisk but sunny sunday house-hunting in Alexandria?

 For those of you unfamiliar with the DMV area, Alexandria, VA is a beautiful historic town just outside of Washington DC. It's filled with cafes, eclectic restaurants, boutiques and antique shops. In other words, my kinda place.

We decided to look here because it would be the best of city living and the charm of old town, walking along the January streets was a treat by itself and I snapped a few pictures in hopes to capture it's charm.

In complete honesty, I took way to many pictures.  But after a nice brisk stroll through downtown Alexandria we decided that it was a beautiful place to visit, but maybe not a place for us to live.

The proximity to DC is great in some aspects and not so great in others. I, of course, want to live on a baby goat/llama farm out by the mountains, Shaun has a bit more of a practical view of the world.

But all in all we decided the traffic, hustle and bustle and extraordinary prices of the city life just wasn't for us. So we searched farther out towards the Blue Ridge Mountains and we may have just found the perfect thing.