Guilty + Spring Awakening

I confess. After the bridal shower in February, I took a very deliberate hiatus from doing any more work on the house. The shower was one of my mile markers to have a certain amount of progress done on the house, and this accelerated timeline cost a lot more than I had originally planned. 

So after two months of traveling and crazy cold weather, I spent the last week polishing up our landscaping and planning projects for the spring and summer. 

This is our insanely huge camellia bush. It's two stories up, and I had actually get into it in order to do some pruning. At least now it doesn't look like it's attacking the back deck. 

This started growing in our front yard about two weeks ago. I have no idea what it is. Please help. 

Our azaleas finally bloomed. 

It was a very nice surprise, since we moved into the house in August and had no idea what these bushes were. The house is quite pretty (and pink) this spring. 

The side walkway. We should be getting solar path lights for these this season. I do plan on cleaning out the front flower beds and laying down mulch, not pine straw. The next blooms should be the now-clean rose bushes.

As for the inside, I got to put this up for a Bachelorette party two weeks ago. For five girls on a Bachelorette sleepover, this was a fun Photo Booth. 

I also put together these girly, high school sleepover-themed gift bags for the weekend. They had: Ring Pops, Fun Dip, flavored Lip Smackers, mini Bonne Bell nail polish and a mix CD for the Bride, put together by the bridesmaids.

One Friday night and my Mobstr project is done. Yes, this is a reproduction from London graffiti artist, Mobstr. Since you can't really buy his work, I made this myself. Not exactly how I pictured it. I wanted a little more modern, less finger paint, but it fills the space nicely. 

I also got to Ikea in time (kind of) to snag one of the last white Ikea Expedit shelving units. It's now a floor-to-ceiling unit for the office. Strangely, the office now seems like it need more work to bring everything together and not look completely cluttered. 

Next up will be the finishing touches on the guest rooms, getting back into furniture refinishing, and trying to find more wall decor. It feel like we have the house "half together". 

Until next time…

The Bridal Shower

Sadly, I did not getting any photos of the shower before the guests came. I'm hoping to snag them from the sister-of-the-groom later on. 

However, it was the first time the house seemed to come together and I received many compliments on how "darling" my home is. I put it in quotes so I don't toot my own horn. 

We picked up another IKEA Expedit unit and some attachable table legs. We now have a new sidebar for our dining room. All of our glassware is now on display, and the table top served as the shower cupcake and candy bar. 

Our bar cart in the kitchen served as our bellini bar. I had Simply Orange, strawberry and peach purees in glass litre bottles, along with coolers of cucumber-mint water and southern sweet tea. We picked up 8 bottles of different proseccos and champagnes, and the ladies made their own bellinis and mimosas in  mason jars with chevron straws. 

The theme for the shower was lovebirds. We used the wedding colors (navy and yellow) and used paper lanterns around the house for decoration. I also had 30 white and blue balloons around the house and tied in the yard. 

This photo was after the cleanup, but we had yellow and white chrysanthemums on the table in short vases.

The cookie favors were on the front entry way table, along with hurricane vases filled with yellow lemons. 

Hopefully, more pre-showers photos to come, but in the meantime here are some photos from our Pinterest board that we used for inspiration. 

Dollar Store cake stands that one of our bridesmaids made.

The invitations that we had made via Etsy. Our birds were yellow to match.

The Thistle House

Last week presented another first for me. I've slept in all the dorms, as well as spent time in a almost all of the faculty houses and apartments. But after over 10 years of being a part of the St. Margaret's community, I got to spend the night in the Thistle House. The alumnae house is across the street from campus and is open to all alums visiting the school. 

The Thistle is a beautiful old house, as are most SMS houses. It has some quirky features and classic structure. As part of my alumnae presidency, I have some ideas to make this house warmer and more welcoming, a place where alums are happy to visit. It's the perfect blank canvas.

Every class gets a class compilation, framing our senior portraits. I read that there should always be a portrait hanging, if only just to never feel alone. These classes of girls gave me some pretty awesome company when the house randomly settles.

Girls in White Dresses at Mayball.

It would take a bit of rearranging, but I would love to have a nice bookcase with all of the books published by alums. I'd also request a much bigger TV that actually works.

All the rooms have twin beds. There is also a nice-sized dining room, a small kitchen and 2.5 baths. Most of the house has been decorated with furniture that has been given or left to the school.  

 What would you do with a house like this? 

Snow in ATL

It hasn't substantially snowed in Atlanta since 2011. So when it started coming down yesterday afternoon, I was very excited to see the house covered in snow. 

Since we've been house-bound for the last two days, I started a couple paint projects. 

There's a great wood-working store down the road called Woodcraft, and they've been a huge help with my furniture refinishing project. This time, we picked up a couple different wood stains from General Finishes. 

So far, I've painted our living room bookcase and our stairwell bannister. When I get back from my next trip, I'm hoping to also update our bathroom cabinets. Still very confused about which door hinges to get.

I hear the Gel Stain is much better, but my patience is limited.
I picked the water-based so I wouldn't have to deal with oil-based messes.

The Black is very, very black. But, it does anchor the room much better.
It also puts getting new couches higher up on the list. 

This project took about three days to complete, mostly because I could only do it in the evenings. The spindles are Whitewash and the bannister and stairs are Espresso. I went back and forth on whether or not I loved it, or if it didn't work with the carpet, or the floor, or any other random house-flipping factor that I might not have thought hard enough about. 

I do like how it turned out, if I don't pay attention to little smudges or not perfectly straight lines. Overall, our house is starting to split between very, very white and very, very saturated color. Still waiting to see if it will all come together.

Family-ready

This past weekend, Troy's family came to stay with us. It was their first time in the new house, and we did a lot of sprucing up to accommodate everyone. From smoking a pork roast for 10 hours, to making the guest bathroom inhabitable, to finally unpacking all of our books, the house is a couple steps closer to done (very little steps).

The wish list Ikea Expedit bookcase for the office.
Still needs a couple things to be fully styled, and we plan on getting a second unit to make it floor-to-ceiling. 

New fluffy white comforter from The Company Store, so our family doesn't freeze at night.  I'm picturing all white sheets and curtains, and hopefully a bigger framed print to go above the bed. 

This dresser and mirror set was given to me by my other great-grandmother.
It was polished up and looks pretty nice in the space. Since this is our first photo of the guest bedroom, the color is Sherwin Williams "Sand Dollar".

We finally replaced the mirror in the guest bathroom, and it makes it seem much more spacious. We will eventually replace the light fixtures and repaint the cabinets to lighten the space even more.

A new addition to the house. We found him antique shopping. 

This is our third bookcase. We've put it in the upstairs landing to fill up the space.
While I have a lot of classics and chick lit, everything on the right side are "man books" and anime.

The weekend went by very well, and I think we managed to keep everyone entertained. I have exactly one month until our next big event: a bridal shower. That puts a dining room sideboard, curtains and a Pinterest party on my schedule. 

In the meantime, here are some new things that will find their way to our house soon.

This is a Parks Duffey print of my alma mater, St. Margaret's in Tappahannock, VA. It's getting framed and mounted in the guest room, which will probably be the SMS room before too long.

I found this on Pinterest and it's the perfect piece to go in our foyer. It's originally from London street artist, Mobstr. Since he doesn't really sell prints of his graffiti art, I get to create it myself after a trip to Michael's.
Source: The Chic Pad 

Two topiary trees to go on our front porch.
These will hopefully stay green all year and make the front of the house a bit more welcoming until the spring.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

I don't think I'm ever as conscious of my position in life as I am around the holidays. I am a lover of New Year's resolutions, cleaning up on Boxing Day and putting your best foot forward to close/begin the year. The house is no exception.

In fact, it was torture trying to not begin a new project this past weekend. Every time I'm on Pinterest or looking for last minute gifts, I bookmark more and more ideas for the house; from side tables to bookshelves to knickknacks. I'm hoping that some Ikea gift cards are in our future.

Not only are we having a small Festivus party next weekend, but my parents-in-law will be visiting the house for MLK weekend. That's two very big reasons to get the house looking like we didn't just finish college.

This year's Christmas tree.
It's Cardinal-themed, although we only have three cardinal ornaments,
the colored ball ornaments have painted trees with little red birds in them.

Did you know the Red Cardinal is the state bird of Virginia?
My grandmother gave me this ornament so I don't forget.

Vader is not a state bird, but he has a spot on the tree;
along with a stormtrooper, Hello Kitty, Nic Cage (above)
and this copper frying pan ornament from Williams-Sonoma.

Back to the project side of this blog, two weekends ago, I started finally painting the Master Bedroom. Thanks to an early Christmas gift card from my best friend Merritt, we picked up the supplies we needed at Home Depot. The project took about two days cumulatively, since my arms felt like they were going to fall off by the first night. 

The first coat. Big difference from the original light blue. 

Behr "Sailboat"

Yes, it photographs very very dark, partially because of the front windows

A bit of a better view. Dark blue walls. Clean white trim.

Now that the walls are done, Troy was able to mount the new TV we bought on Black Friday.
The wire rack is temporary until I can find a suitable media table.

Lastly, the accent table for the entryway arrived from Target. My father gave me a little slack for not buying "real" wood furniture. I know that compressed wood from Target and Ikea aren't ideal. However, I am 28 years old with a limited budget and an empty house. Anyone who feels strongly about the real vs. fake wood debate is more than welcome to buy us the real stuff themselves.

Minimal setup for the holidays. We're planning on hanging an oversized mirror above the table later on.

Still not sure what to put on the shelf below, but the matching Hunter Rain Boots make it quaint. 

We have a lot of plans coming up for the next couple months; including the parent visit, a bridal shower and our first spring. Stay tuned!