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!

my ruffly, frilly, orange and lavender, vintage, thrifted blouse

i've always kinda been into wearing vintage clothing
my favorite pair of pants in the ninth grade
was a pair of thick green and blue bell bottoms
(& this was 1998-so they weren't really "in style" per se...)
but ya know, if ya love something wear it, right?
i may have also rocked a pair of faux leather pants during that same time period
but there is no proof...

i mentioned the other day that i found a shirt at a thrift store
(that was almost as cool as Dia Frampton's, remember? remember?! yeah, prob. not)
when i found it it was about 4 sizes too big
and i had to hem it in on the sides and shorten the sleeves
& it's L.O.V.E.
i paired it w/a skirt because i was going to a church function
but i'm sure this would be uber cute with dark denim.

shirt | thrifted

skirt | thrifted

tights | target

shoes | tj maxx

earrings | pretty little me

(yay! finally found something to wear with my pretty little purple flower earrings!)

ya know the WWJD bracelets?
well, every time i shop i think WWEHD?
What Would Emily Henderson Do?
is that weird?
it never steers me wrong..
not in fashion...
and definitely not in home decor.

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!

oh, happy day

Happy Groundhogs Day.  

I hope he doesn't see his shadow.  

Today is also my sister-in-laws wedding day.  I've kinda been banned from talking about her wedding, which is too bad. But, I can say we're excited because Sofia gets to be the flower girl.  I'll be sure to take lots of pics...we will be wearing these dresses we got for Christmas because the wedding colors are peaches and creams and golds (I think...)

I hope the little flower girl can handle it, because she tends to get nervous in front of large groups of people.

My contribution to the wedding is the bride's headpiece.  Her wedding dress has pearls across the chest so she wanted pearls in her hair, and again, peach is one of her colors, and she requested the feathers.

 Here's hoping for an eventful, happy day!
xo-Danielle

I'm Nesting

I'm not pregnant! but I am nesting!
I've had such an urge to get organized lately!
I guess it's not hard to understand when you see this:

 yep, this was calling to me saying "clean me up!".  this changing table has been used as a book shelf for the last 6 years and, frankly, it wasn't strong enough to hold all these books!  I found this fun storage idea on pinterest and went to an antique store looking for wooden crates for cheap:

Source: designsponge.com via Danielle on Pinterest

well, we found some cool wooden crates but they were $15-$20 each (and $11 at Joann's) I figured by the time I got enough crates it'd be about $100.  and then i spotted it!  a wonderful oak desk, with attached shelves above for storage.  it looked like it would have enough room to hold all of our kids books and the price tag was.....$60 SO excited! 

the girls are just lovin this new desk.  I don't know what it is, but for some reason i always dreamed about having a desk in my bedroom when i was a kid...is that just me??

Also, I've organized all my girls' tights (finally!)

we have SO MANY tights...but, i must say, they are mostly hand-me-downs.  i've only bought about 5 pairs of tights as a momma of 3 girls, but we have about 80 pairs as you can see.  I hung this handy shoe-holding device up in their bathroom and now they can see and find their tights a lot easier
ya know the saying "a place for everything, and every thing in it's place" well, that doesn't work unless you have a "place", right?!  I didn't get a "before" shot but this shoe closet was just a big, jumbled MESS

I originally had a shoe rack in our closet and all the rest of the shoes just piled up next to it

I bought these bins for each of the kids for like $2.99 they got to write their names on them

i bought this for my shoes, and i put my most often worn shoes on our ikea shoe rack

I don't know what got me so obsessed with getting organized...i even cleaned out our pantry..i guess it was all out of necessity, too much clutter driving me crazy!  have you done any organizing lately? what are your best organizing ideas? i'd love to hear from you :)
xo- Danielle

diy upcycled pillows

so i bought a quilt online from anthropologie
it's kinda a big deal to me, because i never spend that much money
and when it came to my house

i wasn't in love with it

i was in like with it

all the colors were different than i thought they would be

the colors were so different it was hard to find fabric to coordinate to make matching pillows
i actually had to get paint chip samples and carry them around in my purse so that i could match colors while i was at various stores

{carrying these around was actually my husband's brilliant idea}

i found this skirt at old navy on clearance for $10
the color was perfect, and i loved the ruffles... so i made it into a pillow using my $2.50 pillow form trick

the finished pillow:

and while looking at my color samples it reminded me of a sweater i don't ever wear anymore

i bought this sweater on clearance for $10 back in 2003, it gets a lot more use now as a pillow

the pretty pillow with the bow:

with the sweater all stuffed with a pillow my husband said it reminds him of what i looked like when i tried to wear it when i was pregnant....uh, yeah, maybe that's why i never wear this sweater anymore!

so here's the complete look w/all 3 new pillows i made
and now i love it!

and i LOVE  the painting my husband painted that he hung above our headboard

he painted it when he was 17 years old! yeah, he's amazing like that :)

and, i just have to show you the other amazing painting that my husband painted-

how can you not love this teddy roosevelt painting?! 

i'm trying to talk my husband into painting more of the presidents in this style, wouldn't that be amazing?

let me know what you think :) i'd love to hear from you!

xo- Danielle