Window Treats And Tealy Goodness

Our front room is a major work in progress. For someone who is strongly affected by her environment, I've become quite numb when I enter this room. It's a coping mechanism I suppose, lol.

What's it lacking? Well just about everything.

Why? Because we don't have couches.

Yep I've realized that I haven't paid this room much attention because the time isn't right for us to drop a bunch of money on a sectional that I've measured out for the room (one day, West Elm Henry sectional, one day).

So I've decided to no longer let our lack of couches bring down the rest of the room. And in effort to help this room not sound like an empty echo-y hall, I'm turning my eyes to our dining room.

Let me start by giving a quick glimpse to the layout of this room. It has a dining room, and then what I'm calling the piano wall and then the area that will have a sectional couch one day.

Yep, no fancy drafting software here, just some good ol pen and paper. :))

And here's some older photos of the room at it's finest...har har. This was when we had to empty our closets for new carpet. In the first pic, you can see the piano wall (left corner), and if you look closely you can see the blue tape in the right corner on the floor that is the measurements of my future sectional :), and then the crazy lookin dining room below. Wow-zah.

We've almost purged our house of every window treatment that was previously here when we moved in. All were an older once white blind, like what we currently have in our dining.

Well this post isn't touching those blinds yet, but it does touch on the much needed curtains around it. I've searched a while for curtains for this room. I'm drawn toward patterns like at Urban Outfitters, however I didn't want to commit without knowing what the rest of the room would look like. So I decided on a solid. And to my surprise, velvet.

And to no surprise, teal.

See, I've discovered without my knowing that I have a thing for teal/aqua/turquoise.

There's Finn's car seat...

 Our outdoor chair cushions...

My fuzzy blanket from Target...

And now these teal curtains.

Here's the before...

And after...

Mmm, I'm loving it. I love hanging curtains close to the ceiling...it draws your eyes up and makes quite a dramatic statement. With the shape of the room I was able to place the curtain rod so it appears that it's wedged between the two walls. Also when you hang your curtains like this it visually expands the windows instead of shrinking them.

I love my realistic looking fake lemons.

So here's what else I have planned for the rest of the dining room:

• Purchase a rug (probably jute or some other natural fiber for durability)
• Update blinds
• Hang art/mirrors (mirrors to reflect light in this cave like dining room and make it appear bigger)
• Find 6 solid wooden dining chairs on Craigslist (paint white if not already)

Anyone else have an eye sore of a room that you're tired of staring at? Or have you found some recent motivation and started to tackle a project? Nothing like checking something off a long overdue list. Like my sectional. The day that's purchased and moved in our house, I'll probably throw a party and sleep out there for weeks. :))

V-Day

Valentine's Day. Typically Rob and I don't celebrate V-Day, but you know what my favorite thing about Valentine's Day was back in the day? The crafts you got to do at school. The little bags you'd make and put on your desk to collect all your valentines from classmates. Aw, sweet memories.

So I did a little craftin to celebrate.

I just did a little somethin...wherever my brain took me. Nothing fancy. Ended up making a card for Rob and one for little man. And I had a plan for using those hearts.

Here's a pic of Finn this morning with his first Valentine's card. He was happy for about a nanosecond...then just needed some soothing. A first Valentine's Day can be rough on these little baby emotions. ;)

His first Valentine given by his mama. That's the way it should be, right? :)

Rob also surprised me yesterday and organized for my mom to babysit and we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Rob has this joke, although he wouldn't call it a joke, that no matter what he plans ends up getting messed up somehow. Lol. It doesn't truly feel that way, but we do make memories in the process. This night was no different. First, I can't recall the last time we got some serious rain here and lo and behold as we're about to head out, a torrential downpour arrives. With no umbrellas, I grab a trash bag (super classy) and put it over my head and we run to the car. And we quickly learned that this wasn't a quick Florida rain, this one was holding out. We couldn't find close parking at our restaurant, so we had to park far away down the street. It sounded like the rain was letting up right when we were getting out of the car, however, it was a false alarm. We get out and there was no turning back. The wind was blowing the cold rain in our faces and my trash bag wasn't doing it's trick anymore. Needless to say, by the time we arrived at our restaurant, we were drenched. And cold. And wanting a dry towel and a heater. It was hilarious. We got our chips and salsa, and I couldn't help but place the warm chip on my cheek for some heat. Lol. Oh sweet memories. Love him. It was so nice to just get out of the house with him and simply talk and laugh over our yummy grilled chicken tacos.

Oh and Finn did wonderfully with his Nana. He slept. Yep, he has impeccable timing sometimes.

Don't worry, Nana was awake while she watched him. :)

Here's a few Valentine pics that I took this morning...

Our very own little cupid. :)

Happy V-Day everyone!

One Month

Baby boy turned one month old yesterday

I was thankful to get a photo without Mr. Finnious fussy-pants coming out. But I told myself, rain or shine, tears or no tears, this photoshoot would go on.

The lip and almost tears did come out sooner than later though...

His little face melts me. So here's a little synopsis of your first month, Finn.

Dear sweet boy, it's been quite a month for you. Your first month of life has felt much longer than just a month. Maybe because of all the feedings every couple of hours since you're such a growin boy. You've showed us a few smiles this month, I think it's cause you're happy. Your favorite things to do are eating and sleeping and being in your swing. Oh that blessed swing that soothes you so wonderfully sometimes. Oh and you love love love to have your hair washed. I could just stare at you all day. You are so precious, sweet boy. Your mama and daddy love you so much. Happy one month!

Xoxo,
Mama

It's A Balancing Act

God. Rob. Finn. Family. Friends. Church. Decorating. Music. Blogging.

Lots of other things weaved in there too. How to balance it all...I have no clue. Lol.

So in effort to not lose focus, I wanted to start making a few little goals for myself...I probably won't be putting a timeline on anything, but to see it written out will help me.

God: My goal is to make a point to set aside time each day, I don't care if it's 3 minutes or an hour, no matter what, to either play some worship songs on the piano, read a verse/chapter, or just sit and pray. I'm most centered when I'm centered around God. And I'm not setting any time frames, because quite honestly I'm not the type that can follow a set schedule without it feeling like I'm just marking off a task on my to do list. It's the way my brain works. I just want to spend more time trusting what I believe and living it out.

Rob: Go on a date with this man...and not in 6 months.

Finn: Trust me, sweet boy, you've got my attention. I'm gonna try to be the best mama for you.

Family and Friends: Once little guy is less fussy and pumping is in full swing, go out with friends and family. I know this will happen eventually, it just feels hard to do at the present moment.

Church: We'll be there eventually. Missing LifeQuest! Thankful I can listen to the topics online.

Decorating: Start offering decorating services (for a small price) via mood boards. What is a mood board? They're a digital compilation of a room design or makeover. For example, here's the mood board I created for Finn's room...

The idea is to gather all the information (wants/needs/design dilemmas) from the client and find items/paint colors/art and create a mood board to be used as a guide by the client. The beauty of this is that the back and forth correspondence is done via online, meaning that these can be created for anyone, anywhere.

Music: Oh music. Oh writing. I miss you. I'll never let it die. And never want it to fall off my things that I want to do. It takes probably the most dedication, but I still gotta do it.

Blogging: Blogging has become quite a wonderful outlet for me. This is my 91st post. Wowzah. Can't believe I've stuck with it this long, but I'm thankful I have.

I just wanna make sure I keep my head around the right things. And not just one thing. Cause I can get some major tunnel vision sometimes, ya know what I mean?

Love to you all!