Autumn in the Family Room

It is officially Autumn and the leaves have really started to fall here this past week. Time to get out the heavier blankets and cozy up the house.

The slipcover I ordered for our couch arrived and I couldn't be happier with it. Just to recap the couch and love seat are hand me downs from my parents. They are from Arhaus and are so well made but with their tropical print slipcovers were a must. I found the love seat slipcover at Ikea, read more about it here.  I ordered the couch slipcover directly from Arhaus in their Delphina linen option, it is a
beautiful almost deerskin color and machine washable.

I love that the couch will go with whatever I decide to put in the room depending on the season. For so many years I had to decorate around a very colorful very floral couch, why I didn't go with neutral from the start I will never know.

To bring some of the fall colors in I put an Ikea plaid throw across the back of the couch and cut some leaves from our pin oaks (my favorite trees).

My 5 dollar galvanized tub is perfect for holding blankets. I especially love the new cable knit one my sister just bought me for when I lay with Millie.

I added some old white handles that I bought at a salvage yard to my tray. When you are looking for old hardware on the cheap head to a salvage yard. I got about 10 pieces of vintage hardware for about 2 dollars, can't beat that.

Happy Fall!

Last Of The Summer Blooms

With fall starting this week I thought I would share some photos of the last blooms of the season. I planted an "Annabelle" hydrangea 3 summers ago and it is already taller than me and produces copious amounts of blooms starting in early August. And the best thing about planting hydrangeas where we live is that the deer don't eat them.

I stopped at a small flea market over the summer and found the antique mirror for $5. I might end up putting it in our new bathroom but for now I love the way it reflects the rooms light. It has been a couple of weeks since I have been to the flea market or any thrift stores so I am starting to get the itch. Besides, I want to get Millie started out early:)

Thank you all so much for your warm wishes for our new baby girl, you guys are the best!

Baby's Room Part Two

I know some of you must be wondering.....yes we had our baby girl!!! We welcomed Amelia on August 29th! She is healthy and quite the cutie if I do say so myself:)

And I finally found the time to show you the rest of her room!!!

The dresser is a thrift store find that I painted white and added glass knobs to.

I bought this shelf at the Country Living Fair a few years back. It seemed perfect for all of the little things I had been collecting for the nursery. My friend Maria from campbluewall.blogspot.com sent me the adorable vintage baby bottles. They make for the perfect addition to the things that I had picked up here and there, thanks Maria!

I bought this adorable hand made doll house at the flea market at least 10 years ago for $1 in the hopes that I would someday have a little girl. I know that it will be awhile before she can actually play with it but I just couldn't wait to drag it down from the attic, and at 9 months pregnant that is literally what I did:)

My Dad built the trunk the doll house is sitting on for me when I was a little girl. It has been many colors over the years but I painted it "Prairie Sage" by Glidden for now. I actually happened upon the color by accident, it was a $10 clearance can of paint so I thought I would give it a try. I knew I wanted my accent color in this room to be green because I want to be able to switch out the pink things for red. I also knew that I wanted the green to have a 1940's looking feel to it. When I brought the green paint home I was so excited to find that it was the perfect shade.

I also painted a thrift store mirror the same green and hung it above the dresser.

On this side of the room I hung a $10 flea market cupboard to hold the baby powder and ointments. And the adorable vintage baby basket was $5 at the thrift store. I found it on one of those days when I only had $5 to my name and it was marked $10. I was devastated when I saw the price, but then I saw a sign that said "Half Off All Items"! I wanted to do a jig!

I bought the hooks on the antique molding piece at the flea market over the summer. It fits perfectly over the $3 thrift store changing table.

I painted a $1 basket white and hung it here for quick access to diapers.

Another $1 thrift store find that I am really excited about is the quilt on the side of the crib. It is from Pottery Barn and is the perfect light pink and cream colors.

All in all I am quite pleased with the way this room came together and I think it may be the cheapest room redo that I have ever done. Hopefully little Millie will love it too!

I've been relishing every second with my baby girl and would spend my day just staring at her if I could but please know that if you sent me an email in the last month or so I promise I will get back to you soon! I am really getting good at doing everything one handed (this post included) so I hope to go through all my emails and to start visiting other blogs again sometime soon!

Baby's Room Part One

Here it is...part one of the baby's room!

As usual almost everything in here came from the thrift store or flea market or was something we already had from when Eli was a baby. I started this room by giving it a fresh coat of the color I had previously painted it for when Eli was in here, Sisal by Martha Stewart. The ceiling in this room was very badly drywalled at some point (not by us) and to hide that I decided to cover it with textured wallpaper instead of doing my normal skim coat method to cover drywall. I wasn't feeling up to all the mess that the sanding makes and I thought for a girl's room it would be pretty to copy the look of an antique tin ceiling. My sister had some leftover wall paper from one of her projects so I only had to buy 2 rolls. I cut the paper into squares and then applied them one by one because this room is far from straight. Lowe's has a couple different patterns of the wall paper to choose from and it is paint-able, of course I wanted to keep it white.

A thrift store shelf seemed the perfect thing for above the crib. A $3 ironstone pitcher and vintage needle point prints adorn it.

I was determined to find a small neutral quilt for the crib and I found the piece over the side of it for less than $15 on Ebay. The adorable sheet is a thrift store find that I bought years ago in the hopes that I would have a little girl one day. Then a couple of months ago I found the pillows for five dollars each (don't worry I know that once the baby comes not to have the pillows in there) and they match perfectly. The little rug on the floor was $2.99 at Ikea, can't beat that.

The little folding table is a flea market find and just yesterday I found an antique Mother Goose book for 25 cents at a yard sale.

One of my wonderful followers Maria so kindly sent me the absolutely adorable baby quilt (along with something else I will show in the next post) on the back of the rocking chair. I love the soft browns and pinks of the antique hand made piece, thank you Maria!

The shelving piece is absolutely the best deal I have ever gotten on a piece of furniture and I couldn't wait to show you guys. My sister lives in Buffalo, New York and has a thrift store called "Savers" by her house. I find so many great things there but this by far takes the cake. This piece was $3.50...yes you heard me right three dollars and fifty cents! It was originally $4.99 but I had a 30% off coupon that day.

It is super well made and I knew it could be so cute once we were done with it.

I had Neal put a bead board back on it and I painted it in a flat white to keep it rustic looking. It is the perfect place for the baby's blankets.

Lots more to show so stay tuned!!! Hopefully I can get the whole room photographed before she is born, she will be full term next week and we couldn't be any more excited for her arrival whatever day it may be!!!

$24 Slip Cover

I had mentioned in a previous post that we got my parents couch and matching love seat when they bought a new set. It is a really nice set but the tropical print just wasn't going to work for us. I ordered a slip cover for the couch from the couch manufacturer (Arhaus) a couple of months ago but there was no way I could afford the love seat slip cover also so I was thinking I was probably going to have to make one. And then......

as I was strolling through the Ikea "As Is" room last week I spotted a love seat slip cover for $24! I knew the measurements of the love seat we got from my parents and the reduced Ektorp slip cover was just about the same measurements so I thought it was worth a try. I kept my fingers crossed and couldn't wait to get home and see if it would fit.

And it does! I couldn't believe it, I was so happy! I wasn't going to have to suffer through the frustration and tears of sewing my own!

Hopefully the slip cover for the couch will arrive soon and we will be completely rid of the tropical pattern. With Pinterest being out there I refuse to even show a picture of it:) That cushion piping not lining up on the one cushion is almost keeping me from even showing these pictures!

You may have also noticed that the kitchen table is different. Our kitchen table went to the beautiful home that my niece just moved into. Neal is going to build us a big farmhouse table but it may be awhile till he has a moment to spare so we moved the circle one in for now.

I hope to show the baby's room soon, I have a couple things to finish up first, hopefully before she arrives and not after:) We have been working to try and get Eli's room done also. We haven't been home much lately so it has been hard to get a solid crack at any of the many things we are working on. Neal was able to get the dry wall hung up yesterday in the section of Eli's room where we ripped out the gross and awkward closet. I spent today skim coating the drywall and once I have it sanded and painted Neal is going to build a floor to ceiling closet on the wall with the black pipe. We think the original stairway came down through this ceiling and they closed it off at some point, explaining the big patched area in the ceiling.

I hope to keep you posted on all of our progress....if we make any:)