Ikea Did it Again

We recently were in Tampa for our good friends David and Chloe’s wedding. It was beautiful! While we were there, we of course had to make an Ikea stop since the only “close” ones are 4 hours South and 5 hours North of us.

First a few wedding pictures then I’ll share the goods!

The Johnstons!

Chloe looked seriously stunning!

Me, Katie, Rossi and Laura…groomsman wives
(& daughter)!

My handsome groomsman!

Okay, told you just a few. I brought my camera but never took it out…bad!

We had a wonderful time, I love weddings!!

Okay, back home…

Meet Lappie. Short for Lappljung Ruta, her swedish name.

I lurve her.

She’s exactly what our dining room needed.

Swoon!

Here she blows on Ikea’s website.

And here’s some not-so-prettily dressed up pieces we also got. I just took the pictures with my phone at 11:30 on a “school” night.

No matter how old I get, and how long I’ve been out of school, weekdays will always be “school nights” to me!

Ribba frames to make a gallery wall in our room! Needs to keep growing but I like it for now. One day I want to make a long cushy bench for the wall too.

Don’t mind the empty frames…

 

Expedit in white. Can’t wait to get some baskets in that baby! And some decoration in that room…although I’ve been gently reminded that “it’s a man cave, it don’t need no decorations!”

Pff, not under my roof honey! Don’t worry, I’ll keep in manly-ish.

Vittsjo shelf unit which may not stay black (and empty) forever…

And this adorable little blue glass vase, the Olik that I should have gotten ten more of.

Why oh why is there not an Ikea nearby?!

Oh wait, I know, because I’d be there every day of my life!

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Moose is One!

We celebrate our dog’s birthdays ‘round these parts. Do you?

Happy 1st birthday sweet girl!

My friend Amanda who we got Moose from, threw a puppy party in honor of the poochies’ 1st birthday!

I couldn’t think of anything I’d love more for Moose than to get to see her Momma and brothers and sisters again! She hadn’t seen any of them since she was 8 weeks old.

Home girl threw up in my car on the way to the party. She’s never done that. Here’s how that went down.

Me, Kim and Moose. 20 minutes into the 45 minute drive:

Me: “It smells like potatoes! Do you smell potatoes?!”

Kim: “Yes, I do!”

Thinks nothing of it…

Moose: “Buuuuurp!”

We turn to the backseat and there’s at least 5 pounds of upchucked food on the backseat. Niiiice.

Then when we left she proceeded to throw up twice in the backseat again before we even made it out of the neighborhood.

She also had massive amounts of diarrhea (but not in the car thankfully). Poor girl. Lesson learned, no more raw hides ever again for our babies. So to start off she wasn’t feeling well going into the party.

Anywho!

When we got there my little Nervous Nancy was scared. She’s not used to being anywhere new and “scary” without her big brother Rem.

Auntie Kimbo was in town this past weekend so she got to go with me! Kimbo thank you for your help with Moosey!

You see Moose is very used to having boundaries, i.e. fenced in yards. Well, these guys had free reign at Amanda’s because her yard is only partially fenced. Moose started off leash-less but decided she wanted to stray from the group and head to the woods (tummy upset, remember?). It took Kim and I both to get her rounded up and from then on she was on the leash. I’m just too paranoid to let her roam and hope she comes back. The other dogs stuck around but she wasn’t too interested. She is the sweetest girl ever but Mommy and Daddy didn’t teach her very good manners about coming when she’s called so she kind of does what she wants.

Oops.

There were 7 puppies total in the litter (all black), and 4 were able to attend the party. Also in attendance were Amanda’s other two dogs (besides Chase, the puppy she kept), Yoo Hoo (Moose’s mama) and Bailey (Moose’s sister from another mister). There was also another black lab there who came to play but wasn’t part of the litter.

Borrowed from Amanda’s Facebook; photo by Zaina Kinsey (Kinsey Photography) a year ago! Soo cute!

Mama Yoo Hoo is the chocolate one.

I loved watching them all together!

Bella (who looks identical to Moose) and Cody, littermates.

Bailey keeping cool and an eye on those crazy one year olds.

Amanda was so sweet to put this together! There’s me and Goosey on the wall.

May 2012, cue the collective “Awwww”! Look at hers cute wittle face!

 

“Sniff sniff, are you my mother?”

 

Chase & Bailey

Proud and happy Mama Yoo Hoo!

Party animal, over and out!

Thanks again for having us Amanda!

Oh, and since Moose has second child syndrome and all, she doesn’t get that many spotlight posts like Rem did. So in honor of her birthday, here’s a few dozen of my favorite pictures of our sweet girl over the past year. Couldn’t imagine life without our dogs, they truly are family.

You can read about Remi’s first birthday here!

August, 2010. Love that boy!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

I am taking such joy in turning our house into a home!

Here’s just some things that make me smile. Some projects, some just decorations. Most things I’ve already shared.

All lovely!

 

Spring Banner. Seafoam green craft paint + whitish burlap + twine.

Dog treats look so much cuter in an apothecary jar.

Write it Down

I jumped on the chalkboard wagon a long time ago.

Something I’ve always wanted to do though is to put a chalkboard in my pantry. Well, seeing as I haven’t had a pantry in my last two houses, I couldn’t really make that one happen.

But now, having a pantry and all, it was on like Donkey Kong!

I forgot that I had wanted to do this until yesterday when I was digging around for a piece of paper to write down a grocery list. And it hit me.

I had chalkboard paint in the garage, a foam brush, and a blank slate.

Organizing the pantry is obviously still on my to-do list.

David was at Lowe’s so I called him and told him my plan.

He was not thrilled. At all really. In fact he told me “no, this is something I really don’t want you to do – what about one day if we were to sell the house? Nobody wants a chalkboard painted on their pantry door”.

I said, actually that’s exactly what people want! It’s so cool!

He did his eye roll over the phone and I won the battle. I told him it can always be repainted.

Within 5 seconds of hanging up I was gathering my supplies. I didn’t tape edges since I had just planned to be careful and it was a raised edge anyway.

The first coat took about 5 minutes, I waited until it was dry then put on the second.

Time = 10 minutes

Cost = Zero Dollars

Functionality = Priceless!

I love it.

And the bow on top is from the back of my wreath on the front of the door. It decorates the board perfectly!

After 24 hours of waiting (the worst part of any project if you ask me!) I seasoned the board. Do this by rubbing a piece of chalk on its side all over. Be generous. Then wipe with a  clean wet/damp rag and you’re in business!

I’ll be keeping my eye out for a cool cupped drawer pull that I want to mount upside down inside the pantry to hold chalk.

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Who thinks of these awesome ideas?!

Because I love them!

Sidenote: I haven’t had a good record with chalkboard paint that has to be brush applied, but for this project, it worked great! I’m really pleased!

Craft Room Shenanigans

Well we’ve been in our house for almost two months and I’m already rearranging.

I was inspired by Centsational Girl’s beautiful office.

I wanted to do this from the beginning in my craft room after seeing hers but I didn’t think it’d be a pretty view from the outside, seeing the back of my computer.

Before I show you what it looks like now, here’s how my room started out.

  

     

But I couldn’t get the desk-in-front-of-window arrangement out of my head.

So yesterday I decided to move things around to see how I liked it.

I LOVE it!

I can’t get over how much I love my homemade starburst mirror and how it pops off of the blue paint.

I wanted to share too the ultimate work station.

This.thing.is.awesome.

Why, you ask? What’s so great about it?

Well, my Grandma gave me the cart. It was her tv stand but she got a new one. I honestly thought I’d paint it but didn’t know what I was going to do with it.

I decided not to paint it (shocking I know!) and wanted to see how it’d work out as a work station.

My sewing machine is on top, Cricut in the middle, and the most used supplies below.

So on to why it’s so great. It’s on wheels!

I used to hate having to “lug out” my machines. But now, they’re on wheels and ready to move around the room to where I need them. Seriously, when I hemmed my curtains I wheeled the machine over to the window so I had a worktop and didn’t have to take down my curtains.

Now that my computer is right next to my Cricut, I don’t even have to move it, I just plug it right in!

Nothing has to be taken off its shelf to be used. It’s wonderful!

Thanks again GMa!

Oh and don’t ya like my storage boxes? They were $14 each at Homegoods and I love them. They fit perfect, have handles on the side, a fun pattern on top and are a really roomy size.

Yay for free changes, rearranging!

Oh and once we get a new living room rug, I’ll be moving my gray flowered one into this room for kind of a “sitting room effect”.

And remember how David hated that gray nailhead trim chair I bought?

Well now he loves it! He comes in when I’m on the computer and sits there to chat. And when he has something important to discuss with me he tells me to sit down in “the chair” so we can have our conversation. Ha. He’s hilarious.