Livin' the Dream

Christmastime

There is something exciting about welcoming Christmas into a new house. We had a lot to be thankful for throughout the year and thrilled to have Xana with us for her first Christmas. We did a little of the compulsory Christmas decorating, but also used some vacation time for projects around the house.

The pom poms on the right-most stocking accidentally got chewed by a certain puppy we know. Guess that one's hers.

Halloween, about 3 months as homeowners

My husband and I had high hopes for Halloween in the new house. We both love to celebrate fall and were hoping for hoards of trick-or-treaters in our young subdivision. We began our first holiday decorating...

These tombstones are foam-core board cut out and
spray painted grey

Sidewalk luminaries with cutout pumpkin faces and anchored with cat litter

Dining room with miniature pumpkins and new zebra rug

Making swamp juice. Tapioca pearls cooked in food coloring, gummy worms and selzer water.

Zombie cupcakes

Patio update

Container plantings doing well. The somewhat cheesy addition of tiki torches makes the patio fun at night.

One week in

We moved from a 1000 square foot apartment into almost 2000 square foot house and could not reuse much of our old furniture for the living room.

We did keep:

Beige couch (originally from Macy's, $200)

Coffee table (Craigslist, originally from Target $30)

TV stand/entertainment center (Target $130)

We had to purchase:

Black and White star burst rug ($80 Target)

Flowered armchair and grey couch ($600 Weekends Only)

Curtain panels (Target, 4 panels $40)

Dachshund canvas painted by me (Canvas from Hobby Lobby $7)

I didn't think it was too bad for living there exactly 1 week. My husband decided to complicate the move by adopting a 9-week-old puppy so decorating took a bit of a backseat.

Dining room curtains (pattern found here)

I wanted to bring turquoise into the dining room without fully committing to a wall color change yet. And I love the birds scattered throughout. I made these panels to flank the outsides of the window. For actual light blocking/privacy/function, I bought black panels from Target for $24.99

Front porch swept off with new doormat!

Back patio power-washed, second hand patio set ($60), rug ($40) and first attempt at container plantings!

The Starting Point

My first house. At a distance, the perfect house on the perfect lot.

Then reality hit. The outside had a yard full of weeds and zero landscaping, while the inside was sorely lacking a design vision. (Please note- all of the belongings/junk in these photos was not mine! It was left there while we were supposed to be closing. Grrr.)