Seasonal Buffet

Bring on the seasonal decor!!

I love decorating for the holidays, and as we saved up to purchase our house I used the time to hit up several after season sales and stock up on holiday decor.  The original plans were to decorate the fireplace mantel, but after we found our house and decided to mount the TV above the fireplace I had to find another place for my holiday decor.

Enter more online shopping and another purchase from Wayfair! (We previously purchased our headboard from WayFair) I found this buffet, that comes in black and cherry, and fell in love.  I debated for some time before actually pulling the trigger to purchase it and that was my mistake.  When I was ready to click buy at the end of August the black one was out of stock.  I wasn't a fan of the cherry, so I figured that I could hold out until the black one came back in stock.  I tried to find it on other sites like Amazon, but came up with the same problem - out of stock on the black.  I waited and waited, signed up for notification when it was back in stock and checked online periodically to see the estimation date get pushed back further and further (as of right now it's expected shipping is pushed till 11/8).

I waited a month and a half or so until my patience ran out.  I talked it over with Chris about buying the cherry version and if we didn't like it we could always go through the process of painting it black.  When it arrived we were both surprised to see how dark the cherry version actually is - Chris even asked me if I was sure I didn't ordered the black one when he was putting it together because it seemed so much lighter in the online picture.

With the buffet ready to go, I was excited to pull out the fall decor.  My favorite piece being the Ikea lantern filled with various sparkly pumpkins, acorns, leaves, pinecones and berries.

I put up the fall decor as soon as possible to get as much time in before I switch over to Christmas decor.   Knowing myself, the Christmas decor will be coming out next month as we prepare to host our first official holiday at our house (I know my mom is really looking forward to not having to cook for both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year!).

And just so you don't think that we are on top of everything, here is what the rest of our dining room looks like.

This is where all of our boxes were delivered from our storage shed and we are slowing knocking out the last few.  Once they're gone we'll be free to start looking for a new dining room table!

What are your favorite online shopping sites?

A Place To Lay Our Heads

Can I just tell you how happy I am that we can actually sleep in our master bedroom now??

First things first, we finally got around to painting our master bedroom.  We went with Behr Caribe and Ultra Pure White.  We originally were going to go with just the blue, but when we put it up on the wall I thought it would be a little too much to have the whole room in that color.

Chris went around and painted the baseboard in the matching white (it's still the original off white in the photo above) just in time for the arrival of our new bed frame!  I did a lot of online window shopping after falling in love with a headboard that I saw on This Casita.  I located it on Amazon, but ended up buying a version of it on Wayfair to get the foot rails as well.

Chris did all the heavy lifting, piecing together the frame while I worked on putting up our annual birthday pictures and the DIY map.

Once the bed frame was up, we took the plunge and purchased a king size Tempurpedic mattress.  I've never purchased a new mattress and Chris was rocking a futon before moving in with me. We have been eyeing one for some time, always gravitating to the same Cloud model every time we stopped into a Sleep Experts or Mattress Firm.  We used the rational that we need to invest in a good night's sleep, and this one has a 25 year warranty along with a 1 year love your mattress guarantee (which means we have 365 days to decide if we really like it, and if we don't we can send it back and get another mattress).  

The mattress was delivered the next day and I was quick to finally break open the bedding that we originally registered for our 2011 wedding, but ended up buying ourselves because it was discontinued between the time we set up our registry and our wedding date. This actually ended up working in our favor because when it was discontinued, all of the pieces were marked down AND I still got to use Bed Bath and Beyond coupons to reduce the price even more (just had to travel to 3 different stores in order to get everything)! 

I purchased pretty much every accent pillow that went with the set

As you can tell, the bed and the bench are the only pieces of furniture in our room.  We still need to find some nightstands and a dresser as well as some sort of seating by the windows for the reading nook.  But for now I'm just so excited to see where this room started and where it is today!

What do you like most about your bedroom?

Benched

After getting our hair done on Saturday, Mom and I were off to run some errands.  She has been on the hunt for a statement mirror to go above their large mantle in the living room so we try to frequent our local Home Goods.  The problem is, good finds go quick at that store!  And with the hold area at the front of the store (items purchased and waiting for the customers to come back with larger transportation) you always see those great finds and get jealous that you didn't find them first.

Mom struck out again on the mirror hunt, but I scored a home run with this lovely bench!

I have dreamed about our future master bedroom which includes a new king bed to go with the king bedding that we received for our wedding (we were thinking ahead!).  I've always loved the idea of a bench at the end of the bed, but didn't have space for it in our old apartment.

Just enough space for one person to walk between the bed and dresser

While walking through the mirror section with mom, I actually spotted an identical bench in darker brown first.  It was nice, but once I saw the neutral color I knew it would work better with our bedding (and any future changes in bedding).

Pillows from our king bedding

And true to the nature of good finds going fast at this store.  From the time I spotted the bench and decided to buy it (standing by it while waiting for the guy to carry it to the front), 2 sets of people came up voicing interest in it.  

And the best part?  It has storage space!  

Perfect to store some of the blankets that always seems to be thrown around during the colder months.

Do you have anything at the foot of your bed?

I Don't Drink Coffee, But...

...this came home with me after a recent stop to Target, and I'm really excited about it!

Neither Chris nor I are coffee drinkers so we never had a coffee pot in our apartment.  When my parents would come over for breakfast they would always stop for coffee on the way.  As I dream about the future house, I always think about hosting holidays there and how it would be nice to offer family members coffee instead of running out to the nearest Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts.

With a belated wedding gift card from one of our friends (it was riding around in his trunk for nearly a year before he was able to give it to us), we decided to pick up a Keurig during Target's buy one get a gift card deal.  For us, the options of iced tea, hot chocolate and tea were the bigger selling points.  I love me some hot tea or hot chocolate during the winter weather!  If we were regular coffee drinkers, I think a pot would have been the better option but with the few cups of coffee that would be made at our house (for family or friends) I think this will do the trick.  Now to start trying out K cups!

And speaking of recent finds...

After I took the edible picture for the photo challenge, I really wanted to find that knife.  Thankfully, mom located it at Marshall's for $3.99!

What is your favorite cold weather drink?

Piecing It Together

When I first picked up the vessel sink for our half bath, I didn't think about the other pieces that would be needed for it to be functional.

I'm still in love with that sink

Thankfully after some reading up on the net, we're getting closer to having all of the pieces to the puzzle. We recently received our Amazon order for the new brushed nickel faucet and pop up drain. 

I learned all about the difference between a drain with overflow vs a drain without overflow.  And good thing I did because I originally saved a pop up drain with overflow into my Amazon cart before reading that was the wrong one for our vessel sink.  

I was worried about the height of the faucet, but seeing it in person and pretending to put my hands under the "running water" makes me feel much better!  Next up will be to order the mounting ring, similar to the one I saw in the lighting and decor store over the weekend.

Once we get into our house, we'll measure out the half bath and start the search for the perfect vanity to display our beauty.

 

What type of finish do you like for your fixtures? Chrome, Brushed Nickel, Oil Rubbed Bronze, something else original with your house?

Weekend Round Up

Yay, for a fun weekend!  It kicked off with my cousin Jason (who is like an older brother) flying down for a visit.

Here he is walking my mom down during our wedding

It's always fun to catch up and bring back memories of when we were younger.  This also happened to be the big weekend when we finally got to meet my brother's new girlfriend!  Unlike me, who had Chris meeting my family after only one month of dating (in all fairness it was really because it happened to be the only time my dad would be in town from Atlanta where he was working on assignment for a couple of years), Dennis normally takes a while to feel out the situation before bringing anyone to meet us.  Danielle was really great and I'm so hoping this works out!  She got to see us all in our best form - cracking jokes and enjoying some Rudy's BBQ.

While searching the web I found out who the maker of our vessel sink is!  

It's a RonBow tempered 2 layer glass sink that could be found online for $369.  This put a huge smile on my face since we got it for a deal at $99.

Speaking of deals, mom was on it again, this time with a new light for their kitchen.  Making our rounds Saturday morning, mom found a light that she really liked but learned that that location did not have any in stock.  We had to head up the road so I could pick up Chris' birthday gift (the location we were at didn't have any of that in stock either), and she struck up another deal.  This location had the same light, for $79 instead of the original price of $99.  They didn't have any in stock, but would sell her the floor model for $69.  Not too shabby!

We made time to catch the Dark Knight and get some yogurt in between clearing out the kitchen and laundry room in preparation for the team to come today and start working on the new floor. 

Gotta love the fridge in the living room

And to round it out I finished a painting for the half bath.  After seeing our little tribute to the Philly statue for our gallery wall, mom wanted a little love in her house.  I told her it would be easy to paint, if she picked up the supplies.

How was your weekend?  Any fun projects or deals?

Sink Or Swim

I'm in love with a sink!

This past weekend mom & I headed out for some retail therapy while the guys were away.  Mom has decided to really change up the powder room beyond just the painting, and is going with a remodel including new flooring and a new vanity to go with the new fixtures, light and mirror.  She has made a couple of window shopping trips, but wanted another opinion so I volunteered to go with.  We hit up Floor and Decor and Builders Surplus and both came away with some thing nice.

While I was walking around checking out backsplash tile...

...mom was checking out flooring.

The other item on her agenda was a new vanity.  Right now they have a pedestal sink and she's was looking for a vanity with some extra storage space.

So many vanities 

She really wanted a white square sink with a darker cabinet, but wasn't in love with the shades of cabinet that were available.  After much deliberation she decided on an all white vanity with the idea of painting the  base.

Forgot to take a pic in the warehouse, but here's the side of the box.

While mom was busy making her decision, I was wondering around just to see what all was out there.  You may remember way back in the day I wrote about our love for the vessel sinks that we used on our honeymoon.  Chris and I were both on board for adding one into the half bath, so I thought I would check out the selection.

There was such a large variety at both stores, which include beautiful painted sinks that reminded me of Mexico...

...glass bowls with a texture look...

... and square sinks in white and marble.

But I stopped in my tracks when I saw this beauty sitting at the end of the counter.

LOVE it! I quickly sent some picture texts to Chris while he was at work to see what he thought.  He liked the square sinks, but thought that the blue and green would really stand out.  Chris usually goes for items with a little extra sumpin' sumpin'.  I had no plans on buying anything while we were out, but Chris said that it was a good price and too cool to leave behind (it was the only one left in the store).

Of course once I got it home and wiped it down, I had to take additional pictures.

I can't wait to see how our half bath comes together with this as it's centerpiece.

Have you made any fun purchases lately that you were in love with?

You Better Shop Around

After spending a good amount of time at the Alchemy bar and getting to know our mixologist on our past cruise, Chris and I were really looking forward to having a nice setup for our home bar.

Part of that set up included finding these glasses that held my favorite cocktail (raspberry infused vodka, muddled strawberries and peach puree).

When we got back to the states, I headed over to my go-to internet site Amazon and ordered 6 glasses for $38.68.  The first box came shattered, but Amazon was great about sending another box free of charge in less than 48 hours.

We were able to salvage 2 glasses from the broken box, so I was pretty happy about getting 8 for the price of 6.

As you might have guessed from the title, I was happy with my purchase until mom and I went shopping this past weekend.  I found myself walking around Ross looking for anything to jump out at me when I stumbled upon this.

Why yes, those are our glasses 4 for $5.99!  I even checked my old orders in my email to see if it was the same maker.  It was.  I could barely get any words out before mom had snapped them up and put them in her cart.  They only had one box, so we walked next door to Home Goods where she found another box (this time for 6.99).

Mom keeps calling it the deal of the weekend, all I can think is that I could have saved $24 if I had just shopped around.  You better believe I'll be checking out Ross and Home Goods before making any other home purchases!  Since our glasses are packed and in storage, we decided to break in mom's glasses with the wine smoothies that we picked up in San Antonio.   

Delicious!!

Have you ever purchased something only to find it later at a lower price?