Car Funnies and Curtain Dilemmas

So after work I headed out to our little employee parking lot and as I came around to the driver's side of my car I noticed that someone had parked RIGHT next to me, about 0.25 inches from taking off my side view mirror.

No hard feeling, I don't mind someone parking close. It's a tight parking lot and I understand.

But then I had to get in.

There was not even enough room for me to fit my body between the cars, much less be able to make it all the way to my door handle.

I should have taken a picture, and I'm pretty sure the security guys inside must have been laughing on their cameras as I had to go around the car, to the passenger side door, crawl over the seat, over the stick shift… and then figure out how to climb back out again to shut the door.

Crazy times at the clinic.

But we do have another little dilemma at the house. We're trying to figure out a window solution to the window above the kitchen sink:

 Yes, that's me in the reflection of the window... and yep, I'm on

my phone talking to my wonderful mom... and yes, that's my phone plugged

in on the left because I never charge it when I'm supposed to...

Anyway... As I've perused Pinterest and Houzz and the likes I've noticed that a lot of people don't even cover their kitchen windows, they put up a valance, or lace or something… but our kitchen window faces the main road and I've actually had friends tell us that they loved seeing us in the kitchen as they drive by.

Hope that wasn't one of those days I ran to the kitchen in my PJs… creepy.

So here are the two competing ideas… I have the fabric, and really all the materials needed for idea number one, but I'm just not sure…

The Easiest: Burlap Flowy-ish Curtains (is that the right term?)

Like this below, but without the white fabric at the top. And think brushed nickel instead of the black curtain rod and rings..

or The Fancier "Casual" Roman Shade

But then I saw this one by Martha. And realized it does in fact look a little more kitchen-y and maybe a little cleaner. Imagine this in tan burlap instead of red… it's a lot more labor intensive (and I have to repair my sewing machine first) but may be worth it.

That's the big debate today at the Hess House. What do you think? Thinking ease of making it, function of hiding our PJ-ed selves, and of course the look!

What do ya think??

Buffet Table of my Dreams

Literally, the buffet of my dreams. (Not the Golden Corral kind, like the furniture kind.)

Like I literally dream about the furniture I want to buy/find/make.

And I've been thinking about our really large wall in the living room. With the placement of the couches and TV and the shape of the room... it leaves a large flat blank wall.

I wanna put a buffet on one side to give that a little 'area' and then a photo collage wall on the other side to break it up. Some new frames from Black Friday and some old frames from garage sale Saturdays... I'm thinking frames like these? (Ignore the table and chairs.)

{320 Sycamore Blog}

But I'm getting carried away... back to the furniture.

So when I sketched this wall in my head, and on paper I always come back to the banquet table.

So this morning we headed out to the garage sales as every other normal Saturday morning. We headed down a very very long windy country road. We stepped out of the truck and I saw it! I could not take my eyes off of it. This was the one.

It came as a "set" which means usually that you have to buy all the pieces and the seller won't let you take just one. So we bought the buffet, the side table thing, and a daybed headboard, frame, and never been slept on still in the wrapper mattress.

For a steal, really! Thank goodness for the small decorating fund I had set aside... because how else do you buy yourself furniture during Christmas?!

So here it is. I love the solid wood, I love the door, I love the hardware and the color and the distressing and the fact that it is actually on hidden wheels...All ready to go, actually on the wall right behind it. (Where the desk currently is because of the Christmas tree asking us if it could stand in the desk's place for the month.)

My only recommendation. Go to a Garage sale sometime soon. It's wonderful.

More to come on getting this thing into place and all setup, oh and that office area I was talking about that'll have to wait til after Christmas...

Garage Sale Find!

I've taken some advice and perused pinterest. Funny how I found way more stuff typing "desk" into the search box rather than "office."

Will share later.

But this weekend we found some amazing stuff at a huge garage sale. I told a ton of people because there was so much stuff we wanted to buy it all.

Actually we walked through and were about to leave, but decided to give it another walk through.

Then we bought TONS of stuff.

Gun Replica and Frame (Kyle): $10

This awesome mirror with a huge frame. Kyle actually found this one: $5

Then we found a ton of old bottles, dirty, dusty, but great: FREE, because the lady thought we should have them for our new house ;)

Got a never been used electric ice cream maker: $1 And I know people say they never use these, but my family used to use ours a lot, and I LOVE that ice cream. We didn't register for one when we got married and there have been multiple times when I wish we would have.... $1, we'll take it.

Got a large green vase and a large green bottle for $3. Love the color; they had more green and colored glass but I didn't want us to get all cluttered.

And then Kyle got a rocking chair for $15. Good condition, solid wood. And apparently he's always wanted one. (And it has already been used to rock sweet Baby Pettigrew, so it's already worth it.)

That's our loot. Total $34. We're on our way to decorating a house. (And having yummy ice cream.)

House Project: The "Office"

Project one ought to be small. Not the kitchen, or a big space. Just something little.

The "office."

We have a two bedroom, two living room house. But somehow neither of the extra rooms is the "office." Instead the desk is in the main living room. It fits there. And I like it there. But it's lonely. (Excuse our "moving" mess.)

And here's what I'm thinking...

I'm thinking three frames on the left for my undergrad degree, for my internship completion certificate, and then a blank one with some funny/motivating message. I'm not trying to show off degrees here, it's literally to motivate me to finish my thesis while I sit for hours at that desk working on it.

Then I'm thinking some small pictures on the bottom right and a 1 or 2-color panted canvas on the top right. Like these but with a more office-y message... then again these messages work too. Remind me to take a break and think about what really matters.

Then I'm up for ideas. Really.

Any ideas...Colors, I'm going to paint the desk some color...although I like the white-ish tones, antique white. Will paint the wall some color when I get to the rest of the living room.

But I would love ideas! Links, pictures, anything! What are you doing in your "office" or pinning on your pinterest, lol?

The House Project Begins

So I'm real excited about this announcement, and real in need of your help.

No, no, no... we are not having a baby.

But we have a house.

And I have no idea how to decorate.

See I would like to think of myself as an artistic person... I can paint, I can sew, I can watercolor, I bake and decorate cakes, etc. I can even pick out one thing I like: like "oh wow I love that sweater" or "oh wow I love that desk." But then ask me to match the sweater with anything similar and I'm out. Ask me to decorate a room to complement the desk and that's an entirely different story.

Then we bought a house; my bad.

So I'm thinking I'll put up sections of the house and I'm going to ask for your ideas. I'll draw up some sketched and then I wanna know what matches. Really, I'm not kidding, I'm lucky I wear the same color of scrubs every day provided by my workplace... no matching needed.

I'm calling it The House Project.

Stay tuned. And get your decorating minds warmed up.