In Spirit of Working...

Cam and I purchased the furniture to turn our front formal living room into an office.  We love the pieces though and got them at a great price (gotta love the sales in a bad economy, right?)

I am so excited about this--the front room is the one room I feel is very thrown together and doesn't reflect our taste, and it's the first room you see when you walk in the door.  Plus, this means we can take the college desk set from our guest room and turn that back into a real bedroom.   I'm thrilled to have this set and know it will be furniture we keep forever.

Here is the catalog image of the collection we purchased: 

We don't really like the credenza in the collection, so we purchased two bookcases to put behind the desk instead as well as the desk and a leather executive chair.  We are taking a side table and chair we already have and putting them in the corner as a reading nook.  

 

desk with leather inlay

 one bookcase with spotlight

Our new desk and chair should be in sometime next month and the bookcases will come in probably in November or December.  We are finally getting the house into great shape. 

Now, if only I can get motivated to paint the trim and shelves in the living room...

See What's Hanging...

...on our walls now! 

We got our kitchen painting in and hung and recently bought a painting for our dining room at the Woodland Art Fair. I LOVE them both.  Cam and I tend to have more traditional furniture with more modern accents (such as our art). 


The kitchen painting is amazing. It is 60" x 48" and is a custom oil of a koi pond by a local artist (and friend).  We adore it! It really finishes our kitchen.

And some detail shots:

Anyone else see pacman eating a fish in this one? We get the biggest kick seeing other things in art...

Our dining room (the room in which we got engaged) is the only bit of color left downstairs (everything else the same neutral color, Ponytail).  We wanted something fun and vibrant for the room, so when we saw the works by this artist at the Woodland Art Fair, we fell in love.  We ended up purchasing this yellow  48" x 24" piece because we thought it would flow with the red walls and accent the yellow cushions on our dining room chairs. 

Happy Friday!

All the Trimmings

I had awful insomnia last week, but I realized how much time I spend sleeping and how much I could accomplish in that time (okay, so I'm nerdy and immediately kept thinking of the Cullens).

So, at night, instead of just laying in bed looking at the ceiling, I pulled out the paints and painted all the trim and doors in the upstairs hallway and bathroom and painted two of the guest rooms. It felt good to be productive, and wore me out enough to finally sleep. 

Trim before (it was the same color as the walls and had been "touched up" in a different color):

Trim and doors (and hallway) after:

 
I forgot to take before shots of the guestrooms, but they were the same color as hallway. 

The grey guestroom (paint color is "slate" from Restoration Hardware):

The blue guestroom (the "nonflash" picture didn't turn out, sorry the color with the flash is kind of weird--it actually just blends to the bedding). The color is called "November Sky". I had enough color left from when I painted our bathroom to paint another one of the bedrooms:

It feels good to have actual guest rooms that are painted and finished.  And it feels good to finally get some rest!

Derby Day in the Bluegrass...Home of Fast Ladies and Beautiful Horses

I am so proud to be a Kentuckian today. Being from Louisville, I went to the Derby almost every year.

Cam and I in the winner's circle and the paddock at Churchill

Unfortunately, law school and finals have (literally) gotten in the middle of that. Next year, I graduate the day before the Derby (Oaks day), so I am already planning on going.  Here are just a few of my favorite things about today that remind me why I love this great state:

My Old Kentucky Home

The Call to the Post

So ignore the "this is me" little clip and sorry its shaky, but it was by far the best version of Churchill's Call to the Post out there on Youtube.

Cam and I love the Call to the Post so much we had the bugler from Churchill come and perform the Call to the Post as our introduction at our reception. Once we entered, he played My Old Kentucky Home. It was absolutely one of my favorite parts of the night. Here are a few of the pics of it:

The Hats

Mint Juleps

The Horse Farms

Derby Pie

Bourbon Balls

We love the state so much, that I not only themed my blog and my wedding about the state, we also have a lot of home decor to reflect our Kentucky pride. Here's a peek into a few of the Kentucky themed items in our home.

We have these two posters framed in our living room from the Derby we went to together (with an abstract style Ashland Stakes framed poster on the other wall).

This is my favorite poster by far (its actually an Oaks picture, not a Derby picture. The Oaks is the fillies' race the day before the Derby, and its gotten to be just as big locally as the Derby). I think if and when I get a job, I will buy it for my office (or just buy it and put it it up in our home if I stay unemployed).

We have this "embossed running horse" pattern as our every day dishes (made from Louisville Stoneware):

And have these detail items from Louisville Stoneware up around the house (pitcher and plate on display in the kitchen and ceramic riding boot on a shelf in the living room dried wedding flowers in it).

We have a bourbon barrel as a end table in our living room with a horse lamp from Keeneland placed on it.

 

I just love this high holy day in Kentucky, rain or shine. Happy Derby Day!

Woke Up Swinging

First and foremost, congrats to my CATS for fighting it out last night in the Cornell's practically home arena. Let's take it all boys! In honor of them and my mood, I thought the following photo is appropriate.

Thanks google!

I literally woke up fighting mad this morning. I dreamt Ca and I took a trip and he literally forgot me and flew home himself. He told me to rent a car and drive the 20 hours home myself.  I was so angry with him that he abandoned me and didn't care. In my dream, we got in a screaming fight and decided to get divorced. I just kept thinking about how I was going to kick his butt when I saw him. 

The dream was so vivid that I literally was extremely disoriented and furious with him this morning. I was so angry I almost punched him when he woke me up and it took me a while to realize that we really were not getting divorced. 

Once I fully woke up, I knew it was silly that I was so mad at him, but I couldn't snap out of it right away because it felt so real and I had so much emotion running through me.

C and I never fight, never threaten or even talk about divorce, and I rarely have bad dreams; but, my silly stupid dream has put me in a weird mood all morning because I keep thinking certain parts are real. I just keep laughing at myself about how silly it all is now. 

Poor husband, having to deal with my craziness. Anyone else have crazy vivid dreams that seem to cross over to real life? 




In other news, we found the desk and credenza we want last night.

Amish Signature Executive office furniture

We are still negotiating out the details, but we are leaning towards cherry wood with a deep cherry stain with the black leather inlay. We will just get the desk and credenza, not the additional bookshelf and side table. I also think we are completely sold now on Amish built furniture. The quality was the better than what we saw at high-end stores and all pieces are custom made to the exact sizes, woods, and details we want. I am so excited to work out the details, save up a little bit, and get this ordered so that we can begin the re-do of our front room into an office.  

What do you all think? Anyone have any reviews on Amish furniture?

Happy St. Patty's Day and Z Gallerie Lusts

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Someone sent me this brain teaser via email so I thought I'd pass it on. Try to find the four leaf clover: 

We went shopping again today because it rained. I finally got a pair of red canvas Toms--I am so happy, they are so comfortable! Cam got this gorgeous Luchiano Visconti men's dress shirt: 

We also went to Z Gallerie and found some things we like there. We want to redo our formal living room first so everything else is not a priority to buy, but I liked these pieces a lot. It is so hard sometimes to redo anything because I prefer modern and Cam prefers traditional/antiques. It's often hard to agree on anything it seems like. Does anyone else have this problem when it comes to decorating? Here are a few we (generally) agreed on at Z Gallerie:

 

Z Gallerie Manchester Dining Room Table $1,499.00

 Barracuda $120 (they remind us of our honeymoon since we saw them on both our dives)

Riddler Wine Racks $45.95-$89.95

Kabuki Dinner Brulee set of four dinner plates: $31.80 (I would use the dinner plate as a charger) 

Big Mouth Fish Bowl $38.00

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Wednesday!