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Happy Wednesday guys!  I wanted to share a project that I worked on over the weekend... Our fireplace got a fairly substantial makeover! We are so lucky to have a fireplace in our apartment, but as the focal point of the room, it had been looking a little sad... Here's the evidence: It wasn't terrible - but it had certainly seen better days. From far away it doesn't look SO bad, but up close the stone was really dirty (and this is after about 45 minutes of scrubbing).  It also had several deep cracks running through it.  Nothing non-livable, but I'd been scheming about a fireplace update for a while. See - up close you can really see the permanent grime and the cracks. The stone was also really yellowed, and wasn't very pretty to begin with so I was confident that I could improve upon it's facade.  I had seen several DIY projects that got the wheels spinning. On SMP Living they did a hack on an Ikea table that turned out amazing ... On A Thoughtful Place she tac...

Happy Friday ya'll!! \ Source This week has dragged on and on (it feels like) but I'm so excited for the weekend.  On Saturday, one of my girlfriends is trying on wedding dresses so I'm going to ooh and ahh over her whilst drinking champagne.  Two things I'm good at.  That night is our big family birthday celebration and we are going to the MOST fabulous restaurant... I've been dying to try it, and cannot wait to debut a pretty white dress to ring in 30 with my favorite people.  Yes, the birthday celebrations continue... I'm also really excited to start a few new projects at home, and hopefully have some fun updates to share with you all next week. Have a great weekend!! xoxo

Look who was unable to unearth the camera from the many boxes still piled up in our house!! Woot woot! It really is the small victories in life - right??   Well, I found the camera last night, and snapped a few pictures of the gallery wall in our bedroom this morning before getting ready for work (so ignore my reflection in the TV where I'm in my robe... love that robe btw). As you can see, I've made huge progress since the last updates I'd posted in my "how to hang a gallery wall" post but while the frames are in place, the gallery wall is far from finished... Want to know why??? Look closer...  See it now??  Some of the art is hanging the wrong way... upside down, sideways... and some of it is seasonal from Christmas!  Yep, there is one reading "Deck the Halls" hung upside down.  It drives me absolutely nuts. Sadly, Kris didn't even notice it.  Men! I'm in the process of pulling together new pieces to hang, that will be more cohesive together....

So I know that yesterday I posted about staying true to your style.  Mine is classic.  Clean. Contemporary. Comfortable. Preppy. But let's talk about this lamp for a moment. You all know this lamp. Nate Berkus blew everyone away with his last collection for Target.  It flew off the shelves and was only available online.  I of course lusted after it, and finally caved.  I ordered two of them. They arrived last week, and after setting one of them up, Kris came home... his immediate response was: "I can't tell if I hate that lamp or if it's my favorite thing in the house." I couldn't have said it better myself. After just posting yesterday about staying true to your style, I am evaluating EVERYTHING against that lens now, and these lamps do not really reflect my "true style"... but they are so dang cool!!!  I had originally wanted them for the living room, but they are not at all right in that space. I'm thinking that on our desks in our soon-to-be-...

Source This year is going by so fast!  There has been so much going on that I've really taken to posting on here when I feel inspired... or more often than not, when I feel guilty that it's been too long. To be honest, I haven't been feeling all that inspired, and when it felt like "work" to come up with something to write about, I didn't... but now that we've moved, and unpacked (most) of the boxes, I'm feeling more settled in, and less overwhelmed.  Maybe it's that I don't feel like I'm living in complete chaos anymore... maybe that with spring I'm feeling re-inspired to rejuvenate our space, and inject life back into it... or maybe my focus is naturally shifting back to the things I love... design, decor and DIY. Last night, I hunted for our DSLR camera with the intention of being able to post some updates on our new apartment today, but since it's still packed somewhere, I wanted to take today to talk about where my head is at, ...

Hello hello!  Hope you all had a great weekend! I feel like the last week has been a complete whirlwind, between our trip to Mexico - which now feels like it happened about 4 months ago - my actual birthday, catching up on work, and some projects around the house. Can I please be back here already?? This was the view from our room, and the porch was so private and lovely... Could be a Corona ad, right?? Seriously the perfect way to ring in the big 3-0. On a different note, our apartment is really coming along! I need to dig out the DSLR camera from whatever box it's still packed in to take some GOOD photos of the progress we've made on the house so far. Remember how I'd painted the living room the wrong color grey? Well I lived with it for about a month, and on Sunday couldn't take it anymore.  I spent most of the day yesterday re-painting, and it's now a softer, lighter, brighter color of grey, and it's pretty much perfection. Here is a progress picture... In t...