Weekend Recap: St Louis

This weekend we went to visit my in-laws in St. Louis. Well...it's actually a suburb of STL, but you get the idea. We got to check out the Budweiser brewery, run a 5K and eat (a lot). Check out the photos:

The Budweiser Brewery (I learned that this tower is the second most photographed St. Louis landmark, after the Arch):

We were being goofballs in the gift shop before the tour:

My favorite part was getting to see the infamous Clydesdales:

Check out their stables:

At the end of the tour they give you two free beers (and pretzels!)

Thanksgiving morning we woke up early to run the Chesterfield Turkey Trot. Aside from walking through a mud field before even starting the race, it was really fun and I hope this can become a Thanksgiving tradition.

On Saturday morning we ran 4 miles on the Katy Trail, which is probably beautiful in the summer and fall (it was still nice when we saw it, even with leave-less trees):

Over in New York, my mom was busy cooking dinner for almost 30 people! Every year I am in charge of decorating the table, so it was great to be able to see pictures of the table that my mom worked on this year. I think it looks amazing!

In other news, my rope (for the mirror project) finally came in and guess what? I didn't order enough! I bought 9 feet and I needed 27 feet (don't ask where I went astray). I just reordered the remaining rope and hopefully I can have it completed by this weekend!

Guest Room Progress: Ikea Hemnes Nightstand

I can't tell you how I excited I am about the guest room coming along. I really thought decorating the room would have to wait until we were done with the rest of the house, but then the elusive Hemnes dresser appeared on Craigslist and set the ball rolling. This past weekend we bought the Hemnes nightstand to see how we liked it. I decided I was going to put it together, but I couldn't get past Step 1. Cue handy husband...

It was actually reallllly easy to assemble. Once we placed it next to the bed, we were sold. It was exactly what I thought it would be - delicate, but with clean lines. Check it out:

Yes, that is my mirror for my rope project. It was supposed to be done already, but would you believe NO ONE in the metro Atlanta area carries 1" manila rope? Trust me, I went to every local and chain hardware store in three different towns. I ended up having to order it online and it should arrive next week. Oh, and that little blue vase is from Ikea too - it was one of those things right by the checkout line that I just couldn't resist. We are definitely planning on getting a matching nightstand for the other side, but this time around I am keeping an eye on Craigslist for it.

As excited as I was, the new setup seemed pretty bare, so I did some temporary decorating:

Close up:

Who doesn't love the Post Secret books? The dried wheat is leftover from my fall mantel project, and the little ship is one of a set of four that I picked up at a garage sale. I really only wanted one, but the lady said I could have all four for $1. Eh, what are you going do? Here are the rest of them:

They could certainly use a good dusting...

What you can't see in the pictures is the invasion of our living room chair, who is currenly residing in the guest room:

Yea, it's not working out. Why is it in there, you ask? Well, we have been toying with the idea of a new living room set-up for a while and we decided to move Brian's office credenza downstairs to see how a console would work out.

Ehhhhh, we're not thrilled with it. As Brian said last night, "it feels like were in college". I agree. At least now we know that we like the chair in there and as long as my husband can kick his giant-speaker-addiction, we should be back to the normal layout in no time.

On a side note, hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Almost Done!

My husband finally finished the stair project this weekend! Well, it's not completely done yet, we still need to prime and paint, but you get the idea. Here is where we left off:

and here we are now:

If you remember our 'before' stairs, the railing was on the left hand side - we decided to switch things up and extend the right hand side railing all the way up the stairs:

Can you believe Brian watched a few Youtube videos and figured out how to do this? My husband rocks.

Of course we still need to pick out the tread color:

We've also been busy with our guest room and rearranging furniture (again), so stayed tuned for some updates.



Craigslist Find: Ikea Hemnes Dresser

Let me first say that I think Craigslist is in the running with sliced bread as the greatest invention ever. We have bought and sold so many things on there that I've lost count. We have certainly had our share of strange experiences and shoddy people, but all in all it's been wonderful.

I fell in love with Ikea's Hemnes Dresser when I saw it in the store for the first time. Seriously, I took a picture of it every time I went to the store:

Obsessed much? When I figured out that it would be perfect for our guest room, I started the 'Craigslist Hunt'. That means that I patiently search Craigslist every morning waiting for my item to appear. It worked like a charm with our Pottery Barn table, so I was hoping for the same results. Not so much. Apparently, my Hemnes dresser was a popular item...people were posting ads looking for one:

IKEA HEMNES CHEST/DRAWERS WANTED! - $100 (Atlanta)

---

Hello,
I am looking to purchase a dresser or chest in great condition that is by the IKEA HEMNES series, Thank you! =)

A little crazy, no? Whenever one would pop up, people were asking $250+, which is not much of a deal from the original price of $300. Well, yesterday my luck changed! I found not one, but two Hemnes-sellers in the Atlanta area. Both were the white version and the exact same price. I initially contacted one seller, but she was flaky and couldn't schedule a pick-up until Saturday. The guy we ending up buying it from was really great and let us come pick it up last night.

Let me just mention how massive the piece is - it's probably a tad too big for our guest room (that seems to be a trend with us), but we both love it and I think that once we raise the bed they will balance each other nicely. Check it out:

I love how long the dresser is - the ship is on there and there is still plenty of room for my rope mirror project. That's what I'm working on this weekend and I can't wait to show off the end result:

Brainstorm: Gallery Wall

Throughout our big staircase makeover, I've probably looked at tons of images from google and Pinterest (holy addicting) and while staring at all those treads, risers, balusters and railings, my brain also started to notice how people were actually decorating their stairwells. Right off the bat, I knew I wanted to do some type of gallery wall going up the left side of the stairs, above the new wainscoting. My parent's have frames alongside their stairs and Brian's dad created an amazing gallery wall that encompassed their back staircase. That being said, our house is small and we don't want it to feel cluttered. I'm a huge fan of matching, symmetrical design, but I still wanted to mix things up. Here are some ideas I've stolen from the world wide web:

My favorite color scheme so far. The blueish-teal would tie in perfectly with our pillows and I love how clean and de-cluttered it looks.

I love the mix of letters and objects in this design:

The painting detail in this photo is genius. I've been trying to figure out where I can work this into our home.

We already own a letter "M" just like this (ours is gold) and I would love to incorporate it:

This is the symmetry I was talking about:

That's all I've found so far - I definitely plan on laying out templates (like Young House Love) and making sure we love the layout before making anything permanent.

Weekend Recap: On the Move

Saturday morning Brian and I headed to an estate sale in Kennesaw that advertised having some records. Boy, did they ever - we bought nineteen records for a dollar a piece. The house had an amazing collection of antique furniture, but I was too focused to remember to take pictures...oops.

By the early afternoon we were headed to Scott Antique Market. I had heard so much about it and was really curious as to how it would live up. My review is this: don't go unless you are looking for something particular and don't go expecting to find anything cheap. By cheap, I mean regular-people-cheap, not rich Atlantians who think a $500 dresser is a bargain. We were more 'at home' in the outdoor flea-market-ish area (where we even scored two records) and I almost took home a $5 wicker chair.

These old windows would make amazing mirrors. $95 a piece is a little steep:

My favorite section of the market: dilapidated furniture just begging for a second chance:

I'm not too sure what these are...but I want one:

Hard to see, but these were reindeer made of tree trunks and branches. We were thiiiis close to buying one:

Super cool idea:

Those half-moon windows in the back were to-die-for:

I need this life preserver - especially because it says Galicia:

These would make wonderful lights in my guest room:

This was probably the fifth tripod-lamp we had seen - talk about a trend!

Looooved these guys:

On Sunday I decided to take a drive over to Ikea and buy some frames for my gallery wall project. Who would have thought I would find the perfect mirror for my rope mirror project! They even have two different sizes to choose from:

Last, but not lease, I stopped by the Grant Park Farmer's Market and had the most amazing fried apple pie, curtsey of this place.

To top off those adventures, we had some progress on the stairs:

Next up, we hope to finish up the railing, install the balusters and prime the damn thing already.