the fiddler in our living room

About a month ago, Paul brought home this gem.

I've been dreaming of a fiddle leaf fig tree for a while.  One Sunday afternoon, I casually asked Paul to see if they had some at Home Depot.  Surprisingly, they had a bunch of mature ones like this for about $40.  Since I'm quite the plant killer, I did my research on how to take care of a fiddle leaf fig tree.  According to several sources (here is a good one), some key things to remember are:

1)  They need abundant but not direct sunlight.  They also tend to lean or grow towards the light so rotating the tree once in a while helps the tree grow upwards.  

2)  Do not over water!

3)  Keep away from dry heat and drafts. 

Unfortunately, we went on vacation for a week and when we got back, the tree looked like this.

It has lost about 2-3 leaves since then.  Hopefully it's not dying a very slow and painful death.  I think not getting enough sunlight and/or the draft from our ceiling fan (which is constantly on) are the main issues, and we're working on this.  I sure hope I can keep this beaut alive for a year, or at least until they're back in stock again and I can get a replacement!  For now, we'll enjoy the time we have together, however long that may be.

Coincidentally, I was watching Giuliana & Bill yesterday, and what do you know.  They have one too!

I leave you with some pictures of homes which feature these lovelies. 

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Let's let that marinade a little.  Here's to wishing for a living room that could be...(sigh).

our first home | family room

We spend the majority of our time in the family room, so it was important for us to make it feel comfortable and cozy.  That couch was one of our first purchases when we bought the house.  We needed a couch big enough for Paul to lie down on (all 6'3" of him) and for me to fit in too. 

This was how it looked when we first moved in.

Five coats of paint later (including primer), it looked like this.  Wow, look at that ancient TV and the oh so attractive stand to go with it!

It took a lot of rearranging for me to finally be happy with our mantle.  This is how it looks like when it's not Christmastime.  I tried different heights and a little layering to balance things out (sorry for the awful photo quality).

Found this pic on my phone that I took sometime in the afternoon.

A few updates later, the family room looked like this.

{photos taken by a professional}

I added some decorative pillows, sticking with the green, blue and yellow theme.  The picture frames below the console table were from our wedding two years ago.  I had no idea where to put them so I stuck them there.  Our sad plant on the left of the TV was also from two years ago.  Sadly, Paul stuck it outside to get some sun for a few minutes and has died a slow death ever since.  We are also very fond of the plantation shutters which really made a difference. 

We'll probably miss this room the most.  There were some good times well spent here, not just with the three of us, but also with family and friends.  We're currently in the middle of packing and most of what you see here are in boxes.  Just one more week to go in our first home.  Saaaad!

our first home | formal living + dining

Since we're moving, I wanted to feature our first home for memories.  Also to show off how awesome our house looks in these pictures, taken by a professional that our realtor hired.  He made our house look ginormous in these pictures! 

First up are the two front rooms, the formal living and dining.  You've seen these rooms several times before, but thought I'd start from the front of the house and work our way to the back. 

As soon as you walk into the house, the first thing you see is this. 

This is how it looked like when we first got our keys back in September 2009 and walked in for the first time as homeowners (well that's a lie - this was the day after).

I think the first thing I bought was that rectangular mirror which I found at Ross.  I was so excited when Paul bought me the console table for my birthday.  I've been hinting at him for months that I found the perfect console table at Target. 

I found this picture of Paul painting the first coat on with Behr paint in Desert Camel.  A few weeks later (if not A week) we changed it to Sherwin Williams in Camelback because the previous one was a little too yellow.  Lesson learned:  see if you like the paint in natural light first before continuing on to paint the rest of the house. 

Here's the formal living room and dining before:

We even had my family over for lunch one day and had them choose their top two favorites.  We ended up choosing a Behr paint that my Dad really liked (hi Dad!).

Our awesome makeshift blinds.  We put them on there when we painted the room and never took them off.  It was like this for almost two years.  Goodness.

 

And here it is now, as you've seen it lately on this blog.

Don't mind the blanket on the couch.  We forgot to remove it before the pictures.  That's Bailey's favorite spot, her go-to place when she wants to get away from us.

I've been meaning to put some artwork and a bench on that bare wall but never got around to it.  Maybe in the next house.  I think we put most of our hard work (and money) into this front room.  There was a lot to fill up and we basically started from scratch.  I am probably most proud of this room, and I hope I can duplicate this in the next house, if not make it better.

Up next is the kitchen.  I hope you have a good weekend!

the living room nowadays

I thought it would be a good time to update you all on how our formal living room looks like these days.  We've added and changed a few things since we decked the halls last Christmas. 

I had to buy a new orchid since the last one that we had back in March died (mentioned here).  No surprise there.  This one is not as voluptuous as the other one, but for $9.99 at Kroger, I'll take it!

This was Paul's old telescope that he had back in the day.  Unfortunately, it's broken but hopefully there's a way to fix it.  We put it in this area temporarily, but it actually looks like it was meant to be there.  This basket used to hold a decorative pillow and blankets, but since the winter is long gone, I replaced them with magazines that were cluttering the coffee table. 

I went to Home Goods on my lunch break two Fridays ago, and I found this side table and fell in love.  I like the rustic yet classy look of it.  I can even paint it later on if I wanted to.  I didn't buy it at first, but I kept thinking about it all day, so I went back that evening (after Paul's approval) and bought it!  I initially wanted to put it in between the two chairs, but it looked way too high.  So I put it by the couch, and it works.

I don't think I'll be buying a new lamp anytime soon, so to fill the table, I stacked two books and put one of our plants on top.  Not the most attractive plant, but it was one of the plants that is still surviving after two years, thanks to Paul.

I forgot to take a picture of the new owl I got from my sister.  It's a Gaudi inspired owl figurine (first mentioned here) from Barcelona.  It sits right next to Mr. Ross on that side table.

And it doesn't always look like this.  Most of the time, a little brat by the name of Bailey takes over.  When we're in the family room watching TV, she likes to escape to this couch because it's quiet.  This is how it typically looks. 

The grid frames are probably my favorite part of the room right now. 

I hope you enjoyed my little tour!

diy | grid frames

This project took three months to finish.  I had all the materials since the end of March, and just now finished putting them together.  Technically, this is more of a weekend project.  I'm just a big procrastinator.

I bought 6 Ribba frames from Ikea for $14.99 each. 

Originally, I was inspired by the spring Anthropologie catalog that I received in the mail.  I thought the colors and pictures would be nice to frame on 6 different frames. 

When I laid it out, it looked too busy.  So I went to Half Price Books on my lunch break and went on a scavenger hunt for a good book with some nice illustrations, preferably one with plants, or even birds.  The best I could find was this:

It's a book of "alluring" and "seductive" vegetables (didn't know they were a turn-on).  I flipped through the book and really liked the colorful, simple illustrations.  For $5.99, it wasn't too bad at all.  I also bought a book about seashells, thinking that photos of seashells would do the trick, but I really liked the effect of an illustrated piece a lot better. 

I picked out the illustrations that I thought would best suit the room, picking out mostly the ones with pops of oranges, blues and greens.  I also tried to pick the ones that didn't look so much like a vegetable from far away, unless you read the captions at the bottom. 

The illustrations were too small for the frames, so I put a letter sized computer paper at the back to cover the space.  If I had the money and time, I would have tried to resize the matting myself, or purchase them online.  I could always find smaller frames later on down the line too if I really wanted to. 

So the next step was to hang them up.  Paul decided (on his own) on Saturday that he'll hang them up then while he had the energy (it was now or never), so I left him alone to do his thing.  One hour later, they were up!

I could probably go for two more columns on either side to make it 8, but I don't really want to buy any more frames!  Maybe in the future.

I really like how it turned out.  I'd love to do another grid frame like this somewhere else in the house, possibly above our bed in the master bedroom.  It completes the room and definitely filled up the emtpy space above the couch.

We've had some very small additions to our formal living room since, well Christmas!  Thought I'd break things up and include them on another post, since this is getting lengthy!

deck the halls...

I've been meaning to change our theme this year, but never got around to it.  So we stuck with the same red, green and gold theme.

Our tree is two years old.  I got it at Garden Ridge for I think $79!  It stands at 7.5 feet tall, and pre-lit, although the lights on one side has never worked.  This year, more lights have died on us, so I had to put two strings of lights on the tree instead of one.  I'm not sure if you notice but there are more lights at the bottom of the tree than on the top.  Paul realized this after I'd hung all the ornaments, and I was NOT going to mess with it.  It does make me cringe a little knowing that the lights aren't equally distributed, but there's always next year.  (Ahh, i shouldn't have told you.  Now you're looking at the top of the tree right - RIGHT?)

I kept the same ornaments and the same ribbons as the past two years.  Except we may have thrown away some of the red and gold ones with glitter detailing by accident last year, so I bought some new ones that looked a little similar.  We have some ornaments that Paul made when he was in elementary school and they're so cute!  I did throw away the swirly, glittery sticks that I used last year and bought new ones this year because it had almost no glitter left.  I stuck them in random spots and put more around the top of the tree to emphasize the star. 

Didn't really change a whole lot with the rest of the room.  We had to move our studly chairs so we could put the tree in front of the window.  I replaced the pillows to red ones that we already had to make it more festive.  Our side table is the same, except I added this gold reindeer that I found at Goodwill and filled it with decorative pine cones. 

Our dining table looks a little blah.  I'll try harder next year.

Here's another close up of my pine cone topiaries.

Oh and here are our chairs!  They came in over Thanksgiving weekend.  The cushion is nice on your bum, and they're as solid as the table.  Now we just need to get some head chairs.

For our little console table in the entryway, I put some pine cones and extra ornaments in a cloche and a tall vase.  I wanted real branches to put in the vase, but had no luck finding any large pieces in the backyard.  So, I just bought these at Michael's.  I found this candle on the Square in one of the antique stores.  I don't know if you can see it, but it's called "The Smell of Christmas."

This is our mantle in the family room.  You can't really do too much to it because it's not very wide.  It's always a challenge having to balance these two lit trees and garland.  Everything is the same, except I added ornaments on the garland.  We really need to get new stockings!  I got Paul's stocking for him one Christmas, and then when we got Bailey in 2007, I made her one, and made mine too.  As you can tell, I gave up when I got to mine.  Those are supposed to be bells next to my name.

We had a girls' night a few years ago where we decorated our own wreaths.  I've been hanging mine up on our pantry door every year. 

Next Christmas, I'm thinking about changing our theme to green, blue and gold.  All I really need are blue ornaments and I can reuse my green and gold ones.  They go on mega (Jamie Oliver style) sale after Christmas, so I'll see how much is left. 

The house just looks a lot better with Christmas decorations.  The neighborhood looks more cheerful when houses are glowing with Christmas lights.  I wish it was Christmas every day!