Seriously?

Why is this $550?

You're posting something used on Craigslist.... ugh.

This is EXACTLY the size & shape I want....

After having it reupholstered it would run me close to $1000..... no thank you. I can buy a new one for that. blah.

Happy Friday!!!

Headed out to an antique mall today with my sister.... maybe I'll find that settee I've been hunting so hard for!

Had dinner with Mel & Jen last night at Crisp... it was super yum :-)

This weekend involves a wedding in Greensboro & lots of Sunday laziness.

Happy Friday!

PS.... Check out the wedding we shot in Vegas!

Hello Hello.

I'm back to the real world after a few days in Vegas.

It is almost 4PM on Wednesday, and I've been awake the better part of the last 36 hours. Whew.

Tuesday 415AM: wake up & go to sunrise concert in the desert, go to hotel, gamble, take lighting workshop, gamble, eat dinner, eat dessert, go to airport, fly to Ohio, fly to Charlotte. Land at 930AM today....

I did sleep for about an hour before getting up and coming into the office today... yikes.

anywho.... back to home life.....

We found a house we love. The next day it went under contract before we could see inside. (had the greatest back yard ever.). We were supposed to meet with our realtor tonight, but after all the excitement of traveling, we just don't have it in us. The next few days are busy with outings & a wedding on Saturday... so we're postponing our meeting til next week. I'll keep you informed on what we're up to.

In the mean time... I look forward to having a dedicated office, wherever we land.

Inspiration for Decoration

White Chairs?

Bought the sprayer last night.

Bought paint at 745AM this morning.

Painted chairs till 1130AM.

They are in poopy shape. Shoulda sanded them & used oil base paint :-(

Before.....

After!

I included the photo of the table top so you can see the wood inlay pattern :-)

They're staying as-is for the moment. We fly to Vegas at 6AM, and we were tired of battling the wind.

Gus likes them :-)

Progress....

..... likely going to Lowes tonight to check out a paint sprayer.... I might have white dining chairs tomorrow!!!!

Chairs!!

I made a little trip over to The Real Deal Variety Store last night to find my chairs....

They are in much better condition than I thought they would be.... they are also a little bigger than I thought. Dara and her husband and daughter met me over there, super nice people. Highly recommend you check out their goods.... freaking awesome deals!

Hello, I got FIVE chairs for $55!!!!!!

The leaves are in the box on the table :-) SO excited to start working on these chairs!..... speaking of.... does anyone have a paint sprayer I can borrow? Or know of a cheap place to rent one? I think spraying them is a better idea than spray paint, or using a brush.....

Updates:

My father-in-law is arrived this morning to help Jeremy finish up the flooring on our stairs....

You may remember we had to leave the carpet in place until Jeremy could get some help.

I came home yesterday to find the carpet ripped out, a new saw & new air compressor. I pray they make good progress on the stairs today.

I also came home to find Jeremy had been back to Ikea to get the last shelf system needed to put the microwave back in the pantry :-)

I also found this photo while surfing the web..... me likie.

Jeremy & his dad are going to pick up our new dining table today!!!!! I can't wait!!!!


PS.... rode by the shop with yesterday's chairs... didn't look too open, but I am trying again today :-)

Chairs?

I found these chairs on Craigslist yesterday.

$55 for FIVE CHAIRS!

I would assume most people don't want 5 chairs, they want 4 or 6. But we could use 5! If we do a settee on one side, 3 chairs on the other, and one on each end, we'd need 5!

I am going to see them in person today. They are in a resale shop in Mooresville, and I'm excited to see what all they have!

I am thinking that if I get them, I will paint them white, and cover the cushions with a nice graphic, gray fabric.

http://thedesignersattic.blogspot.com/

Tonic Living

Kinda like Jenny's dining room?

http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2009/10/bright-happy-dining-room.html

A nice little Saturday....

"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."

Old School

We had a busy Saturday.... and it was great (minus the Container Store).

We met with Steve, a Realtor in Charlotte to look at a few homes for sale near uptown. Here are the ones we looked at:

#1 was the reason for looking- it's in a very desirable neighborhood in an awesome part of Charlotte.... houses are selling for well over $300k (#3 is an example.... it's right down the block from #1). The home is listed for $199k... but Realtor Steve said it should go for under $150k because it's in such poor condition.

that said.... I still LOVE this house. We just can't afford to buy it AND fix it.

#2 Cute, but not nearly big enough.... also needs lots of work.


#3 Really wish we could afford it. Awesome neighborhood, awesome lot, awesome interior!


Why are we house shopping? We feel like our current home isn't working for us anymore. The amount of space is ok, but the layout isn't. I really don't want to continue working in the kitchen, I'd love a dedicated office that isn't so far from the living area (like our 3rd bedroom is).

We're also a bit nervous about trying to sell our home. We'll see how it goes, and keep you posted on any new updates.

NOW..... fun stuff! So as normal, I worked at the JLC Wearhouse on Friday. I mentioned to the manager, Michelle, how much I liked the dining table that was for sale ($249), and she said "well, you know it's 1/2 off! .....um NO!!! So I text a photo to Jeremy, and when we were done house touring we went by the store for him to see it... and we bought it!!!!

It's beautiful hardwood with TWO leaves! (leafs?) and can easily seat 10-12 people :-)


We'll be going to pick it up this week, I can't wait! It doesn't come with chairs, but that's ok. I want kinda funky chairs.... and a settee!


(their are 2 end tables sitting on top of it.... don't mind them!)

Settee's I like.... 

So what kinda chairs should I hunt for??

Pantry Project!

We have a serious love/hate relationship with our pantry. I love having a pantry, but hate the use of space. The morons that designed our home decided it was a bright idea to put the hot water heater in there, which elliminates all use of the storage area under our stairs... BLAH! Anyway... we had still been using the sexy wire shelving that came in the pantry, along with a wire rack Jeremy had before we moved in.

I tried numerious times to "rearrange" things to make better use of the space, but it never worked out the way I wanted.

In THIS post I talked about how I bought lots of storage containers to use, and organize things. Good in theory.

Ex:

The crates were too deep & things just got lost in there. We would forget about the things we had and buy duplicates.

In came Honey & Fritz last week. She recently redesigned her pantry with the Elfa system from The Container Store.

BEAUTIFUL!

We were heading to Raleigh on Saturday anyway, so decided to make a trip to the Container Store. DISASTER! I will never go in that store again.... it was awful!!! We decided to check out Ikea's storage systems before we made any decisions.

So... Sunday- we went to church & then over to Ikea for breakfast & shopping :-)

$147 later, we had 3 shelves, wall mounts, brackets, 12 spice holders, and a rolling cart!!

3 hours later, our pantry looked like a grocery store!

I took the idea from Honey & Fritz to put the cart in the pantry with my mixer. It (and the juicer pictured) had been living on top of our fridge.... not ideal. Now we can just roll it out into the kitchen when we need it. The shelves on the cart are filled with baking stuff - flour, sugar, chocolates, oil, ect. I want to get some nice containers to house all these things so they don't fall when we move the cart.

The top shelf is kinda hart to see... but it holds our pottery barn beverage jars, cake plates, paper towels, and lunch boxes.

Middle shelf is breakfast items on the left, then sauces (liquids), jar items (peanut butter, salsa, ect) then canned items.

Bottom shelf houses all our snack items (in the white bins) and dry pasta, beans & rice on the right.... I want some pretty jars to put these in!

You can kinda see the fire extingisher on the right... it's actually sitting on top of the hot water heater.

 So, what's missing?

The microwave.

to the right of the cart, another shelf is going to be hung & the microwave will sit on it. :-)

PS.... don't you love that I own thousands of dollars worth of photography equipment, but routinly use my iphone for blog photos.... haha!

I'll take some better photos once it's all complete!

Oh.... and those spice jars.... see the aprons hanging to the left in that last photo? Our spices are going to be hung there! I bought one of those picture ledges from Ikea a while ago to go over my desk.... well, I just got a giant canvas print to hang over my desk, so the ledge will come down. We'll cut it into 3 sections and hang them on the pantry wall.... like this (far right!)

http://jengrantmorris.blogspot.com/

Check out Jen's blog for some great organizing tips.

Killer Deal.

Some of you may be aware that I have joined the Junior League of Charlotte. If you aren't familiar with the organization- it's a group for women who want to make a difference in their communities. Anyway- part of being a "provisional" (think, sorority pledge) is to work 30 hours in the JLC Warehouse. I've been working many Friday afternoons to fulfill my requirement.... almost every time I've worked, I've come away with something awesome. It's kinda like a goodwill, but with way nicer stuff.

Here's a rundown of the things I've purchased:

1. Black, dressy jacket. I actually wore this to a black-tie, charity event I worked a few weeks ago for the league. I think I paid $20 for it.
2. Black & white trench coat. I think it's originally from Wal-Mart (it's that George brand) but it's actually really cute, and I get complements on it each time I wear it! $10
3. I hit the jackpot last Friday... all "thrift" items (as opposed to the consignment stuff) is now 60% off. (each week it goes up 10% and in 2 weeks, it will be dollar days, when everything is marked way down! Anyway... I was thumbing through the dresses... there it was.... a vintage dress, circa 1965. Mint condition.... marked $9.... but at that point it was 50% off.... so $4.50!!!!!!!!!

I tried it on- fit perfect! Michelle, the store manager, suggested it would look great with a big brown belt & boots. I agree. I am going to have it hemmed so that it's a mini dress :-)

Here's the quick iPhone photo I took on Friday night :-)  (it has a matching belt hanging from the hanger)

Below is kinda how I imagine the dress looking!

JLC Warehouse  $4.50

...... Now I just need a girls night with yummy cocktails....

Decisions.

Jeremy drove 12 hours for a 20 minute interview. Blah. He said he really liked the company, but not the idea of moving.

Him having this interview really made us realize we don't want to move. We have so much invested here now. Had it been 6 months ago, we might think different. Our business has really grown here in NC, and it would be difficult to walk away from the success we've had so far, and start over in a new city.

It made us realize that we would be in the same situation, only 6 hours away.... Jeremy would have a job & I wouldn't. We'd also incur the cost of moving as well as carrying a mortgage and paying rent in a different city. It just doesn't make sense to leave.

So, for now, we are still holding out hope for a job opening in Charlotte....

On another note... I've randomly applied for a new job in Charlotte. I certainly have not been looking for one, but somehow I got on a mailing list of nonprofit jobs that are available. Sometimes I'll click to see whats open... and bam... the Jr. League of Charlotte was hiring. I applied, but don't know that it will go anywhere.


Happy Monday!

One Day.....

When I have an office/studio space of my own.....

one of these two settee's will be in there.....

 

Both are from West Elm.

Vegas!

We're heading to Vegas in a few weeks!!!!! AAAAHHHHHHHH! So excited :-)

It's the largest wedding & portrait photographers convention in the world, and we can't wait to go! I *think* we may rent a car on Sunday morning when we arrive and drive down to the Grand Canyon for the day since neither of us have ever been there.

PS. Jeremy's job interview in Nashville is tomorrow! He's leaving for Knoxville this afternoon, and is going to ride by a few rental properties in the morning. Ya know, just in case we do move out there, we'll have some ideas of where to live.

We're still pretty unsure of how we feel about leaving Charlotte. On one hand, it would be a welcomed change of scenery. But, on the other hand, I'd have to basically start over with the photo business, and I'll be hiking it back to NC for all the weddings we have booked for this year.

If he gets an offer, he pretty much has to take it. If he reports to the unempoyment office that he was offered a job and didn't take it, he looses his benefits. I'm not sure we can afford to live without them..... well, let me rephrase that. We can afford to live without them, just not at our current lifestyle.... but with the photo business picking up, maybe it will even itself out. We'd need to pull in about $1000 extra a month to be able to stay with the lifestyle we have currently. I should actually be able to pull some sort of paycheck from the photo business in the next month or 2!

Enough rambling for one Thursday! Toodles!

Randomness.

This is going to be random, I'll appologize in advance.

1. We booked another Charlotte wedding on Sunday! Yay!
2. We spent 3 hours looking at houses for sale in Nashville last night (guilty pleasure)... and kinda love this house...
3. I may or may not have eaten a leftover bratwurst a 930 last night.
4. I really love mustard, like really really.
5. I am making plans for an awesome engagement shoot coming up soon! cupcakes may or may not be involved.
6. Jeremy also applied for a job in Wilmington.... I faintly smell beach house built before my 30th.
7. We're hosting a little giveaway on our photo blog this week.... so go enter! 


...... and this is pretty. (beach house bedroom? Yes. Please.)

Decor8