Thank you Lindsay!!!

I just had to share this awesome package I got from Lindsay at Everything LEB last week. I won the drawing she just had & wanted to share pictures of everything. Check out these cool gift tags she MADE(!!):

I love her adorable fish cards!!! (I'm not sure if she remembers but they were one of my favorites her etsy site which you've gotta check out if you haven't already!) They're too cute- pink glitter fish on green cardstock:

Here are the comfy J. Crew gloves & pretty pearl earrings (love those buttons):

The surprise gift in the box was this awesome Cocktail Bible that we will DEFINITELY put to good use! ;) ;)

And, last but not least she gave me this HUGE roll of simple white satin ribbon that will last me a good long while (Lindsay, I'll let you know when you need to have another contest! ;) I'm so loving this because now I can just use brown paper to wrap my gifts & the ribbon & the pretty little gift tags she made (I don't need to spend a thing & can help out the environment!) and the gifts will be beautiful!!! Here's a gift I did (yeah, I'm a little late for Christmas, but unfortunately, that's how I sometimes, er often, roll)

Thank you so much Linsday!!!! You're awesome & the package was just so beautiful, thoughtful & fun to receive!!! xoxo

Our Christmas Living Room

And finally some pics of our basement living room! (I still managed to sneak in the dreaded white feather wreath! haha) I had posted this a couple of days ago & then unposted it thinking I woud tweak it a bit more & put it back on when ppl were blogging again but you caught me! :)

Here's a quick before picture so you get the idea. My parents used it for a catch-all:

The hutch (below) is from that salvage yard I always talk about, Lucketts. It is so insanely practical & the back is solid oak beadboard. It's huge & the bottom is filled with baskets of Christian's toys that we can just shove inside. It makes for such an easy clean-up!


Here's out little entry area where we layer lots of family photos & mementos:

Luckily when we moved in, I was able to use drapes & shades I already had. The first thing we did was repaint the paneling:

My mom gave us this little cubby shelf from Target which has ended up being so useful! All the magazines coming in get tossed there & we've still got room for books & toys. I also tucked in some silver accents in there for winter which hide toys & crayons. The lamp was my mom's & used to be blue but I painted it to match the puddy-colored walls.

Here's our tuckered-out pup, Ashby. The shelf behind her is from Ikea & houses my samples & catalogs.

Here's the view in from the back entry:

And, here's our tree! I've still never really figured out what to do up top so I threw up some white roses temporarily. Anyone have any ideas for next year?


Well, hope you had a very Merry Christmas!!!

xoxoxoxo!!

My Christmas Bedroom

As promised, here are some pictures of our Christmas decor!

I switched out our ever-changing pillows with some red toile pillows & a little tiny accent pillow from Target I cut in half.

We just got these teardrop glass lamps & I am having so much fun playing with my nightstands because you can see through them!

See? You can see the cute little urn of apples behind:

And here's that little wedgewood bowl I found on the flea market trip with Eddie serving as my little catch-all. (Don't worry, I totally put in cute things for this picture... it's usually chapstick & hair ties! :) ... Along with an adorable little glass botanical coaster my cousin gave me from Anthropologie.


And here's our armoire covered with evergreens & mossballs (my favorite!). I used lots of little silver accents mixed with white. (That's my little baby on the left! :)

Here's our little lion head change pot. I got it for around $2 at a thrift store a couple of years ago.

And here's my $13 thrift store chair. I repainted the wood. (Before I got it there was caning but unfortunately someone cut it out.)

And here's that fun little table I also found on the flea market with Eddie. We just keep it at the end of our bed & use it to pile books or blankets or whatever:

And one last shot of our little basement bedroom:

Merry Christmas & I'll post our living room later!!!

xoxo,

lauren

Our first Christmas Tree

Ok, I really have been planning on taking pictures of our Christmas decor for a couple of weeks. But I still haven't gotten to it, so instead, tonight I'm posting photos of my husband & my first Christmas as married folks in our new townhouse 3 years ago.


We absolutely loved our fireplace. The mantle is from our favorite salvage yard, Lucketts Antiques. We sanded it down (barely- we got impatient! :) and painted it a glossy white to match our trim. We had a real hodgepodge of decor & just sort of threw everything from our old places in at first. In the photo below, the sparkly blue stuff in the center of the table is actually our broken storm door. My husband was trying to take out the screen & put it in & it shattered everywhere!! We used it around in little dishes as sparkly accents. This was a brunch for our parents:


And here's our living room again. Hanging on the mirror is the white feather wreath everyone but me hates. I can't help loving it :) ---Everyone groans when I whip it out at Christmas time!

Ok, I promise tomorrow I'll post pictures of this year's Christmas!!! Thanks for reading!!

Nordic Style

Seeing all those Swedish pieces yesterday from Beach Dwelling, got me in the mood for more. Another great online store for Swedish furniture is Nordic Style:

I love those clocks! Nordic Style's style is much more traditional/ Swedish Country, so to get the rooms really working for me, I'd have to supplement them with some more modern pieces, like this nickel plated console table from Martha Stewart's line:

I love the feeling of this bedroom, but it could use some modern elements.

The coordinating nickel plated side tables would work beautifully here:

How pretty & springtime does this dining room feel?:

To give it a little more oomph you could maybe switch out the dining chairs with these from Martha Stewart:

This painted Rococo Chair would look gorgeous paired up with either the mirrored side table or the mahogany pedestal table (below, both from Martha Stewart):

Love this table & chairs:

I have kitchen chairs very similar to these -I scored a set of 6 with 3 matching barstools at a consignment shop for around $350!- Pic of my old townhouse:

I'd also love the chairs paired with this table (Martha Stewart) in a raw finish instead of the mahogany: Look at this pretty little corner office: You could make it a little more fun by adding in a more modern chair, but I really do love it as it is.

Again, I think this living room is beautiful, but I would want to add some more modern elements. I'd probably switch out the painted-on rug with a real one for warmth & because I have a little one crawling around.

How about adding in Martha Stewart's Lavastone cocktail table? (WOW)

Or this modern wing chair from Oly Studio:

And this bench from Oly:

Maybe add in or exhange this sofa (from martha stewart) for the current one. (I do love the existing one, but the room needs a little warming up... I could also deal with this in a neighboring room. I think its lines work really well with the Swedish pieces.)

Ok, and since we've created this neighboring room, this chair from Oly Studio would be gorgeous in there! ;)Add in this tone on tone damask from Calico Corners:

And why not throw in this amazing ottoman?!:

And this would be perfect: And this sofa from Marth Stewart would work really well in any Swedish-styled home: I think I could go on & on. It's really a lot of fun to play with these budgetless rooms! :) But check out Nordic Style & play around!