this little piggy

I've been obsessed with Harry Allen's bank in the form of a pig for quite sometime. I recently did a little spring cleaning off my rolling rack, which means I sold a bunch of clothes on eBay that I don't wear, so I used my profits to purchase this bright, shiny object. The little guy can hold up to $10,000 in dollar bills, so I told the kids to feel free to drop in some cash any time they feel I'm deserving of a bonus. It turns out that making smoothies every afternoon last week was bonus-worthy because Catcher recognized my blending skills with $1 in the bank. To be clear, it wasn't a dollar from his own allowance--he sought out the money man (Alex) to fund it. Either way I was psyched to be recognized for my smoothie skills, and I only have $9,999 to go until the pig is full.

little russian things

This is Alex's new coffee mug, which I like to drink from to make myself feel more traveled and cultured (especially when photographed sitting atop the New York Times). My gift from Russia was a set of Matryoshka nesting dolls, which I'm completely obsessed with--they fit into that hard-to-define "kitschy-cool" decorating scheme of mine that includes dashboard hula dolls but excludes bobbleheads and beanie babies. The girls are also into the Matryoshka dolls; thus, I un-nested them and placed them out of reach on the mantel. When Scout first discovered the magic of the nesting dolls she remarked, "This doll is fat because she has six babies inside her belly." You can always count on her to offer up a keen observation.

hang your hat

It's no secret that I love a deal. To be fair, I probably enjoy the hunt for the deal more than the deal itself, but there's no denying the sense of accomplishment in finding a great deal. After working in retail for years, I find it virtually impossible to pay retail for anything. Unless, of course, I come across an incredible knockoff that costs less than $10 (as illustrated in the story below).

It all started when I saw these coatrack dots in the Design Within Reach catalog:

I wanted something to spruce up the blank walls in our little entryway--and honestly, a place to hang my bag--but I was not thrilled with the $149 price tag for a set of five wooden dots. Then the next day (literally) the CB2 catalog arrived in the mail, and I saw these...

a set of three dot coat hooks for $9.95. I couldn't believe it. I ordered two sets. The dots were backordered for two months, and I was sort of convinced they would never get here, but Saturday when we got home from the soccer game this box was waiting on our front porch:

Catcher couldn't wait to rip open the package to see what was inside. It doesn't matter what's inside. It's always exciting. Of course, more exciting than the coat dots was the bubble wrap:

This is what happened when Scout woke up from her nap on Saturday and thought there was no more bubble wrap left to pop. She cheered up after I brought out a piece I had saved for her, but we had to wait for Alex to get home on Monday to bring out the power tools and finish the project:

After selecting the right size bit, he handed the drill over to Scout. Two year-olds and power tools are a great combination. (Don't freak: Scout didn't really drill anything. She just looked cute holding it.)

And here's the end result. I like the look--kind of sculptural/artsy. I told Alex that although we technically have a place to hang "stuff" now, we (and I mean he) can't go junking it up with ESPN hats and dirty gym bags.

are we cozy yet?

Ignore (if you can) my ugly, un-pedicured feet and feast your eyes on my latest great find--the Moroccan pouffe. I've wanted one since Elle Decor convinced me of the fact a couple years ago, but I never found the right combination of style and value. I went to my favorite source, ebay, to buy one directly from Morocco, but they shipped unstuffed and I wasn't sure what I would get exactly. [p.s. I once had a bad experience in Morocco, so I'm still a little wary of the country as a whole.] Then last week, this little sucker popped up on Gilt. I happened to have a 20% off coupon, and no one loves a sale on top of a sale more than me, so I knew it was a sign. I bought two (funded, ironically, by my personal ebay sales).

With el Christmas tree in the corner of our living room the pouffe situation is a bit crowded at the moment, but I can't wait to station one of them in the reading corner post-holidays. I imagine the other one will bounce around the room as needed, which means the kids will treat it as a fancy beanbag...which it is, I guess. 

pillowmania

I've been voraciously reading The Perfectly Imperfect Home by Deborah Needleman in a quest to perfectly craft my imperfect decorating skills. One of the things I've learned is that I definitely need more pillows on the sofa. After much consideration and shopping around and thinking way too much about pillows, I finally came up with a scheme that I like. Here's a look at the [boring] before:

And here's the sofa all dressed up and waiting for someone to relax on its comfortable, welcoming imperfection...

...which is exactly what this guy did:

As long as I was on this whole pillow kick, I decided to toss one over to the lucite chair by the bookshelf as well. It honestly makes it more comfortable and inviting.

how do i look?

We purchased this mirror from West Elm in 2010 on the advice of our realtor who said it would make the living room in our tiny Charlotte house appear larger (and therefore incite offers...yada, yada, yada). The "magic mirror" didn't get us an offer. She was fired. The mirror went unused for the next 18 months. I unearthed it today and commissioned Alex to hang it in the dining room. Like all new decorating schemes in the house, it's going to take me a few days to get used to it. But Alex was an immediate fan because from the right angle in the dining room you can see a reflection of the TV in the living room (even if the picture is backwards).

another great from nate

Nate Berkus for Target strikes again: this is a detail from the herringbone window panels that I purchased for our living room. I've never believed in one-stop shopping for all your decorating needs, so this will be the end of my Nate affair (although I'm loving the collection).

The windows in our living room were in desperate need of an update/facelift. If I had to crank the rotational rod on the plastic venetian blinds one more day I was going to lose it. Here's a look at the living room before my friend, the decorator, Nate Berkus saved us.

After a couple glasses of wine one evening--or rather night--last week Alex brought out his drill and level, and the curtain installation began. Although I lean toward the "winging it" spectrum when hanging things on the wall, I actually measured and thought it out this time. I even shifted the entire living room in anticipation of curtain project to center the sofa on the windows. When we finished after midnight, we stood back and patted ourselves on the back. It looked pretty good, but we would have to wait until daylight to see the real effect.

Morning broke, and I still loved the look. It completed the room. Kind of like Renee Zellweger completed Tom Cruise back in the day...

After success with the living room, I have my sites set on window panels for the dining room. Stay tuned...

turkey towels

This is a sneak peek at our bathroom, which is almost complete in its transformation. It was by far the scariest-looking room in the house when we moved in. We didn't even shower here (thank goodness we still had access to the apartment) the first three days following our move. I have before and after--and during--pictures of the overhaul that I'm saving for another post, but I was so excited today when DHL delivered our new towels that I just had to share.

Cheers to my latest ebay find--turkish bath towels! Like the kantha quilt (from India) I found for Scout's bed, I decided to go directly to the source to find turkish towels (from Turkey) on the world's greatest shopping site. I ended up paying $90 for eight towels shipped from Istanbul when the same towels retail for $35 each in the U.S. I even got a free glove to "comb" the towels and a postcard from Istanbul. Not a bad deal. And the kids were actually excited to get out of the bath and dry off tonight.

knobby, part 2

The kitchen knobs from anthropologie arrived at our house in record time. At first Catcher thought they were lightbulbs, and then he guessed clown noses. I guess they do kind of look like clown noses, but they are way better than their grimy predecessors.

After all of the worry concerning knobs from anthropologie, it turns out that I [almost] didn't need Alex for this quick little kitchen makeover. The screws on the new knobs just happened to be the exact same size as the screws on the old knobs (is that something that's standardized?) so all I needed was 15 minutes and a screwdriver.

Let the unwrapping begin. Each of the 15 knobs was individually wrapped: a great project for Catcher.

The cabinets, before.

More before.

And one more before (ugly, right?).

After: cute little clown noses.

Another after (a few of the knobs were painted/stuck on, so I did need Alex to come knock them off for me).

Final after.

knobby

I just bought 15 of these knobs from anthropologie. They were on sale, so I saved myself $76. The knobs are for the kitchen cabinets. They need an update, and I thought the red would be cute with the $10 Target rug.

The last time I purchased knobs from anthropologie Alex had to reconfigure the latch and lock (that's his "technical" term) for all our interior doors, and he's been cursing me ever since. Let the record show, however, that I did consult him before this purchase and he assured me that these knobs will be "easy" to install on the kitchen cabinets. I think he hates the current knobs more than I do...too bad the new ones won't solve the problem of our doors not closing all the way.

gaga for babuska

I came across this picture while looking at decorating ideas for girls' rooms, and it totally rekindled my obsession with Russian matryoshka dolls.

Tangle Tree Interiors

Now I'm kind of sorry that I let this Thomas Paul pillow go for $5 at our yard sale in Charlotte:

I know the pillow freaked Alex out, but I really liked it. Lucky for me, though, Thomas Paul created these limited edition art prints (images from artthatfits.com):

Then on etsty, I found this adorable iPad sleeve...

bertiescloset

...and another piece of art (which is totally cute and more affordable than those mentioned above)

malobi