Well that was lame...

Irene was SUCH a disappointment. I was really looking forward to watching things fly around outside like you see on the news etc, but other than some rain and wind, nothing much really happened out in Williamsburg. I guess I should be happy everyone was safe and sound, but after all the mayhem at the grocery store on Friday and then eating nothing but snacks and carbs all weekend, I felt I deserved a little excitement in my life. The Hubs and I did manage to get out for a walk yesterday after all the rain ended.... or so we thought! Of course as soon as we headed out to the Citibank in Greenpoint, the wind picked up and it started raining again. This was after I had begged Magnus for the past 3 hours to get out and take a walk with me. Boy did I feel like a real jerk! Not only was the weather horrible for our mile + walk, but then the Citibank branch we go to was not even in service. Oopsie ;) Pretty sure that is the last time he jumps onboard for one of my little whims haha.

Here are a few pics from our weekend... Magnus taking care of moving all outdoor furniture either inside OR tethering them all to each other (love the pink umbrella), some blueberry muffins that scored me major points with the MIL (mother-in-law) as she was skyping with Mags when I was baking them (SCORE) and finally Emma, our pooped out cat from all the extra love and attention she got this past weekend stuck inside. I'm pretty sure she is suffering for seperation anxiety as I type this:

On to more exciting news.... UpstateHaven has been receiving lots of packages upstate and we are pumped to see what these fun packages hold for us. My Uncle David has been working on the hallway, getting it all prepared to be painted and our 2 new light fixtures have been hung up. We are also really hoping the new kitchen flooring has been laid, but it is not 100% certain it will be done by this weekend. Oh well... lot's of other things that can spruce the joint up such as moving more furniture into the garage to prep the downstairs bedroom for painting and then putting together our new fire pit for the backyard, just in time for the lovely pre-fall weather moving in!

* We purchased this little number from Target to keep us warm at night outdoors and keep the nasty bugs away. They seem to LOVE me for some reason.

Hopefully we will have lots of new photos and exciting things to share after heading up this coming Thursday after work!

Rainy day activities....

There is no better  rainy day activity than daydreaming about what you want your current/future or dream home to look like. I have found TONS of inspiration today on the web and decided maybe it's about time I share some of it with you guys :) Hubbie and I have been stockpiling photos, links and magazine cutouts for the past year or so of what we would like to do with our UptsateHaven... ok, so maybe I have been doing most of the collecting, but don't think for one second that Magnus doesn't get bombarded with each and every item throughout the day ;)

Current obsessions of mine are mirrored tables, whether they be side tables or vanities, I cannot get enough! This is very new to me since up until a couple years ago, the simple thought of a mirrored anything  downright offended me. I always felt that the look was very cheesy, but have come to realize that if done right, mirrored tables can look very glamourous, such as the vanity below:

* Photo courtesy of ariannabelle.



In fact, I twisted Hubs arm into purchasing a couple of mirrored side tables to go beside our bed once the room is ready for them...

* This side table is actually from Target and the price cannot be beat!

Another thing I'm obsessing over right now is any white lacquered desk. I really want to get the following desk from ZGallerie but am not sure it fits into our office inspiration look. I know it's OK not to follow an exact look and even suggested that you add your own touches to make it more suitable for you. What do you guys think of having a white lacquer table instead of a vintage desk (pic below)? Does it fit into the whole scheme of what we are going for?

* I cannot remember for the life of me what site I got this from, sorry ...

The third item for today is the absolute most important room in the home ... the bedroom! You really need  something that allows you to fully relax and makes you never want to leave its confines. Something cozy and sleep inviting. The next picture perfectly embodies the look I'm going for .... doesn't hurt that they also have a similar nightstand ;)

* Photo courtesy of ariannabelle again (that gal has GREAT taste!).

I'm going to leave you all with a couple pics of amazing outdoor spaces. Spaces that make you want to always be the host of the party and spend as much time as possible enjoying...

* hijacked from Pinterest

* Pic comes from Pinterest as well!

Picnic tables always give off such a family vibe and allow you to really get cozy with your guests (unless of course you don't want to haha). Who doesn't want one in their backyard decorated with tons of candles and flowers? Someone sign this girl up!!!!

Second part to our weekend...

The whole reason we were upstate in the first place was for our friends Kristen and Andrew and their soon-to-be nuptuals. We left for Cooperstown Friday afternoon and on the way stopped at Ommegang Brewery to meet up with some of the bridal party and parents for some beer tasting and snacks! They really have some great beers to choose from and cheese/meats/mussels to nosh on while you are there. Afterwards we headed to our hotel, the Otesaga, to get ready for the rehearsal dinner!

* Just a few of us at the rehearsal festivities.

I will have to snag a few photos from some of my friends to showcase more of what went down that night. The Hubs and I sadly forgot both of our cameras... I think it's safe to say we both have too much on our minds.

The wedding on Saturday was perfect! We woke up, the Hubs headed off to golf right on the hotel grounds, the weather was glorious and things got off without a hitch! I only have a few pics showing how gorgeous the bride looked and of course Andrew was looking pretty handsome himself ;)

* Kristen watching all the guests arrive :)

More pics to come!

A very full weekend...

This weekend was jam-packed with lots of fun and friends, both old and new. Magnus and I headed upstate after work on Wednesday to my parents house for dinner and it was my Dad's 60th Birthday :) Then on Thursday we needed to run some errands as well as prep the UpstateHaven for our first overnight guests (our first night as well).  After some major floor cleaning/tidying up we laid a carpet in both the office (temporary guest bedroom) and the living room (our temp bedroom ha).  We hung up the curtains for both rooms and then I put together a make shift coffee table (as seen below) with an old wooden stool and an old piece of marble that used to be in the kitchen. I think it worked out ok ;)

* I can already feel that this couch is going to be trouble to keep clean .....



I put my sister to work helping me clean the floors and let me tell you, it was NOT a pretty sight. I'm pretty sure these floors could be mopped 10 more times and you would still get dirty feet. Time to sand and refinish those babies! Since we don't yet have any tie back hooks for the curtains, we made do with some of my grandma's old scarves. It did the trick, though not the most put together look.

* Office with new curtains... same tie backs used in Living Room.

While upstate on Friday am, two of our new light fixtures were delivered. I only managed to take a pic of the chandelier we will be using in the office, but both were just what we had anticipated. The new pendant light for the Kitchen may be a bit large though.... waiting until my Uncle hangs it to see how it fits in.

* All we need now are 4 light bulbs for it!

We also installed our new switch plates in both the Office and Living Room and they REALLY spruce up the joint and add a little something extra.

After our fun night hosting our 2 friends, Kelly and Jake, on Thursday night, we all prepared to make the trek up to Cooperstown for our dear friends Kristen and Andrew to tie-the-knot! I will post more about their wedding later... it was absolutely gorgeous and the weather could not have been more perfect.

I will leave you with a picture of the sky on our Wednesday night drive up. It was beyond beautiful!

Amazing rooms....

How amazing is this room, seriously? The stripes next to the black wall....LOVING the contrast! Granted we are not with child, but you can bet your bottom dollar that if we were, baby Erhardt would have this exact room to slumber in. It's too awesome not to duplicate!

                         

* Picture of Jenna Lyons (of JCrew) nursery curtesy of Domino Magazine. Ahhhhhmazing!

 

X Bench ...

I don't know about you, but I am obsessed with any x-bench... preferrably from Jonathan Adler, but they are SO pricey for such a simple piece of wood with some fabric covering it. Therefore, I decided to purchase 2 x-benches for the foot of our UpstateHaven bed covered in the same fabric as our headboard, all from BallardDesigns (as seen below).

I figured since I have been on a roll with this company, we might as well also order a couple light fixtures. One for over our dining table (we totally don't have one yet fyi) and then one for our new office space.

The second pendant (aka chandelier according to Ballard) will be in an off-white finish, since I'm not too keen on the dark shade for that small little room. I am hoping they work out, but luckily they have a good return policty just in case.

Tonight we are off to pick up a few curtain rods from Kmart (don't judge!). We have been purchasing the same curtain rods for all of our apts from the Kmart in Astor Place and just really love them. They are a simple polished nickel with a ball on either end and are super cheap to boot! Then hope to get some serious packing done for the wedding festivities this weekend! Cannot wait to be reunited with everyone :)



TGIF...

I cannot wait to get this weekend started already! Tonight the Hubbie and I have a nice little date night planned avec Oysters, then tomorrow I have heaps of clothes to put away and just general cleaning to do with a little dinner/drinks situation with some girlfriends and finally on Sunday a tasty brunch! If it's as gorgeous as today is, I plan to take advantage by vegging out on the terrace. What I would give for 3-day weekends....*sigh. There just isn't enough time in a weekend to get it all accomplished.



Hope everyone else has a good weekend line-up in front of them :) 

Now comes the fun stuff!

As much as we are still renovating the home by painting and getting the finishing touches done to the kitchen, we are able to start playing with some decor in a couple of the rooms. This makes me a very happy girl since this is what I LIVE for, seriously ;) There is no larger thrill to me then scouring the internet for great pieces for a room, whether it be in the apartment OR house.

This week we hit up Ikea for some cheap throw rugs to temporarily make our living room and new office space more liveable until we find a "forever" (I use that term VERY loosely as I tend to tire of things within a year or two) carpet after the floors are refinished. At first nothing was doing it for us, until we found this simple off-white woven throw rug. If you know me, you know that I adore having all my furniture and textiles in off-white tones. I am not sure what it is about everything being in white or off-white that I love, maybe it is that our cat is white and sheds like a beast or because, to me, it is more fun to accessorize a room with brighter pieces, but I always end up giving the room a pale base. My mom actually asked me recently, in a very sarcastic tone, if I was planning to get a carpet in either a pattern or a more colorful hue haha. Not this time Mom ;)

We also came across the sweetest switchplate covers for both the office and living room at Anthropologie. I pretty much would furnish our entire house in their stuff if it weren't for their steep prices.

In addition to the two items above, I also FINALLY purchase some curtains for the two rooms. I got the same ones for both spaces because I feel if you find something you love, why not duplicate it in a few rooms :) After some searching on the internet for a nice affordable curtain, I came across the below at PotteryBarn. Ours have pockets for the curtain rod to go through them and they were REALLY affordable.

Magnus and I will be upstate again next week from Thursday on for my friend Kristen's wedding and Thursday is being used solely for sprucing up the UpstateHaven. More fun stuff to come!



Better than we could have imagined....

Is how I would describe the new paint in our living room at the UpstateHaven. My Uncle David did an amazing job with the paint/trim/ceiling and also touching up our office paint job that we cobbed up. It really wasn't that bad, but we are not so good with the trim even WITH the blue painting tape! I only have one decent picture to really show what color the living room was painted (thank you Victoria for inspiring the gray tone we went with), but will upload more once we get them uploaded on the putie :)

I DO however have some fun pics from the local produce market in our town, Frog Pond. They have tons of little animals right now for sale, such as rabbits, chicks, goats and ducks. I must admit that this is one of my favorite reasons for going to that market. Sometimes I'm not sure who is having more fun there, the little kids or myself ;) Magnus and I fed two of the goats out of our hands and I could not get enough of the little chicks. They have a wide variety of chickens at Frog Pond and I think I managed to try and pet them all haha.  

* Sorry for the teeny tiny living room photo, I have plenty more to post later on!

I've REALLY been slacking ....

On the blog front lately and it's not that I don't want to update everyone or document what has been going on with the house, it's just that I've been exhausted from work and we haven't been upstate in 2 weeks. We literally have no new pics of the house and the renovations/painting which makes me very very sad. Luckily, this weekend we will be making the trek upstate to check in on the painting and also getting some important stuff ordered such as switch covers/window treatments and hopefully some small stuff to spruce up the bathroom to make it look presentable until we have time and funds to get that renovated.

I am hoping that this weekend the Living Room will be all painted and then also our office, that we put our hearts and souls into painting and had to be professionally touched up *sigh*, will be done as well. Two rooms that feel updated will be nice to hang out in while we get other rooms painted and renovated. Also, we are expecting our new kitchen flooring to be done by the end of August, so that will be another room that I can really start putting our touches on soon! I thought, being the time optimist that I am, that we would have everything done by Labor Day on the main floor...... YEAH RIGHT! Turns out when you can't be there full time working on things it really gets delayed, which is OK since we don't live there, but I am all about getting things done asap and I'm not the most patient person, that is FO SHO!

So here are a few pics of the OLD living room, ala Grandma's style ;)

It should be a nice creamy gray color with bright white trim when we see it next! I will keep everyone updated :)