What's my style?

I love taking quizzes in hopes of learning something about myself, whether it be about personality, compatibility, or as is this case, design style. I think that a person can never know too much about themselves and what makes them tick. Anyhoo, I found this quiz from Homegoods via Young House Love and went for it. I had taken the Ethan Allen quiz a while back and while it was totally off, this one hit the nail on the head.

Drumroll please....













Although I am not so sure if I would classify myself as "country," I wasn't really surprised about the "eclectic." My house is definitely hodge podge, with all types of elements, including a few country bits thrown in. So, maybe I am little bit country...who knew?


I would definitely say that one of my biggest problems is unifying a space. For some reason or another, I seem to get everyone's hand-me-downs. While I love getting something that has a story (i.e. free), I don't always have a place in my home for it, and most often, I spend my time moving it from one room to another, instead of getting rid of it altogether. That is how I think my back bedroom got in its current state of loveliness.


Our house sometimes feels like a revolving door, not how I intended for it to be, but none-the-less, we often have dropper-byers. While sometimes it can be daunting, I try not to stress about it because most often the unexpected can end up being the most fun. While reading these tips, I realized that I already have most of them in place.

I CANNOT stand harsh over-head lighting. It really makes every line, zit, cowlick, or unplucked eyebrow stand out, not to mention making my lovely, ivory hued skin look like I died three deaths. So, I have always been a huge fan of mood-lighting, much to my husband's dismay.

I also always try to have a candle burning in our home, usually in our kitchen. It just evokes a warm, happy home to me, and I hope that others feel the same way. One of the best compliments I ever received was a few weeks ago, when a friend came over and said that our house still smelled the same. I asked her what she meant and she said that it smelled like a home, our home. Lovely, I thought!

As for the next two tips, I only recently started keeping items on hand, and it really has helped out when people unexpectedly stop by.

All in all, I thought it was interesting and felt like it really described me and my home's aesthetic, which is summed up in this print that I ordered a while ago from etsy. Check it out here:

The Desk Chronicles

WHY is it that anytime you are looking for something you can never seem to find it?

Last year, I went on a mission looking for a desk for our spare room. I searched high and low and could never find anything on Craigslist, at antique or consignment stores, or even online retailers. I finally found one that I liked at Pier 1 marked down to $200 from $270. I still thought that was a little high for what I wanted to spend, but I broke down and bought it anyway, mainly because I was so sick of looking. Fast forward to now, and I realize that the desk is entirely too big for the room and specifically for the space that I want to put it in. Lesson learned: I should have trusted my gut instinct and waited for what I really wanted, which was a small writing desk that I could refinish myself.

So now, it's back to the drawing board, and this time I do not want to spend over $100. I went back to my #1 source, Craigslist, and of course, they did not have anything in my area. However, I did find some in other cities and states. Too bad, I don't live close enough to any of them to make the drive worth it.

In Birmingham for $50, including chair (which I think is a steal!):


This one in Chattanooga for $60 (I would not use the corner piece):



I really like this one in Atlanta for $79:



Then there's this one in Nashville for $70:



And finally this one in Savannah for $60:



Oh well, guess I will just have to keep on keepin' on!

A Letter

Dear fellow office building peeps,

Now I know that I look like crap 94.7% of the time, but this in no way entitles you to snicker, sneer, close the elevator door when I am inches away from it, or stare at me disapprovingly when I am in the elevator surrounded by 360 degrees of potentially cracking mirrors. Believe me, it is at times like these when I wish that I could be a wallflower, so
Please!DON'TdrawanymoreattentiontomethatIhavenotalreadydrawntomyself.
Our office is a casual environment, one that doesn't care if we just rolled out of bed and came with mattress-tousled locks, furry-sweater-wearing teeth, wrinkled clothes, and dressed in our finest slippers (not that I have ever done that). I am sorry that you work for the federal government or that hordy-tordy lawfirm where you have to wear skirts, closed-toe shoes, airway-constricting turtlenecks, and support hose, but really, people, give me a break!

So in honor of that I am listing my "Top 10 reasons I look like dog poo:"
1. Speaking of dog poo, my dog ate my really cute outfit that I had set out the night before. She's a ferocious one!
b. I am currently in between sizes due to the exhorborant amount of weight that I have lost in the past month.
3. I haven't switched out my summer clothes with my fall ones that are housed in storage, and I only have sweats in my near vicinity.
4. My skinny jeans no longer make me feel skinny, what with that pesky muffin top bulging out.
c. Mr. Cranky-Pants threw all grooming appliances away for fear he would come home to a scorched house because I continuously forgot to unplug the curling iron.
6. That third bottle of wine I had the night before did me in, and I passed out while setting the alarm, only to wake up 10 minutes before I was supposed to be at work.
7. I spent the night lying awake, wondering why Mr. Darcy hasn't told Lizzie his true feelings for me, hence, the dark, droopy bags under my eyes.
g. Casper called and he wants his white pasty skin back. Unfortunately, it's stuck like glue, and therefore, I cannot wear anything but the above mentioned sweats in an effort to hide my shame.
h. The stores in my area do not carry a size 000.
10. For some unknown reason, I am unable to put together a cohesive, stylish, form-fitting, figure-flattering, cost-conscious, non-denim outfit and have my makeup airbrushed, unibrow plucked, and hair trimmed, curled, and styled by the time 8:00 a.m. rolls around. Get over it!

But if you feel the need to slip an Anthro giftcard under the office Christmas tree with my name on it, I will be much obliged to buy any of the following:








Sincerely yours,
The Procrastinator

P.S. I have not lost exhorborant amounts of weight, nor do I an any way, shape, or form wear I size 000, except maybe on my pinkie. I do, however, have a muffin top. Just sayin!

These are a few of my favorite "etsy" things

It's going to be a homemade Christmas around here what with our budget being slim to none since my husband's layoff. I have been perusing Etsy for ideas, and found many items that I would love to be on the giving or receiving end of.


Found here
Who doesn't love a good monogram?




Found here
Can you believe that these are soaps? So cool!




Found here
Me being the daydreamer that I am, I would not have a problem coming up with a few things to list.




Found here
This has been in my Favorites for awhile. I just think it's cool!





Found here
I would love to "get lost" any day of the week with the hubs and a nice bottle of wine, especially if trees, snow, and some nature were involved.




Found here
Who doesn't love a great pair of slippers, especially when they're as cute as these?




Found here
You could wrap me up in this any day!




Found here
Oh Darcy! A good Jane Austen quote and hot cup o' joe. What more could I possibly want?




Found here
I love hats; I wish everyone, including me, would wear more of them.

Well, that sums up my wishlist for today! Now, back to that daydream...

Gun cabinet redesign

We recently inherited an old gun cabinet that belonged to my hubby's grandparents. My MIL was going to dispose of it, and never one to turn a free piece of furniture down (or a project for that matter), I offered to take it off her hands.

Here is a one similar to mine before I saved it from certain doom on its way to the junkyard:



And here she is converted to my version of a hall tree:


I painted it a flat black paint and distressed it with my handy-dandy palm sander. Then, I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out some new hardware @ 50% off and added the glass knobs and hooks to side of cabinet. I had some scrap burlap lying around from our wedding, so I simply stapled it to inside of the cabinet. A few accessories and WHALAH!, instant hall tree! Best of all, my MIL did not even recognize it when she visited! Eventually, I would like to add a market bag to the hooks, but I love how it fits the space perfectly.

I submitted this to Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday link Party and Kimba's DIY Day. Thanks for looking!

Just to prove that I am not a total hotmess when it comes to decorating my pad, I decided to post a couple of pictures of one of my favorite rooms in my home. Here is the main guest room in our house:


I have had the vintage vanity and armoire since I was a little girl, and my mom had it custom painted when I was about 8. To this day, the vanity is one of my favorite pieces. I love that the mirror has lost a lot of its silvering.


The iron bed was my great-grandmother's, and I painted it a dark olive green spray paint and distressed it with gold craft paint. It took about 30 minutes and $8.00 worth of paint.


This is one of my favorite paintings. It is by a local artist who paints on salvaged pieces of architecture. I think I paid like $40 for it, and I was drawn to it because it reminds me alot of the chapel that my mom and my stepdad got married in, followed by me and my husband.




In this area, I want to hang a collection of landscape paintings and drawings in different frames, but with the same color paint to add interest.

This is the only room in my house that stays consistently clean, and I will frequently take a book in there and relax. The room, just like every other one in my house was done on a cheap budget. Added up, I spent around $450 for everything, including accessories! Now, if I could only get motivated to tackle the other one!

20 things you don't know and probably don't care to know about me.

1. This is my fourth attempt at starting a blog in as many years.
2. This is my first time to make it past one post.
3. I have just celebrated my two-year anniversary with my husband whom, for identification purposes only, we will call the Brawny Man. The NEW one, NOT the circa 1970's one.
4. We have a child dog named Mink, a shih tzu-brussels griffon mix, sometimes referred to as a "chiffon," but most commonly known as Chewie.
5. I completely relate to the term "skinny fat." I am 5'9 and look okay with clothes on, but catch me naked or in a bathing suit and it's dimple and back fat city.
6. The money tree has been shedding her leaves since my husband got laid off two months ago. In fact, she's almost nothing but branches. We try and stay optimistic and count our blessings, because at the end of the day, we have a roof over our head, food in our bellies, and a few coins in the piggy bank.
7. We have been trying to get pregnant for almost a year now. I have Stage IV endometriosis and it is becoming more and more apparent that we will have to have medical intervention in order to have a biological child.
8. Even if God gifts us a child, my heartstrings continually pull me towards adoption, specifically a China girl.
9. Sometimes I feel like an old soul from a completely different era trapped in a twenty-six-year-old's body (actually mine looks a little older, saggier,and mushier but we'll go with 26; refer to #5).
10. I am a hopeless romantic, even though I would never admit it. (Oops, guess I just did!) I have watched Pride and Prejudice 4,268 times, but I normally just fast-forward to the good parts (i.e. Mr. Darcy).
11. My husband proposed on a cruise ship @ the dinner table. Guess he didn't get the memo about me being a silly romantic.
12. I cried anyway.
13. I have dark brown hair with red undertones, but have always wanted to be a true, vibrant red-head. Maybe it has something to do with all those I Love Lucy episodes I watched as kid.
14. I really, really, really want to be a skirt wearing, red-lipsticked, vintage jewelry encrusted, blunt-banged, sassy shoeaholic, but it is totally out of my comfort zone. Instead I am a ponytailed, cotton-hoodied, ashy unshaven legs hidden in non-designer jeans (gasp!), husband's socks-wearing (double-gasp!), hot mess of a girly-girl wannabee.
15. I am extremely shy and probably border on having a social-anxiety disorder, but give me a few drinky-drinks, and I will karaoke until the sun goes down and comes back up again.
16. I CANNOT carry a tune.
17. Everytime I hear the song "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves, I think of my mom putting on her Cover Girl eyeshadow and Love my Lips lipstick in hot pink while wearing Lee press-on-nails and dancing around the living room. Good times!
18. I REPEAT, I cannot carry a tune.
19. When I was about eight years old, I rode my bike straight into the brick wall on the side of our house and cracked my head open. Apparently, dad Santa's elves did not put the brakes on correctly. My family loves to repeatedly tell the story of my brother riding around in the back of the cop car looking for our next of kin because my parents weren't home.
20. I spend 80-85% of my day daydreaming. It is the way of the Pisces.

my dirty little secret...

Sorry bad pic from iphone. Just seeing it in photo form makes me finally realize how bad this room is. Hhhmmm...

Anyway, this is the hot mess of a room that I have to work with. It has basically become the final resting place for junk that needs to be chunked, unfinished projects, and locker and storage room all in one. My hope is for it to be an office that doubles as a second guest bedroom when need be. Eventually (fingers-double-crossed), it will become the nursery. It is a small room (12x12, I think), and I would love to take the closet doors off and put a small desk in there. I want it to be soft and cozy for my guests, much like the inspiration bedroom pictures that I posted yesterday, but still functional for me. Below are some of the office spaces that I have my eyes on:






~1st image country living?~
~all others BHG~

My name is Heather and I have a problem.

I'm having a bit of a conundrum that involves a dirty little secret that has been plaguing me for, oh let's see, almost two years. YIKES!! Talk about PROCRASTINATION! How did this happen?

Well, in order for me to air my dirty laundry, I need to come up with a solution first. Here are some possibilities that might give you a hint as to what is ailing me and me an idea of how I am going to fix it....


I love EVERYTHING about this room! The easy breezy styling with touches of soft color and texture, the iron bed, and the chest as a side table. Oh! the list goes on and on...


~country living~


The same goes for this one. I love the length of the dust ruffle and the soft yellows against the distressed grey paneling.


~country living~


I have to admit that this is one of my favorites that I have found. I absolutely love how it is a fresh mix of old and new, subtle and bold. However, I am afraid it might come off a tad too girly for the hubby, what with it drowning in pink and all.


~country living~


Just a few more that I am swooning over...






~all images BHG or country living~

They all involve common themes of playing with color and fun vintage pieces mixed with newer items. Country eclectic and antique chic! We shall see if this is inspiration enough to whip my rapidly expanding butt into shape.
Send reinforcements!