workin with what we got.

I think I’ve finally realized that moving to a new place equals spending money. Lots of money. And even though I have tons of plans for our future master bedroom, those plans will just have to take a seat on the backburner for awhile. In the meantime, we’ll have to combine the bedroom furniture we already have and just “make do”. Bleh.

Ok, I’ll admit that our current bedroom stuff isn’t so bad. And we can throw in some fun, inexpensive touches to make it seem like we’re changing things up more than we actually are.

Here’s what we’re starting with:

My platform bed, available on Amazon:

Tony’s black bedspread, also available on Amazon (still need different sheets, not sure what color yet...maybe a print?):

Tony’s Orgel Lamps from Ikea lamps (he has two of them):

My Malm Ikea dresser (Tony has another dresser in storage but I haven't seen it yet. I think it's also black, and probably cooler than this one):

My nightstand (couldn’t find an exact picture but it looks something like this one):

My Ritva Ikea charcoal curtains:

And that's pretty much it! Seems a little dark and gloomy to me. Here are my ideas for some cheap pick-me-ups to make the room feel a little more cheery:

This set of three throw pillows from Etsy (if you haven’t noticed by now, I have a bit of a throw pillow fetish):

A large piece of wall-art to hang above the bed. Still looking for just the right piece. We may even paint something ourselves on a large piece of plywood, and maybe keep it to something simple like a silhouette. Picture this, only not as good:

Once we’re all settled in, I’d like to make a few changes to our existing bedroom collection.

The first would be replacing the curtains with something a little more fun, maybe something like these Target curtains:

Or these Ikea curtains, which you might recognize from my post about the living room. Obviously I wouldn't use the same curtain in two rooms so we would use something different in the living room.

I’d also like to replace my nightstand with two of these Hemnes nightstands from Ikea, one for each side of the bed, with a matching lamp on each:

Depending on how hard it will be to switch the light fixture in the bedroom (if there's even an overhead light to work with), I’d like to get some type of fun pendant light or chandelier. I really like these two lights. The first is the Knappa pendant from Ikea, and the second is a capiz chandelier from West Elm:

If we ever paint the walls in the new place, we’d like to do something dark and dramatic like the wall color shown here (this pic is actually where I got inspired to use throw pillows with a splash of yellow):

Of course, if we were to have walls that dark, we’d have to ditch the black bedding and gray curtains for something much lighter. I'm picturing a crisp white duvet cover and maybe some light gray or white sheer curtains.

So, what do you guys think? I'm open to suggestions!!

chloe’s new bedroom: chapter two

Last week, Tony’s mom was nice enough to order a bedding set online for Chloe as one of her birthday presents. She showed it to me before ordering it, to make sure I liked it. It was bright green with tiny white polka dots. As some of you know, I had originally planned to get Chloe a pink comforter, as shown here. But I figured the green would still work with my original color scheme, plus Chloe really digs polka dots. But sadly, the green bedding was sold out, so she ended up ordering this turquoise set:

Well that really threw a wrench in things! Don’t get me wrong, I love turquoise. It just meant that I had to come up with a whole new color scheme. My first thought was to eliminate the pink, and do a turquoise and green theme, inspired by this nursery.

As I was browsing pictures online, I thought about adding hints of purple as well. And maybe blue. These four colors together started to remind me of something...

Hello, peacock!!

Because Chloe is just a kiddo, the colors will be a bit more bright and cheery than the average peacock. But I love the combo and I even found some wall art on Etsy that I think would help tie everything together.

And I decided it must be fate, because the next time I saw Chloe, she handed me a picture she colored of a peacock! Random, right?

These are some fun accessories I liked as well. The green and white throw pillow is from my original color scheme. I just love it so much and am determined to find a way to use it! The purple pillow and turquoise lamp are both from Target, and the curtains are from Walmart. The colored lanterns and purple chair are just images I found online.

Stay tuned to see how things actually turn out!

twelve.

That’s how many months it’s been since my first date with the Tone-ster! Ok, this blog is technically 3 days late, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

We first laid eyes on each other on June 19, 2010 at a barbeque thrown by the ever-amazing Lynsey. Tony showed up with his best friend Nate and his girlfriend Laura, who were also friends of mine. Tony and I didn’t have the chance (or the guts) to strike up a conversation until the end of the night, when we somehow ended up as beer pong partners and crushed the competition! It was my first (and last) time winning a game of beer pong. He must have been my good luck charm!

We parted ways without exchanging numbers, but Lynsey did manage to snap this picture of us before the night ended. Don’t we already look like we could be a couple? I was sure to send a text to Laura later that night that said “your friend is cute”, hoping to plant a seed. (It worked!)

I didn’t see Tony again until two weeks later, when he decided at the last minute to cancel his plans and come to my birthday party at Red Door in Fremont. I was so excited that he showed up. We didn’t spend much time chatting because I had lots of friends there and was trying to talk to everyone. But thanks to a few too many drinks on my part, and some clever thinking by my friend Roy, my chair “disappeared” and I ended up on Tony’s lap. This must have given him the confidence to tell me we should “hang out sometime”.

The next day while at a 4th of July barbeque, I got a text from someone claiming to have met me last night at Red Door. Now, I knew I had a fun night, but I was about 99% sure I hadn’t given my number out to anyone. After awhile I realized it was Tony, and that he had gotten my number from Laura. For the next few days we texted non-stop (he even had to upgrade his phone plan to add unlimited texting because I was costing him an arm and a leg). Our first date was the following Friday, July 9th. We went to grab a drink (or five) at King’s in Ballard. Our second date was the next night, and we went to LTD in Fremont, and then watched Hot Tub Time Machine at my place. And the rest is history.

So, in honor of our one-year anniversary of dating, I thought I’d compile a blog about the highlights of our first 12 months together. Here goes nothing:

July:

Tony didn’t waste much time before introducing me to his 4-year old daughter, Chloe. Just three weeks after we started dating, I met Chloe at her birthday party at the lakehouse, along with his entire extended family. Talk about pressure!

August:

Laura invited us to Lucky Strike for her class reunion, which was really fun. Going to someone else's class reunion is much less stress than going to your own!

September:

Tony came with me to Sunland for Labor Day weekend, which is a tradition of my friend Sarah. This year the theme was “Jersey Shore”, and we didn’t disappoint with our costumes!

October:

Laura and Nate invited us to join their “Mexican Wrestler” theme for Halloween. We didn’t decide to do it until the day of, so Tony and I had to scramble around to throw our costumes together last minute. They turned out great!

November:

We took Chloe to play in the snow at Mt. Rainier (or "mount niernier" as she pronounces it). The only month without a picture of us together! How did that happen?

December:

A busy month for us! We celebrated Tony's birthday with friends at The Sloop in Ballard. I even made him a super-fancy "Dirty Thirty" birthday cake. We also went to Laura and Nate's Ugly Sweater Party which was fun. More costumes!

January:

We went to Umi’s for Nathan’s birthday this month, followed by crazy dancing at the Noc Noc. I learned that I love sushi as long as it’s deep fried.

February:

We took a trip to Leavenworth/Steven’s pass with some friends this month. The cabin was awesome and so was the mountain.

March:

I brought Tony to my friend Sheryll’s incredible baby shower this month, where she had a photobooth set up with fun props.

April:

This month we were able to celebrate the engagement of Nathan and Laura. If it wasn’t for them I would never have met Tony!

May:

Anyone else get the feeling that we like costumes? We went to Drinko de Mayo this month, as festive as possible.

June:

We spent this exceptionally sunny day outside with Chloe, playing with sidewalk chalk and changing the oil in the cars.

Which brings us back to July! We've already been pretty busy this month with birthdays, barbeques, and of course fireworks!

The last twelve months have been the best of my life, and I’m excited to see what the next twelve will bring. No doubt there will be lots of costumes, beers, and amazing times with friends.

Love ya, babe!