So instead my obsession of pillows.

(Style at Home)

I have a few questions.  Do you have a lot of pillows on your bed? Are those pillows just to make the bed pretty or do you actually use them?  Do you use European pillows?

I have lots of pillows as you can easily see below.  They are only to make the bed look pretty, although Drew hasn’t quite learned that rule yet.  Not only do we have a lot of pillows that look pretty we also have a lot of pillows we keep in our closet and put on the bed at night.  (Seems like a lot of work right?) Drew and I both have 2 very large pillows, a smaller pillow  and I have a body pillow, and can you believe our mattress has a pillow top?  (I told you I love pillows!)  I recently bought 3 european shams and I like it because I like the rule of odds so three large pillows that fit nicely across the king bed works perfectly for my OCD (obsessive compulsive designing).

(Most of my bedding is from Rachel Ashwell’s Shabby Chic Line at Target.  The other pieces were bought from Home Goods and Kohls (yea Kohls, I know, they’re the Vera Bradley collection and it’s actually extremely nice.)

Here’s hoping for a sunny day today so I can play with my new camera and get that vignette I promised you!

Don’t forget to comment below and let me know your pillow situation on your bed!

I’d love if you became a fan on Facebook!

Also you should check out The Everygirl today & show them some love! (It’s their big launch day!)  It looks like it going to be fun & cool.  How can it not it’s based out of Chicago my favorite city ever!!

]]> http://housetoyourhome.com/2012/02/22/pillow-talk-6/feed/ 0 http://housetoyourhome.com/2012/02/21/desk-in-the-bedroom/ http://housetoyourhome.com/2012/02/21/desk-in-the-bedroom/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:00:14 +0000 House to your Home http://housetoyourhome.com/?p=7533 Continue reading …]]> First of all let me say this, I love my husband very, very much and have no plans of ever leaving him but I have a confession to make sometimes I decorate my home if I were a single gal, no husband, no kids (I also love Sloan and don’t plan on getting rid of her either!)

I could easily live in a studio (I spend most of my time in my bedroom now). I love the idea of using a desk as a side table or putting a desk at the end of the bed.

(Designer’s Attic)

(Lucas Studios)

(Nick Olsen)

(Steven Gambrel)

Please tell me I’m not the only one who fake decorates her own single girl’s place???

Sloan’s off school today and we’re running to the dentist, orthodontist and volleyball practice. I’m hoping we can do something fun in between!

See ya tomorrow!!

I also did a lot of sitting around because I was watching a lot of volleyball.

As much as I love watching Sloan play volleyball it’s a little hard for me to sit for 2 days straight.  During the times Sloan wasn’t playing I was able to finish this.

Now I’ve always fought jumping on bandwagons and accepting that I’m middle age, I mean I refuse to drive a mini van and I hated Twilight but seriously I have loved this freakin’ series!

I’ve also been working with our contractor getting together a list of projects I want done on the house.  There won’t be a lot going on this year to the inside of the house though because we have big plans for the outside.  We’re having the whole house painted and stained and I’m having one of these built over the garage doors.

(The Old Painted Cottage)

I don’t know if you remember my post on Lilly’s dog house but this is the color the whole house will be.  It needs to be painted desperately, the builder’s used the cheap builder’s grade paint so unfortunately this is the type of project I hate doing.  I like doing fun projects because I decided I wanted it to be done!!!  Boo to maintenance!!

Sloan’s formal dance is today and the girls always take their shoes off at the dance so I bought a pair of flip flops and decorated them for her.  (I’ll show you next week.)  While I was at the craft store I spotted some pom poms and did this for Sloan while she was gone at school.

It was super simple I just used some nylon thread and strung the poms onto it while I watched my dvr’d Modern Family and The Middle.

(Notice the skull Liz?)  This was supposed to be a gag gift from Sloan’s godfather, she ended up loving it!!

I love that even though she’s growing up she still gets excited when I surprise her and I love that she’s a girly girl!

Have a great weekend!!

Q:  How did you decide where to rent a space?

A:  I looked around at quite a few places before I decided.  Unfortunately my first choice is super booked but honestly finding my space at the Carmel Old Town Antique Mall really seems like the right choice for me.  It’s in a great area (the art district) and get’s a lot of traffic.  I also liked the owner after talking to him a few times, which obviously is really important.  Plus it helps that every time I come to work on my space I get to see this cute girl!

(Sorry… iPhone pic)

Q:  Do you have to work at the mall?

A:  No, I don’t but I do know some places require the people that rent spaces to work x amount of hours a week.  Not only do I not have to work at the mall they even dust and make sure my space stays nice between my visits.  They leave it basically up to me to decide when I go to the space.  I go there at least once a week.

Q:  Do you have to pay to rent the space?

A:  Yes, I do and it’s pretty reasonable but everywhere is different depending on where you live.  It also depends on the size of the booth.  I pay a monthly fee to have my space.

Q:  Are there any other charges you have to pay?

A:  Yes and again it seems like it is different at every place but  I pay a percentage of my sales to the owner of the mall.  Where I am they give you a choice you can pay a lower percentage for cash purchases and a higher amount for credit card purchases.  I chose to pay a straight percentage (in the middle) for all my sales.

Q:  Do you keep track of your inventory or do you just put the stuff you want to sell at the booth?

A:  I decided to treat this project like a small store because my plans are to eventually own my own store.  I use QuickBooks online and everything I buy and sell goes into my inventory list.  I know how much I originally paid for it, how much it may have cost to refurbish it.  I also take into account how much I have to pay to sell it and how much I will have to pay in taxes before I price the piece.  I really think the best way to be successful is to treat this venture like it was an actual store.

If you have anymore questions please do not hesitate to ask!!  It’s been so much work but I have loved every minute of it!!

Here’s the before.

Here is the space empty.  (Almost.)

Here’s after I painted the space black with a little white trim.

And after a ton of work here is the after…

I’ll give you some details on what went into the after shots tomorrow but tonight I’m going to hang out with my Valentine!!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day! xo

I was at an all weekend volleyball tournament this past weekend and a parent I were comparing 13 year old teenage girl stories.  (I was relieved to learn I’m not the only one struggling!)  Anyways he told me something he and his wife do and it sorta gave me the Oprah ah ha moment.  The rule in their house is that all the phones get put on a main charging station at 10:00 p.m.  I instantly loved this idea and decided to enforce this rule in our house.  One of the reasons is someone who will remain nameless has been caught texting after 10:00 p.m.  The main reason however is that I have been having a very, very hard time sleeping at night and what I end up doing is playing on my phone, which completely defeats the purpose of shutting down.

Another stress reliever for me has been deleting my Facebook account from my phone.  This way it gives me a break from reading about weather updates, religious postings and a lot of whining and complaining (all which cause me stress out).

Today I went out and bought 4 new chargers for our charging station that is in our laundry room.  (Am I the only one always losing these adapters?)  The rule is the chargers stay in the charging station.  I also bought a very small battery operated travel alarm clock for the side of my bed.  I hate the look of alarm clocks so now I can just put this little clock in my drawer when I don’t need it.  (I told you the inside of my head is silly, the ugliness of a big alarm clock would stress me out!)

Here’s what the charger looked like tonight minus my phone that I used to take the photo.  I’m going to try my best to make this a habit for the family and I hope we can all start to get a good nights sleep!

Does anyone else have any stress relieving tips they’d like to share?  I’ve got a few more in the works and once they are in place I’ll let you know!

(Anthropologie)

(Apartment Therapy)

(Anthropologie – Ombre + Ikat!!!)

(Primitive & Proper)

(Sunkissed)

I think I like this look so much because in my color theory class mixing colors from light to dark was my favorite thing to do.

Do you like this trend?  If so have you used it and where?

I attended this very important volleyball game.

This is a yearly tradition at my daughter’s school.  The 8th grade competes against the teachers in a volleyball game at the end of Catholic Schools week.  I’m happy to announce the 8th grade finally brought the teachers winning streak to an end!

Speaking of things coming to an end, Sloan is almost done with 8th grade and signed up for her high school classes this week.  Seriously it can’t be possible I’m going to have a child in high school!  (One who is way smarter then I ever was!)

I did a little shopping for myself too.  I bought these cute flats from Target!

Since I quit my job as a paralegal I don’t think I’ve worn a pair of heels since and I don’t miss them at all!  These were only $14.99!  Score!!

I also gave myself a more expensive treat too!  Honestly, I’m not a big home party type of gal but I do love me all things Stella and Dot!

I’ve had my eyes on the Serenity Stone Drops for awhile and finally bit the bullet and bought them!  I can’t wait for them to arrive!

I also did some work on my booth space…(which is upstairs to the right booth 615!)

Here’s a peek at the space empty (well almost, the previous tenant left a piece of furniture.)

I painted the space black and did a faux trim.

Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of my items in the booth yet, I worked on my space until closing and didn’t have time to take a picture of the finished booth.  I’m going to the store today so I’ll be sure to take a picture.  I’m also going to show off items on my FB page that are for sale in case any of my readers are interested!

So far what I’ve learned about having a booth at the Carmel Antique Mall is that everyone is very helpful from the owner to the staff and the other booth owners.  It was a lot of hard working getting the space put together but I’m hoping it will be great practice for a future store!

Have a great week everyone!!! xo

Today I got the Crate and Barrel and the CB2 catalog in the mail and I noticed alot of things that I like maybe just in a different way.

There is no doubt that modern artwork is way huge right now.

Here’s how Crate and Barrel shows it off.

Here’s another way to show it off.

(Kate Spade – Photographed by Eric Morin)

Another popular item…CB2 calls it the peekaboo table.

I call it acrylic furniture and I love it!

(Vanessa DeVargas)

Entertaining is big now too and here’s Crate and Barrel showing off the bar car.

Here’s another way to do it.  (I think everyone has done a bar cart post, but I’d love to know if anyone is really entertaining or are we all just obsessed with Mad Men, or am I the only one obsessed with Mad Men?)

(Jennifer Boles)

Anyways, this is just a few examples of using ideas you see in a catalog and making them your own.