Merger

My coworker Dave answered my plea for Photoshop help and merged together several photos for me so I could get a better feel for my space. I love his attention to detail.

I know for a fact Dave likes dessert. So perhaps as a thank you, I should bake him something in my newly re-designed kitchen.

My new kitchen, complete with rug, coffee table, micro-couch, woodland creature and giant baby. I'm in love.

Pillow Talk

There's a lot going on in this little nation of ours right now, and what am I fretting about? Pillow covers. I'm debating between a couple different designs from Etsy. To aid in my decision-making process, I printed pictures of the pillows and then cut them out to test them with the current pillow fleet on my couch. I only need to cover one pillow, so I only want to buy one cover. But which one? The cover that will play nicely with the others or the one that catches my eye over and over again.

In the end, if I don't like the cover I order, I can just relegate the pillow to the love seat (the land of outcasts) which is where the pillow waiting to be covered currently sits.

The three original contenders - miniaturized. The little one on the far right has already been nixed from the competition.

Contender one

Contender two

Oh baby! New kitchen curtain(s)

My kitchen has new curtains! Correction: My kitchen has a new curtain. The other one is still in the works. My plan to finish the second curtain last weekend was interrupted by a new man in my life (more about him later).

A couple weekends ago, I enlisted the help of my mother to make curtains for my kitchen. Really, she did all the work since she is quite the master seamstress. I picked out the fabric and then watched as she did the math, measurements, cutting and sewing.

The curtain is very basic (an idea borrowed from Making it Lovely). It's just a fabric panel with some ribbon looped around it. I put a slip knot in the ribbon so I can raise and lower the curtain by pulling on the ribbon. However, I don't expect to raise (and subsequently lower) the curtain all that much because that window faces the street and I don't want people peeping in as I burn dinner. My only design beef with the curtain is that when it's raised, it doesn't have much shape along its bottom edge. I think a thin wooden dowel inserted into the bottom hem would solve that problem.

Um...this might be the worst "before" picture ever, but I offer it to you still the same. These are the dingy, dirty cafe curtains the previous owners left me.

After - a new panel curtain courtesy of my mom

After, again.

Here's the new man. My just-born-last-week-thank-you-very-much nephew Isaac. I was too enamored with him to get much else done over the weekend.

Hunt for a Coffee Table: An Epic Saga

I've been looking for a coffee table for ages. I keep changing my mind about what I want and can't ever find one that's up to snuff. Indecisiveness is one of my signature qualities, along with talking too loudly and smelling funny.

Lately, I've been thinking I need a table with strong lines to complement the geometric pattern on my rug. But, maybe I'm wrong and I really need a slender, tapered leg table. For the sake of this post though, lets just say I'm right about the strong lines. I've found these two tables that could work. Also, I should mention that I'm convinced that using a bench for a coffee table is the way to go. And I don't want a table with a shelf.

The Chase Bench (in antique white)
Pros: It's pretty and I like it.
Cons: Antique white finish could clash with creamy beige pattern on rug and white bookshelf.



The Startford Slat Bench
Pros: Strong lines and I like it.
Cons: Not sure how I feel about slats. Could look too rustic.



Here's my rug again:


Someone with Photoshop should merge all these images for me so I can get a real feel for the room. That would be so kind.