Company Crush: Farmgirl Flowers

I am a huge sucker for fresh flowers! They instantly brighten any room and anyone's day. I always have a vase or two around my house and I love sending bouquets to friends as a "thank you" or for special occasions. I recently stumbled upon Farmgirl Flowers. Their bouquets are BEAUTIFUL and I love their philosophy behind having a single type of bouquet available at a time and eliminating waste. Also, they wrap the flowers in burlap bags reused from local coffee roasters. How awesome is that?

I haven't actually tried the company yet... but my birthday is coming up in just two weeks so maybe that will change soon!  (Hint Hint, Evan!)

All photos from Farmgirl Flowers incredibly beautiful website!

Any companys you've been "crushing" on lately?

Easter Table Setting 2016

Easter Sunday was my last day of maternity leave and I could not have asked for a better day! It was the most beautiful warm, sunny day and filled with quality family time! We got up and dug into our Easter baskets, went to mass, watched Miles as he embarked on his first Easter egg hunt (he was in heaven, saying "oooooh!" with each egg he found!), had Easter dinner with Evan's family, and played outside until the sun set. Perfect day in my book!

Here are some shots of our Easter table setting and our wonderful day:

Green AGAIN?

Yep, I pulled the trigger... I got out the paint supplies and tackled the room for the third time this summer, painting it back to the original color, Martha Stewart's "Falcon."  I know I'm crazy and I'm promise this is the last post you will ever see from me about dining room paint!  (You can see the other colors HERE!)

WHY the change again, might you ask?

1) The white was awesome for summer, but fall had me craving something warmer and richer. Originally I had planned on getting a nice warm rug for the room to bring in more color and to ground the space, but you should see the mess Miles has been making while eating recently... That rug would have been destroyed in a matter of days! We will be rug free in this room for a longgg time.

2) The wainscoting, crown molding, and built-ins in this room are SO BEAUTIFUL and they were completely getting lost with all of the white.

3) Just like the navy, the white just didn't feel 100% quite right. I can't explain it other than it was just a feeling I had that I could not get over!

The lesson I walked away with from this experience is that you do not have to be afraid to try something bold or new! Paint is SO EASY and inexpensive to change (assuming you are doing it yourself!)  It's okay to play with it and it's okay to be wrong and have to go back to square one. It's really not all that traumatizing or all that difficult!

Additionally, I learned you just have to go with your gut and do what feels right for you. If you don't love something, CHANGE IT! You don't have to ignore that little nagging voice, embrace it and use it to guide you to what feels right.

I will have the full staged result during my Fall Home Tour 2015 which will be published next Tuesday September 22nd! Myself and 15 other bloggers will be showing you our homes all decorated for fall that week! So excited!

Our DIY Restoration Hardware Knock-Off Table: A Review 2-Years Later

For my milestone 30th Birthday, my sweet husband made me a beautiful dining room table! (How was that two years ago? I'm getting old! Yikes!) I get a lot of compliments and questions on this particular piece, so I thought I would share a review of how I am LOVING it two years later.

First, let's share some of the back story. My inspiration was this lovely table below from Restoration Hardware. Lovely, but pricey! We figured we could make something ourselves that fit our room perfectly for a fraction of the cost!

I knew I wanted a table that could seat 8-10 and that was WIDE enough to fit serving dishes and a centerpiece with a fully set table. That being said, the table is 90 inches long and 46 inches wide. As you can see from the pictures above (taken last Thanksgiving), it absolutely accomplishes that goal!

Evan used cedar wood for the table, which at first I wasn't sure about because I didn't love the orange/red undertones. However, he stained with Sherwin William's "Woodscapes" Stain in the color "River Birch" and any trace of the red undertones disappeared completely. The color is perfect!

Yes, even in the process of making it, I always made sure that there were fresh flowers on the table!

We also designed it to use this bench that I scored from Pottery Barn Outlet a few years ago, since we only had 6-chairs and we wanted the table to seat 8. Worked perfectly!

He made the top of the table and the legs outside in the garage, and then assembled and stained when it was inside. In a super old house like ours, there is no fitting anything through the narrow doors and hallways!

I'm not always a fan of make-it-yourself furniture because it can look a little too homemade in comparison to store bought pieces in the same room (which is how I feel about my desk and TV stand, but I'll share those thoughts another day!), however, this table is definitely my favorite piece of furniture in our house. Believe me, that is saying a lot!

The other thing I love about this table is the durability. We put several coats of poly on top of the stain, and you could do just about anything to this table without damaging it! Very kid, husband, and craft project friendly!