spring centerpiece ideas

it's finally consistently warm, which means not only have i gotten my first sunburn of the season (albeit somewhat early), but also that i am now shaving my legs consistently. and, i'm trying to make our house have less dust and more fresh stuff.

especially on our coffee table!

now that it's warm out, yard sales and flea markets are in full swing. check out the piles of old books and trinkets that people have out, which is where i got these mark twain classics and the ring of old skeleton keys. 

for plants, we headed to home depot and spent $8 on house plants. we found a few that didn't need full sunlight and that were (according to google) hard to kill! (challenge accepted. i sadly will probably forget to water them for a few weeks and then i'll have a vintage plant. vintage a.k.a. dead plants haven't caught on yet, but they will!) since they came in dingy plastic pots, i grabbed these crisp white ones from dollar tree--so, grand total? $10. plus the yard-sale books and keys. 

what's on your coffee table? 

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salvage shops: why old is better than new

devin and i recently went to an old salvage shop in perkasie, PA. if you're in the area, you have to go check it out: architectural antiques. it's a converted barn (or farm house?) that's f u l l of old treasures. old mantles, banisters, light fixtures, door knobs, wooden windows, shutters, etc. you could buy anything you've ever seen on pinterest, but the original version. it made us want to have an old farm house to decorate!

here are a few reasons to consider buying old, instead of new:

//1// old things are usually better quality. nothing against ikea, but hand cut nails? and wooden benches made to last 200 years? just saying.

//2// environmentally friendly! instead of letting old things go to waste, why not repurpose? that old wagon wheel could sit at the bottom of a land fill.......orrrr it could be a statement piece at the end of your driveway.

//3// at the risk of sounding like a bad hgtv commercial, old things have so much character. the stained-glass windows, original hardware, and real oak doors are usually more unique than the typical builder-grade doors and cabinets.

and now, some of my favorite things from our trip:

what are some of your favorite antique or salvage places to shop? 

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living room updates

devin and i spent this past saturday revamping our living room. as you might remember, it was looking pretty rough, with old, stained carpets and spackled walls (you can see a picture with those crazy walls in the background here). friday night, we decided on behr's manhattan mist, so that on saturday, we could angrily touch up any spackle spots that stood out from the primed walls and then paint! (ok, so the spackle-touch-ups weren't planned, and after thinking 400 times "we are ready to paint!" we would find one more spot that was raised and needed to be sanded). 

 i turned around after doing a wall to see this! isn't devin the cutest? (and yes...we have a pink door...for now).

even jake got excited about new wood floors!

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