My Living Room :-)

Last Friday I put up pictures of my kitchen as part of a fun House Tour hosted by Kelly's Korner.

Today we are all posting pictures of our living rooms! I am seriously like a kid in a candy shop excited to view all the other living rooms.

OK. Reality. My living room looked like this morning...I know it's awful!

I guess that's why they call them LIVING rooms...because you LIVE in them. But maybe, I've lived too much and not cleaned enough.

My poor husband says we need to hire someone once in a while. I don't know what it is about me, I think most women would jump at the chance, but I am just too proud. I feel like, my mother did it, why am I not able to keep a clean house most of the time? Sigh. I feel like my essence as a wife and mother would be stripped away. I don't think we need a maid, I think we need another one of me.
One to be creative, take care of the baby, work, cook, all the fun stuff.
And one to clean all the time.


Well, I decided that although it will be messy probably in a couple minutes, I might as well take this opportunity to clean up our living room and see what it's potential is:-)

In this process of cleaning up, I found:
the valve to my breast pump, my passport, $4.58, and a hundred other things.

It took me a long to clean and it is now almost midnight and my baby has been sleeping since 8. This was probably not the wisest of decisions, but I think I might sleep better (the five hours I might get to sleep)

A view of the whole thing. Sort of bare, I'm noticing. I need to get on that! I have a closet full of stuff I need to find a place for, but I also want to keep it simple.



Our leather couch which we saved up for and LOVE. It's wonderful because today I took a wet rag and washed off A LOT of breast milk, spit up and food. Very easy to clean up.

That orange couch has followed me my whole life. I had it in the house when I was a child, took it to college, moved it into my first home when I got married (along with a mattress and two lime green bean bags), and I recently did a lot of sweet photos of my newborn laying on it.

The coffee table was made by a father of the bride I photographed. He owns a saw mill and we bought it for $40. It's wonderful!


Four black and white photos I love. Sadly, they are sort of wrinkling in the frames. Can you iron pictures?



A little closer look.


View from the kitchen with some of my favorite photos I've recently framed.



Another view from the kitchen with the rocker my mother in law breastfed my husband in. Unfortunately, I'm too short to really nurse in it, my legs dangle:-(


Our TV stand, which is never really closed. I love the blanket basket to the left. Very practical.




The two prints to the left are from a thrift store. I love those two pictures I took on the TV stand. I love this little corner. The colors blend well. I'm a fan of decorating with sticks too. Cheap!

Our red chair we love and some really pretty old wood squares I got at Marshalls a long time ago.

This is my music corner. I am a violinist and teach violin lessons. So my stand and violin are always out.



My bridal portrait taken by my friend Davey on the side of a highway. A picture of my sweet baby Barclay. A little willow tree angel my husband gave me for Christmas (my favorite gift he's ever given me), and two special pieces of pottery done by friends.

I have already posted a few of the following pictures because it was a recent project of mine, but if you've seen them, ignore them...I just wanted to include my whole living room for those who have not read my blog before.

I love this little space. That is the infamous CHICKEN PAINTING that we have been carting around for four years. My sweet brother in law got it for our wedding and we love it but it is really hard to hang up because it is on ply wood and doesn't take screws. So we finally decided to lean it up against the wall. I LOVE it. I have decorated several rooms with black and white pictures of our family and friends. This brings color, warmth and LIFE to the room and I LOVE it!

The dress I got on the streets of DC for $20, although getting it home was a different story...Thanks Cat! I think it is so weathered and vintage. It is naturally weathered since it was left out in the rain for two days. Don't recommend it though:-)

Here's what's on top. I got that statue of a little girl at a thrift store for $3. One of my favorite finds EVER. It has pictures of family and that little sewing basket my mom got me for Christmas. I use it, but it's also pretty to look at. And the orchid was given to us when Barclay was born by our friends Dan and Monique. This space is just so happy! I love it!

That is one of my favorite pictures of Barclay to the right. So curious. I painted the painting on top of that. Noah doesn't like it much but it means a lot to me. It's a picture of a girl leaning over crying and next to her is a jar of tears.
It just came out of me in my darkest of darkest times. It's simple but it speaks volumes to me. It is based off of the verse from Psalms 56:8 "You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?"


Whew! I need to go to bed! I hope you enjoyed a little tour of my living room!