A Little To-Do List

Well, it's that time of year. People are thinking a lot about resolutions, goals, plans, to-do's... all of it. I'm no different. I have a lot on my mind these days - life, family, friends, our wedding, work(?), our rental... and more. My mind is constantly working these days and I find it hard to turn it off sometimes, so I decided it was time to sit down and try to write down some of my goals and to-do's for 2013.

Family

- Find a "Memory Chest" for Halle: This falls somewhere between family & rental, but I feel it falls more on the family side of things. I want to find or make a wooden chest that I can paint, and then store keepsakes for Halle in. I have her first year calendar, some special cards, certain outfits and a few other books, etc. that I want to put away for safe keeping for when she is older. This is high on my priority list as many of these items are scattered around the house and I don't want them to go missing/get damaged.

- Organize our "Memory Box": No surprise that I have a box full of ticket stubs, brochures, pieces of paper, napkins, boarding passes, etc. from the past 5 years that B & I have been together. Unfortunately, when they are sitting crammed into a box, they aren't making us smile all too often. The other week I picked up a "Smash Book" from HomeSense, and it's perfect. It's essentially a scrapbook that isn't meant to look pretty & that is all that we need. I'm determined to get this book filled up, so we have a sweet book we can flip threw together.

- Finish our 2012 Family Year Book: I've started and come so close to finish up a photo year book. I have a few photos that are missing from the month when we were computer less - so I just need to pull those together and finish cleaning up pages that I started. I'm hoping that I can finish this up before Halle turns 2! 

Rental

- Finish the garage sale chair: Yup - that garage sale chair is making some progress and I hope we can finish it up before Spring hit's. Even before the Super Bowl would be great. The more seating we have here for the big game, the better!

- Paint a canvas for Halle: I've already found the inspiration for what I want to paint for her, and I have a canvas in the basement that I plan on painting over... now I just need to get on it.

- Finish painting Halle's final bookshelf and hang it: I'm so close to finishing this one and it will make such a huge difference in her room. This little girl has SO MANY books and a bunch are sitting in a box in her closet. I can't wait to get them out and into a better rotation of reading with her. (My Dad built this shelf around the time Halle was born... so it's been sitting around unpainted for far too long, so it's time to finally cross this off my list).

- Paint the dresser in our dining room: This will probably come after all of the items above, but I hope I can get on this soon. I'm not overly bothered by the wood finish on it at the moment, but I'm sure as I spend more and more time in the Dining Room, it will bother me more.

- Find or Make a Dining Room Table: This is more of a wish list item. We don't NEED the dining room table, but I wouldn't mind having a bigger space for entertaining friends out here. It would also be nice if it could be a larger space for me to work on projects. Maybe this is something I can start pricing out soon.

Life

Life is a lot harder to write out than these first too. I've been thinking a lot recently about what I would like to do... all of the time. Work wise. I've spent a lot of time wondering what my future looks like when it comes to work. What drives me? What am I truly passionate about? The biggest part of me always seems to be wanting to help people, and I feel like if when I get back into the working world, I am inclined to want to be a part of the not-for-profit sector. I want to do something that betters life for other's. 
In the meantime, I want to work on being a better Mom to Halle. I've done my best to reduce how much time I spend on my phone/online while I am with her during the day. I find these to be unnecessary distractions. I've already removed Twitter off of my phone, and I'm leaning towards doing the same with Facebook. Most of my blog writing and reading is done while she is napping or in bed at night - but even at night, I find I prefer dedicating that time to B, and spending time with him. At the end of each and every day this little family of mine is what is most important and I want to spend a lot of time focusing on them this year.

What is on your list of things that you want to accomplish this year? What are your goals or to-do's and what will you do to encourage yourself to check items off of that list?

Tackling the Storage Issue

The other week I shared some plans for our messy dining room. At the time I was being a little coy... and possibly lazy, and never shared a proper picture of our disaster area. So, if you want the ugly truth, here it is...

Yup... stuff... EVERYWHERE. And yes... I am extremely embarrassed showing this to all of you, but nothing like showing off a mess like this to get you motivated. It was not overly Christmas-y feeling and definitely not very organized or practical for a dining room / home office space - am I right? The worst part was this room was NOT hidden from view and is visible from the front hall, kitchen/living room AND the front door. Yup - this mess was on FULL display to everyone who came near our house, so it was time to take care of it. 

We're starting with baby steps and I'm being very budget conscious since right now we're focusing funds on our upcoming wedding. So, last Thursday we acquired a new piece for this space to help me to start getting things in order. Thankfully it was right in line with our minimal to no budget that we are working with to spruce up our space.

Last Tuesday I decided to take a browse through Craigslist to see what I could scrounge up as far as inexpensive furniture for our rather lacking home. I found a free 7 drawer dresser that looked like a perfect solution for our dining room storage nightmare. I shot off an email right away, telling myself it was probably gone as it had been posted the day before (and we all know how quickly free stuff goes on Craigslist). About an hour later my cell phone rang with the sweet, sweet news that the dresser was still available! JOY! After a little bit of back and forth, B headed over to pick up the dresser on Thursday night and I started cleaning up and organizing the room.

The above photos were taken on Thursday before we moved in the dresser. I've been working away since then, slowly getting rid of things we no longer needed, organizing and reorganizing and finding a proper home for all of the bits and pieces in there. There is still some work to be done, and our bins for Christmas decorations still need to be relocated back to the basement, but there is already a drastic improvement in the space. Check it out:

{Yes - first on my list once I have the space all ready to go is to hem those curtains. Drives me nuts!}

So what are my plans? Well first of all, we plan on repositioning the mirror so that it hangs horizontally instead, B just needs to change the wire on the back. As far as the dresser goes, it definitely needs some love. It has some scratches and paint splatters and other mysterious marks all over it.

I'm thinking I'd like to keep the top and the base of it this dark colour and then paint the whole middle section of it white. Maybe spray the handles black and get some new knobs for the doors on the bottom left. I won't be diving head first into anything over the holiday's, but I am pleased to see this little progress.

Do you have a room that is just a storage nightmare? Maybe you've started organizing a space yourself, or have added your own budget piece of furniture to your home? Or maybe, you aren't crazy like me and you are just focusing on your family and this wonderful season? Whatever it is you are up to, I'd love to hear about it!

Feeling Festive

For some reason whenever Christmas rolled around at our home in Toronto, it never felt a whole lot like Christmas to me. Maybe it was the cramped space and our constant reno's that made it hard for me to see a home decked out for Christmas. Regardless, now that we have a lot more space and our rental isn't full up of renovation bits and pieces, I'd say this place is really putting me in the festive mood. I thought today would be a good day to start sharing some of our holiday decor with you. I'll start off with our mantel...

Halle's canvas has stayed front and center up there and I love it. We've received so many compliments on it which only reinforces how I feel about it. The pre lit garland we bought at Canadian Tire (along with two others that are strung on our railing), and it is perfect since it hangs just the right amount off either end of the mantel. The tapers are placed in some simple glass holders that B's Mom gave me, and we have two beautiful silver animals. The reindeer we've had for quite a few years now and purchased him from HomeSense. He was originally brown when we bought him, but I sprayed him silver and I still love him. Our newest addition, is this adorable penguin that arrived to us in a lovely Christmas package sent from our wonderful friends at The Home Depot.

This little guy is part of the Martha Stewart Living Collection and is only $9.86. We both really, really love him, as we have a little joke about penguins, so we have a few that we put out each year at Christmas. He's super sweet, and I love him looking all regal up on our mantel. I'm sure Halle will adore him just as much as we do as the year's go by.

We hung our stockings using 3M hooks that I placed on the top edge of the mantel. Yes, we have four stockings hanging and no, that doesn't mean a thing. I had B's Mom make them for us when we were visiting last Thanksgiving, and we did four so we'd have a fourth whenever we needed one. I figured since we have it, we may as well hang it...

You may have noticed a sweet little wooden deer living on the hearth. He was gifted to us by my cousin and her husband last Christmas. Their neighbour makes them and I had commented on how much I loved the one they have. He's one of my favourite decorations and Halle is always calling to him. Yes, both him and the fire are kept behind a baby fence to keep our little girl safe and sound.

I kept it pretty simple on the mantel this year, and I really love it. Every night when B gets home from work he turns on the fireplace and we let it roar away as we enjoy dinner, play with Halle and then usually unwind with some sort of Christmas special or movie. We also kept it simple because we have a little more than usual going on this year... like TWO trees! Yup! TWO! We used our same old faux tree that we purchased at The Home Depot the first Christmas that we lived in our house, and we also bought a real tree this year... also from Home Depot, and boy does our house smell beautiful! 

Our faux tree is pretty similar to year's gone by. All white lights with blue, silver and white ornaments. We've put it in the dining room this year so that it's visible from the street, and also so that we can keep the doors closed and keep little hands from touching all of the delicate ornaments that grace it's boughs.

Up on top of our tree lives our brand new topper, which also came from The Home Depot. It's a pretty silver star that has replaced our old snowflake topper. Our old topper never sat properly and was too heavy for this tree, so we were thrilled to have a beautiful new star to grace our tree! Thanks Home Depot! 

Right now, any and all wrapped gifts are also safely tucked away under this tree to keep them safe from tiny hands as well. On Christmas Eve, after the little Miss has been tucked away in bed, we'll move them all out to the living room where our second, more colourful tree lives.

This tree is full of the more colourful ornaments we've collected over the years - including B's extensive collection of sports ornaments. Mainly Boston sports team related - Red Sox, Patriots,  Bruins and Celtics. It's a really fun tree to have in our main living area and Halle can touch most of the ornaments. Her favourite are the little green jingle bells - she could shake them all day.

We have a few other smaller items scattered throughout the house... but I'll have to save sharing those for another day. I still have a few things to finish up with decorating - so keep an eye out for another Christmas decorating post next week. 

How is your decorating coming along? Are you all done or do you still have more to finish up?

Making Space

Now that we've been back in BC for over a week we're finally settling back into our routine and really preparing for the holidays. Part of my new routine, of course, is working on pieces for my Etsy shop, Halle Handmade. Since I began working on items back in late September, our kitchen table has been my workshop, which means it's been an absolute disaster most days. With things picking up, I need a new space to work with lots of room to organize all of my supplies. For this, I feel our dining room would be the best space. It's still on the main floor close to everything, but I am able to close the doors and keep Halle out. Unfortunately, with everything piled in there at the moment, and boxes of Christmas decorations scattered across the floor, it is anything but neat and organized.

1) A work table: The one we have in there now is very small, so it just won't do. I want something large and functional. Ideally, I want something that will work as both a work space, but also a dining table for the times we do have guests over. In an ideal world, we'd build something like this table from Ana White. It's gorgeous, big and we should be able to take it with us when we move...

2) Seating: If we're going to have a table, we're going to need seating as well. Both for me to work at, and also something for people to sit at to dine. I want the seats to be comfortable, but not too precious and easy to clean. Between me working, little hands and too big dogs, I'm sure these seats will meet many messes. I would love 2 BYHOLMA/MARIEBERG Armchairs from IKEA for either end of the table, and some nicely slipcovered options on either side... or maybe benches. I'm still slightly torn between the two. I guess it will come down to what is more budget friendly.

3) Organization: I will need somewhere to keep everything neat and tidy. I want everything to have a place while I'm working, but also when it needs to go away. I don't want things laying out in the open all of the time, so I need to figure it all out. Definitely a sideboard, where I can close the doors and keep everything out of sight. Something like this Dining Room Office, from Martha Stewart via this blog post, is what I have in mind...

4) Lighting: I'm going to want more than just that boob light on the ceiling (whoever thought that was a good idea in a dining room needs to sit down and have a chat with me). However, since neither of us really want to be paying to switch out this lighting in our rental, we'll make do with it and just layer in some task lighting for me. Maybe some lamps on our sideboard, and a floor lamp or a small desk lamp that I can move to the dining table while I work. We'll see what we can come up with.

Whatever we do in this space, will have to be inexpensive (as we are currently saving for a wedding) and easy for us to take with us when we leave. Of course, I wish I could turn this space into my dream office/dining room, but for now, I'm just looking for a pretty and functional space.

What are your best tips for making a neat and organized office on the cheap?

Up On the Mantel

Happy Monday! It's a long weekend for us, so today's post will be short and sweet, about a project I mentioned a while ago. Back when I shared our autumn mantel decor, there was a big empty gap just begging for something to fill it up. 

In that same post I talked about how my ideal solution would be to get a large canvas of Halle up there. I had a photo in mind, but I just couldn't pull the trigger with the cost of getting a canvas being so high. Then, one wonderful Groupon was the answer to all of my prayers... a great deal on a 30" x 20" canvas for only $49. How could I possibly turn it down. The deal was purchased, and then I jumped on the company's website, ArtsyCanvas, uploaded my photo and ordered it the same night.

Last Wednesday, when Halle and I returned home from a great afternoon play date, I was thrilled to find a large box on our front step. I immediately cut into it, and was thrilled when I pulled out our new canvas.

The quality of the canvas itself was incredible, and the photo looked beautiful. It went directly up onto our mantel and I couldn't be happier with how it looks...

Though I have the photo in colour as well, I opted for the black and white version. I figured this way we can leave it there all year round and it will always match our seasonal decor.

The photo was taken by the fabulously talented Nicole of Bittersweet Photography during Halle's one year photo session way back in July. It's one of my favourites and I knew it would be canvas worthy as soon as I saw it.

Yes, the space could have used a larger canvas, but this was the largest size available, and to be honest I didn't want something TOO large that may eventually not fit into whatever space we end up in. I think this is just perfect and will be easy to hang wherever we would like in the future - our bedroom, Halle's bedroom, a playroom, the options are endless!

Have you turned any of your own family photos into a canvas? What website did you use and where does it hang now?

In This House...

It's hard to believe, but we've been in this rental for over 6 months already. Time is certainly flying by, and we're still working on making this place feel more like home. One of my biggest initiatives has been to get artwork that is unique, personal and meaningful up on our walls. I've already shared our bedroom art project here and here, our hallway gallery wall here, and the updates we've made to Halle's gallery wall here. Next on my list was this big blank space next to our entertainment unit in our living room...

Just like everything else we have put on the walls, I wanted it to be something we loved and something that really reflected us as a family. Everything worked out perfectly when I attended the BLEND event back in late September, and won this beautiful decal from Danielle's shop, Urban Walls.

A decal is the perfect solution for art in a rental. It's a great way to get something on the wall that isn't permanent, and it won't cause any damage. Plus, options are endless so you're sure to find something that speaks to you, especially in Danielle's shop. 

For us, it would've been easy to just slap it up on the wall and call it a day, but that wasn't what I wanted. Since we're not too sure how long we'll be in this home, or where we'll be next, I wanted to do something to ensure we could take this message with us wherever we go. It all started on a rainy Sunday when we made a trip to The Home Depot...

That melamine coated pressed board was exactly what we were looking for, and we were thrilled that we didn't even need it cut. It was larger than the decal, but would leave us the perfect border all the way around, and it put us out only $26!

Election night was the night to get this project going. While the TV kept us up-to-date in the background, we got to work preparing to apply the decal. B measured everything so we could get it nice and centred. Then we gave the whole board a wipe down with a slightly damp cloth and then began to apply the decal.

We had some problems with keeping the decal straight on the board. The easiest way to fix this was to actually cut the decal in between the lines of text, and apply it in sections. You can see B cutting it in the middle picture on the right, and it's obvious in the picture on the bottom left that we have two separate pieces. Cutting the decal really helped make this whole process easier. In the end, it worked out perfectly and the whole thing looked great. Halle loved helping too...

With the decal on, it was time get our big heavy board up on the wall. B would guess it weighs around 30lbs, so we had to be sure to get something sturdy to keep it up on the wall. B had picked up some of these corner braces at Canadian Tire when we were out on Sunday...

Then, there was a whole lot of measuring, drilling and inserting of anchors...

What B did was place the braces in the wall so that the board would rest on top of it, not cradled inside of it. Then he took the two braces for the top and attached them to the board first. Lastly, he put the board in place and attached the top braces to the wall, and then screwed the bottom braces into the board. One night of a little bit of dedication and we ended up with this beauty in our living room...

I am SO in love with it. I have always loved how decals look on walls, but I really love how this one looks on our melamine coated board. It's thick and heavy and really has presence in the room. I think it's a statement piece, and the message is a perfect reminder for all of us on how we should approach each day. Halle really loved it too. Once it was up on the wall she kept running over to look up at it, then she would laugh, run away and repeat. I wish I'd got a video of it. The best part for me though, is knowing that I will get to take this with us wherever we go in the future.

If you're looking for something great to spruce up your space, check out Urban Walls. I'm already eyeing up these awesome polka dots - I think they'd be perfect for Halle's room!

Have you been adding artwork to your places? Getting up to anything besides preparing for the holiday's? I can't lie... I have Christmas on the brain these days, I'm just not allowed to decorate until after American Thanksgiving! ;)

An Autumn Mantle that Needs a Little More

I'm more than a few days late, but as I mentioned the other day I have been a busy lady. Last week was full of running around showing my parents all of the beauty out here and spending lots of time together, as well as celebrating my birthday and thinking about/working on my new little venture. Alas Autumn has well and truly arrived, and that is something I am really quite excited about!

{via 79 ideas}

Though I was busy last week, as my post yesterday would indicate, I had a little time to pull out our fall decor and start decorating. We have a pretty nice fireplace (even though I wish it were wood burning like at our Toronto home), and I couldn't wait to probably decorate it for the season. I'm still looking for one final piece to finish it off - but here is what I have for now...

Everything on here we owned, with the exception of the one small pumpkin that my parents bought for Halle last week, and was only $0.50. I'll start low. The bunting I made way back when in our old home, with some fabric I had used for one of my very first school projects. At the time I just made it to give me something to do (oh, the days when I needed to SEARCH for stuff to do), and it ended up getting packed away and forgotten about. Turns out, it's the perfect little fall decoration - don't you think?

On the far left side of the mantle I have my red lantern that I picked up for a few bucks two years ago, while thrifting (You may recognize it from yesterday's post on our Thanksgiving Table). I clustered two ceramic gourds and our $0.50 together and beside all of these I have my Pumpkin Spice Yankee Candle. I can't handle holiday's without a yummy smelling candle and this one sure does the trick!

Since the middle of the fireplace is empty (and we'll get to that in the moment), let's move over to the far right side. Over here I tried to play with scale. I stacked a few orange and yellow books together, and on top I placed a vase filled with my faux acorn vase filler, and my brass apple paper weight. Beside it, I placed my orange votive holders on top of my cupcake holders and placed them in a row. Lastly, behind them is a small print, waiting to find it's forever home in our house. We picked this up when we were back in Toronto in August, and visited the CNE. It's a print of the streetcar that ran right by our home in Toronto. Such a nice reminder of our old house and neighbourhood. It means so much to me!

As for the giant empty spot in the middle...

Yeah, it leaves you wanting more, doesn't it? Me too! BUT, like any good project, I didn't want to rush and purchase or make something that I didn't absolutely love. Plus, since it's the space over the fireplace, I wanted to do something that wasn't seasonal, and that we could leave there all year round and just decorate around it. Well, the other day I saw a post that inspired me and I have decided to blow up a large black and white photo and put it here. I've decided on the photo, and even though a canvas isn't exactly in our budget at the moment, I'm waiting for a good "deal of the day" (they always have photo canvas deals - don't they?) so I can get one made for this spot.

I'm hoping I'll be able to have it soon and share it with you, the photo is too good not to blow up and put here! Have you ever had a photo blown up into a canvas? Where did you have it done? Any good recommendations for a company to work with? I'd love to hear what you have to say?

Getting On Top of Things

Fall is quickly approaching, and before I know it, this sunshine that we have been enjoying out here will disappear and giveaway to the grey rainy days of fall and winter. With that in mind, I've started to think about how we can make our home feel more cozy. A haven, and nest that we can enjoy when the cools days return. One thing in particular I would like to do is make it more comfortable, and more full without feeling cluttered. So, the first thing I wanted to do, was to tackle a project that has been sitting neglected for far too long.

Over two years ago now, I picked up this chair at a garage sale for only $22. I pretty much had to bargain with B to let me buy it, and now I understand his hesitation. It's just taken up space in our garage, and now our sunroom, waiting for me to do something with it for the last 2.5 years...

Well, inspiration finally struck and I have been working away on my transformation on this lovely piece. Just after B's parents returned home from their visit, I popped into IKEA to pick up a few things we needed. While I was there, I stopped into the fabric section to see what they had kicking around. When I saw the BERTA RUTE big check in beige, I knew it was perfect. 

It has pattern, but is still neutral enough to work with anything else I'd like to add to the space. Plus, it will make finding a complimentary fabric for our sofa that much easier. So, I brought home 4 metres for around $40, and was instantly motivated to get moving on the chair, which was looking like this...

Last Sunday, while B and my brother were making dinner, I popped into the sunroom and started the process of removing the upholstery tacks from the chair. I had to be careful to not rip the fabric (too much), since the pieces I removed will be used as a template for my new fabric. I started with a knife, but many of the tacks were rusted, so I moved onto pliers, but they couldn't get under the tack heads. Eventually, I ended up using one of B's chisels, and it worked wonders. (I may owe him a new chisel though).

Removing the red fabric revealed another equally as dirty fabric underneath, with a layer of batting placed over top. By that point, my hands were sore from removing tacks and I decided to stop there - after all, I had the templates I needed, so it was time to get down to business.

Seeing the chair like this had me feeling excited and anxious all at the same time. I was excited to see it looking bare and ready for a new look, but felt a little anxious when it came down to what I was going to do to that wood. I spent quite a bit of time bouncing back and forth between staining and painting it. In the end, my laziness won out, and I decided to paint it. I had already spent a great deal of time trying to sand out the stain in those carvings and it wasn't getting me anywhere fast. On top of that, I already had white paint left over from when I painted our headboard, which meant not having to put out anymore money for this project.

So, I'm now in the midst of getting the final coats of paint onto the wood, and then I'll be able to start the actual upholstering project. Hopefully, I can share it with you next week and have our new chair sitting in our living room (for the time being). 

I'm still keeping my eyes out for other pieces we can use around here to help furnish and organize our place, and essentially just get our home feeling more cozy for the cold months ahead. 

What have you been doing to prepare for the fall? Any big projects on the go?

A Guest Ready Room

I've been lacking in posts showcasing projects and rooms that we have been tackling recently. I guess that would expected with all of the guest traffic we have going on. Well, I'm back today with a peek at how I fluffed up the guest room for those coming to stay. We didn't have a lot to spend, but wanted to make the room feel really comfortable, cozy and inviting for our family and friends.

Back in early June, we had our first house guest, and in a rather rushed attempt to prepare for her arrival, we got the room looking like this:

Not awful, but still incredibly bare, so we had our work cut out for us. The first thing we did, was add a little bit of artwork. We shopped our home for this and pulled out the headboard from our old bedroom in Toronto, along with a print that B gifted me a few Christmas' ago. The colours worked with the bedding from our old bedroom, along with the paint colour on our garage sale find headboard. 

I also figured, our guests could use somewhere to hang towels, purses, jackets, sweaters - whatever they pleased really. Thankfully, we had some hooks that hung in our house in Toronto when we had moved in. We had taken them down when we painted, and never got around to hanging them again - but we did decide to move them out west with us. So, up they went, just next to the door to the guest bedroom. The perfect place for our guests to hang whatever they may need.

I also wanted to make sure that our guests had everything they needed right at their finger tips when they arrived. I brought down one of our newly painted blue chairs and placed a basket of towels, face cloths and goodies on it for them. All the toiletries one could ever need are in that basket, along with a hair dryer.

For the nightstand, we decided we needed a lamp for our guests to flick on before they crawl into bed. Whether they would like to read, or just not have to worry about getting from the door to the bed in the dark, it was necessary. Since it was short notice, we actually moved one of our master bedroom lamps down there before my friend came to visit in June, and it remained there right up until B's parents left. But last week, after they were gone I was at IKEA and found a much smaller lamp in the As-Is section for only $10. Perfect solution for our small table, and it made room for us to add a clock, as well as a place to keep our guest book.

On the floor next to the night table, I placed a basket that I picked up at IKEA for $5.99. Inside of it, I placed all of the brochures we have collected for the surrounding areas, and other places we have visited. I figure this is a great resource when people are coming to stay from out of town. We don't really make a ton of concrete plans in advance, so this way our guests can take a look at the different places nearby, and maybe decide what they would really enjoy seeing. After all, I'm around all day to help them see the sights, and I'm happy to bring them wherever they would like to go...

I'd say, for mostly shopping our home (with the exception of the $15 I spent for the lamp and basket... not including some toiletries I picked up) that we did a good job setting up the space for guests...

There is still room for improvement to cozy it up a little. Maybe a nice chair, or a dresser, and definitely another nightstand. We'll get there eventually, but slow and steady is our best way to go. We enjoy finding the right pieces and not just throwing stuff in there because it was a great deal. I need to really love it. So I'm keeping my eyes out, and maybe by the next month we have a ton of visitors, I'll have some more updates to share.

So far the reviews from B's parents were great! They loved the room and found the bed incredibly comfy! Come back tomorrow to see how we whipped our "office/work out room" into a guest room in a pinch! Yup you read that right. We have three people staying at the moment and needed to provide some privacy for our extra guests, so we made some moves and shopped our home and pulled together a cozy little space for extra over night guests!