how I spent my spring break

Last week was my Spring break.

(What break?  Anyone who isn’t a ‘traditional’ student living in dorms without any sort of job or responsibility doesn’t GET a break. Seriously.)

I did, however, attempt to take it easy in just about every respect.  I slept in…until Andrew’s alarm went off at 6:30.  I didn’t work out at all (!!!) nor did I count any calories (!!!!!!!) and I ate pretty much whatever I wanted.  I took Hadrian on long walks, I ran errands without worrying (too much) about the time and I stayed up late.

We spent the first weekend of break in Ohio, visiting our dear friends Emily and Dan and Jen and Dave.

Jen and Dave (and their kiddos) are moving to MN in the next month or so, we we all teamed up on Saturday to spruce up their place before they put it on the market.  I painted trim, Emily and Dan handled the walls and Andrew helped Dave in their basement.  Jen tag-teamed their two youngsters between naps.

Afterward, we cleaned up and went out for Thai food, followed by a Graeter’s ice cream run.  Love that place.

Love these people.

We got back Sunday night and while Hadrian was still at puppy camp, I proceeded to ‘spring clean’ the house ALL DAY.

But the fun was yet to come.

Andrew was to leave Thursday for a golfing trip, and I figured that would be the perfect opportunity to FINALLY finish decorating the fourth bedroom.  You know, the room that’s been sitting almost empty with just the bed I painted over Christmas break that I don’t even know if I blogged about?  THAT one.  I see it every day as I walk by and it’s a constant reminder that we aren’t totally moved-in yet.

(Note:  I know it takes time to furnish a house.  I know it can’t happen overnight.  But this is the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I’m in a permanent place.  This is the first time I’m actually in a house in which I don’t constantly think about packing up and leaving.  I’ve lived my live in a constant state of either just having unpacked or planning to pack up.  I’m home–for real–and gosh darn it, I want to FEEL like I’m home.)

So, I decided to just do it.  I’d been saving up my fun money to buy some items I knew I’d need for the room and I started my ‘recon’ missions to our local Home Goods, Target, Marshalls and TJMaxx Tuesday morning.  (It’s amazing the things one can get done when they don’t spend half their morning working out.)

I waited until I dropped Andrew off at the airport Thursday morning and then rushed off to get to work.  By that time, I’d already made my plan 🙂

Here is the room before:

 

After:

Don’t you just love it?!  Here’s the low-down:

-Rug from Home Goods; after having a terrible time trying to find the right blue/teal to complement the bedding, Emily suggested I go with a contrasting color.  This warm orange is perfect!

-Rocking chair is from the Nyes; they gave it to me a little bit ago and I knew I wanted it in this room

-Bedding is Pottery Barn; I fell in love with it FOREVER ago (we might have been in our rental in Orchard Park)

-Lamp is from Target; I’ve been in love with the white/yellow geometric one for so long, so I was excited to have an excuse to use it in this room.

-Artwork was framed at Hobby Lobby; all off-the-shelf frames but done by the framing person there; dark brown/espresso for the print of me (painting done by local artist Alix Martin)above the bed; blue with gray mats for the Jill Connor prints on the other side of the window

-table is from a local flea market when I was getting desperate to find something Saturday morning! I bought it for $20 and primed and painted it that day.  I went with a dark brown to keep it simple.  (See pictures below.)

-Shelves: they aren’t hanging up yet, but hopefully they will be soon.  We have two very large, very heavy brown shelves that are supposed to hang in a staggered fashion on the wall behind the bed, but we’re still in the process of trying to find smaller options.  If we can’t, the large ones will go up!

The following photos show smaller projects I did around the house throughout the week, too.

Dining room:

 

-moved the beautiful plates Andrew gave me for Christmas from the table to the buffet.  I like them there SO MUCH BETTER because you can actually see the beautiful birds and flowers.  Having them on the table without a good placemat/place to put a napkin was stressing me out!  This is such a better solution.  I replaced the green plates on the table and found teal mats and navy napkins to complete the look.

 

-Andrew hung what we call our ‘Penn State plates’ when he got home from his trip.  They’d been on the buffet, but I’d been anticipating hanging them there for awhile now.

Plant love:

 

-I repotted a bunch of plants this week; the two on the taller stands got brand new pots (found them at Lowe’s and they match the short one PERFECTLY.

Living room:

 

-Top picture has better color; bottom pic shows the rug after we moved it a bit.

-I bought the floor lamp at Target to give myself some task lighting for reading/studying in the mornings

-Found the rug for $80 on Craigslist while I was searching for a side table.  It was only in Orchard Park so I jumped at the chance to look at it.  It’s exactly what we’ve wanted in here and just haven’t gotten around to getting, because, you know, 8×10 rugs are like $400.

And, of course, I studied. (And did the three projects that were languishing on my to-do list.)

(But not as much as I thought I would!  All that house decorating got in the way…)

And, as if all this wasn’t enough, we FINALLY ordered an L-shaped desk for our other living space. It comes this week.

With every piece of furniture, every picture hung…I feel like I’m a bit more ‘home.’