Visitors and Projects

As I mentioned in pretty much every post last week, my sister graduated from high school on Wednesday!!  It was a wonderful (read: inside, air-conditioned, and not horrendously long) ceremony, and we had a GREAT party at my parent's house afterward.  Speaking of which, is anyone else an addict of Costco cake?  I'm telling you, apart from some high-end bakeries, they make the BEST cake for the money - hands down.  We consumed ridiculous amounts of it in celebration of my sister, so the calories won't count right??  Anyway... 

In honor of the occasion, we had the pleasure of hosting my cousin, Lauren, from California and her sweet Goldendoodle (Golden Retriever and Poodle mix), Luna, at our home the past few days.  Since Luna is a big chicken (scared of her own shadow sometimes), we wondered how the whole Ted/Luna relationship would work out.  I wasn't too worried, as Ted has never meet a dog he can't be friends with.  And boy was I right.  From the moment Lauren and Luna arrived, Ted and Luna were besties.  Here's a few sappy pics of them snuggling (WARNING - if you do not like adorable or cute images, please skip down to the remainder of this post which will contain the normal home decorating and DIY content!).

Cue the "Awwwwww!"

 

Puppy snuggle time is about the CUTEST thing in the world.  It was so fun having Lauren and Luna around for a few days, and we will miss them! 

As much as we've enjoyed celebrating, just like any giant event, it's nice when it's all over and everything quiets down again.  We're all enjoying the quiet around here, and making plans for the rest of our summer.  Eric and I will be jetting off for a few trips this summer (two to California and one to Colorado), and I'm sure we'll have a few camping adventuress here and there on the weekends.  I'm also trying to get all of my plans squared away for all of my upcoming projects.  I decided to leave the pedestal table the way it is for now, as I'm more and more in love with the honey brown wood, even though it doesn't go with the decor in our sitting room...  perhaps a location change is in order?  Who knows.   But I still haven't shown you my other finds from my amazingly productive day of goodwill shopping.  Enter, Mr. Bench:

Isn't he adorable?!  I love the lines he has, but I'm not crazy about the color.  While I love gold, this shade is very "fake" looking, and it's starting to rust in places.  Solution: spray paint it and cover the top with a nice thick cushion.  The only real problem I'm having is deciding on a color.  I love silver, but will silver spray paint look just as "fakey" as the current gold does?  My other option is white, but as it's final home will be our bedroom/bathroom, most of which is white already...  Will it be white-overload?  I'm going for the "clean," and "modern" look, not the "asylum" look.  Suggestions welcome, people!

Next, meet Mr. & Mrs. Porcelain Lamp

(Excuse the lighting, I only have a point and shoot camera) Whoever had these before was obviously very classy.  I ALWAYS pair one regular light bulb with one black light bulb, just to add some character to the space *giggle*  I ditched the very 90's shades right away and put them back in the donation box outside goodwill.  And since the bases only cost me...

 (wow, could I be a WORSE picture-taker?!) for the pair of them, I think I'll be investing in some nice drum shades like these at Target:

If I buy two shades and a can of spray paint (the bases obviously need some color help), I'll have two custom lamps for under $40.  Win!  I may even do some sweet detailing on the shade.  Maybe I'll stamp it a a bit with fabric paint, or put on some ribbon trim?  I've even batted around the idea of winding some sisal rope around the shade to give it a more Pottery Barn or Ballard look.  I'm just not sure what this would do the the light coming through the shade.  I like the shades to glow and I think the sisal rope might nip that in the bud.  I also can't decide whether to use a deep blue spray paint for the bases, perhaps in this shade:

Or maybe go with a lime green from Benjamin Moore?

 

Both of these are accent colors in my room of beiges, whites and blacks.  Ideas, suggestions??  I'd love your input!  Either way, both of these projects will at least be getting started this week.  Maybe even this afternoon (provided I EVER finish this post!). 

I should be bringing you another post tomorrow (maybe later today if i decide to be a rock-star blogger?) about the death of one of my loved ones... my beloved "C" decal on my wall.  It was a wedding gift from a friend, and up until Eric so very kindly offered to dust for me, it looked similar to these:

I bet you can't guess what happened while he was dusting (poor guy, he's so sweet - he felt terrible!).  I'm hoping to resurrect it this weekend with some TLC and glue... we'll see how it goes.  I hope you are enjoying your last workday before the weekend!  Happy Friday, friends!