Now that Halloween is over, Fall is back!

Well, I'm only about 15 years behind other bloggers in showing off my fall table.  And you'll have to excuse the Halloween decorations that snuck in there (they will hang around until Christmas, kinda like your in laws).  When I first asked the hubs to build me a console table, I had dreams of it going in the tiny foyer/hallway where our front door opens to the living room.  However, he likes to do things big (go big or go home, right?) and the table was too big for that spot.  People just wouldn't be able to walk around the table.  So its new home is in front of our stairs, kinda under our TV, but it houses the electrical equipment (cable box, dvd player, router, and a black box that I have no clue what it is or does) and little else.  SO I decorated it for FALL!!

Excuse the bad qualities of photos, like I've said before, I am 125% amateur and this table was hard to capture, maybe because it was so BIG!

I thrifted/ and or was given every single piece on this table except the lamp.  That baby came from Tarjay for a mere $14 (whaaaa? two separate pieces!) and I'm kicking myself for not buying more, but since I was just on a laundry detergent run, coming home with seven lamps might of been excessive.

Can't have fall without the foxes! My three year old is obsessed with that song and already knows all the words (trying to teach her the dance too but she's not going for it).  Every time we're out and see a fox she wants to bring it home, but even I have my limits.

How do YOU style a table that is not up against the wall? Send me some of your best work!!

Enjoy~
xo Stacie

A Console table even yo' momma would be proud of

Our living room is super odd shape, like there are some stairs just chilling, in the living room, sometimes they watch cartoons with us.  Decorating, and more importantly, furniture arrangement has been tough.  So much so, that we just didn't do it.  Don't get me wrong, we had some style in that room, but nothing like you see in a magazine (you know the ones, you sit there and drool over them and pin them and then pretend you can afford them).  Slowly, veeeerrrryyy slowly, we are upgrading the living room to be more of a family room.  

One new addition that we've put in is a new console table.  Most of these console tables will go behind your average couch, ours? Nope, it is chilling in front of those stairs that enjoy episodes of New Girl with me.  We needed something that would hold our DVD player and cable box and router and what not.  However, we couldn't have your average tv stand/media center due to the big hulking stairs and little ones whose goal in life is to scare the crap out of their parents.  Plus, nice tall tv stands were over $150 and well, that darn poor thing just keeps getting in our way.  

So finally, finally, I convinced the hubby to build me a tall table.  Ok, truthfully, I really wanted an old dresser there but the hubs doesn't care for that kind of style and this is what we compromised on (alright, I caved once he said, I'll build it myself, nothing is sexier than a man building you something).  

I just want to warn you, this sucker is built entirely out of 2x4's!! That's right, 2x4s!!! say whhaaaa?? 

Folks, this table is NICE.  I was playing researching on Craigslist and a very similar table was for sale for almost $200! This one cost us maybe $40 to make but we also had all the wood already.   We followed Ana White's tutorial a little but kudos to the hubs because he pretty much just looked at her design and went to town.  But then, again he is a carpenter for a living so he's got an eye for this stuff (but it also means he doesn't really want to come home and build things either, sad face for me).  Expect a tutorial on how he did this easy peasy in the coming days.  

You can see some of our Halloween decorations have already made the table.  I still need to find baskets to put on that shelf but can't decide on the look I want yet.  I am so excited to start decorating this for holidays (and don't you worry, Target is already getting rid of Halloween and putting out Christmas) and hang our stockings from it and love on it and give it a name and...... you get the point.  I love our new table, and the fact that the hubs hand built it, just means it's loved that much more.

the whole family got in on this thing! Sanding machine she was!

Hope you all have a great fall weekend! Go pick some apples or pumpkins! We are headed up north for that wedding I was telling you about here, and we are mighty excited for some family time!

What are your favorite baskets to decorate with, and where do you find them?

Enjoy~
xo Stacie

Playroom in Progress

A few weeks ago our house was invaded by toys.  Big toys, little teeny tiny toys.  So much that I decided the only thing these kids were getting for Christmas were clothes and books.  But then I remembered we had a basement.  A somewhat big, unfinished in all its glory, basement.  Where toys could go and die for all I cared (that's a lie, I care, and I clean them too).  The problem was, our unfinished basement had become our Monica closet.  You know, from Friends, how Monica was OCD about cleaning, but really she just shoved it all into her closet? Well, that was what our basement had become.  And it's not like we didn't go down there every single day either, our laundry room is in the basement.  But it just accumulated over time (no not really, it didn't take long at all).

We begun the process of finishing the basement a few years ago, and just got sidetracked with other things (like baby number 2).  So there is a room framed up down there.  Just sitting full of crap that we could sell.  So I finally bit the bullet and sold stuff, and cleaned down there.  Boy did I clean.  We decided a long time ago that "my" area would be over by the laundry, because that is where I spend a lot of time anyways.

The already framed up room would be either a guest room or a kids playroom.  Since we don't typically have a lot of out of town guests we opted to remove the closet we had framed up and expand the room to a play room.  But then we ran out of money again (typical right?).  So I improvised played on Pinterest for ideas.

what playroom currently looks like

what the playroom currently looks like

It's a work in progress and it's slowly coming together, but it's in the basement and I don't have to look at it if I want too (I just advert my eyes when walking to the laundry).  I've got a Pinterest playroom board if you want to follow along here.  I'll try to keep you updated as we make progress but for now, here's some of my inspiration:

Rug / CB2 small item storage / Little Felix Chair (Azure) / CB2 dining table / Fab round bean bag

I CAN'T wait to finish the playroom and the whole basement all together.  For now, I will slowly thrift and search for cheaper versions of the above while my kids out grow those super large floor toys (that I can. not. stand.). I enjoy the process of creating a room and can sometimes be impatient, however, the kids don't mind, so I will take a page out of their book and let it go.  For now....

Enjoy~
xo Stacie