All Together Now: "Awwwwww"

Allow me to gush a bit about my terrific husband, who, though he works about 100 hours a week, still managed to do a ton around the house this past weekend. I wish I were as handy (and hard-working) as he is, but I'm not and I can't be trusted with a drill. That being said, Matthew spent the weekend putting up curtain rods, roman shades, and light fixtures. On Monday, he worked a full day, came home and cut the grass, and then grilled hamburgers. Yeah, I'm pretty lucky.

Now, for a house update. We are slowly making changes, adding furniture, and actually "decorating." Turns out, I'm not much of a decorator. But here are some photos of what's going on:

We ordered this jute diamond rug from West Elm for the living room, hoping that the brown in it will go nicely with our yet-to-be-delivered espresso sofa. Side note: The UPS man is loving me lately.

Matthew hung the curtain rods, which we got for cheap at Linens 'n Things because they are going out of business. The red paisley curtains are from Ballard Designs. (The photos on the mantle are only temporary. Still figuring out what to do there.)

So my heart really wanted the Ribbon Border Roman Shades in Oatmeal with Redwood from Pottery Barn, but my wallet wasn't so into them. We wound up getting these red roman shades from Target, and they look just fine. Matthew took down the old, ugly ceiling fan and replaced it with this drum shade, which we found for $12 at Pottery Barn.

This groovy occasional chair was an early Christmas present from Mom. She ordered it from Grandin Road. We may add a cushion but don't have one just yet.

I'm not posting a picture of this, but we did make one additional "update" over the weekend. We bought a new toilet seat--a fancy slow-close one. I won't name names, but someone in the household isn't much on putting the seat down. Maybe this will help?

Only 20 days until the new couch arrives!