What to do??

It's summer time, or well, it's pretty darn close. Anything over 70 degrees counts as summer in my book. You know what that means? Cotton dresses, swimming pools, tan lines and - yep, you guessed it - MOVING! Ugh!

Moving is the one thing about this summer I'm not looking forward to. There's boxes and cleaning and lifting, oh my! It's all very overwhelming and kind of, sort of exciting all at the same time.

I've found a very cute condo not too far from where I live now. I love this neighborhood and I'm glad I'll get to still shop at the same grocery store and eat at the same restaurants. I know this part of town and it knows me. I like it that way. What I don't know yet is how I'm going to decorate this new home?!? I need paint and furniture and drapes, oh my!

Where do I begin?

dining room 

Ok, so this is what we see when you walk in the door. Small - yes, green - yes, bad light fixture - yes. But, this is where my round pedestal table and swanky new chairs are going to work their magic and make this look suitable enough for Martha and Oprah to come over for dinner.

living room

And here's where my new white slipcovered couch that I just bought is going to go. (FYI - it looks nothing like that white couch) It's really cute and looks like it came from Pottery Barn. Hopefully, when I get these walls a nice shade of crisp blue/grey and throw in a some fantastic lamps and a shabby chic coffee table it will be blog worthy. Stay tuned.

kitchen

And the kitchen... the heart of a home. Well lets just say I hope a "heart" doesn't haven't to be big to be good. I think the word that comes to mind is "cozy" - and that's fine by me. It's got all I need and enough counter space for my mixer!

deck

Again, let's remember... this isn't my furniture or my weight bench. I can assure you, all of that will be long gone once I set up shop. But, it does make me wonder what in the world I'm going to do out here. It's a great deck with a nice view. I haven't really got a plan yet, but I'm working on it. That outdoor kitchen, hydrangea bush and hammock may still have to wait until I build that dream house. 

And so, there you have it - the tour before the tour. Hopefully the next pictures I put up will be after some painting, delivery of the new furniture and the hanging of the drapes. Maybe I can find some friends to come and help... you know, the way they do the hanging of the greens at church? I think this would be a great group project! 

Matchmaker, matchmaker...

No, I'm not about to turn this blog into a dating site or diary of my love life. Well at least not that love life... but I will open it up to one of the love's of my life. CRAIGSLIST!

"Find me a find..." comes to mind whenever I log on and start searching. I'm not often looking for anything in particular... just looking. It's how I found Cody's dog crate, sold my washer and dryer and even found that round mirror I have big plans for but have not yet found the time to get started. 

But, finally I've got a purpose in my search and I can't wait to find it.

I want and need this table. It's from Coastal Living Magazine and it wants to leave those pretty little pages and come live with me. 

And, it would like for 4 of these chairs to come live with it. However, my pocketbook doesn't really agree. That table sells for $1,729 and those chairs... wait for it... $549 each. That's right - per chair, not for a set of 4. 

No, I haven't lost my mind. Even if I rolled like that I'm not sure I could "roll" like that. Particularly for a round wooden table and 4 wooden chairs. For that kind of money I'm going to need some gold or silver or it at least needs to come with dinner prepared every night. 

In comes Craigslist and why I love it so. I'm not scared to throw a little paint on something or break out the staple gun and reupholster a chair seat. So, here's what I'm on the prowl for. I have found a number of tables that might make it. Here's one and I sort of even like the color. 

Those chairs aren't even terrible, but not my favorite. My plan is to find the table I want first and even if it comes with chairs I don't like just throw them back on Craigslist and sale them for the cost of the paint its going to take to work on my little project.

And these chairs would do it. They're not the Coastal Living chairs but they still look pretty good to me. But, that table is not what I'm looking for. And so the search continues...

There's also no way that I'll be buying two dining room suits from Craigslist. Who needs 2 tables and 8 chairs in their house? Not to mention, I've still got my current dining room table and chairs. Maybe I should put those on Craigslist and get them sold first...