Our new kitchen!

Other than wishing a happy 27th birthday to my husband Mark, I'll cut right to the chase today, people!

When we left off, we were here:

UPDATE:  Here is a REAL flashback to just four months ago when we bought the house:

And now, four weeks later (half of which were spent on the rug which must not be named), we're HERE!!!! :

I am LOVING the new kitchen. As soon as we started bringing in the counter tops and putting the tile on the walls, I became super giddy. I have had so much fun moving things around and decorating the new and improved space!

So, we spent half of the last four weeks waiting on 'the rug' that I had ordered towards the end of the kitchen renovation. Bad timing on my part since the 'icemaggedon' hit directly after I ordered said rug and it ended up taking 15 days to arrive. Plus, now that it's here, I'm not sure it's any better than the previous rug!

Here are the two rugs, I want your vote! Tell me which one I should keep in the kitchen:

Should I keep this old rag rug that gives it sort of an Anthropologie vibe?

...Or should I continue my love of stripes with this black and white rug that lends itself more to the East Coast casual vibe?

(it has been rainy for a while so the images with the black and white rug are more yellow due to the fake lighting...please don't hold that against the rug or these photos!)

And of course, here are some more photos of my new favorite place in the house:

Taking on this project was stressful and tiresome, but I'm incredibly proud of Mark and I for doing it so quickly and without any major breakdowns. We had the help of Mark's dad Ian and I couldn't thank him enough for the knowledge and elbow grease he's contributed just so I can have a pretty kitchen.

I'll be doing a price and project breakdown here later to let you know how we did it and how much it cost. But for now, we have a beautiful kitchen. Except for this eyesore below...her time here is quickly coming to an end!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

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One more thing! Please be sure to check out my Etsy shop! I've added lots of things, tweaked some things, and lowered prices on many of my handmade custom items. I hope you can find something you like and I always welcome your feedback. Thanks so much!!!

Five on Friday vol. 4

It's Fridayyyyy!!! Only one more Friday until we all get to enjoy a long weekend! Unless of course, you work retail, which I don't suggest doing. Sorry bout ya!

As usual, I'm linking up with sweet April over at A. Liz Adventures for Five on Friday. Here we go!

-one-

My real life friend turned blogger friend Emily at Brown Eyed Girl is coming to hang out in D-Town this weekend. 

She relocated to Houston in February and is heading up here for a visit. We don't have many set in stone plans, but so far on the list is a game night, housewarming party, possible Aveda appointment (Jody do you have anything left?), a visit to Velvet Taco (if you're in DFW and you've never been, go NOW!) and possibly some adventures in Fort Worth. Merge all of that with my never-ending to-do list for the house and we've got a busy weekend ahead of us!

-two-

I got the energy last night to add a little artwork to my now-cured chalkboard wall in the kitchen. It's my first go at it and I'm not in LOVE with it but I'm just learning the chalk game and I hope I can get more creative and skilled with chalk as I go. Check it out:

(don't forget-we plan to replace counters, back splash, and appliances down the road!)

-three-

Ok, so this is kind of a continuation of two, but the documentation of the photo wall last night turned into a doggie photoshoot. I've mentioned our dog Motley a few times, but I've yet to do a dedicated "about Motley" on the sidebar...I need to get to it! At least my dog lovers might appreciate it...I know one blogless girl that would, at least!

-four-

This week has been super off for me because of my trip from Monday through Wednesday night to Las Vegas. I don't typically post all the photos I take, so here are a couple more images of my work week:

For any new readers that don't understand, I work for a residential interior design company as a junior designer so we go to site meetings in Las Vegas twice a month for this particular client. I posted about our stay yesterday, here!

-five- 

Mark and I have been thinking about buying a new couch ever since we got married, so it's almost 10 months now. We don't want to break the bank, especially since it will see SOME wear because of our pets and my extreme clumsiness, but we also want something that will hold up pretty well to all of the above. We know we want a medium sized grey sofa with a chaise lounge, and there are plenty of choices out there. Does anyone have a recommendation or a warning about any sort of place we would try and buy from? 

I saw this sofa at World Market a few weeks ago for $700 and casually mentioned it to Mark. 

I practically flipped out when I was back in the store last weekend and saw it was marked down to $599. It's super tempting! Anyone have any experience with World Market quality vs cost? We need to replace our tattered Ikea love seat, stat!

Well that's it for this week! Sorry for the radio silence earlier, but tune in next week for my Emily weekend update and hopefully some progress pictures and DIY's on the house! 

(progress sneak peek! more to come next week!)

Happy Weekend!