Bonus Room In Progress

I've been working on decorating our upstairs T.V. room, or bonus room, as we call them down south. This room is pretty much where everything that didn't fit in any of our other rooms has gone to live. I've made an effort lately to edit out some of the junk.

Last week we got a new couch, which motivated me to get a move on with finishing this room. In a better effort to share just how strange I truly am, it's only fair that I disclose that I named our couch Sophia Lauren. I call her Sophie sometimes, for real.

Rather than my usual before and after posts, I thought it might be cool to give a sneak peek of the room "in progress" and share a list of what I would like to eventually do. Once everything is finished I will share the before pics (which are quite grotesque) and the afters (with Sophia Lauren in all of her glory - girlfriend loves herself some pillows).

(For all of you creepers, that is Flipping Out on the T.V. - I love Bravo like no other.)

Bonus room to do list:

1.) New ceiling light fixture.

2.) Finish the wall design. I started painting the trellis pattern and then gave up on it. At first, I wanted to do the entire back wall -- but now I am thinking of just adding 2 more columns that would line up with the space behind the mirror. What do you think I should do? Oh, and if you suggest painting the entire wall, then you might need to grab a paintbrush and help a sister out.

3.) Add a word art canvas to the left wall behind Sophie. I have an old piece of art that I can paint over, which would keep cost down. I think what we have up now is too small in scale for the wall.

4.) Get a bar/ credenza for the wall where the guitar is. We want to have a place for storage and snacks/beverages. I was thinking that a tall, long and not too deep piece might fill the space nicely. I'd love to find an antique if we can.

5.) Area rug. I saw one at Ikea for $19.99 that I'm a big fan of, can't beat those Swedes' prices!

6.) Find a few cozy matching throws to keep Sophia Lauren warm in these cold winter months. Okay, I'll stop now.

Any suggestions? I'm all ears.

Wisconsin Comes to North Carolina

We had a wonderful visit with our family that was in town from Wisconsin last week. Some of the highlights included:

Celebrating our niece, Madelynn's first birthday a little early, getting our two niece's together in the same spot (a first!), the guys squeezing in two rounds of 18 holes, North Carolina BBQ at our favorite Charlotte spot (Madelynn was the hit of the joint), evening bonfires accompanied by hard cider and s'mores...

Fewf,

... a night out at a fancy French restaurant while my mom babysat miss Madelynn, capping off each night with trashy telivision (Teen Mom, The Kardashians and The Real Housewives of N.J.) and perhaps my favorite day of all, a picnic at a vineyard on a small island in the middle of a pond under a weeping willow tree.

Photo overload begins now:

(Addie and Maddie's first time meeting. When Addie walked in she said to Jenna, "Excuse me, Madelynn's mom, can you let her walk?")

(My mom made a bunch of the food for Madelynn's birthday party. We all thought it was pretty hilarious that she made 5 dozen meatballs and two trays of baked ziti for 7 adults. Let's just say we had a lot leftover.)

 (The mayor of Midwood Smokehouse, or Charlotte for that matter)

(Drinks to accompany our bonfire.)

(Passed out after a day at the winery)

We loved spending quality time with far-away family and are so happy that they made the trip down south! And yes, I thought about running away with Madelynn, but somehow I was able to hold myself back.

I can't wait to get together again at Christmas!

Visitors

I've been a little MIA lately, but with good reason. Jake's oldest brother, Zach, and his wife, Jenna, are down here visiting from Wisconsin. The icing on the cake, they brought their baby along -- our sweet little niece, Madelynn!

We're pretty busy catching up and loving on this little girl. I'm sure you can understand why...

Eleanor "Ellie" Pearl Lyke

Thrilled to announce that we are expecting another beautiful niece! My sister and brother-in-law are due right around New Year's Eve with Eleanor "Ellie" Pearl Lyke. I am so excited I can hardly stand it.

I was honored to take these birth announcement photos for them, as well.
 We can't wait to meet you, Ellie!

Sunday Dinner

Last Sunday my parent's hosted a wonderful Sunday dinner filled with lots of laughter and quality time. In true Sandy fashion, my mom cooked for 2 days to prepare for the occasion.

I'll let the pictures do the talking, but I have to explain that my mom's braised beef short ribs over homemade polenta topped with a port wine and mushroom reduction are last meal on earth worthy. My brother-in-law described them as coming from the inside of an asteroid sent from god, whatever that means.

A big thank you to the woman that holds us all together, we love you, Mama!

*I just realized that my sister and I are not in any of these photos, we were probably too busy feasting!

Guest Room Makeover

Jake and I have been hard at work this weekend with house projects. Jake cleaned out the horror that was our garage. We still want to work on organizing and would like to put in shelving, but for now I am very happy with the improvement.

We also redecorated one of our guest rooms. When we moved into our house we put most of our energy into getting our bedroom decorated, and spent a little bit of money and time on our other guest room - but we left this guest room totally untouched. Rather than leave the room empty, we used some old bedding and curtains that were handed down to us... Lets just say it was not our taste.

My goal was to make this room light and airy, welcoming for guests and relaxing - a breath of fresh air, if you will. With a small budget (less than $300) Jake and I headed to Ikea to see how far we could stretch our money. And stretch it we did!

Without further ado, our guest room makeover...

For those of you that would like the breakdown; the artwork above the bed, bedding, window treatments, plant, tray and candles are from Ikea. The green pillow, sheets and bud vase are from Homegoods and the bed skirt is from Target.

There are still a few things that I would like to add as finishing touches. I really want to utilize the wall space around the TV by creating a huge floor to ceiling gallery wall with photos of our friends and family. I'd also love an upholstered headboard with nailhead trim and a chandelier, kind of like the ones below.

As the daughter of an interior designer, I feel like I am constantly wanting to change things around here. Is there an area of your home that you are itching to makeover?

Wanderlust

I've always had a deep love for travel. There's nothing that brings me back to life quite like being in a new and unfamiliar place. I've been daydreaming about taking an excursion, just my husband and I. Someplace different.

We want to have several destinations on our trip with a nice balance of city and wilderness. Right now, I'm loving the thought of touring the Pacific Northwest and Canada. We could start in Seattle, head to Vancouver and maybe just maybe end in Banff in Alberta, Canada.

For inspiration, some of my favorite travel inspired pins as of late are below.

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Do you have any exciting travel plans coming up?

How about some Pacific Northwest suggestions for me?