five fall things

happy halloween! the title of this post should be ‘girl stays in on halloween; hates herself.’ the weather is terrible tonight in tennessee so we will be staying in, catching up on magazines and eating inhuman amounts of candy. i am sad to say my ideas for halloween costumes will have to wait till next year-idea one and idea two.

besides tonight’s weather, i love this season. i love october. it is not only my birthday month, but the most beautiful time of year and i am sad to see it go tomorrow. to celebrate october, here are five things i love about this fall and also a little peak into this past weekend.

1. front porches (cinderella pumpkins)

2. firepits and smores

3. fireplaces filled with wood…furbabies (meet sampson!!)

4. flowers – decorative kale

5. family – my sweet cousins

a few fall links from around the web. how to cozy up your home for fall. spiced pumpkin seed recipes. thirty wonderful autumn ideas. ten halloween movies to watch tonight. festive creepy cocktails for tonight.

and check out my lovely ‘fall’ pinterest board.

all images in the post are mine. xoxo madeline

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dining chair ideas

we have been saving for new dining room furniture for a long time – not only because it gets expensive, also because we can’t decide. our taste has changed so much over the past two years, but we are finally learning our personal design style. this week, we bought these new dining chairs (image one) – a knockoff of the eames molded plastic. i hate knockoffs (!), but i would rather have them now and invest in the real ones down the line. i only bought four dining chairs so i would really like to buy a set of captains chair for the ends. here are my four ideas (that i can afford). which one do you like? i already have one in mind that is my favorite…go with the upholstered tweed, the clean matching white, the saarinen, or the contrasting tolix look?

all chairs from overstock

xoxo madeline

monday wishlist

online shopping is a bit of a problem for me – i love browsing pinterest at night for things I would love to add to my collection – but I have no money. it is nice to dream. the disjointed theme of today’s wishlist seems to be rose gold, gold, black and a little malachite. i love all of these looks for the season and just bought a similar parka at asos. enjoy fall shopping!

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hairpin ottoman restyle

Our weekend has been full of much needed family time as my sister and brother-in-law were in town from Houston. A weekend of reunions – family, neighborhood, old friends, and sisters. Every time my sister and I see one another it is like no time has passed; for this I am thankful, because I can not go long without her in my life.

With some time to reflect on Sunday night in front of the firepit, I thought I might share my hairpin ottoman restyle story. Our home is a 50’s rancher with a lot of character – but we are still working on making this character look current. Insert picture of wood panelling.

{before: living room with wood coffee table}

We have been ‘borrowing’ this wooden coffee table to pair with our 9′ (?!?!) long sofa because not many tables will work with it. How do you arrange furniture in this forever long room? I was out shopping in the antique district in Nashville and ran into Pre-Post Modern, a local favorite. I spotted this hairpin leg ottoman and snatched it up.

{vintage ottoman find}

The atomic ranch fabric may work for some – but not our style, so I started shopping around for fabrics. I have seen a lot lately in bold graphic black and white that I have liked and later almost settled on a navy velvet. I went home to mull it over and looked through old fabric scraps and found something that will work for the interim – the fabric I chose is still busy enough to not show every imperfection.

{fabric shopping: graphic stripe + navy velvet}

It took a couple of hours total to transform the piece – I unscrewed the legs, suspended them and spray painted them gold with trusty Rustoleum brass spray paint. I love this product and highly recommend. There were not 1, not 2, but 6 layers of old, dingy fabric under the atomic ranch fabric. Removing the staples went quickly with a flathead screwdriver and pliers. The foam was in decent shape so I cut the fabric to size, restapled to the frame, and replaced the legs. This is the easiest upholstery job for amateurs like myself.

{stripping the old fabric and staples}

{after: ottoman still drying}

I really love the final product in our home and we have enjoyed having a place to kick up our feet or work on our computers. We are planning on also using hairpin legs on our DIY dining table – post coming soon.

{living room with new ottoman}

madeline

catbird seat

i owe a few promised posts. my little family (my husband and dog) just got done with our nightly routine of walking and fixing dinner together. i said i was going to post my ottoman restyle and got a little too lazy sunday, but then i realized i have still not posted pictures of birthday dinner at catbird seat. it was really a perfect night. the restaurant has a set menu and personalized mine to be pescetarian. each course had a wine pairing (so delicious!)

{outdoor sign and one happy birthday girl}

{oyster + apples, wild rice krispy | hot chicken}

{roasted vegetables, beets, and crispy rice | poached halibut with egg yolk}

{chef + wine pairing | roasted fall vegetables}

{egg with custard + thyme | bourbon beads with cherry crisp}

{pretty + personal menu}

awesome food, awesome night. thank you sweetheart. ottoman restyle tomorrow.

sunday thoughts

i love lazy sundays. it is a beautiful fall morning in nashville, anyone else love fall? here are some thoughts for your sunday. i love these desktop backgrounds from lauren essi of blueeyebrowneye that were featured this week on designlovefest. they are so encouraging on days when you spend the whole day on your computer. amiright?

{desktop backgrounds from lauren essi}

click the images to link to her website. later today, i will be posting an ottoman restyle – let’s get on to making things.

birthday week

So my long awaited birthday surprise date was Wednesday night….

and my husband surprised me with a dinner at the Catbird Seat! I secretly act like I don’t like surprises, but I always end up liking the end result. More to come on this dinner on tomorrow’s post – basically it will be all food pictures. I wore my new Anthropologie dress. My two best friends and I treated Anthropologie’s sale room like it was our own personal shopping experience Saturday and bought everything.

My husband, Josh, surprised me with something I have been eagerly anticipating, an Instax polaroid camera!  I have been playing with it all weekend.

{my new fujifilm instax}

While we were at Catbird, I could not stop staring at this beautiful light fixture (sorry for the poor picture). I knew I had seen it before and have been searching around for it and found it finally.

{lighting at catbird seat}

It is a Lindsay Adelman, lighting genius, of course. Below also in a mint version (!).

{lindsay adelman: click to link}

 

Since it is is out of my price range and I have been contemplating purchasing or DIYing a Sputnik style, I was excited to find this inexpensive DIY version from her.

{you make it: click to link}

we are relaxing and recharging today (read: spending the day on pinterest) and visiting with friends tonight. have a great saturday.

hello

Yesterday was my 27th birthday (I claim 25 forever). What better day to start a new blog? Fitzgerald said it best: 

“Life starts all over again, when it gets crisp in the fall.”

So welcome to my site; I am anxious for new beginnings. Today just this-wouldn’t it be lovely to get this delivery of gold balloons on your birthday…image: via

madeline