M2- WEEK TWENTY TWO

This week I accomplished a few less-than-thrilling-chores. You know the ones... the chores that no one will notice you accomplished but they are so necessary. For example, my computer needed some serious attention. I have been snapping pictures like crazy but have spent little-to-no-time organizing them. So I plopped down in my office for an hour or two and organized until I caught myself deleting many pictures so that I didn't have to sort them. So then I stopped. For the sake of my pictures.

I also had a design/decorating fail. People occasionally ask me how we've pulled off some of our projects. Like, how do we know they will work out? Well, the truth is, we don't. We just jump in and hope for the best. Usually our projects can be corrected with a new can of paint or piece of drywall if it goes wrong. But this week I had a disappointment. I decided to buy slipcovers for my living room chairs. Our living room has been a hodgepodge of hand-me-downs, estate sale finds, and thrift store purchases. The bones of it have potential, but it needs some touches to pull it together. I've been struggling with the colors because I've always felt bound by the pattern in our chairs and haven't fell in love with any scheme that coordinates. So I gave myself permission to cover them so I could turn my living room into the glam room I imagined. So the story goes like this:

1. I fell in love with a slipcover material and color
2. Bought the slipcovers and brought them home
3. Quickly draped one on a chair
4. Realized a cover made for a wing chair won't work with my style chair
5. Planned to exchange the cover for the other chair style
6. Realize that the only chair style in this material is for a recliner. FAIL.
7. Decided to try a different material slipcover that is made for normal chairs
8. Brought it home and draped it quickly on one chair
9. Realized that the color is exactly the same as my current chairs and the fit is pretty big
10. Feel totally defeated because I got my hopes up for this glam living room that will not happen yet

Picture 1: Chairs now
Picture 2: Love the fabric, hate the fit
Picture 3: Hate the fabric and the fit

In the world of slipcovers there does exist the product I am looking for. But they are more expensive (of course!)... and half of the funds for this project were in gift cards.. so for now, we are going to continue with the tan-yellow-green-purple-orange-burgundy-black-white room that we have going on. Someday it will come together!

Thanks for letting me rant. It's helping me get over it.

In happy news! I found a delicious sugared almond recipe! I know they aren't difficult to make, but the last few recipes have been to.. um.. thick? Does that make sense? They just weren't as good as this one. So this is my new go-to recipe. If you don't know, I eat oatmeal every morning and some sugared almonds on top are so, so good! It's my little treat when I need to change things up. Here is my oatmeal station at home:

And! You can see a glimpse of it in the first almond picture, but we got a new dining set! Our friends graciously passed it along. Thanks friends! The bonus with this set is that the table is larger and there are an additional two chairs. Plus, two of the chairs have arms--> T's favorite. (If you are interested in our  old set, my parents plan to place it on Craig's List. So let us know and we will pass along the link!)

Table w/o the leaf

Finally, if you are bored and looking to read something, this article (well.. rant) is very interesting. I was told, and I've told many people that you don't go into medicine for the money, but this lays it out a little more clearly. Again, only if you are into that kinda thing.

Have a great week! It's a test week in this house so we will have lots of nose-in-book moments. What are your plans?