New Decorating {For Tony}

Since Tony's been gone, I've been partially occupying my brain by doing some sprucing up in the decorating of our house. The day before he left to go back to Iraq, we went over to our friend's The Bullard's for dinner and their house was SO PERFECTLY decorated that I was immediately inspired to get busy! So, I'm now posting what I've done for him to see. I would make him wait and have a house full of surprises for him when he gets home, but let's face it.. that's a long time to wait, so here goes...

This is the kitchen table.

A close-up of the flowers... I love them...

A close-up of the new placemats, napkins, and napkin rings... LOVE the napkin rings. I had to have them when I saw them...

The cool new hanging frame thing on the wall in the kitchen beside the table. The beading on it matches the new napkin rings and the flowers on the table...

This is what's on the kitchen counter. Nothing's new, in fact, we've had these candle sticks since right after we got married, but remarkably, they match the new stuff on my table and that hanging frame above. It did all come from Pier One, though, so maybe that's why they match, even though they were stocked years and years apart?

This is on the kitchen counter now. Nothing's new but the picture in the frame. I love it.

The new arrangements on the mantle...

Okay, these are the built-ins in the living room. Some of the pictures in the frames are new ones, but other than that, everything's the same. Except for one thing. Can you tell, those of you that have been to my house? Do you recognize the new items?

THESE are what is new!!!! These are Willow Tree figurines and I have been wanting to collect them FOREVER!! So, last week, I was at Belk's and they were on sale, so I got these two to start my collection. The mommy with the little girl and the mommy with the baby boy. OMGosh, make me cry. I LOVE them. So, now, I have a new item to add to my want files (a blog will soon be coming detailing my want files). Pier One has a GORGEOUS green, distressed curio cabinet that I WANT to start putting all my little stuff in.

This piece of furniture is also NOT new. I just moved it. It was sitting in the foyer and since our foyer has a VERY high ceiling, it looked lost in there. Completely lost. I had been wanting this bench forever when I finally broke down and got it. And then when I got it into the foyer, I didn't like it there at all, but didn't know where in the world else to put it, so there is sat. Until I had the bright idea to try it in the living room in front of the big window there. PERFECT. So, now, I've ordered a sweet cream colored distressed cabinet for the foyer and it arrived this past week while we were at the beach. I'm planning to pick it up tomorrow and when I have the foyer all decorated, I'll post pictures of that. For now, the foyer is completely empty.

In our bathroom, I had a small flower arrangement in the corner that looked completely lost. We have high ceilings in this house and sometimes I forget about that. So, anyway, this is the new flower arrangement for the master bath and I love it.

This is the arrangement that was in our bathroom. Now it's in the front bath. It looks much more homey in there.


This picture of my sweet boy is also a new addition to our bathroom. Tony, it's hanging on the wall of the door that leads to the bedroom... right above the lightswitch.

This sign, I got at Target and it hangs above the door in the back hallway, leading to the garge. It's to always remind us to do just this each time we leave our house. :)

These are new in the back foyer. I love scrolls and these frame the pantry nicely.

This is my new Pottery Barn bedding that Tony got me for Mother's Day. I'm SO in love with it. It's comfortability factor makes it exceedingly difficult to drag myself out of bed in the morning. Oh, and every night since I put it on the bed, Emma has conveniently fallen asleep in there. Conicidence? I think not!

These are the new flowers that match the bedding perfectly.

This is us. It hangs over my huge jewelry cabinet. Tony's still workin on fillin it up too, he has QUITE a ways to go... ;)

This is our new family portrait (thank you amy!) that now hangs above our bed with the pretty new sconces I found that match the frame wonderfully!

This is just another view so you can see it all together, with the matching curtains...

This gorgeous canvas of Tony and Noah hangs in the hallway that leads to Noah's room. He loves it. We stop there everytime we go to his room and he points to it and says, "DADADADADA!!!". It's very sweet. He gets all excited and claps his hands...

And this is just an old flower arrangement I had wasting away in the pantry closet. It now sits on the dresser in the spare bedroom, along with tons of old pictures. I don't know why I never put new pictures in these frames...

Okay, folks, that's all the new stuff I've done. I'll update as I continue finding cool new treasures! :)