a new rug in the living room.

we got a new rug for the living room!! it's the threshold dot tile rug in blue from target. it's one of those purchases that makes us feel more like adults (at least for me, jenn, it does). the rug we had been using was a rug i'd bought a few years back for my bedroom in an old apartment. it really didn't fit in with our living room, but it was a rug, we haven't felt the need to spend money on replacing it.

the old rug.

as you can see, it was a thin rug, and thus moved around a lot. especially with a nut of a dog like sanford, who will go on running tears through the dining and living room, it would often end up looking something like this:

what a jerk.

getting a rug pad to put underneath it helped, but it was still too light to even be able to vacuum easily. this new one is much more stable - i even already vacuumed it and was amazed by the difference!

in the end though, i just think it looks so much better. it's got more weight (physical and visual!) to it, making the living room feel more grounded and less haphazard. it's been in place for a little under two days, and both of us have already, randomly set out loud how much we love it. multiple times. it's that great!

the holidays, and curtains!

ah, the holidays. we had so much fun decorating the table for halloween, that we had to do it for christmas too! we kept the pretty antique bowl and added pinecones, berry garlands, and decorative candle holders from michaels . oh, and the pretty silver damaske table runner is from sur la table.

outside, we only put some string lights up on the two small trees in the front yard. it's not much, but we didn't want to put too much effort into the exterior decorations just yet this year.

we also put up a small christmas tree in the corner of the dining room (all the same decorations as last year) and - wait for it -purchased curtains!!!!!!!!!!! the curtain rods were from overstock, and the curtains themselves were from target (the sheer are nate berkus heathered herringbone in gray, and the decorative are threshold grayson toile floral in shell and chocolate). and yea, i was too lazy to iron them first, but i figure they'll de-wrinkle on their own over time.

what i really love about them though, is how much warmer and cozier they make the house. without them, and all our white walls, things felt really sharp and cold.

here are really old photos from when we first got our dining table, but they show you what our fishbowl of a dining and living room used look like:

and yea, we've cleared out so much of the erroneous stuff too - the bookshelf is long gone, and other than the wine fridge along that back wall, all of that has been removed and replaced with much nicer things (but that's for another post). it's really starting to feel like a home, guys!

and just a reminder, this is what our mantle looks like:

also, gold frog and rafiki wish you peace and serenity this christmas!