an honest review of the lappjung rug

I have been thinking about doing this review for awhile so here we are. Perhaps you have seen this IKEA rug online. I am sure that's the first place I saw it. I think I saw it initially on a home blog or two and then on IKEA's website. 

Perhaps you saw it looking cute here on a beautiful mess' blog... 

It wasn't exactly what I had in mind for our living room, but it was $70 at IKEA so I thought it was worth a shot. (They have re-done the style of it and took off the pop of color on the edges and upped the price a little bit) I thought "let's be trendy hipsters." Okay, that was not my total thought process, but it is a very trendy rug that may be out of style by next spring. How long can the tribal trend last anyway?

So we brought it home and laid it out and eventually decided to keep it. 

(we have a made a few changes to the living room since these pictures)

However, that was then and this is now. 

The rug is cute. Yes. I still enjoy my living room and feeling like I am on top of current fashion trends for the season, but unless you like to see every single speck of dirt, etc. that lands on your carpet I would not recommend this rug. The white seems to make any little thing that does not belong on the carpet a little more obvious. And as seen in the photo above almost looks like it has weird smudges of black on it now. 

Plus I am not a vacuum the living room every day kind of gal. (does that type of gal exist?) I don't mind say 2-3 times a week, but I feel like 5 days a week is asking a lot and that's the maintenance of this rug demands. Boo. 

Perhaps this rug could work in a bedroom or an office, a room that does not have a lot of traffic, but our living room gets a lot of use. I am not sure how much longer me and the lappljung rug's relationship is going to last. 

Do you have this rug? Do you have a different impression? Or is it just the result of having any rug with white in it? 

one year in new england

We rounded our first year in New England in August. It's hard to believe that last August we pulled into the North Shore of Boston and it was all new. We have adjusted and...are continuing to adjust. It's funny to me how whenever a season changes I feel a little anxious. It's like a reminder of the change and how much really feels new here. I have mixed feelings about fall coming. The winter was really hard last year. It was dark and snowy and icy especially after Christmas, but when it finalllly got warm (ish) in May, it made me a little queasy just because it reminded me of what it was like when we moved here. Weird?

With that said, here are five things that I am loving about living here so far...

1... I am so grateful that we have a house we really love here. There is still a lot to do, but generally it's great.

just bought the house! (left)                     nemo snowstorm (right)

2...Fresh local food. My two favorite spots are Richardson's for fresh milk and eggs (& ice cream) and Tendercrop Farm in Newbury. Both are a bit of a drive (about 20 minutes in opposite directions) so I make these trips on different days. But both have tractors and cows to look at - which Jude loves now. Richardson's sell a gallon of whole organic local milk for $2.60....can you beat that??

3...The people. I feel like because of the type of neighborhood we are in we are more social than we were in Virginia. We love our neighbors. We take turns grocery shopping for each other. We spontaneously eat meals together. We love being near to Gordon College and Gordon-Conwell Seminary and the community of people that are here because of those two schools. We love the leaders we are working with from both schools too and they have already become so dear to us.

4...Living near Boston. We do not get into the city all that much. We live about 30 minutes North, but we love having the train run through town. We can hear it from our house and Jude listens for it as it chugs by. And a trip into the city is always fun.

5...There's probably other things, but for five I am going to go with flea markets, awesome antique stores and free stuff. I find more things on the side of the road than I know what to do with. Often they are things we could really use and it's great. 

Life is different here in a lot of ways, but as Philip reminded me when we moved initially, we still end the day together and that does not change. 

bridal parties

hello all. 

i feel like i should start with a greeting because i so rarely blog. i honestly think about blogging a few times a week. but then...i just do not. so sorry if you were wondering the scuttlebutt is in my world, you could just check instagram or twitter. 

we had a very full summer that i have a few pictures i can share soon, but for now i wanted to share a new idea i had. i occasionally do bridal party gifts and love getting to be a part of that special day! 

so i wanted to make one delightful button a little bit more accessible to brides....

(these two weddings are both friends from richmond, va and they are wearing one delightful button earrings)

for bridal parties, we are doing a discount - that is already added in & you can simply purchase the number you need for your bridal party. i can customize from earrings i already have listed or do a special fabric or color flower to fit your wedding colors. 

and then i will do custom gift wrapping for your bridesmaids...

or specify that you would just like for me to send the gift wrapping supplies 

and you can wrap them yourself. (this might be helpful if you chose different earrings for different bridesmaids)

not a bad deal if i do say so myself. 

be back soon? maybe? 

happy monday! 

perks of my "job"

i really love working with small local shops. most of the shops i sell in are close enough that i can deliver their orders directly to them. the other day jude and i took a little trip about 20 minutes up the road to rockport, ma. it is beautiful...especially in the summer. 

we enjoyed a chocolate filled croissant, one of my favorites.

starting to add this new little stamp on the backs my earrings + accessories. 

happy weekend! cheers to the heat wave almost breaking...but not yet today! we're looking at a heat index of 110! 

my love language: flea markets + yard sales

Our house is coming together and still feels like a major work in progress at the same time. Here is Jude prior to leaving for the Adirondacks in early June. Our deck was basically a basketball court. A very dingy basketball court for a very sweet little basketball player. I bought the hoop at a yard sale for $5.

Philip power-washed the deck once we got back from camp in July. And it looks so much better. And yard sale purchase for the win again...

Can you believe got this at a yard sale? Pier One, purchased the year prior and let's just say we saved about $1,000. God frequently takes care of us through yard sales. It is sort of silly, but I do find that to be true by the way we find the exact thing we were hoping for that we could never afford at full price. 

We have been also looking for newel posts at flea markets. Newel posts...those bannister things if you are not familiar. So far we have no quite found what we are looking for. And our stairs unfortunately still have unfinished steps (no hardwood) and one of those awesome half dry walls. 

Our flea market of choice is this happy place called Todd Farm Flea Market in Rowley, MA. It opens at I want to say 5am, but I have never made it out there before 6:30am and by then it is packed with vendors and people. It is my mothership. We usually grab some iced dunkin donuts or this week we stopped at Marty's a local delicious donut place in Ipswich. 

We stroll Jude man around and look for treasures. Hold me back because seriously, I could buy so much. 

Here are a few of my treasures from this week: 

And this is as far as we have gotten with them: 

(spray painted the B grey - scored the B for $10)

The little wooden box is being used for incoming mail and sunglasses, just counter storage in our kitchen. 

And the antlers I will do something fun with. So far they are gold tipped. I found a really cool oval shaped frame that I considered buying and mounting the antlers in the middle. One of the men working a booth asked if I were going to do some sort of voodoo worship and I said no....

Other finds recently from Todd Farm...

We also found this fireplace there (taken from a Harvard apartment) & painted it white. Philip thinks it should be painted a different color...thoughts? 

And this little table from a house in Cape Cod. Philip thought the seller said he got it from a cape as in the style house, but I am pretty sure no one would feel the need to tell you that got a table from a certain style house. (e.g. I got this table from a colonial...not necessary information)

There are all kinds of people at the flea market. There are some booths that are pure junk. And there are some that are the best kind of old stuff. There are also ladies that know how to style their booths and mark up the prices, but I am generally not looking for that type of thing. 

I have to laugh too because every time I have gone I see these girls - probably in their twenties - who get all dressed up hipster, dressy and march around like they own the place. Sometimes they have a little dog as an accessory. I feel like they think they are on some sort of vintage, repurposing home show. But I have never seen a camera crew with them. Philip doesn't understand why I think its funny, but its probably because I secretly wish I was them and had my own tv show too. 

Todd Farm closes in I want to say October so I have got to get my fix before the season closes. Its seriously tempting to me to go every week until then, but we'll see. 

So I am blogging about my house today...who knows what I will blog about next? 

short update + featured: time out new york

first of all - happy 4th! this is one of my first fourth of july's not at a young life camp since philip and i have been married...so it is somewhat hard to figure out how to do this thing. at camp the schedule just moves on like normal, with no fireworks usually. however, i don't think fireworks are in our future this year because they start about 2 hours after jude's bedtime and seeing that he has been getting up at 5am since getting back from camp, we are not going to keep him up two additional hours to see if he like fireworks or is startled by them.

i should share some about camp, but i am not going to right now. it was fun, and exhausting. much of the time i felt like a single mom because philip's schedule is so demanding. that sounds dramatic. i really don't know how single mom's do it though. i'll try to share some about camp sooner or later. we did get a family kayak ride around girl scout island , which is for sale if you have 3 million to spare.

also just wanted to pop in to share that my seersucker earrings have been featured in timeout new york magazine...

i do love seersucker - and bring back the seersucker fabric every summer because it is classic.

enjoy your fourth!

katie

back from the beach + hair ties on sale!

 alrighty. back from north carolina and virginia. it was a great packed 10 days and we are gearing up for saranac (our month in the adirondacks).

here's a quick snapshot of us at the wedding we got to be in. jude was the ring bearer (pictured below), philip officiated and i was a bridesmaid. the wedding was the one of our dear friends.

jude did not really fulfill his duties as ring bearer. he got fussy right before i walked down the aisle and i had to carry him. then he exited the ceremony shortly after with our friends who watched him.

but for now, hair ties are on sale at buffalo brickyard...so pop on over for a deal on them!