beauty:design:life

It's been a big weekend around here.

A partial list of all we got accomplished in the past 36 hours:

• had our new sectional delivered
• listed and sold our old couch and chair on Craiglist
• purchased and assembled our new bookshelf, transferred books
• moved our old bookshelf to the basement for storage
• purchased new pot for lemon tree (hoping to re-pot it yet today)
• re-stuffed Levi's dog bed
• purchased frames for our gallery wall a la Young House Love
• ordered prints to go in said frames

...whew. We also walked to and around the Powderhorn Art Fair last night, and spent the afternoon at Paws on Grand (along with every other dog in the Twin Cities, it seemed), so we (and Levi) are pretty tuckered out.

But not too tired to talk about our new sectional! I was a bit unsure of it at first, mostly because making big purchases really freaks me out, but it wasn't too long before I fell head over heels in love with our new living room set-up. It all began to come together when I discovered Ikea's Expedit bookshelf, which seemed tailor made for our living room windows (when we flipped it on its side). Perfection.

Here's a sneak preview of our new living room setup...

I know it's a dark photo, but I want to save the awesomeness for my future Big Blog Living Room Reveal (date TBD).

There is still a lot on the to-do list, such as buy a new coffee table and rug, find new lamps and some new art for the wall behind the sectional, buy a new entertainment center, etc etc etc. But for now, I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out.

Since I started working (almost a year ago!) we've been going room from room, upgrading our old hand-me-down furniture. And while we're not buying the fanciest stuff out there (i.e. bedroom set from Ikea and sofa from JC Penney), it's nice to be able to upgrade, just a little. It's funny - buying new furniture makes me feel like more of an adult than getting married, graduating from college or law school, or even buying a house did. I'm weird.

I hope you had a good weekend!