homestead hoedown!

emilykate and i are swapping crafty goodness! and lucky me, it's something to brighten the home. i SO need help there. for all my yammering about my mad decorating skillz, i have done next to nothing so far.

it's a little sad that this is one of my favorite places in the house, considering it occupies 12 inches of windowsill. telling, really, that i have yet to get my decorating mojo on. i've been going in very small spurts, so there are small blurbs of pretty, and big old swaths of "you've been back for 10 months now, when are you going to unpack."

anyways... this spot for a sprite has my vogue magazines, a vintage pack of playing cards from a wonderful friend (i coveted them, ruggy threw me under the bus), chalk pencils from etsy, and a little plant stand that used to hold a terrarium. it was a gift from me to ruggy, and when i accidentally broke the terrarium, i shot him a look that said it was completely his fault. he understandably accepted blame.

it's also my grandmothers spot, i guess-- the little egg cup was my nana's, and the little note was from my nan. that's her in the photo. i think the note sums up my nan perfectly. it says: the sun is shinging here at last. i know she meant shining, but i like to think she was thinking "singing" too, and so she put those two words together.

and this here is our stairwell to the bedroom. or should i say our stairway to heaven, baby. aw YEAH.

when first settling back in with just two chairs and a coffee table, i was at a complete loss at where to begin. there was so much to replace that i couldn't start anywhere. i found these huge ass pillows at urban outfitters--they're like 4 feet square--and i cut them up into various shapes. there are so many of them, it's like instant decor for about 60 percent of the living room. plus, they keep the blind cat from choosing the wrong path down the stairs and falling to her death.

the yellow painting is a large copy of a happy doodle i made the day that i met ruggy. i found it in a journal years ago, and timidly made a pale green canvas out of it. when we moved back, i decided it needed to be a lot more joyous, so i sat on our bare floor and had at it.

the amethyst was a christmas gift from ruggy's mom, and the metal cat was a vintage find with my mom. mom!! when are we going vintage shopping again?!

see what i mean about those pillows? there are THOUSANDS of them!

during the day, if i'm sitting, this is my favorite place to be. it is also cody's favorite place, and due to the size of this 23 pound beast, there's no sharing. he knows i'm coming for him here.

this hard won couch faces the windows, and our desks, so i can watch ruggy typing away, and eek some little bit of sunlight out of our street level apartment. we spent seven, yes, SEVEN months deciding on this couch. our cats immediately got sick on it upon arrival, and so now the cushions are completely misshapen from washing. hooRAY! but i still love it. the crocheted blanket is from a swap with a crafty friend (i traded her a painting). 

and i love that one of these areas... or maybe some other sorely lacking space in our home... will soon be host to an emilykate creation!

(speaking of sorely lacking:

i know! we said three pictures! but aside from a bed, our bedroom doesn't look much different than this. i couldn't not show you this. this is pathetic. seriously.)