Something reflective

I felt like I could write for a home decor magazine when yesterday I realized the design need in my apartment was something reflective.

This is the something reflective and below is the story.

Matt left for Alabama yesterday around Noon. I cried and sobbed and then I pursued retail therapy at Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, and Ikea. I didn't buy anything yet, well except for when I later went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond (and bought a beautiful bed set, which turned out to only be partially as pictured...will be returning). I don't regret going though because I also finally found a grill skillet thing for veggies and fruit, which I've been looking for for a long time. Anyway, all that online window shopping led to room rearranging and massive cleaning (which was desperately needed)! After an hour of that, I put the room back together to its original state, except for a few accessories changing location, function, or being brought out from storage. As Matt said recently when we tried this in the dining room, we already have it the best possible way. It's like we've tried this before or something...

After much more cleaning and a good night's sleep, the place now looks quite nice. Not too far off from all those websites with catalog-like images I was coveting. In the forefront, is the something reflective. I guess it makes everything feel a bit more summery. The previous center piece was nearly the same: the round placemat, pottery, and candle. I just added the glass hurricane, ribbon-strung kukui nuts from Hawaii, and put the candle up higher. I like this new layered look.

A few weeks ago, I attempted a small baby-proofing project (for friends' babies). The place where this red and brown basket now sits use to hold about 12 wine glasses at just the right height for little hands. I wanted to move them so that our friends would not feel such severe anxiety brining their kids to our place. The solution was to rearrange (of course!). The glasses went up high and in their place is a basket of table linens. Perfect!

Several weeks ago we moved some things in the bedroom to make it more spacious and less cluttered. We took the baskets from under a bench in there and moved them to under the bench in here for his and hers shoe storage. I love how much cleaner it looks.

It makes me so happy to use stuff we already have to redecorate. I was absolutely inspired in this by a friend of a friend's blog. Warning, you will easily use an hour of your life clicking away.

The redeocrating brought up a good question: to keep this couch wrapped in its cocoa-colored cover or reveal its true red (as pictured)? We've had it covered for at least two years. Mid-moving, I took the cover off to wash it. What do you think?

I could move the quilt, too...maybe to the bedroom. The bedroom is on my list for this morning. We have been looking at new bedding for a while; just haven't decided on anything. We normally have a giant green comforter on there that Matt got when he graduated college. I took it off to wash and replaced it with this white down comforter from my sisters. I love this comforter. I just don't like getting poked by it. I've tried a duvet, but it never really fit right and I was always trying to readjust the comforter inside. Any ideas?

I think I want something red, white, and chocolate brown. I'm partly doing that because I don't want to get new curtains. The curtains, however, cost about $15, so I really shouldn't be so attached. I think I just like them because they fit our unusually-sized square windows, and we won't have these windows for much longer, so why get some more unusually-sized curtains? Wow, I AM RAMBLING! Thank you for entertaining my wandering thoughts! :)

Enough already. I'm off to Target. Ciao!