High Five for Friday

Hello! I'm sharing my five favorites from this week. This week was kind of laid back and it turns out I didn't take many pictures, so you get a lovely photo of Miss Ellie.

1. My hubby and I celebrated our anniversary this week! I was craving Chipotle so that's where we went for dinner and we followed it up with frozen yogurt for dessert. It was a nice and relaxing evening spent together.

2. The piano! I am so excited to have a piano :) You can read more about it here.

3. Ellie is obviously one of my favorite things all the time. (Even if she woke me up at 5 am two times this week wanting to play with things on my nightstand.)

4. I finished a great book on Sunday night. It's called Stealing the Preacher by Karen Witemeyer. I love finishing books, it makes me feel like I've accomplished something. Plus, it was a good story. I love all of Karen Witemeyers' books.

5. It's Friday and I'm pretty excited about that. Last week I took some vacation days so this full work week has seemed pretty long. I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend. 

The Piano's Story

This piano comes with a story. This piano belonged to my husbands', aunts', grandparents (did you follow that?) They purchased it during The Great Depression for very little because the family who was selling it needed the money. It was made in the 1920's. (I think that's the facts, I'm not 100% sure though) but now the piano's story will continue with our family. My husband's aunt had this piano in her home for years although no one played. When she found out that I love to play the piano and was looking for one for my home she very graciously gave this one to us. Yesterday after it was delivered I couldn't stop playing. The electronic keyboard I had been using is lovely but it just didn't have that real piano feel if you know what I mean. Anyway, I'm loving our newest addition. It's the first real piece of furniture for our living room and I love the clean lines and the dark wood. I am looking forward to playing and singing around this piano for many years to come.

"It's Like TV For Your Dining Room"

This weekend we helped my sister and her hubby move into their new house. Moving day was the first time I had ever been there. It's an adorable house and it will be perfect for them.

The dining room wall has an unique feature. A HUGE mural of a nice little scene.

It's so huge it doesn't even fit in one picture. Now, I don't know if my sister and my brother-in-law are going to keep the mural but we sure had fun with it on moving day.

It all started when my sisters, sister-in-law said that the painting was kind of growing on her. The colors were pleasant and it was something nice to look at. "It's like TV for your dining room" is an exact quote.

Then I started asking people if the girl was leaving or coming home. Everyone had different answers (which was interesting.) Her bags are tipped over like the man threw them off the carriage and the dog is coming out to greet her and she's got one foot on the step like she's walking up it. All good arguments for the "coming home" side of the discussion (which was the side I was on.)

Speaking of the steps, my mom pointed out that the steps look concrete and why would they have concrete steps and dirt roads. Then we noticed other things, like the fact that the man unloading (or loading?) her bags is as tall as the carriage wheel. That would make for some extremely large carriage wheels. And there is a shadowy man in the carriage looking out the window. I named him Moriarty, because it seemed appropriate for a mysterious man.

I don't know what they are going to do with the painting, if it was me I wouldn't want to live with it but it would be hard to roll paint right over it.

Do you have any unique elements in your home? How about any murals?

High Five for Friday!

I'm linking up with Lauren for my top five favorites from this week.

1. Celebrating birthdays (and blowing out candle sticks next to your cake instead of birthday candles on your cake because we didn't have birthday candles. Hey, it was a use what you have kind of moment.)

2. First frozen yogurt of the summer. No more explanation needed.

3. Reading in the morning.

4. Finding pants that fit perfectly from the thrift store! I don't usually buy pants from thrift stores because I'm so picky, but this time it worked out very well.

5. My little sister and her husband are buying their first house today! I'm so happy for them and we're helping them move tomorrow.

Piano

Next week I am getting a piano at my house. I have played the piano for eighteen years but when I moved out of my mom and dad's house the piano stayed. I love to play it when I'm visiting them and my sisters in-laws graciously gave me a keyboard so that I could play in my own home. But I am excited to have an actual piano.

One of my goals for 2013 has been to play the piano everyday, even if it's just one song. I was doing  well on upholding that goal but I have kind of slacked off the last two months. It's amazing how much improvement I made on the song I was working on, and then I sat down to play it the other day and I was extremely rusty.  I will definitely be picking up that goal again. I will play the piano everyday for the rest of the year (except when I am away from home and no where near a piano.) I will give myself a little grace then.

Is there any hobbies you've had since childhood that still hold a special place in your heart today? How about times when you've realized just how important practicing something can be.

Parade of Homes

Last year my sister and I went to the Parade of Homes and loved it. This year we came equipped with cameras.

I think our love for houses started young when our parents would take us through open houses every Sunday. You can see here perspective of the Parade of Homes here (I'll put in the link when she publishes her post.)

Here are some of my favorites.

Outdoor Living Space

 Kitchens

 Living Rooms

Bathrooms

My favorite house

Alex and I had a great time. This is definitely something we are gong to try and do every year.

Sectional Test Drive

I'm working on a decorating plan for our whole house. This is going to be a slow process for us because we will have to save up before we can make big purchases. Since things are going to be spread out I want to make sure that the choices we make coincide with the overall plan for our space. One of the rooms that's a priority in our minds is our living room. Because currently it looks like this:

  This is real life. Obviously, this room needs a lot of help but I am starting with some seating. I want to put a sofa on the wall that currently has tables lined up with picture frames leaning against it. But we're not too happy with our sofa/tv arrangement in our family room. We think the solution to the family room would be to purchase a sectional and then we could move the current family room sofa into the living room.

I've never had a sectional before and I am afraid it would be too bulky in our family room. I wanted a way to test it out before we made a commitment. The one evening my hubby pulled the chair into the middle of the room (for better video game playing) and I told him to leave it like that. The chair pushed up against the sofa was the perfect sectional practice run.

Ta da! Loved it. It didn't make the room feel closed off from the rest of the space. This part of the house is an open floor plan with the family room, dining room and kitchen all connected. So I was worried about things like traffic flow and yada yada yada. But it turns our I really like it (and still after two days of living this way.)

Now we need to measure, compare sectionals and save our pennies until we can complete our sectional/sofa switcheroo.Then it's new art, lamps, pillows etc. for both rooms. Can't wait!