We Have A Winner ...

Six months later, every piece of furniture for our living room and dining room have been ordered and with the exception of the secretary and a special-ordered rug, every piece is in stock and ready for delivery.

I went to the store last night with every intention of pulling the trigger on the table with the black accents from my previous post. Some discussion later and concern that the table might be too long and take up too much precious space, I brought myself back to my original want - an over sized round dining room table. There, just four feet away from the set I was looking at was just this. Unlike the others I had chosen in the past, this table does not have a piece that would extend it for more than 6 or 8 people, but it's the perfect shape and style for my room. I took Tracey's advice to heart and got what I wanted and figured when we have a holiday if there are more than 8 of us, I can pull in another table for the overflow. So Tracey thank you - your words stuck with me and I couldn't be happier with my decision.

Here's the table (it looks smaller in the picture but it's 5 ft in diameter):


And because the accent pieces that went with it were monstrous in size, I opted instead for a low profile console. You can see it in this picture, just the bottom piece, not the hutch:


I decided to go with a black accent - since I still believe it will nicely tie both rooms together. They are both French provincial in style and compliment each other very well.

Let me know what you think (unless of course you think I made a grave mistake - if that's the case, don't let me know)

Why I Still Don't Have a Dining Room Table

We moved into our new house what? Nearly six months ago? And I still don't have a dining room table. Don't get me wrong, I had one picked out more than nine months ago, but I was waiting for C to paint the dining room before pulling the trigger. This was my original plan a beautiful Liz Claiborne piece:



Then when the time came to buy it I realized something. My dining room and kitchen is one long front-to-back room on one side of the house and both open into each other. The problem: My cabinets are maple:



It simply wouldn't work :-(

So that nixed my idea for a super dark wood slightly formal table. So in the past month and a half I've been to literally every furniture store Massachusetts has to offer and have perused every furniture website out there. I thought I solved the problem when I found this at Pottery Barn last week:



But leave it to me - first of all the round table was too small, but the rectangular one would have been perfect. Back to the "leave it to me" part - they have officially discontinued this wood style leaving me with the small round table or a giant square one (not a fan).

Back to the drawing board. We found ourselves Saturday night back at the furniture store where we purchased our living room furniture. We had to go back to order the area rug for the living room (because remember, I can't use Nana's after all). When we were done with that I found what I think might be the perfect table. Wood on top, black legs, black chairs with wooden seats, absolutely solid and very striking in person. I figure it will tie the room together nicely as we have black appliances and black accents in the kitchen (or will - they haven't been installed yet)

Unfortunately the only picture of it I could find online shows it as an oval with different accent pieces. The one I plan on purchasing is a 72" rectangular style with really beautiful pieces. Nevertheless here is what it looks like oval (and I'll be honest, this picture simply doesn't do it justice):



Thoughts? I'm open to all advice, as I have yet to buy anything but really need something in place otherwise my relatives will be eating Thanksgiving dinner on the floor!

I'm Back

What can I say - it’s been a very long month so blogging had to take a backseat, but now that the fall is upon us (have I mentioned this is my absolute favorite season) I'm back in the game.

August saw my birthday, a bunch of family parties, trips to NH, Nikki’s bachelorette party and the nearing completion of our living room (room has been painted, furniture should be delivered in a couple of weeks).

It’s also been a month of babies, as Katy welcomed her baby girl on Aug. 15 and another girlfriend of mine is set to deliver twins in about a month.

Put simply, it’s been busy.

But in the midst of all the craziness at home and at work, I finally decided to pull the trigger. After nearly a seven years hiatus from dance classes, I found two near my new house and started this week. Two days a week I’m now back in the studio and enjoying every second of it. I’m definitely sore – as it’s been years, but I figured with more than 20 years experience behind me I should be back in shape within a month. I love it, it makes me happy and I’m so glad I finally did it. I’m also meeting some new people which is great since so far I only know a couple of people in my new town and this will definitely help it feel more like home.

I’d type more but I have two issues that need to ship here at work in the next two days, along with a 2009 editorial calendar that has to be finished, 2009 assignments to be handed out and a budget to balance.

I’ll be in touch.