New couch phase one...

Ikea Karlstad Sofa

When I moved from my old house to my new house I did not take a lot of furniture with me. Instead, I've been picking up pieces here and there.  Mostly second hand finds aside from a few new things like the lamps in my living room and now this new sofa.  I have been searching for a long time (as Jana can attest to) for a new sofa that was within my budget yet fit my style.  As you already might know, anything that has a mid-century modern styling (new or old) can be pricy.  Enter IKEA, known for it's streamlined, budget friendly furniture.  Somewhere in cyber space I found this couch from IKEA that a few people have 'hacked' to make it look even more like a mid-century modern piece. 

This Karlstad sofa hack from My So-Called Handmade Life is my inspiration for my sofa.

I already ordered the custom, tapered legs from Uncle Bob's workshop (in Early American stain) and they should arrive in mid-February.  Next up with be attempting some faux tufted buttons for the back cushions.  But first I need IKEA to get the Karlstad pillow cover back in stock so I can use the fabric to cover the buttons. 

Hopefully this all goes to plan and I will have a semi-custom mid-century piece at a fraction of the cost of any of the ones that I have been drooling over online.

In the meantime, I think it looks great as is!

Ps. IKEA online shopping tip: IKEA will ship anywhere in Canada or the US (the closest one is about eight hours from me), but the shipping can be pricy.  I think the standard truck delivery rate for my area was 129$.  It's definitely worth the wait to order a few things at once so you can save on shipping.  I also ordered a makeup vanity that I will blog about later.

xo,

melissa

favorite things:

 two of my favorite things right now are chevron prints and the color gold.  I got this dress in the mail on Friday and knew it would pair perfectly with some gold accessories.  When I opened my birthday gift from Jana last night containing these gold-colored Michael Kors sunnies, I knew I wanted to do an outfit post like this!

 I'm so happy that I splurged on this Threadsence dress considering I had already spent my weekly spending budge and it was only a tuesday...haha, the dress has since sold out, so I'm really happy that I snatched it up in time!!

 Jana was worried that I wouldn't like the sunglasses, but I am absolutely in love with them!! They make me feel so glam!!  Thanks Jana!! 

xo,

melissa

post-birthday celebration!!!

 last night we went out for a little belated birthday celebration!
here's a little instagram feed of my night! for some reason i didn't take pictures of anyone else who was there but jana! ooops!! my family was there too....we had a fun time! and maybe one too many martini's!

 rad Michael Kors sunnies from jana...she's such a spoiler!!

i may not like getting older, but I do love celebrating the fact that i'm still on earth!!

xo,

melissa

swappies!!

 another round of clothes swapping with jana!!
finally i got to borrow her arrowhead dress from ruche! it's a little longer than i would generally go for in a dress since i don't have the longest legs on the blog but the pattern simply makes up for it! i just love it!

and of course i had to try and match my eye shadow to the dress incorporating some browns and navy blue.  i used all shadows from my Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Collection from the neutral side i started (from inner corner out) with vanilla (shimmery white gold) then midnight 15 (oyster pearl with silver glitter) and midnight rodeo (medium metallic brown with silver and gold glitter) finishing off with ace (dark gunmetal shimmer) on the outer corner to smoke it out a bit.  lined my upper and lower lashes with black out (darkest, most saturated black).  i'm seriously having way too much fun with smoking my eyes lately!

(on the phone w/ my mama)

AND! did ya see that Urban Decay released the new palette NAKED2?? I don't even own naked 1 yet (but i ordered it!) but naked 2 looks pretty fun too....i may or may not have put my name down on a waiting list.....what? i like shadows....and i looooove neutrals....i think i can do some pretty sweet 'smoked' looks with that palette that will be great for the office!

yes, i realize that is just way too much excitement to have posted about eyeshadow....

xo my lovelies!

melissa

my bestie turns 30...

belated bd post about my bestie's thirtieth birthday (which we celebrated twice).
welcome to the dark side j beans...muhahahahahaa!!

for my thirtieth, jana (as awesome as she is) wanted to get me something special, which she did by getting me this beautiful tiffany bracelet that i absolutely love and cherish. it was a total surprise, and all of my birthday pics are pretty bad because my jaw in hanging open in shock for most of them.

for jana, i wanted to get her something special as well.  i couldn't just get her some regulatory old tiffany item since she already has a few tiffany pieces. i wanted to find something special and unique, just like jana herself!

one day she mentioned how she'd love to have a cameo and i knew that was it.  i had to find one for her, luckily Etsy makes things so easy these days to find great vintage pieces! after some scouring i came across this beautiful 1940's 12k gold cameo pendant and chain.  i was drawn to it right away and the girl in the cameo actually reminds me of jana.  perfect piece for her...and luckily, she loves it just as much as i had hoped!

for the eleventh time...happy birthday jana!
love ya!

xo,

melissa

When the world slips you a Jeffrey, stroke the furry wall.

it's been AWHILE since jana and i have had a one on one girlie date

we managed to squeeze on in on friday night.

activities included:

dinner, pictureka (and jana's beginning of an iphone obsession), blueberry beer @ the brew pub,

movie (get him to the greek!!), popcorn, pictures, laughter, restaurant games...fun times!!!!

date night #2 in two weeks for trivia night!!

i'm excited.

xo, melissa