Playing House

Playing House. That's what we call it when we organize, decorate, and shop for our apartment. It usually involves a trip to IKEA, Home Centre, or ACE. We always find more than we plan. You should see how good we are at getting a dozen bags, giant houseplant, random piece of furniture, etc. from our car, into the elevator, and up to our apartment in one trip!

Oh, I LOVE playing house! I love that decorating our home is a creative process we share. I love that we are able to create a beautiful space in which to live. I love that I can look around and see our life and adventures reflected in the objects around me.

Our home is still a work-in-progress. The apartment has remained about 80% done since the first year we moved in. Now, it's time to bring everything together and add finishing touches... Isaac's been on an organizing rampage, I'm finally getting photos printed, framed, and hung, and we've just decided to replace all our living room seating. Our new art pieces and decor have had a domino effect... causing us to rethink and rearrange much of what we already have done to accommodate everything. That last 20% has turned into a pretty big undertaking, but we love every moment we get to work together.

Last weekend we started by organizing around the house...



Of course, the cats had to help...




We then made trip#1 to IKEA. We found this sweet little chair and absolutely loved its earthy natural finish...

... there are now two in our living room!


We also found this gorgeous sofa...

...with a not-so-gorgeous price tag!

The thought of making such a big investment scared us off for a week, but on IKEA trip#2 this weekend, we ordered one! It's being delivered next week. Yippee!!! I think the combination of the sleek leather, and organic fibers of the chair will look awesome in our place... very eclectic!


Amongst many other little things, we found this lamp.




After a long afternoon of shopping we headed to our favorite sushi restaurant, SUMO, for dinner.



The manager, Ricky, is so sweet! The moment he sees us he runs over to the sushi counter and places an order for one crunchy crazy and one sushi sandwich without seaweed for me.





YUM!










The next day we wandered around MOE, visiting Home Centre and Marina. We were hoping to find a similar couch to the one above, with a smaller price tag, but no luck. We did, however, stumble across this sparkly beige velour stunner...

NOT!!!


Egads! Only in Dubai...


The shopping trip was not a total bust, however. We found enough goodies to completely stuff our car, including a great fake plant for our bedroom (between the cats and lack of sunlight, real plants don't stand a chance in our apartment!), some gorgeous new lanterns, and new memory foam pillows. We also ran into the Tebos and enjoyed a delicious, but hectic Iftar dinner in the food court, complete with m&m blizzard=).




So, since then we've been continuing with our organizing, planning, and decorating. Things are coming along nicely. We're going to wait until we're done for a big reveal, but here are some tidbits...








Miller loves the new chairs already!






Slowly, but surely getting our canvases framed...




It's so nice to FINALLY have some photos up...



I think this might be my all-time favorite! I stop and stare at it at least 3 times a day...



So nice to have beautiful reminders of happy times...



and favorite people...




I still have frames that are waiting for photos, and canvas ideas that haven't made it to the printer. I was playing with a few of our zebra images this morning...





I think one- or both- of these might make it into canvases. We are running out of wall space fast!


Many items are still living in temporary homes...



Plenty of things aren't put away...



but we're content with the progress we're making=)