David and I have been loving our dining room makeover for the last few months. BUT (there's always a but!) something wasn't sitting just right. Get it? But? Sitting right? Yes, I'm a dork. And that something was the lighting fixture over the table.

While I absolutely love the Home Depot lighting fixture that we scored on the cheap, it just wasn't working. For the last  few months, I've been keeping an eye out on a good replacement, so when I was visiting my friend Katelyn last month and saw her amazing CB2 pendant, I knew I'd found "the one."  Once I spied it on sale for $35, I used a $25 Crate & Barrel gift card and... voila! A $10 fixture. Can't beat that!

David had to rig the pendant light to hang from the ceiling by using a mini pendant lighting kit from Home Depot. It was only $15, which brought the grand total of our new pendant light to $25.

I'm absolutely in love! I think this pendant is a much better fit than the previous fixture. It's lighter and brighter and a whole lot more simple than the heavy Home Depot fixture. And it leaves plenty of viewing space for my eye candy sunburst mirror on the wall. And, once we put our Home Depot fixture on Craigslist, we'll actually be in the black. Score!

Whatcha think?! 

PS. I stopped by over at LeBaron Interiors yesterday and shared one of my favorite design tips- use color!! Stop by, check out my post and say hi!

Hotdogs? Check. American flag? Check. Pink lemonade? Check. I think it was a successful Memorial Day over at our house!

David and I had a crew of people over to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family in our lives, and so we felt lucky to be able to share the holiday with them! The party was held in our backyard, under our screened in porch and out by the pool. It was a wonderful day!

For the record, pool pics with no makeup and bad hair are never really a good idea....

Here are a few shots of the backyard, before the party got started.

It would have made sense to take a picture of the amazing food spread we had, but I'm not that brilliant and didn't think about that, so you get to see an empty table : ) But don't fret, because I snapped lots of food pics throughout the day.

Heres D grilling up fresh corn on the cob (we grill it with the husks on, after soaking in water), chicken skewers and hot dogs.

Strawberry cupcakes (compliments of Cassie, recipe found here)

Corona ice pops (modeled by my little sister, Callie!)... not gonna lie, these were not that good! Beer is better in the bottle, not frozen....

The party was a blast. But the best part? Summer has officially arrived!!

Sharing with: Megan from Honey We're Home

Whether you are headed on a road trip, planting yourself on a towel at the beach, grilling up some delightful eats or just spending time at your casa, I hope all of you have a fabulous Memorial Day!

What are you up to on this holiday weekend?

I've got another fun basement makeover project to share with ya'll today. David and I are transforming the space so that it's less garage-like and more homey. And our big project? We finally installed carpet! 

The carpet is from Home Depot and we're loving it. It's the Winterthur pattern from Martha Stewart's new carpet line. It's an adorable diamond pattern with cut pile and small little loops. Affordable and chic, can't beat it. The color, Ash Bark, is a soft neutral tan with slight gray undertones. Unfortunately, it's been pouring down rain and storming here in Georgia, so the pictures I took are a little dark. The color is just fabulous, though, especially with our blue basement walls! If you want more accurate pictures of the color of the carpet, I found a few here on Katie's blog, Bower Power. She also has the same carpet in Ash Bark- great minds think alike ; )

While we don't have a lot of furniture down there now, I set up our new slipcovered sofa and a small table. My parents sweetly gifted us their foosball table, so once we pick that up it will have a nice home in the new basement.

We're also thinking about adding a flatscreen TV into the built-in shelves. There's a space for a (large, old-school) TV on the other side of the built ins, but we think that sectioning off one end of the rectangular room as the "TV area" will leave a lot more room for games, entertaining, etc. on the other side. Just a thought.

PS. You'll also find me over at Ashley's blog, Lemon & Lavender, today! I'm sharing an adoooorable "Pretty in Pink" mood board- you'll have to pop on over and say hi!

Sharing with:

I'm back with a tad more of operation spruce up the basement. David and I want our basement area to be a comfortable place for our family and friends when they're over visiting and swimming at our backyard pool. And the room's current garage-like status just isn't cutting it. So, we've decided to do a few quick little makeovers to the space before the summer gets underway.

Meet our fifteen year old couch. While adorable and comfortable, she needs a little help.

Add a trip to Target and a whopping $60 later and now we're sitting a bit prettier in the basement!

Please bear with me and pretend like I pulled the iron out. I know the slipcover is, um, totally wrinkly. It's just been one of those weeks and I just didn't get to it before I snapped these pics. Actually, these shots were from our test run- I promise some lovely finished photos soon! Finished what? You'll just have to hold tight, because that's going to be an exciting surprise! Well, exciting if you're like me and a trip to Home Depot is "exciting." I know I'm not the only DIY dork around here!

Purdy cute for $60 smackers, right? And it makes such a big difference. Imagine if it was ironed....

For further proof that it's been another one of "those" weeks....

This website is incredible- they give a Memorial Day themed menu, decor, drink ideas and even free printables. Love, love, love!

Here are a few other ideas that I bookmarked as inspiration for the party.