Furniture!

The Butlers finally have some grown up furniture! Last weekend Jared and I went to Darvin to check out couches to finally replace the green "stab you in the back with a spring" couch. Yes college friends (specifically Aaron, Tim, Ross, and Devin) we still have that couch. It was originally Devin's, then he moved back to Vermont and Aaron Tim and Ross inherited it, and finally Jared and I when we all left IU. I should also mention that the couch was second hand when Devin bought it. . .it has seen many butts.

Of course Jared and I didn't agree on anything, but we finally found a couch and love seat that we were both pretty happy with. So while we were at Darvin, we decided to look at tables. . .just for fun. Dangerous words! We've been looking at tables for about a year now and we have never found one that we both liked. Of course they have a new table in that we haven't seen before, and of course we both love it. But we were only going to get the couch and love seat. So we decided not to buy anything that night, sleep on it all, and remeasure the living room to make sure the couch would fit the room. Jared went back to the store Monday night without me and bought the couch and love seat.

So Thursday night we moved the old couch and the over sized chair down into the basement. We decided to keep it because sometime in the future we will finish the basement and we will need furniture down there. Better the old couch then nothing at all right? Well, Friday morning when I woke up and walked downstairs, I was surprised to find the kitchen table and chairs were missing. In it's place was a note on the floor from Jared, which he must have left before going to work that morning. He bought the couch, love seat, table and the matching hutch/server (he is so sneaky). True it was a bit much, but that's why we've been working so hard right? Jared didn't want to take the risk of the table and hutch not being there when we went back in a few months to buy it.

Our family room/kitchen no longer looks like our old family room/kitchen. All this new pretty stuff; it's just so amazing, I love it so much. Merry early Christmas to the Butler House! It all feels too good to be true.

And for the icing on the cake I got to unwrap all my Grandma's china and put it in the hutch. Service for 12 is a ton of dishes to wash (Dinner plates, luncheon plates, dessert plates, soup bowls, ice cream bowls, coffee cups, saucers, the list goes on)! Unwrapping it from the news paper really did feel like Christmas in October.


The table is counter top height and has six chairs, we had to send 2 of them back because they were damaged. The table has leaves that fold under on each side so when they are all up the table is an oval shape, and will seat eight comfortably I think.


Here is the new love seat, the couch looks exactly the same just with three cushions.


This is my favorite one. Since we don't have a formal dining room I think this "wine server" works great as a hutch for Grandma's china. I was shocked it all fit in it.

Pumpkin Carving!

Last weekend was our annual pumpkin carving party/night with Daniela, Greg, Christine and Kevin.

This year we splurged and bought a 4 dollar pumpkin carving kit with little saws and tools so we could do something a little more challenging. I copied the face for our pumpkin off a Halloween party facebook invite that I thought was cool. Normally I would just free hand the drawing on the pumpkin with a sharpie, but the kit we bought had this neat transfer wheel thingy that punctures the paper and makes a little pattern on the pumpkin to guide you when you carve it.

There was one big oops in the carving process where we carved an eyebrow into the eye space, but we were able to fix it by making the other eye larger and the one we messed up on larger yet. I think it still came out pretty spooky. And of course I love him for his big toothy evil smile!


On a side note my mother has started bringing over all my old stuff from the house that I didn't even know she kept. I came home from work the other day to find this in my living room. :-)

Two of the boxes have a bunch of music boxes that were gifts from my parents for Christmas in my early years and the other contains about 40 porcelain figurines of animals that I used to collect/play with when I was a tween. What to do with these things? I am NOT a pack rat and I hate keeping old junk, but on the other hand some of them do hold special memories. Do I really want them to sit in a box in my basement forever just for a memory? I haven't really decided yet but I'm leaning towards keeping only one of the music boxes from my first Christmas (it's a Noah's Ark). I thought maybe when Jared and I have a baby it would be a cute keep sake for the baby's room. The little figurines? I think I may just pitch or try and sell on craigs list. Anybody like little porcelain animals?

Are you wondering what is in the two big clear bins? Those I'm really excited about, my Grandma's beautiful china. Now. . . .if only I had something to put it in. . . .

Garage Sale Find!

I had an excellent find at a garage sale two weeks ago, I've just been so busy I haven't been able to blog about it.

It was the weekend that Elise came to stay with us so I dragged her and Jared out to some garage sales with me since my Mom had other obligations on Sat morning. Neither one of them wanted to go. . .but

Look what we found!


Jared and I really don't have any storage in the house, so I figured this would work great as storage or a work bench for Jared. The best part is how much we paid, only $15 bucks for the cabinet and counter top (they were asking 20 for both, but every seasoned garage saler knows you NEVER pay the sticker price, especially when it's the last day of the sale. heh). The people at the sale were super nice and even threw in a finishing kit for the sides of the counter top for free, AND offered to deliver it to our house free of charge. We had brought my parents Saturn Vue with us so we didn't have to take them up on it, but what nice people! To top it off Elise also found a pair of $50 dollar shoes (that looked like they may have only been worn once) and paid only $1.50. So now Jared and Elise can't make fun of garage sales, because clearly they are awesome. It's so fun finding deals.

Smurfs or Fairies?

Jared and I are having a debate right now about what's going on in our front yard. I say it's a fairy ring, Jared says the Smurfs have moved in. We already have a moat and a enchanted garden next door. . .obviously fairies are the next logical step. :-)


I know it's hard to see because of the leaves on the ground, but the mushrooms are clearly in a ring pattern (with the big bunch at the bottom of the ring). Jared says Smurf city with Smurf suburbs. He also added we have Gargamel living in the shack of a house across the street from us. What do you think?


Here are a few other pictures I took today. . .

The last of the fall colors in our back yard

Ready for Trick or Treaters!

Upcoming Holiday Excitement

I was watching old videos that Jared and I took on our camera last Christmas and it made me super excited about two things.

One: we are inheriting my parents old Christmas tree so we won't have the small/falling apart Charlie Brown tree any more in our beautiful living room.

Two: I've always been obsessed with fire places in general, but it's especially bad around the holidays. I don't know if you are familiar with the Comcast "Yule Log" onDemand feature, but it was constantly on in our apartments around holiday time since I loved the music/crackling fire seasonal sounds. No more Yule Log for us this year (not to mention we got rid of comcast and went with U-verse so it's not even an option) REAL fire in our own fire place!

A Wedding and More!

I think this past weekend was probably one of the busiest weekends Jared and I have had in a long time (minus weekend trips to visit family). Saturday I stood up in my good friends Danielle and Matt's wedding and Sunday we had a day visit down to Starved Rock with Daniela and Greg.

Friday night started off with the rehearsal and a tasty dinner at Gordan Biersch Brewery with the wedding party and all our significant others. I still to this day don't really understand the rehearsal for a wedding. What's to it? You walk down the aisle and then the priest/pastor tells you what to do for the rest. I suppose it's an excuse to have a nice pre-wedding dinner. I think my favorite part of the rehearsal was when the wedding coordinator for the church told us if the priest smelled even the slightest bit of alcohol on us pre-wedding he held the right to call it off. . . yeesh. I didn't think we looked that much like a crazy bunch, but it made me laugh.



Saturday started bright and early at 8:30 at a salon to get the whole bridal party's hair done. They shut down the entire salon and had a breakfast snacks and drinks for us which was really neat.



After we loaded up on hair spray it was off to Danielle's parents house to finish getting ready and take our pre-ceremony pictures. While I was busy with bridal party activities Jared spent the morning cleaning because we were coming back to our house after the ceremony to take pictures in our back yard.


The rest of the day was a whirlwind of vows, pictures, a pit stop at Jewel for a snack before the reception (I was so mad I left my camera on the bus for that one), and a great party with some pretty amazing people. My personal highlight for the day was the fact I was able to wear my contacts pretty much the entire day pain free! I didn't think I would be able to wear them but my eyes felt great. I guess the last pair bothered me so much because the fit wasn't quite right. I still don't think I can wear them every day, but it's so nice knowing that I can for special occasions.


Jared and Greg weren't able to sit with Daniela and I because we were in the bridal party but they had a blast at the "Ficus" table with their new Ficus friends. All of the wonderful people we were able to hang out with is definitely what pushed the wedding over the edge with awesomeness. We're hoping to see all of them again soon.


Some how on Sunday, after we partied all night, Daniela and Greg were able to convince us to take a trip down to Starve Rock where we hiked all day and enjoyed the peaking fall colors.