Natural Fiber Rugs

Below are a few cheat sheets to help you with your decorating "vocab." (ignore the colors written under examples.)  I have some of each in my home.   

image from theperfectrug.com

JUTE

SEAGRASS

SISAL

I'm a HUGE fan of the chunky jute.  Have a big one in my dining room and one in my sun room.  I have a seagrass runner and small area rugs in my kitchen, and have a sisal rug in my office. (hmmm, maybe I need to branch out...)

Love the texture they add...

Put some natural fiber rug info in your back pocket.

Right on the Wall...

This is perfect for someone like me...no fear about putting holes in a wall... 

Lucky Magazine

Decorpad

little lovelies by allison

Varuka Blog

Put some jewelry display inspiration in your back pocket.

Shutters and Doors.

It's finally sunny in the midwest today.  Thinking about the outdoors as the loud, big-daddy/turbo fans continue to dry out my basement...

Love the look of shutters framing a DOOR as well as a window...

My Captain

LVL Designs

Bon Voyage

Houzz

Put some "door-shutters" in your back pocket.

Basement Bummer...

Boy did we have some rain in Illinois.  We woke up to a basement floor full of water. Big fat bummer.

So did a zillion other people, so it took an entire day to get some service people out here.  Looks like the damage is more than in the carpet (which has been replaced due to water damage once before.) This time it soaked in to the baseboards and bottom of some drywall.   Here's what we're dealing with...

*imagine a strange smell while admiring my photos...  

Of course, i'm mostly freaked out about all of the traffic on my fancy newly stained floors...

While we're thinking about it, here is some basement inspiration...for those or you that HAVE basements.

Vallone Design

Decorology

HGTV

Castle Design

Liz Caan

Coastal Living 

Situation at Hand Blog

Luckily (or un-luckily) we don't need to replace any furniture.  Hopefully I'll get a big dumpster in my driveway and I can have a forced spring cleaning!

Having a bummer week here in the midwestern in your back pocket.

We Heart Teachers

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week at my girls' school and it was so fun getting together some  surprises for my daughter's 4th grade teacher...

(BTW... Pintrest Rocks!)

 Most of the ideas came from this awesome post from Eighteen Twenty Five on
teacher appreciation ideas.

To start, 

I made the Teacher Treat Jar...

... and filled it with Jolly Ranchers since that is the teacher's candy of choice...

Then I made the "I am so Fortunate to have you as my teacher" and put a Pei Wei gift card inside and am going to add some fortune cookies

Also from eighteen25 was this printable

or you can use this one...

and I did berry soaps from Bath and Body Works

Then I found this cute cup idea from Tater Tots and Jello

So here's ours...

Loved this "Raise the Bar" idea from the celebration shoppe

Our Bar for Mrs. Ruderman!!

"Take note...we think you are awesome" from domesticated lady

My notepad...

I am making cookies one of the days and including this from a little delightful.

Finally,  I found some fun potting supplies from the dollar section at Target and am going to include some printables from No Biggie with a potted plant...

 

Sending out teacher love from in your back pocket...

New Floors...

Floors have been stained!  Dust everywhere...smells super strong...want all new furniture now...

Before...

excuse crappy photos...

After...

I went with Ebony-Thanks to my friend Jeannie. Kinda ball-sy.  

Stay tuned for more info...... 

Doing some serious cleaning today at in your back pocket.