Round Here Lately

Before I continue with my Scandinavian adventure, I thought I would share some house updates, as I like to do from time to time.

We decided to get Riley a play table and chairs since she has shown some interest in coloring.  I had been obsessed with these baby bertoia chairs, which I added to my pinterest board before she was even born.  I decided to save on the table by finding one at Ikea.  I painted the top with chalkboard paint, which serves two purposes.  For one, it is a built in fun activity, and it also hides all the crayon marks that would be all over otherwise.  Once it gets too beat up I can add another coat:

My DIY tabletop

Chairs before I received the cushions

The finished look

I finally added some outdoor furniture to our backyard.  The table and chairs are from World Market, I found my pillows (Trina Turk indoor/outdoor fabric) at this shop on Etsy, and the outdoor drapes are from Serena & Lily.  I also purchased this pendant light, which we haven't gotten around to hanging yet:

While I love the look, I'm not going to lie, nothing in our house has given me a bigger headache than figuring out how to secure the drapes (except for the pesky armadillo that keeps digging up our front yard) #texasproblems.  

For some reason, it never crossed my mind that there may be wind blowing these drapes around when I bought them.  I first had metal rods purchased from a hardware store sewn in to the bottom (the lightweight drape weights would be like putting a feather in the bottom and expecting the drapes not to move.)  It worked as far as not causing the drapes to blow every which way but it kept banging against the side of the brick causing a lot of racket and jolting us awake at night.  Next, we got heavy duty garden stakes and attached sturdy rope to a elastic loop.  This has worked best, but we need a sturdier elastic loop since we've had problems with those breaking as well.  I'm determined to make it work somehow (suggestions welcome!).  

On a much smaller scale, I added these corners to our coffee table after seeing how they could spice up an otherwise boring table after seeing Alex of Things That Sparkle's use them, as pictured on her instagram.  She kindly revealed the resource.

Lastly, we switched out all of our downstairs recessed lighs for LED lights.  It makes a huge difference in terms of how it lights the space as well as being energy effecient.

That's all for our mini projects for now!