I'm thinking about this rug from the Home Decorators Collection for the living room. It matches the colors in the chairs that I bought and it's a bigger pattern, so I don't think it will clash. Then again, I'm thinking of just doing a chocolate brown shag rug. I think the texture would be cozy. The rug shown above won't be in until December. It would be nice to have a rug before then. Any opinions??
Here are a few updates from around the house. We are finally starting to get settled into the house and I'm getting excited again to decorate. Here's what the house is looking like these days...
Gil's sister was doing a study abroad in Ecuador and brought this back for our 1st anniversary. It fits perfectly in the hallway on the main floor.
The mantle is looking very bare right now. We bought a mirror from IKEA, but didn't measure first and it was too tall. Here are the accent chairs that we bought. We are in desperate need of an area rug. Maybe in chocolate brown? Not sure yet.
Here's the couch that we bought from Art Van. We need some artwork on that bare wall. I kind of like this from Pottery Barn for that wall.
This is a cute coat rack that I found at Garden Ridge in Shelby Township. I need a lighting solution for the bottom of the stairs. Notice how dark it is? There's a light at the top of the stairs, but not the bottom. It bothers me.
This is a tile that I love that we got from Gil's aunt for our wedding. It's hanging in the kitchen. "A toast to the night the magic began..."
The basement has furniture...Gasp! As you can see, I was watching "A Baby Story" on TLC. Since we've gotten cable, all I watch is TLC. Mostly "Say Yes to the Dress", which Gil claims he simply can't understand because I already bought my wedding dress. What can I say, it's just fun to watch.
Ignore the clutter on the bar, please! I bought these cute vases and flowers at, can you guess?, Ikea. I think it would be cute to paint the cutouts behind the vases. Any color ideas?
I love the bright yellow of these mums that we picked up this weekend. We still need a welcome mat. I bought one that was really cute this summer, but the big porch dwarfed it. It's now residing under the side door. We still need to find a cute, BIG mat for the front.So there you have it, we have more furniture, we have some knick knacks. Give me aother couple months and we should be all set! I'm already getting excited to decorate for Christmas!!
The time has come when I am starting to think of possible grad programs to complete. Just like I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, it was always in the back of my mind that I would become a Reading Specialist. In first grade, I began to see the Reading Specialist at my elementary school, Ms Schmidt, and not only do I have fun memories of writing books and reading with her, but I also know that she was probably the reason why reading became my strength in school.
I still feel like that is where my interest lies, so now I am searching for a program that I will love. I am excited to go back to school and take the classes, but I forgot what it's like to fill out the applications, get the recommendations, and deal with all the formalities. It's kind of sucking the life out of my excitement.
Ideally, I want to do the M.A.T. in Reading and Language Arts program at Oakland University. But...they also offer it with an additional endorsement in Early Childhood Education. That is also appealing to me. I've looked at a few other programs, but some of the websites have been hard to navigate and I TOTALLY judge the program itself based on whether or not I can find info. about it on the school's website.
I have heard great things about Oakland and the Reading Specialist in my building actually completed this program and loved it. Whether I stay in the classroom as a gen. ed. teacher or I work as a Reading Specialist in a building, I know that this program would totally improve my teaching.
But I kind of forgot that to get into grad school you have to take the GRE. Boo. Does anyone have any advice about that??
We bought the couch last weekend and the IKEA chairs today. We also bought a bed from IKEA for the guest bedroom (which we need to clean out before we can put anything in there). In order to get it home, we put it on the roof of the SUV and we definitely almost lost it on the highway. My heart stopped for a moment...then we decided to take a slower way home!!! Today was super fun. We started the morning by meeting friends at Angelo's in Ann Arbor for a delicious breakfast. Then we went to the U of M football game (great seats)! We hit up IKEA on the way home and now I'm busy typing this while Gil puts furniture together. :)
