Friday Favorites

Eeee, weekend! Happy Friday, friends!

The forecast is calling for dropping temps (we were in the 60s and 70s at the end of this week and it was wonderful!) and storms, so I'm looking forward to hunkering down at home with some books, do a little furniture shopping, and r e l a x.

On to the faves...

// Have to keep with the trend and start off with house news. We got some great news this week and I think all negotiations and back and forth conversations have ceased, so we should be on track for our closing date in May! I can't believe it. Sammy and I were like, "who would give us a house?" Now we just need the dog ;) Can't wait to keep documenting this journey. 

// As I've been proactively perusing Ikea and Wayfair, I thought I would add a few furniture favorites here. 

We have a loft in our house and it's my favorite space by far. I have a lot visions for it as my little sanctuary/library space. I want a full wall of bookshelves and I would love a chaise lounge like this one from Ikea with a standing lamp nearby. I've been obsessed with having a chaise lounge for years because I'm a total dork who obsesses over things like chairs, so I will be so thrilled when I get one in that space. 

// I've been pinning specific ideas for our home as well. I'm used to pinning wildly unrealistic home decor/improvement ideas because I've never had a specific home in mind up until now, so it's been a different experience to search Pinterest for specific things like small bathrooms or entryway tables. Here are a few favorites I'm pulling inspiration from:

I'm incredibly interested in having a concession stand type space in our basement. The basement is all Sammy's thing, I couldn't care less how it looked, except for a concession stand ;) Did not take much convincing at all.

The bathroom on the main floor is small, so I've been looking at decor ideas for small quarters and I love the idea of a few shelves on the wall.

One of the spaces we're most excited about, especially getting the house as we approach summer, is the outdoor space. It's definitely the highlight of the property as our unit is a corner unit with a premium lot. It isn't as green as the picture blow, but I would love to get some black lighting like this to border our landscaping.

Our master bedroom walls are going to be gray (to match the rest of the house) and we're using some pieces from the bedroom sets we have now, which are black, but I would prefer a lighter, more neutral headboard as I hope to continue to convince Sammy to agree to upgrading our bed to a king... so I wanted to find an image that showed all these colors together. I think something like the picture below is really pretty and classic, so hopefully that's achievable!

Any first house musts we have to have? Would love any recommendations!

// Last Sunday we celebrated my dad's birthday with a trip to one of the oldest standing candy stores in Chicago, a diner for dinner, and a 40th anniversary showing of Grease. It's no surprise that my dad's favorite things are some of my very favorites as well.

I was blessed with the greatest father anyone could dream of and his birthday is one of the many opportunities to celebrate him and everything he does for his family.

// On Monday, Sammy and I celebrated our twelfth anniversary together by having dinner after work at The Melting Pot. It's incredibly overpriced for fondue but it's a restaurant we've celebrated several anniversaries (and a few high school dances...) at, so it's sentimental (albeit a bit dorky) to us! 

I got him two gifts that are representative of two major things happening this year for us: a black leather monogrammed passport case for our trip to Paris in October and a framed copy of one of our favorite movie quotes I'd like to have in our first home. 

This quote from It's a Wonderful Life makes me cry every single time I read it. I know, it's really weird. And he laughs at me every time which is even weirder. But it's special to me us, so I asked a designer and dear friend I work with to design something small I could frame. So essentially I got myself a gift haha but oh well! My anniversary too ;)

// Can't quit you, beauty. It's a little alarming how much of a favorite you are.

// Me after I do one deadlift during training:

// I'm trying to find some cute "we've moved" announcements I can send out in a few months so our family and friends will have our new address, and I'm struggling. There are so many cute ones, but I am being super nitpicky about fonts and layouts and all that. Guess that comes with working in publishing. I may have to buy a cute template on Etsy and see how much I can actually edit myself.

here!

// Got my casual gear on in the office today. It goes so well with all the clutter behind me ;) 

It's not even warm enough today to be wearing my denim jacket (I brought another sweatshirt for my walk to the train later), but I really wanted to wear it today with my Free People henley. And I haven't worn my New Balances in over a year, so I threw those on as well. This is my favorite kind of outfit lately.

I'm working on finishing a bunch of projects in the office today and looking forward to meeting up with a few coworkers for lunch. And then I'm hoping for a super quiet Friday night and weekend!

Happy weekend all!

xo

*Linking up with Andrea and April!