Little Blue House Part 1

Happy Hump Day everyone!  Don’t forget to enter the giveaway here that ends Friday, January 18 at 6:00pm CST!  I have some really awesome giveaways with some companies I’ve partnered with coming up over the next few weeks, and will announce them each Monday so watch out for those. 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

We had some freezing rain and ice yesterday on the streets, so we got to leave work yesterday at 1:30, woohoo!  Getting home early gave me the perfect oppurtunity to finally take some pictures of my house while there was still light outside.  I apologize for the gloomy weather, the ice in the background and the extremely long post this morning. 
I usually post more things regarding to fashion, fitness and food, but I just love decorating too so you’ll have to suffer through this today.  I’ll start by saying that we have a tiny house (espcially compared to the ones around us), but it’s just perfect for my husband, me and our 2 yorkies.  We call it the little blue house.  Even though I could probably show you the entire house in a few pictures, I decided to break it up into a few different posts.  Also, our entire front porch and backyard is iced over right now so I’m not brave enough to ice skate out there for photos. 

For my new readers I’ll give you a little background info.  My husband and I moved to downtown Memphis about 5 months ago, and we just love it.  The house is actually about 20 square foot smaller than our previous house, and we lost a bedroom, but we honestly haven’t even missed the bedroom or the space because of the great layout of this house and the screened-in patio.  The house we had before had just a tiny standard size concrete slab in the backyard, and that was it as far as seating outdoors.  We love being outdoors so that made it a little hard to have people over and sit outside.  Our new house has a small front porch (compared to no front porch at our old house), a screened-in patio on the second level (compared to our previous non-existent patio) and the entire back yard is a concrete slab that can seat up to 15 people right now with all the chairs and benches we have out there.  So the first obstacle we encountered when we moved into this house was our lack of outdoor furniture.  We only had one chaise lounge, a small side table and a rod iron table and 4 chairs, so we had a lot of outdoor furniture to buy.  Our screened-in patio is 19 ft x 13 ft so it’s a pretty decent size.  It’s right across from the guest bedroom, and it’s actually a little bigger than the bedroom is.  The first picture is the view from our second level screened-in patio.  I love this room and just can’t wait for the weather to get a little warmer so we can use it again!!  There is a ceiling fan out there too, and we’re working on ordering outdoor canvas drapes to hang so we can close them to block the sun or keep some of the could out in the winter time, but apparently having drapes sewn for such a large area is really, really expensive.  Maybe one day.  = )  Also, right behind the chaise is the front balconly of our house.  My husband’s grandfather screened in the patio, and we’ve decided to try to have him come back and put a door there within the next few months so we can walk out on the front balcony if we want.  Right now the only option is climbing out the bedroom window, and that was a little awkward with all the neighbors outside watching.  The small side table you see in the picture is the only thing we previously had at our other house.  It was from Pottery Barn, and I ended up getting it on sale a couple years ago.  It’s sold out right now here, but they usually bring it back every summer.  We’re really lucky too because we have a Pottery Barn and West Elm Outlet here in Memphis, so make sure to check there first if you have one in your town.  My husband just bought the swing for me for Christmas!  It was built by a man who lives in Olive Branch, MS and was $170, so if you’re interested in getting one let me know and I’ll give you the contact info.  I’ve been wanting a porch swing since I was a little kid, but we never had a place to put one.  When we moved into this house, the first thing we did was walk around trying to decide where to put the swing.  We originally were going to put it in the backyard, but I think it unexpectedly ended up working better here, and in the fall and winter we can see the Mississippi River while on the swing or the chaise.  The rest of the modular furniture is from Pier 1.  You can move and connect them in any order you want, and we’re still working on the final arrangement.  I have been buying pieces here and there since last September.  When I bought them they were 20% off, so if you’re able to wait another 6 months, they will probably go on sale again too.  I didn’t feel like waiting that long, so I bought a Pier 1 20% off coupon off of eBay a couple of weeks ago.  I used my eBay Bucks so that didn’t cost anything, and I had $350 in Pier 1 gift cards, so I ended up spending $9.39 total for the bar table and chairs that you’ll see in the 4th picture.  To say I was excited would be an understatement.  All of the pillows and the swing cushion were handmade from one of my favorite sellers on eBay and were bought with eBay bucks and didn’t cost me a penny.  When we first bought a house 6 years ago we decorated everything in ivory, brown and red.  I had never really decorated before so I had no idea what to do.  It took me a few years, and then I finally decided to start over and incorporate A LOT more color into my house (and my wardrobe too!)  Turquoise is my favorite color, so you’ll see it quite a bit, but it just brightens my day.  I hope I didn’t bore y’all too much with my long winded paragraphs and never ending amount of pictures.  = ) 

The next few pictures are of the guest bedroom.  It’s on the 2nd floor and is connected to the screened in patio.  There is also a bathroom in the guest room.  The painting hanging over the bed was painted by my other SIL Lindsey (I have two SIL Lindseys, and you can find one of them here.)