The thing is, I LOVE the way floor to ceiling photo walls can look.  They tell a story.  They show your personality by what you put up.  They are unique to you.  But as I began thinking about our entryway I knew that another photo wall was the last thing this house needs.  Thus began my brainstorm for ways to have visual interest on a wall without the use of photos/frames/art.

Here is what our entry looks like as of this morning.  Excuse the poor quality pics…they’re straight off my phone.

That table and mirror were both freebies from various locations.  I can’t wait to change them out!

This was the first area in the entire house that I decided to paint, and from the second I painted it I’ve loathed my color and sheen choice.  But I have to admit, I secretly love it as well because it is the best example of how far I’ve come and how much I’ve learned about home remodeling.

I love that throwback picture.  That wallpaper was hands down the EASIEST in the entire house to remove (thank God!).  It was very thick paper that was already loose and practically fell off once I applied the magic potion to it.

So back to how the entry way is now–empty, naked, & shiny.  The only thing on the walls is the sign that we had made for our wedding.

Other than that there’s just the supposed to be gray, but really it’s blueish-purple SEMI-GLOSS paint.  What was I thinking?  Obviously I didn’t know that semi-gloss really shouldn’t go on walls.  Especially walls with imperfections.  The light coming in from outside bounces off the glossy wall and makes the worst reflection.

So after much browsing and brainstorming I found some great options to add interest to the wall without adding a bajillion picture frames.  Here are some examples of what I’m contemplating doing.

Light. Chairs. Desk from craigslist. Rug. Curtains.

The only thing I need to get is art or photos for the frames.  Oh, and the frames. I found some beautiful botanical prints you can download for free from Honey & Fitz, but I’m not so sure they’ll work in the masculine office. I’d love a bunch of black and white architectural sketches, but I’ll just keep my eye out for some prints at a good deal.

I hope this weekend will be productive around the house…buuuuut Alex and I are both sick.  On Valentine’s Day.  It’s a pretty scary site.  We may or may not have had blue box mac n cheese and ginger ale for our romantic vday date. Sexy sexy. Speaking of sexy, you should hear my sexy man voice I have going on right now.  I know, it’s hot.

What I have for the office are SANELA gray velvet curtains from IKEA.

Compare the above picture with the different pleats below.

source

Does anyone else get the same feeling about eyelets as I do?  Perhaps they look too casual for my liking?  I get the feeling of a college dorm room when I look at them.  OH! Maybe I could spraypaint the metal rings a brassy-gold to give it some maturity???  Hmmmm…Oh shoot I think I might have just added a project for the weekend.

I know this isn’t the most entertaining post in the world, but sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest statement in a room.  I am a firm believer that window treatments are the mascara and eyeliner a window needs to bring them to life.  Without them they just look cold, sad  & naked!

Now let me give IKEA a little love here.  I’m not the biggest fan of big box stores simply for the lack of originality, but I have absolutely zero problems with getting my curtains from IKEA.  Oh, and the hardware too!  Compared to any other store I’ve been to (I’m talking Target, Walmart, World Market, Bed Bath & Beyond…) their curtain rods are not just cheaper in price, but they are higher in quality than many rods that are at least double in price. So, just a tip–head to IKEA for your curtain hardware!

So if all goes as planned this weekend I’ll be putting the curtains up in the office, scraping the windows of excess paint, and arranging the furniture in the room.  Stay tuned!

To help show my appreciation to Alex, I decided to make a good dinner that would be ready right when he got home at 5 (what up senior citizen eating time!). We love to eat dinner tapas style sometimes, so I went off that and did my own take on a recipe I saw Paula Deen make on her show on the Food Network.

Here’s my version of  Eggplant Caprese:

It was ALMOST perfect.  I learned the hard way that Romano cheese burns easily…so don’t use it in your bread crumb mixture.  Other than that, delish!

We got to FLOR in Atlanta around 6:15pm. The number of people that were already there was way beyond my expectations.  I was thinking a couple hundred people would be there throughout the night–WRONG. John & Sherry have quite the following!  I guess since I’ve never gone to anything like this I was just really shocked by how many people come out.

As we stood in line it got colder an colder outside.  I began to wonder what in the world I was doing standing in the cold just to get a signature in a book…what was I, a fan girl drooling over Justin Bieber?  But alas, my sweet husband didn’t complain one bit.

He didn’t complain, but he looks a bit petrified in this picture.

Around 7:30pm we finally got to the door and were allowed in.  The line for the book signing was actually very fast.  Once we were inside and thawing out, I signed a guestbook that John & Sherry had sitting out and then went up and had my book signed.

Enter awkward Emily.

I don’t think it was being “star struck” or anything like that, but I all of a sudden realized how weird this situation was.  I’ve followed their blog for 2-3 years so I feel like I “know” them, but obviously I don’t, nor do they know me. Then there was the–”Hey, I’m the Emily from the kitchen you featured last week…”  How do you say that and not feel awkward?!  I’m just glad there’s no video of said awkwardness. It was award winning.

Did I mention that when the picture was about to be taken, John said “you can come a little closer” (I guess I was standing far back??) and I responded with “Oh, okay.  I’ll squeeze in a pretend like we’re friends.”  Annnnnnd Emily sounds like a condescending jerk.  It’s my specialty.

Can you believe that they write little notes in everyone’s book?  I was shocked by that because there were literally about 1000 people there and I can’t imagine how sore their hands must get!

I will say that they were very genuine and as sweet as you would expect them to be.  What a neat life surprise to start a blog, have it grow to be crazy successful that it leads to a book deal, and then you get to see many of the faces that read your blog.  I can only imagine that it was a very surreal experience for them both.

FLOR was a great host for the signing. They had beer, wine, & some delicious looking desserts that were passed around.  They also had a cute Photo booth set up for whoever wanted to partake.

There was also a huge line to chat with Katie Bower, and although I’d love to meet her someday since she lives locally, I wasn’t about to make Alex wait around for that.  He did what he committed to do (and more!) and it was time to get him home.

So, my takeaway from the book signing is that I get awkward when I don’t have time to sit and get to know someone.  I hope it’s a while before Awkward Emily shows up again:)

I’m not completely sure why I’m putting this out there and I am crazy nervous in doing so, but I think that by sharing this huge part of what’s a focus in my life right now I can be free to write about whatever I want to, not JUST my current home project. I would also hope that someone who reads this might benefit in some way.

Here we go.

INFERTILITY.  That’s the word that has taken over my world for the past year.

The short story is that Alex and I have been trying to get pregnant for a year.  We knew something was wrong a couple months after I got off birth control and that’s when I first went to the doctor. Months went by, many tests were done, and the conclusion was “unexplained inferitlity”.  Awesome. Nothing better than being told that something is wrong, but unfortunately we just don’t know what.

My OB/GYN put me on some fertility medications called Clomid.  I did three cycles of this drug and still there was no pregnancy.  Each month that went by led to increased fear inside of me.  As best I tried to not get my hopes up of seeing a + on the test, it was impossible to not have a glimpse of hope.  After the 3rd round of Clomid and a negative pregnancy test we were referred out from my OB/GYN to a fertility specialist at Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta (RBA).

Our very first appointment was this past Wednesday and it couldn’t have gone any better. Here’s a little of what I wrote to my closest family and friends about the visit:

On the drive to Atlanta this morning I began to feel anxious again. I began to feel nervous.  I didn’t want the radio on and I didn’t even want to talk.  Once Alex parked the car I felt the sting of tears.  That all too familiar fear and anxiety crept up…I was just nervous about what the appointment could possibly hold.

We went back to meet Dr. Brahma and she couldn’t have been any sweeter!  She was so nice and extremely easy to talk to.  She never talked above me (although Alex said he nodded a lot because we talked “medical language”–oops) and proved herself to be extremely intelligent.  And good news (to me!)–I didn’t cry at all! 

I will be doing a lot of blood work over the next six weeks as well as a glucose tolerance test (GTT).  The GTT will show if I have any insulin resistance, and if so it will be beneficial for me to be put on Metformin, which is usually used for those with diabetes, in combination with Clomid.  My thyroid looked a little off to her as well, so that will be part of the blood testing as well.

After that they will do a test that shoots a dye in me that will show if my fallopian tubes are patent and it can also show the anatomy of my whole reproductive system and highlight any anatomical features that might be off.  Dr. Brahma is expecting this test to come out completely normal, but it’s a necessary step to cover all the bases.

Most of the decisions for what will actually happen next are determined by what the tests show.

So that’s where we are now.  The next couple of months will hold a bunch of testing and we’ll go from there.

I just have to say that God has been so, so sweet to me through this.  Even during the times when I was simply mad at Him, He could handle it and just loved me anyways.  I really think that at some point in 2013 I’ll be able to write a blog post announcing a pregnancy.  Until then I’ll occasionally write updates as they come and I feel like it.  At least by writing about it I can’t embarrass myself by breaking in to uncontrollable sobs in front of a group of a few friends and a few more strangers–yeah, that happened.  It was horrifying.  Oh well.