goodbye first house: living room.

our living room is the most 'finished' room in the house. it has come along way since summer 2011 and even more so since summer 2010. i can't believe how empty our house was and how small that little plant is on my desk! it is the same plant that is sitting next to the tv now.

our original brown sofa was the first piece of furniture we bought as a married couple. jon bought it for us actually and i never really liked it. looking back at it though, i kind of miss it....

i think we bought it for $350 from his friend who was getting out of the military. two years later, we sold it for $250, and bought this vintage blue sofa for $150. haha, a day in the life of the hagerman's. 

the painting above the sofa is one that my uncle don did. he said that he, my mom, and my grandma were sitting on their porch in sugar house in 1976 when a little girl went by. don had intentions to paint a picture of their house, but when he saw the little girl he asked her if she'd like a portrait done of her. she said yes and he said she sat still for a solid 45 minutes while he worked. when he was finished, he showed her the finished product. she liked it, but didn't look long. she said that her mother was waiting for her! it's a quirky little painting, but i love having it and remembering that cute story. 

see how good my plants are doing! i recently repotted them and am praying they make it through the move alright....

i got those knobs from anthropology. the red clock is the clock that used to hang in my grandma's bedroom right across from her when she sat in bed. the eagle globe and anchor is the marine symbol that my dad carved and painted for jon while he was deployed and gave it to him on the fourth of july in 2011. 

my instagram pictures made it to coffee table books. it's fun because sometimes my visitors find pictures of themselves in there!

our nate berkus tortoise shell is one of our favorite household items. for a long time after we moved in, we could not figure out what to hang on our walls besides pictures and my eyes were so bored when i'd look around the room. we love this funny little thing. 

we got that little Dalarna horse when we were in Solvang in November for Veteran's day. jon found that little shot glass that he bought from sweden while he lived there with the same little horse on it. he gave me the canvas print for our two year anniversary (cotton)! and we proudly have his associates degree displayed that he obtained in october.

here is one last photo for your viewing pleasure:

jon and alex in sweden with the dalarna horse in october 2008 after jon had finished his two year mission.

house tour: living room. hello?

is this thing on?

where do i even begin.

i have been MIA. from my blog and technology in general. we went to washington d.c. for 9 days, came home and babysat a family of four for 8 days, went to texas for 6 days and then went to utah for 7 days. the day after we got back from utah, i started summer school. a week later, we went to st. george for 4 days. it has been a crazy summer!!! and on top of that, jon and i have been trying to keep our technology use to a minimum. we both deleted our facebook accounts (EXAGGERATED SIGH OF RELIEF!!!!!!!!!! best decision of our lives.) and have been trying to stay off our phones. it was so much fun to be on vacation and REALLY be on vacation. we got a lot of quality time together. and that is why my blog has been on the back burner. and because so much has happened that i'm overwhelmed with what to blog and what not to?

can i backtrack?

house tour!

 here she is! our living room. in all of her glory.
where do i begin.
the drapes:
i've always wanted to make the drapes in my house. not only is it [usually] cheaper, but its so much better to look at something knowing you MADE rather than picked out. also, its 100% custom! so i did the only thing i knew how to do. i called peggy, emily's sweet, sweet mother who is a pro seamstress. she majored in something at BYU? having to do with the home and family...she learned how to sew and teach people how to sew. i don't want to say what it is, because i know i'll get it wrong. emily? a little help here.
anyway, she's an amazing teacher, which is why emily is so good at crafting, and she was so willing to help me. i went to joann's and headed straight to the clearance section. i got five yards of fabric for $18. not bad, right? the only thing i had going on in this room was the rug at the front door, and the bentwood chair that i spray painted green. i definitely took a risk buying this fabric so far away from my home, i wasn't sure if it'd match or look good with what i had. i think i lucked out. i don't ever use the drapes, they just hang there and i use the beautiful vertical blinds that were already there. the panels on the smaller window are a tiny bit too small, but i didn't have enough fabric to make them any bigger. i love how they turned out.

see that chair?

 yep, that one.
thats my "Ghost Chair" designed by philippe starck.
maybe it's a knock off, maybe it isn't.
nevertheless, jon surprised me with it on my birthday!!! i had NO idea what he was getting me. he's getting better at surprises....
anyway, amazing. i couldn't have been happier.
the brown armoire behind the chair? thats what i used to house our tv the whole time jon was gone. when he got home, we bought a tv from his friend for, umm, a steal.

so with the left over money, we bought a new tv stand! now i get to decide what to do with the big empty wall the tv is on...
(see my creepy cat? she always does that. jon and i think we are alone, and look over and she's just staring at us. WEIRD.)

also, we got to get the matching book case!!!!!!! i am so excited about this. all of our books have been piled up in the guest room closet since we moved in. now they have a home! and i have a place to display some of my knick knacks.....

that cute little girl was my grandma's. a couple years before she died, she told us to pick something out in her house and write our names on the bottom of them so that we could have them when she passed on. isn't that interesting? so that's what i picked. and i've cherished it ever since. also, my dad gave me that wood piece. because, well, i love cats.

 jon's step mom made this for us as a wedding gift, and framed it with a wedding photo of us in front of the temple. i love it.

 not much is going on with the office area. i am so stumped with it. it's just so cluttered. we did take down our portraits. as much as i love seeing jon's handsome face and a huge picture of myself all day i thought that it was time to let them go.

this is what it looked like previously.

new house pictures.

i am so excited!!

a couple months ago, I asked my dear friend Jake to make a painting for us to hang in our kitchen.

he is so talented. 

i have a painting of his from a few years ago (wow, its been that long??) that i still need to hang in my office upstairs. here it is.

i know its hanging crooked and my bedroom is awful. this was my bedroom in queens, ny before my interior design degree was obtained, but look how cute that painting is!!

and and and....here is the new painting!

oh, i'm so happy with how it turned out. he does amazing work, and he's so unique.

the little heart on the upper right hand is a lil poem in the shape of a heart.

it says-

"In life's constant struggle between balance, peace, and equilibrium, love should and will always stand out from all the commotion as something that you can always rely on for peace. Sompthing you can always know to be there for you."

Yes, it says sompthing. i love it! and i love the man who made it.

he got married yesterday and i'm so happy for them. their invitation was AMAZING.

i'm so sad i couldn't make it to their wedding, and i wish them the best. 

this is how it looks from the back door. 

i love how it looks.

here is an updated photo of our kitchen bookshelf.

my uncle made the bookshelf for us with his bare hands.

it is so beautiful.

my cousin Camie made the bowls on the bottom shelf.

i am just realizing how talented my friends and family are...

i'm so grateful to have a piece of everyone in our little home. 

(creepy?)

on our three month anniversary, jon came home early and surprised me with this aloe vera plant.

he was going to bring me flowers, then he read this post that i had written that morning, and decided to get me a plant.

i am so glad he did, the plant brings much needed life into the room, and it serves a purpose!

the pitcher in the middle was given to us by my gf joyce. she is on a mission right now and I miss her dearly.

the antique box on the right, i'm so happy about it.

when jon and i were in las vegas last weekend, jon took me to the "Antique Mall Of America".

we were there for at least an hour. he enjoyed looking at everything there as much as i did. i didn't think that we would leave with anything, until we found that box.

it was $20 on a 50% off shelf.  

moving on to the living room.

i'm stuck in a rut.

i think i'm going to paint that side table the blue from the pictures. 

i got it from my dads last weekend. it had been left out on the porch for a year.

the stain is cracking off and it is just begging to be painted. maybe it will bring some interest into the room.

also, we NEED a new lamp. if anyone has any ideas for one, let me know. this one was given to us by the people who sold us the sofa. we need a light in there. it's nice to have, its just not visually pleasing.

and our little office.

not much has changed with this. i'm looking for a shelf to put both of our laptops on, so that they don't have to be stacked on top of each other. 

i've been looking for awhile and can't find anything i like. 

let me know if you have any suggestions...

so there is our little house!

it's slowly but surely coming together. i'm so happy that i decided to stay here while jon is gone. (we will see if that changes)

it would break my heart to leave the house and have to pack everything up. 

and yes, i'm still accepting visitors while he is gone:)