The Ringley Family Circus: The Six Week Sofa and A Few More of My Favorite Things

While most of my posts are updates on the babies, occasionally I like to post about a few other things of interest to me, like a recipe, craft idea, or a home decorating update. This is going to be one of those posts, just a head's up for those of you who might have been expecting a baby update. There are still a few pictures of the babies sprinkled in there for good measure too! This post will feature the Six Week Sofa, the sitting area Before and After pictures, and a few pictures of some of my new and old favorite things.

The Six Week Sofa is aptly named because that is how long we have waited for its arrival. After a two hour (with toddlers in tow) furniture shopping ordeal, I finally broke down and decided to order this couch and a chair Special Order for the sitting room. I don't know why when I said "we need a neutral/small sofa" that translated in the sales lady's mind to a lime green sofa on clearance and a neon blue crushed velvet chaise, but needless to say our options were limited. The Special Order sofa was the exact right color, texture, and size for the space and we had exhausted all of the other options in the store. We definitely weren't about to take the babies to a different furniture store. Since this wasn't our living room furniture and we didn't NEED it to have a place to sit, I figured it would be fine to wait however long it took to come in. Note to self: don't ever buy special order furniture again. I do not have the patience for it. We still don't have the chair, maybe it will turn into the Eight Week Chair.

This is what the "sitting area" has looked like for the last month and a half:

And today, at long last, the much anticipated Six Week Sofa arrived:

The chair, when it is finally delivered, will go next to the lamp and roughly under the black frame.

Chloe and Brady are trying to figure out what all the hoopla is about:

Now for some of my favorite things. This next picture is of my Aunt Gigi's lamp. She bought this lamp soon after my PawPaw (Aunt Gigi's father) passed away (I was about ten years old). At that time she told me she was going to hold onto it for a while, but she believed that one day PawPaw would want it to be mine. Aunt Gigi mailed me this lamp and it arrived on February 18, 2011, the day the twins were born. Since we didn't feel comfortable having it in our very cramped and small house with the new babies, our amazing friends and neighbors Carlea and Dustin gave it a home for about a year for us. Now that we have moved into the new house, it has assumed a special place in the sitting room. Every time I look at that lamp now I am reminded of Aunt Gigi and of PawPaw.

A few other favorite things reside on the side table next to the sofa in the sitting area. The shadow box has our wedding invitation and one of the boutonnieres from our wedding in it. My brother Thomas saved his boutonniere and made this for us and I love it. The glass container holds the two different colors of sand we poured together on our wedding day in lieu of lighting a unity candle. I am glad we decided to do this instead of the candle lighting because now we can always keep our sand.

On the dining table across from the sitting area, sits a new favorite thing. Our friends the Dermodys brought us a beautiful orchid when they came to the house warming barbecue we had a few weeks ago. I repotted it and have been trying hard to make sure it lives. My Grandma says the best way to keep an orchid alive is to leave it alone. So I've been trying to do just that. So far it is working (fingers crossed). Another one of our friends brought us some beautiful calla lilies that I also repotted, but unfortunately I overwatered them and I am trying to rehabilitate them, but I don't know if I will be able to or not. Here are some pictures of the orchid:

And the last favorite thing is an old favorite. It is a picture that used to hang in my room when I was little. My mom found it in the basement, cleaned it up and had it shipped to me. I was amazed that it got here all the way from NC in perfect condition! I hung it in the playroom and I love to look at it and think of my Mom. I am so glad the kids will be able to enjoy it just like I used to!