Room & Board Brown Couch
I love this couch. I was perusing Craigslist for something new (and inexpensive), and saw this bad boy for only $200! This has to be a mistake, I thought. No mistake, but there was a catch! This couch reeked of dog: never has a couch smelled more like a dog than this couch did then. It was horrible. Horrible. We bought it anyway. Took it home, windows down. With all the confidence and inexperience of people who don’t own pets, we rented shampooer and embarked on 12 hours of shampooing, cleaning drying, febreeze-ing (is that a verb?), and after all that work, it finally became magic couch. No smell at all. A couple weeks later I was browsing through my Pinterest boards and discovered that years ago I had pinned a couch that was almost identical to this one! It was one of those moments, like the Secret. I put it out there and it came to me. 
Blue End Table
We’ve only had couches and chairs in this living room until this last week when I was at Goodwill. After Washington’s version of a snowstorm, I found Goodwill well stocked. Not too many shoppers make Goodwill their first priority. Go figure. I found this awesome end table for $30. I didn’t buy it at first. I thought it was cute but thought it would be too dark. So I left the end table there. Realizing later what I had done, I zoomed back and Huzzah! It was waiting. Now we have three empty drawers with which to hide all our secrets.
Bubble Glass Lamp
I found the lamp at a different Goodwill that same day. Turns out it doesn’t turn off unless you unplug it, but it’s sure cute.
Patchwork Quilt
I actually found this while I was visiting an old family home in Mississippi. It was the home of one of my ancestors and had been abandoned for 40 years. The house was falling apart in places, but still had so many of their goods in it! We found several quilt tops there. I loved this one specifically; it feels randomly pieced together—scraps of someone’s life. Old pieces of shirts, a dress that someone wore to a dance. I can imagine the mother scrubbing all these clothes by hand. I love the texture the prints add. I literally took this off one of my kids in the middle of the night to stage this photo… which might explain why they all ended up in bed with us in the middle of the night.
Grandma Sullivan Photo
I think my mom is the little girl in the basket here. I’m not sure. But this is Grandma. I love seeing her young. I love seeing her out and about on a bike. I love the pointy bra. Thinking of them riding around town just casually sitting together makes me feel like I have a little piece of who she was.
Watercolor
Watercolor by a local artist here in Portland AKA my sister. I love it. I don’t know what it is about it, the bird maybe? The colors? It has been one of my favorites since I first saw it. It hasn’t left our wall since.
African Painting
I served a Mormon mission in Botswana, Africa. I was walking down one of the malls one day with a couple other missionaries when a man approached me with these beautiful hand-painted canvasses. I had never seen art like this Botswana: usually, everything was so literal. This is so unique. I battled it out with another missionary, but I won out in the end. This is another piece that hasn’t left our walls.It’s a real treasure for me.
Wildish Painting
I adore this. On my way to Costco, I pass by this same sign, often. I’ve seen it for six years maybe? I’ve always meant to call the company to see if they have any old signs I could buy to put up on our wall. I didn’t even know what the company was, but it’s such a striking sign that I had to have it. It is beautiful and artistic. One year for Christmas Garrett painted it for me because he knew how much I loved it. It is my favorite gift I’ve ever received. It took my breath away that he remembered that I loved it so much. That he sized it down, matched the colors. It has a very special place in my heart. And it’s another one that I framed when I went framing crazy.
