Favorite Things Friday 4

I took this picture intending to do a series of "Things I Orignally Thought I Would Hate But Ended Up Loving in My House."  Just rolls of the tounge, huh?  But when I took this weird picture, I decided to center today's Favorite Things Friday around it. So instead today's FTF is A Piece of My Living Room.  So creative...I know.

Someday I'll do a tour of my house and tell you all about each room.  So someday you'll get to see my whole living room.  But today you get to see a little piece of it through this big gaudy mirror. 

This thing is HUGE.  Maybe about 5'x3'?  Anyway, it was a hand-me-down from a relative and for a long time it sat in our den.  It actually laughed at me every time I walked by.  It also yelled "Hey look at me, I'm a big white and gold mirror!!!"  It was so weird...anyway, once I got our living room painted and more or less set up, I realized the mirror would look perfect above two white and gold chairs we had on this wall (from the same relative...see a pattern here?).

Actually, if I wa given some of the stuff today that we were given when we first got married I would reject a lot of it, but back then we had no money (even less than we do now, which is seriously NO money) and a big empty house so I took a lot of things that weren't quite "me".  And most things I'm glad I did.  I've been able to use a lot of it.

Anyway, I hung this mirror up and love it!   When I was playing around with the picture in Picasa (because yes, believe it or not, I do edit my photos before I post them, they're just SO BAD that even edited they stink!) I realized you could see the reflection in the mirror when the picture was brighter.

TA-DA!

The couch you see is one of the few pieces of furniture we bought just after getting married.  One of five pieces of furniture in our whole house, actually.  (Just after we got married my great aunt and grandmother both died and we were given a lot of their furniture because we were the ones with a big empty house.  So we didn't have to buy very much at all.)  We bought it at Aunt Zelda's up in Macon (now there's one in Warner Robins, too.  I don't remember how much we paid for it, I want to say $250?  Anyway, it was a BIG purchase for us and since we hardly ever sit in the living room it's still practically brand new.

I remember buying the pillows that are on the couch but don't remember where.  I want to say Target.  They have pretty red embroidery on them.  I bought them right after we got engaged because I was so happy to be getting married and excited about having my own house!  I stored them in a little cedar chest I had during the last year of college and I'd get them out of the bag and look at them sometimes.  Hehe. 

The tree beside the couch is fake.  That's right.  I'm not scared of fake plants.  I'm scared of real plants.  They die.  I just bought it a few weeks back at Goodwill for $7.50.

The candelabra behind the tree is another hand-me-down from the mirror relative.  (Seriously, she had some crazy stuff.)  There's actually a pair of them, but the other is shorter and hidden behind the couch.  I need to clean them up and get new candles for them (because I think the candles in them are about 1000 years old) and put them somewhere they'll look a little less awkward.  Let's move on.

Behind the couch is my grandmother's buffet, that's what the vase you can barely see at the far left and the picture frame with the leaves are sitting on.  The vase was a wedding present (it matches my china).  It may be for a candle and not a vase.  I have no idea.  The picture frame has these leaves and it was a wedding present, too.  It is from Pier One.  I registered at Pier One because they had a set of glasses I loved and didn't want to have just glasses on my registry.  Good thing, too, because they discontinued the glasses about 2 hours after I registered.  (I'm not really sure about that, but I did have a friend go to get me some of the glasses right after I registered there and she couldn't find them.  Maybe they were mad that I called them glasses and not tumblers or something.)  Not that it was a chore to find things I loved and wanted at Pier One (speaking of, can someone PLEASE buy me this chair?  You'll be my best friend if you do, I promise!).  Anyway, I just recently put pictures in the frames.  And not even pictures.  I had some scrapbook paper that looked like old envelopes and so I cut it up and stuck the pieces in the frame.

The mirror was purchased on the way home from our honeymoon at the Hobby Lobby in Atlanta.  I'd never been to or heard of Hobby Lobby (we didn't have one in Warner Robins until about two years ago).  Shane took me in there becasue he'd never been, either, but had heard of it.  We bought four or five mirrors that day for super cheap and a globe that sits on a table on the other side of the couch.  I thought Hobby Lobby was a magical, wonderful place.  Oh wait.  I still think that.


Underneath the mirror are a couple of old trunks.  Right now one is stacked on another so you can only see the one on top.  My parents bought them.  One of them is a trunk from a slave ship that they used to keep the slave's shackles in.  At least that's what my dad told me.   I'm alternately freaked out and awed by that.  I want to use one of the trunks as a coffee table in front of the couch, but everytime I put it there Shane moves it back.  So I'm just gonna leave it there.  For now.

The curtains are these great panels I got with a wedding gift card at Market Square up in Macon.  They were on clearance (duh) and maybe $10 or $12 each?  It was a great day because I thought the gift card was for $50 but when I checked out the card had $100 on it!  I bought almost all the curtains I have in our house on that shopping trip.

PS--I have a love/hate relationship with the paint color in the living room.  Today is hate.

So there you have it.  What are some of YOUR favorite things at your house?