Steve and I just booked our tickets to Costa Rica to celebrate 5 years together in March.  We're hoping to mix a little adventure and little bit of lying on a beach doing nothing.  We're flying into the Liberia airport (it was significantly cheaper than San Jose) and planning on renting a car.  I've heard that Monteverde is incredible as is the Arenal Volcano National Park.  I'd also like to see some cool flora and fauna. Any recommendations for things to do, places to go and food to eat?

Fall is definitely on the horizon. Evenings are getting cooler and the leaves are starting to change. To get ready for the inevitable, I've been brainstorming chic jackets to add to my usual rotation.  I'd love to get my hands on a cool moto jacket either in leather, suede or even a cotton blend. Here's a round up of a few of my favorites around the internet:

I religiously follow interior design genius Emily Henderson's blog. Her ideas are brilliant, the photos are gorgeous, and her writing style is equal parts hilarious and heart warming.  All the way back in January of 2015, she wrote a post about the generic sofa.  There in the round up of boring, sad sofas were several that looked pretty similar to my own.   Flashback to 2012, I had gotten a sleeper sofa for my apartment in St. Louis from a place called Weekends Only Furniture Warehouse that was literally only open Friday-Sunday.  Apparently only being open on weekends meant they could charge less for furniture. Interesting model right? Anyways, I had bought an affordable tan option because I was fresh out of college, in grad school, and needed something for my living room that wasn't totally ridiculous.  Tan was a safe choice: I was going to be living in apartments for an unknown amount of time and tan just goes with everything. That couch came with me from St. Louis to Denver and got plenty of use in my apartments. Because it was tan it was easy to dress up with pretty pillows or a fun throw every time I switched places. But once I moved into the house it was particularly sad and disheveled. We have 2 extra bedrooms that could be used for guests so we don't need an extra heavy sleeper sofa in the living room. Especially one that is painfully uncomfortable because the seats were losing their structure.  No one wants excruciating back pain from Netflix bingeing.


I was ready to wait a very, very long time to invest in a new sofa. However, as a very generous birthday/graduation gift, my mom decided to relieve me from my painful, sad couch and took me to pick out a new sofa.



Behold. My brand new sofa.  I took the plunge and went for a beautiful, rich, navy color. This bad boy is anything but boring.  It's velvety and feels so soft.  It adds a dramatic pop of color to my very neutral house. It's everything I ever wanted in a sofa. I think Emily would be proud with my couch selection. 

I have numerous succulents around my house and the collection keeps growing.  Our sunny little house is the perfect place to grow plants.  They've been thriving despite my brown thumb.  To house all my little succulents, I've been gathering adorable containers.  I recently stumbled upon this clever pig planter.






You can find it from FruitFlyPie on Etsy for $34.  It would be a perfect housewarming gift or a treat yo self purchase.  They also carry piggie planters in numerous other bold shades.  Any other cute sources for planters? Share in the comments section!

Earlier this spring, I bought a beautiful marble top coffee table off a friend who was moving out of state after graduation. I miss her a lot but the coffee table is a nice reminder of fun times hanging out in her cute and cozy Cap Hill apartment.  If you follow me on Pinterest, it's clear I have a thing for marble. It adds a luxe touch to everything! Although my living room is still in progress (a new couch is ordered and should be delivered by the end of the month), I'm happy with the coffee table and the way it's currently styled.




A cute little succulent adds some greenery and depth to the vignette. I'm obsessed with this little jade plant and the container it is in. I bought it from Honeycomb & Co., a local florist and interior design store.  I stopped in on my birthday and they gave me the succulent for free!



This year's coffee table book rotation? A guide to traveling in the Southwest and Rocky Mountains, a PostSecret book, and of course a book about infectious diseases. We are health professionals after all.



Like anything part of my house, I have a tendency to rearrange when things feel boring or stale. For now, I'm loving the way the living room is coming together and I'm happy with the current coffee table styling.

I've thought about doing a round up each week of the small things that have made me smile, brought me joy, or given me hope.  After all, it's important to savor the little things in life and that IS the point of this blog. This week was my birthday and there were definitely small things and great love :)