Our New Home, Halloween and Thanksgiving decor

Many of my friends have asked to see our new home in Arizona.

It's taken me a while, but here is the main floor.

My daughter Vanessa is an interior designer in Tampa, Florida.

We asked her to design this living space for us, 

we made all the purchases online!

First of all, I must mention that we purchased a model home, and all the window treatments came with the house, although we did buy the blinds.

The blinds are Hunter Douglas, and have a metal beaded chain on the side, to roll them up and down.  

The shades are called semi opaque, so even when they are closed, light comes in.

(We should have chosen opaque for the bedrooms, because the sun is very bright at 5:00 am in the summer)

We keep the blinds on the sides of the house closed all the time for two reasons.  

We are in very close proximity to neighbors on each side, and that's where the hot Arizona blazes through the window.

The print on the wall is from www.art.com.

I picked out about 8 of my favorites and let my husband choose from that list.

Luckily, he chose my favorite.  It's called Happy.

I thought it needed something else, and Vanessa suggested a floating shelf.

Vanessa chose these blue chairs for us to make a cozy seating arrangement. 

Originally, she wanted us to get an off white love couch to put under the painting, but we already have so many couches...

All the pillows are from Target, World Market

 and Bed Bath and Beyond.

We already had the brown leather coffee table/ottoman.

Vanessa suggested the rug, I had to talk my husband into it!

I loved it because it has blue, yellow, green and even pink and orange, but the rug is still a subtle color.

Vanessa suggested the sheepskin rug too, I love it!

Sometimes I just lie on top of it and read, 

it's very soft and luxurious.

The gold reading lamp came from Lamps Plus and the shiny gold drum adds a nice touch.

I ordered one from Target but it was more like a dull brass color, so I returned it.

 Vanessa sent me the link for the shiny gold one.

I've always loved silver better than gold in my home decor, but I'm really enjoying the gold.

We love, love, love this cognac colored leather couch.

It's a warm color and the leather is really soft.

It was ordered from North Carolina and took about 8 weeks to arrive, along with furniture guys to take it out of the box and place it where I wanted it.

There are little hooks under the cushions to attach them to the couch.

We think they made it to order for us, that's the reason it took so long to arrive!

Vanessa wanted me to buy a gold tray, but I used the white one I already had.

This table is from World Market.

My husband wanted it to go on the wall between the two curtains, but I didn't want it to be the focus of the seating area and it wasn't "cozy" that way.

Vanessa designed it to go behind the cognac couch and that's where it is, facing the dining room table.

It's great for storage which I really need.

I put my bone china in there, with some home decor and old books.

I even put my Christmas books in the console table, which were previously store in a cardboard box in the garage.

Vanessa chose the white lamp with acrylic legs and accents from Target, to bring in the acrylic bar stools she chose for the kitchen, opposite this area.

Really love the grey tile floor on the main floor, 

except for the guest bedroom which is carpeted.

That completes our area designed by Vanessa!

I love having a room designed by her, I think of her everytime I'm in there.

This is the dining room, the table expands to seat 8 people.

We still need to buy 4 more chairs.

Some of my Thanksgiving decor :)

This is our front door.

It has really pretty leaded glass which adds privacy.

We bought the table at Home Goods.

Some more of my Halloween decor.

Underneath the table I have some favorite books of 

Canada and San Francisco, along with some bowls from Lesotho.

A perfect nook for my vintage ladder that holds some quilts.

On the other side of the sliding glass door, the wall is diagonal.

Our backyard.

We're looking into getting the grill hooked up to our gas line.

Isn't the grass beautiful and green?

It doesn't take any work because it's turf, fake grass!

I'm going to plant a California navel orange tree in that little square where a Palo Verde tree stood a month ago.

Part of it broke in the Monsoon storm we had, 

those trees are very fragile.

It wasn't much of a storm (I've experienced 2 tornadoes and a hurricane) but I guess it's all relative!

The backyard is very private, we have a landscaped area behind us.

We don't have blinds on our glass doors because there are no houses there to look into our windows.

This is our guest room on the main floor, it has a full bath.

The headboard feature on the wall is interesting, 

it's a molded wood or plastic.

On the wall are some paintings that my mom painted, 

of Prince Edward Island where she grew up.

On the opposite wall of the guest bedroom, are some more of my mother's paintings.

You can also see the guest bathroom.

I'm going to paint that little desk a pretty green color soon.

Here's my beautiful kitchen 

opposite the cozy seating area and dining room. 

The guest bedroom is to the right of this photo.

One more thing that Vanessa designed for us are the bar stools.

They are so different, I really love them!

They have backs, 

but you can barely see them because they're see through acrylic.

They came completely disassembled, 

and were a pain to put together.

The white silestone kitchen counter is huge, I love it!

I purchased these two metal cactuses from a furniture store in Gilbert called The Potato Barn.

When you live in Arizona, you need cactus decor, and cactus fabric and cactus pens for the grandchildren, lol!

I think my Pottery Barn galvanized metal tray goes perfectly on my vintage tablerunner, with fall leaves to remind me of Rocklin.

I've always wanted some kitchen cupboards with glass!!!

Some favorite Polish Pottery, Jaedite, Fire King bowls, Hummels from my mom, Willow Tree ornament from some dear friends, copper and marble pedestal from my daughter, Anthropologie bowls and mug, and some little colored bowls from West Elm.

These are a few of my favorite things!

I collect paper straws and display them according to the season or holiday and never drink a smoothie without one :)

I had so much fun choosing treasures to put in these cabinets.

I love the tile wall, have always wanted one :)

I bought a marble paper towel holder that stays in place when you rip off one piece with one hand.

The marble utensil holder is from Target, they had the best price and I bought white utensils to match the kitchen.

This is the view of the living space from the kitchen.

It's all in one area, an open space plan.

 There are lights under the cabinets as well,

 lots of lights in this room.

Even though the photo is dark, you can see the glass window better.

When you enter the house through the front door, look to the right and you will see my little antique table that I couldn't bear to part with!

On the left is a closet and to the right is the powder room.

Well that's my tour of the main floor.

Upstairs are 3 bedrooms, one is my sewing room, one is the master bedroom and the other is  

for the grandchildren when they come to visit.

There is a loft upstairs also, and that's where the main TV room is for my husband, with reclining couch.

I'll show you our home when I get all the Christmas decorations up.

Thanks for reading this, it was a long post :)