Decorating Your Home: Textures Make Things Pretty

If there was rehab for pillow addiction, my husband would check me in tomorrow. Or more like yesterday.  Since we're putting our home on the market soon, I've been obsessively tweaking things to make everything as great as it can be.  This included getting some new pillows for the couch.  See, the thing is, I don't allow us to use the pretty satin pillows that we have on the couch---they are for display only.  For the longest time, the pillows we actually used were mismatched ones from our old couches.  I finally decided to get a few more that match the current set so it didn't look weird in photos with half of the pillows being pretty purples and the other half being black and white and black and brown zebra print. 

I got 3 new pillows---two from my beloved West Elm and one from Crate and Barrel.  I think when it comes to decorative pillows, mixing textures and prints in complimentary colors is the way to go. It gives your decor a little depth and interest versus getting just the same pillows in the same color and texture.  Ready to see the new additions? Me too!

You might remember our other pillows from previous posts: (all from West Elm):

Now, we won't necessarily leave them laid out like that for the Realtor's photos, but they are like that for now. I sit in that little corner with the new pillows. In fact, I'm sitting there right now with my legs up! We still LOVE our West Elm Tillary Sofa. It has been the best furniture investment ever. So comfy!

Oh, and someone else loves the new pillows too!

Lulu loves anything soft and fluffy, so he's pretty happy with these new additions. 

More house updates:  we had new carpet put in in the downstairs bedroom.  We have no idea what the heck happened, but the previous owners had stains all over it.  We paid twice to have it cleaned but they just wouldn't come out.  They were pretty bad and made the room look dingy.  We pretty much got the same carpet we had before, it's just shiny and new now!  Definitely worth it since it's the first room people see when they walk in---we don't want to turn people off right away!

Here's how it looks now:

Now, the pillows we have here are just leftovers from previous pillows we've used on our old couches, so it's not my ideal design, but sometimes, you've gotta work with what you've got!
It's incredible what a difference new carpet makes!

Are you as obsessed with pillows as I am? I can't help it---they are pretty, soft and fluffy! What's not to love? Plus, they can change the look of a room so easily!  New pillows can equal a completely new and refreshed look.

Hope everyone had a great Monday! I only worked out 3 days last week so I need to get my butt back on track this week! My goal is to do 5 days this week.

xoxo,

Veronika.

PS- I'm off to cook dinner for the H!  Yummy pasta primavera with pesto and shrimp! I'm working on my cooking skills!

Health Warning: Truvia & Other Artificial Sweeteners

You ladies know I don't like to venture off topic too often, but I felt compelled to write this entry based on my recent experiences with Truvia.

Truvia is marketed as a more natural calorie-free sweetener because it is derived from the stevia plant. After years of using Splenda and other sweeteners in my tea, I decided that switching to something more natural would be better for me and my body.

For the last 2-3 months, I have been using Truvia in my tea exclusively. I drink A LOT of green tea. It's between 4-6 cups per day.  I drink caffeine-free green tea at night, but during the day it's usually Starbucks Zen Green Tea (which has a spear-minty flavor to it...refreshing, even when it's hot!)

 

For the past few months I have been having extreme stomach issues that were out of the ordinary for me. I was diagnosed with IBS as a teen, but in my 20's I kind of "grew out of it" and I only get symptoms now if I am majorly stressed. I am not on medication for it as it no longer affects my life on a daily basis like it used to.

However, every day since starting the Truvia (maybe not the first week or so, but after that) I would feel pain, cramping, bloating (and other horrible symptoms I won't get into to spare you all from having to read it.) I had no idea what was wrong. I hadn't changed my diet... yet I was always sick to my stomach in various forms of yucky-ness.

It finally got so bad last Friday that I had to leave work to deal with my symptoms.  I immediately made a doctor's appointment for the next morning.  My doctor suggested that I might benefit from a gluten-free diet. I've never had problems with bread or other foods containing glutens so I thought that was weird. At the time, I hadn't yet realized that my sweetener was the only thing I had changed in my diet so I didn't mention it to my physician.

I thought long and hard when I got home. That's when I had the epiphany. I went to trusty Google, and sure enough, my gut feeling (no pun intended) was right. I came upon a website where a lot of other people were having the exact same symptoms as me after using Truvia.

It was scary enough for me that I'm no longer using ANY sweeteners in my tea. I actually think I would go as far to say that I am (or was) addicted to sweeteners. I don't even drink as much tea when I'm not using sweeteners. I loved the taste of tea with sweetener in it. I craved it constantly. I even noticed that I was tired all of the time even though I was drinking tea (which can be another side-effect of the Truvia and other sweeteners.)

Now, I'm just working on getting my stomach back to normal. Just to be clear- this is NOT a post bashing Truvia or stevia. It's not a good product for me. That doesn't mean someone else would experience the same symptoms. A lot of people get migraines and other issues from Splenda and other sweeteners. It's just the risk you take when you add chemicals to your drinks. Some people can use them with no issues at all.

I only drink tea and water (occasionally a little bit of milk in my cereal, gatorade G2 if I am low on electrolytes, and, to my DH's annoyance, a couple of mini-sips from his Coke Zero every once in awhile.) I just don't see a need to sweeten my tea anymore if the reaction I get is extreme sickness and discomfort. 

The point of this post is to make people aware of my personal experience with Truvia. For me, it just devastated my system and I am still recovering from the side-effects trying to get my body functions back to normal.  It's just not worth it for me, no matter how good tea tastes sweetened.

Do YOU use sweeteners in your tea or other drinks? Have you found any alternatives to sweetener that you enjoy?   Someone mentioned agave nectar to me as an option, I might try that one day.

Thanks so much for reading and have a great night!

xoxo,

Veronika.