My Weekend: Couch Shopping, 12 Hours of Cheerleading, and Laziness

I started my weekend by taking Puddin' to the park down the street.  We walked there once before but didn't really go through it.  Apparently our town doesn't have strict leash laws and all of the dogs are the park were running around free!  Someone actually asked me if my dog was poorly behaved since I had her on the leash.  I was a little reluctant since I wasn't sure exactly what Puddin' would do, but after talking to a few of the really nice owners and thinking of all the times Puddin' had been fine off her leash in Valley Forge, I let her off.  She did some laps with the other dogs and got some loving from the other owners.  I didn't want to overdo it or outstay our welcome with the other dogs that all knew each other, so we headed home shortly after.  The other owners told me every Saturday and Sunday morning, there's usually 20-30 dogs that all come to play.  I'm not sure we're quite ready for that, but we're going to keep easing into it.

Friday night Dave and I checked out two furniture stores.  We decided to set up all the furniture we had already in our family room and that we would get a nice new matching set for the living room.  We're still working on painting that space so we're not really in a rush to purchase anything.  It's nice that we can shop around and see what catches our eye.  The prices vary so much.  I know we want to get something that will last, but I'm still not sure how much we should be spending on couches!

This set caught our eye.

But it is definitely more pricey than the other couches we were considering.  This one was half the price!

We're painting the accent wall special gray and the other walls ivory brown, so we're thinking a dark gray or brown couch.

This was my original inspiration:

(The source was the Benjamin Moore website, but the page is unavailable now.)

And here is some of my further research:

(source)

(Another non working pinterest link.)

(source)

I'm not sure my living room will end up looking anything like any of those spaces, but decorating is completely new to me and the inspiration pictures really help me start putting ideas together.  The idea of decorating our entire house is so overwhelming, I know putting the whole thing together is really going to take a while.  But we have plenty of time, well... I will after cheerleading is over ;)

My Saturday involved over 12 hours of cheerleading.  I volunteered at a full day of 30 minute critiquing sessions with each of the squads in our league moving on to the Regional competition.  It was a long but very rewarding day.  Various coaches expressed their gratitude for our thoughts and suggestions.  The girls were working hard all day and my team did well during their session.  Our routine was complimented by some people there that definitely know their stuff!

So naturally, today was a lot of this.

And football, obviously.  Not only did one of the games start at 9:30 am this morning since it was played in London, but we also upgraded our cable to include the Red Zone (aka every touchdown from every game).  Heck yes.  I also plopped this Chicken Tikka Masala into the crockpot and made some simple cauliflower rice (chopped cooked cauliflower + butter + garlic + salt + pepper).  The recipe was pretty good, I think I could've put in a little more garam masala though.  I also wish I had used fire roasted diced tomatoes for a little extra kick and I really shouldn't have skipped the fresh cilantro.  (Tip to future self: never skip the fresh cilantro!)

So my cauliflower isn't very riced... I need to actually unpack my food processor!

The weekend always goes by way too quickly.  I hope yours was fun, relaxing, and enjoyable!

How much would you spend on a quality couch?  Please give me some feedback people :)