Oh yeah

That's why I haven't done my nails in a year.

But the china cabinet is primed and ready for painting tomorrow!

Today, we removed the doors and took off the hardware (actually, Brett did that while I put all the little parts and pieces into baggies).

Then I made a quick trip to Lowe's for some glue to fix one broken piece inside the cabinet. I also got a philodendron and a little pot, which will be a nice job for me to take care of after supper. I'm excited to add some green to the sunroom!

Once I got home, I glued the piece in and waited (and ate lunch) while it was drying. Then I set to work!

And let me tell you. Painting something with glass doors is a total pain in the ass. There is very little I wouldn't rather do than wake up in the morning and paint the china cabinet and table legs.

But even just primed, it looks so much more modern. I can't wait to see it all painted!

I'm Giddy!

Every time I look in my dining room and see this:



We picked her up and drove her across town on the interstate last night!

I'm in love. Now I just have to figure out how to figure out her facelift. Does she look like more of a blue cabinet or a purple cabinet?

Color Inspiration

I always thought those articles you see about choosing paint colors were kind of hokey. Just because I like a color on my shoes doesn't mean I want it on my wall, you know?

I thought the only places I really found color inspiration were pictures of actual rooms, and my collection of fan decks and paint swatches. And that's been mostly true, at least for walls.

But when I started working on my submission for next week's Mood Board Monday (SO excited that I couldn't WAIT until this weekend to work on it), I realized something. My color scheme was coming pretty much directly from my wardrobe. That day, I was wearing a indigo jeans, a gray tee shirt, and a yellow sweater, with flame orange shoes. In fact, I have a similar outfit on today (minus the yellow).



Trust me, these colors (navy dress, gray nails and sweater, black buttons, orange shoes) will look very familiar come Monday. And hopefully, come whenever we redo our living room/dining room since that's what my mood board is for!

And then I started thinking about other places I've drawn inspiration from.

My patio chairs are painted Safety Red, which just happens to be the color of these babies:



And I'm busting at the seams to add some pink to my guest room and guest bath after seeing all of the gorgeous azaleas this spring!



And I'm dying to make this yellow iPhone case my own. But it's not the only place I want lots of yellow. I want large doses in the dining room and I'll add some to the guest room too!



Where do you find color inspiration? Do you stick to the conventional shelter mags and decor blogs, or have you ever taken your sweater for a color match?

China

On Friday, we'll be making the journey across town and paying $100 for this thing!



God love Craigslist!

It looks so substantial, and I love that the rounded doors mimic our kitchen cabinets.

The finish isn't terrible, but it's not quite what I had in mind. Between scoring this piece and an upcoming trip to Ikea (!) my head is swimming. So what's the plan?

First I'm going to line the back with this yellow stripe from Ikea.



I just started making a list of fabrics I want to pick up and I'm up to twelve. TWELVE. I need to cull, but they all have a point and a purpose and if I buy them all I'll never need to buy another fabric for the house ever ever ever(except for the master bedroom curtains and the futon cover). But we'll see. Ikea fabric prices are hard to beat.

I actually kind of like the gold grill that you can barely see in the picture. If it's gold, I'll probably keep it. It will depend on how I feel and how difficult it looks to remove.

For the finish? We're going dark. Plum or Navy, but either way I want to be in "almost black" territory.



These walls are Benjamin Moore Old Navy. I think that would look just divine with the yellow stripe. Kind of nautical, kind of eclectic. And with light gray walls and a different gray stripe in the room for window treatments? And a glass table with yellow wrap chairs?

I think I'm in decor heaven.

Don't you just love it when your mind races with the possibilities for a new project? It's just the best feeling out there.

Slackin'

I'll admit, I had few home related plans this week. But I was so excited to get my new fabric from the Little Green Notebook (I snagged enough of the gray stripe for our living room chair or LR/DR curtains and a yard of the pink houndstooth), I was hoping to bust out the machine and make a couple of changes to the guest room.

And... I got nothing.

Friday I took some me time and had a salon/spa/shopping day. My eyebrows are waxed and dyed, my eyelashes are tinted, and my hair is gone. I realized that I've had a bob somewhere between my chin and my shoulders for the last two plus years. I was ready for a change. And with the weather changing, I was ready for something short.



Friday night we had a great time at a Zydeco concert. Then yesterday, I spent all day baking for today. Brett's work had a crawfish boil and a dessert contest today!

I went with s'mores and cherry limeade cupcakes. Even though I didn't win, we made a strong showing. And I may have eaten a few mouthfuls of toasted marshmallow frosting.





We had a great time, though! But this week I'm hoping to get back to some small projects nd some craigslist stalking.

Hope everybody had a great weekend!

My secret weapon

Do you ever find yourself staring at a throw pillow or a bolt of fabric in a store, wondering if it will match a certain color scheme? Or looking at a credenza at a thrift sale wondering if it's too big or too small for your dining room?

Yeah, me too. And I got tired of it.

So I made this:



It goes everywhere with me. And it has everything I need to be very, very confident shopper. Thanks to this little guy, I make very few returns when I find something just doesn't work.

Each room has a section. There's a floor plan, with some key dimensions.



Then, for rooms that haven't been painted yet, the square footage of wall space. This can come in serious handy on those on-a-whim trips to the paint store.



Then, some information about fabric needs for the room, along with dimensions of the windows.



And then, a page on furnishing needs and ideal sizes.



Rooms that are farther along have details about the colors I've chosen. I also plan to add fabric swatches, once I figure out how to attach them.



And for things that are less than permanent, I use post-its. Here's a list of the many, many grays I'm considering for the living room and dining room walls.



And by far the most useful page is this one.



It's perfect picking out the nuances between blue-grays and blue-greens and green-grays when I'm picking out fabrics and furnishings.

For such a minimal investment, this tool has given me so much in return.

Do you have any tools that save your butt on a regular basis?

Also, we completely overhauled our home tour site! If you're interested in how our house looks as of this afternoon (and finally pictures of the kitchen that show the actual color), go on over to the top of the sidebar, and click on the picture of our house.

Or just click here.

Happy Anniversary!

Exactly one year ago, we were sitting at Waffle House nervously pushing eggs and grits around our plates listening to the guy two tables over brag about what a chauvinist male he is to his friend. We were so nervous about the decision we were making that day. We started out in our totally packed apartment, and quickly realized that we couldn't handle sitting there staring at the now blank walls of our tiny duplex. So we hung out at Waffle House, and then went to the bank to get the biggest certified check we'd ever written. Then we headed to the lawyer to wait for our mortgage broker to finally get her act together and send over the papers, and we signed until our hands cramped and our eyes glossed over.

We bought a house.



That night, as we tried to fall asleep on an air mattress on the floor of our new master bedroom, we just couldn't stop looking at each other and smiling. Even when the WHOOSH of water from our in-laws brushing their teeth upstairs rocketed by our heads. Even though our stove was beeping ever 20 seconds from the minute we walked in the door. Even though the refrigerator the sellers graciously offered to us was approximately 55 inside. Even though the previous owners' giant furniture was covering up some pretty gnarly carpet stains.

It was ours. And we were so happy.

Of course, reality hit us a few months later. Owning a house is expensive. Owning a house is a lot of work. Owning a house can really, really suck.

But oh, owning a house is so rewarding. This place is mine, in a way an apartment never was. It's more than paint and furnishings. That ugly tile floor? Mine. Giant crack in the driveway? Mine. Hawthorne bushes in the front flowerbeds? Mine. A carport big enough for TWO cars to park in it?!? Mine.

When we put the offer in on our house, we knew it wasn't perfect. It's not our dream house. It's a little farther from my office than I'd like. I's prefer if the upstairs bathroom had a shower. I'd prefer a bigger kitchen and wood floors instead of tile.

But it's mine. And in the past 365 days, I have fallen completely in love. I love my house. I know Brett feels the same way. And although we can't wait until we're "done," I know there's a huge part of us that will really miss the time spent working on this place.

Sometimes it seems like we're moving so slowly on the house. I feel like I'm not doing nearly enough, or the budget's just not there, or I've made a mistake, but when I look back at the transformation of our home in the last 12 months, I'm pretty freaking happy.

We started out with the pukey yellow bathroom upstairs. I think we lasted less than a month before we painted it green on a whim.

From here:



To here:



And then after about six months of being assaulted by the GREEN, to here:




Next came our bedroom. My birthday present was new bedroom furniture and bedding, and from my parents I got a gift card to repaint the room (and my mom's help in stenciling the pattern near the ceiling).

From here (with the seller's stuff):




To here:



Then, we decided to take on our leaky, hot sunroom:



And turn it into a bright, breezy screened in porch:




When our oven broke in November, we decided to go ahead and redo the kitchen for Christmas, taking it from this:



To this:




Then, thanks to some Christmas gift cards, we painted the guest bedroom:

Before



After



And the guest room (plus my first sewing project!):

Before



After:



And then we rounded it all off with a quick update for our bathroom, from this:



To this:




When I look back at all that we've done this year, I'm so proud. I really think buying this house was one of the best decisions we've made, and I'm so happy with how much we've grown to love it. I can't wait to see what another year brings us!