Give me the Blues

A friend of mine sent me a text other day  and said how about blue.   I thought she was hinting that she was having a boy, but  she was actually talking about her master bedroom.  Immediately I was thought yes blue and go dark and started looking for inspiration photos for her.  Here are a few of my favorites:

House to Home

coastal living

After finding photos that I liked I found that I was actually leaning toward the light blues.  Armed with my Sherwin Williams paint swatch book I took a look at all the Blue Sherwin had to offer.   I narrowed it down to two strips that I loved and I pretty sure my friend did too.  Take a look:

Vast Sky SW6505 – Nautilus SW6780 – Loyal Blue SW6510

After finding some great colors to choose from I found some accessories to fill the room.

1. Soho Sconce – Shades of Light 2. Saaremaa Bedding Bundle – Normstorm 3. Scroll Headboard – West Elm
4. Festive Floral Rug -Shade of Light

I have many  other blue room ideas save to my Pinterest if your interested in please click here.   I have so much fun creating a Blue Master Bedroom ideas.  I hope another friend texts me a color.

OH BABY!!

I’ve arrived at that time in one’s life when it seems everyone around you has started having babies.   I have truly enjoyed watching my friends and family go through this exciting time in their lives — doing my share of attending and hosting many baby showers.  I am very excited to share some ideas for a thoughtful gift to make yourself and add to any shower gift from a registry. These items are so cute and they add the perfect personal touch to any gift!

For awhile now, I have been making custom burp cloths and tag blankets for my friends and family.  Both items take about an hour to cut and sew.  I truly enjoy picking out whimsical fabrics that are cute but still have some style.   I even get follow-up requests from these future Mommies-to-be, asking me to make more burp cloths and tag blankets. They are a huge hit!

Here are some of my latest creations:

 

….which leads me to share my other favorite children’s gifts, some of which I have already given to friends and family or am planning to give in the future.  Here are some of my favorite things:

 

 

   

1. Dave Darinko Red uglydolls.com  2. Bashful Schnauzer  jellycat.com  3. Scribbles A Really Giant Coloring Book  Amazon.com  4. Kissing Giaffe Pillow  jonathanadler.com

As for me, my husband and I have not yet decided where babies fit into our lives but when the time comes, of course, I will be ready.  Here is one of my favorite nurseries.  It comes from the home of  Jenna Lyons, Creative Director at JCrew.   I love how the space is not a filled with typical baby decorations but has a much more stylistic approach.  My favorite part of the room is the artwork mobile made by Alexander Calder.

I hope these items inspire you the next time you are looking for the perfect baby shower/kids’ birthday gift or even for your own home.

Have a seat

Have your ever seen this chair?

How about these?

I will give you a clue.  The creators of these chairs had the goal of bringing good design to the masses.  Both chairs above were designed for furniture maker, Henry Miller.  Give up?  These iconic chairs were designed by Charles and Ray Eames.   

The Eames’ did everything from advertising to architecture and design.   I recently watched a documentary about their lives called Eames: The Architect & The Painter.  I enjoyed getting to see their creative process and how they have impacted the art world.   It is a great movie and it has inspired me in so many ways!  You can watch the movie on Netflix or iTunes.  Check it out, you will not be disappointed!

If you seen it or when you watch it let me know what you think.

Bathroom Update

Recently, my husband (“the hubs”) and I updated our upstairs bathroom.  We have a house with one bathroom and it works for us for now, but maybe someday we will add another one.  The bathroom was a pretty mocha color and that’s probably why we haven’t updated it since we moved in.  The one thing that I disliked most about the bathroom was the vanity light fixture.  The flowers just did not work for me.   Here are some “before” pictures:  (I apologize for the quality, but I think that I was so excited about the changes that I was not focused on getting good pictures!)

The bathroom when we first moved in.

For my redesign, I chose a Sherwin Williams Tradewind  gray blue.   I was trying to find a color that would work with the maroon tile that we inherited with the house.  When the hubs had just finished re-painting it, I had a panicked moment when I realized that I picked my grandma’s favorite blue color which she used for EVERYTHING.  Not my favorite shade of blue, but I can tell you after a few weeks, I really do love the color.

We painted all the woodwork and the vanity white and I love the clean look it gives with the beige and blue. We replace the base trim and painted it white.  As for the vanity light, I’m really excited about how it turned out!  I used my favorite spray paint: oil rubbed bronze on that tacky gold light fixture and bought new globes.  It was so simple to make the light fixture look infinitely

better!  

UP NEXT:  The best part!  Out hunting for new décor for the bathroom –  and do not worry! –  I will keep you updated on all the great details.

British Evasion

I have been on the hunt for new rugs for the last few months.   Why is it so hard to find quality rugs with a price that matches my budget?  Unfortunately, we will not find the answer to this question in this post…  but this leads me to my newest obsession: The Union Jack Flag!  I have loved decorating with the British flag since I first watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in high school.

After endless searching, I found these beauties:

The gray rug is from Z Gallerie and the zebra-shaped Union Jack is from Jonathon Alder.  Both are great rugs but the hubs is not sold on the gray one and the other one is completely out of our budget!

After finding these rugs, I started to think about the Union Jack and how I have wanted to decorate with it for years. Then I started to think about my house and how to incorporate it.  It is such a great design element; simple, classic and colors that can go with just about anything.   Check out these great examples I found:

via casa sugar

via house and home

via elle-decor

I found these pillows on Etsy and I am in love!  I am not sure if I’ll end up with a rug or some pillows but I will let you know when the purchase is made.

Karen Hilton Designs

You can find the pillows here.

Cheers!

Color of the year!

Pantone Inc. has announced that Tangerine Tango is the color of the year.   I may be too late in sharing the news since it was announced at the end of December – but still – it is exciting!

Pantone is the company that sets color standards for the design industry.  The company sells many products that help communicate color in different ways.  The website is pretty neat, check it out here. If you have ever seen a paint chip book at the paint department in a hardware store, then you can get the idea of Pantone.

Tangerine Tango is a bright red orange and I am in love!  I have a really nice piece of furniture in this color  and recently made some pillows with the color of the year:

I also found some other great interiors with this color:

via blog.hgtv.com

via blogs.babble.com

via cococozy.com

via apartmenttherapy.com

Hope this will inspire you to use the color of the year!

Bring a little warmth.

Nothing like preparing for winter before the snow really hits.

Which leads me to a project that my husband and I recently worked on – insulating our house.  The hubby and I started this project a summer ago.  We were able to insulate parts of our house with recycled insulation which we blew into the house from the outside.  We bought all the insulation from a big box hardware store and could rent the machine that blows the insulation for free.  We went as green as we could and it was not a big cost difference.   We assembled a small army to help in the summer when we started this project two summers ago.  It took three days in the hot summer sun but it was worth the heating cost savings.  We blew the insulation in from the outside of the house.  By removing one shingle and drilling a small hole, we stuck the hose in and away we went.  This process took several holes, about every three feet or so and we had to do it to both levels of our house. Buying a home that was built in the 1920s means that the insulation could not be updated any other way.

So this bring us to the crawl space in our upstairs closet.  After last winter, we noticed that this room (our office) was COLD and still needed some work.  The plan was to line the crawl space with fiberglass insulation, so we rented the machine and blew in some new insulation again.

Probably the most entertaining part of this project was when my husband attempted to squeeze himself into the tiny crawl space.  After he gets all the way down the long, narrow and dark crawl space,  it dawns on me that we have no flashlights!  And I can’t get the darn machine to turned on!!   So, hubby had to pull himself out of the crawl space to help me with the machine, and so we took the opportunity to run to the store and treat him to a brand new head lamp!  And that head lamp is the best tool!

So after 14 bags we now have another space fully insulated.    It is a simple project, but it does take some time and planning.   Small areas can be done in a day.

Some simple projects to help our pretty house make it through the winter.  Projects on the horizon: the bathroom.  I think a fresh coat of paint and a little updating is next!

IKEA

Well, after the holidays and two rounds of illness, I can finally say I’m back.  My head has been swirling with things I need to write about.  Maybe that explains that last bout of sickness, a major migraine.  I am happy to be back at my blog again and to tell everyone about our latest projects.

During my hiatus from the blog, Sean (the hubs) and I made a trip to IKEA.   We needed some new storage options for our home.  We looked at several options by starting at World Market but the color and the look is not what we were looking for.

  Another option we looked at was Pottery Barn but that was well beyond our budget.  But it did have the look we were going for.

  After researching and discussing what we wanted, we settled on IKEA.  It had the white look and the many options we wanted.

Being the planner, my husband had the great idea to download the catalog and circle everything we would want to see in person.  We also signed up for IKEA Family which gives discounts to members.  It turns out that our IKEA Family Card paid off by providing us with some free breakfast and coffee at the store and discounts off of our purchases. The discounts offered change each month and  items available  are posted on the Ikea website.

Here are some pictures of our IKEA finds and I will update the pics as I fill the bookshelves.

I also looked at another slipcover for our couch.  But IKEA does not have the color that would go with our living room.  It got me thinking: do people make IKEA slipcovers?   With some internet searching, I found this great website with many good IKEA center ideas  just click here:  Shelter Pop

After looking around, I got the idea of dyeing the natural slip cover.  So I think this means that I am now on the hunt for a cheap IKEA slipcover in case the whole project goes wrong.   See how one project can inspire many more?

Pretty things

There are some products or design elements that I am in love with .  Things that  inspire me for the spaces I have, or for people that I help.  So with the first of many posts of pretty things that inspires me.  I am going big with the first one.  The Louis Vuitton steamer trunk  I love the design elements of the steamer trunk since I saw the movie the The Darjeeling Limited “Wes Anderson’s 2001.”  In which the charters travel with their father’s Louis Vuitton luggage.

I love the look of the vintage pieces too.  It something about having   a piece of luggage that has been around the world when travel was romantic and required more then a plane.

Since first seeing the trunks in the movie I have seen people décor with them.

Tommy Hilfiger's home

Ken Fulk Design

I need a table for our office and have been on the hunt for something similar for long time.   Every time I am in a thrift store  or antique shop hope to find a great deal on something similar and if I do believe I will let you know.

Food to go

The Hubby and I are off the Night of the Races.  Images that come to mind, vintage horse races where ladies wore hats and men were still gentlemen oh and lots of plaid.   But to those of you who are not lucky enough to go to one of these events.  It is a fundraiser for high school sports or the school themselves.  Where old horse races are shown at random  and you can bet on a horse just like a race track.  There are lots of other games too. It is always for a good cause and last Saturday’s events was for a high school soccer and lacrosse team.  My husband coaches for the school and its a great event for the community.

Last year was my first year at the races.  I was stunned on how the people brought all kinds of finger foods.  Some people even had theme decorated tables.   I felt shown up.  How could I not know to bring snacks and arrange the table beautifully?  Well this year I was going to bring it!

So by know you might have guess it the pretty room is traveling and in style.   I started with a theme or inspiration.  Which was vintage horse racing and plaid.  I just can ‘t not get the Tommy Hilfiger ad for Christmas out of my head.  I think it really shows in this project

After images of what I wanted to achieve where in my head I went to the menu.  There are a couple of party and or snack receipes that I want to try for while a now, and it work perfectly.  So for the menu I made Parmesan and Italian spice crackers (Ina Gartan), party mix and Chocolate and Carmel crackers from (Smitten Kitchen).  I used the cracker recipe again for thanksgiving and  of the recipes will work well for  this seasons holiday partys.

All the recipes turned out great.  Have a look I have added the links so if you want you can get the recipes.  I made the party mix from everything I found on the web with my own alterations.

Party Mix

Servings: about 10 cups of mix

Ingredients

1 cup Cheerios

2 cups small cheese crackers Kashi

2 cups small pretzels

1/2 pound peanuts

1 cup dried mangos slices

1/2 soy sauce

1/4 season salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon chili power

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

2. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl Melted the butter and seasonings together in a small sauce pan till completely melted.  When butter mixture is melted add to the large bowl and mix completely.  Bake in 250 degree over for 30 mins stiring every 10.

Chocolate Carmel Crackers

Parmesan and Thyme Crackers

Party Mix

The styling. I had Black tins that cookies came in from work.  I must say that I love these tins.  They are stylish and add a bit of color to a clear plastic world.  Tin, to me, is such a good alternative to the plastic storage containers.  I found the plaid tin at yard sale.

I must say the hubby does not like that I collect “junk” but it does come in handy!  I think he is starting to realize it too!   So I started to think that I could line the tins with wax paper for a vintage feel.  I could line with paper napkins cheesy! Then another project came to mind.  I will make paid cloth napkins and a black one for the plaid tin.  This project is super easy and really adds to the wow factor.   Plus I got enough fabric to make napkins for some of many holiday get togethers I might host

To make the napkins you will need piece of fabric 12.25” square, Heat and Bond, Iron and Scissors.

Cut the fabric 12 ¼ ” Iron flat and then fold over the corners ¼”  fold over corners so they over lap. Insert Heat and Bond strips iron down make sure the heat and bond completely covers the fabric.  If you want you can also sew around the edges.

Just like that you have cloth napkins.

To hold everything is a basket I had waiting for this moment! A picnic basket!  I really believe that any large basket is a great investment.  There has been so many times that I have had to travel with food and this helps with the stress factor of it not going all over the car

The point of this post is that it really is not that hard to make a tailgate, night at a fundraiser, or Holiday parties that you have to travel to stylish.  If you take away the fact that I made most of the snacks, when you get down to it you can even dress up store bought food with things collected from the house and maybe an hour devoted to crafts.