Fabrics

Everyone has a mindless activity they look to when they want to clear their head or relax. One of my activities is looking at fabric online. Like, a lot. Whenever I find a new fabric website with options I haven't seen before, I get very very excited. I've been doing this for a while, and it has not been an issue because I didn't have a house to use any of these materials in. But now that I do, it makes it kind of harder to choose because I just love so much of what I've seen out there.

After this revelation (see previous post):

I began to think through what other black/charcoal/grey and white/cream fabrics I've found and liked. Here's a few affordable ones that I'm thinking about using in some capacity.

Anyone have any thoughts or preferences on certain patterns? 

Black and white and Pyne Hollyhock

We are 6 days out from closing, which also happens to be moving day. Our current home is about 65-75% packed up. In terms of living, it feels like 90% is packed, but then when I start on another batch of boxes, it feels like I've only done about 10%. This will be our "last" move for a while, but considering both of us moved at least once a year for the past 9 years (that adds up to about 18+ moves), we are VERY excited to have this stage behind us. And in 5-7 years, I will do it over again. Unless we stay in this house forever.

The dining room and formal living room are one big room (15'x30'). My brain doesn't understand open spaces like that as well as individual rooms. Something about has been tripping me up for weeks. But then, two nights ago, I finally had some clarity on the space when I finally found out the name of this pattern:

Pyne Hollyhock by F Schumacher. Sooooo pretty and soooo subtle and yet bold and large scale. All of my requirements. I had first seen the pattern in Lonny: 

And I totally loved it. I'm not usually a huge fan of BLACK and WHITE together, but something about the charcoal and cream is REALLY speaking to me. It also goes perfectly with the adjacent rooms, which felt like a huge accomplishment for me since I'm not the best at working with larger open spaces. Give me a 12x12 cottage room and I'm fine....but these huge rooms freak me out. Also, my yellow sofa will be in the living area and we have lots of traditional furniture (some of which I have not seen yet) that our family has been gracious enough to give to us. I just felt unsure of how I was going to make it all work. So then, when Pyne Hollyhock came to me. I began to think through black and white, particularly in this space. I went through my Pinterest boards from the last few years and found these:

(I can't find the source of this picture, but I am looking...will update when I figure it out)

I loooooooooooooooove the check on the walls. Love it. And obviously I love the green touches.

(from Vogue.....i assume, since that's the watermark)

Pyne Hollyhock in action:

Love the door, love the orange frames, love the art.

Love how neutral the black and white can be...

So all of these got me thinking, and then I found this one on one of my boards:

I think the charcoal and cream will work well with my yellow sofa, especially if I pair it with colors like this photo above.

I'm thinking either a crystal chandelier or a red chandelier....depends which I find first and for the best price. More on lighting later...

Will post pics of the house and of moving as soon as it is OFFICIAL.

Welcome Back

It's been a while since I wrote on this blog and that is partially intentional. I've been doing other thing in the past 18 months. Some of these things involve getting engaged, moving to a new city, going part-time at my old job, finding another part-time job, planning a wedding, living with my in-laws, getting married, moving into a small rental and living life. We've been hunting for a house off and on and I really wanted to post all the ideas going through my head at each of the 20+ we've looked at, but I wouldn't allow myself to spend all that energy doing it until the house was a real thing.

Well, now we've placed an offer and it's looking like it's going to be a thing. We still have some other hoops to jump through, but we are on our way to become homeowners.

We wanted a fixer-upper but not a total dump. Almost everything we looked at was more of the latter. If it wasn't it was out of our price range. So we've found one that needs some cosmetic changes. Correction - a lot of cosmetic changes/updates. Basically, we are going to have to redo the whole front of the house and paint the brick. I'd like to add a porch, but I'm not sure exactly what I want it to look like.

This house sits on a hill, so for now I'm calling it our in-town mountain home. Because of that, I looked at these pictures and decided this would be the inspiration. That was before I looked at the house.

I love the white walls with the black trim here:

 

via Lonny.

I also love this green room with the beautiful charcoal upholstery with red touches.

via Lonny.

So before I had even been to the house, I decided this is what it needed. Well, once I arrived, I felt like while it still had a little mountain flair, it wasn't really THIS mountain-y. And this is a lot more subdued than the things I usually gravitate toward. So now, I'm trying to figure how what this house needs from me. 

I think it needs some mountain pastoral glamour. Does anyone know how to achieve that? I'm not sure I do. Working on it. Will keep you posted about progress of house/contract/closing.

Exterior: Grey + Rose

Ok, I know it's been a while, and I haven't really done this blog thing that well, but here goes. Despite the lack of, you know, actual posts, I have been collecting photos and things. Here is something I just HAVE to share with the world.

I have one of the most beautiful drives to work one can have. I drive through several historic neighborhoods and the houses and landscaping are always inspiring. I noticed this house for the first time the other day and had had had to share it with the world. I looooove the grey exterior. Love it. The rose door. Well, what isn't great about it? I love that they had the guts to do a "pink" door and the muted peachy-rosey tint is p.e.r.f.e.c.t. Oh, and the glossy white urns with the mossy green balls? THE PERFECT COLOR PALETTE. This my friends, is exterior done correctly.

One other thing - notice the lamps in that front room...I bet the inside is even cuter. Sad that I cannot see it. I've thought about writing them a note that says I love their home's color palette and would they let me come inside and take photos? But I think most people would think that is creepy. Which it is.

pottery obsessions

Found this today. I love the glamourous patterns, and the contrasting colors on the inside are a lovely surprise. What a great way to store spatulas and wooden spoons.

These can be found at Corzine & Co. via Taigan.

sephora euphoria

Yesterday I went with girlboyd + roommate to sephora. sephora brings out my inner child - reminds me of the days of my life circa age 4 through modern day age 8 when I had glitter somewhere on my skin at.all.times. It was quite common for me to have glitter in my eyelid creases during this phase. The dining room table from my childhood has a permanent blob of glitter puff paint on its leg. I would take a picture of that, since I own that table now, but it's in the storage unit, a.k.a. "the hope chest."

When I walked out of the store, I had the following things on my body (mostly my hands):
1. urban decay glide-on liner, 2. urban decay eyeshadow 3. laura mercier palette 4. fresh sake fragrance 5. sephora collection eyeshadow 6. burberry london 7. nars blush

Anyway, I cannot control myself in there. I went in without any makeup on, which is helpful, but became irrelevant because I didn't pace myself. The correct sephorastrategy should be:

1. discern your current makeup needs
2. browse the store
3. narrow down to several options
4. try selected options on your hand
5. try winning options on your face

How I did it:

1. went without any goals, other than to not spend money (then why did i go?)
2. went the perfume wall and sprayed myself with burberry something
3. randomly grabbed blushes and put them on my cheeks without thinking
4. put on concealer and foundation
5. girlboyd attempts to help me by showing me how to wear a dark purple eyeshadow
7. discovered urban decay eyeliner then proceed to use EVERY SINGLE COLOR on my hand (guess what, they dont come of with hand soap)
8. sprayed myself with more perfume on my forearms
9. stressed over what i wanted to buy and what the budget allowed

I ended up with the Urban Decay Glide-on eyeliner in "Underground" and the Laura Mercier palette. Wanted to buy this Laura Mercier lip plumper in Wildberry, but felt it was best for the budget to wait. This will definitely be purchased on the next trip.

a friend of mine has sent on a request from a parent. her mother is currently building a home + bunkhouse on a texas hillcountry property. there is a river involved. so her mom wants a logo and i'm attempting to help them brainstrom. i'm looking at texas hillcountry and more things for inspiration. i'm thinking a bluebonnet laurel wreath could be great for this project.

I love this photo from flickr. (not sure how to make links work yet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/phigits/3637618864/)

here is a ROUGH ROUGH draft of my first idea. normally i would never share this with anyone because of its rough form, but we need more posts. ill update on this soon.