Boys Drool Colors Rule!

If you have been on Pinterest at all......  I mean I don't know a soul that really likes that site or that would  waste away precious minutes of life pinning recipes that they might try someday(if they ever routinely cooked) or design ideas for their "someday house".   I don't know anyone that does that do you?  I didn't think so;)

Anywho, I digress.  If you are a Pinterest fan (would love for you to follow my boards here) then you may have spotted a few of the awesome color boards from Design Seeds.

   
Jessica from Design Seeds has an awesome eye for color and a great concept!

She almost takes all the worry and hassle out of the sometimes difficult task of choosing colors for a space.  I love how you essentially pick the main colors that you want to use and then even know which colors to keep in mind for accessories because you know they will jive.

I am so in love with this concept that I have already written a previous post about it..  Geez me!  Get a life!  

Ok so we love the concept right?  But now what do we do with it?  When it is actually time to go get the paint do we go research the swatch isle looking for something similar or is there a better way?

As you can imagine Design Seeds has probably been asked this question a time or two and I was curious as well.

Apparently in the world of color there is something called a HEX code.  Design seeds has provided that and all you have to do is scroll over the color that your interested in on the right side of the color board and the HEX code will pop up.  

Then what?

There is a site called Work with Color that you can visit and enter the HEX code into the "color converter" and it will give you the RGB code which is what the paint store needs to mix your color.  Now obviously I haven't attempted this yet but I would probably try one color and see how it goes.  After all computer screens vary too so I am really curious how the colors come out.  If we ever break ground on the house and I get to get my hands dirty again I will definitely be trying this!  Almost for the sole purpose of seeing if it works!  Have you ever tried to find your perfect color palate this way?  If not what method do you use to get that perfect match at the paint store?  Do tell!

Evolution of a Room

Happy Monday all you wonderfully creative and talented people!  

If there is anyone out there that hasn't given up on the bedroom makeover in progress for Lori you will be happy to know I have a little update!  Finally!

Here is a little sneak peak of the mirror and headboard I posted on the facebook page yesterday;)  

Isn't she pretty?!

When we first started these were the pics that Lori sent of their room.  It was a room that they just hadn't gotten around to.  Isn't that how it always is?  The master bedroom almost always seems to be the last room in the house that gets any attention.  Maybe it's because we never get to spend enough time there, or it is tucked away upstairs like Marc and Lori's.

Anywho, here is what you saw when you first walked into the room.

This is what you saw if you stood at the foot of the bed.

These are the nightstands and lamps that Lori acquired from Marc's bachelor days

When Lori and I started chatting about what she wanted for the room there were a couple of things that she mentioned.  She was thinking of a grayish blue for the walls and had spotted a comforter at West Elm that was calling her name.  As I have probably mentioned a hundred times before I am just a wanna be designer.  I usually have no real plan for what we end up doing in our home.  I just see something I like (typically at a very reduced price) and get it if I know I can put it to use somewhere.(back in the day when I was trying to decorate our casa anyway) These days I just keep my eyes peeled for good deals for others and you know what?  It is just as fun!  Anyway there is really no rhyme or reason...It doesn't have to fit some "style".   I just "like" it.  There is also a bit of a tendency to buy things that are a little different.  For instance those two leaves on the wall to the left of the window.  They are made of bark and were different and cheap so I had to swipe them up.

Or that huge "ball o' light" I just couldn't pass up at a Four Hands tent sale.  (If you have a Four Hands in your area consider yourself lucky. We were lucky enough to buy several pieces of furniture back when they would send out 40 or 50% off vouchers)! Bonus!  

I digress...I guess I just feel the need to say...I really don't have a clue what I'm doing.  I just happen to know a couple of people that for one reason or another have faith that I can help them make sense of their spaces.  So back to what Lori wanted.  I put this mood board together with a grayish blue paint and the pin tuck comforter  she wanted.

When we met up to do a little shopping together she brought me a paint sample of Sherwin Williams Ink Well.

Truth be told it is a bit more navy than the above picture and really dark.  My approach in this has been if   Lori is drawn to it lets see how we can use it and I thought it could be a very dramatic change for their room so homework was given and they painted the whole room Inkwell!  Daring?  Maybe...but the room is huge and it works.

We then went to purchase her duvet cover from West Elm.

Then I was out and about looking for some accessories and came across this pretty lady at hobby lobby for 50% off of course.  (pardon the phone pic this is how we shop together...I see something..shoot her a pic, she goes to get it, fun!)

Ok back to that mood board.  The original board depicted a neutral headboard to work off of and some pattern mixed in through pillows and that awesomely cute yellow chair from Target.

Actually while pinning some things on her bedroom pinterest board  I had come across this super cute fabric aviary headboard from Target before I decided neutral would be easier to work with. 

Lori was really drawn to both of the yellow fabrics and she and Marc decided to tackle making a fabric headboard out of a beautiful yellow floral fabric that she found.

Marc has pics of the making of the headboard and the details that I will eventually post about.  But as I am sure you know there are a million make your own fabric headboard tutorials out there in blogland right now.

So you wanna see the first picture that I got to see of the room once they got started?  Again a phone pic but you get the gist! 

That's a bold statement huh?  Oh I can't wait to show you what it evolves into!

From there I continued my adventure in accessory finding and found two pics like these at Home Goods that brought in all the colors we had evolved into looking for.

We then took a fun trip to ikea where she bought this gray and gorgeous Edland dresser that I have loved for a long time.(have I mentioned it is fun to live vicariously through other peoples decorating?)

and this white Malm dresser( don't worry we had plans to dress her up)

We found the lamps at Home Goods and the blanket at Ikea also.  Then onto what has proven to be the most difficult part of this room for me...the pillows!  Pillows are fun right?  They are an easy way to add interest but man they are kicking my bootie here.  I think something just doesn't connect in my brain 

when I try to add more pattern and color on top of the yellow headboard.  Right or wrong it bugs me.

So we started simple with some really neutral pillows .  This off white or taupey color is also found in the art that we scored at homegoods for half the price of what ZGallerie still has them for..woohoo.

Granted everything is thrown together here and lots of missing bits and pieces but it ain't workin...  In order to not get stuck on the pillow issue we move on to the dressers.  We went for actual dressers here instead of nightstands because Marc and Lori needed more useful storage space and they got it for sure.  

You have probably seen these guys all over the blogosphere right?

They are from a brilliant company called O'verlays and you can use them to dress up just about anything!  Especially ikea furniture!

So we did

 Then we hung some thrifty Ikea curtains and rods up and attached them with clips instead of using the tabs, hung the art(still need to remove those pesky price stickers) and we started to see a room come together!

Oh but the pillows:(  In an effort to bring in more of the navy we found these chevron pillows on clearance at West Elm.  Thankfully they were on clearance because I'm not feeling it.

We tried them with the neutral pillows

We took the pillow cases off and tried the white.   Oh and see that bedskirt?  After much thought on what to do about a bedskirt we have decided to take the headboard fabric and turn it inside out just to change it up a bit and tuck it in to see how it looked and we loved it!  Lori is going to tackle finishing off that no sew look soon and we will just be pinning them on because those pesky bedskirts that go all the way under the mattress are annoying anyway right?

Then....

In an effort to try everything we had to make the bed right in my head I asked Lori what she had in her guest bedroom and low and behold..

We threw these babies on the bed and already liked it better

Now I am in the search for a new pillow covers for those pillows in the back but it is finally starting to work I think!  Actually as I look back at the pic of the navy chevron pillows in this post they look pretty darn good...There is something about them in person though. 

So here we are

From here....

To here...

For Now!

  I of course really wanted to have a good old "we finished the whole room check out these before and afters reveal" but I couldn't help it.  I am not that patient.   It is going to be such a great change for them!  A finished room with a little drama and we haven't really even addressed the other side of the room yet.  Stay tuned and see if we get it finished in 2012;)

Linking to

www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com

Between Naps on the Porch

www.aturtleslifeforme.com

www.thegirlcreative.com

www.houseofhepworths.com

www.atthepicketfence.com

www.theshabbycreekcottage.com

www.stuff-and-nonsense.net

www.skiptomylou.org

www.sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com

www.lifemadelovelyblog.com

www.hopestudios.blogspot.com

www.todayscreativeblog.net

www.diyhshp.blogspot.com

www.domestically-speaking.com

www.diybydesign.blogspot.com

www.somedaycrafts.blogspot.com

www.bluecricketdesign.net

www.savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com

Uhh...Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year?!

Hey fellow Homebodies!

You know who you are;)  Well let's just say I want to be more of one!  Whew can you believe Christmas AND all the New Year celebrations have already come and gone.  I have really mixed emotions about it all.  It comes and goes so quickly yet it is such a busy time of year that I'm often glad it's over.  I think it's the traveling thing that makes it rough right?  Or traveling with 3 kids hyped up on sugar and way to many toys maybe that's the kicker.  Either way we made lots of memories this year with our immediate little fam, friends and the rest of our family as well!  Our little man who's 5 almost broke my heart the other day when he said "You know that song that came on at the end of Polar Express?"(I'm not sure what the song is) "well it made me cry a little bit when I heard it because I'm so sad that the best Christmas ever is over."  Ah you remember that wonderful magical feeling as a kid right?  I still get a little twinge of it and I am so blessed to get to experience it again through the eyes of our kids.  It's awesome!

So in an effort to get back on the blogging bandwagon I am going to share a few pics of the memories we made this year with you and then some of that fun but less important but oh so fun "housey" stuff that we all love will be in the works!


We always start things out with lots of Christmas light lookin!
This wasn't our first adventure this season but I just love this pic of the beautiful lights in Johnson City that we try to take in every year.  Can you imagine getting to run around underneath all of those lights as a kid?  I hope ours will remember it forever.

We did a little decorating.  We kept it super simple and as minimized as possible this year in the rent house.  The thought of digging around in our "to capacity" garage didn't sound like fun.  Honestly it has been years since I bought any Christmas stuff so I guess for me I did splurge on the stuff to make that simple little garland. 

We did some more christmas light looking.  In Austin you never know what people are going to light up!   

This is a horrible phone pic but that's a little moped or whatever you call them...I lost the word..  

Then Bitty Baby turned 2!

She gets to start the gift opening early!

More lights!  This is the Johnson city trip with our three little goofballs.

Posers 

Our son loves to reenact things.  Can you guess the movie?

 Super random dress up and dance to Christmas music moments...Little dude has on a girly bib that I put wrong side up to act as his apron for baking cookies.

Getting their bake on..

 We did not attempt pretty cookies this year.  It was all about just letting them do it all!

We attempted to take pictures for a Christmas card and the process was true to form.  E dressed herself and then had no desire to participate and hubs and I tried to grin and bare it in hopes that out of 50 pics we could get a half decent one.  Well if you usually get a Christmas card from us you know the results;)  We weren't looking for perfect but there weren't even any amusing ones that we wanted to send.  So we just excepted the idea that our friends and family knew we wished them a Merry Christmas and went on our merry way.

I love the way little dude is looking up at me in this one.  Like he is thinking "good luck mom".

We did even more baking

Oh for the love of sugar...

and more light looking...there is so much to look at and so little time.  Bitty Baby ain't so sure about that creepy Santa behind her daddy.

I love this sweet one of the kids admiring the manger scene

It was cold(for us) and the kids were loopy!  You see that sign on the lower right?  Yes we are in Texas and it does say "Never mind the dog Beware of the owner"

Can you believe there was even more baking? No wonder my pants don't fit.  I didn't realize how much we did this!

I never want to forget those sweet little frosting fingers

Little dude's philosophy is E you decorate I'll eat...

hey look here we did do something besides bake and eat cookies...The santa hat was a part of little dudes wardrobe this year.

My mom and all her craftiness sent the kids this felt tree to decorate and redecorate as they pleased.

And then I wore it to our friends tacky Christmas party because well...I'm tacky like that!

We sprinkled reindeer dust on the lawn

Love the delight in little dudes eyes here!

We opened a gift before going to bed to wait for Santa

We did our Christmas morning free for all

Then headed out on a road trip to see some of our family in west Texas

and would you believe we were almost the only part of the country to have a white Christmas!  It was beautiful!

We paid visits to the grandparents..

I love bitty baby's determination here

Got tons of Rapunzel and Tinker Bell stuff

and of course some good ol' boy shoot em up stuff

played in the snow a lot more

and of course ate it for good measure

We also went to my aunt and uncles to visit more family...I love this pic of bitty baby for some reason.  The tights and boots always win me over.

and then we bid farewell to west Texas and headed back home to put up our new trampoline! 

No pics of that yet for some reason...Actually it's because I'm usually jumping too;)

But you wanna know one of the things I have been looking forward to about the holidays or really the "post holiday" season?  De cluttering!!!  It's that time of year again when you get totally overwhelmed with stuff (especially if you have kids) and if we don't control it....It controls us so it feels so good to all go through our things and decide what to donate.  Here is some of the damage that we did.  Can you believe all this stuff?  What is crazy is we are not huge consumers.  Like we don't really buy stuff often.  Especially kid stuff.  So how on earth does this happen?  

Who knows but it does and I am glad to have it gone.  Of course now it has been replaced with new stuff from Christmas that we will donate next year.  

I hope you and your family had a festive and meaningful Christmas and remembered the reason we celebrate at this time of year.  Here is to the goal of simplifying and focusing on the most meaningful things every day!