Back

After an a months-long hiatus from my little blog, I'm back up and running. This break was muchhh longer than I thought or ever wanted it to be as I had no decent camera and each time the husband and I were ready to take the plunge on a new first-ever DSLR camera, life would happen and the funds were needed elsewhere. You know, for food and clothing and other irritating necessities of life. And can i just say.... that I love, love, LOVE it.  (That's a lot of love, but it deserves it.)
The good news is not a lot has happened to warrant a blog post, but to get going again I thought I'd post a couple of additions to the 'ol homestead that I adore.
First is my little deal of table.  I'd long admired and pined for this table from Ballard Designs, but even at a somewhat decent price, it just wasn't one of those aforementioned necessities.  Then one day at Kohl's I cruised past the clearance section and found this table from the Elle decor collection for 70%(!) off, which if memory serves was $29.99. Now that I could make happen.  Here she sits right where I imagined:

It's not exactly the same as the Ballard version, but close enough for the pretty price.

My other lovely came to me in an even lovelier way.  I won a Z-Gallerie gift card give-way at Centsational Girl, one of my favorite (and one of the first I'd ever read) blogs.  I truly let out a squeal when I got her email that I'd won.  Z-Gallerie is right up my alley in terms of design.  Although, there are probably no less than 100 things I'd love to have from there, I knew instantly what I'd get with it.  This urn was calling my name the first time I ever saw it, but (again) the price was yelling at me to run away.  I knew that I probably could not (or maybe its 'would' not) bring myself to spend that much on an urn, but with a gift card that I'd WON, I was doing it. 

So, there she sits all white and pretty.  I sometimes even shoot a little wink her way as I walk by.  :)

And there we have it, couple little things that just give me a bit of thrill each time they catch my eye. Oh and also, so glad to be back.

Red No More

Well my poor blog has been silent since April because during a project I was doing that I planned to post my camera died. Just died. It will take a single picture and turn itself off. I have yet to get another because we'd like to save up for a really nice DRS digital Canon and both my husband and I are of the school of thought that we'd rather put all of our money toward what we really want then to buy something cheaper to hold us over.
I was really disappointed over not being able to do my blog until I realized I had collected hundreds (upon hundreds!) of inspiration photos and I could post to inspire myself.
My design style has evolved since we moved here in 2003. At the time I liked red but always did have a love of whites, blue-grays and neutrals. In the red phase we hung red curtains in our family room and had lots of red accessories. But now I want to move to the more neutral and light, bright design style
Of course, I have a ton of inspiration from other blogs. The one that currently has me obsessing inspired is Megan's home from the blog Honey We're Home.  Her kitchen is exactly what I've been looking for with a mix of white cabinets and dark stained ones.

 I also ADORE her family room and breakfast nook curtains.

Besides Megan's home I am also love, love, loving Ina Garten's (aka Barefeoot Contessa) kitchen featured as the 2009 House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year.

Once again:  LOVE it. And this is where I want to go. White cabinets, lighter curtains, more of a Hampton's beach house type feel.  My curtains are coming down in shortly and with my new camera (which we'll be getting in the next week or so-woo hoo!) I'll do before and after.

Bright White Kitchen

A week or so ago we completed the painting of the kitchen and I couldn't be happier.  As I stated in the post of the 'during phase' of the painting, I didn't like the beige-pinky color of the kitchen and I have always had a love of white walls, especially for the kitchen.

We haven't had a bit of spring as of yet, in fact it snowed just a couple of days ago, so my light white kitchen is just the thing to brighten up this space that I spend so much time in.   I also just received these two pitchers I ordered from the Martha Stewart White ware line from Macy's and I love them.

We are expecting lots of sunshine this week along with 70 degree temperatures, which I hope will bring out all the of bulbs I planted last fall (over a 100), so I'll be able to add real flowers! Until then though, I am happy to have bright, white walls again.

Here's to the beginning of spring!

White Orchids and White Kitchen

When we moved into our home a few years ago, the current trend was that if walls were white the room wasn't complete and having white walls was a complete waste of design potential.  Our previous home had white walls in every room except our boys' room, which we had painted a light blue. I've always, always loved white but after moving to our newly built home let myself get caught up in painting every room. Well, I have now gotten back to my roots so to speak. A couple of weeks ago I painted our breakfast nook it's original white and this weekend my husband and I tackled the rest of the kitchen-until we ran out of paint.  Even only partially complete I absolutely love it and am so very happy we did it.  The beige we had painted it turned out too peachy but even if it hadn't I would have wanted to go back to white.  It feels so fresh and crisp (and matches all the snow outside!)

 It is a Behr color, Swiss coffee, color-matched to Sherwin Williams No-VOC line.

 And it celebration of our white-again kitchen and to bring a little spring in since our latest snow storm and single-digit temperatures put the nix on our budding plants and plans to plant spring bulbs, I bought this lovely little orchid.

And placed it on our living room mantel.  I've had orchids in the past and have failed miserably in keeping them alive and/or reblooming.  But I've read up this time and with the proper light and fertilizer hope to keep this one for a long time. 

 Happy Spring!

Paint Color

I'm linking up with one of my all time favorite blogs, Nesting Place for this post.  She has amazing taste and is currently doing a linky link for paint colors.  I happen to adore her paint colors and may just find myself down at the local Sherwin Williams this week as a result.  I have been looking for the PERFECT tan/beige for my family room and she has re-inspired me to find it.  I'd like it to go with my dining room, below, which is Mercer Blue from the Eddie Bauer line at Lowes:

We plan to add wainscot in this room below a chair rail in white so I'm hoping this will make the rooms brighter.  My living room is the same color because these rooms are on each side of the entry and are open to each other and I thought two different colors would not look right.

Forgive the dark picture.  This was taken in the afternoon and we get sun blazing in that room at that time of day so I had to close the shutters.
I do like this color but would not be opposed to changing it once we find our perfect tan for the family room (which can be seen from the dining room) and add our white trim work. My husband, however, will be seriously opposed to it as he doesn't like to paint as it is and I have made him paint our family room 3 times already.  What a guy.