MIA

Sorry I've been missing lately. After the special session, I've been laying pretty low. Too hot to do anything I guess, including blog. A million days straight of 4000 degree heat is NOT ok. Now that we have that straight...

Welp. We placed an offer on a house yesterday.

(I hope it comes with the cute redhead in the orange shirt, but I'll have to check the list of things that convey to be sure...)

Apparently there are already three other offers so our hopes aren't very high, but we figured why not. We will either get it or we won't. If not, then there are other houses in the sea or something.

Look at this oak tree.


I think it really needs a cat or a kid in it. Probably just the cat for a while at least. Those are less expensive than kids.

Anyhow, this is some of what I've been up to lately. Looking for a house to feather and all that. I will let you all know how things turn out.

I leave you with this super cute headboard from a DIY entry on Design*Sponge. I think it's creative and super cute!


Have a great day, everyone!

Special Session

A legislative special session starts tomorrow. Hopefully, it will conclude by the weekend, and I'll see you soon. Hopefully...

To those of you not affected by this, have a great 4th!!!

Tuesday

First of all, I want this pillow from Etsy for the grey and yellow bedroom I think I want.


Please notice that there is an owl in the upper left hand corner peeking at you over his shoulder, a tiger in the lower right corner and a little grey bird above the tiger. Love. It.

I think this pillow would be perfect in the master bedroom in my head: grey (with just a hint of blue) walls and a yellow and white bedspread with this colorful pillow (keeping things not boring) on it.

Second of all, I need a sewing machine and the knowhow. There was this lovely yellow bedding at Pottery Barn last spring. I thought it was beautiful so I told my mom, "I really love this bedding, but since I don't usually like yellow, I have no idea what kind of room I would put it in or what color walls it would require." The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Mom: "That is pretty bedding. I really like grey and yellow together. I think it would look great in a room with grey walls!"

Me: "Ew! Yellow and grey?! No, thanks."

Mom: "I dunno. I like it."

My mom knows more than me.

Aaaaanyway. Now, of course, I can't find yellow bedding that I like, and I certainly can't find that yellow bedding I was drawn to last spring (wouldn'tyouknowit). Therefore, I need the sewing machine (Don't forget the knowhow. I need that, too.) so I can make the duvet cover I see in my head, which incidentally I have yet to come across online or in stores.

I'm still working on finding pictures of inspiration for the grey and yellow bedroom to show you (all three or four of you, you lucky ducks). Will post those at another date. In the meantime, have a great week!

p.s. I like writing things in parentheses (even if it is obnoxious and grammatically incorrect).
p.p.s. I also like the little turquoisey blue chair the pillow is on in the picture.

Hooked

I found the Nie Nie Dialogues yesterday through Angie's blog, and now I'm hooked. Stephanie was in a horribly tragic private plane crash last August in which the pilot died and she and her husband were badly burned. Her husband, Christian, escaped with about 30% of his body burned. Stephanie had much more serious burns (I think around 85%). They have four children and an unquenchable love for each other and their family. I spend most of yesterday evening and this morning reading as many entries on her blog as I could before my eyes crossed. Before the accident, her posts were all about her family and her creative life (she made lovely things in the kitchen and is a very talented artist!). She conveys a sense of joyful contentment. While her posts now include her long journey of recovery, you still feel her happiness and contentment. She is beautiful and inspiring. A lovely example of what a woman and her family should be. Just thought I'd share her with you, too. :) May your weekend be filled with love and peace.

Happy Friday!

I saw this on this blog the other day and loved it's uniqueness. It makes me want a unique front door, too! On a side note: do you think I'll ever get tired of this shade of blue?


Have a good weekend!!

Another Kitchen Thought

Here's the deal: I really, really want a formal dining room. I am not a fan of the "open layout" trend. When entertaining, I want it to look easy with a spotless house and a lovely table setting in a room that feels special. But if the only dining space is in the kitchen, which is also completely open to the living room, that means my guests can see all the dirty dishes and countertops I didn't have time to clean up before their arrival. For these and other reasons, I don't think open layouts are Donna Reed approved. However, with our price range, we can't afford to be too picky. If a house otherwise meets our requirements, I don't want to get hung up on its lack of a formal dining room. I mean, I'm not Donna Reed. Get over it. But, I had a great idea today. I mean, I was SOOOOO excited when I thought of it. I later realized that the excitement was probably more from a nondrowsy allergy medication/coffee induced high from this morning. I've calmed down a little since then, but I am still excited about it nonetheless.

What if I dressed up my kitchen/dining area to make it feel a little more fancy? Like the kitchen is now part of the formal dining room. It's so simple, I don't know why it didn't dawn on me before. In fact, all two of my readers (hi Mom, hi sister) are probably thinking, "Duh, Cameron. That was so easy, we didn't already tell you that because we thought you knew." In fact, I think I'm excited because of the simplicity, and it's my blog. So humor me. :)

This morning I was checking Twitter, and one of the bloggers I follow linked to the following pictures and commented on how she'd like to throw a cocktail party this kitchen. What? A cocktail party in a kitchen? After seeing the picture, I understood what she meant, and my wheels started turning.



See?! Totally begging for a cocktail party. While this kitchen isn't completely my thing, I love the idea that it represents. My kitchen can feel special like a dining room. (I just have to really make sure I have time to clean up those dirty dishes and wipe off the counters.) (On another parenthetical note, I am SO loving the capiz shell chandeliers I'm seeing everywhere lately.)

Thinking through this concept, a kitchen I posted about previously came to mind:


This kitchen is open to a casual eating area (for all intents and purposes we'll say it's not a formal dining room even if we don't know that for sure). We already know the kitchen is beautiful from my previous post. Then, the designer has given the eating area extra oomph with that chandelier and dressier chairs. The important thing about this kitchen/dining room is that it feels special, but it also feels comfortable and inviting. It's not necessarily begging for a cocktail party, but it would be a perfectly appropriate dinner party setting. This kitchen is much more my style than the cocktail party kitchen, even though I think the cocktail party kitchen is fabulous!

I'm having so much fun with this, I'll almost be sad if we do buy a house with a formal dining room. Almost. :)

Making my way back

Hello!

After weeks of energy-sucking, mind-squishing busyness at work, I am finally making my way back to the things I love. This weekend I am exploring the weeks and weeks worth of blogs I've missed, and plan to blog myself again soon. In the meantime, I'd love to direct you over to this post at Design*Sponge, which has some of those elements of a fresh mix of traditional/modern design I've been so fond of lately. There are also a couple of pictures I liked most from the post below. Enjoy, and see you soon!!

I love how this room is clean and traditional but so creative with the shoes and bags on display. Plus, I love how there is a place for everything!

So fun how they used these traditional profile silhouettes with the nontraditional colors!