Inspiration Thursday...at least Tues and Thursday both start with a T...

Holy Hannah have I been busy!

I'm working full time now at my day job and finding the balance between being a wife and mom, a professional, and a blogger...is taking some time!

I have to say...I love when the Hubs' posts. They always make my day. I asked him what stencil to use (disclaimer...NONE of the ones he pictured) to use for our statement wall in our master and I got this blank stare. He couldn't really tell the difference between the couple I had picked out. So he decided to blog about it.

I think it's quite funny that he used golf 'cause I do golf...but I always ask him what club to use. And when it comes to the wedges...yeah, totally clueless. So if any of you out there golf...he was using me as the comparison. Haha. Loved it. I always look forward to when he gets the blogging bug. :)

ANYWHOO! So Inspiration Tuesday is on Thursday this week because this has been the only few minutes I could find. So we were talking about my living room. We did the living area and the reading area...today is the music area. This is what I came up with.

This is our piano.  

Granted...not the prettiest piano out there but it's electronic.  Which is AWESOME!  Why?  Cause when a certain Hubby starts learning a song he plays it over and over and over again which makes me not so much like the song anymore.  


Tragic.  

So with our electronic piano...he plugs in the headphones and pounds away to his little heart's content.  Hee hee!  He doesn't wake up the Princess and he doesn't get on my nerves.  Plus...it's kinda fun to sneak up behind him and make him JUMP.  Yup...I'm a prankster.  


Anyways, getting back to the picture!  So our piano is great.  Since we're going with a green/blue/greige in the living room, the piano fits right in.  I hate the bench it comes with though.  

Hate. 


So I'm on the look-out for an antique bench/stool that I can recover with that fabulous teal chevron.  LOVE the one pictured...probably won't be able to find one like that in my price range.  Haha.  We'll probably end up going with a stool.  Which I'm fine with.  

I already have a lamp very similar to that one...just without the crystal ball.  Wish mine had it.  It would make me feel special.  But alas, no crystal balls for me.  


The piano is going to be in a corner with the back angled towards a window.  I love the warmth bamboo shades bring to a room.  So the window is going to have bamboo shades and then that lovely green floral as some drapey drapes.  

The subway art is gonna be made by me.  There have been a TON of tutorials on "how to" make your own...I've kinda got my own in my head.  We'll see how it actually works.  Haha!  The Hubs has lived in France, Belgium, and Holland over the years so we're going to be taking streets that he lived on and making our own.  And then I have lived in Russia so we'll be doing another one with my streets somewhere else in the house.  Sentimental and cheap art.  Always a plus.  


And I love little things I can put places to spruce it up.  The tree is actually a jewelry holder...we won't be using it as one.  Just as a lovely little display.  And I love those green vases.  They're just happy.  


So there you have it.  The music corner.  Next week...we'll be doing a green bathroom.  A friend is re-doing her bathroom so we're doing an inspiration board for her!  Woot woot!

Inspiration Tuesday...

Ok...I first have to say how much I LOVE my blog readers.  When you found out about the Hubs' job...wow.  I love blogging because I have a support system of people I've never even met.  It's truly amazing to me.  I just needed to thank you all for your support.  You're amazing!

It's Tuesday which means I get to do more inspiration boards.  Woot woot!

Really...love these.

Today is the reading nook part of our living room.  Here is what I came up with.

Sorry some of the items are a bit pixeled...they were the only pics I could find though.  

ALRIGHT!  Lets bread it down shall we?  

First and foremost, the chevron fabric.  It's actually NOT going to be chevron fabric...we're going to do a subtle greige and cream chevron pattern on the wall.  I'm gonna be taping it out and painting it on.  I'm thinking it'll actually be more of a herringbone...I'm kinda torn right now...but it'll be awesome.  I'm WAY excited about this.  It'll add a TON of personality which will help to keep the space fresh.  

I love art and photography and so we're going to have either a couple B&W prints or some typography prints that I've made hung up.  We're still debating that.  So I just put the frames on the board.  Haha!  

The chair is so awesome.  I love the plastic chairs but they don't seem comfortable enough to have in a reading nook.  SO!  This one has the look...but is actually an upholstered chair.  Haha!  I don't know if I'll go that route or not...probably not...but I just thought it was awesome.  

The table snuck its way onto the last inspiration board but it is in fact going in the nook.  I love the glamor it adds to the space while still staying pretty neutral.  So cool.  

The pillows are from West Elm's new line and I have to say...I love West Elm.  They have no idea I exist so don't take this as an advertisement 'cause it's not.  I just love them.  Their stuff makes me smile.  The pillows provide a very subtle animal print while at the same time...they're just a printed pillow.  And the colors...?  Ahhhhhhhhh...  Yup, they're kinda my favorite.  

The horse head.  Where do I start?  I LOVE THIS GUY!  I've had my eye on him for soooooooooooo long.  LOVE him.  He's going to be my first purchase for this room as soon as the Hub's gives the go-ahead to start working on it.  I just think he's got such personality and is pretty quirky and yup...love him.  Seriously...I've been ogling him for over a year now.

The books I'll end up getting from a thrift store...there's no way I'm paying over $300 for them.  Love you Anthropologie.  LOVE but that's insanely pricey for something I can re-create from the thrift store.  And the little birdie glasses?  Same thing.  I'll figure out a way to get them for not so much money.  That's be a bit more difficult but we'll figure it out.  

So there we have it.  Inspiration Tuesday.  Let me know what you think of my little nook ideas.  I love the idea of having a places specifically set aside for reading. 

Inspiration Tuesday...

After our kitchen is done...I'm going to be attacking our living room with a vigor.  The living room is the first room you walk into in our house and it leads into our kitchen.  So if I have a pretty kitchen...I had better get that living room whipped into shape eh?

There are going to be 3 parts to our living room.  It has a very strange layout...I'll post a floor plan next Tuesday.  The way we reconciled the strange layout was to separate it into it's different parts.

1.  The visiting area - sofa, a couple chairs, an ottoman, and a rug.
2.  The reading nook - a chair, side table, small shelf with knick-knacks and books, a lamp
3.  The music area - the piano, music stand, music related art

All of those combined will equal our living room.  In the almost 2 years we've lived here I have rearranged this room sooooooooooooooooo many times The Hubs cringes when he hears the words "I've been thinking..." because he knows he's going to be enlisted to help move things around.  But I think I FINALLY have the correct layout planned...

As part of that...I'll be doing inspiration boards for each section of our living room.  Today is the visiting area.  Here is what I came up with...

That sofa is our actual sofa.  It's not in the budget to run out and just buy a new sofa besides...I love my sofa so it's staying.  But with it being a grayish green it presented a color issue.  It's not a neutral beige or white.  It's green.  

I was going to go with green and red...not Christmasy green and red...the combo that actually works together.  But after realizing that I need my house to be calming...not insanely color infused...I decided to go with green, gray or greige, and blue.  

The walls are going to be painted a nice light gray and then we'll be adding some lovely panalled wainscoting.  I love wainscoting...I think it adds just the right finishing touch to a room.  And since I got The Hubs a brad nailer and air compressor for Christmas...I can actually put it up all by myself.  Woot woot!

I loved the rug.  A bit playful...but still quite artistic.  And the colors all fit together perfectly.  I'm thinking that will be the very first purchase.  *UPDATE*  I did notice after I posted this on a different computer the green in the rug is more lime than sage...we'll have to see about it.  I might order it...check the color scheme and then determine it all based on that. 

Next up...that chair.  I wasn't really looking for an upholstered chair, but that one just totally stuck out.  Reason?  It's all the right colors and I love the casters on the wood feet.  So charming.

As for the ottoman...I'm actually going to be making one.  Stay tuned for that project as soon as our kitchen is done.  Since I'm making one I can actually go with whatever fabric I want so I'm going to be really looking around to find the perfect color.  I know I want it to be a solid color since the chair is patterned and the rug is patterned but I don't know exactly what...a greige linen perhaps? 

The curtains are going to be made out of that darling green floral and will be drapes just like that.  OR!  I'll have lovely white drapes like the ones pictured and then make some roman shades with that green floral.  I'll have to see what I decide when the time comes.

And the mirrored side table...be still my heart.  I LOVE it.  It's actually going in the reading nook but for some reason...I stuck it on this one.  Oh well...  It adds a bit of glamor to the space and yet (in my opinion) still fits right in.  Love. 

Lastly...the mirror on the wall and the pillows.  I have had my eye on that mirror for quite some time.  It is just a plethora of all the right colors.  It's truly perfect for this room.  I can't wait to actually take it home.  The pillows that actually end up in there are honestly probably going to end up being ones I make.  We'll have to see!

So that is the plan.  As we know...plans are always evolving so we'll see how it actually all pans out but I love the living part of my room...

Kitchen Inspiration Board...

So I've discovered something about myself.

I get stressed.

I'm not one of these laid back people who just go with the flow. I wish I was...but I'm not. I work better with deadlines. I take on a lot of things at once. I have a to-do list a mile long and I love checking those things off one by one. Because of this...while I LOVE lots of color and I love houses with lots of color...I need MY house to be full of nice calming colors and decor. So that I walk through the front door and breathe.

As an example...1 of my favorite Christmas presents came from my sister-in-law. She gave me one of these...
I put it in my living room. With all the chaos that is my kitchen when I walk through the front door and look over and see it sitting there...it makes me happy and I know there is a light at the end of the construction tunnel. So when it came to picking out colors and decor I knew I needed light, bright, airy, and calming.

This is what I came up with.

My previous kitchens have been red. I've completely gutted a kitchen before and we painted it red with dark knotty alder cabinets, dark granite countertops, stainless appliances. It was very pretty...but definitely not calming. The aforementioned kitchen is in a condo we use as a rental and everyone says it's their dream kitchen. I look at it and oh my goodness. I love that I finally know what makes me click.

So to break it down...I love the blue and white with pops a green color scheme. Very clean and and calming. I knew I wanted white cabinets so the white part was easy. After I picked the cabinet color I took a serious look at what colors made me happy. Blue, green, gray, griege and pops of yellow were the ones that stuck.

Anywhoo...I think my favorite part of the new kitchen/dining room are the chairs. I absolutely LOVE them. I think they're so pretty with cool modern twist. We only needed 2 because we're putting in window seating in our little breakfast nook. Which was perfect 'cause Overstock sells them in sets of 2. I'm not going to lie...they were my splurge for the kitchen. But I figure they're worth it.

As far as the table...we haven't actually purchased it yet. We're going to wait on that one for a while. We have a table that is that color but it's square and has 4 legs...since it's going in a corner and we're having window seats we're going to be replacing it with a round pedestal table so people don't spear themselves on the way into the back seats. But not for a while. We can live with the square one for now. When we do eventually replace the table...I want one that makes a statement. I'll be blogging more about that later.

The pear canister is amazing. I love it. I love the wire basket with apples. I love the little cactus'. I love the fabric, the pillow I picked. I'm gonna have some fun with the pillows. I'm going to do a pillow arrangement similar to this...

via

And we're going to have an art arrangement as well but it's going to be different than this. Black and white prints that I have taken. Ah...I love that this kitchen is actually coming together. Makes me happy. The black stripe fabric is going to be the cover for the slip-covered window seat cushion.

So yup...that's the rest of the plan. The Hubs is actually going to post tomorrow with details about the electrical. I'm not gonna lie...he's a pretty funny guy so you're definitely going to want to read what he has to say. :)

Inspiration Tuesday...on Thursday...

Wowsers. This week has flown by like CUH.RAZY!

I'm shooting a wedding this weekend and every week I have a wedding I kind of get a little nuts during the week preparing for it.

So yup...this week has been madness.

A construction zone for a kitchen. Trying to make meals without having a kitchen. Keeping a toddler out of the kitchen. Cleaning up Christmas. Using my living room as my pantry since I can't get to any cupboards...yup. It's been insane.

But the good part is that any time I get frustrated by the situation...I can always wield a sledgehammer. Yesterday I got a bit upset by the whole thing so as soon as the Princess went down for a nap I knocked out a lot of lath and plaster.

I hate lath and plaster.

More details on that whole thing later.

ANYWHOO! What makes this whole mess worth it is the fact that I am going to have a beautiful and functional kitchen after this whole mess is cleaned up. So for the inspiration board today...I am showing you the bare basics of the kitchen. This is just the building inspiration. There's no decor in this at all. This is walls...lights...countertop...cabinets...and so on.

There it is...the building basics.

And showing both kinds of beadboard is not a mistake...we're going for this look...

via

I love love LOVE the beadboard ceiling look and the white paneled walls with crown molding. It really does add so much character to the room. And since we're adding those exact same shelves...it'll look very similar to this kitchen. Except that the walls that aren't paneled are going to be painted the very light blue.

Our sink is in the corner of the kitchen and it can't be moved. Because of this...I've opted for a single bowl sink that is super deep. It can still fit a lot of stuff but one of our New Year's resolutions is that there will never be dishes in the sink. Things go immediately into the dishwasher so not enough space should never be an issue.

I love the IKEA chandelier. No one can beat IKEA's price on it and it really is timeless.

And then of course...white cabinets. So pretty. So clean. I used to be stuck on wood stained cabinets. Then I started blogging and now...Ahhhhh. White makes me so happy. In a kitchen as small as mine, no other color will work for me.

So next week will be the decor in the kitchen. And next week will also bring more updates on the progress in the renovation. Lovely. If you need to catch up...you can read THIS post.

Inspiration Tuesday...A Day Late. Again.

I know I know!  I stink at getting these up on time.

Here's my excuse.  My boss at my work work is quitting and I'm being trained to do a LOT of reporting and its taking up all my time.

As in actually driving the 45 minutes it takes to get to work.

I forgot how long that drive was.

But it's good.  It's stretching me and helping me grow.

ANYWAYS!  Back to my inspiration board!

I've been thinking a lot about what we're going to do when we add another little one to our brood.  No, I am not pregnant.  This is not an announcement.

But when we do...the Princess and the Peanut (that what we're calling our non-existent child) will share a room.  We have 4 bedrooms but with only 1600 square feet...1 of those is my office.  1 of those is our workout room.  1 is the master.  And the other is the nursery.  While it would be great to be able to put workout equipment in the family room...the ceiling is only 6 feet tall so nothing will fit.  I'm thinking we'll probably combine the office and workout room eventually but right now...the "office" is torn to studs.

*Ahem*

We should probably finish that sometime soon.

So the office and the workout room are the same right now and I kinda don't like it.  I can't wait to get back into my real office.

SO!  When the Peanut does eventually join our little family...the 2 kids will share a room.

For some reason it has really been on my mind.  Probably because every time I walk into the Princess' room I shudder.

Seriously.

It REALLY needs some help.  But in re-doing it...I have to take into consideration the fact that the next baby might be a boy and we need something gender neutral.

This is what I came up with.

If you want to know where any of these products came from...just click on the picture.  

That crib is not our exact crib but it is very similar to the one we have right now.  Ours just has a straight back instead of the arch.  The three fabric swatches next to the crib would make some seriously adorable crib bedding.  I'm kinda thinking I'll be making my own bedding since I can't find anything anywhere that I like.  When the Princess was born I just pieced things together and still didn't care for what I had.  That was before I had a sewing machine.  


I adore that rug.  Seriously.  Love it for a kid's room.  The colors, the design...everything.

I've always loved the Eames style rockers and this one is from Target for a VERY affordable price.  There is also a blue one that I love but for some reason it wouldn't import so I used the white one...and I kinda like it a bit better because then I can add more color in the throw pillows.  The 2 fabric swatches next to the rocker would be adorable as a throw pillow.  Ah how I love my sewing machine.  :)


The toddler bed is from IKEA and is actually extend-able to a twin!  NICE!  I love the iron look and I would totally put a canopy over her bed if the room was bigger.  But...the room would shrink considerably if I were to do that with a crib in there too...  The fabric swatches next to the bed would make a really fun quilt for a little girl.  

I am IN LOVE with those pom pom curtains.  I'm seriously going to IKEA next week (for my kitchen counter tops!  EEK!  So excited!) and I'm buying some white curtains for in her room so I can knock these curtains off.  I'm thinking probably yellow poms.  We'll see.  

And I love the beautiful I am a Child of God print.  That is the Princess' favorite song and the color just fits right in.  


I have a definite love for ceramic animals.  Call me crazy.  I think I would actually re-paint this one either yellow or turquoise though...depending on the wall color.  If I did a light light yellow...the owl would be turquoise.  If I did a light light turquoise...the owl would be yellow.  We'll have to see on that.  But I definitely thing he adds some whimsy to the room.  Love.  

And that light.  Oh that beautiful light.  I love love LOVE all things Anthropologie but they are far outside of my budget.  So I'm going to try to knock this light fixture off.  We'll see how that goes.  :)  


So there you are.  My colorful (very colorful) boys and girls room.  Let me know what you think!

Inspiration Tuesday

Today has been a good day.

Sometimes as a mom there are some bad days.  Days where you just feel absolutely zero motivation to do anything.  Days where just getting dressed is a major accomplishment.

Today has not been one of those days.  Yesterday...well, that was another story but today...it's been a good day.

The Princess and I got up.
We showered.
We got dressed.
We ate breakfast (with no arguments or food flung anywhere).
We went Christmas shopping for Daddy (we're now officially done.  Woot woot!!!).
We got a fun little craft Christmas tree to do together.
We found some pretty pillowcases on sale at Target for $10.56 (SCORE).
We went to Burger King (not my favorite but hey...it's cheap).
The Princess ate all of her food and stayed in her chair the whole time.
We came home.
We did our craft Christmas tree.
We watched Dora.
The Princess is now tucked away in bed (went down without a sound) and I get to play for a minute.

I do however, have laundry waiting for me. 

But yup...good day.

SO on to our Inspiration Board of the day!

Ok...I decided to do a bedroom today.  I recently had someone tell me I needed to do more bedrooms.

And here is a new bedroom I came up with.

I love the warm feeling of it with the vintage glam look of the nightstand and wall art.  

I LOVE the pom pom curtains.  They didn't have them in yellow or blue but I put them on here anyways because they would be a way easy DIY.  Just some sheer white curtain panels and some pom pom piping from any craft store.  In fact these are the curtains that will be going up in my master bedroom.  I'll do a photo documentation of them when that time comes and share it.  

I love love LOVE the tree jewelry stand.  I'm gonna ask Santa for it for Christmas.  :)  And I thought the book storage boxes were brilliant for any other jewelry that can't be hung.  And then the bird binoculars add just a twist of whimsy and fun.  Not to mention it totally matches the color scheme as well. 

As for a wall color...I would probably do a very light LIGHT mustard/yellow statement wall.  You could even do the walls all the same color but then add some stripes to the statement wall.  I just love stripes...  :)  Probably too much. 

Inspiration Tuesday...A Day Late...

Wow...this week has just flown.  I'm a day behind.

I keep thinking today is Tuesday.  Dunno why.

SO!  Because of that our Inspiration Tuesday is gonna be on Weds this week.

And here is our Inspiration Board for this week.

I love that rug.

I think it's so durned cool!  But the Hubs...?  Yeah, he kinda hates it.

As in thinks it's the ugliest thing on planet earth.

So I decided to dream and come up with a living/family room.  And I kinda love it.  The couch is by far my favorite part.  I will one day own this couch. 

And there you have it! 

Inspriation Tuesday

So for Inspiration Tuesday I decided to make my basement movie room inspiration board.  Here it is...

I LOVE it!  It's gonna be so pretty.  The walls are going to be all charcoal.  It's going to have a gallery wall with B&W prints we have taken.  The Ektorp sectional from Ikea.  The entertainment center from Ikea.  My favorite zebra West Elm rug.  Ahhhhhhh...I just love this room.  Can't wait till I can start on it.