How I Want Our Holidays to Look: The Table

Courtesy of Pottery Barn... and feeding into my impossible picture-perfect holiday dreams.

Halloween:

Thanksgiving:

Christmas:

How, How, HOW, do they always get it right? 

Either way, there is 15-weeks left to 2011 and I can't wait to bring in some of this beauty into this year's Big 3 decor !

Are you already planning for the holidays? 

While George is Away...

First, let me say WELCOME new followers!  I have no idea where you came from but I am thrilled to see you hear.  We are going to be the bestest of blog-land friends :)

So, as a refresher, when my husband is away on business, I love to do little projects and surprise him when he gets home.

Some bigger... like painting the entire bathroom, mounting the cabinet, bringing out our new towels from the registry.

And selecting and laying a new laminate floor in the bathroom....

And smaller projects, like hanging photographs of the sand dune from our mini-moon in Cape Cod/Nantucket/Martha's Vineyard....

And getting a new duvet cover for our bed (which, still need so much more help)

So what was up my sleeve this time? 

I'm painting.  Again!  But because of my little episode on Thursday, I thought it might be safer to hire out; aka, pay my brother and his buddy.

Yep, you can't tell a darn difference between these pictures.  But it was a tan with a strong tint of pink.  Ew.

So we went with a cool, grey-green.  I promise to get you a better pic when there is sunlight!

I had wanted to take off the doors from the one large cabinet in our kitchen, paint and style the shelving, in attempt to make the kitchen feel more open.  But that will have to wait till he gets home.

What projects have you been working on lately?

My Favorite Things: Helpful Apps

To help me/us with our "chores", I download HomeRoutines...

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For $2.99, this little lifesaver breaks the house into zones that you can add or subtract areas to suit your needs.  Then it gives you a list of what to do/clean in each zone. 

Then you can select if you want to clean on a rotating zone schedule daily, weekly or monthly.  And it reminds you what to do in the morning and again at night.

A. MAH. ZING.

Another favorite: Fooducate!



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You scan the bar-code of your food products the see how it ranks healthwise.

Last but not least, the Good Housekeeping @Home app...

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It gives you tips on removing stains, cleaning various surfaces throughout the house, decorating inspiration ideas and news and tips.  So many good things in one spot!

How about you?  What are your favorite useful apps?

xo,

Sarah

Happy Thanksgiving!

We did it!  We hosted and survived our 1st Thanksgiving!  14 people, 32 lbs of turkey, 4 batches of green bean casserole, 10 lbs of mashed potatoes and 5 lbs of stuffing later, everyone is in a turkey trance and on their way home. 

Here are some highlights of the craziness...

My happy helper! 

I am so thankful that George stuck by my side and took on this crazy task with me!  I really missed having Thanksgiving with my family (my mom wasn't ready to give it up... story for my therapist another time...George's family was ready to order take-out and call it a holiday).  But we talked 4 times today, going over what we were making, when we were starting each dish, etc.... still, just not the same.

So I am thankful for my husband, thankful for a healthy and happy family, our good jobs, a beautiful home, health insurance, reliable cars, food on the table, clothes on our backs, Starbucks grande non-fat caramel lattes and Netflix instant streaming.

What are you grateful for? 

Wordle: Cheap Art

While the search is on for bedding, I have started thinking about art and accessories.
 
I took some of the sand dune photos from our honeymoon, sharpened them, made them black and white, printed and framed those little lovelies to make a college on our largest wall.

Now I am turning to my old bag-of-wedding-tricks and making some art.  My assistant: Wordle.com.

The program asks you to enter a bunch of words then they mix them up and gives you cool layouts, colors and fonts to choose from.

So I took a bunch of words from George's life that have meaning to him or us.  And a bunch of words from my life that have meaning to me or us.  And the result... his and hers art!

Now, you are not able to save your Wordle (without publically publishing it) but you can increase your monitor zoom, print-screen, paste in Paint, mess with the margins and paper size then you got some custom art.

Now, I just have to figure out printing and framing.  Stay tuned!

Dream a Little Dream

George and I are in the midst of redoing the bedroom.
At first, we were going with something like this...

It was summer. It felt fresh and cool and, well, summery!

I had been craving a more patterned duvet for years now. We have been doing the solid and the solid-with-a-contrasting-boarder looks but I'm kind of over it.

I thought this was feminine yet not floral and the colors were obvious without being bold.

So I bought the paint and $80 and four months later; We ain't lovin' it.

We kept with the Pottery Barn Simply White walls (because sister is not about to take an $80 bite on paint) and are now researching new bedding that is in the grey-color palette with some scroll or geometric shapes.
Something like this...

And that's about it.  We want this bedding!  We just have to wait until the budget can let us have it.

Any thoughts on affordable grey bedding?  And ideas on how to make our white walls work?

Coffee Table: Before & After

We had purchased a matching set of living room furniture when we first moved in togther.  You know, the couch, love seat, coffee table and matching end tables.  We had nothing, we were renting... it worked.

Well, now that it's been about 4 years and our collection of stuff has grown and our amount of space has like tripled.  So we are kind of over the matchy-matchy and are slowly moving towards breaking up the set and adding new pieces to creat a fresh look.

The first thing out: the matchy coffee table.

The tables are perfectly nice, but we wanted something a smaller and round.

So I scoured craigslist and found this 1970's beauty...

"This stupid, wagon wheel, Roy Rogers, garage sale COFFEE TABLE."

~When Harry Met Sally

Pa-errrfect!!

With so much thick, dark wood in the molding and trim, we wanted to lighten things up.  So with a few cans of white spray paint and spray varnish, Ta-da!

 

We got EXACTLY what we wanted!  And our new area rug came in today from Overstock.com so it's a double-bonus day for our living room :)

The area rug is a bit more traditional than we wanted but the price was right and the colors are so wonderful... it's hurts. 

How was your Monday?

BTW... George is away on business, so you know what that means...

Excuse me, what’s my inspiration?

Right when I get back into blogging again, our camera broke!

I will spear you the saga of our-cameras-of-the-past but, let's just say, point a click camera's need a case.

Anyhoo, in the mean time, I thought this might be a great time to show you the inspiration ideas we have collected of our home.

Let's go room by room, shall we.

First: The Living room -

Images from Google search: Hollywood Regency and Pottery Barn or HGTV

I do remember the bottom photo being Tori Spelling's house!

Second: The Master Bedroom

photos from Google searches of:

 Candice Olsen, Hollywood Regency and Pottery Barn Bedrooms

The kitchen:

The Dining Room:

And other spaces in the house:

OBVISOUS TRENDS:  Dark woods, white/cream/neutral fabrics with a French Eclectic/Nantucket Chic vibe and  a Hollywood Regency twist.



I love the classic styles.  I would rather buy a old piece of furniture and refinish with it in with a glossy white paint than buy something new and without character. But there are modern elements that rock-my-socks, too ;)

George is right on track with my taste but he likes Asian elements and anything with water!  He's a sucker for fountains, ponds, koy fish and a touch of straight lines.

We strive for the clean-crisp formal look that is balanced with coziness and comfort.  I have to admit, it's something I struggle to get just right but I am hoping I will have less trial-and-error decorating once the major piece fall into place.

Later this week, I will give you all a video tour of our city chateau but, in the meantime, what is your decorating style?  Are you a slight contradiction of decor?