Just because you have 2 favorite colors...

...does not mean you should put them together. I mean, I love sage and purple together, and really wanted my bedroom to reflect that. Unfortunately, I didn't know about accent colors and how to use them creatively. I thought "if I like it, I'm going to drown in it." Bad idea.

This is the story:

I was so excited to do a room from scratch! I never had a completely blank canvas before. I tried to pretend I was a real designer. (yes, I'm a dork!)
The first thing I did was run to the carpet store. My choice was inspired by the gorgeous Laura Ashley carpet my mom has in her bedroom. So I copied her, just in a different color.

When you go from matted, ORANGE shag carpet to this, you just have to enjoy with your piggies:
We had done the smart thing and painted the walls our dusky purple color before the rug went down, but what we didn't count on was :
1. the windows were bare at the time, letting in some nice, bright light -making the paint color look pretty light.
2. we were dead tired and living in a single bedroom at my mother's while we got the house ready before moving in. My husband worked 10 hour days, came here and worked till midnight. I worked here during the day, went to my part-time job at the bank and came back here to finish up the night with him. We had about as much common sense as zombies.
"that look good....?"
"uuuungh."

Needless to say, we ended up with a cave-like effect that depresses me on a daily basis. I love a light, bright but cozy room. What the hell was I thinking? I was sleeping inside a giant grape every night. The pictures here don't do it justice. In real life, it's so gloomy.
So it's been almost 3 years of other commitments, projects, and improvements and we're ready to make another go of it.

On a recent trip to Home Depot, I cleaned them out of practically all their paint swatches. I love these little cards. Anything that shows different shades of the same color is so calming to me. (I get the same feeling shopping for scrapbooking paper).

Just taping them to my walls made me happy.
I have asked the opinion of everyone except the UPS man (ok, I thought for a split second about inviting him in to take a look) and I think we finally have a winner after a week of observing the differences on the colors depending on the time of day, position of the sun through the window, lamp light, etc. I will keep it a surprise until the finished result, but I can tell you it's not any of the colors below. Watch for updates!

Oh!! Before I go, what the hell should I do with this area? I need the storage, but I've seriously had that bureau since I was an infant...maybe do a built-in? I'd love to hear your ideas!!

Feeling All Artsy Fartsy

I woke up with the sun blazing though my windows and even though it was still chilly outside, I was so happy to see that spring sun. I'm sure there's some scientific fact behind it- all I know is that it cheered me up after that blizzard from a week ago.
Being that I was in this awesome mood, I wanted to do something today that was purely selfish (a.k.a. not painting a wall with a roller). I once bought some Mod Podge and some canvases and stuff at my local Michael's and it sat in my closet forever. I grabbed that stash and got to work.

Seeing that my newly-painted living room is in need of some serious accessory changes, I figured re-purposing some of my old things would save me a ton of moolah.

Plus, I had a good helper.

Having no clue how this would turn out, I took an old, gold frame and Mod Podged torn up bits of brown kraft paper and red tissue paper in layers , to hopefully give it a mosaic effect.

The effect was cool, but I like a little age on stuff, so I took some black and brown paint and dry brushed to make it look old.



While that was drying, I did a painting for my bathroom. There is a little back story as to how this painting came about:

A couple weeks ago, I was in HomeGoods, and I fell in love with this painting of koi. I wanted it so badly for my bathroom. I flipped that sucker over, saw that it was $70 bucks, and dropped it like it was on fire.

Here is my attempt at a copy:


I used to paint as a kid, and it has been way too long. Seeing as I am now 30-ish, this is my first attempt in many years. I know from an art standpoint it's far from perfect, but it makes me happy. Hope ya like it, too. :)