MY BLUE HAWAII COLOR CRAZE

Pin It So today is the It's All About Color link party over at It All Started With Paint, Eclectically Vintage, the space between, Thistlewood Farms, and The Cottage Market!  I'm so new to blogging that I've stumbled upon link parties by accident and just happened to be lucky enough that one of my ten posts (HAHA - that just cracks me UP!) just happen to work in them.  Not this one!  I've been preparing for this one!  I mean, "Waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat wondering what I can post about" prepared!  I've been walking into every room we have and studying, looking, trying ANYTHING to glean some color out of our home.  Now, don't get me wrong - I have pockets of color - but I just tend to lean towards the softer hues of greens and blues, sages and navys, spring green and baby blue.  You get the picture.  I have one guest room that has vivid blue walls that really is one of my favorite  rooms in the house.  It will forever be known as "the Blue Room".  Ha - like this is the White House or something!  But other than that, everything is pretty muted.  I am looking to incorporate some "pops" of color here and there, I just can't decide which one.  I'm loving the oranges, lime greens, and aquas that are showing up everywhere.  And short of repainting an entire room in the middle of the night and faking it, I just couldn't come up with anything.  And then I walked outside.....

I may be stuck in a library inside my house but outside...I'M ON VACATION, BABY!  It kind of all started when I posted over on Hometalk about My Favorite Seating Area.  It was the very first Hometalk post I did - thank goodness it was about something I knew a little about! I've had more of the nicest, sweetest comments about my patio than I could ever have imagined.   So once it came to me in a moment of sheer genius what to post on the All About Color  link party, I had to learn photography.  I mean, seriously, what good is having a beautiful space if the pictures you take of it look like crap.  So rather than frantically repainting a room and faking my color craziness the past few days, I've been practicing my photography skills.  I can't thank  my fellow bloggers enough who post helpful hints and tips about good blog photos. A few of them being Kate over at Centsational Girl.  She has an awesome post about learning to shoot in Manual mode!  Or Pat over at Back Porch Musings about her ever evolving photography skills.  In my opinion, both of these women could pass for professional photographers. Maybe I'll be there one day, maybe I won't, but I'll at least strive for that goal!

In the meantime, here is my colorful world....

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BEFORE THE AFTER

Pin It I've got a problem.  And isn't the first step to recovery admitting the problem? Well, here I am - laying it all out and airing the dirty laundry that lurks in our home.  And not just in the laundry room!

We're in the middle of a renovation.  One that started when I got this crazy notion that I hated the carpet in the study.  In less than thirty minutes I had it pulled out.  And so the study set for months.  And months.  And months.  I am happy to say, that I've made strides and finally got it finished as you can see here.  After the study was completed, I started eyeing other areas of the house and one day, on a whim I decided that I didn't like those builder grade steps and bannisters.  My best friend these days is my palm sander so we hung out for the afternoon until the bannister got a new "do".  Projects in my house tend to be like a bad rash...they just keep spreading, and I keep scratching and it just keeps getting worse and worse until there just doesn't seem to be any end in sight!

The last few days I've been in a depressed funk, to say the least.  The house is a disaster and it just doesn't look like there is an end in sight.  I've spent quite alot of time in some beautiful blogs lately just coveting other people's beautiful clean homes and finished projects.  Well, I had myself a nice little pity party and it was fun while it lasts but it's over.  I am crawling out of my DIY hell that I've put myself in.

I've always thought that the best way to appreciate life's destination is to see where you've come from.  So here it is - in all it's glory....my before pictures (right now, I'll admit they are "now pictures")

Let's start at the front door, shall we?  Here we have another example of my aversion to carpet and me taking matters into my own hands before thinking things through...

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STENCILING ISN'T FOR EVERYONE, YOU KNOW!

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I see stenciling everywhere these days.  And I love, love, love how it looks!  I see stenciled pillows, curtains, stenciled walls, rugs and furniture.  It is so cool!   Look at these stenciled curtains Becca over at from GARDNERS 2 BERGERS did for her dining room!

 And  this floor from Carrie at lovely, etc. 

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SCORE!

Pin It I'll be the first to admit that my obsession with thrift stores is becoming a problem.  I just can't stop!  Are there any therapy groups out there for me?  If so, I won't go and you can't make me.  I love, love, love finding bargains.  This girl would rather hang out in a thrift store or garage sale than Neiman Marcus any day!  At the last minute today, I hit my favorite ARC not sure what I was looking for.  But this little baby called my name from across the store!  Boo, that it wasn't a half off price tag but for $29.99 I couldn't pass it by!

I was wanting a table of some sorts for this entry way niche and was really loving on the X-Base Table that Kate over at Centsationalgirl.com made.  And I would still love to make one but I have to get real here and admit that I have a problem with too many projects and the last thing I really needed to do was add yet another one!  

Now here is my dilemma.  I doubt it will stay black so there is a teeny project involved.  But I need help with coming up with something!!!  Any ideas?  Chalk paint?  Crazy pattern print? Anybody got anything?  It's going right here where this red chest currently is resting.  And yes, folks I keep it real.  This is exactly what my front entry looks like at the moment.  Haha, I didn't even try to hide the dust.  One of these days I'll have an entry where I'll be proud to open the front door to my visitors instead of shouting through the door to "GO AROUND BACK"!

So my girl REALLY needs some help here!  Don't hold back!  I'll take anything ya got!

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THE STUDY IS DONE!!!

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Last year I decided that I hated all things carpeted.  It's hard to maintain, cats gack all over, sharpen their claws on it, etc.  Plus it's a haven for germs and other grody things.  I can't tell you how much carpet I've pulled out and discovered what was underneath and all I could think of was "and we were living with that????"  Soooo, eventually most, if not all of the carpet in this house will be removed at some point.  I started with the study. 

Here is the best before picture I can find at the moment.  Nothing to write home about except that cute little face of grandkiddo #4.  The walls were painted a sickly green.  At the time I picked that color, I envisioned a lovely spring green that would inspire creativity.  We made the desks for the study using two hollow core doors, stringers along the wall and supported at each end with a custom end piece we designed and built.  Everything is painted black or stained cherry.  A guy study.   

I just couldn't handle it any more so I ripped that carpet right out of there one day!  Of course, I have to vacate the room, so this is how we've been living all this time.  BTW, this is a great before shot of the stairs before I restained the bannister, pulled out the carpet and painted the ballusters.  Oh, and the builder balls.....ugh.

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I'M A CODE WRITIN' FOOL!!!

Pin It Okay, maybe I'm not technically "writing code" - maybe doing alot of copying and pasting and "inserting" here.  Two weeks ago I didn't even know what the heck HTML meant. Now two weeks later I still don't really know what it means but I have figured out how to go find help on the internet from other kind bloggers to try and get my own blog up and running and looking like somewhat of a professional job! Thank you to Wonderland Beauty for posting a super easy how-to on making a blog button! Trust me, it HAS to be super easy for me to grasp the concept! And I couldn't possibly forget to mention Spice Up Your Blog for all the easy, easy tutorials on adding a signature, media buttons, etc. I love that this guy writes for an idiot novice like me and explains things so clearly!  Oh, there is still so much to learn and adjust on my blog.  It's a work in progress - don't be surprised every time you visit that there is something new or something has changed, been adjusted and maybe even deleted.  You may even call it a labor of love.  One that I think Nancy Jo would get a kick out of!

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JUST GOTTA LOVE PAINT SAMPLES!!!

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Is anyone out there as excited I am that you can now buy little tubs of paint from your paint store for only around $3.00????!!!!  Never again will I be buying those scrawny 2oz bottles of paint from the craft store!  You get SO MUCH more in a sample paint size AND.....wait for it.....THEY CAN MATCH ANY COLOR!   And don't even get me started on Home Depot's "oops" table!  I never walk in there without pushing someone out of the way  strolling by and picking up some new and different colors for 50 cents!

I use this paint on everything!  They are great to have when you need smaller quantities and don't want to buy a whole quart of paint.

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I LOVE CHALLENGES!!

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SUMMER PINTEREST CHALLENGE:

This is so exciting! Thanks to Centsational Girl, Young House Love, and Bower Power for hosting the challenge!

I love a good throw down! But let's be realistic here - there is so much talent out there in bloggy land that I don't even try to compete! For me this challenge is to finally get my butt in gear and do something from the HUNDREDS of Pins I've collected! I swear, Pinterest could keep a person busy for the rest of their life! I had seen these cute, cute, cute mugs on the blog A Beautiful Mess. They have some AWESOME stuff!
Like Elsie on A Beautiful Mess, I was skeptical about how durable they would be. It was so nice to read that she had tested the theory! See her awesome mugs here.
I'm certainly not adding anything to her cute project - just rising to the challenge of doing something finally with all these pins!

Here are MY mugs!

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START OF SOMETHING BIG!!!

Pin It And I don't mean starting this blog!  What I'm referring to is my bright idea to renovate the stairs in our home.  I swear, Pinterest and the blogosphere is going to be the death of me yet!!

When I first discovered the world of DIY blogs, I found myself in Centsational Girl's blog.  She had done this fabulous project in her house of redoing their staircase!  I was mesmerized.  You can see what she did here .  I thought how hard can that be?  I can do that!

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I WONDER WHAT MY MAMAW WOULD SAY IF SHE SAW HER BUFFET NOW!

Pin It I don't know how, out of the three of us sisters, I managed to score the ownership of Mamaw's buffet.  You know the kind I'm talking about...not all that attractive, very brown, but useful.  I've had it for a couple of years now, moving it from one house to the next, not really paying much attention to it.  Until one day last year I looked at it through different eyes.  Not sure what triggered it but something sure did.

I suspect it was this gorgeous napkin and plate I ran across at Pier One.  I think they only had one of each and they were less than $5 together.  I don't know what drew my attention to them...color?....the design?  We may never know the answer to that.  Regardless, I brought them home.

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