Taking a Break

I'm hoping this notice goes to someone other than my mom (Hi Mom!) but I'm in the middle of moving and while I've found my laptop, I can't find much else. I will return!!!

Whatcha Gon' Do With All Those 'Maters

The title is a bit ridiculous. So shoot me.

Ok, don't! I'm sorry. I'll take it back...




Still green, but getting bigger and more are sprouting up!

These beauties are also doing well:



Hopefully they manage the move to my south facing apartment (versus the eastern sky they get here) well and I don't kill them off. Hopes are high!

The New Bathroom

Thanks for joining us here at Blah City, I'm your guide Blah Blah and our first stop is the Blah Bathroom!



This bathroom is begging for a ruffled, fruffled, girly shower curtain, right?





Putting the pink rugs in really showed me that the pink/green color combo is probably the way I'm going to go. I just don't know how black/white/pink is going to go with the creamy cabinets, brown countertop and dark finishes.

Until I can search for more art, I have this print which has been in every bathroom I've ever lived in:



I've always liked in the bathroom for some reason. I think because it's not strictly BLACK and WHITE and it's a little lighter, it will work until I can drag some green in, kicking and screaming.

I feel like I need something tall for the left side of the vanity to create a step down effect from the linen closet to vanity. I have a bucket of faux peonies but I'm afraid it's not going to be tall enough. There is a towel hook on that wall, but it could be removed (secretly).

I do have a topiary like this, but mine is just two balls (hehehe):



I do feel like the topiary may be too heavy for the light and airy feel I want. I've got plenty of storage in the bathroom, so countertop display doesn't neccessarily have to be useful.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Sunday (Tuesday) Blog Spotlight: The Inspired Bride

I did it again. The regular Sunday Blog Spotlight will once again be held on a Tuesday. I have great plans on the weekend to write posts and organize stuff and it just doesn't happen. I have soaps to catch up on! Daisy of Love! The Bachelorette! (I technically watch The Bachelorette at work, but who's really keeping track?) Despite my severe inadequacies at promising you things that we all know will never happen, like me posting something on time, I bring you the Sunday Blog Spotlight... on a Tuesday.

The Inspired Bride is a color masterpiece. I just found this by way of blog-stalking others and even though there is no wedding in my formidable future, I love the color schemes she puts together. Maddy is the genius-color-smarty-pants behind The Inspired Bride. If you're just needing color inspiration for your home/clothes/nail polish you must check it out. These are some of my fav palettes:







All of these photos were taken directly from The Inspired Bride blog. After looking at the 'Color Cards' I chose, I must be on a pink/red kick. But then again I guess I always am! Check this blog out and love it!

Sleepless Nights

You know what I do when I can't sleep? Think of ridiculous things. Like the video from Sesame Street circa 1980-something where they showed how Crayons were made:



This video, after the 1 minute mark, is where I think I first fell in love with color. About 1:30 into the video, they are placing handfuls of Crayons into a machine that sorts them into boxes... I love the saturated color and the orderliness of it all. I also think it's pretty awesome everyone in the video is SMILING. I'd probably smile if I got to play with Crayons in the 80's all day too!

(Who am I kidding? I did play with Crayons all day in the 80's. I was a CHILD.)

Just watching this video makes me remember the waxiness of Crayons, the smell of a new box... how hard it was to start using them because they were so pretty. Which reminds me that my sister had a thing for snapping them in half and peeling the wrapper off - which I hated. Stinking Sesame Street... inspiring minds every where.

See what kind of awesome-ness comes out of insomnia? When did you first fall in love with color/design/current hobby?

Sunday (Tuesday) Blog Spotlight: The Lettered Cottage

How terrible is it that I'm technically moving this weekend, haven't packed a single box AND I'm out of town for work this week? I thought that I'm a packing genius, I've done this before in less time. Yeah... now that I'm gone for work, I'm thinking maybe this wasn't the wisest move. I also haven't yet rented a storage unit. Maybe I could move next weekend???

I also managed to miss my Sunday Blog Spotlight. I obviously can't blame it on the fact that I was packing, because, ahem, you all know better than that. So let's do the Sunday Blog Spotlight on Tuesday! It'll be fun, I swear!!!

The Lettered Cottage! Love you! You rock my face off! Okay, enough of the exclamation points. Point is that this girl is genius. She has the prettiest cottage home and I'm uber jealous of her brilliant ideas. She just launched an art blog as well where she's selling some of her original work. I'm totally buying the motivation set of cards for the new place, BTW. Here are some of my fav pics from her home, featured on her blog:

Just looking at her kitchen gives me heart palpitations. For real. Layla, the blog owner/design maven also does consultations for a small fee. She's definitely worth the look-up, even for just a little inspiration!

Tomato Update

Thanks to our lovely weather here (aka humid as $^!#) and the off and on rain showers, I've had to pay attention to my little tomato plant. It's so exciting to see the progress every day... (Yes, I am THIS excited about tomatoes. I've got a lot going on in my life and don't they say it's the simple things that make the biggest impact? Don't they? Somebody has said that, right?)

Alas, I give you the latest on our favorite 'maters:

And just because everybody LOVES a close-up:

I thought this Patio Tomato wasn't going to pan out, but there are MORE buds! Just call me the tomato whisperer...

After sitting with and whispering to said tomato plant, I turned around and snapped a pic of this:

Thanks, God. You're the best with clouds.

I'm 50/50

According to Sproost.com, I'm 50% Cottage Chic and 50% Nantucket Style. Here's their description of Cottage Chic:

"Who says that cottages can't be modern and chic? Who says that they have to be floral and cheesy? Not you! You love the carefree spirit that the cottage interior inspires, but you are also serious about your appreciation for modern art and hip treasures. You love old and new alike, and love to highlight them all to expose the uniqueness of each. What better way to show off these treasures than with a light background?"

Yes, yes, yes!!! That's definetly me. The Nantucket Style surprised me. Here's the description:

"Oh how you love the beach! Who doesn't, right? And so your dream home is either perched in your favorite beach town, or you've brought that favorite beach town into your house."

I like the beach, but I wouldn't say I want to move there. I'm more of a house in the woods kind of girl (as long as there's easy access to civilization!). After looking through the pics that I chose showing this "Nantucket Style", it's all white slipcovers on comfy furniture, hardwood floors, soft hues. I (kind of) understand now.

You should take the quiz! Let me know if they get you right.

Sunday Blog Spotlight

I don't remember how I came across All Things G & D, but I love it. The 'D' of G & D has the smartest style and often posts her outfit of the day. She shops like normal people, too, at Gap, New York & Company, Old Navy, etc. This is her super cute outfit from earlier this week:

(Photo Courtesy of All Things G & D)

Her blog slogan is 'Taking life one bottle of wine, 64 throw pillows and a dozen handbags at a time'. The 64 throw pillows is a great story and it shows her dedication to perfect accessorizing. Check out her B-E-A-U-tiful living room:

(Photo Courtesy of All Things G & D)

She's young, she's hip, she loves her some wine (we could be sisters we're so alike!). Check out All Things G & D. Now!

Decisions, Decisions... Bathroom

I have one bathroom at the new place, so it needs to be nice. I've decided on a color scheme involving pink somehow. I'm back and forth between black/white/pink like this:

(Photo Courtesy of BHG.com)

Or white/pink/green like this (more pink than just the splashes this pic has):

(Photo Courtesy of DIYIdeas.com)

The cabinets in my new bathroom are creamy white and the floors are an oak-look faux hardwood. Right now, I have a plain Jane waffle weave beige shower curtain. I'm totally swooning over this though:

I'm in love with this ruffled shower curtain from India Rose. However, this gem is $110. (They say 'Love Don't Cost a Thing'!) I mean, I could feebly TRY this on my own, but I feel like people would die in the process.

I already plan to use these items in the bathroom:

The rug is from Target and candleholder from Pier 1 (both items are from past collections).

I'm leaning towards the pink/green/white color scheme because of this pretty print from Ballard Designs. It's outdoor and they reccommend you wash it down with soap and water. I don't see how more perfect it could get for a bathroom! I also really love these apothecary jars as I have a 4 foot vanity.

I'm also thinking the white/pink/green is the right way to go because my bed linens are black and white, so pink could easily end up in there. I'm pretty excited about the bathroom, because it's really the one room in the place where I feel like I have a solid direction (once I make the decision to go white/pink/green for sure, that is).

The Tomatoes Are Coming!!!

This year I happened to find a 'Patio Tomato' plant and my mom bought it for my half birthday (yes, I said half birthday... I turn 25 this year and it's kind of a big deal). I used a planter I had from two years ago and left it on my back porch. Thanks to the semi-monsoon weather we had in April and May I was able to leave said tomato plant on my back porch. Thankfully, he didn't need much care.


Over the weekend, I saw this:

A close-up of my little blooms:

I can't believe it! As long as I don't accidentally kill it, it looks like I may have my first home grown tomatoes!

Accidental Weekend

Long story short I melted some stuff by accident in my oven. I mean, I don't know if you can purposefully melt stuff in your oven... like plasticware and plastic cups, but this really was an accident. After removing what was not totally ruined, I thought I'd use the Self-Cleaning function. Not one minute into the cycle, the house starts filling with the worst smelling smoke in the world. Did I mention it was 8 o'clock in the morning?

I stopped the cleaning cycle, opened the house up, made sure the flames were out (yes, there were flames), packed up the dogs and left. I decided to go borrow a couple fans from my parent's house. Since our b-fast was ruined, I went through a drive-thru and ran into the bright yellow post with my side mirror. Ugh...

Here's the oven now:

(The red stuff? Yeah, that was a plastic cup.)

This used to be plastic storage container:Amazingly enough, the items in the background did not melt.

I did get these pictures of my parent's dogs, Sadie, on the footstool and Chuck, in the yard:

I'll take weekends like that any time, simply because, well... it's still a weekend.