Chevron

Chevron pattern is BIG. Their is not a day that goes by that I do not see a Chevron print product on a blog, pinterest or a magazine.

Chevron can be FUN

Urban Outfitters

Chevron can be TRENDY

Pinterest

Chevron can be STYLISH

Pinterest

Chevron can even be WELCOMING

West Elm

But who knew Chevron could be ADORABLE!

Our sweet baby girl - we LOVE her!

Baby girl is rocking this onesie if I do say so myself! The onesie is from Old Navy.  Do you have a favorite Chevron product?

Throw Pillows

Today I purchased a beautiful throw pillow from Giardino  for our living room. I love the vintage feel. It fits my style to a "T".

I thought it would go great with the throw pillows I made at Target Place mats I made a while ago (found HERE). I have currently been using these pillows on our new gray sofa. I love yellow and gray.

 

The couch came with two 20 X 20 gray pillows (same gray as the couch), I need to find pillow covers for them that compliment the yellow pillows.

See the pillows blend in with the couch

Here are some ideas I found from West Elm -

I love these pillows, the simple wave pattern is not over bearing, but provides some texture.

found HERE

Or perhaps I should use a bolder pattern like this zebra print.

found HERE

Or a more simple pillow, like these solid velvet pillows with stud trim?

found HERE

Geez, I love them all, I might have to order all 3 to see what works the best. What would you pick? Advice need!

Hook Up

I'm kind of lazy, I HATE hanging things up. I do not like having to take out the hanger and put the item on and hang it back in the closet. I know stupid right? Don't we all have our little quirks?

We need a place downstairs to hang up our jackets that didn't involve a hanger. Otherwise my jacket will always be on the couch or back of a chair. So I order these Alphabet hooks from Anthropologie.

 

I order a M, C, & A one for each of us. I no longer have an excuse to not hang up my coat, no hanger involved.

 

Look I hung up my coat!

What are you odd little quirks? Please tell me I'm not the only coat hanger hater!

Dark Paint

As I mentioned earlier in the week I  painted our kid/guest bathroom. This bathroom (we have 3) has a newer white vanity and medicine cabinet. We have no plans to change them out since they are newer and provide plenty of storage.

Since the vanity and flooring are light colored we figured we could go with a darker color.  I like a dark blue pair with white for a clean crisp look.  We chose Refuge from Sherwin Williams,  semi-gloss brand Harmony paint. We love this paint brand, covers nicely.

Over the weekend I finished paint (well I need to touch up trim). It took me longer to paint this room than expected because of the textured walls and our lovely cat decided to help by spilling the paint tray on the floor.

Luckily the paint came off the floor and tub easily. I just waited until it dried (over night) and peeled it right off. Thank you semi-gloss latex paint. If it wouldn't of came off it wouldn't of been the end of the world, we plan to replace the tub down the road to something not green!

Here is the finished paint job.

The color is growing on me. I'm thinking about purchasing a new shower curtain and a new rug (since the paint got on ours) and we need to replace or paint that ugly wood door.

What do you think? Perfect? Too Dark?

Raining Day Plans

It's cold and raining in Pittsburgh, PA. That's not much of a surprise here this time of year. It's either raining or snowing and always cold. Today, I feel like not doing anything. I want to just curl up on the couch and watch the Lifetime Movie Network. But sadly, I have too much to do. I need to go grocery shopping and clean up this house. I'm not sure how 3 people (and one of them is super small) can make such huge mess! So that is my rainy day plans.

But before I get busy,  I thought I would catch up on some of my favorite blogs before getting stuff done (I'm a procrastinator, can't you tell). Baby girl is napping so I can steal a few minutes.

Over at Centsational Girl you should check out her bathroom makeover using Beadboard wallpaper. I didn't know Beadboard wallpaper existed. I can't wait to try it. I'm thinking this would be a great product for our half-bath.

Image from Centsational Girl

Also obsessing over a kitchen featured on House of Turquoise by Viscusi Elson Interior Designs. It's the perfect modern cottage kitchen. Is it weird I want to paint every room in our house a form of blue?

Image from House of Turquoise

Also over at Emily A. Clark, Emily is debating on painting her bedroom a dark blue. She likes the deep colors paired with white fabrics. I'm excited to see what she decides since I recently painted our bathroom a deep blue and not sure if I like it (more to come on that issue).  I'm not normally that brave when it comes to bold colors.

Image found at Emily A. Clark via dominomag.com

What do you do on a rainy day, read your favorite blogs, read a good book, watch cheesy movies, or are you productive? 

Feet Painting

My sister-in-law works in a daycare and a while ago she asked me if I ever painted with baby girl.  I was like "Ummm no! She is only 2 months old". Apparently her daycare works with the infants painting and coloring to get them used to textures and holding objects. I never thought about the question again, until Christmas when Auntie give baby girl finger paint (non toxic) and paper. She promised to come back over soon to "paint".

On Friday she came over and we stripped baby girl down to her diaper and let her paint. And she LOVED it. She wasn't too fond of having to paint with her hands, she mostly just put the paint in her hair. But she LOVED painting with her feet. Auntie took a plastic spoon and spread paint on her feet and let her go at. She squealed with delight and painted for 30 mins.

I'm loving this!

I love those chubby feet!

 She loved it so much, I plan to do this often with her. Do you have any other suggestions for baby activities.

P.S. - Baby girl wasn't the only one painting this week. I painted our bathroom this week. I will share pictures this week.

Let There Be Light

A few months ago we were at Lowe's to purchase something and I  ran through the lighting section to take a peek, and was very pleasantly surprised at the stylish collection of fixtures they had.  I'm definitely a fan now an always walk thru when we are there. On this particular trip this light fixture caught my eye.

Portfolio 18"W Bronze Pendant Light with Fabric Shade

I showed the husband and he liked it as well. We put it on our purchase list and last month we purchased and installed it in the Dinning Room.

Close Up

I have to admit this particular fixture was tough to install.  It probably took 5 hours. We tried one evening and after lots of frustration we went to bed and tried again in the morning. Also you will notice we had to remove the chain since we don't have high ceiling.

After all the headache and reading and rereading the instructions a 100 times we can finally say we are happy with the light and plan to keep it around for a while.

Stay tuned for many more light fixture updates. Because EVERY and I do mean EVERY light fixture in our house needs updated.

Living Room Addtions

A while ago I posted a pictures from House of Turquoise that I plan to use as Inspiration for our living room. I love this room!

I love the couch in this room, it has a vintage feel with the button tufted back. Unfortunately this couch is a little too small for our growing family. So I set out to find a couch that meets our family needs and has a similar feel. After LOTS of searching I found this couch from Levin's Furniture.

The couch is from the Cindy Crawford Collection. We ordered the color Slate (the picture shows the fabric a little darker).   The cushions are button tufted and the same Merlot finished wood base. This couch has the same vintage feel and is long enough for all of us and a little room to grow (someday).

When the couch was delivered I wanted to return it asap! I was very disappointed, the cushions were a little thick and stiff. But my husband loved it and told me to give it some time. After a few weeks, the cushions softened up and I've starting loving the couch. It's not exactly the couch from the Inspiration photo, but it does have some similarities and fits our needs.

The next big purchase for the living room was a new area rug. While the Inspiration photo has a solid color area rug, I knew I wanted something more fun. We are a young family and we will be spending lots of time in this room playing on the floor. I was happy when I purchased this rug (posted about here).

The new couch and new rug has created a few current problems for us. Our coffee table was too big. We are currently using an old TV stand as our coffee table (the table is in the picture above). Our curtains clash badly!

There is still lots left to do to finish our Living room to resemble to the Inspiration Photo. Here is our growing list of task left to do.

- New Pillows - Perhaps a DIY Project
- New Curtains - Maybe another DIY Project
- New Side table (only room for one). Hope to find something similar to Inspiration Photo
- New Coffee Table, also hoping to find something similar to the Inspiration Photo
- Make Fireplace look like Inspiration Photo.

- Paint Trim a crisp white color
- Add Crown Molding
- Find a ne Chair to use after baby swing is no longer in use.
- Possible Built-in (I would love this, but that is a long term project).
- Find time for all the above!!!

OK, I need to get off here, the baby needs to be feed soon and I have a dentist appointment. Keep your fingers crossed I have no issues!

Feeling Famous

Yesterday I found that someone on Pinterest had PINNED ME! A picture from my daughter's nursery was pinned.

It was a pleasant surprise. I actually did a little dance in the kitchen. Kind of made me feel like a rock star. I have to admit I'm always surprised when someone follows me on Pinterest or my blog, I'm like "wow someone likes my style". I tend to be somewhat shy and haven't even really told anyone about my blog. I rather share my blog with strangers than my own family or friends. Yes, I know that is weird, but I'm an odd duck I guess.

If you want to follow this "odd duck" on Pinterest you can find my page HERE.

Happy Pinning!

A Small Teak

I found some adorable knobs at Hobby Lobby (50% off) that match our daughter's nursery.

Her closet doors had some basic wood knobs that have yellowed over the years. An upgrade was necessary.

 For less than $5.00 I was able to dress up her standard closet doors an add a touch of whimsey.

Sorry for the blurry pictures!

What small teaks have you made recently?

2011 Recap

Happy New Year. Hopefully you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. We did at Beautiful Haven. Santa was very good to us! We spent the week playing with new toys and visiting family and friends. 

2011 was a year of 1sts for us: 

1. We bought our first home together. 
2. We moved into our new house.
   
3. We became landlords for my old house.
4. We found out we were pregnant.
5. We had a our first baby.
6.  I left my job to be a stay at home mom. The first time I was unemployed since I was 16!

We definitely had a whirlwind year and have lots and lots to be thankful for. Sadly with all the changes, I found little time to blog. I'm hoping 2012 provides more time for blogging,  DIY Projects and most importantly more time for family. Stay tune the next few days, I want to share what changes we squeaked in the end of 2011.

See you soon!

One More Day

The past week my husband has been off work. We visited friends and family. Had my nephews over for the week and was so busy we didn't get anything done. Does that ever happen to you?

He doesn't go back to work until Wednesday - so I plan to take one more day off before I blog about what I have been up too.


Talk to you soon! Crystal