Wythe Blue...oh how I love you...

Last November, I decided it was time to hire a painter and get crackin on my living room. Wallpaper had to be stripped, plaster repair and drywall installed and oh yeah, PAINT! Now, if you know me, then you know that I love color. All colors. And that's the problem. When I go into a paint store and look at all the pretty swatches, I can't stand it...I want them ALL. I'm the same way when I go into the nail salon and stare at the wall of pretty nail polishes. What do you mean I have to pick just one?!?! So, when the painter said, "okay, I need to know what color you choose" I think I freaked out. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I freaked out. Then I called my sister and told her to drop everything and go with me to pick out paint.

Keep in mind that was probably the 3rd or 4th time I'd called her to come with me to pick out paint. She was not happy. I don't know what her problem was, I mean...how is that NOT fun? I'd scoured magazines, websites, blogs, Pinterest, paint stores and  even walked around neighborhoods at night hoping to catch a glimpse of beautifully painted rooms through the windows.

That's normal?

Right?!

Well...it wasn't that simple. See...I have had a bit of a challenge...one of the features of my sweet little bungalow that first attracted me was the dark mahogany trim in the living room, french doors and very large fireplace mantel and built-in bookshelves. My love of the dark wood quickly turned into ohmygodwhatdoIdowithdarkwood, panic.

You see...if all the trim in my house had been white, or more cottage-like, picking out paint would have been a bit easier. Maybe. Because, everything goes with white, right? But what about dark mahogany wood that I refuse to paint because it's beautiful?

Welcome to my nightmare. I'm not kidden. I lost sleep over what color I should paint this room. I tried picking out inspiration pieces, fabric and other items, but it didn't help. I knew I wanted a soft blue, but have you been to the paint store lately? There are about 10,000 shades of soft blue. I didn't want it to look too sterile, like the crazy-ward at the hospital and I didn't want it to look like baby-boy-blue. I wanted the perfect blue. The kind of blue that reminded you of the Mediterranean or at best, a local day spa.

After hours (I'm not kidden) of pouring over color chips at the paint store, a few snarky comments from my sister and asking anyone who would listen if they liked particular colors, I settled on THE color. The perfect shade of soft blue. The kind of pretty blue that changes color slightly in the sunlight and artificial light.

What was the winning color you ask? My new lover...a.k.a. Wythe Blue by Benjamin Moore. I love, love, love, love this color. It is THE perfect color for my space. It goes with the mahogany trim and the hardwood floors. I found a lovely muted color Pottery Barn rug (on clearance at the outlet). I've accented with a crisp, grasshopper green and I'm thinking of adding a few pops of pumpkin. My curtains are beige canvas (more on that later) and the finish on the fixtures are oil rubbed bronze.

I've pretty much been in perfect-blue-paint-color-bliss for the past year. And then...surprises of all surprises...guess what the new paint color of the year is?

That's right...BENJAMIN MOORE'S WYTHE BLUE!!!! 

Be. Still. My. Heart.

I can't believe it. Actually I can because it's fabulous, but I can't believe that I picked out something a year ago that would be this HOT! {insert happy dance}

How do I know this? Well, it popped up in not one, but TWO of my daily reads:

House of Turquoise and the colour expert, Maria Killam, interviewed by Canada.com

I need to take photos of my living room, but sadly, it's dark and about to rain here in the midwest and it's too late in the day to take decent photos, but I will soon...in the meantime, what do you think of the color of the year?

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...FINALLY!!!

Friday I received an email from a local thrift store that today would be 50% off everything in the store. So, I thought this might be a fun and relaxing way to spend a Sunday morning. WRONG!!! They opened at 11:00. I got there at 10:49 to discover a line down the sidewalk of people waiting for the doors to open. To be clear...this is a THRIFT STORE, not Best Buy the day after Thanksgiving, but you'd never know it.

I stayed in the comfort of my air conditioned car for the remaining 10 minutes before the store opened. Big mistake. By the time they opened the doors, I was 97th in line. That's right, I was the 97th person walking through the doors. All the shopping carts were taken and it was a mad-house. A stampede to buy used crap. I've never seen anything like it.


So, I attempted to head for the housewares aisle, but quickly realized that 50 of the 97 people were camped out in that very aisle. The very aisle where I would find Pyrex. *sigh* I ventured down the next aisle over and GUESS what I found????

A GLOBE! I have been wanting a globe to decorate with for years, YEARS! I love the way they look in these rooms I found on Pinterest...

And here's MINE!

And the best part...it was only $2.24!!! Yay!!! I can't wait to scour more thrift stores to buy more for my collection. Yippie!

I also found some cool Pyrex and Fire King that I'll be posting to Etsy as soon as I clean 'em up a bit.

to recover or not...that is the question

Last week I scored this groovy orange velvet chair at a pre-yard sale. I love the size and the shape and it's surprisingly comfortable. For about 18 months I've been looking for a vintage chair that I could recover for my bedroom. This chair is certainly vintage, but I'm not so sure about the color and the fabric. Here she is:

As you can see, it has a couple of stains and the fabric is a little worn in some areas, but all-in-all, it's in great condition. I like the shape of the legs too, which if I recovered, would be painted.

My bedroom is gray, yellow and white. Now, there's nothing wrong with a little splash of orange, but I'm not sure if this is the piece to do the splashing.

Here's another look:

As you can see, Lizzie and Louie (seated) have taken to the chair almost immediately. In fact they got into a fight about five minutes after this photo was taken. And now, three days later, the chair is covered in cat hair. Yet another draw back of velvet.

Also, can you see the dusty rose color chair in the background? It's a cane chair that I scored for free. I actually have two of those that desperately need to be recovered and the frame needs to be repainted. I hate the dusty rose color and I have WAY too much brown wood in this house. I've seen a ton of upholstery tutorials online, but I guess I'm just afraid of biting off more than I can chew.

So...back to the orange... should I recover or leave as is (cleaning it of course). Thoughts?

Etsy shop now open!

Oh boy am I nervous...I've been wanting to open an Etsy shop for years and years. And I just DID IT! Yippie!!! Click here to see my shop!

I'm going to focus on two things...vintage finds, primarily Pyrex housewares and also handmade items.

I've just listed two items:

Vintage Pyrex coffee mugs:

...and a very large, Pyrex casserole dish:

 

How cute are they? If you, or someone you know, collect vintage Pyrex...let me know what you're looking for. I scour thrift stores a couple of times a month and can watch for a special piece. I'll post more tomorrow! Thanks for your support. :)

...if you've got it...display it!

It breaks my heart when I think of a beautiful collection of dishes that are hidden away in the cupboard. Or worse yet, packed away because their lucky owner doesn't have a creative way to display. A friend asked yesterday how she might display some of her dishes including a collection of cake plates. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It's a great question. So, what's a girl to do? Scour Pinterest...that's what!

Depending on your style, there are a bunch of great ideas. I'm loving this open shelf concept. It's clean, crisp and kind of utilitarian:

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Or you might be a lucky dog and have a beautiful built-in:

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This would be a fun way to display mis-matched coffee cups:

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This is a nifty way to display a teapot collection. Looks like basic IKEA shelves:

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I especially love hanging plates on the wall. It's fun to create a gallery similar to this:

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Here's another example. Love the vintage plates:

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For larger pieces like a cake plate, serving platter or pitcher, try displaying in an open hutch like this:

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 Another possibility for large pieces is to create a beautiful mantelscape:

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So, there you have it. Lots of fun ideas to display your dishes! Of course it means you have one more thing to dust! ha! Enjoy.

...thriftin'

I'm really loving the look of cloches...you know, the glass dome placed over an object such as a plant or piece of fruit.

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Pretty, huh? Sometimes the glass cloche is placed directly on a table surface, or sometimes it rests on a wooden or glass base. I've seen these over the last year or so at Pottery Barn, West Elm, Ballard Designs and more. They can be a little pricey...like this beauty from Wisteria:

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They have three sizes ranging from $79 - $99. Holy moly...that's a lot of moola for a glass dome.  Needless to say, I haven't bought one.


Until last week...when I spied a glass cloche at the thrift store. For $4.84. That's right...less than $5. I knew immediately it would come home with me. Now, in all fairness, it's a bit smaller than the above cloches, but it's so darn cute and just perfect for a small object, in this case...avocado...

Pretty cute huh?  Go thriftin'! You just never know what you'll find!

pin worthy

I love front porches. When I bought my very modest bungalow 18 months ago, one of my first requirements was a front porch. There's just something comforting and welcoming about a front porch. Which brings me to this delicious porch...

 

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I mean, really? Can you imagine coming home to THIS every day. I swoon! I just keep looking at this photo and I love all of it. The only thing that makes me sad is that I don't have the keys to open that front door. And speaking of the door...oh how I adore the pale aqua door with white trim and the oiled bronze hardware. OH MAN! Makes me want to paint my front door! I love the container garden and the lanterns and the painted wood floor and the rug. UGH. I die.

When I bought my house it had the green outdoor carpet that looks like astro-turf. GAG. I ripped it up immediately, but the concrete didn't look so great, so I had charcoal gray outdoor carpet installed. I love it. I have a white house with gray trim and the gray carpet is super pretty. Here's some before and after:

Then about a month ago, I brought my patio chairs to the front porch to create a cozy seating area:

Looks better than the astro-turf, right? I've since added a few container flowers and plants. It's getting there. It's nothing like the beautiful photo at the top of this post, but this porch is all mine. Come join me on my porch...I'll make lemonade!

...mason jars

If my personality could be summed up by an object, my personality would be MASON JAR. I love, love, love mason jars of every size and color. I can't seem to get enough. Every time I go to a thrift store, I keep my eyeballs peeled for mason jars. They are just so functional. As you can see below, they make a lovely window vase on a rainy morning. I just love that they are so utilitarian. I use them for everything from drinking glasses, to vases to storing craft items. You can usually find them at thrift stores and yard sales for less than a dollar a piece. Pick up a few today. You won't be sorry. Oh, and of course they can be used for canning (duh), but since I don't cook, I find other ways to use them. Yay!

pin worthy

Have you discovered Pinterest? If not, stop everything you're doing and request an invite from Pinterest. Immediately. I am 100% addicted. If you're like me, you've visited hundreds, upon hundreds of design/craft/inspiration blogs and inevitably you forget where you saw a particular photo. So, you scour back over blog, after blog, after blog and never find it. Very frustrating.

Well...your frustrating days are over. Kind of. You see...Pinterest is like a giant electronic bulletin board where you post all of the deliciously yummy photos from your favorite blogs and websites. Not only does it store the photo for you, but it also stores the link from the blog or website. Genius. Absolute genius. When I said your frustrating dates are "kind of" over...what I mean is...there are not enough hours in the day to "pin" all your finds. Really. It's THAT addictive.

Here's today's pin worthy photo...vintage flash cards. I'm dying.

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Oh, and did you know that you can follow me on Pinterest? Click here to follow.

...a thrifting we will go, a thrifting we will go...

The sister and I are going thrifting tonight!!! Hooray! It's quickly becoming an obsession. I mean, you just never know what you'll find. I think I'm more intriqued with the hunt than the actual buying of the object.

Let's see...tonight perhaps we'll find some vintage sewing items, or cute little salt-and-pepper sets, or globes (be-still my heart), or old yard sticks. And of course there's the old stand-by...MASON JARS!!! Ugh...I mean, can a girl really have enough mason jars? I think not. Oh...and maybe some Pyrex.

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I think I should leave work early to go thrifting. You think my boss would understand? I'll be back tomorrow to show you what we find!

...for the love of chevron

In case you haven't noticed...chevron is here and it's hot, hot, hot!

My sister and I recently recovered my sad little microfiber covered dining room chairs with chocolate brown and natural color chevron fabric. See for yourself...