Sunday, August 4, 2013

A Month's Worth of Blogging in One Post!

I'm such a bad blogger. I have had vacation and have also been doing a lot of things around the house this last month, and in the insane dash to complete said projects I completely ignored this blog.  So, let me get you up to speed with what I have been up to. 

Vacation-we went on our yearly family vacation to Minnesota. My aunt has a cabin up on the lake and every year my parents, my brother, his wife, my two nephews and Peyton and I go up for a week. Oh yes, and we all took our dogs this year too-all three dogs. Which is really like having 3 extra kids.  I didn't take any pictures (ok, I took two-blame it on the fact that I still haven't replaced my camera that kissed the ground and went berserk). Mostly I played with the kids and caught up on reading--seven days of being able to read books and magazines--now that's what I call bliss.  

Around the house I took the plunge and painted one accent wall a really dark gray-almost black. I then decided to paint the adjoining walls white to make more of a crisp contrast.  Excuse the mess-I took pictures of in-progress shots and haven't yet taken pictures of the room put back together. Also, in recent days, I painted the teal door the same gray as the wall. 



The dark color is Iron Ore, by Sherwin Williams and the white is Nebulous White, also by Sherwin Williams. I basically took the darkest color on the paint swatch and the lightest color on the paint swatch. (If you REALLY want the full story, I initially bought a different shade of white and put it up on the walls and it looked pink. Talk about an expensive mistake!) I'm not sure if I'm really in love with the dark wall yet. I think it is the carpet and the age of the home. It's really hard to go modern in an older house. But I knew I would always wonder if I didn't try. I figure with all of the painting I do, it is not going to kill me if I have to repaint. At this point, really, it's almost expected of me. 

The art on the wall is a photograph my brother took--he is an ahmazing photographer--check out his photography at his website! If I had a money tree you better believe every single one of his prints would be on my walls. 

I have this vision of buying a couple of my brother's photos- this one and this one- and having them on the wall. The one thing I absolutely love about the dark color is how the colors in the photograph pop off the wall. But it's a big wall and it needs big art. (And for big art, one must have deeep pockets. I suck at math, but I do know that much.)  I have played around with doing a gallery wall of sorts--moving the TV to this wall and putting artwork around it.  I found one artist that I love-Michelle Armas. I ordered her Trellus print, and I am eyeballing her Pamela print. I can see the colors really jumping off the wall. (Jumping in a good way of course, not like "I'm a stalker and i'm going to kill you way. I need to stop watching late night TV, yes I do.) 

I also did a quickie project where I re-tiled my entry way floor. I used Armstrong's vinyl tiles from Lowes in the Crescendo Amber Glow Limestone Finish


While I wouldn't call this a long-term solution, the vinyl tiles are  much less of an eyesore than the pinky vinyl floor that was previously there. I give you exhibit A: 


For less than $50, I was able to upgrade to this: 




Much  better. Though I swear the first picture drives me daft--the lighting/Iphone snapshot makes my carpet look pink. I swear it's not. I still need to paint the entry walls white. 13' high ceiling in the entry way and I'm in no rush to haul out a ladder and precariously perch while holding a paint brush. This is where a butler would come in handy, I say. 

So there you have it-the last month's worth summed up in six pictures and roughly 8 paragraphs. 

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