Beautiful Things

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. More of a slump than a funk, but something that went from relieved to be finished with my book to sad that it is officially finished. It's not often that I have such a big project in my lap at once. It seemed to go from full speed to stop in one day. I'm still very happy it's finished and am looking forward to another big project. In the meantime, I've been up to the usual stuff... sewing, housework (seriously, how is there always so much laundry to do? We need less stuff!), reading.... And I'm looking forward to going to the US next week to visit family and go to the beach, yay! I'm also daydreaming of having our own house one day and what it would look like (just a tad pricey to buy a house in our current neighborhood, so we're not sure when that will happen or where it will be). I've been eyeing my pinterest for inspiration, which I haven't looked at much in months. Some of my favorite images are of colorful interiors.

Shades of Green

We decided to re-arrange our house a bit and so there's been lots of moving furniture, painting walls, and buying new things here and there to make it all work. It all started with a conversation about our dining table. Our dining area was quite cramped, with a dining table against our stairwell wall beside our kitchen. It's bothered us that we don't have a very good place for a kitchen table since we moved here, especially in winter because we can't eat alfresco when it's cold and wet. So we decided to make our downstairs lounge a dining room AND sitting room within one room, which meant moving quite a few things around to make it work.

Cottage Hideaway

This morning when I woke up, I was scanning my Pinterest for a few minutes before I knew Lois and Ellie would wake up (a rare occurrence for me to be up before Lois). Lying in bed, I was looking over at our desk and the area around it in the corner of our bedroom, which needs a lot of work. I wanted to look at some office inspiration photos while looking over at the desk, but of course it's Pinterest so I got a little sidetracked and found this adorable cottage hideaway on the Isle of Wight instead.

Happy Easter

I love Easter decorations and really just love any holiday that makes for fun crafting. We haven't done much this year for Easter, though, other than make some cookies and a simple Easter egg tree, but I have a lot of Easter inspiration on pinterest. The girls' dresses are both finished. I'll post some photos after their Easter fashion show reveal tomorrow. Until then, here's a peek at our cookies (using a great, basic butter cookie recipe) and our little Easter tree.

And Speaking of Decorating a Child's Room...

So finally, here's a peek into Ellie's room! First, I should say that I was going for a softer, lighter look than Lois's room. Her room as always had bold, primary sorts of colors. You can see her room here. That was her room in our first place in London, so it's not her current room, but she has all the same items but in a different configuration. Also, for Ellie's room, since I was working with little to start with, I decided to consult Pinterest (of course!).

Rooms for Wee Ones

A while back I wrote an article for 91Magazine on decorating children's rooms, and since I was out of town when it came out, I only recently realized I never shared the article. I'm still collecting little things here and there for Ellie's room and think I could use some of my own advice as a lot of it is piled up in a jumble of my own indecisiveness! If you're needing a little inspiration for decorating your wee one's room, here is the article.

Paris in One Week!

Next week this time we'll be heading to Paris! Our place is about halfway packed but we have a lot on the to-do list. We'll be busy, busy finishing loose ends. I keep reminding myself that London is just 2 hours away by train and that if some things aren't covered before next week, it's not the end of the world. So much that needs to be can be done online anyway. See you next week from a Paris!
Image from Pinterest

Seeing In Color: Bright!

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts! It is soooo cold here lately that I'm having a hard time thinking straight. I think my brain is going into freeze mode. Layers of wool, fleece, and down can't even keep me warm the last few days! It has me longing for spring. The daffodils are starting to peek up in the park, and I can't wait till they bloom. In the meantime, I'm thinking bright, spring thoughts. I've been having fun adding some colorful inspiration to my pinterest. The image above is now on my "makes me happy" board. Don't you just love pinterest? 

Seeing in Color: Fall

The leaves are turn, turn, turning here, and it looks very beautiful outside lately. Lois and I collected leaves for her first homework assignment. How cute is that? Her first homework assignment! I received an email from her art teacher titled "homework" and thought, what could it be?!! Leaves. Easy homework. Beats calculus. I always like to look at fall leaves closely. They are soooo pretty. The photo above is with my iPhone, using Instagram. And the chill in the air makes me want to cozy up.

In Bloom: Saipua

Homemaking is made better with flowers, don't you think? On the weekends Andrew often brings home flowers from the farmer's market, and they usually always last a week, sometimes up to two weeks (if I'm good about changing the water, etc.). I love having flowers in the house. Wether we have flowers in bloom in our house or not, I also love the Saipua blog, where I can see beautiful photos of flowers every day.

Seeing in Color: Purple

Purple has never been my favorite color, although I've always liked deep, dark purple, like eggplant purple. But purple is a color that's grown on me, especially lavender. Andrew bought these flowers above at the farmer's market last weekend, and they've opened my eyes to more purple around me, like these pretty images below on pinterest. 

Images found here: shutters, bedroom, ribbons, doorknob. 

True Blue

I have it bad. I have it bad for a bike. The blue Pashley Poppy bike. I'm obsessed this week. You may remember I wanted that bike last spring? (I can't find the post from last year, but I think I did post about it.) Well, I told myself if I didn't find it used, I'd buy it new this spring. So I about jumped when I finally saw it for sale online used. The seller said we could meet on Sunday, last Sunday, and sounded very reliable, but then he didn't return my call or email after I wrote regarding a time and meeting place. I've been checking my phone and email obsessively since. Drat! I think the size was a little big anyway. Now I'm eyeing it new again. I just love it! And I figure if you're going to invest in something like a bike, you should really love it. We shall see! Here she is below (picture it with a wicker basket on the front). And here's a cute video of it. What a beauty! These other images were found on Pinterest--see my bike board for sources. Update! I got the bike!!! Weeee. Just like this one below, but with a basket for the handlebars as well. 

Having My Tea and Drinking it Too

I recently read about a secret tea room here in London, and I can't wait to check it out. Obviously it's not super-duper secret, but it is inside a pub, tucked away, and available to you once you ask for the tea room. It looks so pretty. You can see more pictures here too. I might go next week when my sister's in town (yay!). Our place isn't quite all together, but I'm ready for a wee tea break after all this unpacking. In the meantime, I'll peek at some tea inspiration and have a cuppa at home. But just for a few minutes. Lots more to unpack! Sources for these images are in my Pinterest. 

Hatching Ideas

It looks like we'll be moving soon! I haven't said a peep because it's not totally official yet, but it looks like it will be next week. We're just moving across town, north of the river, but I'm soooo excited. The neighborhood is great, and I'm excited to fool around with decorating a new place. We've been in our current place for a year, but I still haven't quite figured out what to do in certain places, so I just haven't. Instead of seeing it as a challenge, I've though of it as a drag, blah. It hasn't been too fun. One issue is choppy walls--walls divided by a lot of doorways and windows, which is the complete opposite of our last place. I just don't think I have the right stuff to work in the right places, if that makes sense, and I haven't taken the time to hunt for the right stuff. Ah, well, I don't have to worry about it anymore. Our new place is sort of boxy like our apartment in San Francisco, with two big, long walls in the living room. I felt sort of over that by the time we left San Francisco, but I'm looking forward to it again. I understand how to arrange my things better on walls like that. I'm also thinking of color. Our last place had neutral, beige walls, but I'm thinking of a very pale robin's egg blue. I love the way deeper colors look against that shade of blue--rusty orange, reds, navy, green, golden yellows, etc. Deeper, darker colors look really good with that color to me. Lisa has blue walls and I love the way all of her things stand out against it. Here are a few pictures I've come across for inspiration. These shades vary, but I think my favorite is the second one, just below. I like that it is a touch grey compared to the others. I've put them all in my pinterest, where you can see links to the sources. 

Color Me Happy

Lately I've been thinking in color. It has been so dreary here these last few months that daydreaming of bright things has been the best way to chase my grey day blues away. Today though it's actually sunny, finally, and so nice outside! I went out for a stroll earlier to see the blue sky and get some much needed vitamin D. I'm also thinking of random colorful things to keep my spirits up. To start with, tulip fields in the Netherlands, and...

Color it wallpaper. 

A door in Mexico. 

Balloons.

Norway.

Dresses.

Gee's Bend quilt.

The Bahamas.

Patchwork sweater throw (it is still winter after all). 

But I'll think of ice cream instead. 

Think happy. Be Happy.

Sources are in the links. 

I like Pinterest

My new favorite thing (fairly new to me anyway) is Pinterest, an online inspiration board of sorts where you "pin" favorite images. I'm not totally sure of all the ins and outs of Pinterest since I just recently joined, but if you love online image eye candy and are like me and have messy folders on your desktop of random saved inspiration images, you will LOVE Pinterest. When you pin, it credits the source of where you found it (though often that's not the original source of the actual image, and I imagine this could be an issue for pinterest at some point, hmm). I hope source issues don't cause too much trouble because I really like the service. Here's the link to my boards. Right now I've just focused on pinning images of interiors, but other folks have boards of so many other things. Below are a few things I've pinned to my board this week. All the sources are linked to the pins on my boards. (The image above, "things I like" is by John Derian--possibly my favorite designer, one of the few whose name's I can even remember!)