Lately, I’ve been struggling in my head about what I would do with our house, once we finally took that leap. I have a ton of little improvements and projects in my mind, that I would want to do, but figuring out flooring, paint colors and furniture choices has always stumped me. Mostly because, I’m only 23 years old. I’ve never owned a house, and I’ve never painted a room besides my childhood bedroom and we just made our big furniture purchase last winter. Everything we own is cheap compressed cardboard, hand-me-downs, and things to just get us by. Nothing matches, and 80% of the things we own are for the man-cave (crazy, I know).

I was having a really hard time defining my style, and looking for something to work off of, as inspiration, for when the time comes of home ownership. So I had an idea, what if I go through my pinterest boards and all of my inspiration files and pull all of the pictures of rooms that I absolutely love. I’m not talking about those pins you have where you like the counters, but not the back-splash of a kitchen, or that bathroom photo that just looks so cheery, but you would never want to live with everyday. I’m talking about the photos where you love every single thing in it. The photos where if you could just drop and drag it into your home, you would in a heartbeat (even though that takes the fun out of things). So that is what I did. Out of the thousands of photos I have pinned and saved on evernote, I pulled out 18 (then added two more at the end that I came across). I then put them all together side by side, so I could look at them easily, and then I found my style.

[Sources: 1 N/A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 N/A, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 N/A, 19, 20]

I’m not sure how it’s properly defined, in the style book, but all I see if natural textures: a lot of wood, brick, stone and really cozy linens that you just want to jump into. Neutral colored walls, pops of colors with accessories, very rich colored floors and flower filled outdoor escapes.

I feel much better.

Update: I asked Travis what he thought about all of the pictures I pulled, just to see if we agreed. His first response was, and I quote, “I hate the rainbow shit.” and then a “yep looks good”. Score!

Posted on May 21, 2013 - 13 comments
 Filed Under: Goals & Dreams, Inspiration

Over the weekend, I kind of forgot about the Pinterest Challenge. I blame the booze. I then re-remembered it yesterday while I was emailing Christine. I already knew a few days after the challenge was announced, that I wanted to do a jute wrapped star out of wood shims for the project. So, last night, I started making it, which was quite frustrating to begin with, and then it fell apart half way through. I broke it apart and threw it away and started to bug Travis, so he could hang my sunburst mirror that I made for the Pinterest Challenge a year ago. He wasn’t budging, he was too into playing Minecraft. Curse you, Minecraft! So, I figured the heck with it, I’ll just type up my tutorial, and show you where it’s going to be hung. I think holding onto a Pinterest Challenge project for more than a year will bring me bad luck – especially since I’ve had bad luck with Pinterest Challenges since starting this mirror, or just haven’t participated at all.

This mirror started almost a year ago. I went to Lowes and grabbed a bunch of packets of wood shims. My original plan was to paint the entire thing green (no idea why), but I later decided to go with stain. I also picked up some glue and a sander.

I laid out all of my wood shims in a circle. This baby is huge!

I then started to glue them together. Instead of gluing each piece onto each other, I just iced the back of the sunburst like a cake, because I was afraid of the shape not coming back together.

Once it was all “iced”, the glue dried and it was looking like this.

I attached a small board onto the back of the sunburst for more stability, and so it made hanging easy (or so I thought, because it’s still sitting on the floor). I then stained it, and sanded it multiple times.

It could probably use another sanding, but I’m happy with it. I gave you guys a peak at it during my last video, which I took this screenshot from.

We plan to hang the mirror above the couch, but we’re not sure about going ahead and doing so since we don’t plan on spending another summer in our apartment. And yes, I know nothing matches in our living room. Travis just bought those pillows, and those curtains were from our old apartment.

Here are some close-up shots of the sunburst mirror. I really love how the wood is different shades. And now I can close the chapter of the sunburst mirror. Hopefully my Pinterest Challenge bad luck with disappear now.

P.S. My Etsy shop opens in exactly one week, ahhh!
(Check out all of my Etsy shop progress posts: here, here & here)

Posted on May 21, 2013 - 28 comments
 Filed Under: Projects

I was thinking today that we could really use a new alarm clock. (We don’t use our iPhones, shocking I know!) Something stylish, because let’s face it, most alarm clocks are hideous. This would be a really simple task for me to do, if I felt comfortable with an analog clock (I did include a really cute one below, for anyone who loves a vintage analog clock). I kind of missed the lessons on reading an analog clock while in elementary school, and never really caught on. (I was out sick for awhile in first or second grade, I believe, with scarlett fever) I have to stare at them for a little while to realize what time it is, and I wouldn’t trust myself setting an alarm on one! (Embarrassing, I know.) Interesting fact: Since I missed those lessons in school way, way back in the day, I don’t say it’s “half passed ten” or “quarter of”. In fact, if you say those to me, my eyes will probably cross and I’ll act like I know what time it is. Just tell me flat out that it’s 10:30, or 11:52.

So because of my lack of time telling skills, and because I want something stylish to sit on our nightstand, I put together a little round-up of some of my favorite alarm clocks out there in internet land. They range from $30 to $150 and you can find their source links below!

1. Noir LED alarm clock – $60 | 2. Woodstation Weather Display alarm clock – $100 | 3. Vintage Red Orange alarm clock – $30 | 4. Tivoli Model One radio & alarm clock – $150 | 5. Wood Grain LED alarm clock – $36

Posted on May 21, 2013 - 22 comments
 Filed Under: Currently Lovin'