Friday, July 27, 2012

Painting

In the home I grew up in my Dad always seemed to be painting the trim, the ceiling, doors, or the walls. For decades the walls were one tone of beige or another. My Mother has only recently in their 30 odd years together to embrace color. Either way there was always some kind of house maintenance going on. 

When it came time to select paint and get to work on my new place I knew I would be the one to paint. I enjoy painting. It's like detailing your first car you really get to learn the ins and outs of it. There is also something very satisfying about seeing the finished product. I love to paint, I love cutting in then rolling it on the walls makes a part of me very happy.

What I don't like doing is taping off the walls. Especially taping off the ceiling. Eric says I tape with hate. I'm sure I do. I just hate doing it. It's a necessary evil, like paying for insurance, I know it has to be done but I don't want to do it. (Whine.)

It's a good thing Eric likes to tape. He also says I tape with hate. I just might tape with hate. :(

Finally all the a painting is done. Everything looks crisp and fresh. Now it's time to hang artwork. I feel like I'm moving at a slug pace. I know what I want to do but haven't made the time to do it.

Tonight I will finish hanging artwork!


Bike Love


Eric bought me a bike! 
Happy early 3 year anniversary!

I am so excited about it. It is very similar to the bike pictured above. 
It's a sky blue Bobbin Birdie. It has a basket on the front too.
I can't wait to go home and ride it. :)

THANK YOU ERIC!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Living with color.

Moving into our new place has allowed me to do something I don't often do. Live with bright colors. I design around other peoples wants, but for many years I have always kept my personal spaces limited to a few colors or muted palettes.  Our loft was all neutral, purple and some green.  Eric and I both wanted bold color in our new place. This time I've done exactly that. Colors that I want to live around and it feels awesome. Shades of lime,peacock, and vibrant green are on my downstairs walls. The small galley kitchen's one wall is the lime, the lucky green is on the dining room and my favorite the blue peacock color adorns my fireplace wall. The main walls are a nice neutral called by Sherwin Williams called "Wool Skein." It makes me smile just walking in the door.

This is the board I made for Eric to see. Using our existing pieces with some new ones. I'm still working on finding a rug. I want something bold and fun. I'm just not sure what. The octopus pillow is what inspired me to do green in the dining room. :)

ps. I love the names of paint chips. Wool Skein, Peacock, New Green, Lucky Green. They always make me smile.  Our bedroom is called raindrop more on that later.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Home happiness.

Along with all the traveling, and adventures that have been going on this summer we moved. Well as of a week ago we have moved.  We knew we couldn't stay at our current loft for much longer and we found an amazing townhouse, swooped in and got it.

Best parts: More than one bathroom (3) vs our original one.
                  A garage and work area. ( We can now build things!)
                  I can paint and redesign stuff ( Yipee!)
                  It is over twice the size of our last place.
                  1 word: closets.

Moving totally sucks. It took us awhile to box and put everything in order quickly to move by the first of July. We finally did the grown up thing and hired movers. It was quite possibly the best money spent. Carrying all our belongings two flights of stairs would not have been fun. Our new place is amazing. I've had a blast figuring out where things should go and some new furniture changes that have happened.  Finally after many years We have new bedroom furniture!

 I had been looking around in Atlanta with no luck on finding anything mid century and modern. My mom however lucked out and found a dresser, mirror, and awesome chest near her house. She called me and said it was amazing. I trusted her and now own some amazing walnut furniture. it replaced the very very old and dated furniture I have had since I lived at home with my folks and was in the 8th grade.

In other awesome furniture news. Eric and I bought a new teak dining room table. It has a secret hidden leaf and beautiful lines. I can't wait to make dinner and eat there.

Everything is still a work in progress, we have no pictures on the walls or curtains. I do have paint! When we moved in everything was flat gold, poo brown and red. It's slowly changing over to a more neutral beige with brighter accents. I love the peacock color in my living room. It makes me so happy every time I see it.
 




 

The home changes are still happening. I love the hunt of finding something fantastic. The place is starting to feel more like home though. I also admit I love having walls again. Living in a loft was fun, it had a great view, but if one of us wanted to go to sleep creeping around and being quiet all the time sure did stink.




continuing summer adventures



Back from NYC we stayed cool at the Aquarium. I finally saw a dolphin up close. Which was so exciting to me.

 Then headed to South Carolina to celebrate my Sister in Law graduating high school! Yeah Ellen! I am so excited for her. :)

This summer has also been exciting locally. Red Bull took over our city for one weekend for the Soapbox Derby. It was so much fun to see all the creative cars and cheer them on.





The amount of free Red Bull that was around had the crowd keyed up and loud.

It was a lot of fun the winner was Sweet water with a great trout soap box. It went by so fast I couldn't get a picture of it.

After that a huge skate board parade closed down Peachtree for the Modern Design Museum's Skate it or hang it. Hundreds of skate boards are hung up in the museum and to celebrate the opening they had ramps in front of the museum and skateboarders doing their thing.














The amount of entertaining things around this city makes me so happy. It's been a great summer so far.

Life has moved pretty fast..

I last posted about taking Eric to San Juan for his birthday. We had an amazing time. Our life changed big as soon as we hit the ground. Eric finally got the call that a job that he had been wanting and waiting for came through! What a way to start a Birthday weekend.

Back to San Juan, Puerto Rico is a pretty beautiful place. We enjoyed the ocean, rented a jeep took off the top and road through the jungle, ate amazing pork from a roadside stand. Anthony Bourdain would have been proud.  We had a great time. It was a an amazing way to bring in a Birthday.

We had a weekend at home, then flew off to NYC for ICFF. The large modern design furniture fair that is held every year. It was my first time going. It was incredibly inspirational. After many years I think I've turned Eric to the dark side of well made furniture = long term happiness with what you live around. I.E. he is not a fan of Ikea anymore.

We saw these amazing chairs while there. http://folditure.com/ They folded up into 1/2" and can be hung in the closet. We really wanted them. Instead I drooled over those chairs, coffee tables with bronze inlays and amazing British wall paper. ICFF was very cool.

We also stayed at the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea. It reminded me of the old Cary Grant movie houseboat. Everything was nautical themed. It was adorable. We really loved hanging out in New York City and exploring the city. It had been three years since I had been and eight since Eric had been. We met up with my friend Billie for lunch, and also checked out the 9.11 memorial. It was a great tribute to a tragic event.


New York is absolutely amazing. Also in my food loving nature We ate at Lupa! It was fantastic. 

Back in Atlanta more crazy changes happened....