Life

You guys. I can't even keep my succulents alive anymore. Aren't these supposed to be like the hardest things to kill?? I know everyone is busy but these past couple weeks have been kicking my butt. Between vacation (that we still haven't even unpacked from), Stella being sick, family in town- doing something with them everyday, Utah's holiday on the 24th, FINALS WEEK (let's be honest- it's more like 2 1/2 weeks long), getting way behind on laundry and homework, I could really go on and on...

The reason I am telling you all this is because the blog has been at the bottom of my list. (sorry, but it's true) I'm still learning to juggle all of this and keep this going. But I haven't had time to do any projects lately- I bought a desk to refinish 3 weeks ago!!!! So I haven't really had anything to blog about. Summer is almost over and I have had so many things that I wanted to do that I just didn't. I feel like fall will be better but let's be honest. I'll be taking 18 credits and working. So.... bear with me.

Tom and I talk about the days when we won't be so busy but from what I hear, life only gets busier.

End of rant. 

So tell me, would you like me to continue with the inspiration posts until I get some projects of my own going or do you feel like you have enough inspiration on your own?

Urban Outfitters

Have you guys ever been to the apartment section of Urban Outfitters? When I'm shopping for decorations it's not usually the first place I think to look. But they have some real gems for reasonable prices.  Here are some things I have my eye on:

How cute is this raccoon pillow??

How cute is this raccoon pillow?
Buy it

I love the bright colors of this print

Buy it

2 things I love: Brass and plants 

Buy it

I love the terrarium trend right now.  These are some of the most affortable terrariums I have found.

Buy it

I love a good floral rug. And it's on sale!

Buy it

Talk about adding some texture to a space. I have been looking for a sheepskin rug

Buy it

I am in love with this sofa.

Buy it

They even have lighting. I need this chandy.

Buy it

This is only a small sample. Go look and their large selection for yourself! They have something for everyone, I swear.

Vegas

Hi friends! We're in Vegas. Here are a few pics of our experiences so far. I'm not good at taking pictures so there's not much but hey, it's an effort.

As soon as we got checked in we threw on our suits and headed to the rooftop pool. Yesterday was this hottie's birthday. 

We stopped at a random Mexican restaurant on the strip and Oh. My. Gosh. If you come to Vegas, eat at tacos el gordo. It's right next to the riviera and really cheap but it's the best mex we've had. For $4 you can get a mula. It's like a quesadilla on steroids. (Get the seasoned meat on it. It's not too spicy at all) 

Laying out. 106 degrees seems so much hotter in Vegas for some reason.

Going to dinner at the Wynn.

Wynn buffet. We splurged and it was so good!

We ate ourselves sick. Literally waddled out and went straight to lay in our hotel room.

Insert glorious chorus of angels here. Just pretend that is somewhere angels would sing about.

This one's kinda blury. Pretty sure she was drunk :)

We happened to get in our room just as this monsoon hit. And we got emergency flash flood warnings on our phones. Kinda crazy. 

Well that's all I have for now. Hope everyone has a good weekend!! Thanks for reading and expect normal posting again next week. 

Fauvism

So as I was doing my art history homework tonight, I came across this beautiful movement called Fauvism.  How have I never heard of or seen this before?? These are some beautiful paintings.  As I have mentioned before, I am collecting things for my gallery wall. Now here is some color I could bring into my home. I love the bright colors. If only they weren't in museums, worth a fortune.

Big Ben London- Andre Derain

Mountains at Collioure- Andre Derain

Henri Matisse- Andre Derain

Charing Cross Bridge- Andre Derain

The Bridge View on the River- Andre Derain

Okay. So maybe I'm way behind here that I just discovered this. But I am going to find a way to have something that pretty in my home one day. Andre Derain is a genius.

We're off to Vegas in the morning for Tom's birthday. I am so excited!! I will try to post a little while I am there but sorry in advance if there is some silence around here. 

Thanks for reading!

Very simple side table

We used to have this really awkward space in our bedroom. It is a narrow space at the end of our bed but it serves as the walkway into our kitchen so I couldn't put anything major there. But we needed just a little more storage space and I wanted to fill that awkward empty spot.  I searched for a few months for a long skinny table but couldn't find anything that fit the space perfectly. 

So I decided to make one.

I picked out a board that I liked the characteristics of- look how beautiful those notches are.

I bought a board from Home Depot that was 9" x 1 1/2" x 10 ft. I had them cut it there into three lengths I knew I wanted my table to be about 48 inches long so I had him measure and make that first cut, then I had him cut what was leftover in half which was about 37 1/2 inches. It ended up being perfect dimensions, and since I didn't do the math much I was pretty happy about that.

Since I had never built anything like this before, my original plan was to use some gorilla glue on the edges and add some nails in the top for added support. Well after letting the glue dry overnight and then some, it was still far from dry and not even close to sturdy. So I gave in and ran to Ace and bought these little corner supports. I didn't have any power tools so I had to screw these in with a screw driver and my bare hands. (which is why you see I skipped some screws) With the gorilla glue plus these supports, this table is pretty sturdy.

I added nails on each corner for some character.

I sanded down all of the rough parts- focusing on the edges and corners- and put a natural colored wood stain and protectant on it.

And here it is! It fits perfectly in our little spot under the window, making it not so awkward anymore and we now have a place to hold our perfumes and colognes. So it's a win all around. I also love that it brings in wood elements which we don't have in our bedroom since everything else is upholstered or painted.

You guys, I'm way beginner at building stuff. Really. Anyone can do this.

Just some inspiration

Since we have gotten Stella, she is so friendly and loving to everyone, I've been somewhat disappointed.  Since we live in the city and there can be some sketchier people walking down our street, I was hoping to have somewhat of a guard dog.  But anyone that approaches her or our door only gets licks and love.  Well, today Tom and I were sitting in our car in a parking lot and Stella was in the backseat and all of a sudden she started making this really weird noise.  It honestly scared us a little bit. It wasn't until she barked that we realized she was growling. It was the scariest noise I've ever heard her make. We looked around and realized there was a man out spraying weeds and with every weed, he was moving closer to us. To her he looked pretty suspicious, bending over taking slow steps, and she wouldn't stop barking and growling at him.  Is it bad that we encouraged her and gave her treats? I doubt she'd ever hurt anyone but with that deep bark I doubt anyone would come close enough to find out.  Needless to say, we rolled up the windows and the man quickly moved away from our car. And that is why I love her. Protecting us even when we don't need it :)

Now, here are some things I have pinned lately.

Source

I love the simple color scheme of this bathroom with the towels and accessories as accents.  What a great way to implement color in a space.  Since popular colors can change so quickly this would be a simple and inexpensive way to stay in style.

Source

How elegant is this living room?? I can't wait to have a living room that I can make beautiful one day.  I love that the dark sofa and burnt orange chairs make the space a little more manly but for the most part everything is a feminine style.  It's a good balance and a room Tom wouldn't feel so out of place in.  Besides, you can't go wrong with art deco.

Source

This is the perfect mix of eclectic decorations.  This living room has a little bit of every decorating style from modern, to mid century, to art deco.  Since I can't decide which era I love the most, I like the idea of taking a little of what you love from each to make your own perfect room.

Source unknown

I love this bedroom.  At first glance, I didn't realize that it has a very simple color scheme of black, white, and gold.  I'm not usually a fan of monochromatic, but the trick to making simple interesting is mixing a lot of texture.  This room incorporates wood with fur with metal with smooth fabric with shiny lacquer. Having different textures creates depth and keeps the eye moving.

Source

And this bathroom. What can I say, I am in love with industrial in the home.  Those spotlights are a beautiful and different replacement for the typical bathroom sconce.  And I love how they perfectly frame and fit within the mirrors. Oh, and the floating, natural wood, open cabinets are perfect.  This bathroom is just too good.

To see more, follow me on pinterest.

Thanks for reading!

Gold dipped vase- 2 ways

Here is a tutorial for the vases I made for my wedding.  I didn't have glitter to re-create it so I did another variation you will see below but it is basically the same process. I mentioned I thrifted all of my vases.  I found them over a course of a few months for less than $1 a piece. Most of the smaller ones were 25 cents. Once I had acquired all of my vases, I washed them and let them dry completely. I wanted to paint them and I liked the glossy look so I painted the inside. I had seen tutorials of pouring craft paint into them and rolling it around but considering I was painting about 50 vases that sounded really time consuming to me. I was also worried about the water based paint wearing off when we put water in them. So I went with indoor/outdoor spray paint.  I didn't tape them off or anything, I just coated the inside with a few sprays of the spray paint and let them sit to dry. This whole process took no more than an hour. I would recommend wearing some gloves because it does backfire out of the vases a little and got my hands pretty coated with paint.

Once the inside of my vases were good and dry, I taped them off like this:

The line doesn't have to be perfectly straight but try to line up the seam of the tape as good as you can.  Then I coated the bottom half of my vase with an even layer of mod podge and shook some gold glitter all over it. (I didn't put any mod podge on the bottom of the vase that would be sitting on the table- I figured that would be a waste and would come off easily) I held my vase over a paper plate so I could reuse the excess glitter that fell off. Once the bottom of your vase is completely coated with glitter, turn it slowly and gently shake while you do to get all of the excess glitter off (don't be alarmed, a lot will fall off but your vase will stay evenly coated) I turned my vase upside down and let it dry completely. Once the glitter was dry I peeled off the tape and sprayed a layer of clear polyurethane protectant on top of the glitter.  I used the kind that comes in spray paint form and made sure to coat it really well. Set upside down and let dry completely.

Onto the second version:

I know, this vase is gross inside- that's why this is great- to cover up old water lines.

Tape your vase exactly like you would for the glitter dipped version. Spray on a coat of gold spray paint. I really like Rustoleum's Metallic gold.  Make sure to aim for the bottom half and if you are nervous you will get the top, add a few layers of tape to make it a thicker barrier. I didn't have any problem with that though. Let dry and peel off tape.

And there you have it. Two gold dipped vases, two different ways.

(I did the glitter one about 10 months ago and through a lot of transportation, it still looks brand new. I mean, it has gone from me to florist to wedding dinner back to florist to reception to home. And then I have rearranged it around my house plenty since then.  I think the layer of polyurethane spray paint did the trick.)

What do you think? Which one is your favorite?

How about a little wedding design?

K guys, so this isn't exactly interior design but it's decorating and I know there are a lot of people that like wedding inspiration so we're just gonna go with it. (plus, it's my blog. So I'll talk about what I want :) man the power feels good) just kidding. But really. This is our wedding reception.  If I could relive one day over and over, it would be my wedding day. It was so perfect. The only thing I would change is that it went too fast and my dress was too tight. That last one is a pretty big one actually haha

Let's start with some of the pretty people we decorated our room with.

The bridesmaids

The wedding party without parents or grandparents

The groomsmen

My family

My new family

Pretty people, huh?

Now let's talk decorations. All of these were made by me or borrowed from extremely generous people.  My colors were ivory and champagne with gold accents. Call me plain jane. I just didn't want to look back on my wedding in 25 years and hate how dated it was. Plus, we got married December 28th and I wanted wintery but not Christmasy. Last minute I threw in some blush with my florist to add a little depth.

I thrifted all of my frames and vases and painted them. Tutorial here. I made enough vases for 13 tables and some extras for putting around. I think I figured out it cost about $35 dollars total for vases and about $20 for the frames.

I bought large ceramic planters at a boutique that was going out of business. I used these for large arrangements and when it was all said and done I gave them to my sisters as a thank you.  And they were beautiful at the wedding.  I love flowers and pictured them all over the room. Which is what I got. My florist did such a great job.

Here are my center pieces. I had 3 vases that were small medium and large. One vase on each table was dipped in gold glitter.  Once I was done painting my vases, I arranged them how I wanted them on each table and put numbers on the bottom with a sharpie according to table. (a small, medium, and large with number 1, and so on) That way my florist knew exactly where I wanted my vases to ensure I achieved the look I wanted in all of the chaos of setting up.

Of COURSE there was a giant table filled with bowls of candy.

I love the idea of a candy display as a thank you for your guests. That way you don't have to spend hours putting together a thank you. The guests can put their own together with the treats they want.  I decided not to go with a color theme because I just wanted good candies that people would want.

I found these frames at Hobby Lobby on clearance for like $2 each. I printed out some labels for the not so obvious candies and we set them next to them. I like to label things.

You want to know a secret? A 17 year old made my wedding cake. You heard me right. My cousin who was a senior in high school at the time works at a bakery.  She is an amazing little cake decorator and I knew I wanted it simple so it was do-able.  My mom baked the cakes so they tasted amazing. We had carrot on the bottom (because it's heavy), chocolate in the middle and coconut on the top (that I'm honestly excited to eat on our one year)

This was our sign in table. I originally wanted a photobooth but guess what. Didn't happen. You know the saying "there's not enough time in a day?" well I would personally like to coin the phrase "there's not enough time in an engagement" But really, long engagements are miserable. I just wish there was a way to have my cake and eat it too.

I didn't stick strictly to vases. I used anything pretty that was glass. To make this mug not so mug-ish I added gold glitter on the handle.

I printed this sign and framed it. It quickly was covered with presents so not much came of it. It was a nice thought though. In hindsight I would have had it set on the sign in table.

I have no clue what that drink is but it's pretty, isn't it?

We had a hot chocolate and hot cider bar.  This is another sign I made for that table.  For fonts, I use dafont.com.  They have THOUSANDS of pretty and unique fonts you can download for free! I used it a ton for the wedding.

Now for the most important part: FOOD. Let's be honest. When you're going to a wedding, what do you look forward to?  Let's just say we went a little crazy here. I'm not big on typical reception center food so we paid our venue a little extra so we could bring in our own food and it was so worth it. Okay, enough talk.

My main request was donuts. I just love them. I didn't get any but if I went to a wedding that had donuts, I wouldn't leave.

This is chocolate mousse.  It's light yet rich and really delicious.

My sister and mother-in-law are food geniuses and I just let them run wild with this part.  And wild they got.

This is called russian creme.  It is like a mix of vanilla bean creme brûlée and cheesecake. But in a pudding texture. Sounds weird. just trust me.

Veggie sticks. My sister in law spent hours chopping celery, peppers, and carrots the day before and bless her heart. I think she got some blisters out of it. We filled the cups with a little home-made ranch and viola! veggies and dip.

We had artisan breads...

and meats and cheeses

Not pictured: shrimp in cocktail sauce (same concept as the veggies and dip), my mother-in-law hired an Argentine neighbor to make authentic meat empanadas, we had assorted sushi and spring rolls, smoked salmon cucumber cups, spring salad, a fruit display, and caprese skewers. Did I not warn you we went all out? Some people came with the expectation of saying hi and going out to dinner and ended up staying for the food. Now that's my kind of wedding.

I mentioned my dress was too tight... well by the end of the night my stomach hurt so bad I couldn't eat anything. Talk about disappointing.

I am so grateful we had all of the help we did. Neighbors and friends came early and stayed late and kept the food stalked and looking pretty the entire time. A neighbor put up all of my decorations for me and did such an amazing job the venue offered her a job.

A view from the balcony.

Before we cut the cake

Groomsmen lighting sparklers

Leaving

He's not excited or anything... ;)

As a wedding gift our neighbor loaned us his limo for the entire day.

We were so blessed with our day.  It was so amazing and I wish so bad I could go back and relive it- at least walk around and enjoy all of the hard work!

Photography by: Chantel Marie Photography