I made my first how-to video on Youtube! Remember when I covered that Guaryaki Yerba Mate event at SXSW this past spring? Well, I received a giftcard afterwards and loaded up on Guaryaki loose leaf Yerba Mate tea and accessories. My favorite thing ever is the gourd and bombilla (filtered metal straw). Impossible to sip yerba mate from a gourd and not relax. You're supposed to prepare a gourd in the morning and continue to add hot water and reuse the leaves to sip from the gourd throughout the day for sustained natural energy and nutrients. I'm aiming for three gourds a day. Check out my video to see how I steep and sip.
I'm in a peacock kinda way right now. My next tattoo will be a peacock. And my living room, the biggest room in my house, is going peacock blue, baby! If you've read my blog over the years you know I LOVE color and I'm not afraid to tackle big painting jobs. Remember my dining room and nursery projects? That was only the beginning. I'm going on a painting spree! By the time I'm finished my whole house is going to be one big awesome expression of ME! I'm really glad my husband goes along with my bold decorating choices. Otherwise, we'd have some more issues. Many people choose painting projects based on resale--appealing to potential future buyers. But it's just paint, which means it can be painted over. So I'm enjoying filling every room in my house with awesome, lively COLOR! It's going to be so cute. You'll see. The peacock blue will complement my kitchen and dining room perfectly.
This is my dining room wall. The first thing I see every time I enter my front door. I could have spelled TEA, which is what these letters spelled in the Pottery Barn catalog I ordered them from. But when I got them, it just made more sense to me to spell the word EAT. I eat more than I drink tea anyway. Plus it's my dining room. Plus I LOVE food too, so. it just made more sense.
I thought I was so sure I wanted a moody, purple nursery. I'm glad I chose that color early, because it has SO changed. I got the idea from this pillow. The feel is still very modern, but the new color scheme is chocolate brown and powder blue. I'm pretty sure this won't change. Billy helped me pick the paint samples this time, so I'm more sure that this will be a better fit. It matches the rest of the house more. Three things that haven't changed and I'm 100% will not change are the crib, book shelf and changing table/dresser...unless they sell out or are discontinued or something. The room is small, and these pieces fit perfectly. I have an old chest of drawers that I'll paint red. The chair I chose is of bright orange fabric.
A few strokes in on the lighter color and I put the top back on the pot. Definitely the darker one. At first I thought it was a bit dark for a baby's room, but he'll only be in there to sleep, so darker does the trick. Plus the furniture will be mostly white, which should brighten things up. It's not as dark as it looks here though. I took this pic at night and without a flash, so it doesn't actually do the color justice, but it gives you an idea. Actual painting won't start for another couple of weeks.
I want to get it all done before moving around in general becomes more challenging. We're starting slow, but of course I have every color, every piece of art, every shelf, every piece of furniture picked out already. I had a general idea of what the nursery would look like before we knew our "it" was a "he", so as soon as it was official, I made some final tweaks to the plans and mama's ready to roll! My mom and sister will be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas to help and the room should be baby-ready by mid-January.
I went to Lowe's yesterday to pick up samples of the paint color for the room--an ultra modern smokey grayish lavender. Those go on the wall this week and may the best can win. Purple is my favorite color and I've always wanted a purple room. My kitchen is red and my dining room is gold and the other rooms in the house are too big to paint purple, so I figure, I'll spend more time awake in the room than the baby, so I might as well make it as comfortable as possible for me. So I chose a shade of purple that really looks grayish brown, but is just purple enough for a little man.
The furniture I picked out is two-toned white and espresso wood and the fabric and art accents will be cream, orange and chocolate brown with splashes of green, yellow and cobalt blue. I absolutely had to incorporate blue, because a very sweet friend of mine, Sally, gave me my very first ever baby gift--a plushy blue elephant--for my very first ever baby, so Mr. Elephant gets a tiny, special wall shelf all to himself. :) Also, my coworkers all signed a dark blue kid-sized bicycle helmet for me and my little one on my 30th b-day, so I'll find a spot for that in the nursery too.
There's no real theme, but I'm feeling 70's mod owls and frogs for the fabrics and wall art, which I intend to create myself (I haven't flexed my artistic skills for a good minute, but this is a good time to dust them off and see what's left). Actually, owls and frogs sound very Harry Potterish, but I swear it won't look witchy...whimsical, yes, but not witchy.
I ran across the inspiration for my final design on www.modernnursery.com It was love at first sight. I can't wait to see how close the feeling of the final room will be to the inspiration. All those hours of HGTV worship are about to pay off! Of course I'll keep y'all posted on the progress with before, during and after pics. To start things off, I'll share the picture that inspired my final design:
Amy Chua: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother I'm reading this one as part of a Mocha Moms book club. Amy Chua was the keynote speaker at our National Conference in Las Vegas last year. She made a great impression on me. Cannot wait to read her book and discuss with other moms. I'll also review it here on Homegirl.
Tad Hills: How Rocket Learned to Read My son loves this book! He's learning to read now, so he relates to Rocket. At night, he says he wants to wake up with a waggy tail, ready for class. :-)
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Clinique Beauty Reviews!
During 2009 and 2010, I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of 20 U.S. Clinique Insiders. As a Clinique Beauty Insider, I did monthly videos and written reviews of Clinique cosmetics and skincare products. There are new Insiders now, but my 2010 reviews are still over there. A few of the best ones from my 2 years with them can be found on Clinique's Youtube and Facebook pages. Enjoy!
