Fall yarn wreath

I'm sure that you have seen many pictures of yarn wreaths lately, on Pinterest, in magazines etc. Well I decided to get into a crafty mood and create one myself to put on my front door. So here is what I did to make my cute fall yarn wreath.
 I started with a straw wreath. I like them a little better then the Styrofoam ones because they are a little thicker. I also got a couple different colors of yarn and felt and some plaid flannel.

Then you just start wrapping it around and around and around. It does take a while- I found it easier to place it between my legs to hold it and then loop the yarn through making sure they it was close and somewhat tight.

I picked brown yarn for the background because I wanted it to stand out against my blue door

I used additional yarn to wrap around as accents, to add some color- the white yarn I got is more of a fuzzy  yarn which gives it some additional texture.

Now for the felt flowers- which I can't take credit for! My mother made those for me,  I did pick out the colors- the plaid and the blues that I wanted to go with my door. But I did watch her make them and got the general idea of how they are made- but I won't even try to explain because I don't think that I could do a good enough job. There are many postings on how to do them.(I think that I really should learn myself!) Meanwhile, I will ask her and try to get a step-by-step with pictures and add a follow up to this post.

I then arranged  the flowers where I wanted them to go and started to hot glue them on- there is really no right or wrong way. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with the rest of the plaid flannel so I just used it to hang the wreath from the door and tied it in a bow. I love how it turned out, and how the colors coordinate with my door! There are so many different color schemes you could try, can't wait to make another one for the holidays!  

Make sure you check out my design challenge
Check out some other great fall ideas at Jennifer Rizzo's fall linky party and The Shabby Nest Frugal Friday

paint advice from 1,100 miles away

The other month I got a text from a friend of mine who was having a really hard time picking out a paint color for her bedroom. She had hired a painter and was getting a lot of advice from him about what color he thought would be best, but they were not getting anywhere. She was looking to go with a blue or green shade, but they couldn't agree on one that really worked. She lives in Florida so choosing a soothing shade of blue or green is a great choice. So I gave her a quick phone call back, while sitting in the parking lot of the mall and just happened to have all my fan decks with me. I asked her first off what colors he had suggested and thumbed through my fan deck to find them, then I saw how she would have been at a loss. The colors were all wrong from how she described the look she was going for, which was my next question that I asked her. After she explained some about what color she was looking for and basic overall feel in her room, I started going through the fan deck with her and pointed out a few options and also gave my suggestion for my first choice that I thought would look the best, Benjamin Moore, yarmouth blue.

She ran out and got a couple samples and after they were all up, she and her husband decided that they too liked the yarmouth blue the best. The painter got started that week and she text me to say that they love it and couldn't have been happier with the color. This is the picture she text me from her phone right after the room was finished.

I admit that I am a little obsessed with color, so not surprising that I always have my fan decks with me. I love to pull color together, whether on the fly or preparing for a client for a whole house. If you have any color questions or concerns I would love to help. You can find out more information on my consultation page here.

kitchen cabinet progress..half way there!

I have been painting like crazy! Once you start something as overwhelming as painting your kitchen cabinets, you just want to get everything back to normal. I have felt like quitting, but I'm now seeing the progress and how much I LOVE the color that I "mixed" together and I am getting really excited. I was a little hesitant about mixing paint for such a big job, but I wanted to have just a very light, somewhat warm gray. My walls are Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter and the color I mixed is almost a perfect match, which was the look I was going for. You may be thinking why didn't I just use the revere pewter on my cabinets? (I will explain below)  I came across this picture that gave me a little inspiration for my kitchen. In this kitchen, all the walls and cabinets are painted in Revere Pewter with a contrasting island, similar to what I am doing.

Southern Living

Southern Living

Now for the reason why I choose to use the chalk paint, mostly because thought of sanding, priming, then most likely, 3 coats of oil paint did not appeal to me at all! I have done it before and it holds up well but it's very laborious, and this way I am able to lightly distress the cabinets and get the look and finish I want. So I did a little experimenting with ASCP and came up with this below.

Paris Gray is on the left and Old Ochre is on the right (I had first tried Old White, which is the base color you see but it just wasn't what I really wanted) the color at the top is the two mixed together which gives you a color almost the exact shade of revere pewter, I couldn't have been more excited and as I said, I love it!!

I will hopefully get finished by next week. I still have to finish the backs of the cabinets and give everything a second coat, then distress them just a bit and then wax- a little overwhelmed!! I will post the final pictures when it is all put back together, then show you the tiles and lights that will finish everything off, I can't wait.

Here's a small sneak peek at one section that is almost done- I love how it matches my chevron rug and blends so well with the granite! If you want to see the post I did on the redesign of our kitchen at our last house, you can see it here.

I have this post linked to a few linky parties, you can check them out here, French Country Cottage, Miss Mustard Seed and The Shabby Nest

going off track a bit.....with reality

Epicurious

Birthdays are supposed to be filled with breakfast in bed, your favorite news show, flowers, gifts and your kids and husband running in with love and kisses, then bonn bonns and lunch etc. etc., well it's a nice thought. I did have coffee and cards, kisses and I have an amazing husband who took one for the team (because it was technically my b-day at 12:30 am) and went on an unexpected trip to the E.R. last night with our little one. I will back track for the full scope of our sleep deprived family. Two nights ago, Finn, our 5 year old, woke up in the middle of the night with a migraine and after hours ending up getting sick all over the bathroom floor. He made it through school yesterday, but I thought I heard that ever familiar sound in his voice. I was right, last night he got up at 11:30 and couldn't breathe very well, then a full on croup attack. After going through all the procedures, steam shower, cold air, we knew that he had to go to the E.R. My loving husband took him(we didn't want to ruin a night of sleep for our daughter too) they didn't return until almost 5 this morning. For those of you who are familiar with croup, you know how scary it can be. We found this out for the first time when Finn was 9 months old, not knowing what it was at the time, we thought he was going to die, we've learned a lot since then. 
 Today isn't the day that I had expected, but at least I get to spend the day with my soon to be 6 year old. Thank goodness it happened last night and not tonight, because tomorrow is his birthday and I know that he would be very sad and extremely tired his big day. So, instead I am home and he is having a very restful day on the couch. Which has left me to my kitchen and my cabinets!! So I have been painting away, not what I thought I would be doing today, but at least I am making progress and most importantly Finn is feeling much better! Happy birthday to my little man!

it's that time again..velvet pumpkins!

Velvet pumpkins! I love them and can't have enough!

 The velvet pumpkin above is one that I made last year, I hope to get around to making some more to add to my collection, I made about a dozen last year and a few little velvet acorns. They are just so cute and irresistible! I would love to buy all of these below, but seeing that the smallest one, which is the size of a golf ball, is $20, I don't think that will happen. I took these pictures the other day while taking a trip to my favorite place, Terrain. I especially love going there this time of the year.

Active Kids 

I thought that these were cute. I found this project to do with your kids at, Active Kids. I love the textures and and different fabrics used.

Love feast shop

I posted these last year, these are the most beautiful ones I have seen from, Love Feast Shop. The colors that they use are so rich, they have a lot to choose from. But I will continue with mine, they aren't as perfect but I still love them!

And the winner is....

I picked the soapstone, but now I have opened up a can of worms!! It's a good thing that it is our anniversary  today where there will be lots of love going around, otherwise I might be in the dog house, I will explain. But back to the winner... the soapstone.

 I was really torn, almost up until I was picking out the exact spot where it was going to be cut, but now that it is in I am so glad. It is really beautiful. The marble was to white and it was too similar to the movement of the river white granite. The quartz was too plain, although the overall background color was good. But the soapstone seemed to be a nice contrast that pulls out the gray tones, plus having an older home the soapstone will "age" over time and will take on a "worn" look, creating a nice patina, which is appropriate for an older house. Also, one neat thing was we found out was that this piece of soapstone was a remnant from the home of a globally-known company's founder/CEO. Funny though, he used the soapstone in a room for his dogs, so if it was good enough for them, then good enough for our kitchen!

 Then comes the worms, now I am going to have to paint my built- in and all my cabinets! And maybe repainting the island, which was just painted with ASCP in graphite. That is a big can I opened up, but my husband does agree that it need to all "come together" somehow. (don't look at my mess, I had to move things around when the guys came out to install and we just started school) I just painted my walls revere pewter, which is a Ben. Moore color,  I did a spot on the cabinet to see how it would look there as well.

And of course I didn't stop there, I painted a cabinet drawer with ASCP, in old white, then realized I really need to go with more of a light khaki gray. 

So needless to say, I will be going to the paint store tomorrow to get some paint to start this now very large project! (I secretly wanted to paint my cabinets anyhow, just didn't think it was going to be so soon). So stayed tuned for my follow up on my now very large project!



Linked up to today on: French Country Cottage
Miss Mustard Seed and The Shabby Nest