Archive for September, 2010

** edited to add: I blogged about the final selection here. **

*I’ve updated at the bottom, so make sure to see the new stuff!*

We have family portraits scheduled for this Friday.

If you’ve seen my Real McCoy video, you know I have ZERO fashion sense. NONE.

I can’t decide what to dress my kids in for the portrait. (This is Step 1. I’ll address what I’m going to wear once I figure this out.)

Do I want earthy colors? Or blues? Or gray and black?

BTW, the portraits will be taken outside in NATURE.

Okay, so here’s where I need your help. I’ve created several clothing options. Which is your favorite?

First, I’ll show you all their outfits separately and then I’ll show you the outfit combinations.

For the boy (he’s almost 9):

And for the girl (she’s 6):

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Option 4:

Option 5:

And which shirt under the dress?

Option 6:

Option 7:

I forgot to take a picture for this combination.

Option 8:

I can declare this a Clothing Crisis and hit the mall!

I need to decide by TODAY so I can make my daughter a matching hair accessory and also gather up my hubby’s and my clothes.

Wish us luck!

Oh, and don’t even get me started on accessories! Ack!!!!!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

******************

Edited to add this color combination. My sister suggested this.

Option 9:

Thoughts?

My fireplace mantle has gone through several transformations since we moved in.

First we had this…

…which isn’t even decorated at.all.

I set the Rodney White artwork on the mantle while we were moving in so it didn’t get ruined and it just kinda ended up staying there.

I hung the artwork and added a few accessories, but the overall look just wasn’t working.

This setup is a FAIL!

I LOVE my art and I LOVE bright bold color, but after a month or so it just started to hurt my eyes.

I need my family room to be more subtle and relaxing so I took down the art and added a mirror that I’ve had for at least 15 years.

I also swapped out some of the accessories for a more Fall look.

In addition I took the candlesticks and gave them a new coat of spray paint and added gourds on top.

The colors are Rustoleum Nutmeg and Heirloom White.

But the black frame was still too harsh for me. I want this room bright, white, and soothing.

So I painted the frame white.

I’m already loving it so.much.more.

This is my “almost finished” decorated Fall mantle.

I’m going to add some fall leaves and maybe a few nuts to give it more texture, but I think so far it’s coming together nicely.

The ceramic pumpkins are from Dollar Tree. I can’t believe I found something ceramic at Dollar Tree that I don’t want to spray paint.

The pumpkins and gourds are real. I purchased them from the grocery store.

Also, the glass hurricane I bought in Los Angeles at Goodwill. You might recognize it from this post:

(New Life for an Old Shelf)

I like it much better with bright orange pumpkins and gourds in it!

So, in the past two months my mantle has morphed from this:

to this:

Now I just need to PAINT already!

Oh, and did you notice the crappy newel on the left of the fireplace hearth?

I got it free from a guy who was throwing it away while we were snowboarding last winter in California.

(Yes, the same trip that I broke my rib on…)

Anyway, this newel is eventually going to turn into a candlestick. Eventually.

Happy Fall, y’all!

I’ve been fretting over paint since we moved in.

What color do I want my Family Room? It shares walls with the breakfast area as well as the kitchen so I need a good neutral color that will go well for the majority of the downstairs of the house.

Do I want tan or gray?

Well, I finally narrowed my selection down to one of these:

I am so indecisive!! Why can’t I just pick a color already and move forward?

I don’t know why I have such a hard time with this. Colors are not my strong-suite. I can confidently replace a sprinkler head, but when it comes to picking out paint colors and accessories for a room, I get hot flashes!

I’ve been loving on House*Tweaking for awhile now, so when she finally posted her house paint colors, I wrote them down and hit Lowe’s.

I bought 6 sample paints – 1/2 pint samples – (which were more expensive than I thought they would be. They were almost $4 a sample!)

They are all Valspar brand.

L to R back row: Kilim Beige – SW color that I had them color match, Bonsai, & Magic Spell

L to R front row: Elephant, Wet Dock, & Dynasty

Here is one wall in my family room. Most of the colors in this house are this taupe color and an adobe orangish color.

This color really isn’t bad. I kinda like it actually. But it’s in semi-gloss so my walls are super shiny. Also, I really want something a lot lighter and even more subtle and neutral in here.

I raced home, and immediately painted stripes on my wall.

I’ve been staring at these stripes for about a week now.

I’m really glad I decided to try out some samples first, because I was convinced I was going to paint everything the Bonsai color (2nd from right), but I swear, in my house, there is a hint of blue in this gray. It doesn’t look blue in House*Tweaking’s photos. Maybe the tan underneath is glowing through making it look a different color?

I’m going to do some accents in a really dark color, hence the dark stripes on the wall. But overall I want it very light and neutral.

I’ve decided I want gray after all, but I went ahead and got a sample of the SW Kilim Beige (far left) because that is usually my go-to color. I love it. It’s a very light neutral tan that looks great with anything. I painted my ENTIRE old house this color and I LOVED it.

But I really want to branch out and try gray.

Now I’m frustrated because I bought 6 colors and I’m not liking any of them!

Do they look BLUE to you?

Back to the drawing board!

Decor Chick just painted her dining room with gray, so I may get a sample of her gray to try out which is mindful Gray by Sherwin Williams.

I’ll pick a color eventually.

I’m sure going to have fun finding things to paint with my little 1/2 pint samples. There’s just enough in there to tackle a small project.

For now I’ve got a great little art statement going on in my living room. I’m afraid I may live with this for months!

And WHY OH WHY does the Bonsai look blue in my house, but gray in House*Tweaking’s house?