grasscloth

my garage-to-kitchen hallway and focal wall in the dining room are screaming. screaming at me to cover them in grasscloth. i'll oblige. with this pick from sherwin williams. i went to my favorite source for inspiration.

an all-time favorite from urban grace. (i remember this room being sourced out in the tradhome mag. the artwork is from art.com. for the life of me i can't find it on that site. if i could, i may copy the artwork also over my grasscloth.)
chartreuse. fun.
serene.
sophisticated.love this.
and more along the lines of the color i've chosen. my dining room chairs are white brushed canvas slipcovers.
head over here for photo sources.

in my dreams...

we'd have a pool in the backyard. i think here in texas, it's almost a necessity. and...i'm a pisces, i need to swim. my husband says he's never seen me swim (in the 8 years we've been together). yes, that's true. but if i was near a pool i'd swim! everyday. i promise, honey.
we have a consult tomorrow here at the house with a pool designer. it's a baby step to my dreams.
the next step is convincing steve that a pool would enrich our lives, and not just drain our bank account, with the install, and monthly bills.
sources for images available on my pinterest.

whatever

my sister sent me this photo last week, taken somewhere in the carribean where her cruise ship was docked. no, i'm not jealous. just because she was there and i was at home working. and it just so happened to be the same day as my 5 year anniversary. and i was at home working. and she was there. nope, i'm not jealous.

on the hunt...

for a laundry room sink. when we purchased our house a few months ago, we asked the builders to leave the plumbing stubs in the laundry room so that we could build a sink area when we were ready, versus them installing a sink. they did. and now we're ready.

we're searching for that sink. at first we thought we wanted a true square sink, like this.

***

then we realized that our #1 use for this sink will be to wash pixel. so i started looking for dog grooming sinks. this popped up. and it's perfect. 3 ' x 2'. sprayer. perfect to wash pixel (and her sibling, when we bite the bullet and get another puppy) and perfect for gardening tools, muddy boots, etc, as it's right inside the garage door.

but lordy, it's expensive. i understand that it's stainless steel and that stainless is always pricier. but again, lordy.

and how awesome would it look with a burlap skirt around its frame like this...

***

how about you.... do you have a sink in your laundry room?

*** via here

5 years ago today...

steve and i were married on maui. i just scrolled through our wedding photos and found a few of my favorites.

here's our wedding party. my sister and her husband. in fact, this was everyone at our wedding. we hijacked their vacation and got married. they were kind enough to invite us to hawaii. about 3 months before we left for the trip, steve and i got engaged. we turned the vacation into our wedding and honeymoon. it was perfect.

me and my groom.i remember the day perfectly. steve left to play golf. normally we golf together but i chose to hang out with my sister. he didn't even tell his golfing mates (who he got hooked up with when he arrived at the course) that they were at his bachelor party. my sister and i went to our original wedding location and encountered gusty tradewinds and off and on showers. thankfully we had an accommodating wedding planner who had no problem moving our wedding at the last few hours to a drier spot further south on the island. somehow kim and i ended up at a laundromat washing clothes and eating mcdonald's. didn't quite plan that for my wedding day.

we had a beautiful ceremony on a very private beach and then headed to dinner. it was a wonderful day.

in 5 years we've had 3 houses. we moved from atlanta to seattle shortly after we married. and then from seattle to dallas a few months ago. and we've expanded our family with this girl.
happy anniversary honey! i've loved the last 5 years with you.

this is perfect for us

i saw this on pinterest today. this is perfect for us. i might have to buy this for the kitchen. and add it to my breakfast nook gallery wall. it's available at this etsy shop.

and by the way, happy valentine's day. we're not awfully big on celebrating this holiday. we save it for 2 days from now, which is our wedding anniversary. but i did ask for a chocolate covered strawberry for today. it's all i want.

wow. beautiful kitchen.

i just saw the most beautiful kitchen over on pinterest. stunning. absolutely stunning.
farmhouse sink. hanging lanterns. wolf stovetop. honed absolute black granite and marble countertops. beautiful artwork. lots of windows. lots of light. banquette seating. white subway tile. just gorgeous. head here to see more photos of it.

the beautiful blue runner by the sink caught my eye.
it's from west elm. west elm, folks! it's new. and i love it.
this will be my next runner in my kitchen. love it.

if steve were smart...

he would put a block on pinterest on our computers. because as i pin more, his honey-do list grows. so far i've got him down for wallpapering our hallway in something like this,
installing butcher block from ikea in our laundry room,
building out our niche into a "mudroom",
and installing judges' panelling in the powder room.
gosh, he's gonna be busy.

all images are from my pinterest boards here. come follow my boards!

sources here, here, here and here.

to tweet or not to tweet

do you tweet? do you follow others? do you only follow other tweeters on a regular basis?

i ask because i'm debating if i should tweet or not. i actually have a twitter account set up but haven't used it yet. i pop onto others' twitter sites occasionally and read what they're up to.

i think the biggest pro to tweeting is growing my business. the more connections i make, the better. the biggest drawback to tweeting (for me) is the distraction it could provide. i get distracted. a lot. one night i said to my husband... i think i have add. his reply with no hesitation... oh, i KNOW you do. seriously, honey?? yes, i do have to make major efforts to stay on task during my work day. working alone at home does not help. one more social media site is not going to help this.

what do you think?? are you fond of twitter? addicted? or could you care less...

(the little birdie above came home with me on my last trip to maui. for some reason, every time i look at him i think, should i tweet?)

the highlight of my weekend...

was getting this. my new bike! i'm so excited to be a bike owner again. it's been about 20 years since i owned my own bike. sad, huh?

steve's coworker and friend has been generous enough to let steve borrow his extra bike for the last few months. steve's been taking off on bike rides on mild texan winter days and leaving me (and pixel) behind.

so....steve and i visited a bike shop saturday and found this. a fuji crosstown bike. and helmet. safety first. some of my fondest memories of a child are summer bike riding. to the swimming pool. to the tennis courts. (and we never wore helmets when i was growing up... how about you?)
my favorite feature of the new bike is the padded seat with shock absorber.
it has a bike rack!
and a bell!

now we just need to get one of thosefor pixel.

how was your weekend?

this has to be....

the funniest thing i've seen in a long time. erin at elements of style posted it yesterday, so thank you, erin, for sharing. it's hysterical.



i have to say, it's given me a new respect for sloths. here's the sloth at the dallas world aquarium where steve and i went with his parents a few weeks ago. i was terrified of him.
to see somebody SOOOOOO excited about a sloth, has kinda (only kinda) changed my opinion of sloths.

isn't she funny... kristen bell that is....