The Power of Pink

Hot pink has never been one of my favorite colors. 

I will concede it has its place, and a splash of pink here and there can make quite a statement.  After my daughter was born, our loads of laundry welcomed doses of hot pink to counteract all the blue, khaki, and green my boys so often wore.  It was a refreshing and happy change of pace.

But really, when asked to name my favorite color, hot pink has never quite made the cut.  I'm always more apt to choose shades of blue and green.

Last summer, however, House Beautiful did a spread on a lovely apartment which included these pictures:

Something feminine and resolutely chic from deep down inside started to sing.

I loved the hot pink wall color against all the white in the foyer, and then seeing it against the stained brown on the chairs made the inspiration wheels start turning in my mind:

"Where, oh where, can I put a dose of hot pink in my house?"

*spoiler warning* I'm afraid this story doesn't have a happy ending.

Well aware that hot pink is not a color to take lightly, especially considering our household which boasts 3 boys and only 2 girls, I knew my choices of application were somewhat limited. 

The powder room off our hallway seemed like the perfect choice.  Lots of white, quite small...it would be the perfect place for a dose of hot pink.  Here is a picture of the powder room before in its tasteful, yet somewhat ho-hum design (the black and white charcoal drawing was one I drew myself in art class last spring...a first for me):

This is the only room in our house that has one of my favorite features, beadboard wainscoting---very likely one of the first "love it" buttons which prompted us to buy this house in the first place.

Did I mention this is also the bathroom in which Mr. Wonderful chooses to spend his time when necessary?  This detail will be important later.

:-)

So in late July, while the kids were at summer camp and Greg was fishing, I did the unthinkable. I painted the walls of the powder room Benjamin Moore's Razzle Dazzle.

 Whoa.

It had just the effect I was looking for:  Bold.  Bright.  Undeniably stylish.  Unabashedly feminine.

But then I panicked.  I did love the color, but was it right for our house?  Was it okay to have a room make a statement all on its own, with no real connection to the other color schemes in the house?  Was I being completely crazy?

And what was Mr. Wonderful going to say??

I fretted until he came home, then waited on pins and needles when he walked out of the newly painted hot pink bathroom the next morning. 

Oh, if you could've only seen his face! 

Over the years he has been such an amazingly good sport with me and my decorating decisions.  He understands its become a passion of mine, a hobby I love, and he respects that.  Thankfully he has grown to trust my inspirations over time.

This time, though, he ever so politely asked me to please change the color in the bathroom. 

I could tell by the way he asked me that he would not change his mind if and when he was given time to "let it grow" on him.  And you know what?  I was really okay with that.  Because he has never asked me to repaint anything before, in that same way.  And I have painted hundreds of things over the course of our marriage.


And I love him.  Even if he's not a big fan of pink.  Because neither, really, am I.


Although I still concede pink has its place.

Stay tuned next post for the bathroom re-do reveal.  Here is a peek:

Hmmm, do you see a slight shade of pink?

:-)

Jaimee

Art in the Midst of Chaos

What a crazy weekend it's been around here.

Greg had surgery on Friday, which turned out well but stretched out 5 hours longer than anticipated.  After a long day, we were eager to get him home, tuck him into bed, and let him rest for the remainder of the day watching Netflix.

Only, our internet service was out.  And not just ours, but the majority of our town's. 

So, off to Blockbuster I went.  I haven't been to Blockbuster in a very long time.

On Saturday I was cooking supper and ran out of gas browning ground beef on our range.  My resourceful, yet still very sick husband, rigged up the Coleman camping stove so I could finish cooking the meat. 

Although we are on auto-fill for our gas, the vendor must have miscalculated our usage and not filled our tank in time.  So.... we will have no gas until Monday.  But that's okay...we still have heating fuel :-) 

Then, after supper, our dishwasher would not drain.  We finally determined late into the night that it was broken and irrepairable.  I will be shopping for a new dishwasher today---an unexpected expense.  Thanks to Dave Ramsey, our emergency fund is well-stocked.  :-)

We were just about to drift off to sleep at 12:30am when our little 5-year-old came in saying she needed to throw up, and sure enough, that's exactly what she did.  Poor thing, she continued to intermittently throw up for the next 3 1/2 hours.

My husband, being somewhat of a writer himself, actually journaled about our weekend's misfortunes at 1am and proceeded to read his entry to me with a mix of humor and exasperation.

This was supposed to be his weekend to rest :-(

So, both of us now badly needing rest, we opted to stay home from church this morning and do just that, although the boys and I did wash all the dishes by hand which had rapidly accumulated from the previous night and this morning.  I haven't done dishes by hand in a very long time :-)  It was, in fact, a rather bonding experience.

However, in light of all that has transpired the last couple days, I wanted to make sure and show you a fun piece of artwork I purchased on Friday while waiting for Greg's prescription.  I had been watching it for awhile.  Originally priced at $80, I was able to score it for only $30 after taking advantage of the sale and a gift card I had:

Not bad :-)

I was excited about this piece for several reasons. 

1) I have seen similar painted canvases from Ballard Designs and have always been drawn to the muted colors and European feel in them.  But with pricetags of $200-300 apiece, I was never quite ready to take the plunge.

2) The blue on the bicycle is the perfect match for the blue I just painted in my hallway.

But the third reason is the one I am most excited about this week. 

I was browsing through a fabric store Thursday evening and came across this wonderful pinkish/salmon silk/taffeta fabric in the Liz Claiborne line.  I knew right away I wanted to make panels out of it for our sitting room, maybe line them with flannel to pouf them out and give them some heft.  Wouldn't you know the flowers in this canvas have the very same pinkish/salmon color in them??

Is that not just perfect??

My plan is to hang the piece of artwork over this sideboard I refinished a few years back:

....maybe add some topiaries in glazed ceramic pots on each side. 

The pink/salmon colored curtain panels will hang on the window you see in the distance, which is part of our sitting room (the other side of that fireplace is our living room) so you will catch a glimpse of the pink in the painting as you walk down the hallway, and then see that same color in full on the window panels.

Don't you think that will look nice??

One thing I need to change about the picture, though, is the color of the frame.

One of my goals in this house is to lighten things up, and because the background of the painting is rather dark, I think repainting the frame in a white or metallic paint would accomplish that goal.  I'm leaning toward Valspar's Caramel Latte spraypaint, which is a beautiful color.  Kind of a silver/gold with a bit of caramel swirled in. 

I had hoped to get to the frame today, but after a wonderful birthday lunch with my dad and siblings this afternoon, then a couple hours of dishwasher shopping, it will have to wait. 

I will definitely show you how I do it :-)

I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Jaimee 

Ballard Designs with a Twist

I finished a small project today.

It's one of those little projects that tickles me because I was able to repurpose something I already owned and make it "new."

Several years ago I purchased one of these 2-pocket embossed organizers from Ballard Designs...

...only mine has the optional embossed fleur-de-lis instead of the quilting pattern you see above.

(Sorry, I tried to copy and paste the fleur-de-lis pattern from Ballard's website,

but it would not cooperate...)

6 years ago when I purchased the organizer, my home was more Tuscan-style colors,

lots of deep reds and yellows...

so the copper was a beautiful complement.

Now, though, in our new house, my decorating has taken a decidedly

lighter, fresher turn.  Coating my main dining/kitchen/living room in Benjamin Moore's

Bone White was a drastic change from the wall colors we used to know and love.

So creamy, so warm, so inviting...so CLEAN.

But as creamy and warm as the kitchen/dining/living area is, 

there was a small, very unclean problem of paperwork.

With three elementary-aged children, we honestly have more papers than we know what to do with.  When a family adds mail and receipts and coupons to that list, one can quickly become quite overwhelmed.

Because of where we enter our house, until now our family papers have negligently been piled in this convenient "resting spot" on the kitchen counter:

See, even now in this spot you can see the box I still need to mail to my brother,

the needle-nosed pliers I used earlier today to pull my sample labels from my project,

and the paper I used to make the labels that are in there now. 

I really don't like to see stuff piled here as soon as we come up the stairs, and also, we have had

more than one unfortunate "soaking" of paperwork that came too close to sink overspray.

So here's what I decided to do: 

My solution was to take advantage of the wall just to the right of this counterspace,

the wall that houses our fridge.

I think many families today call a spot like this "command central."

Here is the Coon Family's Command Central:

Do you recognize a familiar-looking, Ballard Designs 2-pocket organizer?? 

Let me do a close-up so you can see the

details:

Isn't this a nice alternative to the copper?

What I did was wash and lightly sand the original piece (I very lightly sanded because....well...I knew I was using Kilz primer and it's the bomb :-) and then I sprayed it with two coats of Kilz primer.  Because of the original metallic finish, I knew a good primer would be important.

I then sprayed on 2 coats of Valspar's creamy white spray paint (there is not a name for this, but I have noticed that there are two different whites based on the lid color so be careful you pay attention to whether you want a cooler white or a creamy white.)

After painting, I took a small scrap of sandpaper and lightly sanded over all the edges, and over each fleur-de-lis, to give the organizer a slightly distressed look and to bring out the pattern a little.

I then sprayed on a Milwax Polyurethane to seal it. 

Next, I knew I wanted to put labels on the front, but I had the hardest time finding

the little labels I had in mind.

 I asked at both Michael's and Jo-Ann Fabrics and neither of the ladies could find what I needed.  Finally, racking my brain for an alternative solution and coming up with nothing, I solo-ed over to the scrapbooking section of Jo-Ann's and, lo and behold, there I found exactly what I was looking for:

Did you know these little label-holders are called "bookplates?"  I didn't, until I saw the label on the package :-)

At first I thought I might want to spraypaint these a darker color, maybe a bronze or something, but then I decided to just leave them silver since we already have several silver/nickel finishes throughout our home.

I superglued the sides and bottom, and held in place to the count of 30.  This seems to be the

perfect number for curling hair, applying tattoos to kids' arms, waiting for a spoon of soup to cool :-)

I highly recommend counting to 30.

I suppose I could still glue the heads of some nails in the holes to really finish it off,

but the holes are not bothering me yet.  Which means they will probably stay that way.

:-)

I used some ivory cardstock and Microsoft Word to print off the labels,

and my little project was done:

So far the new system is working great, although I realized I will need to find

some folders to insert in both the MAIL and the KIDS pockets

because the paperwork has already been falling to the bottom and getting somewhat

squished and out of sight.

Folders would help organize things even further, maybe Mom and Dad folders

in the MAIL pocket

and Gabriel, Isaac and Amaya folders in the KIDS pocket.

But not just any folders, since they will easily be seen.  Manila folders will not do.

 :-)

I'll be on the lookout for some cute natural-looking folders, maybe with a little texture to them.

But definitely natural-looking.

Don't you love to finish even one project?  What project are you excited about finishing next?

Jaimee 

 

My First Whoopie Pie

My delightfully crafty sister, Jody, passed on a Whoopie Pie recipe to me around Christmas time.

Can you believe I actually purchased Marshmallow Creme for the first time after reading through the ingredient list?  I wonder if southerners would be horrified:  One of my favorite bloggers, Shelley from House of Smiths, posted a recipe one day of her favorite comfort food: a Marshmallow Creme & Peanut Butter sandwich.

 (What?!?!?)

 

Apparently southern moms fix these sandwiches as a treat for their kids?!? 

I had never heard of such a thing.  We northerners are certainly missing things we never even knew....

Anyway, although I did not get to the very festive-looking Whoopie Pie recipe at Christmas time, I figured Valentine's Day was the next best thing. So, after my WONDERFUL one and a half hour nap this Sunday afternoon, and a very yummy white chocolate latte afterward,

I dug out the recipe and dove in.

The batter was extremely easy to whip up, and the cookies came out just like

the picture.  I was already feelin' pretty successful in the ol' kitchen:

Now all I had to do was prepare the filling to make the "Pies."

1/4 cup butter, 4 oz. cream cheese,

and 7 oz. Marshmallow Creme later,

the cream was done.

And I could tell right away it was too runny.

I tried adding corn starch, powdered sugar...

Nothing seemed to make it thicker.

(I think maybe someone snitched some of my Marshmallow Creme when I wasn't looking

so my amount was less than accurate.)

(My husband probably made himself a Marshmallow

Creme & Peanut Butter Sandwich when he

got up from HIS nap!)

Oh well. I went ahead and dolloped the creme on one cookie anyway,

layered another cookie on top,

and voila!

Aren't they SO cute?

Fighting the inevitable ooze certain to occur within seconds of snapping this picture,

I promptly threw them in the freezer in the hopes they'd set up with the filling intact.

So far it seems to be working.

And they DO look quite pretty.

And oh, so festive!

Perfect for Valentine's Day :-)

I plan to put one in each of the kids' lunches tomorrow.

They should thaw by lunchtime...

and hopefully there will still be enough goo inside to enjoy.

A VERY Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

Our Sunday School lesson this morning was from Luke 10, where

Christ tells the man one of the greatest commandments of all, after loving God,

is to Love One Another.

May you enjoy a day of pure, heartfelt loving tomorrow....

....maybe even find someone unlovable...

...and love on them the most.

Jaimee

P.S.  My dear husband Greg, upon watching me snap pictures of the Whoopie Pies earlier,

asked me to please snap a picture of the fruit he was slicing for the kids at the same time.

He wanted to make sure ya'll knew we are feeding our kids healthy

snacks, too :-)

So, this one's for my man:

A Hallway to Remember

Do you ever have one of those weeks when you're DYING to spend hours of uninterrupted time working on a home project?

But then you look ahead at the next few days and realize that unless you stay up until 1am, those hours are simply not going to happen?

....But then you find yourself seriously considering the 1am option??

That's me this week :-)  I started painting my foyer hallway Sunday night after the kids went to bed.  My entry hallway is challenging in many ways.  It is actually two hallways 'diverging' from the front door (Robert Frost fans anyone? :-) and there is not a lot of natural light.  This is view #1 from the front door, with the walls painted what I like to call the "original cocoa color":

...and view #2:

Definitely not a bad original color at all, right?

But one of my goals in this house is to Lighten.  Things.  Up. 

This "original cocoa color" was on EVERYTHING.

Now, I will admit I did have a moment of craziness inspiration back in October prior to hosting my sister's baby shower.

I had seen an amazing living room in House Beautiful with the walls painted Sherwin Williams Besom Broom, a beautiful smoky gray color.

I thought it was amazing.  And bold.  And it just....might....work!

Well, it didn't.  It was WAY too dark.  And the tone just didn't seem to work:

Don't you hate that sick feeling when you know something that time-consuming is just....not...right?

I knew pretty much right away I didn't love it, but I kept thinking I would like it better once the light changed. (In Alaska, the light changing is a HUGE consideration!)

Well, the light changed and I still didn't like it.  But after putting in so much time and effort, I couldn't bear to fix the problem right away.

Three and a half months later I decided I was ready! 

I have really been happy with the color I selected for the back panels of the built-ins in my living room, Farrow and Ball's Green Blue:

so after thinking about it for several weeks,

I decided I would paint the same color in my hallway. 

A "preview," if you will, of what guests will later see in my living room as they walk through the front door. 

I must admit I was a bit nervous considering my gray mistake.

I am also fully aware that just because a little bit of color is good,

that does NOT mean a lot is better! :-)

But I was also considering that you don't spend a lot of time in a hallway,

which is why you can be a bit more bold with your color, right?

So, are you ready to see what it looks like?? :-)

Here is what I have painted so far:

Is it working?  Is it too blue? What do you think?

I've moved a few furnishings back in place for two reasons:  1) Have I mentioned I started this on Sunday night and haven't been back to finish the rest of the walls and the trim?  and 2) The decorator in me is dying to see what it will look like once it's all finished :-)

I think this color has just enough gray in it so it's not too bright. 

I think I may really, really like it. 

Am I loving it?

I won't know until it's completely done, including trim. 

But I will let you know as soon as I decide :-)

But I DO know I have succeeded in making the space feel much happier.  And I have definitely lightened things up.

Mission Accomplished?  Not Yet, but oh, so close!  Now, which night shall I plan to stay up until 1am?

Jaimee

A First Step

The day has finally arrived and I find myself fighting off butterflies as I type my very first post. 

Once I actually sat down to design my very elementary blog and to figure out the details of posting, I was pleasantly surprised how fun it was.  I posted several pictures up and down the sides to bring in more color and excitement until I become more "developed." (Is that the right word??)  Good pictures are one component I absolutely love about the blogs I follow, and I would be remiss to not add good photos to my own.  Which brings me to an agenda item I need to address soon:

I must learn how to better use my very nice Canon camera! 

We bought it in 2009 before we left for Disneyland and I haven't once opened the manual to figure it out.  I know how to put it on automatic, rotate the lens to focus, and push the button.  That's it.  I know this little Canon Rebel T1i can do so much more!  So not only am I excited about sharing my inspirations with you, I am also excited about being forced to learn more about my camera so I can take better pictures for my blog (I may be a secret photographer wanna be...) :-)

So that said, I will (almost) sign off my very first post by expressing how much I have anticipated this moment! 

We purchased a new house last year and I have fluctuated between extreme euphoria at the possibilities within, and moments of complete despair at all there is to do.  As I have worked on various painting projects, and furniture re-do's, and home decor displays the last several months, I instinctively knew I wanted to share the process somehow.  Before I was even convinced I would start my own blog, I was snapping before and after pictures (and tutorial pictures, too!) with this innate sense that perhaps the process would be valuable to someone...somewhere...someday.

I sincerely hope you enjoy catching glimpses into my little world.  I am tickled to death to finally have you here with me!  I have so many things to share with you and can't wait to hear your feedback. 

Jaimee