An Old Attempt at "Chic" Baby Shower Invitations

I stumbled upon this old project while cleaning out my craft drawers. I made these baby shower invitations for a friend a few years ago. This one must have been a reject, as I can't believe I'd send them out with that terrible spacing. Oh my. Despite that, I still think they're fun. The shower was canceled, but one of my friends asked me to make these for a shower she was hosting a few months later.

Wedding Illustration

So, last fall, my coworker stole this photo:

...which I haphazardly tossed on my desk one random day and then gave me this a few months later:

What a nice surprise, huh? Based on her questions and hints, I had assumed she was framing our wedding invitation. I never would have expected this. I finally had a chance to frame and hang it a few weeks ago. It looks great in our bedroom. I can't recall the name of the artist that she used. I'll repost if I remember it. Some of the art on his web site is totally NAUGHTY!

Orange You Glad That I Didn't Paint the Whole Room This Color?

Because you'd totally have to read me b*tching about it.

As you can see, I did manage to squeeze in a smidge of orange paint -- in my "craft closet."

And, tomorrow night, it will look like this:

And filled something like this laughable schematic that I drew up for the Andy and the Container Store associate: 

It's going to kick. major. butt. I bought those green containers when I was planning to have them in the room. Now I wish that I had white ones. Oh well. 

Indecision 2010: The Final Vote's Been Cast

After way too much reflection on something so superficial, the winner is:

Paper Source Chartreuse!

It's not an exact match, but it's pretty close.

It took poor Anjelica and Yarizka at the Lincoln and McCormick Home Depot about an hour and a half to color match this color. Here is the formula in case anyone else wants it:

This is the third time that I've used green paint and the third time that painting with green paint has been a nightmare. It was even worse than salmon pink. I don't know if it's just Behr paint or if the yellow/green pigment is just tough. I have three more non-green Behr projects to finish, so we'll see.

Paper L-O-V-E

I am supposed to be painting and not blogging. But I need a break. And Andy's out getting lunch. Shhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Is everyone totally loving the new Jonathan Adler paper and party line? L-O-V-E. I wish that grown ups got Easter baskets. I'd want mine filled with these treats.

There's even letterpress!

{Source - All Images}

BTW, I first noticed these a week or so ago, but haven't had time to post them or read all of my fave blogs. Sorry if this post is so "First-Week-of-March" in the blogosphere.

Indecision 2010, Part 2

I am on vacation this week with the goal of getting things organized, painted, and hung throughout the condo. This being said, I need to make all of my paint decisions before my trip to Home Depot tonight. Here are the two big ones:

Every time that we have a party, I wake up the next morning to a breakfast bar that looks like this:

People's jeans and shoes rub off on the wall. My Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and I are starting to wear down the cheap developer-grade paint in the area. I've decided an easy fix would be to repaint it using better paint; however, I don't want to risk trying to color-match the paint to the paint used throughout the house, so I'm taking the lazy way out and intentionally painting it a new color. I tried to pick "Andy Colors," but he seems so-so on all of them. I think that we're going to go with the third from the left -- the dark gold color.

The paint colors in yesterday's post are for our 2nd bedroom/office/craft room/guest room/etc. room. I've spent $15 on gray paint samples across the gray spectrum and just couldn't find one that was right - everything's either too blue or too purple. I was all set on orange until I received an e-mail from a friend today telling me how much she dislikes her orange basement. Now I'm second-guessing myself again. I'm going to spend my lunch break going through my inspiration files and books to identify common characteristics. For now, here are the finalists, which look much, much more fluorescent in my crappy iPhone photo than in person.

I'd bag it and go with yellow, but I don't want to have to repaint if I pop out an ankle-biter with a wiener when the time comes. Everyone always says paint is cheap, but every time I've painted, it's cost an arm and leg. I think that painting is cheap and easy for people who have the luxury of utility sinks and basements for storing tarps, brushes, trays, and buckets for reuse.

Indecision 2010

I know, so predictable, right? "Tina's torn between orange, green, and the trendy color of the moment - gray? What a shock!" To be fair, yellow's in the mix, too, but I'd have to color match Paper Source Curry, so it's not on the wall. In my defense, Andy is the one who unleased the orange beast after my gray hemming and hawing. I wasn't even considering going there. But I think that I like it!

better together: the flowers

Well, I will let the pictures do the talk. Our flowers were beyond everything I expected. They were so pretty. I still drool over them.

gorgeous pictures by schwarzbild

Next up: the first look

Modern Catch-Alls

I'm thinking that one of these would make a cool key bowl/catch-all in our entryway, no?

{Source}

In the same vain, I adore these candleholders from C&B. I wish that I had a need for them. I'd have that thing busted in one day if I used it as a key bowl.

{Source}

I've always thought this sauce boat would make a pretty, albeit pricey, catch-all; but I guarantee that Andy would be wearing it like a wristlet at least once a week when reaching in to get his keys.

I am so sure that I just wrote a post about catch-alls. It beats writing about sales funnels, which I should be doing, but not by much.

better together: the dress

Oh, how I loved my dress! However, during the planning process, I struggled with it big time. I bought my dress while we were on holiday in Florida last Christmas. We went to the store, I tried about 20 dresses on before deciding thatthe last one was "my dress." It was the total opposite of what I've envisioned. I wanted lace, a mermaid silhouette, and sheer sleeves without a train… And what did I end up with? Take a look!

{click to enlarge}

A modern, drop waist, lace-free gown with a train! While my lovely dress hung in my mother’s closet, I drooled over Jim Hjelm and Alvina Valenta gowns. I even almost bought a second dress. But my sister and a good friend convinced me that I've bought this dress for a reason and that I shouldn’t doubt my intuition.

The dress was a sample and because it fits me almost like a glove, the saleslady let me take it with me. So a few weeks before the wedding I took her to a seamstress and made a big decision. I wanted to shorten the train since I thought it was "too much". After a little exercise of stashing the train away, taking it out, stashing it again, and taking it out again, I decided to remove it for good. I loved my dress even more without the train! It looked younger, fresher, and definitely more modern than before.

pictures by schwarzbild

Next up: the flowers