Gray and Brown: Bathroom Inspiration

A few weeks ago, my parents purchased tile to go behind our bathtub in our small, downstairs bathroom. The bathroom has bright white, small tiles on the floor, an oak vanity, and oak trim. The tile is gray, but it kind of has streaks of brown. It also has blue-ish and gray glass tiles as well. 

I had originally chosen an off-white paint color from Better Homes and Gardens called Country Cloud, but now, I have decided to paint the walls a soft gray from BHG called Partridge Gray, a color I had first picked out for an upstairs home office/craft room. 

Photo sources: monogrammed "G" towels, Fairfax rug, Fombu accessories from Bed, Bath, & Beyond.  Color palettes from design-seeds.com. Vanity photo from Shower Design blog.

I was a little unsure about the gray, white, and oak color combo at first and thought I would have to change quite a bit of our wedding registry, but I think a lot of the original registry will still work, with just a little change in towel colors. I swapped out a burnt orange and light green for grays, whites, and browns and added on some gray and white monogrammed decorative towels, similar to the chocolate brown and tan ones we had registered for for the upstairs bedroom. I think some navy blue, periwinkle, and pearl accents will be just what our bathroom needs to add some polish to our sweet, tiny bathroom!

The Sunny Side & JA's Crown Jewels Art Gala

           Anyone who loves the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? has likely found themselves joyfully singing along with the movie's wonderful soundtrack. Or, maybe that's just something Nathan and I do. I can't tell you how many times Nathan and I have found ourselves in the car singing as much as we can remember of Keep On The Sunny Side. 

          I really didn't know anything about this song, except how much I like it, until I started looking around the internet to find out who the song was originally written by in order to give proper credit on my latest painting. Her name was Ada Blenkhorn, and she wrote the lyrics to Keep On The Sunny Side in the late 1800's. Eventually the song was recorded by the Carter Family, and more recently, the song was included in the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?

          Last year, I donated a blank canvas to Junior Auxiliary of McMinnville's Crown Jewels Art Gala silent auction. The canvas could be personalized later (which is why it was blank), and honestly, I don't know if it ever sold. If it did, no one ever contacted me about painting it. This year, I decided I would donate a couple of finished paintings. By the way, I am a proud member of JA, and it is a great feeling to belong to an organization that impacts the lives of others in our community in such great ways.
          I turned to Pinterest (of course) for inspiration and finally decided on a quote by Nelson Mandela. In short, this canvas went from possibly featuring a Nelson Mandela quote to a C.S. Lewis quote to finally settling on Ada Blenkhorn. I'm a little fickle, maybe, but actually, Sunny Side was perfect when I found a cheery, sun-shiney color palette, also via Pinterest.

Beautiful creation using fabrics from Hawthorne Threads

 

 Lastly, I used the cornice shape guide below (also from Pinterest) as inspiration for the text background.

Cornice shapes from Window Treatments By Linda. You can also look at valence designs, etc. I might need to come back to this! I'm horrible at picking out window treatments!

          The font is called Pea Frankie from Fonts for Peas. The fonts are FREE, and you can get them for yourself at the bottom of my blog. Thank you, Kevin and Amanda! :)

Sunny Side Painting

This cheers me up so much! 

I decided I wanted to do clusters of funky yellow and orange suns.

Thank you, Ada Blenkhorn, for your words of wisdom!

          If you haven't purchased your tickets for JA's Crown Jewels Art Gala, contact your favorite JA member (ahem, me! lol)! This canvas, as well as many other great pieces and goodies, will be for sale at the silent auction the night of the Gala! 

DIY Bird Nest Jewelry

I think this probably goes without saying to all who know me well, but I am a pinterest addict. I love it, and at some point I pinned something that someone else pinned from this fantastic blog: Sarah Ortega Photography. This woman not only takes incredible photos, but her DIY posts are fantastic! If you are in love with bird nest jewelry, like I am, you will love her pretty little necklaces, which you can purchase here from her Etsy store, Poppy & Pine, but she also gives you the instructions for making your own. 

So, since buying some supplies and following her instructions for making these sweet little gems, I have made a few necklaces, some earrings, and a couple of rings (you make them all basically the same way). If you haven't made your own, you need to give it a try! I generally am not that great at jewelry making, but these are easy and very pretty! 

Now, let me say this, none of mine really look the same. I have found that I wrap the wire differently every. single. time. But, I think this adds to the uniqueness of each piece. Also, I followed her advice as far as the gauge of the wire. I ran out before I made all the ones I wanted because I wasn't really sure how much I would need, so for kicks, I used some general, very thin, craft wire to make the rings (just to see what I thought). Definitely get the wire she suggests. I had to double my very thin craft wire for the rings, which was fine since I was experimenting, but I wouldn't want to do this every time.

Also on Sarah Ortega's Blog--Pretty-Up Boxes! Yes, I love it! 

Second Ring

First Ring

Second Try

First Necklace I made

Also, and totally random, I never can get the pictures to do what I want on this thing, so it's all basically in reverse order of how I did it, but whatever.

More pinterest-inspired things to come later! Now, go make some bird nest stuff! 

Bridezilla, Day One

One day will hopefully be the only day that I ever act like a completely enraged, crazy bride. Today was that day. I keep wanting to say "kind of"--today was kind of that day--but it wasn't. It was that day.

As I've started gathering addresses for my [late] save-the-dates, my guest list has somehow managed to slowly creep up. Let's put it this way--the number is closer to 400 than it is to 300 if you know anything about rounding numbers, and I'm sure you do. I'm thinking maybe I should call my caterer, the wonderful Joy Tubb over at Simply Joy Catering (don't you love how her name is part of her catering name?! I do. I could never use my name that way) and inquire about adding more food. Oh, heavens....

Several months ago, I finally decided on an invite, and lo and behold, it could be DIY-ed (is that how you even spell that?). So, last week when I uploaded it to order them, everything was off. The image was fuzzy. The text was on top of the image. Disaster. So, Nathan and I started looking at save-the-dates (yes, as I am getting addresses to mail them, jeez) and invitations AGAIN. I finally ended up finding a free image that fit our new save-the-date idea and combined it with some fantastic free fonts, which you can find at the bottom of the page, and we printed our save the dates today! I'm getting the last bit finished tomorrow and Tuesday, and hopefully they will be mailed this week! Finally!

So, I still need to figure out an invitation to use, but I think I have a few in mind. I need to make some adjustments to our favors, but that shouldn't be too terrible. Truth is, I am probably killing a lot of trees right now. Sorry trees!

My meltdown today resulted from all of the above plus the envelopes getting stuck in the printer...twice. We finally realized that strategy wouldn't work and resorted to clear labels, which I was really worried about using. Next, the labels would't work, but Nathan got all that figured out (thank you, dear!). To be honest, the envelopes look great, and the font I used, which is based off of someone else's actual handwriting, is nothing short of darling. The clear labels hardly show at all, so I say that is money well spent!

I didn't tell anyone else, so I'm not sure why I want to say it here, but part of the reason I flipped out today was because I began feeling like everything just looked horrible and cheap. I started thinking about people opening my save-the-dates, which are very reflective of one aspect of Nathan and me as a couple, and seeing them as cheap and uninviting rather than sweet and representative. Then that train of thought led to my invitations and then to my wedding as a whole. And then it hit me...

I don't care. I really don't. I have slowly warmed up to my wedding's current state. It's not really the wedding I ever imagined, but change is okay. It's a lot of what I wanted, and what other people want, on a much larger scale, but the truth is  I just want to be married. Then I want to pack up all my dozens of blue Masons and scatter them all over my house and just relax. I came to realize that Nathan being so excited about our save-the-dates means a lot more to me than anyone else opening it up and thinking it is cheesy or cheap. It is cheap because I'm broke from spending my entire life (practically) in school. That, and I don't believe in spending every last dime I have or my parents have on a wedding because that simply isn't what weddings are about.

I am very happy to say that, as I told Nathan just the other night, that our wedding reminds me of the "Favorite Things Song" (as I fondly call it) that Julie Andrews sings on The Sound of Music. I started off, even when planning a day in October, wanting a rustic, vintage affair, and while that is still very much our "theme," I think our focus is even more so on the things we love--Mason jars, books, burlap, blue, pink, sweet, fresh flowers, family heirlooms, our family and friends, and most of all, each other.

So, I have decided that it is okay that I am printing labels instead of torturing myself writing out addresses, having to unjam the printer a dozen times, or dropping cash on someone else torturing their own selves by writing out that many addresses. It is okay that my save-the-dates mean a lot more to Nathan and me than they ever will to anyone else. It is okay if things don't exactly match. It is okay...all of it. The people who love us will love us anyway. We will love each other. And, hopefully, one day, we'll laugh about that time when I jammed the printer twice and tried to pull out the envelope with tweezers (by the way, Nathan just took the back off the printer and pulled the jam right out, of course), became irrational (Nathan's words) just a little over printing onto labels and who knows what else, and dramatically proclaimed that nothing is working out. One day, it will just be funny.

And that is my day as a Bridezilla. Pray there are no others because I can really be such a grump, and who really wants to deal with a grumpy bride?

A Bridesmaid's Dress Roundup

Chiffon

Tea Rose

Alfred Angelo
Petunia
Under $175

Alfred Angelo
Petunia
Under $175

Satin

Alfred Angelo
Tea Rose
Under $150

Alfred Angelo
Petunia
Under $150

Alfred Angelo
Petunia
Under $175

Tea Rose

Alfred Angelo
Petunia
Under $150

Organza

Alfred Angelo
Petunia, Organza/Satin
Under $175

Dresses at David's Bridal

One Shoulder Organza (Lacey)

Satin One Shoulder (Lacey)

Y Neck Charmeuse in Rose Petal
Short Satin Dress with Pleated Bust and Ruching in Rose Petal

All of these dresses are under $175. Most are under $150. Several of them have optional spaghetti straps that can be added. A few of the dresses at DB don't come in the pink color I am interested in, but they do come in black, which would work for Lacey. I couldn't get the pictures from DB by using the link or anything, so I just had to link back to the pages, but they should all work.

I like DB a lot, and I LOVE my consultant, Ashley. She is amazing! However, I really like these dresses from Alfred Angelo. I've never worn anything from either of these salons (except my wedding dress that I purchased at DB), but the Alfred Angelo dresses look very re-wearable and versatile. My goal is that seeing some of the dresses and colors ahead of time will help the girls get an idea of some styles they would like to try on before we go shopping, likely, next week. Since we're all so spread out and busy right now, hopefully having some ideas ahead of time will make shopping go smoothly! Love you guys! :)

For more browsing, see www.alfredangelo.com and www.davidsbridal.com!

Knox

A friend of mine from college recently got married and asked me to paint a Tennessee Volunteers canvas featuring Knox, her and her husband's beautiful boxer, as a gift for her husband. No pressure, right?! But, I gave it my best shot, and the following photos show the outcome. I had never painted a real dog before, only drawn the silly ones with big, floppy ears as I doodled during my school girl days. I've been dying to post these pictures, but I was waiting for their wedding and then I got super busy, so anyway, here's Knox (and by the way, isn't he precious?!): 

                                                           

                                                           The real Knox

The painted Knox

All finished! Whew! I think it turned out alright! 

A close-up of the painted Knox. I attempted to paint his markings as much like the real thing as I could.

Congratulations again to Mr. and Mrs. Bugbee, and thank you for letting me paint Knox! 

Peeling Paper...Making Way for Pretty Blue Hues

The larger of the bathrooms in our house is upstairs, and it was covered in rose wallpaper. Honestly, it was a really pretty bathroom (very cottage-y), but I'm not really into wallpaper. Plus, Nathan and I registered for some sweet slate blue with tan and chocolate brown bathroom accessories. So, we've been peeling the rose paper from the walls, and I am happy to say that we removed most of it on the very first day. It wasn't too hard at all! Thankfully, the retro floral pattern paper had been removed before the new floral paper went up. I took the photos with a cell phone. That plus the light makes them kind of difficult to see.

This is the rose paper before it was removed from the walls.

Nate spraying the backing so that it will scrape off easily.

Starting to make some progress.

One of our several piles of paper.

This actually opens up to the laundry chute. Is that how you even spell chute? Like the game?
Anyway, I'm going to repaint it and have a cushion and some pretty pillows made. I also
have my eye on some lovely prints at Hobby Lobby to hang here. It is going to be a great place for at-home pedicures!

These are the items we registered for from Bed Bath and Beyond.
Don't they remind you of nail polish? It's not showing up well on my registry, however,
which kind of scares me; I found this photo on Kaboodle.

These are from Bed Bath and Beyond also.  You can find them at bedbathandbeyond.com

We also selected a shower curtain, but our shower has a shower door instead. However, because this shower curtain is so pretty (and fabric!), I'm thinking I might turn it into a curtain for the one window...just a little something pretty to tie back. The shower curtain that was displayed with the set looks like the rug below, but decided on a coordinating striped one.

Landon Rug. You got it...Bed Bath and Beyond

Chadwick Blue Shower Curtain. You can find it here.