Today is a milestone of sorts- I can’t believe that one year from today(!!), I get to marry Mr. Design Eye, aka James!  He is the BEST and I probably would not be doing what I’m doing without his support and encouragement.   This alone makes today a good day and I felt like I had to share….but read on for the announcement!

lover boy and I :)

I woke up to an exciting email this morning.  If you follow me on instagram or through this blog, you probably have been noticing all of the painted pieces I’ve been working on (or not, its okay!)  I started out just having fun but realized how much I looove painting, and decided to turn my creative outlet into a new business!  

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The upstairs floor of our house has realllly high, cathedral style ceilings.  I love how they open up the space and make the rooms feel larger than they are, but its a bit of a challenge in scale to find things to decorate with to keep in scale with the room.

I knew I wanted something on the wall behind the bed, but we are hanging a chandelier, so I felt like it should be something that flanked the bed, rather than something directly above.

I’d bought a few yards of this fabric months ago to upholster a bench in, but ended up not liking the scale on the bench once I had it in hand.

Braemore Kazoo in Seaglass

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We have been working on the yard a little bit now that the weather has been improving.  Its  pretty tiny, but being in the city and having any outdoor space at all is pretty great and invites us to be creative.  The yard is concrete with a small deck off of the house and has a small flower bed.  I’d love to replace the concrete with grass and some pea stone or pavers, but for now I’ll just dream and file it away for the future!  Is this a look you love, too?

This yard by Sunflower Landscape and Design has all the feel of an English garden.  I really like the pea stone versus a slab or pavers for this seating area. Continue reading →

Holy Monday- this weekend went by fast, didn’t it?!  I spent mine consuming margaritas (we went to a Mexican restaurant Friday!) and paining furniture, as you may have guessed by the title of this post.  I just looove the Annie Sloan chalk paint so much.  It really is so user friendly, and its just relaxing to sit down with a paintbrush and see where it takes you.  Here are a few pieces I’ve been working on.

I love this sweet nightstand, the stripes are my favorite part.   Continue reading →

This time last year I was driving down the Pacific Coast highway with two of my BFFS, Meredith and Kristen.  We seriously had the BEST time and it left us all scratching our heads as to why we didn’t all just pack up and take on the Cali lifestyle.

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I recently saw a blurb on Apartment Therapy about the Sun Jar, and it had me intrigued.  It basically looks like a mason jar with a light in it, powered by…..you guessed it- the sun!  The mason jar part is definitely what gets me, wouldn’t it be cute on a patio table?  I found this helpful little diagram on their website to show how it works.

At $30.95 each, they are a bit pricey, but I think that adding a few to an outdoor set up would give such a nice glow/ambience and would definitely be a lot cheaper than wiring outdoor lights!  Plus, they stay lit for five hours after one “charge” -i.e. day in the sunlight, so if you were partying into the night they would be there for you :)

Here’s a pic of it in action!

PS- as I was googling images, I found a DIY tutorial to make your own sun jar.  It sounds really easy, looks just as good and only costs $14.  Boom! Check it out here- Doogs DIY Sun Jar Project.

I’ve mentioned here and there that I’ve been working on revamping the dark-stained built-in  bookcases in our living room, and I can officially say they are done & styled*.  I leave the asterisk because I am still debating painting the back wall of them a medium grey.  I’m going to hold off until I have the rest of the room where I want it- for now I’m really happy with the way they turned out!

I LOVE a good mix of books, accessories and personal momentos to bring a bookcase to life.  I think the biggest mistake that people make is turning these babies into personal storage units.  PLEASE DON’T!  Take that junk to the nearest closet, under the bed, wherever to rest peacefully until you need it.  Remember, these bookcases draw attention, you really don’t want everyone looking at your junk, do you?

Anywho, before I could get down to styling my bookcases, I needed to get them ready to be styled.  AKA painted, primed and caulked.  The people who lived here before us had some kind of fetish with darkness, I guess.  Here’s how they looked when the keys got turned over:

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On Saturday we passed by a cute little house that really got my attention- the reason?  Its gorgeous yellow door!  With its associations with happiness and energy and sunshine, a yellow front door stands out as an excellent choice!  Since we all know Massachusetts has the BEST summers (but these are quite short-lived), I feel like adding a yellow door would give us some sunshine year round.

I’ve always loved a good bright red door, but somehow the yellow thing is really sticking in my mind.  I think it would look pretty great on our house- what do you think? Continue reading →

This weekend ended up being kind of funny.  Being only week 2 of living in the house, of course I hoped to tackle a good chunk of “the list”.  I really love making lists, and sometimes I just like to add things to be able to CROSS OFF the list :) What, don’t we all? Especially when some of the real items can take a hefty chunk of time and/or concentration.

Unfortunately, this weekend none of those real things got done.  Hey, we had a wedding that we went to on Friday….miiiight have had a bit too much fun and lounged around all day on Saturday, plus it was raining…hear those excuses?  Still, thanks to the little things I still felt somewhat accomplished.

Up first on the list, I ended my eternity of living without a bedskirt and finally got our bed properly dressed.  I’ve never had a bedskirt, just hoped my comforter or quilt was long enough to not notice what lies beneath (out of season clothes and blankets).  No more!  Now that we have it, I can’t believe I ever lived without it.  I think it just completes the bed.

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I don’t normally talk too much about work here on the blog, but today I kind of feel like I have to!  I have a window treatment sale that is live on site right now on Joss&Main that you all need to check out!  I worked directly with the supplier to design these window treatments, and I just adore them all!  These fabrics are all very different than a lot of the treatments I see everywhere, and are just plain FUN.  I also worked with them to create matching valences and some solid panels with just a border. Click this link to get an invite if you aren’t a member yet :)

Here are a few of my absolute favs:

Loooove me a Greek Key, and these bordered panels have just the right dose.

I actually maaay have ordered these for our powder room to hide our ginormous washer and dryer! Continue reading →