aaron's pillows

over my break one thing i did was work a little bit on the decor for my brothers' apartments. they both live in bland, dated student apartments. here's a quick peek at some sprucing i did for aaron's apartment. he asked me to add some excitement to his apartment so the first thing i did was add some colorful throw pillows. the pillows were an obvious starting point because the sofa came with brown pillows that matched the sofa exactly. WHAT'S THE POINT OF A THROW PILLOW IF IT MATCHES THE SOFA??

for the new covers i chose a masculine navy tartan and balanced it with a geometric print in green. to me, it accurately shows the personalities of all the men who share the apartment. manly, but not too serious.

here's how much he loves them:

still more work to come: artwork, lighting solutions, more color everywhere.... but for now...at least they've got some fun pillows to cuddle with.

redecorating

here is my design confession of the day:

since not many people besides chris and myself see our bedroom, it is always the last room to get any design lovin. in fact, it often gets neglected.

does anyone else do that? i don't know why i do it or if it's a common trend but i've decided it's got to stop. a nice bedroom is soooo important! that's where we relax, get dressed in the morning, sleep, read, cuddle, etc. it shouldn't be neglected because it's the first thing we see in the morning and the last thing we see before we go to sleep.

so i'm finally getting around to redecorating our bedroom. i've got a pretty good idea for a color scheme. it needs to be relaxing, but sexy. sophisticated, and not too over-the-top girly. but i'm finding that translating a hypothetical color scheme into a reality is sorta difficult if i don't want to spend mucho $$$$$$. which i don't.

but anyway...the process has begun. i'll post pics as i go along. a few weeks ago was my furniture rearranging day. yesterday was my deep-cleaning and purging day. today was supposed to be my color day but man, this is taking so much longer than i imagined! i thought i'd found an awesome new bedspread, but alas, when i took it home the color was good but the texture was lacking. boo.

anyway...since our budget is nil i stopped at DI to see if i could find a new hanging light fixture. i didn't find one but i did find these:

i think these are so pretty! i love the dainty, vintagey colors! they weren't in my original color scheme but i'm going to see if i can work them in. if not...they'll go in the guest room. and no, the lamp isn't staying gold. i painted it dark blue. hopefully it looks good when it's dry. and yes, i'll post pics.

next up: a few inspiration pics.

earth day!

happy earth day!!

around this time of year i always get excited about green things and try my hand at planting some sort of garden. last weekend chris and i decided we were going to add some greenery and air purifiers to our little apartment. it started off as an idea of making a plant chandelier but that fizzled as soon as we realized we'd have to order the plants and probably some small, light glass containers to put them in. so....it transformed into a much simpler project: get some glass containers from d.i. and go to lowes to find some indoor plants to put in them. easy enough.

results? a greener window, a happier s+c, and cleaner air for our little apartment.

view from our sofa.

my favorite plant. doesn't it have a cool texture? i think this little guy needs a name. any ideas?

you can see our little goldfish, princess jasmine, in this one if you look closely. she lives in a plastic bamboo bowl by the door and is quite friendly. also...she loves to eat.

ok, well that's all. happy earth day! go outside and enjoy the perfect weather!
xoxo.

wabi-sabi

in my color class on wednesday, my instructor, lamar, mentioned something called wabi-sabi. he defined it as "perfection through imperfection." i found this idea intruiging. so after a little research (ok, really i just wiki-ed it), i found it to be even more beautiful than how he had described it.

a few interesting wiki tidbits:

1- wabi-sabi focuses on 3 things that are descriptive of all life: imperfection, impermanance, and incompletion.

2- wabi connotes simplicity, freshness, or quietness, and understated elegance. it also refers to quirks and anomalies arising from the construction process.

3- sabi is the beauty that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanance are evidenced in its patina, or in any visible repairs.

wabi sabi exemplified in a teahouse

the reason this concept was so intruiging to me is that i feel like everything and everyone has a bit of wabi-sabi in them. and to me that's the beauty of our creation. everything in nature is imperfect (pieces of us are constantly living and dying, regrowing and replacing). everything is incomplete (when does a tree ever stop growing?). and everything is impermanant, too.

and it's just a mindset that can look at these qualities and see them as beautiful, instead of a negative aspect. i think looking at things and people from this vantage point could make anyone happier. instead of seeing flaws, we can see quirks that make a beautiful whole.

we can be sad that roses have thorns or amazed that thorn bushes have roses, right? i'm going to choose to see the wabi-sabi.

quiz: which color matches your personality?

i just took this quiz at true value paint. and apparently...my color is red.

the description reads:

"you boast incredible willpower and are capable of overcoming obstacles that would normally leave others shaking in their boots. you have a penchant for colorful environments and often impress others with your energetic bursts of energy. your interests in many areas of life often leave you scattered, but when you focus you can accomplish anything you put your mind to."

is the description accurate? in many ways, i think it is.

but is "my color" red? i'm not so sure. now don't get me wrong, i love red as an accent. it may be my favorite accent to use. i love the high contrast it gives against black and grey (my favorite neutrals). but would i paint a room in my house red? probably not.

on the other hand, i guess it's a fitting color for me right now because i am getting SOO EXCITED for valentines day. i've been uber-busy these past few weeks and now i finally have a day to make crafts, plan romantic outings, and think of ways to woo my hubby.

so....what color are you? does the personality description fit? and do you like the color they chose for you?