January 19, 2012
I’ve been excited to decorate our new place… yet terrified at the same time. I’ve never felt like I have a knack for decorating like I do designing something on a page. Committing to a piece of furniture makes me a nervous wreck. I gravitate towards colors and patterns and usually buy things accordingly, but then I get them home and realize they’re not right for the space, way too loud, or have no relationship to anything else in the space. More often than not, I am tired of it in five minutes and regret making such bold choices.
I’m trying a new approach where I set some guidelines for myself, don’t buy anything impulsively, and if I see something that looks bold and awesome — I realllllly think about it (and usually end up realizing it’s too much and I need to scale it back a bit). So far, so good.
For the walls, I fell in love with Benjamin Moore’s Palladian Blue… but then, after painting a handful of test swatches throughout the first floor and upstairs hallway (which would all eventually be painted the same color), I realized it was waaaaayy too much blue. After a few more Goldilocks trials and errors — you know, this one’s too bold, this one’s too boring, etc. — I landed upon Sherwin Williams Sea Salt, a muted grayish blueish green (that’s the technical description). It was perfect.
We already have charcoal grey couches which will stay, along with a coffee table that Nick made, but we need some other pieces to tie everything together… and that’s where I get stuck.
Enter: Design*Sponge At Home by Grace Bonney, editor of the Design*Sponge blog. I got a copy of this book a few months ago when I attended a signing at Terrain (Grace was super nice, by the way!), and it has become my decorating bible as of late. I love that pretty much all of the sneak peeks featured in the book are far from what you’d call matchy-matchy, yet they still have a very pulled together look despite being very eclectic. So many of them speak to me and remind me why I’ve never been drawn to buying matching sets of furniture.
In deciding how to decorate the downstairs of our new home, I looked for rooms in the book that had similar wall colors to Sea Salt, and just rooms that I generally liked. After browsing a handful of pages one afternoon, it struck me that so many rooms had one great thing in common: amidst calming neutrals, there was often a distinct pop of red that stood out as a focal point, and really tied the room together. Don’t believe me? Here are just a few rooms found on Design*Sponge (the blog this time):
image 1 // image 2 // image 3 // image 4
Coincidentally, a lovely friend also gave us a gorgeous red cast iron trivet as a housewarming gift, and I was sold. Pops of red — yes! Why didn’t I think of it sooner?
Thus, our color palette was born: mostly warm neutrals, with pops of teal (I mean, I’m still me, after all) and fire engine red. It looks pretty subdued to me here, but I think that’s a good sign that I won’t get sick of it in five minutes.
I’m thinking a red statement lamp would be perfect sitting atop this pedestal end table that was my nana’s and just came to live with us over the weekend:
We have yet to hang anything on the walls and I’m sure many more colors will come into play then — but having this new red revelation has me excited to decorate so it looks like grownups live here. Grownups who have an eclectic yet pulled-together style.
What’s your decorating method?
November 26, 2011
Oh hey, late November. What’s up?
We just returned from spending Thanksgiving with Nick’s family, and there was no shortage of mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, or leftover turkey for making delicious moist maker sandwiches. It’s been so long since I posted that I don’t really know where to begin as I attempt (yet again) to blog a bit more regularly! How about a numbered list of mundane details? Yes, that sounds exciting!
1.) We’re moving. After seven years in the same apartment. And I loathe, loathe, loathe moving. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t done it in seven years. But yeah, Saturday is the big day, and I’m dreading it, but hopefully everything will go smoothly (with the help of some great friends and family and a rented UHaul). I’m expecting the month of December to be a bit chaotic, but I’m hoping that we’ll feel somewhat settled upon the new year.
2.) We’re still going to be renting. After house-hunting a bit, we were still a bit nervous to buy. Everyone will tell you that “it’s a buyer’s market” until they’re blue in the face, but that still doesn’t mean it’s the right time for everyone to buy. The reality is that it’s going to be a buyer’s market for a loooong time. For now, we were anxious to have a bit more space (especially storage), a little yard, central air (I’ll crank that baby UP when the time comes) and off-street parking, so in order to get some upgrades while we wait for the perfect house to come along at a time that’s right for us, continuing to rent was our best option. We’re looking forward to be moving into our new house which has lots of charm (and a basement for STORAGE!), plus, renting has its perks: when something breaks, we can just call the landlord :) I’m sure there will be some DIY decorating posts in this blog’s near future, so stay tuned.
3.) I’ve still been blogging regularly, just not here! I blog once or twice a week over on the Cog Blog, the official blog of Curious & Co. Occasionally we post about our own work and goings on, but we also blog about cool and interesting finds in the design world. Have you been reading?
4.) That segues me into the exciting news that we now have an online shop for our new Curious & Co. stationery products! You’ll find some colorful note cards (sneak peek above) in stock now, but check back very soon for even more papery goodness.
5.) Ginger is now seven months old and I can’t even handle the cuteness. I’m resisting the urge to spoil that little niece of mine rotten when Christmas rolls around. We can’t wait to spend Christmas morning with her.
That’s about all for me… I have a few more posts in mind for the coming week if I’m not buried under boxes (but I guess I shouldn’t make any promises). I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving!
October 25, 2011
Remember in early 2009 when I began the 101 in 1001 project with gusto and determination? Well, 1001 days came and went faster than I ever imagined they could, and my 101 in 1001 officially ended last month.
The verdict? I completed 58 out of 101 items.
I’m happy with this number and proud of myself. I did a lot of things I may not have attempted had I not set the goal for myself, which is awesome. There are also a bunch of things I didn’t do, either because they became not as important to me after 2.5 years, they were difficult to keep track of (like doing something X number of times in X days/weeks), or I simply didn’t have the time for them. There are some things I’d still like to accomplish soon, like plan better for retirement, finish (or start!) putting together some photo albums, and be better about keeping in touch with my friends who live far away, so I’ll continue keeping those things on my radar.
Not to toot my own horn, but I also think it’s worth mentioning that I accomplished some things that weren’t ever on my list, like getting published (in a little magazine called Martha Stewart Weddings) and becoming an aunt! Okay, so I didn’t put a lot of work into that last one, but if spending time with my niece prevented me from checking more things off my list, I can certainly handle that. Spending a week playing with her down the shore was much more fulfilling than watching all of AFI’s top 100 movies, without a doubt.
I’m not sure if I’ll create another 101 in 1001 list, but I do like the idea of having a physical list of goals to stay motivated. Have you done your own 101 in 1001 project, or something similar? What was the outcome for you?
If you’re curious, below is my original list with completed items marked in yellow! You can also learn more about the project on my original post.
August 17, 2011
I’ve gotten out of the habit of blogging regularly for a small handful of reasons:
1. I am reaaaaally busy with work. As Martha says, “it’s a good thing!” I am grateful, but let’s be honest: I am tired. Really freakin’ tired.
2. I don’t feel like we’ve done many super exciting things lately, and while I’m certainly not complaining and I’m enjoying my summer very much, I don’t know that anything I have to share is particularly interesting to anyone else. (To be completely honest, pretty much all I want to post about is my adorable niece 24/7, but alas, I resist.)
3. I’m sick of this blog design and ready for something new… I just haven’t had the time to tackle a new design. The curse of being a designer — never completely happy with anything and always wanting to change/improve upon things.
4. I started to feel like a hypocrite posting about cool products and clothes that I have no intention of buying. And I guess that’s the big one.
While I have my moments of wishing we had a house and wishing I could shop like I used to for cute clothes and wishing we could travel more, I am still very at peace with my decision to take the leap to self-employment early last year and the sacrifices that came with that choice. I know it will pay off, and exciting developments and growth have already happened in the year and a half since we started the business, so that’s a great motivation to keep going full steam ahead. The changes, however, have greatly opened my eyes to just how frivolous I used to be with my money, and how much more I truly value every penny now.
If I won the lottery five years ago, I probably would have bought a huge house that I would have filled up with a lot of stuff and gone clothes shopping to my heart’s content. If I won the lottery tomorrow… okay, who am I kidding: I’d still splurge a bit. But I now genuinely have no desire to have a closet that is overflowing with clothes and shoes, or a house bustling with stuff. I still value high quality items very much, and of course I’d like to have a few more of them, but I have seen a lot of value over these last few years in living more simply. I’m really starting to believe the whole “less is more” theory.
When I used to shop for new clothes pretty regularly and could never fully close my dresser drawers, I can bet that I still had the same 10 or so outfits on regular rotation. I’ve never been very good at playing with fashion (though I’d love to have a knack for putting pieces together), and I’m a creature of habit, so it makes sense that I would remain pretty content with a handful of favorite standbys, intermixed with some other less-worn items. It’s not much different now that I shop less and have weeded out a lot of clothes I don’t wear — I just have fewer of the less-worn items taking up space in my dresser.
I used to buy stuff — just random, random stuff — all the time. Now, I really think about if something is going to add value to my life, my space, and my time. Will it lose its cool factor the minute something goes from my shopping cart to my living space, where it is really only taking up space? I hate buying any old gift for someone just because it’s their birthday or Christmas and I’m “supposed” to. I love giving gifts, but I like to give things that are actually useful to the recipient, rather than just something that’s going to get shoved in a closet and forgotten about.
I have learned a lot from my brother and sister-in-law. While having a baby has added a few more possessions to their space, they are still very strategic and thoughtful about bringing any item into their home. It is a beautiful home, generously sized by New York standards, but modestly sized by mainstream standards (particularly to we suburbanites who are used to more space). They don’t have a lot of room for clutter, so they choose their possessions carefully. It makes the things they do have that much more meaningful, and each and every item is there for a reason.
I turned 31 last week (yay?) and aside from a super cool bike and a super cool dSLR, I could not think of a single thing that I really, truly wanted. I looked through my blog wish list, my Pinterest wish list, and thought about it for about a week. In the end, Nick took me out to a nice dinner, my mom got me some gift cards for dining out while we’re down the shore, and I was perfectly content. (Okay, I would have loved to get the bike or the dSLR, but I don’t really expect anyone to spend that much money on me.) I have everything I need, and many things that I don’t need. Too much beyond that is just excess that is adding zero value to my life and taking away from my ability to live fully — free of physical distractions cluttering up my space and, ultimately, my thoughts.
I see items on blogs and Pinterest that are really cool pretty much every day. But I feel a little silly sharing these items with my readers when I am really leaning towards living more simply these days. I’m sure some items will pique my interest enough that I’ll share them with you, and maybe I’m just going through a particularly cynical phase; but rather than just looking for things to post about for the sake of posting something, I’ll probably put more focus on blogging about the things that really, truly interest me.
This is not the first time you’ve heard me ramble about uncluttering my life and my space, but it is a topic worth repeating as it’s something I think about a lot lately. What do you think about the idea of living simply to live fully? Is it the way you live? If so, have you always been a less-is-more person, or have you become one over time?
(And okay fine, just one picture of Ginger with her Aunt Brooke and Uncle Nick, for good measure.)
May 18, 2011
I fall in love with houses a little too easily. I tend to be a glass-half-full kinda girl and I pretty easily see the charm and potential in a home that someone else might immediately write off. As Nick and I have begun house hunting, I’ve realized how my optimism and vision can become a little dangerous, because there is much more to a home than a pretty staircase and a great linen closet.
Like a new roof, a sump pump and expensive kitchen appliances.
But you’re just so cute….won’t you be mine?
(Not one of the actual houses we were considering, but gosh she’s pretty.)
In the last month, I’ve fallen in love with two houses that I thought would become ours. I dreamed about them, crunched the numbers to be sure we could make it work, and asked our realtor a million and one questions.
And then, we let them go.
The first house was easier to let go of because we realized we didn’t love the location, and it didn’t have central air. I have come to accept the fact that central air is a pretty big priority for me….eight years of noisy, rattling window air conditioners during sweltering east coast summers will do that to you.
The second house was a little harder to bid adieu to. It was right next to a park, in a town we love, and in a perfectly central location for everywhere we like (or have) to go often. It was in great condition, had central air and everything else house #1 didn’t have, and was priced just a tad higher. We probably could have made it work….but “probably” is not really the word you want to use when you’re talking about such a huge commitment, is it?
The thing is that buying a house is SCARY… and we’re not quite ready yet. Financially, the last few years have been a little wacky for us, and although I think we’ve passed our adulthood financial responsibility test with flying colors (ie., paying off all credit card debt and a vehicle in the midst of unemployment [him] and then self-employment [me]), we need a few more months to be 100% sure that we can do it.
So….I’m not allowed to look at Realtor.com again until at least July. I am sure the right house will be out there for us when we’re ready, but until then I’ll remain just a little sad about the houses that weren’t. Sniff, sniff.
Have you ventured into the world of home buying?
May 4, 2011
Last week, a lovely little girl joined our family — my niece, G. I love her so much already, I can’t even stand it.
Aunt Brooke & G, enjoying some girl talk and downtime
I was lucky enough to meet her less than 12 hours after her birth, after a drive to Brooklyn in rush hour traffic. It was worth every second of gridlock. Nick couldn’t come along on that trip, so we went back to visit on Saturday so he could meet her. We spent a glorious 4.5 hours hanging out with the little one and her elated parents. Since then, it’s not uncommon for us to ask each other, “What do you think G is doing right now?” at least five times a day.
Checking out this “Uncle Nick” character
We are in love, and forever changed. We are so grateful to my brother and sister-in-law for bringing this amazing little creature into our lives. We can’t wait to watch her grow up.
April 15, 2011
Again with the absence, I know, I know… but I have a good excuse! We launched our new Curious & Co. website yesterday!
This weekend I’m looking forward to doing some more reading, bowling with friends, a family birthday party, and starting to tour some homes with our realtor. Busy busy, but I guess that’s how I like it! What are you all up to?
March 14, 2011
As you may have noticed from my lack of frequent posting, life has been a little busy lately! In case you’re wondering, here are some highlights from what’s been going on in my world:
• Work has been very busy, which is a great thing. In the very near future we’ll be introducing a shiny new Curious & Co. website… stay tuned!
• Speaking of work, I’ve been whipping up some fun custom save-the-dates and invitations, in addition to fulfilling Claremont Collection orders. We recently had a custom invitation design featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper, which was very exciting. We’re also thrilled that we’ll be featured in the upcoming Wedding Invitation Ideas Lookbook, a free annual e-book from Invitation Crush.
• I’m partnering with the lovely ladies at Weddingbee on a new feature called Buzzworthy. Once a week, I put together a new inspiration board to share with readers, which is featured on the blog every Monday. Below are my two favorites so far; check them out on Weddingbee for a closer look and complete shopping guides!
• Nick and I have been visiting some open houses as we plan to start seriously house-hunting soon. I have bookmarked a ridiculous number of homes on Realtor.com and at the moment, we’re having fun just dreaming and envisioning what our future home may look like; I’m sure we’ll be weeding out a lot of properties once we get pre-approved and start working with a realtor. When we get a bit more serious about it, it’s safe to assume that I’ll be posting all about our adventures here!
What’s the best advice you homeowners can pass along as we begin our search?
February 17, 2011
You’ve all heard me ramble on before about minimizing clutter in our home. As a lifelong packrat, I must say that I’ve come a long way: over the last few years I have slowly gotten rid of probably half of my clothes (and I still have plenty to wear), I no longer save magazines like I used to (except for Real Simple…I’m sorry, I just can’t…they’re too PRETTY!), and I’ve learned to let go of random little trinkets that were slowly eating up all of my space, to name a few things.
Lately, though, I’ve still felt very buried under clutter. I finally realized that it was no longer physical clutter that was bothering me — it was virtual clutter. A messy desktop on my computer; a million photos saved on my hard drive that meant nothing to me, amidst a very small percentage that I actually care about; a list of Facebook “friends,” probably 80% of whom are people who aren’t really my friends; a Twitter follow list of people I thought I should follow because they could maybe someday tweet about something that may be a business opportunity for me; a Google Reader filled with blogs that I follow because I’m afraid I’ll miss something if I don’t; and a bunch of email inboxes filled with messages I constantly feel obligated to check and/or respond to as soon as they arrive.
I realized it was all sucking the life out of me.
I started feeling like this a few months ago, but I really realized how big of a problem it was when I attended Lara Casey’s Making Things Happen workshop last month (number 81 on my 101 in 1001 list!). When we were asked to make a list of the 10 biggest distractions that hold us back from productivity, the first few I immediately wrote down were Twitter, Facebook, and Google Reader. When I really thought about those three distractions, I realized that it wasn’t the applications themselves that were the biggest problems, but my need to feel like I know what’s going on with everyone, at all times. While staying in the loop on what everyone else was doing, I was neglecting my own priorities and tasks and constantly feeling like I couldn’t keep up.
The day I returned from MTH, I unfollowed about 100 people on Twitter. Will I miss a business opportunity because I unfollowed someone who could have become a client? I guess I’ll never know. But living simply for the “what ifs” is exhausting, and I can’t do it anymore. I unfriended or hid many people on Facebook who bring me down with their negativity or who simply were never good friends to me. (Sorry, girl from college who was horrible to me: why did you want to be my Facebook friend in the first place when you were never even a friend to me when we were face-to-face?) I deleted a bunch of blogs from my Google Reader that I didn’t actually enjoy reading — I just felt like I should have been reading them for one reason or another, so I let them eat up a few minutes of my time every day. No more.
I also created a new email address where all Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, Daily Candy, GoodReads, etc. notifications now go. I take that email address offline while I’m working so I’m not constantly distracted by that little number in the red circle, taunting me and begging me to stop whatever I’m doing to see what just landed in my inbox when it has zero importance compared to emails from real, paying clients.
I still have a ways to go, but thus far my internet detox has allowed me to be more productive with my time and I honestly don’t miss a thing. I am rarely on Twitter anymore, and while I miss chatting with some people who always had interesting things to say, I don’t miss wondering where time went while I was trying to catch up with everything in my Twitter feed. Paring down the virtual clutter has carved out so much more time for work and other things that really matter, like family and friends.
Anyone else up for the challenge of killing the virtual clutter? If so, I want to hear what’s distracting you and how you handle your internet detox!
February 14, 2011
Nick and I keep things very low-key for Valentine’s Day. We’ll exchange cards tonight and maybe get fattening Chinese take-out (a treat we rarely allow ourselves… particularly because I’m partial to General Tso’s, which we have nicknamed “General heart attack”), and perhaps rent a movie OnDemand and pass out on the couch. It actually sounds like a perfect evening to me.
Early in our relationship, I went ALL. OUT. for Valentine’s Day. The first time we celebrated February 14th together, I planned this awesome scavenger hunt throughout the neighborhood in Philly where I lived (and where Nick and I met), and gave him a bunch of silly and cute little gifts with each new clue. It was kind of awesome. Clearly I’m not 23 anymore because this sounds like a whole lotta work, but I guess after 7+ years together, we don’t need anything fancy anymore. We’re getting old!
I like keeping plans minimal, but I do think Valentine’s Day will be a whole new ballgame once we have kids, so we’ll just say we’re saving our energy up for then. There are so many fun projects to do with kids at V-day; I remember getting so excited to give and receive Valentines in school as a kid. Brooke from Inchmark always has the best ideas for her kids’ Valentines, so I’m keeping these tucked away until it’s my turn.
images via inchmark
What are your Valentine’s Day plans?
