Let’s start of this post by talking about my new inspiration for the color palate in this room – my new pillows from Crate and Barrel. I have literally spent hours trying to figure out what I wanted to do with this room. But I saw the pillows on sale a few weeks ago and I was hooked. It’s a nice combination of purple, green, gray, and orange. They make me quite happy.

Anywho…

And another new addition to the house is a little writing desk that I got last week. The local consignment store was closing and was offering 20% off. Score!

So this lovely desk was about $100 and it fits perfectly on the wall opposite the front door.

How cute?!?

I am absolutely loving how massive this tree is. It was a hoot to get it into my little Jetta to bring it home. And we went with a multi-colored scheme this year – blue, red, green, orange, and silver.

So that is what our living room is looking like for the Holiday. Everyone ready for Santa?

~C+F

]]> http://amerryjourney.com/2012/12/20/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas/feed/ 1 amerryjourney photo 4 photo 3 photo 2 photo 5 http://amerryjourney.com/2012/11/27/sweet-and-tangy-mixed-green-salad/ http://amerryjourney.com/2012/11/27/sweet-and-tangy-mixed-green-salad/#comments Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:20:13 +0000 A Merry Journey http://amerryjourney.com/?p=1233 Continue reading »

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! Is everyone still finishing up delicious turkey leftovers? Recovered from copious amounts of shopping?

It was my job to bring the salad for my family’s Thanksgiving meal. I wanted something light and bright to go against the heavy turkey and gravy. So I threw some fun ingredients together and it came out quite delectable, if I do say so myself.

Sweet and Tangy Mixed Green Salad

4 oz of mixed greens

1/4 cup of candied walnuts

1/2 medium granny smith apple, chopped mixed with the juice from a half lemon

1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

1/4 cup dried cranberries

A light vinaigrette

It looks like Edward Cullen snuck into my picture as well :)

I made the candied walnuts by using 1 part sugar and 2 parts walnuts, so in this case… I put 1 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup sugar (because everyone loves leftover candied nuts) on medium high heat in a non-stick pan. In 5-10 minutes the sugar will start to melt and brown. At this point, stir constantly until all of the sugar is melted. When done, pour onto foil to cool.

Mix everything else together in a bowl. Watch out because all of the goodies fall to the bottom. Dress with a light vinaigrette, such as a champagne vinaigrette. I used Maple Grove Farms. (Yes… I was too lazy to make my own).

Enjoy!

This was perfect with all of our turkey day goodness. The green of the apple and the red of the cranberries really makes it look festive for the upcoming Christmas holiday.

Eat up :)

~C+S

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So, I figured I would get back into the game with a nice small project – silver leafing the inlay of the foyer table. You might remember this little guy from my $teals and Deals post from July. That’s right… $12 at Goodwill. The inlay is stretched leather. Originally I was just going to paint it, but the wood really is quite pretty…. and I’m still not sure what color I’m ultimately going for in here… so I figured a nice decorative accent would be a good way to go.

Here he is…

That’s right… I was doing this while eating popcorn and watching The Men Who Built America. It was a good night.

The cast of characters….

I started off by taping off the sides with Frog Tape to protect the wood and applied my Metal Leaf Adhesive Size with a foam brush.

After about 20 minutes…. I very- very-very carefully placed the silver leaf onto the tacky adhesive and softly brushed it. It took a few times to get this process down and, more often than not, the leaf tore. Oh well… It’s no fun to have a bunch of silver squares on a table. Patchwork is much more fun :)

After all the leaf was on, I patched what I could and applied two coats of a water-based sealer for metal leaf. Don’t forget to seal it!!

I used my handy-dandy Liquid Gold to clean up the wood… and there we have it…

Woohoo! I absolutely love it.

The whole project ended up costing about $30. Totally worth it and very easy.

What kind of fun/easy projects are you guys up to?

~C+S

My to-do list for Fall included new window coverings… so, alas, I took the leap during my last trip to Ikea.

In the den, we had some uber drab beige curtains that came from our apartment.

I replaced them with these Henny Rand curtains, white with brown and gray squiggles. They definitely brighten up the room, which is essential in a room with almost no natural light.

As you know, I have been trying to de-red our living room. Here is an old picture…

I snatched up these Ninni Rund curtains, which are super fancy-schmancy. I love the pattern, but I am still trying to decide if they are too shiny. The light beige definitely makes the room feel bigger. What do you think? The curtain rod will be getting a face-lift soon, as it is currently falling off the wall. Now the challenge is going to be picking a cool muted paint color that will work with these.

Finally, we come to the guest bedroom… where there were no curtains. Gasp!

I choose these fun Malin Trad curtains. Oh… and look at the cute new graphic shade on the lamp. He was a must have for $14.

From far away the curtains almost look neutral, but when you take a closer look they are actually pulling the color from the wall….

What a difference curtains can make. This room has really gone through a facelift in the past month or so. I am really liking it!

So, that’s all for now. Happy Friday and Happy November!

~C+S

On another, more trivial, note… frames.

I started a little gallery going up our stairs in September. I was relatively happy with how it turned out and always intended to keep it growing.

So on my latest trip to the great Ikea last week, I picked up a few new frames…

Now THAT is more like it! I added 4 new frames… and it made all the difference in the world. Now my baby gallery is almost a full grown gallery.

An idea I have been toying with since the beginning of the project is painting the  frames a uniform color. I kept them all unique to begin with because I didn’t want to jump into it too quickly… but I think my mind is made up that it needs to be done.

Now the question is what color… white or dark brown? I absolutely love YHL’s wall of white frames against their light gray wall. Eventually I am planning to paint the hallway a shade of muddled light gray, so white frames would really pop. On the other hand, a lot of the frames/accents in our house are dark, but maybe it would blend better with dark brown? I am just afraid that a whole lot of dark frames would really make the wall… dark. What do you all think?

Happy November!

~C+S

The door just disappeared into the shadows of the porch. How sad.

I have been itching to paint for the past few months, but could not find the right color. I would love a bright accent door… yellow, blue, red? Unfortunately, the avocado color of the house prevents us from being too adventurous with color. After a month of samples (yes… it takes me that long) I finally pulled the trigger.

I choose Toasted Almond by Olympic in a Semi-Gloss. So much brighter! What a difference it makes.

I am relatively happy with the color. I was going for a bit of a deeper color that would meld better with the trim on the house. But… oh well.

I also ORB-ed all of the hardware, which contrasts really nicely with the new lighter color. It makes me a happy camper.

So that’s about it folks! If you don’t hear from me in the next few days, I have probably lost power like the rest of the east coast. :(

Who else is bracing for the storm?

~C+S

When I “revealed” my little stage 1 bathroom reno in September, I mentioned that next steps to get the bathroom functional and keep it mold-free would be to install a bathroom fan. So Steve has been busting his bum for the past few weeks to get these up and running.

We choose a Broan 2.5-Sone 80 CFM White Bath Fan from Lowes for $88. Our bathroom is tiny, so we didn’t technically need anything over 50 CFM, but we decided we liked more power. *Mwahahaha*

Steve decided that since he was going to be up in the attic rolling around in the insulation and cutting holes in the side of the house, he might as well kill to birds with one stone. Thus, we decided to install a fan in our guest bathroom as well.

Oh hey… welcome to our guest bath! I don’t think I’ve posted anything on this… and with good reason. It’s fugly. Seriously.

We aren’t going to need to do any ceiling repair in the guest bath but there is a little spackle work that needs to be done in the master. That’s right… Steve is awesome.

So part one of this adventure is done. The fans are attached to the house and wired. Next step is to run the exhaust vents. It’s not glamorous work, but it needs to be done. We are so lucky that Steve is able/willing to do these types of projects instead of subbing them out. I heart saving $$.

Anyone else installed any bathroom fans? Any advise on how to run the exhaust pipes?

~C+S

P.s. This is our 100th post!! Thanks to all of our readers for continuing to follow our journey. Love you guys :)

For those of you that read this little blog via email updates or Google Reader, pop on over to a browser once in a while to check out what we are liking in our sidebar. I just updated it with some new goodies and made a handy-dandy mini mood board.

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [Paints are by Olympic - Cannon Grey, Candlelit Beige, Derby Green]

Shall we call it Modern Floral? I am absolutely loving the floral watercolor from Etsy… and that chair and a half from Crate and Barrel is just begging for a good book and cup of tea.

What are you guys loving this month?

~C+S

This is not a paid endorsement for any of the linked products. All OPINIONS are my own.

I found these fantastic pillows at Target for $7.48 each on Clearance. I simply couldn’t pass them up. Since I am trying to de-red the room, it was the perfect find to move toward a cooler color palate. Say good-bye to our old lumpy red pillows.

As you can tell, Flair loves to cuddle with them….

Speaking of Flair… a few months back I grew very tired to looking at her 40lb bag of food on the floor of our bathroom. So I headed out to Homegoods with my Aunt and used a gift card to get a $30 stainless steel garbage can. It make me very happy to have found a good home for Flair’s munchies. I feel like I need to put a little sign it so guests don’t confuse it with a real garbage can :)

Finally… the guest bedroom. The medicine cabinet was still hanging around since we removed it from our master bathroom in June. I decided to repurpose the mirror by unscrewing it from the metal backing on the medicine cabinet. I painted it Semi Sweet by Valspar, which was a left over sample from my front door sample tests.

We also found a great deal on a down duvet (less than $50) on Groupon, so I snatched it up to replace our old and lumpy Target navy comforter. I’m not too worried about finding a duvet cover right away… since we don’t have anyone sleeping there. It is so amazing how much brighter and larger the room feels with a lighter shade on the bed. It almost reflects the light.

So… there we have it. Four relatively little things that make me smile.

~C+S

]]> http://amerryjourney.com/2012/10/18/its-the-little-things/feed/ 6 amerryjourney Target Pillows - Clearance Flair Cuddles Dog Food Storage Guest Bedroom - New additions http://amerryjourney.com/2012/10/17/peach-less-pantry/ http://amerryjourney.com/2012/10/17/peach-less-pantry/#comments Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:55:48 +0000 A Merry Journey http://amerryjourney.com/?p=1161 Continue reading »

Hey there! It’s been a while!

I was out and about last week in Atlanta for a conference and was caught in a whirlwind when I got back. But alas… I am back and ready to show you some photos of the new and improved pantry!

Originally, our closet was a storage area for boxes… in other words, it was completely useless. Since our kitchen is a bit tight on space, I wanted to clean out the closet and make it more pantry friendly.

Last we saw the pantry it looked like this:

Peach anyone? Plus the old orangey-brown tile screamed 70s/80s.

Two coats of bright white and new vinyl tile brings us to the finished product…

Brighter and friendlier. I heart storage.

This was my first experience in tiling… but being that it is vinyl, it was a nice introduction. I used the peel and stick tiles. I have heard mixed reviews about them, but I figured that there isn’t going to be any walking on these ones, so it should be fine. I wanted to add some pops of color in here somehow and some accessories to that front facing white wall, but… it’s a pantry and it’s in the basement. I have bigger fish to fry now :)

Not too shabby. I only botched one tile on my first cut and everything else was smooth sailing :)

Total budget for this project was $12. All I had to buy was the tile. Paint was left over from another project. Now that is my kind of update.

Our next tiling project is going to be legit… our front foyer. Woohoo!

What has everyone else been up to lately? I’m still catching up on everything in the blogosphere since my hiatus…

~C+S

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