Scary or Cute? I say Cute!

I've been vulturing around wall decals for a while, and frankly, I find most of them cheesy.  I am sure they look fabulous in all of your houses, but I haven't seen anything that I really wanted to put on a wall.  I'm not into cliche quotes, I don't need hearts all over my walls, you get the idea.

Then, on a random "I don't really need anything but here I am" trip to Target, I found these little birds-on-a-wire on clearance and immediately pictured our guest room done up in gorgeous tans and browns with big birds where the headboard is supposed to be (and isn't).  Of course, I bought them for $10 and found that the big birds on a wire were actually teeny tiny birds on a wire that wouldn't fill an eighth of the space I wanted.

But fear not! I found a home for them.  I love the idea of guests pulling down a cheap little blind and finding a surprise!

What surprise is lurking in this window?

Birdies on a wire!

A closeup.  I'm in love with these little birds that will watch over my guests.

My concern was that they were a little too creepy in a "we're watching you" sort of way, but I think they are kinda adorable.

Have you ever done a little surprise in a room for people to discover? 

A Yankee moves South

Since I've been in my new place for one month, I figure it's time to move-a-long.  Yes, this Move-a-lot is headed to the Dirty South for 9 weeks while I do some Air Force training at Maxwell Air Force Base.

So, what to take to make myself feel at home?  One the list:

• A plant
• lots of pictures of Mr. and Baby Move-a-Lot
• My own comforter and pillow
• My little bowl that holds my wedding ring because I'm terrified to wear it when I wash my hands or shower
• My laptop (of course!)

 What else should I take?  What would YOU take?

Just take a little off the top, please

Remember the first shots of my backyard?  Well, after a little bit of work on my part, and a whole LOT of work on the part of my dad who came out to DC for a week , the before and after of my back yard now looks a-like so:

 

BEFORE: My garden grows too much!

AFTER: Looking nice and groomed

Turns out, plants grow better with water.  I KNOW!  It came as a shock to me as well.  But I'm happy to say that after just ONE watering, that big poofy plant (hydrangeas, I hear they are called) bloomed some big poofy purple blooms and stopped looking like a sick plant coughing up purple phlegm.  My dad raked out all the leaves from last fall (I'm assuming) that were choking plants and grass all over the place.  Then, he went to town with the hedge clippers, especially to the bushes near the back gate.  A little weedeating is all the lawn took, so that was pretty fast, although all the trimming and such required a couple big trash bags.  Mom and I pulled some vines and lots of dead leaves off the bushes that were dying so that new healthy leaves could come in.

My diligent Dad going to town on the plants

I'm trying to get in the habit of watering the plants every day in the morning when I let the dog about before work.  And also to stop said dog from sitting on these big ferns to take his morning latrine break.  No luck on that front yet.  As for the mosquitos, I'm starting cheap, with this stuff.  Haven't cracked it open yet, but I'll let everyone know.

Please please please work!

Future goals for this space: replace the stepping blocks with something bright and cheerful, get a great outdoor mat to cover most of the concrete, work on that mosaic table that I mentioned earlier, and find a place for that stupid canoe that Mr. Move-a-lot doesn't have the heart to toss yet.

What do you think?  A good start, right?

Inspiration from DC

Moving from city to city can be taxing, but each city brings with it design inspiration!  Here's just a few things I've found that inspire me.

This kitchen makes me want to cook

This (above) is Julia Child's kitchen, current on exhibit at the Smithsonian (you may have seen Amy Adams go visit in in Julie and Julia).  I love the green, love the layout, and love love love the hanging pots.

Presidentially ethereal

 This one is the actual bedroom of George Washington.  We visited his house at Mount Vernon the first weekend we were in DC.  I love this white airy look.  The walls are actually a light blue, and I'm telling you, this bedroom could be right out of the pages of Elle Decor.  Note: He actually died in this room, but I assume they washed that comforter.

A good tip for anyone

My folks have already visited and we went to the Smithsonian American History museum where we saw a lot of war memorabilia.  Now, since Mr. Move-a-lot and I are in the military, we pretty much keep our house free and clean of military stuff (separation of house and work!) but I love the look of vintage posters and I love how completely inappropriate this would be in our entryway.  Which means I have to have it.

Earhart was a browncoat!

I love the legend of Amelia Earhart.  The mystery, the intrigue, love it.  And I also love fashion and the show Firefly which was tragically cancelled. (More about that on my personal blog here)  But it looks like Amelia was perhaps just forward thinking in her style, cause this jacket is just effing cool.  Yeah, it's not really about design per se, but I would wear this in my designed house all the time. 

So, in just a month, I've found a bedroom, a kitchen, a hallway decoration and a jacket to wear.  Not too shabby!

What inspires you in YOUR city??

Hanging Paintings Like A Grownup

Remember seeing these on my personal blog?  Well to make Avery feel at home, I decided to hang them up in our new townhouse this weekend.

But, I decided it was time to act like a grownup, and instead of randomly nailing the pictures up, then taking them down, adjusting the nails, putting them back up, taking them back down, adjusting the nails, putting them back up (you get the idea) I actually used tools to help me out.  Now, this is not a new concept, as it's how most normal, more patient people hang pictures, but here's what I did.

First, I took some old paper that the movers had wrapped dishes in, grabbed a painting, and traced the shape of the painting onto the paper.  I did this 5 times, since I had 5 paintings.

Cutting my pattern

Next, I took some tape and my pieces of paper up to the nursery and hung them up on the wall, making my adjustments as necessary.

This would be the most boring nursery ever is these stayed up

Then, I measure the back of the painting so I would know where a nail would actually hit, marked that on a piece of paper and then used that paper to measure where a nail should be put into the wall on the paper that was hanging up.

Then, I nailed in two nails in each piece of paper.  Sure, each painting can be balanced with one nail, but two is perfect for two reasons: 1) you can use a level to make the two nails completely even and 2) especially when you are hanging paintings in a pattern, with TWO nails, you can slide the paintings left and right (assuming there isn't a specific hole the nail has to go in on the back of the paintings) to adjust for distances between paintings.  I usually nailed in one nail, and then used a level to mark where the next nail should go.  The level has holes in it for that purpose.  I KNOW!  GENIUS!  Wish I had thought of it first.

Levels with holes in them.  Mind. Blown.

The paper comes off, the nails stay in, the painting goes up.  Of course, it's me, so there's nothing that's PERFECT, but minor adjustments were easy (tilting nails and one the rare occasion, taking one out and adjusting) and then sliding the paintings left and right to make them an even distance from each other.

Eek.  Not quite perfect.

And, after all that adjusting, we have a good looking wall above the changing table!  My favorite part, other than the fact that I did these myself for Avery, is that they face his crib, so he can sit up and see them when he wakes up.

I promise the paintings are straight on the wall.  I'm standing all crooked.

What fun wall projects have you tried recently?

A Welcome Welcome Area

It's hard to enjoy coming home to your house when the front of your house is U-G-L-Y.  And has no alibi.  I'm completely aware I've made that joke before.  I can't help it.  It just come out of me.

Here's the front of our townhouse.  Old mulch, dying plants, really says "come on in!" right?

My sad little front yard

So, I went with my parents, who were out for the week, to THD (The Home Depot - we spend so much there, I'm allowed to give it a nickname).  Had to make a few trips because AFTER my dad put 6 bags of mulch on our cart, we realized we couldn't get 6 bags of mulch in a car with 3 people, 1 baby, and a stroller.  Lucky for us, we realized we couldn't do it before we bought the mulch.  We bought some...um....red pointy flowers.  And some....yellow flowers.  You see I'm great with flower names.  I'm what you call a pro.

Yellow marigolds and red...um..stickleface flowers.  That's what I'm calling them

Also picked up several bags of EarthGro Red mulch.  I had no idea there were so many colors of mulch!  I didn't know mulch existed until a few years ago.  I opted NOT to go with Sierra Red, which looked TOO red.  Can't piss off the Homeowner's Association (see below) and although I love love love color, it was a bit much.  The plain Red looked just bright enough to go with my red and yellow flowers.

First, mom and I laid out the flowers to get an idea of what they would look like and of our spacing.  Ok, truthfully, we were just getting them out of the trunk, but it was a way to start to see how it would all look.  There were four blooms in each pot, and Mom informed me we could actually pull them out of their pots and separated them.  No, Ali, they aren't connected.  Huh, go figure.  I just quadrupled my flowers!  We laid them out to see the picture even better.

This looks like some type of mass flower suicide.

Then came the digging!  I hurt my shoulder last week, so I was trying to dig with my nondominant hand while in an arm sling and Mom was plowing away with the trowel.  There were a TON of roots in the old mulch, so this was a much more annoying task than I had hoped.  But once we got all the flowers in, it was starting to look pretty darn fabulous.

See?  Getting pretty darn fabulous.

Then it was mulch time.  Three bags didn't get us the whole way, but man, did it make a difference!  It's like going from black and white to color.

What a difference some red makes!

Another trip to THD and another three bags of mulch later and we are looking niiiice.  I also trimmed back the bushes a bit so I could actually GET at my hose.  (There's a joke in there somewhere)

Much welcome-ier!

Now an interesting thing is that big ugly trash can.  We bought it and then, based on the advice of the neighbor to our RIGHT, bought a pretty white gate to put right in front of it so it can still sit in this very convenient location, but isn't visible from the front.  If we had a corner unit, we'd put it around the side of the house, but we do not.  So, we had a white gate (still wrapped in plastic) sitting out there just waiting to be installed when we heard a knock at the door.  Our very anal, lonely neighbor to our LEFT came to our door and the conversation went a-like this:

Guy: Hi there, I see you bought a gate.  I presume you mean to put it here? (indicates the front of our trash cans)

Me: Ummm...can I not?

Guy: Well, I don't know if Brian (owner of house we are renting) informed you, but there is a Housing Association and there are bylaws about installing gates.  Here is a copy of the bylaws (hands over giant stapled document).  I'm on the board (a little TOO proud of this fact) and if you want to install this, please submit us a letter telling us what you're installing and why.

Me: (has no words, but is thinking  "if I can't put my gate up, please enjoy the view of my trash can")

So I completely understand that you don't want someone putting up a gate or fence or sign that has a big marijuana plant on it, but this is a bit much.  I guess we'll be submitting that letter soon.

Anyway, left to do on the front: more mulching on some bushes along the side, taking off our house numbers and re-painting them, and filling in the empty spaces with some big pots with flowers or some hanging flowers on hooks or something.

What do you think?

Shower curtain first - all else follows!

Perhaps you remember this post on my personal blog about how I redid the bathroom in our old house in Massachusetts.  Or perhaps you remember it being featured on Fresh Home Blog (yay!)

I have found that the EASIEST way to make a bathroom your own and begin the design process is to pick a shower curtain.  Luckily, there are ridiculously awesome shower curtains to be found everywhere.  I think of a shower curtain as a huge piece of art that I can actually afford and don't have to buy a frame for.  And can get wet.  And folds up nicely.  What could be more fantastic??

We are renting a house now, and inherited this not-so-cute bathroom with peeling striped wallpaper and fabulous (sarcasm here) vanity with that fake marble look.  El gross.  Oh yeah, and a wallpaper border that people seemed to be obsessed with.

The original.  Um...ew.

I'm pretty sure I can sweet talk the landlord into letting me peel and paint at my own expense (hello, makes your bathroom nicer for free!), but wasn't sure where I'd want to go with color.  So, I relied on my "shower curtain first, all else follows" rule to give me an idea of the color scheme I might want to choose.

I picked up this awesome, bright, floral (but not TOO floral - this is the bathroom my husband gets ready in in the morning!) curtain from Room Essentials at Target (on clearance for $10.48!).  I was walking around Target and even though I promised Jon that I wouldn't do any decorating stuff for a few months until we got settled, I saw this on the clearance end-of-aisle shelf and couldn't resist!  Big yellow and black flowers - gorgeous.  It's called "Pineapple flower".

Bathroom "art"

So now the bathroom looks even worse because the flowers and stripes are clashy.  And not in a good "I think I'm a designer" clashy.  BUT, if I waited to post pictures until every room was done....this would be a boring blog.  If I had my way, I would paint the bathroom the dark color - black or navy of whatever it is (haven't decided) but that's probably too dark for the landlord (although he IS in Honduras....).  Neutral is going to have to be the way to go.  Crap....now that I'm typing this, maybe I should have picked a curtain with a more neutral color floating in it.  NO NO, I'm sticking with the flowers.  I'll find something.

Recommendations?  Perhaps just a white on the walls?