Hello, Sunshine!

The weather has been awful this week. It made me think how much I miss the sunshine. So I decided to do a post all about yellow. I love the color yellow, it's so happy and fun. You can do almost anything with yellow. You can use it as an accent color in a room or if you're really brave you can make it the main color. My bedroom is yellow. And I love it. It's so fun when the sun is shining through the window it just makes me want to dance. But then at the same time, at night it's so warm and inviting when I want to snuggle up in bed. And I love first thing in the morning when my whole room lights up as soon as the sun hits the walls. It's very peaceful. So in order to bring some sunshine into both of our days here are some fun ideas on how to use yellow when decorating.Add little accents. Pick up some yellow flowers or set out a fun bowl full of lemons. Not only are lemons an easy way to add some color to a room they last a long time so you don't have to worry about them going bad. I really love the yellow chair in this picture. If you have a chair that needs to be refinished consider painting it.I love these yellow lamps that they used in this room. Lamps are very important accessories that are often overlooked or left until the very last when a room is being re-done. But I am here to tell you that lighting can make or break a design. So next time you're in the market for new lamps remember to add some personality.Here is that painted furniture again. See how much pop those nightstands add to this bedroom. I also love that fun headboard. It would be easy to make this by painting it onto a wood headboard, but how much funner would it be to make it upholstered out of a striped fabric. You can find instructions on how to make one here.

I just absolutely adore this bedroom. I love that really warm yellow, it's almost more goldenrod if you ask me. And how fun to put bead board around the bottom of the wall. Another thing I really like about this room is that they paired a really bright color with another really bright color. I think a lot of times we are afraid to do this but as long as you don't over do it, it can be so much fun.

Hope this helps to bring some sunshine into your day!

[photos from House Beautiful and Country Living]

Earth Tones

I decided to do a post about one of my favorite color schemes. Earth tones! I always come back to this color scheme. It's so calming and relaxing. I love decorating in these colors because you can do so much with them. Nature is a great area to gather inspiration. So, next time you're out on a hike or a trip somewhere be sure to bring your camera and then incorporate your favorite colors into the next room you're decorating. Don't forget that earth tones aren't limited to just browns and greens. You can also incorporate those gorgeous fall oranges and yellows and the beautiful spring colors. What is your favorite color scheme?

[photos from House Beautiful]

Earth Day Post #3

Happy Earth Day everyone! Did you know that this is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. I had no idea until I found this website. They have all sorts of neat information about Earth Day and about going green in general. Yesterday I shared ideas with you about how to go green, today I'm going to do the same but I'm going to focus mostly on how to go green while decorating or re-decorating your space.

1. Try to use a no- or low-voc paint. In short voc's are what causes that lovely smell that you get after you've painted something. You can now find paint without voc's and they're much better for the environment. When me and my husband were recently re-painting our house we used paint with low voc's. It was so nice because it wasn't any more expensive, the people at Lowe's were really helpful and even matched the color I found from a different paint company just so we could get the low voc paint. One thing that I think is awesome about no- or low- voc paint is that our house didn't smell like we had just painted for a week after. In fact it didn't even smell like we had painted at all. If nothing else, that was a huge bonus.

2. Buy used. This is one of the best ways to get that completely original look and help the environment. By first shopping local garage sales or thrift stores not only can you find something really unique but you're creating a look that is completely yours. No one else will have that table because you bought the only one. Often times you can also refinish these items to add even more character. I love a completely original piece because then my house feels like it's mine, not a model home.

3. Re-use what you already have. Making a quick change in your decor is really simple and can be really cost effective if you go about it the right way. By re-using what you have, you're saving it from going in the land-fill and you're saving yourself money. You can easily buy covers for pillows and instantly change the look of a room. Also, it's fairly simple to repaint furniture to get a new look. Check out this fun post from a blog I just discovered to see what I mean.

So next time you're getting tired with your current decor, try changing it the green way. Then you'll have an awesome new room and feel good that you were helping the environment. A win win in my book!

[photos from House Beautiful]

Going "green"

Hey everyone! Today is day 2 of my Earth Day posts. Today, I just wanted to share a few ideas for how you can help the environment. These ideas are pretty simple but every little thing helps. For me being eco-friendly is more about making sure that our world stays wonderful for all of the future generations. It's like the saying when you go camping that you need to leave it better than you found it. That's what I'm trying to do. Plus in a lot of cases being eco-friendly is actually less expensive than everything else. So here is the first round of ideas for how to be more eco-friendly in your home.

1. Buy local whenever possible. By supporting our local stores or farmers not only are we supporting the local economy but we're also helping to reduce the emissions from shipping something from who knows where to where we live.

2. Use reusable grocery bags. Or as I like to call them my "whatever" bags. I use these things for everything. I take them to the library, pack picnics in them, carry whatever I need for a project in them. I don't know what I would do without reusable bags. (Also, did you know that some stores offer a discount for every reusable bag you use. I know for sure Target gives you 5 cents off your purchase for every reusable bag you use.)

3. Use compact fluorescent bulbs. CFL's may be a little more expensive than a regular light bulb at first but they last a lot longer, and they use a lot less energy. Even if you don't use them everywhere in your house, try to pick a few where you could use them. At my house we have them in our porch lights. Also, they now make CFL's that put off light that looks just like a normal incandescent bulb.

4. Use your windows to your advantage. This time of year is really the perfect opportunity for this. In the morning open your blinds and try to use the lights as little as possible. Nothing is better than natural sunlight. Also, when it's nice weather, open a window instead of using the air conditioner. I love getting that nice spring breeze coming through my house.

So there are my four ideas for today, I'll share more with you tomorrow!

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day everyone! I love doing things green and am trying to be more earth-friendly in everything that I do. To start off my earth friendly week of posts I thought I would find some fun items on etsy. Check out the links on the bottom to find out where you can purchase these and check back all this week for fun tips on how to go green in your home!

1.2.3.4.5.6.

How to Hang A Picture Collage

So my Sunday afternoon project this week was to create a picture collage. We've been living in our house for about 6 months but haven't gotten any pictures hung up yet. I looked for instructions on the best way to do this since I didn't want to have a million holes in my wall from where I messed up. I found these fun instructions on this blog and decided to create my own.

First, I laid my pictures out how I wanted them to look on my wall. We had these neat pictures from our wedding of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents that I've been wanting to do something with.Next, I traced each frame onto a piece of paper and made sure to make a mark where the nail needed to go.

Then I taped all of my papers onto my wall so that I could get everything lined up. Once I got everything up there I actually ended up completely flipping my collage to cover up a lovely hole that we had in our wall.

The next thing you need to do is put the nails in where you drew your dot. You can just nail straight through the paper. Then after you've done that you just need to remove your papers.

And here is your final product! A beautiful picture collage that is completely personal.

Recent Happenings

I had my portfolio event last week and this week was graduation. For portfolio we had a project that we displayed but then we also put a lot more projects that we put in a book, I'm planning on getting more detailed photos of that for you guys this coming week. It has been a pretty busy couple of weeks but it was all worth it. Here are some pictures I wanted to share with you. Tomorrow I'll be posting about a fun project that I just finished in my house. I made a tutorial for all of you! I'm pretty excited about it, I hope you all are too. Enjoy!

Spring Fever

I have been having spring fever recently and have been ready for spring to come for the past month. So I decided that I would share a little spring with all of you courtesy of Etsy. Hope this helps brighten your home!

Click on the links below to see where you can buy these and more fun items.

1.2.3.4.5.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall

So, I have this horrible bathroom mirror in my house right now, it has to go preferablly sooner rather than later. So I've been spending the week looking for mirrors that I can put over the sink in my bathroom. I think I've decided to do a mirror with a frame, now I just have to find one that I really like. Here are some of the inspiration pictures I found that I want to share with you.

[photos from House Beautiful and Country Living]

Peaceful

Today is my portfolio event at school. Life has been pretty hectic at my house lately trying to get everything ready. By seven tonight weeks and weeks of work will be on display for my family and friends to see. All I want to do today is find somewhere nice that I can relax and unwind. After tonight, school will be over and next week I'll be graduating. These are some of my favorite "peaceful" rooms. Enjoy and wish me luck!

[photos from House Beautiful and Country Living]

Why, Hello There, Nice To Meet You!

Welcome to my design blog. I recently graduated from LDSBC and absolutely love design! I'm not an expert by any means, but I really enjoy design and I'm hoping that through this blog I will be able to share my love for design with everyone. There a lot of absolutely amazing blogs out there and I am hoping that I will have something to add to this world of design blogging. More than anything I want this to be somewhere that I can share my ideas and inspiration with all of you. Never hesitate to ask me a question, I am more than happy to share my thoughts with you.