Kitchen Rug

I bought a rug off of esalerugs.com on Monday night, and it arrived on my doorstep yesterday (Wednesday). Wow! Speedy delivery. Besides that, I am also in love with it. See?

I took this with my phone, so the quality is poor...and it was also night-time, but I just had to show you guys. Here is another shot that I took to text my friend (in the afternoon):

I love it! My friend had ordered a rug from there and had great results, and I also read on Bryn's blog about her buying one there, so I thought it'd be a great place to go, and it was.

A Few Things...

Just a few things to share on this Wednesday morning...

first, thanks to my friends Janell and LaKeitha at House of Fifty Magazine for including my living room, alongside one of my blog idols, Jenny from Little Green Notebook. Also, it was written by Kim Myles from HGTV's "Myles of Style"...so cool!

The article is about working with what you have, and are able to create, rather than buying everything as-is. Quite a contrast to a recent Mary McDonald quote that Emily addressed on her blog yesterday (also thanks to Emily for including me!). I love making things and painting items for my home...there is such a sense of satisfaction and pride that comes along with turning "trash to treasure", as they say. I am always so happy and satisfied after I've created something pretty for my house. There is nothing like pulling a room together, when you've had budget restraints, and have to be really creative to get the look you want.

(yes, that's a screenshot from my computer, because I am apparently not tech-savvy enough to figure out how to get a photo of just the page...)

anyway, next up, yesterday, a client sent over her deposit for a future job in stationery that she had made with a drawing I did for her twins' nursery (this one)...it made my day!

here is the framed original, on the shelf:

also...I am currently painting a client's kitchen cabinet doors in my studio...it's a welcomed first in this painter's book

they're all resting on paint cans, so that they don't touch the ground, hah! I have a lot of paint at the studio :)

lastly, I went to Starbucks yesterday, and noticed a few great design elements I loved. This subway tile is exactly what I'm thinking for our kitchen. It's white, even though it looks creamy or gray in this photo. It's beveled, which I love, and I also like the look of a dark gray grout with it:

I also really liked the putty-ish grays that were used on this wall, that was really made more elegant with the wooden trim elements. The light fixtures were pretty, too. Way to go, Starbucks!

that's it for today...enough with my rambling, and happy hump day.

Sofa Table

I recently completed a new sofa table painting project, and I have to say that I really like the way it came out. It was really fun to paint, too! I'm starting to get the hang of this style of painting, after having painted this piece for the same client:

here is what the sofa table kind of looked like before I got a hold of it (it was your basic wooden piece - very simple):

what we were kind of going for:

and, after:

my favorite part about it is that vine pattern in the middle - I feel like I could make those brushy patterns all day. It's really relaxing and fun to do.

somehow, I don't have a horizontal photo of the top, so these long-ways ones will have to do! Shoot.

It completely changes the feel of this traditional type of furniture, doesn't it?

Pantone's MyColor Spokesperson Announcement!

Hi everyone! I'm here today with some super-exciting news. I was chosen to be the spokesperson for MyColor™ inspired by PANTONE® paint line, which is available now in select Lowe's stores! Remember when I blogged about painting the pieces for their brochures? Well, that turned into this, and I couldn't be more excited about it!

The paint is currently available in select Lowe's stores, Lowes.com, and Pantone.com. I will be writing a blog for them, detailing projects and ideas inspired by and using MyColor^TM inspired by PANTONE® paint. I will of course always link to the projects from here, so hopefully you'll see lots more cool DIY stuff from me this year.

The blog will be up soon, but if you want to check out the paint, you can follow the link here. I'll be sure and let you know when the first post goes up! :)