We Have Moved!

Please head over to my new EVERYTHING DESIGN web site and follow me there.  I will not be updating this one anymore.

Thanks!

Valentines Decorations

By some miracle I got my valentines decorations up BEFORE valentines this year.  And... I made some new ones for this year. 

This Love sign I made last year and I still like it!

 This is my project for this year.  I already had the branch up holding Christmas snowflakes.  I thought it would be handy for year around decorations.  I was looking for glitter heart ornaments but never found any so I thought I would make my own.  I picked up some wooden hearts from Michaels for about $.10 each.  I also picked up some Martha Stewart glitter in a variety of colors.  I just glued and glittered lots of hearts then tied a ribbon to string.  The large hearts are a heavyweight cardboard that  I added some extra decoration to. 

 I like this big one but it was taking too long so I simplified the rest.

 This one is green and gold like my favorite sports team.

 I worked so hard only to get lazy on my last heart and didn't space it out correctly.  So Happy Valentine Day to you too!

Check out the Heart cookies I made HERE.

Deal a Day Web Sites You Don't Want To Miss

There's a trend for these "deal a day web sites".  You have probably seen or used Groupon or Living Social.  But did you know that there are some great sites for your home?  Here are the ones that I check every day.


One Kings Lane

I got several Christmas gifts from this site and they were all great.  The only problem can be shipping times- order here if you are not in a hurry.  Prices are great but on the books- check amazon to make sure they don't have a sale.  The furniture and accessories can be expensive but they are incredibly nice brands.  I found some books, kids stuff, a computer case and some other treasures. 

The Foundary.  This is a newer site I found so I have not purchased anything yet.  They have really cool stuff and wonderful treasures for home and you!  Can't wait to find something here.

2M Collective is a version of 2 Modern.  They are a new deal site and they have not added a lot of items yet but this is one we need to keep an eye on.  The modern stuff on their web site is amazing so I am assuming the bargains will be as well.

Let me know what you think about these sites and if you do decide to join- please say that everythingdesign@hotmail.com recommended you.  I would really appreciate it!

More Tillmans Roadhouse Love

I posted HERE about my love for Tillmans Roadhouse.  I still love it.  So. Very. Much.  and I have an update I want to share. 

I decided that because I was so inspired by Tillmans it would be a good field trip for my Intro to Interior Design class.  I wrote Tillmans in Fort Worth and told them I loved their restaurant and I wanted to bring my class.  They happily agreed and even contacted the interior designer and asked him to come give us a tour. 

Well, he did come give us a behind the scenes tour and some insight to his design decisions.  We went before the restaurant opened for the day so the place was all ours.  The students loved it and I so appreciated a designer taking time out of his schedule to give students a tour.  Not everyone will do that. 

Then the school paid for my class to eat lunch since the food presentation is a part of the experience.  It was wonderful and I am so appreciative of their hospitality.  They even picked up the tab for our smores dessert.

Go and show Tillmans some love.  You won't regret it. 

 This is the outdoor dining area in Fort Worth.  I want my back porch to look like this.

 They have a beautiful table setting.  That popcorn is served instead of bread and it's tossed with truffle oil and it is to die for.  I don't even like popcorn.  Amazing!

A few weeks ago we celebrated my dad's birthday at the Tillmans in Dallas.  I had never been there for dinner and it is just as good as lunch except they do not have flavored lemonade at dinner.... or the grilled cheese.  That was disappointing.

 This is what I ate.  It was good.  If you go try the goat cheese tator tots.  Then bring one back for me.  They are too rich to eat the whole serving. 

The party room in Fort Worth.  I'll say it again.  Someone have a party for me there.  I'm sure I have done something worth celebrating. 

Don't answer that.



Wall Stickey- Blik Wall Graphics

Since our house doesn't have a playroom our living room can get a little flooded with toys.  In order to keep it under control I created a corner where the toys could go- and C could play. 

 The red shelf was a lucky find.  I hijacked it from my brother when he wasn't looking (no, seriously).  It fits perfectly and can double as a bench (when not filled with toys).  A group of carpet squares creates definition in the space and the most wonderful find- a big tree sticker. 

The big blank wall was bugging me and I wanted something that would work for a play area but not look too juvenile in the living room.  Check out Blik for some amazing wall stickers.  I looked at a ton of wall stickers and this site had the coolest. 

It was relatively easy to put up although I did ask a friend to come help.  Thanks Dina!

Home Office Info.

You can read this article. You might recognize one of the names... it's mine! Someone called the Art Institute and wanted one of the design instructors to comment for their article in Panache magazine. Since I am the only design instructor, I got interviewed. I made it clear that my experience is in commercial work and I don't deal with as many residential clients but she didn't care and said I had very good points. I believe this magazine has been out for a couple of weeks and I have recieved 0 (as in zero) calls, emails, texts, facebooks, or other sort of communication to tell me how much they learned from my insightful office commentary. I have also recieved 0 (as in zero) people begging me to create the perfect home office design for them. I'm sure all those messages were left at the school and I will get them when I get back. I will say that althought I have recieved 0 (still zero) calls, the author did a great job putting my comments in a way that made me sound somewhat intelligent- which I can promise you I did not on the phone.



Enjoy the article! Home Offices- Panache Magazine

Oh, how I love cone trees...

I'm getting a bit of an early start on my Christmas decorating. Every year when I pull these out I am reminded how much I love them!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Holiday Decorating- Getting Started!

Here's some inspiration for you!


David Stark Holiday Collection from west elm on Vimeo.

New floors

Okay, so we got new floors (again). Stay tunes for more photos. I don't want to post much till I'm finished decorating but who knows when that will be.







-- Post From My iPhone

When I say navy I mean navy

Can you see the dark navy walls and beautiful light fixture. It's located in my 3'x4' bathroom. I think even small spaces should look beautiful! Can't wait for the rest of the updates.


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Inspired by Navy

I'm often inspired by West Elm.  Shocker, I know.  Well, I was pondering painting my bathroom navy- I love navy lately in my clothes so why not for my home?  I pulled up the West Elm web site yesterday to check on the status of my light fixture (see previous post) and I saw this:

Well now I have to paint the room navy. 

Just kidding.  I wouldn't do it just because I saw this but I do love the way the navy looks with the white trim and dark wood.  I'll post some pictures when I'm done.... and when I convince my husband that navy is the right choice. 

Waiting on this...

This light is currently on the way to my house.  Yay!  We are going to be putting it in the master bathroom... our first update to the master so this is big.  It's from West Elm and it was on sale.  Both great things.  I'll have pictures when it's up!

My New Favorite Letter

I made this for a little girls room.  Can you tell?  Lots of flowers and lots of glitter.  Love it.  I hope she likes it!

Flower fail

Mike gave me some beautiful flowers for mothers day. I decided to split them up and display them around the house so I could enjoy them everywhere. The arrangement I came up with for the guest bathroom I am quite proud of.



I have had this vase forever and never used it for flowers.
Well I came in about an hour later and noticed a big puddle of water on the floor.

Did the toilet overflow?

No, apparently the vase isn't great at holding water. Maybe it's not a vase at all, I don't know.

I did what any normal person would do. I stuck a washcloth under the vase and called it fixed.



Yes, I have a milliion vases I could have transferred these flowers to but I didn't feel like doing that and none of my vases are as cool as this one.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fort Worth Home Tour

My mom and I went on a home tour on Saturday in Fort Worth. We saw some beautiful historic homes and she blogged about it HERE. I have no pictures so you have to go there to check it out. We walked approximately a billion miles.... give or take a few. I am still sore on Monday. We earned 4 weight watchers activity points and if you are familiar with that system, they don't give those suckers out easily, you have to earn them... and we did!




Most of the homes we toured were in the craftsman or mission or prairie style. That is my moms favorite style and one of mine (believe it or not based on my love of modern). There are fantastic details in craftsman homes down to the very last accessory. Here's a couple of books you should check out if you want to learn more.

Hand lettering

Anyone remember this from design school? My students needed a little "modivation" because their lettering wad not cutting it. I made them a sample. I'm not great at it, but trust me, its miles bette than what was turned in.
Thankfully their next assignment improved. Probably due to my amazing lettering!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fabric For Your Walls, Affordable Art

I came across this picture today while I was researching for my class.  I actually googled "fabric wallpaper" and got this picture as one of them.  I am not sure what it has to do with fabric wallpaper but I'm grateful to add it to my collection of inspiration.  For the record, I'm not googleing "fabric wallpaper" so that I can promote that as a finish in any way to my students.  I'm not against fabric wallpaper but one must be careful with it's use.  I don't think first year design students are ready for fabric wallpaper- I simply wanted to show them that fabric can go on the walls... under supervision of a trained professional designer.  Sorry, I needed to clear that up.  Here is the picture.

I don't know the source, if I looked hard enough I could probably figure it out, but who has time for that. 

How cool is this?  We could all do this.  Needlepoint hoops and some fabric.  Probably leftover or scrap fabric.  I'm looking for a place in my home to do this.  Then I need a bunch of fabric. 

Just wanted to share.  Hope you enjoy!

Knitted Pillows

Knitted pillows are very popular right now, and they can be quite expensive. Luckily, I have a mom who knits. She made me this lovely knitted pillow for my living room.



I wanted something light to compliment my dark sofa.
She even added a little pop of color when the sewed on the buttons



It matches my fireplace. How very thoughtful.

Someday I will have a pic of it in the den but it's still "under construction".

-- Post From My iPhone

Birthday Party Ideas- It’s all about the Details

My son just turned 1 and we had a little party to celebrate.  I didn’t have a lot of time to plan or money to spend so I tried to focus on the details to make an impression.

Invitations were super easy and affordable!  I designed them on photoshop then saved it as a .jpeg and uploaded it to shutterfly as a photo.  They come super fast on photo paper and are very affordable- just like printing a 5x7 photo!  Then, I mounted each of them on blue cardstock (so imagine the black line above is blue). 

I found these letters at a store in McKinney but I’ve seen them other places.  They come in a box full of the whole alphabet and I tied them one a piece of matching ribbon.

Food!  For the food, I made cake balls and placed them on the end of skewers.  I filled the vases with sugar and candy to place the cake balls.  I used cardstock to wrap around the vases and used a monkey stamp to decorate the front.  It was super fast and easy but helped tie the theme together.  Let me re-phrase.  The vases were super fast and easy, the cake balls were not.  They need their own post… but not on a design blog… maybe a cooking blog.  Until I get that started head over to Bakerella and see the ones she makes.  Then you may never visit here again. 

This was super easy.  I created a label on photoshop and printed it on to sticky paper and wrapped each bottle.  It really didn’t take long but was a nice detail. 
 
More cardstock and monkey stamps.  I used the vases to hold the snack food and a scoop to get the food out.

This was one of my favorite parts.  I designed flags on photoshop, printed them on sticky paper, then folded them around toothpicks.  I cut them out as rectangles then cut the angles off the ends after they had been wrapped around the toothpicks.  It actually didn’t take as long as I thought it would!
Oh, I saved time by forcing delegating cupcake making to my sister.  I recommend you try that for every party.  You have to use your own sister though.
 
Photos are an easy (cheap) decoration but can have a big impact.  These photos are displayed on a photo holder by Umbra.  I like it because it holds a ton of photos (and because its a great centerpiece at home too!).

Since the food was nice but not amazing- I thought I would jazz it up with some fun drinks.  Then, around every drink I put a tag that is similar in design to everything else.  I mean- fancy drinks = fancy party.  Right? 
 
Chocolate dipped pretzels are another easy party snack with a big visual impact.  These were supported by candy and when the pretzels were gone the candy didn’t last long either. 
I hope I inspired you with a few ideas and if you have any questions about specifics just leave them in the comments or send me an email!

This week I’m linking up with:
Show and Share Day
Show Us What Your Working With Wednesday
Whatever Goes Wednesday
Show And Tell at Blue Cricket Design
Works For Me Wedndesday
Make It Yours Day
Get Your Craft On
DIY Project Parade
A Soft Place to Land
Made By You Mondays
It's So Very Creative
Motivate Me Monday
Made It Monday
Something I Whipped Up Monday
Craft School Sunday
http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/
Stop by and check out all the crafty things everyone else is doing!

Bamboo Flooring- What are your options?

We fought the concrete- and the concrete won.  I posted HERE about our adventures in staining the concrete in the den ourselves.  It was a great flooring for us for a couple of years.  Then we had a baby, and that baby started crawling.  We started noticing that his hands and feet would be covered in brown stuff.  It was the floor coming up on him.  He must have a weird skin composition because it didn’t come up on us or other babies but we didn’t want him to eat too much of the stuff- who know’s what’s in it.  It was time to start exploring other options. 
I knew I wanted bamboo flooring.  It’s green (as in earth friendly- not actually GREEN), it’s beautiful, and not many other people have it.  Qualities I was looking for in a flooring.
Side note: here’s why it’s Green
Bamboo flooring Grown in Southeast China, bamboo is a fast growing grass that requires no pesticides or fertilizers. It generates without replanting. Its a low-energy naturally renewable resource and offers ecological diversity as a sustainable resource. It only takes 3 to 4 years for bamboo to mature. Bamboo is super strong, durable and highly versatile as building material, perfect for both commercial and residential uses
Here is what you probably think of when you hear Bamboo Flooring.

Light in color, distinctive “markings” every few inches, thin strips.  This is a horizontal natural bamboo.  Great product- it’s hard and will hold up fine for you.  It’s not for everyone though.  Some people want a traditional wood and they won’t be happy with bamboo no matter what.
Here’s another option.  It’s a Vertical bamboo which means the “strips” are turned on their sides. 

I love the thin linear look of this one.  This piece is “carbonized” in color which means the bamboo has been steamed and pressed and the sugars darken the color a bit.  Carbonizing softens the product a little but a lot of people are looking for a darker color than the original light bamboo.
When looking for a bamboo- look for a piece that has bamboo from top to bottom- not just a thin layer of bamboo mounted on plywood or other substrate.  I think bamboo having the bamboo all the way through is better- but that’s just my opinion.
And here’s another option for bamboo. 

It’s called strand bamboo.  This is when they take all pieces of the bamboo and smash them together with a lot of heat and pressure.  This is the hardest bamboo they make.  In fact, it’s harder than Oak… by quite a bit.  It’s also priced a bit higher than the other two options and looks the least like traditional bamboo.  Here’s another strand bamboo.

They took natural and carbonized pieces and sandwiched them together.  I’m in love with this one.  In fact, we were very close to installing in in our living area but it was about $2 more a sq. ft. than the one we selected and we just couldn’t. 
Still not sold on a bamboo?  How about one that looks like this:

Stained and scraped and you can hardly tell it’s bamboo. 
Bamboo comes in so many different options and styles.  If you are interested in bamboo for your home, do your research and don’t let your flooring supplier talk you out of it.  In our recent search for a bamboo floor- if they didn’t sell bamboo or had some more expensive products- they worked very hard to try and convince me to go a different direction. 
Well, it didn’t work because as I type- someone is installing this
 
in my living room.

Pictures to come!



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