Color crush: Navy + coral

I promise to post my vacation recap soon. I have a love/hate relationship with the 300-plus pictures I took during my adventure AKA I relish pouring over them and reliving all of the amazing things I experienced, but dislike the tedious editing process and only choosing a handful to share. 

In the meantime, I had to share my latest color crush. The punchy combo comes from a project I'm working on. I love being inspired by the creative process and it's been a fun one thus far. 

But the collection of lovelies below is all you get right now, friends. Stay tuned. I can tell you how completely blessed I feel in my life right now. Everything has changed in the past year, and I'm doing things I've only dreamed of. It really does pay to take that leap. 

Get the goods: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

Sneaky peek

Keeping a fun secret isn't one of my strong suits, so I'm giving you a little preview of a project I hope to finish next week. I've never been good with surprises (one of my best friends from high school and I unwrapped her Christmas presents, checked out the goods and wrapped them back up one year). But I'm doing my best to keep this under wraps.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend full of DIY fabulousness. 

Peep the revamps that aren't a secret here.

Sneaky peek

I'm almost ready to reveal the fruits of our labor from this past weekend. Until then ...

You're my wonderwall ...

The gallery wall I mentioned in my Five for Friday post a few weeks ago is finally hung in the living room. We have a total of 13 black and white images right now, but will add more over time. If I had my way, the rest of the 100 treasured photographic memories I chose would be up there for all to see yesterday. I love the idea of black and white photos. There's something about a lack of color in pictures that reminds of me of a vintage, classic time. The teal wall where the images rest on also makes the b+w pictures stand out.

I think it turned out well for not having a store-bought pattern. The cohesion of the b+w  images and haphazard placement of the frames makes for the perfect blend of organized madness.

What do you think?

Progress and some life lessons and hideous hues along the way

This weekend was pretty productive. The fiance's nightstand makeover is coming along nicely. I had to sand off all of the dark stain he put on it after acquiring it from an old neighbor. In the process of stripping it down to the original wood, I found a surprise. And it wasn't the kind you eagerly anticipate on your birthday or Christmas.

The neighbor had stained it a hideous salmon color. Ugh. I asked Bruce why anyone would choose that shiny shade of nastiness for a great vintage piece? To which he replied, "Well, it was the 1950s." And my response: "There's no excuse for ugly." With the salmon disaster behind me, I'm excited to paint the nightstand white to show off its fabulous shape, which the dark stain was hiding.

Even though I have a clear vision for a piece of furniture when I begin, I seem to underestimate how involved the projects turn out to be. Maybe it's because I've only done three including the nightstand? Maybe it's the perfectionist in me? Each piece seems easier than the last when I begin the revamping process, but turns out to be more time consuming. Despite that, these projects are giving us "new" furniture that isn't mismatched and helping me become more handy and patient. I really had no expectations other than pretty furniture when I began these makeovers. But my confidence in properly navigating around a garage is growing. If you need something wood puttied, sanded, primed or painted, I'm your girl. And I definitely couldn't say that three months ago.

Five for Friday

It's that time again, friends.

My five goals/wishes/hopes/projects for Friday through Sunday.

1. Rest my body following five consecutive days of working out

2. Paint Bruce's nightstand

 

3. Hang the rest of the black + white photo gallery on the living room wall

4. Enjoy the sights and sounds of our second Diamondbacks' game at Chase Field

5. Start the packing process for the Alaska/Washington DC trip

What are your Five for Friday? May your weekend endeavors, whatever they are, be rad.

 [my photo of the sunset over Ellensburg, Wash. 06.09]

Five for Friday

I treasure weekends. You see I rarely had the luxury of any weekend day off while working in newspapers, which sucked. I'd usually start my work week on Thursday or Friday as Bruce's was ending, so we never could take a spontaneous day trip or enjoy watching college football together. Everything had to be planned months in advance, and life doesn't always work that way. Well, it can as evidenced in my constrained situation, but how boring. And if something came up at the last minute, forget it.

The plethora of Facebook status updates revealing people's plans for Friday-Sunday used to make me envious. I was happy for my friends, but wished I could have time off with my significant other like the majority of the rest of the working world.

Granted things are much busier, which is a pain. But at least I can do the crowded, pain-in-the-ace stuff with Bruce without figuring it out 85 years in advance. The freedom of jumping in the car and heading to Sedona, taking the entire day to finish up a home-improvement project or simply relaxing with a cold beverage and good conversation is absolutely worth celebrating.

And that's where my "Five For Friday" series comes in. Each Friday, I'll pick five activities, goals, emotions, suggestions, etc. for the weekend. I may or may not get to all of them, but at least I have the opportunity and choice to now.

My Five for Friday:

1. Hang our black + white photo gallery on the living room wall

2. Get a knob for the coffee table and other assorted items for projects around the townhouse

3. Laugh

4. Swim in our complex pool to combat the 90-degree temps

5. Acquire some beautiful blooms for the living room

[source]