Its a bird? Its a plane? ITS NEW COUNTERS!!!

Its happening!

Its finally happening!!

Our kitchen is getting a little make-ova'! (And by little, I mean HUGE!)

I'm around beautiful products all the time, and until now I've been very good at looking-but-not-touching. However, when I found this linear mosaic blend tile I fell. In. Love. Hard. As I was stroking the tile with the back of my hand, I asked my sales rep to pllllllllease order me a sample. (Or two. Or three...) so when they arrived about a week later, I was head over heals with my tile. Yes, MY tile. It became mine within a nanosecond. I received three pieces of three rows of my tile. So I laid them on the counter, and drooled. Then it hit me- TAPE THEM UP!

So I did...

I hung some up here (I used the blue tape to hold them up because its a low-tack tape, so it won't pull off my drywall when its done holding the tile in place!)  

And put some over here too...(don't mind the canister of mini M&M's...I feel its vital that every kitchen have some M&M's!)

And over here too!! Yes we will be putting the tile on the side of our panty. Why? Because when they installed the laminate side splash, they glued it to the side of the cabinet. So when we rip it off, we would have a yucky (yes, yucky is a totally 'professional' word) surface, so we are going to cover the whole area with the pretty tiles and call it a day!

Now it might seem like a simple task; just find a counter to go with the perfect backsplash tile, Erin. Shouldn't be a big deal, right? I mean, this is what I do for other people...I should be able to do this for my home without incident, right? Well...I thought solid black counters were going to be the way to go. I was certain it was all about the solid black. I got a sample of Black Uba Tuba and moved it around the kitchen, and kept feeling like "its oooooookay". It wasn't that shock of electricity through me like, "YES! This is THE one...". I knew something was off, so I moved it around and around, and finally I put it in the laundry room so that when I was folding laundry, I could really "look" at it. And that's when it hit me. Somewhere in between socks and t-shirts, I realized what the problem was. It was green. 

I asked the hubs when he came home:

me: Do you see green?

hubs: Green?

me: Yes. In the sample, do you see green?

hubs: I see green outside. I don't see any green in the counter. 

me: You're sure?

hubs: Is this going somewhere?

me: I see green

hubs: I see your crazy

me: Oh. 

Realizing I wasn't gonna convince him that there was green in the counter, I emailed my granite rep, explaining my epic dilema. Mainly that I don't have anything green in our house. Like, NOTHING in our home is green. Its all black, white, gray and beige. Not green. And my perfect backsplash tile wasn't green. AHHHHHH. And could she please knock me off a sample of the gray granite? She emailed me back, told me she doesn't see green in the granite either, but she wanted me to be 100% happy, so if I saw green, she saw green and she'd happily knock me off a piece of the gray. 

I brought home the gray granite and put it next to the "black" one. Hands down, I knew. I got that tingly feeling with the gray...but I withheld my giddy-happy-dance until The Hubs made his decision. 

me: So, here they are, side by side. Which do you prefer?

hubs: Uhm

me: YOU HAVE TO THINK?

hubs: Uhm

me: This was the quickest, easiest decision ever

hubs: So its the gray one, right?

me: DUH!

(and that's how we communicate)

Because I'm me, I've been moving around the sample of granite too. Its been in every corner, under every item (like our soap dispenser) I have that lives on my counter...I've hung it over the side of my sink (because the new one will be under mount...and I wanted to see how that would look and feel...) I've sprayed my sample of granite with my usual cleaner, just a wet cloth, a sponge with soap...all to find out which will leave a streak and which won't...

My version of an under mount sink...sorta

 ...and next to the sink

Our little granite sample has become my favorite coaster...and trivet, and cutting board...I might actually miss my little sample. Oh wait, I won't have to have a mini sample anymore...because in two weeks we will have a GIANT counter to use a coaster! EEK! I can put a hot pan on my counters! I can cut directly on the counter! I can TAP DANCE on my counters!! SQUEEEEEEEAL! I'm so excited! 

Here are the two samples together:

Perfect harmony...

We're poppin' ovah here!!!

 One of my favorite things about Spring is when the sun comes out, but the air is cold. Like today for instance, its sunny, blue skies but with the high of like, 50. That's perfect weather for me. Why? Because I don't like being hot.

Yes, I lived in Florida for 14 years which only cemented in my brain how much I don't like being hot. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't like being cold- like bitter cold, blue hands and toes; that's not my cup of tea. I just like it brisk. Yes, that's the best word to describe it, brisk.

To prove that Spring is popping up in random places here are two examples.

First: We like to go to a bar/restaurant called The Winking Lizard (which has a HUGE live lizard who lives in a cage in the middle of the dining room- AWESOME!) and while walking out of it the other night, I noticed these in the window of the Sherwin Williams store that's right next door.

Now you wanna tell me that isn't CUTE?! And clever!! I love seeing everyday items being used in imaginative ways. This made me think "I should do that with Lil' Man!" except I don't want to pull an entire lot of pink tip cards out of their display...pretty sure managers frown on that sorta thing...

Now my second example of Spring is this:

Can you see him there? Hiding? Just to the right of that yellow weed? Right, here's a little story about him.

Because its Spring, that means that the weeds start popping up. (dead pan, yay!) My Action Hero Husband went out with the weed killer and nabbed those suckers straight away (good job honey!) but then two days later, they were all dead and yellow and just looked like Morticia Addams garden. So while Lil' Man was nappin' away, I pulled out my gardening gloves (dusted them off and shook them, making sure nothing living was hiding in the finger holes) and started pullin' up the dead weeds.

Here's something you might not know about me yet. I don't really do live animals. Meaning, live animals that I might come across in the yard, i.e., snakes, things with wings (excluding birds, they don't bother me) ants, mice, things with more feet than me...get the point?

So, while I'm in the weed-pulling-zone, Jack (our dog) is laying behind me sunning himself, I reach down to grab a weed and let out a super girlie yelp, then fall backwards on my bum. Yes, Mother Nature punked me. That little toad didn't even have the decency to flinch while I was busy having a mini heart attack right next to him. He just blinked his little toad eyes at me like, "what's wrong wit' you, lady?"

Needless to say that weed that you see in the photo next to him, is still there.

While all of this fresh air is inspiring me to clean the house I found myself this morning cleaning out the refrigerator. And, as I'm kneeling down to pull out the bottom drawer (that no one really uses...) I'm asking myself, "How did I get here? Right here, kneeling down, in my pajamas with a soapy sponge cleaning out our fridge? How did this happen?" Its like I've been bitten by the Spring Cleaning bug or something. Yesterday I was all hopped up on cleaning our master bathroom. If I was pregnant (which I'm so not) you might call this nesting, but it seems this happens to me every year in Spring. I get bit by the bug, land in the zone and put on my bright yellow gloves. I mean, worse things could happen to a girl, right?

On the design front, I popped into Pier1 last week to buy some pieces for a client's new patio that extends off her master bedroom. Can I just tell you how much I enjoy Pier1? The bright colors, the music, the products...all of it, just makes me happy. Here's the space:

Long and narrow, so I used blue painters tape to give my client an idea of how big everything would be.

We got two of these chairs from Pier1 and put these cushions on them for a little pop of color (I love that they are reversible so when you get tired of one side, just flip for something new!)

And two of these smaller planters from Frontgate.com

Once all the flowers are planted I'll take photos!

Happy Spring!