Clinique green to Languid Blue...

So, after I raved about the Clinique green I was going to paint the bathroom, I had a change of heart.

When I'm with a client or talking to someone about their home, its always so easy for me to help them make a decision and give them that extra pat on the back they need for encouragement to help them know they are making the right decision.

I on the other hand become a great big fickle mess with my own house, which is why its taken almost four years for it to become exactly what I wanted. Yes, I said FOUR years. Seriously...

So I went from Clinique green, which, honestly I would have gotten the paint mixed right away except I had an EEK-moment one morning while using my toner. (What does any of this have to do with paint? Go with me...)

The Clinique green I wanted was the green of my face wash bottle. A simple, light, translucent green. One morning I was applying my toner (or, as Clinique calls it "exfoliating lotion"...whatevs) I looked at the "Clinique green" cap and realized I hated that shade of green. And, what if that is the color of my bathroom?

I had a mini panic attack.

I didn't want my toner cap green. I wanted my face wash green. How would the paint person at Home Depot know the difference? Maybe my face wash color green, when mixed with a white base turned into the toner cap green? I couldn't have that. I just couldn't take that risk.

So, I thought. Long and hard about what I was going to do about this green debacle. Because seriously, that's what this had turned into, a freakin' DEBACLE!

I realized that I've always liked blue...not baby blue, but like a light blue with gray undertones. I pulled out my Sherwin Williams fan deck and went to work.

So I pick a blue and then get to work with the accessories and draperies and that TOO was another mess...because I found this panel from Pier 1 that I loved (and since I looked at it everyday, I really talked myself into it...but it had the blue liked and the brown matched the brownie-batter wall color in the bedroom, so it worked) but then today I was in Bed Bath and Beyond with my cousins and found this panel, which I bought.

(Yes, its totally a shower curtain, but its going in a bathroom...and who says just because its "supposed" to be a shower curtain you can't use it as a...throw blanket? I mean, really...rules were made to be broken...)

I was so proud of myself for seeing something, really liking it and just buying it. I know that sounds stupid, but when you're like me...and my fickle-self, finding something and immediately knowing you can't live without it...thats a major milestone in my week!

Now I've got the paint mixed and ready to go too! OMGAW, I cannot WAIT for tomorrow! Pictures to follow sooooooon!

Desperate Housewives

I have become a whore.

Nooo, not the type that pays (although, in these "tough economic times")...the type that reschedules things in her day to accommodate a few hours of time for her favorite t.v. show.

"Which show are you so excited about Erin?"

Desperate Housewives. On Lifetime.

My obsession with Lifetime started many years ago, when I was a teenager. I was never into the movies about women who got raped by their bosses nephew at a house warming party or anything...I was more into the shows that they showed, in order, everyday.

When we first got married I was able to hide my little obsession. Only watching on "off" hours, when the hubs was still at work...that kinda thing. But then, he caught me one night endulging in a movie about a pregnant woman who was being stalked by a woman who couldn't have babies, but was going to a gyno so she could meet a pregger and then steal the baby. (yeah, it was good!) I was on the phone with my mom back and forth the whole movie because I needed answers only a mom could provide:
"could she really be that dumb?"
"who does that?"
"will you come with me to the drs when I'm pregnant and watch my back from baby stealers?"

I was sloppy. I asked too many questions and I got caught. The hubs tried to reach for the remote and I nearly bit him. Hehehe...

Anyway, now I'm all caught up on D.H....thankfully Lifetime was playing THREE episodes a day and I was able to record all of 'em. Today I got to the season finale from 2009 and almost DIED when they didn't show who Mike was marrying!

I anxiously went back to my listing on the dvr to see what the next episode was and GUESS WHAT?! It was the damn PILOT!

And now, since its March, most of this season of D.H. is already over and I'll be completely lost if I start watching on Sunday nights, so now I just have to wait a little while longer for Lifetime to get the newest episodes.

One good thing that has come of this though is that I finally got to see the actual pilot episode. Which, I was literally busting out laughing that Lynette walked into the pool with her clothes on to wrangle her three boys who jumped in at the funeral for Mary Alice.

Classic.

Thanks Home Depot!

Its not everyday that you can buy a door knob, open the package, install said hardware, accidentally throw out the packaging, then realize the door knob doesn't match all the other knobs in the house, call big-box-store grovel to see if they'll accept the hardware without the packaging (or the instructions, tools it came with...) and they say "YES! We'll take it back!"

So here's a great big shout-out to the Depot for making me a super happy customer today :)

They say...

They say inspiration can hit at anytime. I never really got this statement until last night.

I'm in the bathtub enjoying a Basin bath bomb (which, omg, if you've never used one before, buy them. Now. Seriously, you will NOT regret the experience...seriously, its 'da bomb. Yes, I went there!)

Anyway, back to my inspriation. I've been talking it over with the hubs that I want to repaint our bathroom. While the tub was filling, I grabbed the essentials, shampoo, check. Pumice stone, check. Face wash, check.

I get in and as I'm soaking away my day, I look at my face wash bottle and realize, OMG, That's IT!THESE ARE THE COLORS I'M GONNA PAINT THE BATHROOM! Clinique green!

As my mind should be relaxing in the tub, I suddenly realize, we have all chrome fixtures in the bathroom (I look around to verify this fact, the tub spout, the faucets, the handle on the toilet...they all MATCH the silver on the face wash bottle! OMG!)

Then I notice the "proof of purchase" ticket that Dilliard's affixed to the side of my face wash, it was white. OMG, I just painted all the trim in the bathroom white!

Could this be the most obvious sign EVER?

I started to picture the bathroom painted this lovely, crisp shade of Clinique green and couldn't help but scrub with the pumice stone fast enough to get out of the tub quicker to tell the hubs the great news!

"I figured out what color I'm going to paint the bathroom!" I tell him. "oh?" I pull out my face wash bottle and point out all the key factors. I point out the chrome neck on the bottle matches the chrome fixtures...the white lable matches the newly painted white trim and he says, "Hmm, we had a bathroom painted that color in the house I grew up in".

HU?

(Now, this might be true, but DON'T STEAL MY THUNDER!) I quickly point out that while this is might have been a popular color "back in the day"...I'm giving it the come back it so rightfully deserves and in a few short weeks, its debut will take place.

He kissed me on the forehead and said, "whatever makes you happy honey"...hehe

Martha makes me laugh

Since I'm home a lot more nowadays I take full advantage of our dvr. One of my favorite shows growing up was the Martha Stewart Show...where she always had her "good thing" tips and she'd constantly talk about her herb garden (normal people pronounce it an "erb" garden. Not Martha, no no, she has HURB gardens. Yeah, pay attention next time you watch her, HURB...)

Anyway, one day I caught her new show and realized just how self-absorbed this woman was. Yes, she's a money mogul. Yes, she's the ceo of a huge corporation and yes, she has achieved more in her lifetime than most families combined (over several generations!) achieve...but what struck me as rather odd was just how snooty she was.

She was interviewing Julie Andrews (who, if you don't know who that is, you OBVIOUSLY live under a rock). Julie said something like, "my children and me..." Martha quickly corrected her, "you mean, 'my children and I". HELLO? MARTHA? That's Julie Andrews, you do NOT correct Mary Poppins! (She's practically perfect in everyway!)

Next time I caught the show she had on Kenan Thompson (hilarious guy from SNL) and while doing the beginning introductions, she pointed out that Kenan was "overweight" and could "learn a lot from our nutritionist today". SAY WHA?! This woman is straight up CRAZY! She just insulted him. TO HIS FACE!

I immediately grabbed the remote and selected "record series". I needed to watch this train wreck daily!

And Martha has lived up to my high standards I've set for her.

Yesterday I watched her "tall show" and, as the name says, the show was related to all things tall. The tallest cake ever made, everyone in her audience was over 6' and she herself was wearing the "tallest shoes I could find".

This might have been my favorite Martha moment to date. Midway through the show, she brought up five of the tallest audience members, handed them FEATHER DUSTERS and said, "my staff always misses tall places on the set to dust, so I thought you could easily reach for me! Get to work!"

The audience at first was like, "whaaa?" You could hear a pin drop. It was awesome. They didn't know if she was serious or not (which also made for great tv) and when she confirmed that, in fact, they were to start dusting, the looks on the feather-duster-holders faces was PRICELESS!

She encouraged them to "get the top of the moldings!" and then pimped out her home keeping handbook saying that everyone needed to have one of these...yaddy yaddy, always dust from the top down because "it will always fall"...Are you going to tell us next that you invented gravity too Martha? That would just be incredible...like Al Gore invented the internet. Really?

After they cleaned her set (which only lasted about 45 seconds) she gathered the maids up and bestowed upon them some new Martha Stewart Cleaning products.

It still boggles my mind that with such a warm, sensitive soul like hers she didn't receive a get of jail free card...

Yeah, Martha makes me laugh.

How many collars do you really need?

Eric and I spent over 20 minutes in Petsmart on Saturday debating over what kind of collar to get for Jack.

For as long as we've had him, he's always had a black leather spike collar. The night that we got him, I put on a spiked collar and it nearly toppled him over (which made it even cuter!) And then as he grew, so did the number of spikes on his neck.

The exception to the leather spike collar rule is when we are at the lake house during the summer. I put on a nylon collar for him (so when he's romping in the lake, he doesn't ruin the leather)...anyway, he was having issues during the summer when we put the leather one back on, I figured something like poison ivy oils got under neath, causing him to have a rash.

For Christmas we gave Jack a brand new black leather spike collar and it was wonderful. He was so happy and looked super stylish :)

Then last week Jack walks by me and I notice that he's got that puppy-needs-a-bath-now smell. (If you own a dog, you know what I'm talking about...) So I plunk the pup in the tub and give him a rub. Haaaahahahaha, I didn't even mean for that to rhyme! Awesome.

Anyway, as I'm washing him off I notice he's all red under his collar, UH-GAIN! So I put the summer/lake nylon one back on him and wait 'til the hubs gets home to talk about our options. We decide to bite the bullet and buy him a new collar. Again. Himph.

Which is why we ended up in Petsmart on Saturday spending far too much time talking about pros and cons of said collars. This one didn't seem strong enough. This one he'd probably break out of. This one...oh yeah, it went on for ever. (and it was because of me, not the hubs that I dragged on for so long, I accept that fact and I'm moving forward) HOWEVER, we finally find one that meets my safety requirements along with fashion reqs and we buy it.

Can I just tell you how thankful I am for the people who made this collar? We got him the graphite (which isn't a huge, but big enough, departure from his constant black...) and it has lil' brushed nickel accents; Jack now coordinates with my car!

It seems, for now (fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed) that it does the trick for Jack. I think the problem was moisture was getting trapped under the leather, so his skin couldn't breathe, causing the rash. Anyway, the graphite one is working like a charm and I couldn't be happier.

Which now brings his total collar count up to, er, 7. He's only 4 years old. Most dogs get a new collar like, once every year or once every two years...he's above average in one more category now!!!

Yup, that's my lil' over achiever!

I can't get 'er done right...

We've lived in our house for 3+ years now and for all this time, I've never gotten our master bedroom "just right".

Doing the redesign for the whole house seemed like a piece of freakin' cake compared to doing our bedroom. "But Erin, your a designer...this should be easy for you" you might be asking...but here is the thing:

When I do someone else's home, it is THEIR home. Not mine. Its very easy for me to help make decisions for clients based on their needs and my ideas, but when it comes to my own house, I hit a wall (haha, no pun intended) and just can't seem to get 'er done right.

This is what it looked like before I painted the walls Bona Fide Beige (Sherwin Williams) and got new nightstands...now its completely empty over the headboard...notice how the ceiling line goes UP...it angles to the right for about seven feet and then flattens out at 12' high for about eight more feet in overall length. Did that make sense? Anyway, its a HUGE wall...)

I picked my dad's brain this weekend while he was here (which, our time together was awesome!) and he suggested just adding pictures over the headboard, and leave the other walls in the room bare. Which got me thinking...what did other people put over their beds?

I dig the simplicity of this...being married to a photographer we have no shortage of pictures to choose from...I know this is the same basic idea as the one above, but these are taller

Maybe just one long one?

Oooh, maybe a shelf over the headboard with stuff on it? Grrr, but then I have to dust it, hmmm

See what I mean? This is hard stuff I'm dealing with here y'all!!

(All photos, except the one of my bedroom are from thenest.com)