Beer Beer Beer

Any of you have a man cave in your house? My boyfriend has turned the basement into his hangout. I just saw these great fixtures at barlite.com and there MUST be somewhere I can incorporate this into his space!

I'm back!

Sometimes life really gets in the way! Just as I was getting used to this blogging thing, my personal life ran into quite a few snags. We chose to live in a city because of the close proximity to highways and conveniences, not to mention lower housing prices, but we have to remember that having these things means having a larger population, which in turn creates the potential for more crime. Well, we got to experience that early in September when one night my car was stolen right from my driveway. I have since gotten it back, but September was really stressful. We've been finishing up some of the work on the house (details and pictures to come in a near future post) so our budget is strained as it is, so I can't tell you how freaked out I was about having to buy a new car. Luckily not only did I get it back but it was generally unharmed.

On top of the car thing, we had to deal with a flooded kitchen-and-dripping-ceiling-of-basement last week when our washing machine died. I'm all ears for any advice on good front loaders to buy!

I'm actually taking today off from work as a mental health day just to really get our life back in order, but before I get into all that I thought I'd share some ideas I have for sprucing up our master bedroom. The only picture I have of the room is from when we first moved in so I'll share that -






The furniture in this room has been moved around a bunch of times since the picture, the bedding is totally different, we have new windows and new curtains, and we have a wrought iron headboard now. We're going with wood blinds when we finish the windows because we have a nice mahogany ceiling fan. But basically, you get the point of the color in the room. I'm thinking of creating some sort of focal wall on the one to the left of the bed and I have to decide if I want to go with wall art or wallpaper. Have you tried either one? I'm worried the wall art will look too cheap and worried the wallpaper will look too "wallpaper". I'm thinking of a wall decal I saw on etsy...in red or brown...



or this fabulous Graham & Brown Wallpaper...



It's so hard to decide! I want to go sort of earthy because we have a fabulous world map print on the wall and our bedding is now this...


The brown and wood tones look great with the red but the room is just so dark right now with the black furniture...which I love, so I'm looking for ways to just put some oomph into the space. I have a feeling I'll be working on this more than all the cleaning that has to be done today!

Admire and Inspire: Chloe Loveseat

I'm in love! I'm keeping this find on my list. I'm looking around for a future loveseat purchase for my living room, and I just love the lines of the arms and the tufted back of the Macy's Velvet Metro Living Chloe set.

Project Potential: Urban Oasis

It’s really hard to stay within budget or stay away from things you love when you’re into design – whether fashion or interiors. With all the work we’ve been doing on our house and other financial constraints, I’ve been trying to limit purchases to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It’s sad. My purse feels neglected! And for a while, I was doing really well, because I was able to focus on other things. My parents ripped down wallpaper to paint their bedroom so I had a chance to spend THEIR money on THEIR house…so fun!

But…. you must know how hard it is. We’re always looking for that perfect accessory and I think they always show up the week all the bills are due. I always have my projects in mind, even when I say I have no money in the budget. Our yard has ZERO curb appeal so in the back of my mind I’m always thinking of plants, landscaping, and other materials to use in our yard. And early this summer, I saw this trellis at a local store we have called Ocean State Job Lot and it’s been on my mind.



I loved the simple yet “different” design from regular old lattice trellis. I didn’t buy it, thinking of all the other projects vying for my cash…and even asked the boy his thoughts on if it’s easy to make trellis with lattice. He quickly replied that we had enough projects on our hands and he’s so right, so I left it at that. But the Job Lot find kept coming back to me for this little area of our backyard:




Right now it’s sort of where we store anything… it’s this little concrete pad along the fence. But as you can see our neighbor’s house is really super close to the fence… and this is where his wood pile goes in the winter and in the summer it’s where he hangs clothes to dry. It’s kind of funny this summer because he always hangs out clothes and an hour later it pours!

The trellis was sold out at my local store, so a little birdie told me to contact the company to see if it was in stock in any other location. Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing I found out the trellis was in stock at the location right near my work! Needless to say… I broke down one day and bought TWO. I wanted to use four, to cover the two sections of fence, but I’m wondering how it will work with the two… one centered on each section of fence, painted black. I’m thinking of putting hooks on them for flower pots or solar lanterns.

(Pictures from ivillage, www.mastergardenproducts.com,www.edzayas.com/cancelada.htm)

There are so many choices out there and ways to create a prettier space!





And maybe… to offset the look of the two… I will add some large pot gardens. Perennials? Edible gardens? Large evergreens? Here are some ideas for the planters(images from simplyplanter.com, www.landscapeforms.com, www.bevoworks.com, www.ikea.com)....








What do you think? Are the two enough or should I go for four pieces? Have any good ideas for the planters? Leave a comment with your advice!