Serena & Lily are my new BFFs!

So I was looking for my imaginary pocket book find this beautiful Friday and I knew I wanted fabric.  Fabric can seem affordable but in the end, say you did drapes... between the extra for how much fold(usually double the width of your window) you want, the lining, hardware and trim... it's a big investment.  All I'm saying is you better like the fabric because you wont be changing these every month!  In my front room and living room I have ginormous windows spanning 5'x10', roughly, so to cover these windows in a designer fabric I am looking at $1500 alone for fabric... AH!  So This is my dream for today to get drapes for all my lovely windows... they would be in fabulous prints, floor to ceiling, no puddle, pinch-pleat!  Mmmmm... so pretty.  Serena & Lily is a website that knocked my socks off, not only in the fabric department but in wall coverings, furniture and decor!  Enjoy my favorite finds...

Bark Diamond

Navy Medallion Scarf Print

Air/Chocolate Diamond

Its so nice outside and I'm....

SICK!  Sorry I haven't posted... I am battling some kind of flu, strep, laryngitis thing and Stella is sick too with double ear infections and a crazy cough. Luckily we have an amazing dad and husband to take care of us... pray he can stay healthy.

Spring Color: Coral!

This is only my opinion and unless you just love love the color too, I wouldn't suggest you go out and paint your house coral.  However, I do think its a hot color for spring and summer both on your body and in or on your house!  Here are a few pics to prove my point!

Photo courtesy Costal Living 

Photo courtesy Pinapple Post

Photo from here

Photo courtesy Material Girls

Photo courtesy House Beautiful

Imaginary Pocket Book Friday!!

Yes it is... and today I am traveling to Rejuvenation an online lighting store that could furnish any Industrial Chic desire you might have.  We have been cursed with terrible old fans in our house... we had four of them, we have successfully gotten rid of one of them and just to another down and capped it.  The other two we spray painted black.  This is fine for right now... but if I had unlimited funds in the bank account you better believe this would be the first problem solved.  Well, I just went on and on about fans and there are none on this site, I'll find you a great fan site...
Here are a few of my favorites from Rejuvenation...

My absolute favorite!!!

Wreaths Galore!!!

For Christmas presents this past year I made wreaths, 14 wreaths.  They actually were a lot of fun to make. Each one probably cost around $6-8, but the homemade touch really made them great gifts.  I decided while I was snowed in for the second week in a row (I have ventured out) I would make a Valentine wreath.  There are many ways to go about decorating a wreath, you could start with a grapevine wreath or a styrofoam one.  Then add yarn, felt flowers paper flowers or in my most recent case... felt hearts.  So cute and great for birthdays, showers, or Christmas!!!  Here are a few I've made and some I get inspired by...

Materials used

placing hearts with the help of corsage pins

Finished product!!

My Christmas gift for my mom.

Hair accessory for my little sister-in-law

Most of the wreaths I made for Christmas 2010.

Inspiration Wreaths...

urbandebris.typepad.com

imakestuff.typepad.com

itsajaimething.com

Rearranging the Master Bedroom

We have a relatively small master bedroom.  It is about 11'x13', and the same size as Stella's room... yeah.  Also we have an extra door in our room that goes to our 3/4 bath.  We have something on each wall; a window, a door, or our closet.  Furniture placement has been a challenge to say the least.  Originally we had the bed against the east wall which had a off-centered window, so, we added a complete wall of curtains (which I planned to line eventually).  This allowed us to center the bed and not worry about the window.  Then we had side tables on either side of the bed... the dresser was in between the door into the bedroom and the door to the bathroom.  Opposite of the bed was the closet and on the south wall was a big window.  I had thought this was as good as it was going to get, but while my husband was out of town last weekend I moved things around just to see if I could improve upon the arrangement... AND... I think I did.  Even Stephen agrees... he is opinionated!
Now I have centered the bed under the big window on the south wall... side tables on either side.  Dresser off-centered on the east wall, where the bed was.  This has created 3' or more on all three open sides of the bed, making the room feel sooooo much bigger.  If we opt for a skinny tall dresser instead of what we have, we would even have room for a chair!  If we changed out our side tables for more a small chest of drawers, we could get rid of the dresser all together!  I think that might be my goal.
The drapes are a bit of a disaster... No one is perfect or immune to bad design decisions.  I make them far more often than I would like to admit.  But this is one of those mistakes.  The fabric was on sale at $3 a yard.... it just is not the right color or fabric to drape and compliment the bed properly... On top of that "oops" we might as well pile the wall color on top of that.  It is just all wrong!  But I am determined to make something fabulous out of this!  I am leaning towards a light gray for the walls and a darker gray, possibly with a graphic pattern for the drapes.  A rug, two lamps and a new fixture to replace the fan.  Also new bedding, I like what we have it just doesn't drape over the sides of the bed far enough... I can see the box springs, ugh!  To finish it all off, some really great artwork and or photography!  It will be breathtaking, I promise!!!  Check out the new arrangement!

Before: The bed against the wall of curtains, ignore the window!

After

What kinda blog is this??

I ask myself this everyday... Should I post everyday, if so, how do I find new and interesting things to blog about? Only about Industrial chic? About Interior Design in general?  Should I show what all I do to my own house (so original)? Should I show what I'm doing with my clients houses? Can I venture into other blogs and online magazines?? What about real-estate? Or event planning? Or even clothing that I'm excited about??? Then I get to the point that I am too 'material girl' driven and need to take a few steps back to basics... Do I let you know what is going on in my life, funny things Stella did, or the dogs, or my hubs?  No... thats belongs on facebook...
Soooo, really what I want to write about is design, plain and simple.  What works, what doesn't, why.  Show some examples and always leave you wanting more.  Thats the plan but until I figure out what exactly that looks like, I am miss random!  If you have any feed back on what you would like to read about when it comes to a design blog, feel free to let me know!  I will address it gladly.
Today is Friday!  Which means..."Imaginary Pocket Book", and if I had unlimited funds I would definitely blow about $10,000 of it at J.Crew once the new Spring line is available!!!  But in the Design/House world, I would buy this...

Its really not that far of a stretch but to get it to full working order it would probably over extend me by about $400000.
I still want it but I do NOT want to totally renovate, I love so many things about this house.  It is sooo beautiful on the outside (thats all I've seen of it in person).  The breezeway is enchanting along with the fireplace in the main living room.  I would spruce up the bathrooms and kitchen... and basement.  However, a bunch of it would stay just how you see it.  Mmmmm... I love to dream, its one of my favorite pass time activities...

Snow, snow, snow, snow... SNOW!!!

I can hear White Christmas in my head as I write that title... I might be going a little stir crazy since we have been stuck in our house all day!!! Its been a good day at least... woke up late, had french toast for breakfast, stayed in our pjs and just starred at snow.  See we have no cable and  we didn't rent any movies before the blizzard so really other than eating there hasn't been much to do.  I beg for days like this then when I get it, I don't want to do anything on my "To Do" list.  Why is that??  

Well enjoy the photo journal of the day, and a couple from a few days ago.  We had a couple of craft projects and I think they turned out pretty well!  

The dogs didn't get very far to do their business...

That is ice and snow in our house!
Weatherizing our windows next on the "Honey Do" List

Rufio on left, Bentley on right.

Stella's painting I did... I think it is just sooo cute!

Before...

After!