Farewell to Ooh La La and Hello to........!!!

I've done it, I've changed my blog!  

Now don't worry I'm not really going anywhere, I just wanted my own domain name and a new look. This change has been in the idea and planning stage for a few months but I needed a little help from my computer techy husband to get things ready.  My new blog will still have lots of the same stuff you guys come here to see, but it's going to include a lot of new and exciting things as well.  

I first started blogging to document design and my life but blogging has turned into more for me.  It's a place I've met people and made friends and I've shared ideas and my life with my readers.  I love that I have blog friends, people I have never met but we feel like we know each other from reading and keeping up through our blogs.  I hope you all make this change with me and continue to read my blog.  

So I bet you were wondering what the rainbow colored photos meant right?  Well my new blog is:

Like the name implies it is about color but it's all still related to design and life and being inspired by the world around us.  Click over and check it out, all my old posts from this site will be there and more great posts will be coming.  My first welcome post will tell you all about the new blog and what new things you can expect!  

I'm so excited and I hope you are too.  See you over at Affair with Color.   

http://affairwithcolor.com/

6 Months and Our Love Story

Today is my 6 months wedding anniversary!  I have to say it's as good as I hoped and better than I dreamed.  I know, pretty sappy but I still feel so lucky and so in love.  I love the banter and teasing, the ease that we work together, the priority which give to the other and how well we communicate and laugh and enjoy each other.  For those of you new to my blog here is how we met, oops I just went looking for  that story and I guess I never posted it!  Sooooo, I'm going to give you a quick sweet and short version of our love story, just because it's such a great one.  Here goes:

Healthy Bran Muffins

Bran Muffins

My friend was making these tasty muffins when I was at her house, so I copied the recipe and now my husband makes me make them a few times a week!

Ingredients and Directions

• 2 cups water
• 5 tsp baking soda

Mix together and bring to a boil, let cool, just warm

• 1 cup melted shortening (I substitute 1 cup of applesauce or half and half)
• 2 cups sugar (I only put in 1 cup)
• 4 eggs (I sometimes use the egg substitute)
• 5 cups flour
• 1 quart buttermilk
• 1 box All Bran cereal, the bran nuggets not flakes

Mix all of these ingredients and then add the soda water, refrigerate overnight to let the bran nuggets soften.  Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

This makes a lot of batter, so I make a few muffins every morning so we get fresh warm muffins.  Keep mix in the fridge, the batter lasts up to 6 weeks.  If you use all applesauce and no shortening I figured the recipe will make 42 muffins, each being 125 calories! Yum and low calorie.

Big News

I'm changing my blog around a bit and shortly I will have my own domain and new blog name!  It will be the same blog you have been coming to for over a year now but I hope to have some awesome new features as well.  With Kolbe's crazy season at work coming to a close we can finally work on the blog plans we have been dreaming up.

Indesisive Me

I know I keep changing my backgrounds but so far nothing "feels" like what I want my blog to convey. Possibly very soon there will be a very awesome new design.... just maybe, which means good things are ahead!

Fad or Fab?

What do you think of these windows?? I very interesting take on architecture for sure, I can't decide if I like them.  I definitely think they are cool and different but I wonder if I would get sick of them after awhile; however it would be cool to "set" the mood depending on how many shades you had open.  My overall feelings is this would be a fad for me, over time I think I would get sick of them.  What do you think? 

Neutrals Need Color and Colors Need Them!

I love the neutral greys and whites in combination with the bright turquoise and coral orange in this room. The neutral background really makes these bright colors more vivid and they become the main focus of the space. The grey gives these colors the backdrop to be seen and noticed. Imagine if the background was a darker shade of turquoise or a competing color such as green or purple, the effect would be completely different, it would dull and downplay the vibrancy that we see here. We need the juxtaposition (I love that word!) that a neutral tone paired with color gives us. If this room was all shades of grey it would be equally boring as a room with all color and no neutrals. These two opposites need each other to show off their strengths.

It's amazing to me how this concept is repeated through all design and nature as well. We need soft with hard and shiny with dull and rough with smooth. That contrast and those differences are what make design so unique and inspiring. Notice in nature and in the space around you, what kind of juxtapositions do you see??

The definition of juxtaposition:

a circumstance where two unlike things are next to one another. It has a quality of being unexpected. (from answers.com)

Childhood Memory

My husband loves cars, he can look at any car and know a number of facts and whatnot about the car like the make, model, year and all sorts of engine stuff and features.  We came across a car similar to this one and I remembered having one like it so we looked it up and I took a little trip down memory lane.

Very White

Wow, look at all the bright, spacious, simple, clean, white and light that describes this room.  The sectional is perfect for entertaining. If this was my house (or anyone who actually lives in this house) it wouldn't stay this white for very long but it is very cool to look at and I would love to live in this space it would just be a little different to fit my design style and lifestyle. 

Blog Funk

Today is a blah day....

1. I sat down today to give a post on kitchens and nothing feels like it is cohesive or coming together right.  
2. Somehow I deleted my huge file of blog photo files which has me frustrated because it represents hours of work and categories and post ideas.
3. My back is very slowly healing but I feel like every good day is followed by a few bad ones and I just want to be able to walk and exercise and feel normal again.
4. I have a sinus infection that I think is giving me these monstrous headaches for the last 2 weeks and I'm just tired of feeling so sick and lazy.
5. My laundry is stacking up and I have NO desire to do it, hahaha, I think that might be normal for everybody!
6. I want to have a good day but I just don't have the energy, hopefully tomorrow will be better (sorry for all the complaining).

So I'm postponing my kitchen posts and taking the day off and we will see what I come up with tomorrow.  I found these super cute dog photos and thought I should share, they are from Beth Berry photography.  The first one looked like it could be my dogs.  I want to try this sometime. 

I think if someone was behind the chair with a treat my dogs would totally pose for this!

 So cute!

Waves of Blue

 Every time I see this kitchen I think blue, waves and stainless steel.  Can you imagine installing all that tile and on curved walls??  It does look striking though.  Stay tuned, next week is going to be ALL about kitchens!

Baby Shower Cake

 Here's the CAKE! So as you can tell I attempted the baby carriage and in between wanting to throw it and making sure I mixed the right color I think it turned out pretty good.  I had never tried carving a cake and it is SO much harder than they make it look on TV.  Some of the hard parts were getting the cake level, making sure I carved it evenly on both sides (pictures can hide what I don't want you to see!) and then making the canopy and getting it to stay in shape.

A Little Colorful

What do you think of this wall arrangement?? I think it's fun and colorful and a little funky, maybe I should add a little bright and funky into my house!

A Day At The Beach

 There is a dog beach in Solona Beach and we'd been talking about taking the dogs.  Kolbe FINALLY had a weekend off so we jumped in the car and drove to the ocean.  It's still kind of crazy that we can go to the beach in shorts in February!  Since moving to San Diego we've introduced the dogs to dog parks, we didn't have any of those in Utah, at first they didn't know quite what to do but as we've gone more they have started to get the hang of it.

A Baby Cake??

Sister Photo Shoot

For those of you who follow my blog you might remember I went to visit my family in Utah, I went home.  I got to spend a little over 2 weeks there (It was suppose to be shorter but I managed to get a horrible back injury the day before I was suppose to leave and I had to recover well enough to walk as well as make the 12+ hour drive)  While I was there my sister wanted to go out and do a "photo shoot."  So we piled the dogs into the car and set out on a nice cold January day.  I'm no professional photographer but I think we did pretty good.  Enjoy.

 Copper is so good at his job!  We didn't even have to tell him to be in the picture.

For Life

"Sometimes just the tiniest allocation of time spent with a friend, imprints on your mind and gives you something to smile about for the rest of the week, month, or your life!"
-Marcia Lynn McClure

This is one of my FAVORITE people in the whole world!  And I got to spend 2 whole weeks with her,   2 weeks of chatting, lunch dates, talking about boys, seeing her dance performance, tanning, shopping and sleepovers!  This little girl (growing up WAY too fast) and all of the memories we have shared in the last 15 1/2 definitely imprints in my mind and I'm glad I get to be her big sister!

Stay tuned for more photos from our awesome "photo shoot."  Aren't my dogs the cutest most photogenic dogs ever??!?

Laundry Dreaming

In my old house I had a great laundry room, you can see it here.  In California 99% (that might be slightly exaggerated) of the houses have the laundry in the garage, ugh.  So you can see why I envy these awesome laundry rooms.  One day I will have an awesome one too, AND one that is IN the house!

traditional laundry room design by toronto general contractor HARDROCK CONSTRUCTION

I could set up a big comfy chair and hang out in here!

Bathroom Retreat

I need this bathroom!

The hexagon tiles shimmer, the shower has natural light, the roman shade in a geometric pattern, the huge soaking tub, the gray blue color on the wall, the large mirror leaning up against the wall, I could go on but I think you get the drift.  This bathroom is simple and sophisticated, clean and classy, a perfect retreat.  Nicely done.

Snow Days

I live in a place that pretty much as awesome weather all year long.  I use to dread January, when it was gloomy and COLD.  So now that winters are nice for some crazy reason I decide to go visit Utah in January! Kolbe makes video games for a living and he is in his "crunch mode" right now, which means he works 12-14 hour days 7 days a week.  Which also equals me not seeing my husband, so I decided I would take a trip, yes I drove, with the dogs and stay with my family for a little while.  I've been going out to lunch with friends, visiting my old place of work and seeing everyone and having a good time.  It started snowing tonight, but it's the pretty snow that is soft and powdery and I think I will enjoy it for the next few days while I'm here. I will also enjoy gonig for a walk in shorts and a t-shirt when I get back to San Diego!

A Gate?

I want want want this front gate!  It makes such a statement and yet it's so simple.  You are drawn to the focal point by the bold bright color and it's inviting and welcoming.

Accessory Finds

I'll take 1 mirror and 1 rug please.

Old with a Classic

I love this old raw wood table combined with the classic Panton Stacking Chairs.  These chairs were designed in 1960, during the Postwar era, there were easy to mass produce and were inexpensive.  The chair was the first single-material and single-form chair, made from a strong flexible polypropylene (plastic) the color is fused into the plastic to be an integral color that won't fade.  Now that I'm done with my history spill I can talk more about this room..... 

Good with the Bad

You’ve got to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you’ve got, and remember what you had. Always forgive, but never forget. Learn from mistakes, but never regret.

Unknown

Serene Bathroom

Candice Olsen is one of my top favorite designers.  I love her use of textures and materials.  This bathroom is serene using blues and grays and brushed nickel.  She contrasts the cool colors with the warm of the dark brown.  I love the wall mounted faucets and, like usual, the skylight.

Desk Project Weekend

Remember this:

I bought a super old, super heavy desk on craigslist and Kolbe and I spent the New Years weekend refinishing it.  I have to stop here to say I've lived in the Rocky Mountains for all of my life up until a few months ago.  Why do I mention this? Well living in Utah or surrounding areas also means SNOW.  So I thought it was pretty cool that we could work on this project OUTSIDE and in t-shirts!  Granted it rained one of those days, so we had to quit early and the desk isn't completed yet, it was still crazy to think I was doing this in the middle of winter.  I sent a almost finished picture to a friend in Utah and she asked if we were working on it in the garage and I laughed and told her we were outside, I'm pretty sure she was jealous.

The Green Green Color

I saw this photo last night and loved the bright green color.  We are working on a small dresser right now and we had stained it just hours before I saw this.  I love the new dresser but I think this is so cute and fresh and lively.  Pictures of the dresser redo will be coming shortly!