I Tried and I...

 

I tried this whole blogging thing... turns out- it's not for me. The blog was way more labor intensive than I realized and it just isn't going to fit for me and my life. A part of me feels like a failure but another part of me is like f*ck it- I'm glad I tried. 

So don't fret- THERE IS A PLAN B. I have had another "blog" on tumblr for a few years now. It is much easier for me to update it and I truly enjoy it after all this time. If you would still like to follow along with me... join me over at

 >>>  Shiny G O L D Bubbles <<<

Thanks and Love, 

Rachel

Dining Room Tour with a Kate Spade Inspired Gallery Wall

I know, I know… if you want to be a good blogger you need to blog often, have excellent photography, exciting, unique content… blah, blah, blah. I know these things, you know these things and my perfectionist side knows these things. However, I made a deal with myself that this blog would just be for fun. So I am trying not to feel guilty about the time in between my blog posts (I have been enjoying my summer break!) or fixate on my photography of our house (it’s like freakin’ impossible to photograph- lighting sucks, weird reflections everywhere, etc. etc.) and most importantly I am trying not to obsess over the house in general. I went through this little phase like a week and half ago where I just wanted to tear everything down and start over. I was over analyzing ever creative decision I made and I just became really, really sick of everything. Then I put down the sledge hammer (kidding!) and had some drinks outside. 

Our neighbor who was having a drink with us in our yard asked if she could use our powder room really quick and when she stepped inside our house for the first time she had a really sweet and enthusiastic reaction to everything. It made me kind of see everything with fresh eyes and I realized I had been trippin’. So even though I am still kinda longing for white walls, (maybe I will get into that later) I am back to be being happy and satisfied in this little piece of Austin that we own. 

                I know what you’re thinking- where are the pictures at lady?! So here ya go- a tour of our dining room- (One more plea to excuse the photography, the lighting is always crap and the reflections on all the glass and frames…. Disaster.)

 

I am loving all the color in the house- it feels so happy and chic! Have a great weekend y'all! (That's right I have only lived here 7 months and I already actively use "y'all"- I blame it on my students...)

EASY D.I.Y's in the Living Room

I have been about that D.I.Y life since I was like 13. The thought of changing things to making them how I wanted them to be or replicating expensive things on the cheap just sorta came natural to me. I realize that is not how it goes for everyone. Some people have shared with me that they are super intimidated to change things or try to create things on their own. Not every D.I.Y is hard or complicated- some are really easy! I did some easy living room upgrades that I would love to share with you guys... maybe it will even inspire you to kustomize whatcha got!

First up is our lamp from Target. It had a plain white shade (please excuse the wrinkles...) and it was screaming for a little sumthin' sumthin'. I took some black hem tape and used some fabric glue to adhere it to the lamp shade. It took less than 10 minutes and totally upgraded the lamp!

I used some Washi Tape to add a little interest to my plain white orchid pot. Washi Tape is like too good to be true. SO ADDICTING! Easiest. Project. Ever.

We needed some cute curtain ties on the cheap and I remembered an idea that I saw in my Country Living Magazine. I did the project from memory, so it is not exactly the same as their idea but I guess that's a good thing! I got all the materials at Home Depot and the project came together in less than 20 minutes.

Insert my gold obsession here. I started painting everything gold, including my coffee table. I also painted four pairs of shelf brackets from Ikea. I looooooooove them. (P.S. In the picture the screws on the brackets were rub n' buff-ed but they have since be spray painted... turned out much better, F.Y.I)

The last project is that Campaign inspired Ikea Rast Hack that is making an appearance in that last picture. Ever since Jenny over at Little Green Notebook talked about her love of Rustoleum Enamel Paints in this post, I have been itchin' to give them a try. (We used their Hunter Green and are very pleased.) I also have been dieing to get my hands on an Ikea Rast Dresser for years now so I am so stoked we finally did it!  My husband is super handy so he just kinda took over my hack and did his own thang but if you need a tutorial there is a really great one by For Chic Sake here. I got the brackets and drawer pulls from Home Depot.

Everything is better when you put a little D.I.Y in it!

Living Room Tour

So we have finished up our projects for the living room and I finally found some time to photograph everything. Our cat, Mister, was in his usual spot (& I didn't have the heart to move him) so you will see him making a appearance in some shots. I am loving how everything turned out! I will go into some of our d.i.y projects for the living room in a separate post for those that are interested. The dining room gallery wall is also finished so I will be working on that post soon(ish?). We have a lot of visitors coming in the next couple of weeks so I will be busy spending time with friends and loved ones but I will get around to that eventually. (There is a sneak peek of the gallery wall in the last photograph if you are just dieing of curiosity, haha!)

So let's start the show with a before shot:

And here is the After:

I will explain more about our house and stuff in the House Tour but basically our house was built in the 1930's and has been a rental property (for mostly college kids) for the last 10ish years, so there is a lot for us to do around the house. Before we moved in we had the carpet tore up (we knew there were hardwood floors underneath and we also knew that they would need to be refinished, badly. For awhile, we will be rockin' the floors as they are...). We also had a handful of rooms painted before we arrived to help cut down on some of the work that needed to be done. We had the living room painted "Natural Gray" by Behr and the trim is a standard white. Ok, enough words... let's get to the pictures...

 

 

 

It's definitely not perfect but it makes us happy! Thanks for stopping by!

For the Love of Gallery Walls

... more specifically Kate Spade styled gallery walls. In a perfect world I would/ could blog every day (or every other day...) but this Happy Wife has been a very busy lady! Our number 1 project we have been working on is our gallery wall instal in our dining room. I never realized how truly labor intensive a gallery wall is!

I have been collecting  inspirational images, art, frames, ideas etc. etc. for awhile now. I thought this was going to cut down on a lot of the work (and it probably did) but it was still an exhausting project- and we aren't even all the way done! (There is light at the end of the tunnel but there is still some work to do...)

In addition to the gallery wall (picking out what art and images to use, getting the images printed, thrift-ing for frames and then arranging the overall composition) we also put up more shelves in the living room, painted a thrift store chair, finished painting our Ikea Rast Hack and some overall styling too! (I think I could be officially over interior design for a minute.

It will be nice when this little chunk of projects gets done because then I can work on our House Tour.

I am excited to show you guys what we have been up to but to tied you over I will share with you the gallery walls in various Kate Spade spaces that served as my inspiration: