Congratulations Turquoise!

My love affair and earliest memory of turquoise began when I was a child.  My Grandma had a charm bracelet with her 6 grandkids represented by their birthstones on each charm and mine was a beautiful blue...Turquoise, see (blurry) picture below...My Mom has this now and took this picture with her camera phone, but at least the turquoise pops, ha!

Well anyway, turquoise was just selected from Pantone as the 2010 color of the year!

I apparently am not the only one who is in love with this color, check out House of Turquoise for more inspiration with turquoise, Erin has it bad but it's all sooo good. ;))))

And lastly, here are some pictures of some of my favorite vacation's....Do you see a theme?

How do you feel about turquoise? Love, hate or indifference?

Birthday Celebration!

(These 10' angels were everywhere in the small town of Salado, Texas).

Well tis the season...It was my birthday on Monday, Pearl Harbor Day, and to celebrate, my hubby and Calvin explored Texas with me last weekend.  First, they took me to Salado for the day, it was beautiful but COLLLDDD out....

(This was taken out of my sunroof, I looked up and saw this, wasn't the sky beautiful?)

(This was the outside of a little shop beautifully decorated for the season.)

The next day, they took me to San Antonio for a couple of days to be spoiled there, we had a great time walking around and exploring...

(This is the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio isn't the tree pretty too?)

(This was the tree over at The Alamo, funny thing I didn't even see the ornaments on this tree until I took the picture.)

I have about 5 half written blog posts, I just haven't had time to finish them up and now that my birthday is over Christmas is definitely right around the corner now.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE the holiday season but it just doesn't work so easy for working full time and having complete thoughts to my blogging, am I the only one out there with this problem?

Oh and before I go here are some hero shots of Calvin posing for us, had to share....To refresh your memory here is another blog posting on Calvin.

(Calvin was such a good boy posing for this photo, he was leashless and just sat there, isn't he gorgeous?)  ;)

(Tired of all the shopping...Outside of a store in Salado.)

(Here he is on our hotel balcony with the sunlight just right.)

Sooo back to work I go, I hope you enjoyed sharing a little bit of my birthday celebration.

Laundry Time

Last Monday in the middle of doing laundry my washer freaked out with wierd noises and stopped in mid spin leaving my clothes wet and full of water.  I closed the lid and tried to figure it out to no avail.  I called for service and they showed up on Tuesday, they only spent 5 minutes looking before they told me the bad news....It will cost more to fix it than replace it.  I was freaked out needless to say....

When I bought my Whirlpool Calypso 8 years ago it was touted as the washer to have and for $1,200 I expected that.  I know people who have had their washers for 20+ years so come on wasn't it safe to assume that my 8 year washer had more years in it than that?  It was HE and had the Energy Savings already.  It was a top loader which I personally love, etc. etc.

Well after much snooping around like a crazy woman...As in ALL day Wednesday (day before my guests came and day before Thanksgiving) I finally decided to give in and just get the LG washer AND dryer front loaders which were rated very high and I basically stole ($682.22 for everything) thanks to Black Friday offers being offered before Friday.  So even though timing wasn't sooo great with guests coming it was price wise a great time to buy.

Replacing an 8 year old clothes washer alone will save more than $60.00 in electricity costs and nearly 5,000 gallons of water per year, for more energy saving tips check them out here at AHAM.

So not only did I get a GREAT price for my washer and dryer, BUT in our town we get an energy rebate back of $100, yeah!

My guests left on Sunday, my appliances were delivered yesterday and I have been washing ever since. They make a goofy little song at the end of a cycle but otherwise I am really liking them and here is a plug for Sears....They ROCK!  I haven't ever purchased from Sears before but now will for everything, painless on so many levels and pleasant too.  Whirlpool could care less about me even after I found out about a class action suit against my 8 year old washer...Oh well, their loss.

I didn't ever think a washer and dryer could make me this happy, what has become of me?  Would a new washer and dryer make you happy?

Kitchen is Almost Done...UPDATE

Okay, my clients kitchen is ready for Thanksgiving, just barely. If you are thinking "so what", here is my blog from this past weekend to catch you up...

Here is a pretty drastic "before" and "after" of the bar area of the kitchen don't you think?  The "before" was their original laundry room, for this area we moved the garage door down for more room, can you tell?

My clients are sooo excited to not only have their kitchen back but in time for Thanksgiving which was no small feat due to our very tight deadlines.

When I took these pictures, the workers were still there installing cabinet hardware and we were getting the window treatments up too at the same time, so still a messy kitchen but big changes nonetheless.

After the barstools come in and all is done I will definitely take some "hero" shots to show you the end result, can't wait for you to see it. The window treatments turned out fabulous and complete the room as window treatments usually do. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, I am truly THANKFUL to all of you for your support and comments.

Kitchen is Almost Done...

My clients had a tired, small, awkward kitchen, I am not speaking out of line, this is what they told me.  :) 


Before they brought me in, they were talking about moving their existing kitchen to their attached garage so they could have more space. After looking over their existing kitchen I felt like we could work with this quite easily by removing some walls and lifting the roof, okay just ceiling but that was fun to say. 

This kitchen WILL be done by next week, all except some minor things like bar stools (which are backordered until December 26th of course).

In the meantime, and before I get some "after" pics I thought you'd like to see the progress...

I thought I would first start with the formal dining room which my faux painter did a gorgeous job on before I was even brought into this job. These pics really do the color no justice, it's much more rich in person, well it was nice before I knocked it down.


NOW YOU SEE IT....

NOW YOU DON'T....

This is the only before picture in this direction, sorry son of my clients, but really you look fine. ;)  Look at all those walls and angles in that original kitchen....

This isn't the exact same shot but at least you can start to see what happened once we removed the wall in between the formal dining room and kitchen.

We are in full remodel mode in this picture, and that isn't the son on the floor it's the plumber. ;)

This was the wall from the breakfast room to the laundry room.

So we took it down to enlarge the kitchen and we made a room in the garage for a beautiful, enclosed laundry room out there.  Oh so isn't this a BIG difference just losing that wall?  And we got to claim some brick wall that is the back of their fireplace in the living room.

I will show detailed pics next week right in time for Thanksgiving.  


Before you add onto your house think about finding ways to lose some of your walls and reconfigure your space if possible, most of the time it can be done and the afters are sooo much more fun I think, because you actually have "befores".

Busy, Busy

I haven't been very diligent in keeping up with my blog lately and for that I apologize.

Did you notice?

Did you miss me?

Probably not, you all are probably just as busy with the holiday season racing towards us as I am, but I missed YOU ALL!!!!

I am just about ready to post a client's kitchen that we are just about done with...All my clients are expecting their houses done before Thanksgiving next week and the post I am about to send out is one of those houses.

I am sending the "befores" and "durings" this weekend, but "afters" will be early next week as we are wrapping up.  I told you I am under a deadline. ;)

So TGIF and have a GREAT weekend!

Cover Art

Are you of the age that you not only know what record albums are but still have yours?  I do, I can't seem to part with them, they all mean something to me, especially fond memories like pretend kissing the guy (didn't even know his name) from this cover, the top left picture, from the Bay City Rollers, hey in 4th grade they were huge! :)

Well I just saw this cool way to show off your album "art" here.  They hold up to 6 record albums at a time.  You can display them horizontally or vertically.

The best part is you can change them out as often as you want very easily.

Did you have any special memories of your record albums, I would love to hear them.

Ceiling Fan: Reminder

I have written about this before, but just as a reminder....

Now that the heat has gone away and cool weather is upon us, don't forget to switch your ceiling fans in the REVERSE (clockwise) position.  If you run it at a low speed it will gently draw the room air up towards the ceiling and force the warm air down and out towards the walls so as to avoid the wind chill effect.

It's All About The Bend

Have you seen the somewhat new Kohler, Karbon articulating kitchen faucet yet? I would assume so, it seems like everywhere I look lately it's there....Now that is a good thing because I think it's not only sexy but it works so intuitively as well when you touch it, it seems to read your mind, okay I won't go that far but seriously I love the way it moves. ;)

Here are some of it's cool features:
-It has an intregrated spray nozzle
-Can be fully extended to fill large pots
-Lowered into the sink for food prep and cleanup
-Compactly folded and placed out of the way when not in use
-Pivots easily into any position and REMAINS there for hands free operation

See how it moves on YouTube.

It also won a bronze award in the IDSA annual IDEA (International Design Excellence Awards) competition, so not to shabby.

It originally was released in just chrome and stainless but now Kohler has released it in a total of seven finishes for the perfect look, see them on Kohlers site in detail....

As I was writing this post I was thinking, "now they just need a pot filler, how gorgeous would that be", but after looking up finishes, look what I stumbled upon...It's truly sooo much more than a pot filler it's a true wall mount fixture for the sink, but it could be used as a pot filler too.....

Okay, so I must ask, are you as enamored with these as I am?

Splish, Splash

I am a shower girl....Meaning, I shower 99% of the time and on the rare occasion, I will take a bath.  I am shocked though how many of my clients actually bathe in a tub more than shower, all women, which doesn't surprise me.

What are you a shower person or tub person?

Regardless, check out these tubs for the ultimate in cool.....It may change your mind.

Mti Whirlpools This is the Intarcia tub which can be customized with decorative inlays.  This particular one has been optionally inlaid with blue lacquer wood.  You also have a choice of an optional pedestal or inverted pedestal base.

Villeroy & Boch  The distinctive Aveo was influenced by the egg.  It is made of an exclusive material, "Quaryl" which is slip resistant and it conducts heat very slowly for a longer lasting soak, ahhhh....

Victoria & Albert bath Taking its name from a town along the Italian Riveria, is the Ravello tub.  This tub is made from 100% Englishcast which is made of a mix of white volcanic limestone and resin.  Every bathtub is as strong as cast iron but naturally white, featuring a renewable, scratch resistant surface.

Hopfoot's Vasca definitely captures the essence of nature in its earthy wood tones.  This tub is made from handselected teak or Canadian cedar, each steam contoured tub is preserved and sealed with natural finishes such as olive oil.  Now before you get tooo excited about this tub I do have to forewarn that the price for the teak version is pricey, as in almost $50,000 pricey, that is not a typo by the way.

This is the Origami tub from BainUltra is made for two bathers.  Chromatherapy and sound therapy are available to make for a totally relaxing experience.

Here's a new brand of tub to me, #1 in Europe, just found it and is it gorgeous, Kaldewei.  This is the Luxxo Duo Oval made in steel enamel and it comes in white as well but the black is sooo sexy isn't it?  These tubs were specifically designed for two and is fitted with a pair of identical facing backrests with curved shoulder support, ooohlala.

And last on this list but surely not least is the Morphosis soaking tub from Jacuzzi.  This tub is 74.8" in length so it definitely encourages maximum lounging.

Just writing this blog has got me thinking about going and taking a long soak in my own tub....

Glass Fetish

I try not to show too much of my glass fetish when writing this blog, but I definitely have one and if I could I would blog about glass every day, well not that often, but more than I do now.  Here are just a few of my glass fetish blog posts "Jewelry Box Bath", "Now This Blows", "Ice Ice Baby" and "Glass Tile Possibilites", see I have it bad don't I?

I always want to add just a little of it somewhere in all of my designs, I love the shine and color.

One of my favorite glass tile companies is SICIS, they are the "Art Mosaic Factory" and I simply love their glass!!!  All of their tiles are made in Italy.

It's Sunday, so sit back and let's take a peek at some of the beauty they create....

Just beautiful isn't it?   You are limited only by your imagination and their create your own mosiac area, even then, not so much, because they do provide all the imagination you need.

Do you like the look of glass tiles?