November Rain

It's been practically a month since my last blog post. Whoops. I guess I just have a lot going on right now.

I am dying to start decorating for the holidays. I'm planning and collecting and buying, and even doing some DIYing. Ooh, that rhymes. Last year my mantel was a terrible police lineup of one-size nutcrackers. It lacked dimension and height and creativity, and that over-the-top showiness that is easiest to get away with at Christmas. I'm trying to collect some great images of mantlescapes and tablescapes in whites, silvers, golds, and other not-so-red-and-green designs. So, just for you, some inspiration:

Project Homedesign

We're finally starting to get some projects done at home. I think I need to set a goal of one project per month, so I can finally check things off my list - like the hanging rod and shelf that needs to get put up in my laundry room.

Today a storm door is arriving for our front door. The builder for our neighborhood didn't put in storm doors on any houses - you had to do it yourself. So we'll finally be able to open the front door and get a nice breeze in. Plus there's a tax break for adding a storm door. SWEET.

Also getting accomplished is the painting that needs to be done. Someone is coming on Monday to estimate the cost of painting our first floor, ceilings included, so we can get it going. We've chosen colors - Behr's Biloxi for the living room, Mountain Haze for the kitchen, and Polar Drift for the bathroom.

I've ordered new bedding for our guest room. Our dog tore the ubiquitous Ikea duvet cover that was in our guest room, and it was an excuse to finally get more put-together bedding for that room. It should arrive tomorrow and I can't wait.

Once all these things are done, I can finally start hanging art work and doing the rest of the decorating that I've held off on. If, you know, I'm ever ambitious enough to start on it.

Some shopping candy for today: Kohl's has released its new line of Elle Decor accessories. Check it out here!

Your decor eye candy for the day

Thank you to reader ebreakdown who suggested home decor eye candy as my eye candy post theme. Hopefully my other friends are still reading. You're out there, right? I decided to go to my Google Reader and check out all the Apartment Therapy posts I've starred for later reference over the past year. They mostly fall into just a few categories, as you'll see. Enjoy some pretty pics!

Living room inspiration

Kitchen color inspiration pics (I'm thinking of painting it a shade of pale green)

Pictures in which I love the artwork shown

Ideas for the awkward, narrow area between my bathroom wall and the shower wall.

DIY Inspiration

Happy Wednesday

I took myself shopping yesterday. It was the end of the Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale, and the bras were all $15.99, so I had to check it out. I also found a couple cute necklaces at American Eagle of all places, and they could easily become staples in my daily work wear. I also visited Lands' End Canvas's web sale yesterday - that site could become dangerous to my wallet, with my love of basics.

I wrote into Apartment Therapy today. I'm looking for help on something decor-wise, and I'm hoping they're willing to post my question to their readers. The site is such eye-candy; I have it on my Google Reader and go through all the posts each day. I really love the questions and how helpful the readership is.

I haven't posted any eye-candy of my own here for a while. I'll do something about that. What would you like to see pretty pictures of?

Another week

I've been watching Cougar Town since the beginning, mostly because it follows Modern Family and I never bothered to change the channel. But now I've become a fan, partly because it's nice to have a light-hearted comedy that doesn't take much thought and partly because I love the set design. In looking for a great picture of the set design to share with you, I stumbled across a blog in which the author feels the same way I do, and has featured all sort of pictures of the sets on Cougar Town. I like how they have used florals without being annoying, girly or elderly. I'm always telling my husband about how much I like the bar stools in Courtney Cox's character's kitchen. I particularly love the floral E A T letters in the kitchen, which it turns out are from Anthropologie. I may try to recreate this in my kitchen, only using fabrics that are more graphic and in keeping with my color scheme.

Photo - alltheshadesofgrey.net

Decor Find

I discovered a new decor site that I love. Serena and Lily. Okay, it's mostly children's decor - and very expensive and impractical at that. But the master bedroom linens and the design-your-own upholstered headboards are truly my style. Clean, bright, peaceful, nautical, and un-flowery. I wish I had a (very well-paying) job so I could splurge on a couple of the products, like a pair of white ceramic lamps or a Hollywood Regency-style wingback chair.

I will also say that the graphic designer in me also loves the site from an aesthetic perspective. I find myself visiting certain design and decor catalog sites once every month or so, just to get inspired. What sites do you visit just for the eye candy?

Photo - serenaandlily.com