I don't like Valentine's Day because of all the commercial over-the-topness, or the flowers, or even the chocolates (jk, I love the chocolate). But really, Valentine's for me is the perfect time to spend a little extra effort showing all of your favorite people a little love, and nothing says that like handmade gifts and thoughtful words.
I'm pretty honest about the fact that I'm an impulsive shopper. It's not my best quality, but as long as I keep it under relative control, it just means I end up with a bunch of great stuff I'm super happy with. I thought it would be fun to pass along my knowledge and reviews of the great products I've bought or received in the last month or so.
Like I said in my before house tour, I was thrilled that this house had a formal dining room. Then, when it came time to design it I was a little paralyzed. Was this a formal dining room with a chandelier, nice china, and the sort of room that I would tell my someday children that they couldn't touch anything in? Was this a comfortable dining room where friends would sit and play games, and we would all be reminiscing with a beer in our hand? Or maybe would I throw fancy schmancy dinner parties here and want some glitz in the space?
Being the maximalist that I am, I decided that an enthusiastic YES was the answer to all three questions. But could one room really encompass all the things I love in dining rooms - tradition, that comfortable homey feeling, and a little glitz? I'll let you decide for yourself, but I think I managed to mix styles in a way that doesn't say "A CRAZY PERSON LIVES HERE."
Design tip: If you're going to mix dramatically different styles, make sure you anchor all of it with a really cohesive color palette.
Here's my dining room! What you can't see in this post are the french doors opposite the window, and this awesome wine rack that Andy's parents got me for Christmas that has yet to be mounted on the wall (sorry!).
As is the case in most of my house, the furniture comes in two varieties: Craigslist scores and super-dad originals. I like to shop on craigslist near my parents house then casually call my mom and say, "Soo.. whatcha doin today mommy-o?" and because she's my mom, it usually takes about that long for her to figure out that she's going to be asked to take her trusty minivan to some not-as-close-as-I-thought-it-was location and pick up something really heavy and awkward. But man, that awesome square-front buffet was totally worth it right?!
very favorite
My dad picked up furniture-making as a hobby not too long ago, because apparently he needed something to do other than save lives and make people healthier all the time? Anyway, I'm glad he did. The table is a show-stopper, and I'm so grateful that he put in so much time in getting it perfect for me.
When I started to put the room together, I knew the long wall needed a really strong feature element. I didn't want to do anything with picture frames (eventually you'll be able to see the office gallery wall from here), and I wanted a more traditional focal point. Displaying some beautiful china seemed to be the answer - this is a dining room after all! The hard part? I didn't have any china, and the classic Blue Willow china is hard to find and expensive.
After hearing me complain about this for about a week Andy casually says, "Just let me ask my uncle if he has some", and the next day I get a call from said uncle saying "Yeah, I've got a whole box of it here. Come pick it up whenever. But if you break up with Andy you have to give it back." Fair enough!
Design tip: Date guys with uncles who collect a lot of cool stuff and like their nephews. HA. But really. Collectors are your friend.
I did the art above the buffet myself. If you need big art, canvases from any craft store and paint are pretty inexpensive. I'm no artist, but I like how having something more modern above the buffet really sets off the traditional plates on the other side of the room.
That's my dining room! If you're curious about anything in particular, or if you want to tell my dad how awesome that table is and that he should take custom orders, let me know in the comments. (My dad doesn't really take custom orders. It's pretty much a friends and family thing. Bummer, I know.)
A cautious person's goals tend to look something like this: This is totally the year I'm going to do research on potentially sharing this creative stuff in some capacity sometime in the next 3 years(!) Yeah!
But really...this is totally how I've spent a good chunk of my life. If my parents are reading this, they're shaking their heads saying, "If that's cautious I don't ever want to see what reckless looks like." And they'd be at least partly right, as parents usually are.
There are things in life I've been totally fearless (sometimes maybe a little.. uh, stupid) about - walking up to an important person and just asking for a job, buying houses a little outside of my price range (that's HGTV speak for EVERYONE SAY A LITTLE PRAYER ON MORTGAGE DAY), or painting that insane color on the wall that I think might just surprise someone, in a good way.
But I've realized in the last few years that the things I am fearless about are firmly in my comfort zone and I'm pretty confident I'll be successful in them. Now, when you take away the safety of statistically probably that I will come out looking like a champ, I have been (who are we kidding? AM) a total wuss.
I'll give you a silly (but revealing) example. Andy loves to golf, and I love Andy, so I agreed to try golfing with him. Background: my dad also really loves to golf, and I've been to the range or out with him a handful of times in my life, but never really took to it because I had cooler things to do as a teenager, like put lots of tiny little braids in my hair and cover them with glitter and hairspray. Anyway, I'm familiar with the game, but have not swung a golf club in years.
So yes, I told Andy, I will go golfing with you. BUT, only under the following conditions:
Trust me, this is totally one of those times that I wish I was exaggerating to make this funnier. But I'm not. I actually said all of those things. And bless his heart, Andy agreed to all of them, at least for a while. But he also had a pretty frank conversation with me as we sat in the car and I about cried because I thought I had totally embarrassed myself on the first time out.
Of course it was ridiculous that I was expecting to be a decent golfer right out of the gate, and even more ridiculous that I was so upset when I wasn't. Andy probably doesn't even remember this, but he said something to the effect of, "You need to figure out how to enjoy doing things you're not good at. Dive in and figure stuff out as you go."
As I was reflecting on the year, it hit me that this is probably the area that has the most potential for improvement for me on a personal level. And so, diving in has become my mantra for 2016.
Now you may be saying, "That's a lovely self-deprecating story, but what does that have to do with your blog? WHERE ARE THE PICTURES OF CREATIVE STUFF?!" Well, you sassy critic, starting this blog was my first real example of diving in.
After much prodding, I could rattle off to Andy and my friends approximately 4,583,406 reasons why I wasn't ready or wasn't ever going to do this blog. A sampling:
Well, I dove in anyway. I don't have a month of content figured out. Tonight the roads were really snowy and slippery and I couldn't get to HomeGoods to get a few finishing touches for the post I wanted to put up tonight. I didn't have a back-up plan for something else to post. Instead of trying to cobble something together, I decided to share with you where this blog is coming from, and why I'm diving in.
Stay tuned for a big picture-heavy post sometime in the next few days when I get my crap together.
Most of all, thanks for reading and proving Andy, friends, and parents right. (again.)
