goosebumps (3)

i know you all have been on the edge of your seats waiting for the third installment of this series:) so here you go! i mentioned suzanne kasler in an earlier post when i was talking about ballard designs. she is a designer that i absolutely love. i spent some time recently looking through her work. she has an amazing sense of style and proportion, right down the the last detail. all of suzanne's interiors are so refreshing. i selected a few (well, many) of my favorites.....enjoy.

if you have time...take a moment to look through the rest of her portfolio. you won't be disappointed. i love looking a other designers work for inspiration!

jodie

fun rides and fall

i love this time of year. it is by far my favorite season. this past weekend it was beautiful here in northern virginia. i was supposed to be here....in shenandoah national park...enjoying the weather and the leaves changing.

 

but i got out voted and ended up here instead...

 

yes...that is me huddled over in the back while everyone else is having a blast! i hate (strong word, but needed here) roller coasters and most rides in general. that is why our friend tim is in the middle....he was my proxy for the day:) except for this ride...they made me do it. tim took video of the whole thing...while i was screaming at the highest pitch imaginable. oh, and did i mention this was a roller coaster in the kidzville part of the park? oh well....everyone got a good laugh...including me when it was over.

back to something i do enjoy....decorating for halloween. here are some pictures of some of my favorites around our house....

i hope you all are enjoying your fall!

jodie

nursery time

here is a sneak peek of a nursery i have been working on. it has been so much fun...especially because it is for some very good friends of our family! they decided not to find out the sex of the baby, so we had to go with a gender neutral design.  after some back and forth, we came up with black and white, with a little splash of orange and blue. it is hard to tell from this picture...but these are some things we are using in the room.

here is a photo of the actual room with the crib and new rug (that my client searched high and low for:)).  you can see the pretty blue we chose for the walls....and the window treatments draped over the crib railing....and yes, we are changing the blinds!

here is a closeup of the fabric we are using for a small pouf in the room.  the baby's grandma is busy making it! isnt it adorable...not completely in keeping with the black and white theme...but it totally works.

we have been working hard on all of the little details to finish this up. the baby is coming any day and we are all so excited! i had to add this last photo of the new parents to be. (hopefully they wont mind) this is hanging in their foyer, its from their wedding day.  i absolutely love it! actually, as i am typing this, i am realizing that this might just work perfectly in the nursery!

on a side note... i decided i am going to stop saying when and how many times i am going to post! i am just going to do it when and if i can:)

jodie

working hard

i just did a double take when i saw the date of my last blog entry! i have been working hard these last few weeks. i mean, i always work hard...but lately i have been really busy. mostly with a huge proposal i was workng on. i will spill more about that if i get it:)

i also had a chance to go to the washington design center to see keith granet speak about his new book

i had never even heard his name before, but i quickly learned that granet runs a huge design management firm. basically, he advises designers on how to be just as efficient with the business side of their firm, as with the design side.

this really hit home with me. designing comes very easy to me, but the business side is a bit trickier. i dont have the luxury of hiring someone to help me with that (yet!). it justs take more time (and smoke coming out of my ears) for these wheels to run smoothly. however, i am learning that all it takes is time and practice and a good cheering section (thanks kev:)).

granet is also the co-founder of the design leadership summit. where a group of elite industry leaders meet to discuss...what else....design! at the last summit, all of the leaders broke into small discussion groups to talk about what is concerning them in the industry today. each group came back saying the same thing, that the design industry, as a whole, is under valued...that the perception is skewed. this may make some people roll their eyes...but i personally find it to be true. a lot of times i find myself defending my job.  people think it is just a hobby...but for me it is real.

all of this reminded me of a post one of my favorite blogger/designers, lauren leiss of pure style home, wrote a while ago  behind the scenes. she does a great job explaining (without complaining) all of the work that goes into interior design. so if you have some time...read it....it is very informative.

well...i cant leave this post without some interesting photos! so i will show you pictures i took with  my phone on a recent trip to georgetown (in between working hard!).

i am loving this pendant....

i had to take a photo of this...i think i might need to make one!

i am dying to use this light in a project.....

i took this photo to show kevin his next project...i would love a longer version of this shelf in our family room....

a beautiful antique shelf

a trip to georgetown wouldnt have been complete without a visit to georgetown cupcake....and they were filming a special! i may just get my 15 minutes of fame yet!

and thanks to my good friend janice for taking this to prove i really was there:)

i promised myself i would get two blog entries out this week...here is the first. stay tuned for the second....

jodie

time flies

where does the time go?  when i started blogging (way back in may), my goal was to do 4 entries a week...ha! now i try to do at least 2...but lately it has been hard to get 1 done.

my mom came to help with the kids last week so i could get some work done. she always asks if there are any projects she can help with. ummm...yes please! she can sew up a storm (unlike me). so while she was here i had her hem eight panels out of burlap for our living/room dining room windows....now i just need to add the pretty stencil pattern.

and she made this cute little pillow....

 

and this cushion for our new deck bench....

 

and hemmed these ikea panels...

 

these panels are on the stair landing. we are painting this area as we speak.  i will post a better picture of the whole landing when the painting is done. it is all part of our two story foyer. we have put off  painting this area for two years b/c we knew it would be a big job. oh, and mostly because i do all of the painting and i wasn't about to to this......

seriously! i had to go in another room at some points because the whole thing was making me a nervous wreck. i do not like heights! (oh, and i hope to one day change that pendant....but for now it has to stay.)

so that is what has been going on around here....along with finishing up a laundry room re-do, new window treatments for ava's room, finishing tiling a bathroom...the list goes on. i have also been working on some fun client projects and a proposal for a possible new one.(i will post pics on these later) its been a busy couple of weeks! the kids finally start school on tuesday.....first grade!!

thanks for all of your help mom! i am already working on a new list:)

jodie

hello yellow

i feel yellow creeping back into my life lately.

this is not  me... just a picture i found on pinterest:)  in our first house we had a yellow kitchen for 6 years and then for 4 years in italy our entire downstairs was yellow. so after 10 years i was downright sick of the color. when we moved into our current house i didnt want ANY yellow. not even any paint with yellow undertones.  the paint colors i chose for most of our main floor all have gray undertones. the last piece of the puzzle was to paint the foyer. and what do you know.... i chose a sherwinn williams color called "sand".  guess what...it has yellow undertones! so as i was painting this past weekend, i got to thinking about how i started to warm up to yellow again.

(just another pretty pic from pinterest)

i think it started a few months ago, when i was convincing  my daughter to paint her room yellow. i tried to explain that it would be a perfect back drop to add pink accents...instead of painting it pink. this is not an easy task with a 6 year old!  i think i sealed the deal when i told her that i had a yellow room when i was younger (with a poster of a kitten in a wine glass over my bed?). so yellow it is for ava. (its another SW color called "glad yellow")

then i saw this post on little green notebook about a yellow door on jennys girls bedroom. it looks amazing! and then this happened out in front of our house...

the road crew came around last week and changed all the fire hydrants to this color! (they were more orangey gold before).

the list goes on....yesterday i woke up to ann curry in a bright yellow dress on the today show (sorry cant find a photo). and in crate and barrel i saw this diplay...

so all of this brings me to the age old question: "which came first....the trend or me liking it?".  i am pretty sure it is the trend. but it happens so organically it is hard to notice!  what about you....do you feel any colors creeping back into your life?

jodie

rubbish rescue

my husband truly believes that there is no such thing as scrap wood. he honestly can. not. throw. it. away. if you saw our garage you would know what i mean...but i am definitely not inserting a photo of that here! our neighbor is getting a new deck built. this means jackpot for kevin. so this past weekend he went "pile diving"...not to be confused with "dumpster diving" which is his usual folly. one of the perks of living in a new development is having dumpsters full of wood everywhere. he and the kids are often seen riding through the neighborhood carrying wood!

here is the pile (thank you to my model ethan)

and, no joke, about 2 hours later....look what appeared on the deck!

isnt it pretty? he used some old brackets he had laying around. i love the mix of the natural wood and the metal. here it is with more modeling  (thank you ethan AND ava)

and thats not all.  we have a fire pit on our deck (that didnt make it in the last deck photos b/c it wasnt pretty). this is what it looked like before the the "pile diving"

it was all yucky and rusty. and there was no where to put your feet up on (or your beer:)). now look at it...

ahhh much better! doesnt it look good? we are deciding what color it will be. i think the bench will stay natural, but we might go a little darker with this. it just adds a whole new element to our comfort...

who knew? this man i married didnt even own a tool set when i met him...now he is unstoppable:) i love having a partner in crime. it is amazing what you can do with things people are discarding...especially wood!

jodie