Spring Cleaning

I don't have Pinterest insecurity.

If anything, I have Pinterest overconfidence. Why else would I decide that I could make my kitchen look like these in a single day as advertised on multiple home blogs?

Pinterest should come with several reality checks. The first would be that professional home bloggers do this shit because it is their job. I have a job that keeps me out of my own home upwards of 30-40 hours a week.

Second, some home bloggers hire a cleaning service or have help with childcare. They aren't actually doing it all themselves.

Third, a lot of these bloggers are living on a budget that is clearly two or three times what our budget is. Square footage alone can tell that tale.

Fourth, those that do are probably fundamentally different personality types with completely different style than yours truly.

Case in point

We have no need of a pantry because most of the food we eat is perishable so we don't really need to store food.
We have no space for a pantry because we live in a small apartment.
We have very little counter space and it certainly isn't granite.
We have no dishwasher.
We really don't have that many cabinets and we only have three drawers.
We also really do not have room for more than two people at a time in our kitchen.

In other words, our kitchen has issues that renters just can't fix.

Despite knowing all of this, it is that time of year where I Pinterest-stalk images of perfectly laid out and organized homes and think to myself-I can totally do that.

Overconfidence.

Needless to say, I'm a complete liar. Much like those lying misrepresenting heifers ladies on Pinterest with their empty countertops, daily vacuuming, all white living rooms, and "natural" cleaning products all while blogging full-time and homeschooling between five and eight offspring.

Sure you are.

Anyway, challenge accepted.

Planning Ahead

Moving to a brand new place means working out the logistics of all kinds of things.  I've been thinking about holidays a lot lately-mostly Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I saw this on Pinterest and decided to share.

Source: roomzaar.com via Sara on Pinterest

This is actually a pretty funny idea.  Cute-especially if you have kids who love How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  But on the real . . . if I put this up in my house I would scare myself to death every time I walked into the living room, lol.

The White Collection

Our bedroom is really, really white.

Behold-my first attempt at adding personal video to my blog.

Maybe "behold" was a little too much build up?  My narration sounded completely cheesy.  Since it, combined with my shaky camera work, might give the wrong impression about how bone-chillingly cool I am in real life, I decided to replace it with cheesier Flip background music.  Sounds like an 80s after-school special doesn't it?

I was going for spa here, not mental hospital.  Clearly I went overboard.

We need to liven this up a little bit.  You can't really tell by the video clip, but I was going for beach like with the bed linens.  The sheets are a putty seafoam greenish color, and the bedskirt is navy blue.  I got that white duvet cover on clearance from Target.  However, with the extra curtained closet area Wes built and the walls-it's just too much white.  The white is kind of a cool shade too which makes the room seem cold.

We need color! And texture!

How about this?

Sources Include: 1. Pottery Barn, 2. Imagined Home, 3. Blossom Interiors via RoomRx, 4. Freshly Picked Blog, 5. Anthropologie via TheLoveleyRoom, 6. Lonny Magazine via DressDesignDecor, 7. World Market

Of course, some of these pieces are from my very favorite WTF retailers.  Anthropologie, Pottery Barn . . . I'm talking about you.  That means that I included them mostly as inspiration. 

The ombre on that bag, especially, is particularly beautiful.  These are sold on that blog by the way so if you want one definitely go check it out.  I think ombre would look great on a large scale wall hanging.  It's graphic, yet soothing.  Very spa like right?  Since I have all these canvas dropcloths leftover from the wedding maybe I should start getting crafty?