Pops of Color! or One Color to Rule Them All

I've been exploring the idea of not having every surface in my home covered in color. Which is new. Maybe it's also the trend? I don't know. But these mostly neutral rooms with a single splash of color are delightful!

The tricky part? Deciding on the color...

Because I love them all... 

Outdoor Kitchens and Reality TV

I finally got home early one day. It was five o'clock and that meant I would get to watch my favorite show, The People's Court. Since I started working again, I've missed getting my half-assed TV law degree, unaccredited, of course, and wanted to see if there were any new precedents I was missing. So I watched the show, keep your dog on a leash, verbal agreements count, and don't sell a car to a minor, and then after did what most lazy people do, I stayed in bed and channel surfed. I haven't watched live TV in awhile so I was just looking to see if I was missing out. I found something called "Unusually Thicke" starring Alan Thicke and the rest of his guh-ross clan. It was so off-putting, it gave me PTSD's. Why is he so mean to his wife? You can tell even she is like, "Wait-what?!" I watched, like, five minutes and then flipped over to anything else. Which happened to be HGTV. HGTV and The Food Network both have a tendency to lull me into complacency. Their programming is so benign, I can sit and stare and not move for hours. And that is how I ended up watching House Hunters International: Nicaragua.

Thanks to Rick Bayless's brilliant show, Mexico: One Plate at a Time, I have decided to retire in Baja California, Mexico. Because gorgeous. But if you have a show with ANY Latin American country, I stop and watch like I'm gettin' paid. And here's the thing I love about Nicaragua, and more specifically Granada, they have outdoor kitchens and it's the norm! Like no one said, in a whiney American accent, "Ugh, why is the kitchen outside?!" She was all, yep, gorgeous, love the space. And I was all, Nicaragua, ehhh?

The pic above and the one below are from homes in Nicaragua. I think I found them on home rental sites. It was hard to find photos of real outdoor kitchens, mostly I found new builds, which are way boring.

Also, that episode inspired me to work on designing my outdoor kitchen. We have no air conditioning in our kitchen and in the summer it's silly to turn on the oven to heat up a pizza for 12 minutes.

Finding smaller, interesting kitchens was hard. Most of them were giant stone monstrosities with the same square footage as my house. I like this one because of the warm wood that was used.

Another tiny one with brick and a fireplace. I will always be attracted to the ones with the string lights.

Traditional Patio by Englewood Architects & Designers Godden Sudik Architects Inc

A small cement grill area with pergola. Simple and small enough for my yard.

Traditional Patio by Novato Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers Derviss Design

More wood! And a tiny deck. And string lights!

Contemporary Deck by Brooklyn Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers New Eco Landscapes

This one was very much my style. Lots of color and found furniture and materials.

Modern Patio by Other Metro Photographers Marco Antunio

This outdoor kitchen is stunning! I almost didn't post it because it's quite large and requires an architects eye. But the kitchen is actually small and the mirror above the prep area is genius!

Contemporary Patio by San Francisco Architects & Designers SB Architects

So here's where we veer off course. This kitchen is so lovely, but waaaaay out of my budget. The sliding window and door would probably not be cheap. But its so incredibly creative and bright!

Contemporary Porch by Sydney Architects & Designers Danny Broe Architect

Aaaaand we're back! Purple wabi-sabi house with a tiny kitchen. This would make me so happy!

This outdoor kitchen is actually pretty close to what I want. Grill, sink, pizza oven and all in a small amount of space. And who wouldn't want that bright yellow oven?!

This one is so simple and chic, I am in love!

Another space with the sliding doors. But how amazing would that be?! To wake up on a Sunday morning and open the doors and make pancakes?!

I think this outdoor kitchen is in Spain. But I also think it's from a rental. So it's inspiring both design and travel-wise! Also, I love white appliances.

Here's another little guy, no cooking surface, but still, lovely and small and adds a lot of fancy to a backyard.

Now, one more, before I go. More sliding doors, but is that a hot tub? I love the color scheme in this one, wood and black and white, and the tiny pool. I would love something like that, small and kind of shallow for my boys to play in.

I think searching for all these pretty spaces has nearly wiped my memory of any type of gross reality show that may have tried to infiltrate my brain. And, hopefully, moving to Nicaragua will keep them away from me forever!

Pics are either from Houzz and clickable or on my Outdoor pinboard on Pinterest.

Happy Fourth of July!

(via pinterest)

Happy Birthday America!

Here are some photos of Modern Americana Design!

(via uncovet)

(via cioa! newport beach)

(via apartment therapy)

I love it in my room at night...

I recently asked the universe for a trundle bed and the universe cannot deny me anything so, voila, trundle bed. But it's ginormous and we already had more furniture in that room than an Ethan Allen, so I had to rearrange. And make pretty. So here's the boys newly decorated room. With plenty of space for "so many activities."

Previously, when we still needed a crib and a toddler bed:

(Sigh). The days before BeeBee. When one child seemed like a handful and you could walk through the room without stepping on a tiny, tiny car.

Not a toy in sight.

I was feeling retro-modern. They've since been painted over, but still spell Hartwell.

Baby Hartwell in his crib. Yes, I purposely dressed him in orange. 

The best bookshelf ever. Got it at a yard sale and painted it to match. It's my favorite thing.

Man, I miss that room. The only thing better would be if this were my room and all the boys slept with their dad.
Universe? I'm looking in your direction.

Hot Pocket.

My first project in the new sewing room. Another bag. This one with a pocket!

Ooooh!

I hope the recipient likes pattern. Lots and lots of pattern.

Sew what? I'm still a rock star...

This weekend I decided I wanted a sewing room. We have a weird little room in the basement that used to be the guitar room. It's got paneling, stairs to no where and a toilet. A working toilet. So I cleaned it out, but kept the guitars, and only spent $20 on a rug. (I'm very impressed with myself). For a shelf I used an etagere that came with the house and the table is a table top I found in the garage. I used a weird cement deal that juts out next to the stairs to no where as a base and for the other "leg" a plastic drawer unit. I also carried my drafting table from the garage, down a very narrow flight of stairs and into the tiny room. I missed my table! Perpendicular lines, here I come! I put it next to the toilet hoping to hide it.

I'm very excited about my room. Now I don't have to stress about finding supplies and clearing a space to work. Which was usually on the floor and I usually had to vacuum first. And no one wants to begin a project by vacuuming.

Cuckoo Garden

Ever since my husband cleaned out the garage and found random cans of paint, I have been painting everything. I painted my medicine cabinet, which started out small and became a two day project, and I painted every terra cotta pot in the vicinity. And a duck. And a broken spoon. And an old curtain rod.

 It's pretty amazing that Barkley is still brown and white.

Strawberry Tr-ay

That Aunt Ninny, always with the good christmas gifts. She also gave me these trays. Which are perfect little snack trays for play group. And for when your friend sets the bar too high for the book club snack, and you'll do anything to get up there with her. 

Sister's Are Asking the Universe For Themselves...

Our bathroom is tiny. Like super tiny. Like I have a book called Small Bathrooms and by small they mean 11' x 11'. And our bathroom is 5' x 8'. So. I guess they need a new book called,Ridiculously, Tiny Bathrooms.

But there is hope! This month's, (quarter's?) Do It Yourself magazine featured two bathroom remodels, with of the exact layout of my bathroom. Including the door that opens into your knees while you pee!

I will keep the photos close to my heart and on my vision board.

P.S. I know if I took off my door and had a wide angle lens my picture would match. But who's gonna take off a door?

edited to add: This is our only bathroom with the exception of a room in the basement that has a toilet in the corner. I call it the "newlywed toilet" because it's the one you use at the beginning of a relationship...

I Look Up to the Little Bird...

I've been working furiously, between learning every solitaire game on my ipod, to finish this Christmas gift for my friend. I second guessed myself through every step in the process. And I had never attempted a zipper installation of this sort before. Zippers are a fickle mistress. 

But I forced myself to cut out the wool/angora felt, then a few days later I decided what the backing would be. Which was a brown pinstripe italian wool suit, pocket included. And so on...

And so it only took a month and a half to finish my first couture pillow.

It began while visiting the zoo. My friend and I were looking at a bird and she remarked, "I would love to have a living room in those colors." Well. My mind picked that information up, and filed under "Eventual Gift." Then I stared at that bird, a superb starling,  until his colors were burned into my mind. Like a peacock but with more brown and black.

After I finally came up with the idea, a pillow, then I had to figure out what to put on the pillow. And once I figured that out, how does it go on the pillow. So I created a layout with coins. And printed it out to use as a guide.

Anyway, after all of this, I gave it to her. And she said, "You called my bluff." Because, we decided, what looks amazing in your head is a little intimidating in your living room. 

The pillow is simply inspiration to guide her toward that living room. We all need something a little glamourous(?) especially when our living room is full of toys. Loud plastic toys. With tinny songs and flashing lights. Good luck, Autumn!

P.S. She liked it. I think it was the sudden realization of the task of painting her living room. Something she had pushed to the back of her mind due to her new baby. And now, I accidentally got her thinking about it. Merry Christmas!

She's the bees knees.

Ladies and...let's be honest, it's just ladies, I give you Cottage Industrialist.

She created this stationery for me after a brief google talk conversation. I'd love to elaborate, but she tells it so brilliantly, I don't have to.

I love them! They are amazing! Thanks, Cameron!

Grandma Cuckoo

My mother lives near an amazing fabric store. And nothing else. Okay, the ocean, too, which is pretty awesome. And she has quite an addiction. To fabric. Which she passed on to me.
Yesterday, I received a box in the mail full of presents for the kids, (unwrapped, thanks mom!), and some fabric.

My mother told me to call her when I got it, to tell her I liked it. It was selected from the Courtney color palette that lives in my mother's head. I pulled the fabric out and thought, "She's mad!"

There were two fabrics and one was brown with flowers and the other was green with swirls. Neither of which was particularly "me."
She called and we chatted and I told her I liked it. It's pretty, I just didn't see what was so "Courtney style" about it.
Then, later, I showed my husband and I realized there was more fabric folded inside. TEN fabrics!

And together they look awesome! I totally see me in there!

So now I need to call my mom and tell her that
a. I'm a dork and b. she's awesome

And? If anyone wants to tell me what I should do with all this, I'd love to hear it!!
Quilts, no. We have too many over here. But what else?

P.S. One time, I taught Hartwell that my mom's name was Grandma Cuckoo. It was pretty funny.

Cookin' MC's like this...

I've been sewing and planning and sewing and planning. And only the sewing is going as planned. I'm a pretty good seamster, but suck at the planning. But that's what friends are for. And have I got an amazing friend! Deborah, as I like to call her, because that's her name, whispered muse-like into my ear and encouraged me to make my super cute felt food for others to purchase. Brilliant! It was a small unattainable glimmer in my mind until she said it out loud. Or typed it out loud via email. She even volunteered to cut out some pieces for me. That's amazing! 

I remember it wasn't that long ago I asked the universe for friends. And then one day I woke up and realized they were everywhere. I have someone to call about the most inane things, (the perils of buying a hat), someone to swear with at a bar (god, I miss swearing for no reason), someone to google chat with who has known me FOREVER! whom I recently unearthed via facebook, and someone who volunteers, VOLUNTEERS, to help me along in my quest for craftiness. 

I'm just very thankful. It's sort of awesome. 

Now, universe, I'd like some money. And a hat.

Bird in the hand embroidery

Another Sublime Stitching embroidery. This one from the Craft Pad. With all the coffee I've been drinking, I knocked this out in an hour.
I'm almost brave enough to start designing my own patterns. It's more difficult than it sounds. Simplicity is complicated.

Chic Floozie

How About Orange featured a quiz about design style. I think they pretty much hit my nail on its head. "Pot-Luck Pro"...which,...exactly. I realized one day that almost all of my furniture was free. Or from a thrift store. And I think it all, somehow, works. So, thank you, quiz, for coming up with a phrase that actually does represent my design style. In a way that makes it sound chic.

You didn't go kill him and then get chicken, didja?

I'm starting to get antsy,...creatively antsy. I always knew I had to choose a career that was creative because when I was a receptionist/assistant/office manager/waitress I spent my off time wallowing in fabric, paint and design magazines. Then, upon entering design school, I immediately overdosed. And it took awhile to get back on the wagon. So now I'm a stay-at-home mom and I have this intense desire to create, but not the time. I mean, I guess from 9-11pm works, but I have to set up and clean up in that time or else whatever project I am attempting becomes a toy for a two year old.
My current project is to take this design and translate it to two pillow shams.
I know. It's a Starbucks Coffee bag design. It's still pretty awesome. Who am I kidding? I'm just gonna watch Roseanne and eat Weight Watchers ice cream.