What's Inspiring Me Right Now

It's the weekend and for me that means quality time with my husband and son.  It also means more time for relaxing and enjoying things like movies.  I have two recommendations for you to check out.

The first is Jiro Dreams of Sushi.  It's streaming on Netflix right now, and I highly recommend it.  A wonderful documentary about a man in Japan who is famous for making sushi.  Just that. He has a 10 seat, $300 a plate restaurant and the only thing he serves is sushi.  I felt inspired by his devotion to his craft.  A few of my favorite quotes from Jiro:
 

"Once you decide on your occupation you must immerse yourself in your work.  You have to fall in love with your work.  Never complain about your job.  You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of success.  And the key is to being regarded honorably." 

 

This sets the tone for the film and I felt such a strong connection to it.  It's easy to give up, but it's not worth it.  The reward for working hard is so much greater.  Success does not come easily.

 

"Always doing what you are told doesn’t guarantee success."

Jiro as a child behaved very badly, he grew up and changed.  When it came time to tell his two sons how to behave he had a hard time deciding what to tell them.  The quote above was his advice. 

 

"If I don’t keep working my body will become worthless"

 

So true! 

 

 

And finally, if you want to laugh your ass off go and see Django Unchained...HIL FREAKIN' LARIOUS!

A Vintage Lunch Tray Get Together

Let's do a get together of vintage lunch trays from Etsy.  These are a great way to organize small things like paper clips, push pins, pencils and post it notes.  If you were to organize your desk drawer with one,  there could be a slap of color and a pop of wow as you searched for those boring, oh so useful, paperclips.  Better yet, leave it out on your desk, be like my husband, easy to find, easy to grab.  While doing this, you'll be a little bit less stressed and a tiny bit cooler.  Oh you!

Check out these vintage Yellow serving trays from Amelia Bedelia Vintage.

And these incredible red and turquoise trays from Arks Endeavor.





Better yet, go for the industrial look and pick up some aluminum ones over at The Relic Trail.

My new favorite color, a true mid century classic, turquoise.  Brought to you by Lare Furbish. 

Finally, this structured US Military mess tray is a must have for the truely organized in you. Shop Via Olivia now.

 

Floating Letters

One of the best ways to organize and re-energize your space is to put similar things together. So often when decorating we buy objects that we love, bring them home and insert them somewhere.  Most likely if your anything like me, you buy similar items.  I go through color phases, object obsession phases and must have trendy phases.  Then all of a sudden I realize, I have a collection of something and I need to put it all together.  Perhaps the collection has grown and it all needs to be taken down and either re-located or re-arranged.  This is where the fun begins.


When I set out to design my son's bedroom, I browsed through image after image of boy's rooms and nurseries.   I knew I wanted his children's books to face outward.    There is so much wonderful art on children's books.  I wanted to display it.  I put up these three white shelves from Ikea.  But I only had a few books at the time.  So I started to add things like the three-dimensional letter H (a gift from my mom-in-law who loves to add letters to her decor).  I added the N and the S (letters from our wedding decor) and various objects to the shelves. Somewhere along the way a fourth shelf was added.  What I was left with was a wall with shelves and stuff on it, but no real wow factor.  I just decorated the wall. That was it.

I knew I had to make a change.  Down came all the stuff and the shelves as my husband cringed.  Then back up went the shelves at a kid friendly height.  Next I added all of the books, without accessories.  By this point the books had grown.  I immediately got my wow factor.  It needed something else above it, something three dimensional, like letters. A random collection of letters.

 

Now, it's not just me who is adding letters but my friend Susan who gave him the W and the Q and his Grandma who gave him the tiny H.  I have my eyes on a B at Anthropology, meanwhile I'm considering painting the white letters that I picked up at a vintage store a black or green, maybe even yellow. 

For now, when I'm rocking Hank to sleep, I look at the wall and imagine that the letters are emerging from the books, literally jumping off the pages, floating up the wall...

Saying, "Look at me Hank...Learn your letters...Dream up new stories to tell..."

Organizing for Two

When I set out to organize my husband it came with many, many, many changes along the way.  He wants everything out in the open, easy to grab and easy to see.  I am the complete opposite.  I want everything put away that isn't pretty to look at.  I love to stuff things in drawers, closets and our basement!  Do you have a basement? They are awesome!

 Below you'll find the ways we conquered this design organization dilemma so that we are both happy. 

First, I used a nightstand as the end table between the sofa and the man chair.  This one was perfect because it has a drawer and a shelf.  The shelf holds his computer when it's not in use and it's easy for him to grab when he sits down to watch TV.

The drawer is perfect for all the nick knacks this man has.  Cords to this device and that.  A USB storage device, pens, notepads, matches, you name it it's in there.

The magazine holder, a fantastic find from Target that holds books, magazines and papers he is currently reading.
 

The fun colorful tray from West Elm holds all FOUR remotes that are essential to a happy man and his television. It also holds a box of tissue (another requirement) and a pretty vase (that's for me).  I've yet to get the white lacquer tissue box so I left it out completely. I want one like this. 
West Elm carries the best lacquer trays, my favorite size are the square ones.  Check them out here.

So there you have it.  Remotes, magazines, papers, books, computer and miscellaneous stuff all contained AND easy to grab.  No easy feat.  The beautiful part is that when you slide the chair over, you can't see the shelf or the magazine holder. And that my friends, makes for a happy wife.

Do you and your partner have any design disagreements?

Here's to a New You!

The start of new year.  A chance to start one thing and end another.  A time to make promises to yourself and break others.  A time for reflection on the year before as you look toward the year ahead. 

I've always considered my new year as beginning on my birthday.  I do that because I think I'm special and different from everyone else.  I'm kidding.  I've done that because I've always felt a connection with my birthday as being the start to my new year.  This year seems different.  I'm feeling a little je ne sais pas?  

I'm going to write and post something every day on this blog for the next 365 days.  Do you think I can do it?  Apparently I think I can.  I love blogs, crazy about them.  I wonder how I ever lived without them.  I love the stories and the never ending creativity.  They honestly brighten my day.

So I'm setting out today, January 1, 2013 on a journey to write every day on this blog.  So often I don't write or post out of fear that it's not good enough. Well, I'm choosing to confront that fear, to be imperfect and to just be myself. A journey I hope that will teach me something about consistency, commitment and showing up.  A journey out of my comfort zone and into the land of possible and probable imperfection. 

Happy New Year!

Nicole B.

  
  

Paint Your Kitchen

 

 

(After)

 

 

(Before)

 

When I took this photo we had already removed all of the top cabinets. A bit embarrassing, but you had to see what they looked like before. Our kitchen is a square with three doorways. Very tiny and most of the time it's dark.  We absolutely had to paint it.

 

(During)

 

Each cabinet door had to be removed along with all the hardware.  Then each one was sanded, cleaned and layed out for painting.  We decided to keep the 1980's brass hinges, they have a nice patina to them and brass is so back in style.  The glass knobs were picked out months ago from Anthropology.  I couldn't be happier with the glass knobs, brass hinges, grey painted cabinets and stainless steel appliances.  Our kitchen makes me happy now. Every morning I smile. It's clean, fresh and stylish. No longer in the 80's and fits us and our house just perfect. 

 

 I do have this to say, if you are hesitant to paint your cabinets, don't be. It was such a rewarding project for us. Hard, tedious work, but totally worth it. 

 

 

There is more I'd like to do to my kitchen, but that is for another day and another dollar.  This has been such a simple transformation. 

 

We used Benjamin Moore's Grey Owl in a semi-gloss for both the cabinets and the walls.

 

 

Land of Nod Modern Dollhouse

Hands down the coolest doll house ever.  So cool that I'm pretty sure someone made it for grown-up me to play with.  I want to insert myself in that photo above. Smiling. Laughing. Playing house.  

 

Now all it needs are some cool vintage pieces, dollhouse size. 

 

 

Or maybe some modern art.

 

 

And what's a home without a hipster family?  If that was a Portland family, dad would have a full beard.  And one of the little girls would be wearing a tutu with rain boots.

Buy it here.  Cause it's awesome.

 

*All photos are from Land of Nod.  Visit their website here.*