A colorful hobby

I don’t remember exactly when my passion for home decor, total renovations, and house hunting started… but in the recent months, I have become obsessed. It’s not like I’m in the market for buying a home, and I haven’t had a need to decorate a house, well ever. But I have a new hobby, and I can attribute it to two things.

1. HGTV: I was at the gym one day in the fall when I turned on “Curb Appeal,” a show that transforms the exterior of a house into something beautiful, updated, and entirely different than what the home owners originally had. I don’t know why, but I was hooked. Then I found “House Hunters,” “Property Virgins,” and “Property Brothers”—and the rest is history. The shows have taught me about real estate and design as well as how to turn a fixer-upper into a dream home (like these image below from “Property Brothers”).
   

   Before

   

   After

2. Pinterest: Everyone has a Pinterest account these days, as the site continues to grow daily. I love all of the categories and am constantly inspired. But my favorite category by far is home decor. The pins overwhelm me with beautiful rooms, fabulous color combinations, and unique furniture. I have created different boards to help me organize what I love: bedrooms, for the home, and accessories. You can check out my boards here, and see the designs, color palettes, and styles that I love. Isn’t this bedroom gorgeous? I love the wall color, the mirror above the bed, and contrasting colors with the pillows and bed spread.

Source: houseofturquoise.com via Emily on Pinterest

 

 

I think what I love about my new hobby is seeing the impact that color has on design. I am always blown away by transformations, where a house may start out a mess and ends up looking like a million bucks. I love the process of picking a house, noticing what is unique about it, and planning the design process.

I watch HGTV daily, and I am excited for my new found passion! I’m one step ahead of the game, and I’ll be ready (and EXCITED) when the time comes to buy and decorate my own house.

Paint by numbers at Pints & Paints

Athens has a new gem… Pints & Paints.

My roommate and I arrived at the tucked away Pints and Paints on Pulaski Street in Athens, and we were ready to create a masterpiece. Pints and Paints is an art bar where people gather to take art classes, socialize, and leave with a unique, handcrafted painting.

The evening was filled with laughter and the instructors and owners were friendly and talented! Check out my painting of the Cali N Tito’s bus from start to finish…

We started with a blank canvas that had the outline already drawn out.

We were given paint and taught to mix colors, which became a fun and messy task.

Blue, my favorite color, was mixed first. I painted everything blue and tried to follow the instructor’s lead.

Next we added yellow and then worked on details and shading, which was the hardest part.

Color was everywhere in the art studio!

And I was very satisfied with my finished project.

Thanks Abby and the Pints and Paints crew… My painting is already hanging up in my house, and I can’t wait for the next one!

BLUE for charity: water

Our social media class is working on a group campaign to raise $5000 for charity: water, a non-profit organization that deals with the water crisis in underdeveloped countries.

Our goal: to raise $5000 so we can build a well, which would give 250 people clean water.

Our first plan of action was to hold a bake sale to get a basic start on our fundraising. And to my excitement, we decided to have it themed blue—that’s right, all cookies, cupcakes and treats were blue to make a statement that we were baking for water.

Check out our baked goods:

There were three different kinds of blue inspired cupcakes! These have awesome blue water droplets.

I made the blue rice krispie treats. It was so easy—I just put food coloring in the recipe!

We had buckets filled with blue tissue paper for decoration.

And we even sold water.

Charity: water is a great cause, and to learn more about it view their website.

More importantly, we need YOUR help in reaching our goal of $5000! Please visit our class site here to contribute in our efforts to build a well. Thanks in advance!

Nail Art

Want to have fun with color and wear it at the same time?

Easy! Just paint your nails!

I have been wearing nail polish for years, but it wasn’t until I entered college that I realized how important it was for my self image. There is just something to be said about having clean, crisp and painted nails.

And I have even gotten good at painting my own nails. I try to paint them approximately every week or so and definitely before important events. I feel like the color on my nails serves as a sort of accessory for my outfit and  really adds a lot to my coloful appearance.

Check out my nail polish collection…

I guess you could say I’m brand loyal to OPI. But how could I not be? Without a doubt they have the best quality nail polish, and not to mention they have stand-out colors with creative, quirky names. Make sure you check out the OPI website—where you can “try on” every color, set the nail length and even choose your skin tone.

So go ahead and add color to your nails!

Have a colorful weekend!

Happy Friday!

With the amazing spring weather (although it’s still February) my spirits are high—thus I need color. And I’m thinking you may need color too.

Here are some easy ways to add COLOR to your weekend…

• Take a walk: Just by being outside you will get the color Mother Earth intended us to get. Walk to a park, alongside the street or around campus. The combination of beautiful weather with fabulous natural color will do wonders for you.

• Cook something yummy: First you will need to go to the grocery store, where colorful food and labels are everywhere. Pick a recipe that involves multiple colorful ingredients, like gumbo or seven layer bars, so you can see color in your food. Or create a dinner menu with a color theme, orange for example, and cook salmon, sweet potatoes and glazed carrots.

• See a play: The set will be full of color as well as the characters and their costumes.

• Organize: Do you have an area full of clutter in your house? Well it’s time to do something about it! Take your closet and color code it. Clean out your desk drawer and compartmentalize it. (I’m thinking a Container Store trip would be necessary!!!) Alphabetize your DVD or CD collection. Organize what you’ve got and admire the color it brings you.

• Plan a vacation: Hello? Talk about color. You’ll be researching and looking at pictures of cities or landmarks and even picking out hotels and restaurants. This will add visual color as well as get you excited for the future.

What are your colorful plans for the weekend?

Friendship Bracelets Anyone?

I love friendship bracelets. Who doesn’t right?

But as a teenager I really loved them. I learned tons of stitches when I was around eight years old from my babysitters and then went to summer camp and taught everyone I knew. I would come home from a month at Camp Barney Medintz—my summer place—with countless string bracelets and anklets.

There was the simple braid, candy stripe, Chinese staircase, weaves and even hemp.

No stitch was too challenging. And my color collection was tremendous.

Today, my collection of string is still pretty big…

I have decided to make my favorite stitch, candy stripe, and give you some helpful hints for when you want to create a friendship bracelet.

• The most important thing is that you pick exciting colors. You can go with warm, cool, rainbow or even random colors—but it has to be a color combination that you like.

My colors: purple, bright blue, hot pink, light pink and black.

• When tying the knot at the top, be sure to leave enough string so that you can tie the bracelet on you when it’s finished. I’ve made the mistake of creating an awesome bracelet and then not having enough string to tie it on with.

The perfect amount of string left when I tie my knot.

• It helps to spread out the strings/colors when you are first starting your stitches. The beginning is often the hardest because you go from just the knot to creating complete stitches. It’s important to have a good foundation for your entire bracelet.

Notice how all the strings are separated, which will make it easier to start the stitch.

Now get started!

They have aisles of string at Michaels with every color imaginable (Yes, it’s overwhelming and fabulous). I hope these simple tips helped and now you are confident in your friendship bracelet ability. By wearing it you will constantly be reminded of your knack for crafts, and enjoy that semi-permanent colored bracelet around your wrist.

Here is my finished product: