Favorite Souvenirs Link Party

  Today I am linking up to a party at Centsational Girl to show off your favorite travel souvenirs.  I have never traveled off the east coast past the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.  Most of my vacations when I was a child were to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where my grandparents built a cottage in Duck.  I have found memories of my family fishing off the shore and playing with the small jellyfish at Corolla Beach.  As an adult I have traveled to Florida many times and even spent my honeymoon in Key West.

  In the last few years, I have made a point to bring home souvenirs that I could enjoy throughout the year and could incorporate in my home.  As I have said before, I decorate with the feeling of a vacation in mind.  Light, laid back, and reminding me of the water.  We live in a resort city in Virginia Beach, but there is something special about the Florida beaches that keep us wanting to go back.

These earrings were purchased in Key West on our 2010 trip.  I love them and they remind me of 

our trip every time I wear them.  

 This wood carved sea horse was purchased in New Smyrna Beach.

 Japanese floating ball, I wish I had purchased more of these.  Especially the large clear ones.

Always have to come home with shells and coral.

Is there any other way???

 Lemon soy petal pot candle purchased in the same shop as the earrings above.  It smells delicious and brings me back to the little shop on Duval Street when I smell it.

Capiz chandelier purchased at my all time favorite shop in Key Largo called Shell World.  I could spend hours just looking at everything!!  This hangs over our bed and it is so peaceful to hear when you are drifting off to sleep.

A fantastic little beach with a rock path that created a cove in the ocean and was a perfect spot for the kids to play in the water.  We found it by total accident and it was one of my all time favorite spots!

My daughter and I playing with the dauphins.

Sunset in Key West.

If you could go anywhere right this second to vacation, where would you go?

~  Kim :)

Paper Lantern Chandelier

  Awhile ago I did a post about updating my daughter's room into something a little more grown up and girly for her upcoming 7th birthday.  You can see that post here:   http://www.mylifeincolorblog.com/2012/03/planning-pretty-new-room-for-birthday.html).  

  Well, her birthday has come and gone and I am still in the planning stages of her bedroom update.  She did get the comforter set from her grandmother but we haven't put in on yet because I want to get some of the other things done first, like finding an antique mirror to go above her white painted dresser.  Here is the comforter set...

My intention was to take down the dated brass and white ceiling fan and install this chandelier 

from Home Depot.

But for her luau themed birthday party this year, we used paper lanterns like these from Pier 1...

...and I have to say I really liked them and thought they would look cute in place of the chandelier.  Not to mention, a cheaper and more interesting alternative.  

My daughter is definitely a girly girl, but she is also a bit funky.  I think the chandelier would fall short of her expectations...unless of course, it was painted hot pink!!  I saw an episode on Nate Berkus where a couple used a grouping of white paper lanterns in their bedroom hung from fishing line.  I found some really cute ideas online and I think I'm going to hit up Party City, Michael's, and A.C. Moore's and see what I can find.  I really like the pom pom looking ones!

www.ashleyannphotography.com

 Pinterest

 Google image

 Pinterest

I absolutely LOVE this one!!!  The colors are so pretty and the way the textures and the sizes vary, it just looks so cool!

www.placetobloom.blogspot.com

I think they look magical and for a 7 year old girl who loves color, I think they will be perfect!!!

....now I just have to figure out how to hang them on or around a ceiling light fixture.

If anyone has any ideas or knows a good blog to check out, please let me know!  Also, I am still looking for the perfect mirror, if any of my VB friends see one that is in good shape and just needs some spray paint love, please let me through email or in the comments section.  Thank you!!!

~  Kim :)

Inspiration Friday No.13 ~ Master Bedroom

  A few years ago we purchased a "grown-up" master bedroom set.  It's pretty but it's big, painted black, and very traditional.  Even with the adult-like furniture, I have failed miserably on creating a relaxing and inviting master.  It's more like clothes, shoes, and dust bunnies everywhere.

  One issue I have is that I'm not sure which bedroom we should be in.  Currently we are in the 15 x 17 ft. room (the 4th bedroom) at the back of the house that is more private and has more natural light but is lacking one closet and a bathroom.  The idea when we moved into this house was to add a master bathroom off of the this room (see map below), creating a true master suite... but we need new windows and a roof in the next few years, so that $35,000 master bathroom addition isn't happening anytime soon!

  The traditional master is smaller, darker and I kind of hate that room.  The bathroom is horrific...we're talking yellow tile, peeling wallpaper, and the vanity is missing a drawer.... oh and the floor is stick on tile!!!  I HATE that bathroom.   So I don't know what to do.  For one, if we did move back into the "master bedroom," our furniture doesn't all fit without us having to suck it in and squeeze around, so we will have to lose the chest of drawers.  It's dark, like depressing dark and then again, the bathroom.  Hate that bathroom, oh did I say that already?!

  Anyway, onto the pretty stuff.  If I could have a master it would look something like one of these...

Southern Living 

All other images via Coastal Living 

I am not in love with this head board and twin beds (cute for a guest room) 

but the overall colors are pretty.

I am kinda loving the upholstered headboard look that is so popular right now.  I've actually thought of throwing some batting and fabric over our current headboard and see what I get.  Not sure about the nailhead trim, never played with that before!

A small, intimate sitting area would be awesome... and a nice little escape from the kids!! :)

I will never be able to have this size bathroom in the master (swooning over the tub)...

 Matthew Millman photography via www.craveorcreate.blogspot.com

...but maybe I could have something that looks like this...

Sarah Richardson

More pictures from Coastal Living that I am loving right now...

With this aqua door, it's like you would just come home everyday singing "Oh happy day, oh happy day"!!!

Yeah, I think I could live here!  

Happy Friday!  I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

~  Kim :)

A little bit of every thing...

  I am sitting here enjoying my quiet, kid-free home with my coffee and the time to sit and read some of my favorite blogs.  I came across this today at DIY Showoff and stopped dead in my tracks.  I am dying over these rattan stools....

and to think they looked like this...ahhhh, seriously in love.

This weekend was really busy around here.  We had my daughter's last soccer game of the season and her 7th birthday party on the same day.

Her party was a luau theme and they had so much fun dressing up.  It was at my in-laws and those crazy kids all went swimming in the pool.  They came out shivering and with blue lips, but they didn't care!!

I have some pretty flowers coming up in my garden.  This hydrangea I planted this year, it was pink, but the acidity in the soil is turning it purple.  I took this picture with Instagram, love it!

My first peony.  I wish I had 30 of these plants, they are really so beautiful!

I love the salvia with other flowers or even by itself in a white vase.

I have hydrangeas!!!  I am so stinkin' happy.  We have two hydrangea plants that were here when we moved in.  They must be really old and last year didn't bloom ONE SINGLE FLOWER.  I was so bummed, so this year I told my husband that I was going to trim off the old, dead wood and if it didn't bloom again, that we would just remove the plants.  Well, it worked!!  All of the energy in the plant must have been going to the dead wood because after I removed it, I now have these big, beautiful blooms.

Soooo pretty!!!

My Mother's Day present was my husband and father-in-law repairing a leak in our roof that resulted in this mess in the main bathroom.  Anytime we would get a hard rain with winds, the corner would leak.  It currently looks like this because I'm not sure if I want to re-paint in there or not.

The shower curtain looks like this and I love it, but I'm thinking I'm getting tired of the green.  Especially because I never cared for the finish on the Benjamin Moore Aura paint that they suggested for the bathroom.  It's just FLAT.  I don't know, there's just something about it I don't care for.  Not sure if it's the color or the finish but I've been thinking about a change.

It's been like this for a few months... just not sure where I want to go from here.

So this is one of the projects that I've been thinking about doing.  Currently we have been on a hiatus from projects around the house but I'm ready to get some things done and to finish up on some of the projects that didn't get completed.  The story of our lives...

And this little ~ big snapping turtle~ was in the street in front of our house last week and caused quite an uproar.  He kept trying to cross the street on a busy neighborhood road and a bunch of passerby's and myself tried to help him out.  A man stopped and told me he had gotten hit by a truck a few days before but that didn't stop him from trying to keep getting across. 

We decided to just stop traffic and let him jay walk but then a nice man stopped and took action.

You can see more about the rattan stools and the amazing house they live in here: http://seasideshelter.blogspot.com/2012/05/turquoise.html.

So now that I have spent 2 hours and 30 minutes on the computer, I'm off to pick up my son from nursery school.  Why does the quiet times have to fly by so fast???

~  Kim :)