at home dilemmas of an interior designer

Say you wanted me to design your living room.
I'd ask you a few questions, maybe show you a few pictures, find out what you really need and take some measurements.
Then I'd come back with a whole wonderful design, you'd be happy and that would be it.

NOW, lets go to my house. I quickly got it to unpacked and livable then stopped.

I have too many ideas, too many likes, too many options, and I stare at it all day thinking of new ones...

I'd say this is not uncommon in the design field. I even had a teacher once that told us 'your house will never be done, and will always be the last thing you want to do!'

It's so true! Before it was that I was designing and sewing and painting all day at work, so it was the last thing I wanted to do when I got home.

But now, I'm just overwhelmed, not only by options, but by the funkiness of our house. We are currently renting, so no painting, taring down stupid dropped ceilings or replacing a soooo outdated kitchen.
I have made peace with this now, and am moving forward!

I already know that i want to cover the {ugly paneling} walls with art and pictures, take down the tacky blinds that only half work and hang curtains instead and have Matt make us some sweet new furniture! We pretty much sold everything when we moved.

Then I can re-evaluate.

Before starting any project I always look for good inspiration.
Then I find the theme from everything that caught my eye, and go from there.
So, here is my inspiration as of now. and yes, it's on my pinterest!

Source: themarionhousebook.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: thinkdecor.tumblr.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: westelm.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: google.ca via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: touchofmodern.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: ffffound.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: thinkdecor.tumblr.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

So, it looks like a neutral pallet of white, grays and woods with pops of color here and there.
I'd say my style is a bit mixed. Thriftstore-modern-industrial. That's a thing. Seriously.

Now I have to do it! That's the hard part, getting motivated. But, I'm there, ready to DO!

How do you get motivated for big projects?

Thrifty Thursday!

Now that we are getting settled{ish} in our new place I'm starting to get a feel for what we still need. We pretty much sold all of our furniture before we moved, so we need a lot. Lucky for me my husband is awesome and is going to build us furniture... but that takes time. Soooo, I've started hitting the thrift stores.

I was really just looking for furniture pieces, but I couldn't help but check out everything else. So, what did I find?

Clothes! Like I need anymore! lol! BUT they were super cute and only $2 a piece!

I also found a ton of fabric. I never thought to get fabric from a thrift store, but they had tons!

Some of it is super cute vintage and some is just cute. $8 for all of that! A few of those are a couple of yards each! I'm not sure what I'll do with them all yet, but I'm brainstorming!

Oh, and I got these bad boys...

Buahaha! SOOO kidding! They had these out like they were something special! I'm pretty sure that THIS is what most people think of when they think thrift store! I had to share!

But, the find of the day was this awesome mid-century table that I got for only $20!

After I got home I immediately googled it to see if I did in fact get a good deal, I knew it was well built and whatnot but I wanted to check. They are selling for $150-$300! Good deal indeed!

It's funny, when I brought it in and sat down I realized we haven't had a coffee table in years! Well, we did have one in our old house, but it was in our sitting room, not our living room, so we hardly used it. It's nice to have a coffee table again.

I think I'll hit up a few more tomorrow, there are tons of thrift stores in our town!

Anyone else find some good deals lately?

Insta-Friday & Recovering from Christmas

I'm back!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  I'm still recovering form the festivities, and I still have a second Christmas this weekend!  It's become almost a tradition to have Christmas after Christmas with the hubby's family.  Works for me since I am such a procrastinator!  Plus, it prolongs Christmas a little bit more.  Win win, right?!  I'd share my photo's from Christmas with you, but I was lame and didn't pull out my camera once!  There were two fancy pant cameras out all night, so I just picked one up and shot away.  The only problem with that is I didn't come home with any!  I have to wait for them all. =(

So, here is what I do have in pictures, from my phone {I always have that on me}

First things first, If you follow me on twitter than you might have seen my post about making the most random Christmas present ever.  Well, I couldn't share pictures then, because it was a Christmas gift, duh... So, here it is...

A panda spewing a rainbow!!!

The whole time I was making it I was thinking to myself 'wow, I can't believe I am making this!' and then I would giggle at myself a bit, and then continue on.  I feel like I should also explain why I would make this for my brother to begin with.  See, he is the most random kid I know.  He loves the goofiest stuff, including panda's and especially panda's spewing rainbows!  Seriously, he has a shirt with it, and it was his facebook picture for a while.  Also, every year he asks for money, and that's not how I roll, so this is what he got!  This was my first attempt at applique, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I even put in a zipper, which scared me a little, but it turned out great.  And, most importantly he loved it!

As it turns out, we are quite the crafty family!  My aunt made this for me and Matt

Isn't that amazing!?!  She has made a few of them now, and a m so excited to get one for myself!  I keep telling her she needs to sell them, they are way too cute!

Also, my little sister {who is 15} made this awesome piece for Matt

I think it is so neat that she took the time to make something so thoughtful and so much fun!

Christmas day was pretty nice, we just ate, drank and hung out.

... see the hanging out going on. =)

Also, since it's Christmas my friend came home for a visit from Rhode Island, so we hit up the thrift stores of course!  I scored majorly on jeans and shoes, but the shoes make a much better picture, see...

I'm pretty sure I paid less than $5 a pair. Yay for thrifting!

I hope you all are enjoyed your week.  Have a marvelous Friday night!

linking up with

They're back! (boots that is)

Yesterday I wore boots for the first time this season.  I was so excited about this that I reached into the depths of my closet today and pulled out all of my boots! (and then took pictures of them) to share of course.  I realized two things today: 1- I really love boots  2- All of my boots are pretty neutral.  I think I might need to find a fun new pair this year!  So, here is a glimpse into my shoe obsession.

Second hand (but brand new) FRYE boots

also second hand (but brand new) Banana Republic

Kennith Cole

my idea of a Paris souvenir

I have had these forever

I'm pretty sure these are from Target

Any great ideas on a new addition to the collection?

Ribbon Jewelery Frame

I have been in need of a new solution for my earrings for a while now.  I have a neat stand that my husband made me years ago out of perforated stainless, but it was better for posts than 'hook' earrings.  So, I thought I'd go ahead and make myself something I could attach all kinds of earrings on. And I came up with this.

And, since I was making it I figured I could share! So, here we go.  You only need three things to make this project:

an old (or new) frame - which I happened to have saved for something like this

ribbon - I chose a semi-stiff transparent ribbon, so I could poke earrings through easily

and last but not least -  hot glue


First thing's first, take your old frame...

and remove the print, glass and backing.
Now you will have a blank frame.

I measured out where I wanted my ribbon, but you can eyeball it if you want.  Next dab a little bit of hot glue on one of your marks and attach your ribbon.

After it has cooled down a bit I like to add another layer of hot glue on top, and fold down the tail of the ribbon.  It looks like a globby mess of hot glue, but it should hold well.

Attach all the ribbons to one side and let them cool before attaching them to the other side.

Do the same on the other side, making sure to pull the ribbon pretty tight. Cut off any extra ribbon.  And you're done!

Super fast and easy project that is super cute and practical!

Now I just have to finish filling it with all my earrings!

If you make one yourself I would love to see them! It could be so fun with different ribbon, or painting the frame a fun color.  Hope you enjoyed!

Garage sale finds!

So, I've been seriously lacking on my posts, but I did find some super cute things garage-saling this weekend that were worth sharing!

First I found these cute little lamb vases. My mother in law has one and I thought it was too cute. So, when I saw two, I seriously squealed out loud. ;)

Then I found these fun old windows.  I'm not entirely sure what I am going to do with them, but I'll figure it out.

Then at the same sale I found this cute little vintage pillow.  I had to have it for my cute vintage green chair!

That's it for now, but tomorrow I am going to see baby Landon again, so there may be cute baby pictures coming soon. ;)

oh so thrifty

I was just thinking it would be fun to do a weekly post on thrifting or refashioning.  Then I thought 'Thrifty Thursdays! I'll start next week'  Then as I was heading out the door I looked down and realized my super cute over night bag and makeup case are both thrifted! So, I snapped a quick pic and here it is, the first Thrifty Thursday! Guess what?! Even that chair is thrifted! LOVE it!