Where has the week gone?!? I feel like Monday was just yesterday. Just stopping by to wish all my Canadian friends a happy Victoria Day weekend (aka another long weekend! woot woot!)
Sadly, it’s just like any other weekend for me. I wish I was here…
But instead I’ll be working on this…
But maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to get out and enjoy some of this…
Happy Friday!
As I have hinted in some of my previous posts, this girl is back in school. If you add up all the years I have spent in post-secondary school I could’ve been a doctor nearly by now but I have already tried that health and medicine route and it clearly was not the right direction for me. But what do they say? Life is a journey? Clearly I’m taking the long route. Thankfully I am married to a man with a secure career so that has given me the flexibility to go back to school full time and pursue my passion of graphic design. What can I say, I’m a geek and I love packaging, cool looking business cards, brochures, restaurant menus, and typography.
So, after all these years of all this other schooling, why and how did I finally decide to pursue graphic design? Well, funny story. For the last while I’ve been looking for something new and something more challenging, I was ready for a change in my life. I was at the salon getting my hair cut last December and was just talking to my hair stylist about life as everyone does and she said, “Kim, you know what I see you doing?” My ears perked up as it’s always interesting to get an objective opinion, “I see you as a graphic designer working for a magazine.” Um, hello! She nailed it. That has always been one of my dream careers so why in the blazes was I not doing it?!? I ran home to do some research and four months later I started my one year full-time program.
Getting into a new routine has probably been the most difficult of all. I’ve been so used to working Monday to Friday and having weekends off but now I’m at class three evenings a week, and all day Sunday, and still work two days a week. Just when I thought life was busy enough working full-time I feel like it has gotten even busier.
So, if you don’t see me here for a few days then you know what I’m busy doing. I do try to keep my twitter updated more often so you can always follow me there @paintedloveblog.
Anyways, let me just show you a few things I’ve been working on in my art class. Drawing is definitely not my strongest skill (I was a band geek in high school not an art student) and it shows but I thought I’d share them with you anyways.
Still life – A vignette that the instructor put together in class.
Some funky looking roosters with some big oddly shaped breasts…I told you drawing isn’t my forte!
Learning the basics of drawing – lines.
Anybody else here a graphic designer? I’d love to hear from you! I’m not gonna lie, we’re just starting to learn InDesign and it scares the pants off of me…
An area rug can really define a room. When we moved into our apartment two years ago we were of course very excited to furnish the place. Now I wish we didn’t rush into buying things but instead waited until we found just the right piece.
Shortly after we moved in we stumbled across this rug from Homesense. I wasn’t in love with it but it picked up the colour on our feature wall (Dior Gray by BM) and the price was right at only $100. I would’ve preferred something with a geometric print as opposed to a floral (surprise, surprise!) but the husband was pretty adamant on this rug so we went for it.
Then, at Christmas with the tree, decorations, and all there was way too much going on in the space so I rolled up the rug to store it in our hallway closet where it still stands today. I wanted to put it downstairs in our storage locker but the husband had his thinking cap on and he didn’t want a little rodent making a home in our plush rug. Smart man, smart move.
The other thing that drove me crazy about this rug was the fact that it would not lay properly flat. It would bunch up, especially around the ottoman, and I was afraid that it was going to become a tripping hazard with any guest. Can’t you just imagine a glass of red staining the off white carpet?
So, this is where we stand right now. I like the open feel, sometimes less is more, but now the ottoman seems to floating. I was never a fan of that ottoman to begin with but until I find something that’s ridiculously on sale that thing is not going anywhere.
So I don’t know when or if this is ever going to happen but a girl can dream and I’m dreaming of these beautiful rugs…
This is an indoor/outdoor rug from Crate and Barrel and of course I love the chevron.
Another Crate and Barrel rug. I really like how this pattern is more subtle than the one above.
I have had my eye on this rug from West Elm for a long, long time now. I love everything about this rug: the chevron, the subtlety, the texture, the rawness. If I don’t get this for my own place you know I’m going to try convincing my mom to get it for the cottage 
Another gorgeous and subtle rug from WE. It’s there but it’s not there.
This is another rug, this one from IKEA, that I’ve had my eye on. This is another one of those one’s that if I don’t get it for our place, I’d love to see at the cottage. Good thing for another place to decorate AND parents money
Well there are definitely some similarities between all five of these rugs. Unlike what the husband picked out for our first area rug, none of these have a floral pattern.
Which is your favourite? Who else has an area rug on carpet? Do you have any tricks for it not bunching up? I’m thinking our ottoman is partly to blame for it but I’m not sure.
If you know me well enough by now then you know that I love geometrics. It’s slightly obsessive. I am drawn to anything and everything with a geometric print and preferably squares over circles. When I saw Bower Power’s blog post about making your very own geometric ball I knew I had to give this a try. This project required just two materials: a package of straws from IKEA (something like 100 straws for $1.50) and some string that I already had laying around the house. Rather than me explaining to you how I made mine I’ll just let Bower Power teach you. It can be a little tricky at first just figuring out where to tie and how to tie all the straws together but with a little (ok, a lot) of patience you’ll get it. You may have noticed that mine doesn’t have the points like hers do and that’s because 1) I ran out of patience and 2) because I kinda liked it this way too.
Now the pressing question is where do I put it and what colour do I spray it? white? gold? Wouldn’t a cluster of these looks so cool too?
It’s funny how such a tiny wall can take forever to finish. It’s been a work in progress for the last umpteen months but I think I’m finally (almost) finished with it. I wasn’t a fan of the dark picture frames on the new herringbone wall so I finally went ahead and spray painted them white as well as the other frames on our work-in-progress gallery wall.
Here’s the ‘before’ shot:
And the ‘after’ shot:
I like the bright, fresh look of this wall now and the fact that the herringbone is a lot more pronounced as the dark frames no longer distract the eye.
And I like how these two walls are married now by the same coloured frames. The gallery wall clearly needs a lot of work still but that’ll happen…
I feel like everything in our apartment is always a work in progress. Anybody else feel the same way?
Have a great weekend everyone. Get out there and enjoy the beautiful sunshine!
With Summer approaching very quickly, the parents and the bro drove up to the cottage this weekend to tear out a few things and to fix a few (expected and unexpected) things in preparation for the summer season. The mercury can get up to 35 or some days even 40 degrees celsius in the Okanangan during the summer and with no air conditioning it’s not an ideal time to be working away. Besides, when it’s that hot outside and your 20 feet away from the lake wouldn’t you rather be eating nachos, drinking something cold, reading, and relaxing?! Since I only get one week off from school this summer I’d rather not be tearing out carpet or painting (sorry, parents) but sipping on something chilled instead 
Here’s how the place looked after this weekend with the carpet torn out.
The parents taking a break from all the ugly, dirty work. Note the drinking glasses they are holding, they are the coolest flamingo glasses from IKEA.
And then this happened while they were there. The septic tank overflowed.
Pumping out the septic tank. Fun times had by all. Glad I wasn’t there.
Putting together the new Weber barbeque. A birds eye view.
See you in two months Osoyoos!
If you remember, I repainted our desk drawers in Benjamin Moore’s Old Soul. I love the way our office corner is looking now, however, that dining chair at the desk is just not doing anything for me. It’s nice to keep the eating area and the work/study area separate and by having different chairs it does just that.
Here’s how the area looked after the drawers got repainted for the gazillionth time…
And here’s how it looks now with the new-ish chair…
So you’re probably wondering the story behind this chair. Well, I purchased two of these chairs two years ago. I thought I might use them in our wedding but that didn’t happen so while the one sits in our bedroom and gathers clothing the other one sat in our storage room. I purchased them from the Salvation Army for about $10 each. They’re light weight and they make for great extra seating since we only have four dining chairs.
I was thinking about spray painting the chair either white or doing something bold but when I brought it out of storage I realized that I like it just the way it is as it ties in with the wicker mirror and the banana leaf baskets in our IKEA unit.
I’m thinking that maybe I’ll just sew up a chair cushion for it then we’re dunzo.
Cheers to the freakin’ weekend! Happy Friday!
If you follow me on instagram or on twitter then maybe you saw my tweet about these crazy tulips of ours in the bathroom. Thank goodness I just finished taking the photos for this blog post before they started doing some caraaaazyy looking things…
Seriously. Where do they think they’re going? And why do they gravitate towards the dark wall?
But anyways, now that the bathroom has been painted it’s time to start adding all the fun accessories. Well, I’ll start off by showing you these since this is as far as I’ve gotten
I love these vases from CB2 (for only $4.95 if I may add!) These vases are a great excuse to always have fresh flowers in the house now *hint hint nudge nudge* Mr. Hubby But even when we don’t, some paper flowers like these from West Elm will do just fine too.
I love how the flowers not only add colour but also some life to the otherwise mundane, windowless space. And since I like changing up my home decor accessories like all. the. time. this is any easy way to get a new look.
Anyone else have these wall vases from CB2? or those paper flowers from WE? Who else has a feature wall in their bathroom?
Happy Hump Day y’all!
P.S. If you enjoy creepin’ here, why don’t you just subscribe? No one’s judgin’
I did it for Katherine, I did it for Christina, and well, it’s time to do it for Curtis now. This is the last of my siblings. I promise ya. The brother moved back home after spending a year in Korea teaching English and he will be living with the ‘rents while he’s back in school studying for at least the next year. Because living with my parents is just a temporary thing he doesn’t want to spend a lot of money yet he would still like a comfortable space to study, sleep, and relax in so here’s what I came up with.
The colour Ashwood by Benjamin Moore is the colour of the room currently (that is the off-white shown) and that is going to remain on some of the walls. For the other walls I’m thinking Sweatshirt Gray also by Benjamin Moore. This is a gray with a blue undertone that will pick up the colour in the bedding. The darkest paint colour you see is Anchor Gray (also by BM, are you surprised?). This is for a feature we may do on one of the walls. The Chevron logo may or may not be a hint
My brother has always had a fascination with airplanes and enjoys travelling via the airplane so I think a large canvas in a black and white print with an old-school jet will set the mood for the space.
The bedding is from West Elm. I really like the print and the colours as it’s masculine without being typical like navy blue or charcoal gray.
The side table and the bed are two pieces he already owns and those are staying. It’s the discontinued Ekeberg bed and the Malm side table from IKEA.
I especially like the lamp from West Elm. It’s very industrial looking and I like the chrome as the finish resembles some of the first passenger airplanes.
Then, we just have to have a world globe because like I mentioned already he’s already done a lot of travelling and is fascinated with world history and news.
And since no room is complete nowadays without a gallery wall, we are thinking of creating one for him using IKEA’s Ribba black frames and adding his own black and white photographs from around the world.
My brother’s a little quicker on these things than my sisters are so I’m sure I’ll be getting back to you soon with an ‘after’.
Well, how was everyone’s weekend? School is officially taking over my life so I apologize if I’m not on here as much. I am really, really going to try posting 3 days a week but if you only see two don’t be surprised…
So you may remember from this post that I was contemplating what to do with our empty hallway wall.
Do I create stripes? Do I create a gallery? Or do I do both?
Well, after thinking about it and after taping out a few stripes just to create the effect I decided on the gallery.
But before just going ahead and putting some nails into the wall (and disturbing the neighbours with all the hammering) I drafted up a scaled plan including the frames. This gave me an idea of how many frames I would need, what kind of frames I would need, and an idea of the overall appearance.
So here’s how it looks currently…
The large canvases you see were previously hanging in our bedroom before I made that over and that “Summer is…” canvas was used in a store display. That one is definitely getting made over I just don’t know what I’m going to do on it yet (no more trees though that’s for sure) and as for the other green ombre canvases I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to keep those the way they are or not. I already had the quatrefoil mirror and a few of the other frames just hanging around the house and the rest of them are from IKEA of course; a combination of the Ribba and the lesser expensive Nyttja frames. It’s a very large wall at 12′ wide by 8′ high so I used my large canvases to cover greater surface area otherwise this wall could get super pricey.
I love the way it looks so far but I am wondering now if I should’ve spaced the frames closer together? However, that would result in having to buy more frames. What do you think? I guess it’s one of those things that I could just keep on adding to.
