Paint It Fast, Swatch Yourself

To recap the past month - it was crazy sorry for the delay in updates but we are finally in the settling phases in the new house so now I can focus on the ole blog.  Before we officially moved into the house we decided to paint and carpet the upstairs first.  We figured it would be too much of a headache to have to move out while carpet was installed. So this is how the paint colors came to be in the Cox house.

 I spent the better part of a morning pacing the paint section at Home Depot.  Glidden, Martha Stewart, Behr, Glidden, Behr, Glidden, Martha Stewart....you get the idea.  Travis was already at the new house priming with our brothers so he intrusted me to make the final paint selections for the house.  I picked up and put down so many swatches they started to run together.  Picking paint is not an easy feat.  Colors can be as different as pigment but make all of the difference in the way the light hits the room and since these colors have to stay around a while I had to be as precise as possible.  So here are the colors that made the cut:

-Martha Stewart - Cement Gray (Master Bedroom)
-Glidden - Olivewood (Hallway and foyer)
-Glidden - Soft Sage (Office)
-Behr - Silver Sage (Living Room)
-Behr - Zen (Guest Bedroom)

Luckily enough for us my best friend had the Martha Stewart paint she graciously gave Travis and I since it wasn't the exact color she wanted.  Now that we have all bedrooms upstairs painted it leaves us with the bathrooms, hallway foyer, and the downstairs....whew!

Case Closed?

It's FINALLY OFFICIAL!  We have closed on our very first house!  A long process but now comes the fun of making this house a home.  We're so excited!

She's not too shabby!  Too give you the low down I'm a person that is not fond of choices.  I need to have just a few choices to narrow it down or I get overwhelmed.  In this case I didn't.  Travis and I had been looking at houses casually for the past few years.  We randomly decided to begin to take the hunt more seriously in August of this year.  I looked at the MLS listings daily and then one day Travis and I decided to just take a little drive around and check out some of the contenders.  Mainly we made drive bys and decided that all were a no go and looked much more promising in the pictures than in person. 

On Labor day Travis and I were headed to family function and happened to be in the area of a few of our other prospective homes.  We didn't find much until Travis remembered this one house that we hadn't thought much of.  The pictures online didn't do much for me but since we were in the neighborhood it couldn't hurt to take a peek.  Needless to say we pulled in the driveway and instantly fell in love.  We knew right then that we had to set up a tour and that this house was the one.

So after touring and falling in love all over again the negotiations began and a month and half later here we are.  We are officially first time home owners and we couldn't be happier.  We are ready to start this new chapter in our lives together and get busy giving new life to this house.

Also if you noticed this post, the house was built in 1974 and looks like a sister house of the Brady bunch.  Peep the stairs and the retro globe chandy.

So that's all for now.  We're back to priming the upstairs for new carpet on Tuesday.  I'm sure you can see that our heads are exploding from idea overload on all of the things we want to do with the house!  We hope you'll join us on our new journey!

Designer Eye? The Blind Side

Last night, hubs and I were watching The Blind Side - great movie by the way.  All of a sudden Travis yells "That paint color is awesome!  Did you see that?"  Of course the fact that my husband is noting design in a movie was rather impressive and the paint selection was a pretty good choice.  Actually it's a paint color I've personally had on my wish list of paints for those future walls.  The color was this below.

So I'm thinking we've got at least ONE color of paint picked out for the new crib.  I'm digging this color!

Pictures found here and here

It's Coming

LOLZ!  The BIG unveiling is coming!  BIG plans.....BIG ideas......BIG BIG BIG!!!  We're excited to unleash the beast and cannot wait until we can give out all the glorified dets on our new digs.....stay tuned it's just a few lonnnngg days away!!!

<3


Image found  here

Fall Favorite :-)

Oh yes.....it tastes like a cozy blanket and a nice yankee candle.  Well it just tastes amazing and makes you feel all cozy inside.  Truly the best beverage EVER.  So it's been back at Starbucks for a few weeks now and normally I'm one to stick it out and wait for the crispness of Fall to set in or at least until the first official day of fall which by the way is tomorrow (yay!!).  This year is so different though.  It has been one of the longest years ever.  I'm not wishing time to speed up but it feels like fall should have been here by now.  I think it has to do with the fact that it was 90 degrees outside at the end of March.  Needless to say I'm so ready for Fall and ready for my cozy boots and sweats and my glue gun lol. 

Under Contract

Not to get into too much detail but I've put my projects on the back burner due to some sticky landlord issues which have left me less than motivated to put my creativity to use.  In the meantime, I haven't been sleeping well at all.  Why?  That would be due to the fact that the biggest project of all has been burning my brain up since last weekend.  We have officially put a contract  on our very first home!  My mind is burning up with ideas and I can't stand myself.  So I plan on taking a hiatus from the ole blog until we get cracking at the new homestead in early November.  I'm so excited!!!

It's a bit early but....

I've got Christmas on the brain.  I know it's early but the thought of fall and the holidays makes me feel giddy.  I can't wait for those crisp overcast days perfect for firing up an Autumn Leaves Yankee Candle and creating some new crafty project.  Sipping on a hot Pumpkin Spice Latte.  It tastes like heaven in a cup and like a warm cozy blanket right out of the dryer is wrapped around you and you're next to a hot fire with a good glossy.  AHH....yes I should stop rushing things but I've officially switched teams and have now fully deamed fall my favorite season.  Sorry summer.  You'll always have a place in my heart but fall to me is the time of year for fresh new beginnings.  Bring on the fall, bring on the glue gun, bring on the glitter, and bring on the Starbucks White Choc Peppermint Mocha.....I'm ready and waiting.

taking it in

Some of the best things in life are free.  You just have to stop and take it in.

Making Moves

I've finally made the decision to move over to Blogger.  I think it was multiple factors that helped me to make the change.  Let me tell you though, it wasn't easy.  It's like moving from your childhood home.  Ok ok so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but it's hard to make a change when you've established your blogging life and it's beginnings elsewhere.  So here are some of the key points that I finally had to come to terms with

1)Creative limitations - when I look at my blog I want to see myself.  I didn't really have that with Wordpress.  There were only so many options to choose from in terms of templates.  Blogger seems to have endless options for keeping things fresh and original.
2)Ease of use - Sure Wordpress isn't bad by any means but I feel that Blogger is slightly easier and I like the layout I'm looking at when I'm composing my posts.
3)Photo insertions - Wordpress seems to be a bit more complicated on this end.  It's nice that you have a gallery of existing photos to select but all in all the photos that you insert to your post sometimes become con jumbled - yes con jumbled - while working on a post.

I guess I've felt that Wordpress seemed to be lacking in the areas that matter most to me.  The customizable options for templates seem to be endless making my "new home" MINE!  I wanted to have something that really felt well real.  So there you have it.  Of course you can always view my old posts at www.newfangledwonder.wordpress.com.  I will say I'm a bit sad to be leaving but I'm so excited to be able to move to a new platform that I feel my creative juices can flow more freely so to speak. 

blue & green.

Just gorgeous......two of my favorite colors co-existing in harmony.

A New Journey?

The past few months have been nothing short of a whirl wind. Work is keeping busy most days, nights, and weekends leaving me little energy to dedicate to my growing list of projects. Somehow I'm going to get back on track. You may have noticed that I've left the old blog site at http://www.newfangledwonder.wordpress.com/ for blogger. I had been back and forth trying to decide which I liked best. Honestly, they both have their perks. I like blogger for the fact that you can customize your site however you want and wordpress doesn't but I like the more 'real website' type features that word press has to offer like the break down of where your traffic comes from. I guess at the end of the day I just really missed my blog and wanted to get back to it.

I just launched the new website for my husband's company at http://www.tccinnovations.com/. We're very excited about it! We're hoping this will be a step in the right direction for our future. I know we can't be mind readers or see the future but I really hope everything works out for the best.

Lastly, within the past year, I've come to realize that it took me a few short months to really realize that my true passion is within furniture and design. The thought of being able to see past the exterior of an old and forgotten piece of furniture and to see it's new potential is something I thrive off of. I also realized that I should give myself some credit for the things I've brought to life because my amazing husband sees the potential in me as I do him. That's why he bought me an upgrade big bad girl power tool for Christmas. I know not your typical gift but the meaning was something so thoughtful and creative. The fact that he believes in me enough to continue the support of my growing pile of projects and he really thinks I'm good at it, means more than words can say.

I'm trying to get out of this rut and just hope it gets the boot soon. I think a good re-evaluation of my schedule and some clean up will do the trick. In the meantime, thank you for stopping by!

Spring In Your Step!

Still trying to take in all of this lovely weather out here! Richmond is so nice today even the bums seem happy! Here's the latest and greatest hubs and I picked up to work on and it may even get a little love tonight because it's so nice out!

She's going to need some work but there are big plans in the works for this lovely old wardrobe.