Ok , I know I promised......

I know, I know, today was to be about my trip to Historic Folsom....but exciting news concerning that, my daughter Rebecca, my partner in crime has gotten a showing of her art at a local chocolate store there...Victoria. Chocolatier ( there is a web site, but it seems to not be connecting) in Folsom.

So since we will be going back to hang her art there, I want a chance to take a few more pics, maybe visit a few of the shops I took pics in before and get pics with the owners ,if they will let me, and include it in the blog. I do not want you to miss a single part of the day out.

I have decided that since this is primarily a decor blog, I would do a blog on , wait for it .....DECOR! Although, I did promise , well elude to, the fact that I would also share my shopping days, walks, family life, ups and downs and what ever tickled my fancy...guess I best get my daughter to amend my mission statement at the top to that fact perhaps....I mean I am on a budget, a very tiny one, one that I have already blow for this week and it is only Monday! We do not know as of yet what the groceries will come out to ( if there is extra it goes in my decor fund ) or what my hubbies check will be today, so rent is iffy (till we know, and balance things out) for July...so that is life as we know it today, but that does not mean I can not pull from projects already in the works , ones to come etc....maybe get an opinion or two. I'm game if you are. Ok best get started, going to be a warm one today and well I need to walk...heck I still need to get breakfast LOL

Ok , so project one. If you have been over on my daughter blog, see the pic to the right of the lovely young lady?? You will have seen the dresser she redid.
This is it once it reached my apartment, as she replaced it with a china hutch found at our local consignment store for a steal ...If only I had room....anyway....
And then my hubby, yes, the wonderful "H-factor" painted it all white....
And I gave all the knobs back to my daughter, just was not right for me...I bounced back and forth, leave it white, paint a new color on the drawers...then I found the knobs at Anthropologie and a color chip that I thought matched my area rug beautifully...oh and my Tiger footstools ( pic was posted in the H blog..I think LOL)
It is Behrs "Teatime" , I think it looks like caramel! So off we went to buy a sample pot at Home Depot, and hubby got to work....

AND THIS is the result....

So what do you think??? I love it, and it helps the mercury glass knobs POP! It needs a bit of touch up still, but it is basically done....and we are quite pleased with it. When we first moved to the apartment, and even when we were still in our cottage, I was going after a more modern, nearly Mid Century look , I mean it has always been a love of mine. It is a look I tried when we lived in TX, but it did not go with the house, no matter how hard I tried, it was like a square peg in a round hole , and so I went with a very Asian feel, and loved it, but for some reason I allowed my friends to influence me and tell me it was "not me" ....so went cottage...it suited the house better, and was very nice, but too cute, too frilly. I am girly, but it was REALLY girly , and had we stayed in the home and not moved back to CA, then it may have changed again...it was not 100% matching the structural changes we had made to the house....but that is another story and there is no going back. Anyway, then we moved here, and I went Mission, even though I wanted to go French, black, white and pops of my fav blue....but that was not what the house was calling for....and I loved the decor that I did,and when my friends visited, both said "Oh this is you" and on many levels it was.

When we knew were were going to loose the house, we gave Rebecca the DR table...oh how I still miss that table...and one of the love seats, and sold everything else ...and well Rebecca got a lot of the accessories. We painted the walls a mocha , opened it all up, added in the teal sheers that you see in my current LR, and used an old couch that we had from the upstairs and well I started adding in more of the Mid Century, Scandinavian aka IKEA look and added in a few Buddhas as I was in need of peace and calm and centering with all that was going on....and it looked good in the small space, opened it up( no pics, did not really keep any of the transition phase). We moved to the apartment, and well cause we had little cash on hand to fill in the blanks with pieces that would serve double duty for storage and enough seating ,and the couch had to be a spare bed as well, I was really trying to embrace it, but cause a space will tell you, or is it your inner personality (???) what it wants, nothing was working...of course it could have been cause I was really down in the dumps and well the whole world was not working for me....I tried making it Moroccan, then Zen, but was not feeling it, it was pretty, people liked it, and it was fun and colorful, but not home. I became obsessed over replacing the over sized, though not very old DR table, as it was very Scandinavian , heck it came from a store called Scandinavian Designs ( great store, but...) all beautiful cherry wood and pin and ball steel legs....and I began to save and search for my replacement, and found it at Kmart....shared that back in the "Let's Review " blog , and well then my daughter bought me a lovely little , what I call Granny chair
And then the table you see in the pic, and the dresser, that we chatted about in the beginning....and in between the art pieces ...and little by little a style emerged , and it is a mix of Traditional, a bit Vintage, a bit Modern, a touch of Glam/Regency and well all Asian infused.....throw it all in a cocktail shaker and you have my style...or at least the beginnings of it.

Of course there has been some tweaking and changing around and I have plenty of plans for upgrades over time when things get better...but it is starting to feel like home...and I am trying to not think of our lease being up in October, and that rent may go up and well if we can not afford the increase or to move so life being thrown into a tizzy of the unknown again...for now , just going to take it one day at a time and see what happens....at least I have gotten over the fear of making holes in the walls! LOL

So, on to the voting portion of this post.... Our NEXT project....( oh and pay no attention to the objects on the dry sink, all but the candlesticks have moved LOL)
Paint, don't paint....if we paint, what color, just one solid, or a mix to tie in with the dresser....it is just a few feet away from it, so ....tell me what you think! I am very eager to hear!

Ok well, it is nearly 11 am and I have not eaten, need another cup of tea and it is already over 70 degrees outside, so off to get another cup of tea and get the day going.....OH just to let you know, more than likely I will not have time to chat till Thursday...so till then.....