i actually left work on time today and was looking forward to a nice long run outside. work is still really busy, and i just signed up for my next architecture exam. i thought a good run would be a nice break for a little while. and then it started raining. big giant raindrops. and i was annoyed.

but after dinner i saw this:

maybe the rain isn't such a bad thing.

mike finished the touch up paint on the shelf. i keep seeing this way of organizing books by color and think that it makes all of my random paperbacks actually look kind of nice.

i wanted to put some of my architectural models on the shelf (and get them out of the dusty dirty basement) but someone (trevi) decided to play godzilla so now i am doing repair work.

last week i finally finished sewing the new pillows for the living room that match the entry way cushion.

and i remembered to take a picture of the newly landscape area between our house and our neighbors.

and of the containers that i put on the front porch.

we also bought something fun for the deck, but i'll save that for another post.

it's been a nice weekend, even if i spent some time today doing this:

working from home while the cat fights me because he wants to sit on top of my drawings.

he usually wins.

i mentioned a few weeks ago that i was frantically working on finishing up a baby blanket for a good friend. she ended up having her baby a week or so early, so i was in even more of a rush to finish. i was able to get it done and sent out last week. only a little late :-) i got the ups notice earlier that it had been delivered, so i can finally share the results with you!

i used the same pattern that i did for this blanket only i switched up the colors. i knew they were having a girl when i started the blanket, but i didn't know what colors they would be using for their nursery. i decided to go with greens, purples and blue - i thought it would be a good color combo without being overly girly.






congrats again to ashley and justin!

first of all - thank you so much for all of the great comments on the buffet color! secondly - can't you all agree on something? every person liked a different color, but i guess that's what i get when i post a bunch of different options :-) maybe this means that any of them would work??

yesterday i went to lowes and picked up a ton of paint samples of all of the colors to see what looked best in the room.

i think i have decided that red, green and orange are not really good options for me. mike really liked the red (along with a lot of you!) but there is no other red in our house. i'm afraid that would really bring attention to the buffet and i'm not sure that's what i'm going for. same with the green. even though our couch is currently green, i don't think i want to match the buffet to the couch. plus i'd like to eventually get a new couch. i like the idea of orange, but i'm worried that it will look bad with the floors.

strangly, i liked the navy. i think because it reminds me of the color in our guest room.

i also tried a new lighter teal color, as suggested by allison:

and a black option that was suggested by many of you. the issue i'm having with the black is that our woodwork is so dark already, it looks black in some areas. i am worried that black furniture will make the woodwork/room seem even darker.

i also spent some more time with photoshop and got a better mustard yellow:

as well as a few more gray options:
and of course, there is still the original wood: in conclusion? i still have no idea what i want to do. i think i'm liking some kind of gray tones (as heather mentioned, it will go with many other things in our house, plus, as matthew said, it really is all about my eames chairs). i do like the mustard yellow, i've been on a yellow and gray kick lately. there are already hints of that yellow color in other places in the house too. or, i'm still considering leaving it as is and just refinishing the top to match.

leave alone? (would probably still do new knobs and fix the top)
or paint...

i'm not a huge fan of red in general, but it looks better than i thought.

i was having a hard time getting the right yellow in photoshop, but i was trying to go for a more mustard yellow. we already have some darker yellow accents with fabric, so that would work with what we already have going on.
orange was also difficult, but per your suggestions, burnt orange?
bright green...

blue...
or a nice medium gray.

i have my favorites, but i'm curious to know what you all think.