High Five for Friday!

Hello everyone and welcome to the weekend!

Before I head off to labor day cookouts and college football games I wanted to share my five favorites from this week.

 1. You know it's going to to be a good day when your mom makes you breakfast that looks like this. I stayed with my parents last weekend to hang out with my little sister. Breakfast was a nice bonus.

 2. An Instagram pic of me enjoying a Sunday drive. I've got to enjoy these sunny days while I can because fall is coming soon!

 3. This was my husbands dresser growing up. Some day our children will use it. I like furniture that can be passed down.

 4. This is what the walls in our spare room look like (the same room where the dresser above lives.) The people who lived her before us have girls. I feel like the pink stripe was a compromise to an all pink room. We need to paint and make this house our own.

5. I got new jeans in the mail! I ordered some skinny jeans for fall so that I could wear them with boots and they came today! I have been told on more than one occasion that I dress too old for my age (am I the only one who hears that?) Skinny jeans make me feel cool even in my black socks :)

My Love for Audiobooks

When was the last time you listened to an audiobook?

Sometimes I feel like people forget about them and how wonderfully convenient they are. This summer I "read" Slim for Life by Jillian Michaels, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker, Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, and I am currently listening to Finding Your Element by Ken Robinson. Actually, I was sitting in my driveway, in my parked car, when I got home this afternoon just so I could listen for a few more minutes it.

I have learned so much this summer from these books. I probably wouldn't have found the time to actually read these books in print, but because I checked them out from the library on CD it was easy to listen to them in my car. My commute to work is short (thank goodness) so I was surprised how fast I got through some of these books.

I prefer to listen to non-fiction books while driving so because I don't get so absorbed in the story. Last year I started listening to Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and I had the check out the printed book from the library to finish the story one weekend. It was that fantastic. Although when I'm listening to a non-fiction book I will sometimes check the printed book out of the library just to look sometimes up when I get back home.

Do you like to listen to audiobooks?

So You Want to Start a Book Club?

Yes, yes I do want to start a book club, and I am!

I have been thinking of starting a book club for a few months but I wanted something that was low to no commitment for my friends and gave everyone some options about what books they were reading. Life is too short to read books that you're not interested in. So this is what I came up with.

A get together at my house every three months and a choice of reading two books over those three months. That way everyone has the option of reading one, none or both of the books. Hopefully this schedule will be flexible for most of my friends and hosting isn't a huge commitment either since it's only four times per year.

So far I've had some great feedback from the women I've invited and I thought I would share what books we are reading with you. Our book club will get together in November and we are reading The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen and The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. I've read The Girl Who Chased the Moon before but I picked it for the book group because I wanted to make sure I knew at least one of the books was really good; although I have heard nothing but good things about The House at Riverton as well. I gushed about how much I love all of Sarah Addison Allen's books here.


I think it's important to be intentional about your friendships if you want to keep them. I've also let everyone in the group know that they are more than welcome to bring their friends, roommates, sisters, coworkers, etc.. Hopefully the books will be good common topics of conversation for everyone.

Have you read either one of these books? Are you in a book club?

High Five for Friday!

Happy Friday Everyone!

I'm linking up with Lauren to share five things that made me smile this week.

 1. The Google Doodle played my favorite song, Clair de Lune in honor of Debussy's birthday. It was definitely a nice surprise.

 2. I love reading in the morning (I've mentioned that before) but I espically like reading encouraing words to start my day. This is from One Year to an Organized Financial Life  by Regina Leeds and Russell Wild.

3. Have you tried these Bunny Grahams from Annie's Home Grown? They are fantastic. I love discovering new snacks.

4. This week my husband and I got to have lunch with his parents on Sunday and then dinner with my parents on Wednesday. I love seeing family and catching up with them.

5. I had this afternoon off! I love my job, but I also love have a free Friday afternoon :)


How was your week?

Plans for the Half Bath

On Monday I shared my whole house color scheme. Today I'm back with some plans for our half bath.

These are the pieces I have for the bathroom so far.

The light fixture is in the middle of a makeover (obviously) and the mirror we've had for awhile. The faucet is an oil rubbed bronze color which I think will look nice with the light fixture. I'm thinking of getting cabinet hardware reminiscent of antique glass knobs; maybe something like this. 

I think the walls would look great in the Moody Blue color for Sherwin Williams it's the color in the top left corner.

And for the icing in the cake I'm thinking of doing either horizontal stripes in alternating between glossy and flat paint or stenciling stars on the wall in a translucent metallic silvery-bronze color. The idea of the stars came from here. The lighting in the half bath is not great so I think adding a little shimmer on the walls will up the drama factor. Plus since it's such a tiny room it's not as big of a  commitment when it comes to stenciling. Hopefully the crawl hands that are the results of a long day stenciling will be kept to a minimum. Right now I'm leaning towards the stars but I haven't made up my mind yet.

Have a happy Wednesday everyone!

The Color Plan

Before I jump into my bathroom makeover I thought I'd think about what colors I want in our home as a whole. I'm thinking big picture here. This house is my first decorating project and although I know that I'll make mistakes, I at least want to have a plan to make the rooms look cohesive. (What can I say it's the Type A in me that needs a plan before I can start.)

Sherwin Williams allows you to save colors online, which was really handy because I got to see how a bunch of colors worked together; adding and subtracting colors as needed. So this is what I came up with a the neutral base colors for our home.

The colors here (in no particular order) are Windsor Greige, Sandbar, Moody Blue, Sea Salt, Downing Stone, Perfect Greige, Kilim Beige.  Now I might not paint any of my walls these exact shades but I like the feel of these colors. Some warm and some cool for a nice balance of neutral tones with a little blue. I want to use these colors (or colors like them) on walls, window treatments etc.

As for accents I want to bring in bolder colors in things like pillows and artwork.

The colors here (in order) are  Antique Red, Naval, Evergreens and Surf Green. Again, I might not use these exact colors but I like the idea of the navy and green being the main accent colors and then bringing in more teal in the spring and summer and then more red in the fall and winter.

I'm not going to use all these colors together in one room at the same time but I think having coordinating colors throughout the house will help the flow and cohesiveness of it all.

Do you have similar colors throughout your home? Or is every room different? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Happy Friday

So this week hardly too pictures, but I still wanted to reflect on some highlights from this week!

1. I finished reading Mary Poppins and it was adorable. I'm glad to have finally read it (it was about time!)

2. The hubby and I went out to dinner with my sister and brother-in-law on a weeknight! We don't do things like that often so it was fun, and we had gift cards which made it even more affordable :)

3. This week the weather has felt like fall and I love it.

4. I'm finally watching season three of Downton Abbey and loving it even if it makes me ugly cry. I only have two episodes left and then I'm all caught up!

5. This post is super late because we were at a friends house for dinner! I think we're going to make it a monthly thing and switch up who hosts the dinner each month. I brought a salad with strawberries, pecans, feta cheese and a vinaigrette dressing. 

I will be a much better photograher in the upcoming week so next weeks high five for Friday will be much prettier.

Have a happy weekend everyone!