What's Cooking ..

Is it just me or are there never enough hours in the day to complete the infamous To-Do list?!  Ugh and as soon as I cross one item off you had better believe I am adding two more.  So this week my projects are simple ..

• Paint the walls in the stairway - it is currently Behr "Porpoise" and I'm switching it up to Behr "Rhino", color matched using Olympic paint as I  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Zero VOC's.



Porpoise

Rhino







I know it is a HUGE difference right? The stairway currently seems very dark and the purple undertones are driving me crazy.  So my hope is that the Rhino will better compliment my "vision".

• Measure the wall in my living/dining room for wallpaper, oh and order said paper.  This is the wall on your right when you walk in the door and as I am currently crushing on geometric patterns... although an oversized floral in neutral tones could easily sway me. Decisions, decisions.

• Stain my wooden banister a rich ebony color a la

Image via House & Home

Image via Elle Decor

• Make the dining/living room light-tastic.  Four mismatched ceiling fixtures in one large room is no longer acceptable. 

So that's it .. four easy peasy projects.  Now if I was feeling really ambitious and had the time I could probably get at least two of them done tonight (stairway, railing and banister, and measure the wall for wallpaper).  However we will see what the evening brings, besides there is an all new Gossip Girl on tonight, lol. 

xo- Shana

More Snow!

Living in the Northeast one gets used to snow .. lots of snow and every possible portmanteaus. Snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, and my personal favorite snowzilla.  So it really wasn't a surprise when I woke up this morning and the 2- 4" that was forecasted has now been changed to 5-9".  What is a girl to do? Keep calm and carry on with my trusty stead err I mean snow shovel.  Guess I won't be spray painting this weekend.  Ohh the projects I have lined up, if only mother nature would cooperate.  So for now I will leave you with shots of my backyard while I sip some hot cocoa and design the shade garden I intend to plant this spring.

My backyard

Reality

Fantasy -sigh-

  

Light Up My Life

Boy oh Boy do I have some lighting issues (among others).  My house was designed so when you enter "hello..  foyer, dining room, living room" all in front of you.  No dividing walls or anything for that matter to differentiate the rooms.  So what does this mean other than the fact that I need to constantly keep three areas clean and tidy?  All of the lighting fixtures are visible when you walk in the door.  So immediately there is the ugly interesting fixture in my foyer, not one but two mismatched ceiling fans and a pendant, and NONE of them matches.  Not that I am one for everything being all matchy matchy but cohesiveness would be nice.  Right?! 

Foyer light

Ceiling fan #1 and foyer light

Dining room pendant and ceiling fan #2

So I have been living with these light fixtures since I moved in back in August .. enough is enough.  Ready for the plan?  Alright I'm going to start by moving the pendant light over the dining room table to the foyer.  By the way, whose idea was that in the first place?!  I mean did the previous owners have a bistro table?  Any who the scale is ALL wrong for my dining table which can expand to seat eight.  So what am I going to hang over the dining room table you ask?  Well the most gorg (IMO) chandelier.  It's a five arm, twenty inch beauty that has hurricane shaped light coverings.  However before I hang Sheila (I have a penchant for naming various items throughout my house) I plan on spray painting her to a similar finish as the pendant which will be hanging in the foyer.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate this weekend and I will have some wonderful after photos.  Then I can move on to the ceiling fans, I have some ideas but am waiting to get Sheila situated first.  I just remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day.

xo - Shana 

So it Begins

I have been a lurker for quite some time to some truly fabulous blogs, and after some internal debate I have decided to throw my hat into the blogging ring.  Why now you ask .. well well not?  After much thought I realized the plain truth I couldn't come up with a single valid reason not to.  Originally this was going to be a blog solely about decor and decorating but than I came to the conclusion that blogging on a whim, blogging about things that strike my fancy is more in tune with myself.  So if I find something that makes me swoon you had better believe I will be blogging about it.  With this being said I have decided to come up with some vows.

 My vows to this blog are the following:

• Provide Beautiful Content (which I do realize is SO subjective)
• Lots of tips, tricks, and tutorials 
• Keep it Splendid and Simple

I hope you enjoy all future posts.  

XO - Shana

Bonus point for the fact that it certainly beats emailing all my finds and projects to various people  :)