[ Before - bright bright bright orange ]

[ After - black on black ]

I wanted it dark, but not angsty teenage bedroom dark, so I decided to class it up a little. I painted the walls flat black then added high gloss stripes in the same color. It turned out exactly the way I pictured and I love how it makes my furniture and chandelier pop. I’ve used Behr in every room in my house – their primer + paint is top notch. It only took two coats to cover the orange.

I’m not quite finished yet – still planning to replace my mid-century table with a dark stained farm table and adding a mix of mismatched chairs. Then either the current light or a more elaborate version will be painted lime green!

Here’s what my kitchen looked like before…

Aaaand here’s what it looks like now…

Yikes!

I’ve been looking all over for a funky, Mid-Century (maybe with a hint of gothic, though I know those don’t really go together) fixture to go in the ceiling.

The first two lights are from Overstock, second from Ikea and the rest I found on eBay…decisions, decisions :)

Christmas skully!

I also put up some pretty star lights in my windows. Though I haven’t been able to figure out the timer so they’ve been going on an off at random times. Oops!

I bought this print from Madame Talbot’s Victorian Lowbrow and Gothic Lowbrow Etsy shop just after I moved into my house almost two years ago. I finally got around to buying a big enough frame.

It’s sitting on my mantle surrounded by family pictures, candles, a rhinestone skull and Edward Scissorhands. Now I’m looking for two tall things (plants, candle sticks, ironwork, vinyl decals??) to fill the space on either side, but I can’t seem to nail down what those things should be.

Pair of iron sconces from Moxiekin // Mirrored trees (Can I keep these up all year?) from Target // Vinyl tree decals from Designed Designer

Suggestions?

@ symbol from Edies Lab // Tree house print from Nottoopink //  Space girl from Tara McPherson
Day of the Dead Hello Kitty from Maya Gonzalez // Bus roll from Designomite

This room gets tons of morning sunlight so I went with sheer dotted curtains by Xhilaration from Target.
I moved the bookcase and my desk from the other spare room all by myself. It pays to have big muscles :)
Now I need to get some art for all those empty walls and a futon so my sister can sleep over!

Installed a couple floating shelves last night to display my Nightmare Before Christmas collection. Putting screws through plaster took a lot more effort than I expected, but I managed to get them up and make them level.

The paint I used is Behr primer + paint in Lime Pop. I’m pretty talented at running into Home Depot and picking out the exact color I have in my head.

Slayer testing out my desk for squirrel watching purposes.

In addition to working on my cooking skills, I’m taking a shot at growing veggies this year. My mom is a fantastic cook and has two green thumbs, so I’m hoping her gardening skills will rub off on me as well.

Above is a pickling cucumber plant to go with the bunch of dill I planted.

This is probably my favorite thing I planted – a huge pot of herbs. I’ve got basil, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, sage and parsley. Slayer loves to stop and smell these plants. He’ll smell the basil and then walk around the other side and sniff the rosemary for a bit.

Onions and garlic – my mom has planted onion before, but the garlic is an experiment. Everything sprouted so I guess I’m on the right track!

Green peppers

Look at the little buds forming!

And I planted a few flowers too – this is a New Guinea Impatient. I’ll shoot my window boxes once they fill in a bit.

I love having fresh veggies right outside my door. Have you planted a container garden? What veggies thrived for you?

When I walked into the studio they pointed me to a chair with a question on it and I said, “No way! I’ll sit and smile, but I’m not talking!” So they stuck me in the front row instead. Awesome.

I sat and smiled and pretended to be interested as they talked about dresses and diamonds. I’m just hoping there isn’t too much audience reaction in the final product. At least my mom will love seeing it. (And no, my MI blog friends, I will not tell you when it’s airing ;))

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Here’s my happiness list from last night – I thought I’d take a picture instead of writing it out.

Do you know what else makes me happy? It’s been one year since I bought my house! I can’t believe it’s been so long – there’s still a ton of work to do!

And seeing Lady Gaga on Oprah! Did you watch? She seemed so sincere – much more than any other pop star I’ve seen on TV in a long time. I love her even more now!

To complete this random post, here’s a video of Slayer from this morning.
I have a very bouncy dog – he’s always jumping around like that.

Slayer is stoked to go nowhere from Silly Grrl on Vimeo.

One last thing – did you donate to the Haiti relief effort yet? I texted “haiti” to 90999 yesterday. It took two seconds. I didn’t have to find a website or get out my credit card. It just adds $10 to your phone bill and the money goes to the Red Cross. They made it way too easy. Many people in Haiti had nothing to begin with and now they have less than nothing. I can’t imagine what that’s like, but I can take a whole to seconds and send some money.

At first I wanted to paint the room yellow, but then got the idea of red velvet curtains into my head, so the yellow was out. Then I thought I’d go a little Tim Burton and do vertical black and white stripes, but that might be a little overbearing in such a small room.

Now I’m leaning toward light and dark gray stripes. All of my other rooms have bright color on the walls, so it might be interesting to do a room with color in the furniture and accessories instead. It will be a good backdrop for the concert posters I’m planning to buy on eBay.

Couch – Overstock, Lamp and Rug – CB2

For the office, since most of the walls will end up lined with bookshelves, I’m thinking white with a big blueish/purpleish wall.

I also realized that I bought nail polish and eye shadow in the same colors as my paint swatches.

Sally Hansen Gunmetal

This eye shadow (L’oreal HIP) turned out a lot lighter than I expected.
Any recommendations for a dark, sparkly purple?

Also, on a random note, I’ve decided to participate in Charade Style’s Make Your Life Amazing series. It’s only three days in and my brain is very, very happy with the things I’m figuring out.