Okay, it’s Thursday {kitchen and life update}

So, I admit that my scheduled Tuesday and Thursday posting has become a little.. lax over the past few weeks.  With me posting a day late, or in this week’s case not even getting in my Tuesday post at all (despite the fact that I wrote it on Monday).  When I first made my blog schedule, I was still only working as Swiss Chalet, where my work schedule was mostly Thursday through Sunday nights.  Now, at Michaels, I tend to work more during the week, including day shifts.  This does make it more difficult to post on those days, since I only go on the computer when my partner is not home (we don’t get a lot of time together as it is, and so we agree to not be distracted by technology whenever possible). I think that allowing myself a two day period to get posts in should work fine, and allow for my constantly fluctuating work schedule. So, I won’t feel bad anymore if I post on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday, or on Friday instead of Thursday.

Another thing that I have been struggling with lately is the issue of my website: www.sweatereyes.com

(Depending on when you click that link, it may or may not work anymore)

So, my website’s paid for domain and hosting is going to expire *really* soon, as in, next Monday kind of soon.  I had been meaning to deal with it for a while now.. but I never managed to make time for it.  I have been debating whether or not to keep the domain, the possibility of the domain being purchased by someone else seems a little unlikely.  (Who else uses this name?  Based on google search results, no one).  But relying on that idea makes me feel uncomfortable, despite the fact that before I had the website the fear of someone taking it never even crossed my mind.  I know that I do not plan on staying with Yola for a paid domain regardless.  It is not that  I am unhappy with Yola, its just I simply don’t have the time to maintain a paid website as much as I want to, and I don’t intend on making time for it right now.  Since I have been focusing more on this blog, I have been considering wordpress.org, in order to have a blog focused website that allows better “website” features than wordpress.com blogs.  In short, I want my blog to be more integrated with my website (If I am to have a website at all).  For now, I intend on keeping up my Yola site as a free site, meaning that the URL is going to be different. I will probably be taking it down in the next few months though.

Any who, I have been pretty busy this week.  I painted a feature wall in my kitchen, I love how it brightens up the room.  I will be posting my second post later this afternoon, as I will be updating the post with a few more photographs, you will have to wait to see what it is about.

Everyone loves how mixed lighting can be a pain, le sigh. (The most accurate colour is seen in the top left hand corner)

 

Kitchen decorating {initial planning and before pictures}

So, I am continuing to work on my kitchen (and break through my decorating fears and just go for it).  Since I plan on documenting this entire room’s make-over, I thought it was important to post some ugly before pictures.

view from the doors- right side

view from the doors- left side

counter space beside the fridge

view from the window

counter

window plants!

So, there are some things in this kitchen that I can’t change (no matter how much I want to), because of both time, money and skills reasons.  Such as the tiles, floor and cabinets.  Key areas that need attention include the fridge (and the counter beside the fridge), and the plants at the window.

Today I went to a hardware store, picked up some paint (and so I had to pick up some paint samples too…).  I picked a colour for the kitchen doors, and I think I picked new hardware for those doors too (although I didn’t pick them up).

I picked up these Martha Stewart paint samples for only $1!  I was only going to buy the light green and teal, but when I found out they were on clearance, I decided to pick up a bunch.  I’m sure I’ll use them!

Finally, here is my “colour palette” for the kitchen (although this is a pretty loose colour scheme, it gives a general idea for the colours and moods I am hoping to have):

stealing inspiration {using paint samples to play with colour schemes}

If you have been reading my blog, then you know that I am undergoing the slightly ridiculous task of re-decorating/ updating my *entire* house.  My partner and I have lived in our modest two bedroom town house for more than four years now and admittedly, our decorating has been sub-par at best.  Unfortunately, we don’t have much (aka any) budget.  Fortunately, I have the internet at my disposal, an art degree to back me up, a partner that pretty much lets me do what I want in the house, and lots of enthusiasm and creativity.  Can I do it?  I hope so.

Anyways, I  have been working on establishing colour schemes in different rooms as “starting points” for my design.  Looking at the different combinations that I have created, it is obvious that I lean towards certain types of colours.

I love having a decent selection of paint chip samples on hand, all the time.  I find that they are the easiest way to play with colour combinations and see how colours look together.  I’m sure all the readers on Apartment Therapy would throw their thief signs at me if they saw my small drawer filled with paint samples (I’m not going to lie, I don’t consider taking paint samples as stealing, and I think it is pretty silly when people get so upset by other’s using paint samples in unconventional ways).  However, I do think that this IS how paint samples are meant to be used, and so, even if taking them was considered theft, this should still fall into the realm of acceptable use.  Not that I’m apologizing.

All of this being said, my approach to re-decorating is not very strict, thanks to our fantastic budget, and so colour schemes are very flexible and I’m not trying to make everything in the room fit the colour scheme.  But I do like the idea of a few colours appearing, albeit in slightly different shades, more than once and in different patterns and combinations.  I guess my design style is probably considered eclectic?

Let me know what you think about these different colour combinations.

Thanks for looking and reading,

xoxo