Tyler Anne's 2014: Week 5

 Week 5

Inspiring pin(s): Golden also PANTONE Color of the Year 2014: Radiant Orchard Nature

Book I finished: Last week was hectic! I didn't finish any books, barely reading any at all! Ahh!

Book I'm currently reading: Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Book 1) by Laurell K. Hamilton - I need to finish this book!

Blog I'm loving: Design Love Fest

Blog post I can't get enough of: Tim and Hannah's Affordable DIY Self-Sustainable Micro Cabin — House Tour by Apartment Therapy

Word of the week: Arctic

So, what went down? SNOW! Considering that I live in Florida/am from Alabama, this was a big deal. Our little city shut DOWN for two days and work understandably slowed. So when the cold weather moved on my life became hectic! 

Don't forget to see Week 5's posts: Inspiration: Green & Gold / Super Simple DIY Desks / Holli Anne's 2014: Week 5 

- Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)

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Holli Anne's 2014: Week 5

This week was crazy because it snowed in the south! If you don't live down here (or if you do), you probably saw some silliness on the news about people being stuck in their cars overnight because of our snow, but that didn't happen where I live, so it was just fun! Plus, my husband and I got a couple surprise days off work and used them to work on little man's room. Bonus weekend!

Here's the run-down of the week:

Pins I'm pinning: Maybe it's the fact that our house is almost back in order, but my pins seem to be heavily organizing themed. I love this to-do list method.

Books I'm reading: Finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets. Why am I just now reading this series? Better late than never I guess! I'm hooked!

Movies I watched: (I don't watch a lot of movies but I figured this could be a fun category since I DID this week). Fargo.

Things we're doing: Painting walls gray (check). Painting furniture white. Staining desks. Building Websites. Playing in snow!

Highlights of the week: SNOW (duh!). Lovely date night with my hubby. First visit to Chipotle...yum!

Things I'm blogging: Super Simple DIY Desks (our office space is getting done...yay!)

What's the scoop on your week 5?

-Holli Anne

Super Simple DIY Desks

My husband and I have been on the hunt for the perfect desks for a while now. He is an illustrator and wanted a drafting table BUT our office is in our living room and drafting tables are pretty large. (Except those smaller plasticy ones, but again, this is in our living room). He found a table-top drafting board at Hobby Lobby to solve that issue. So that meant we just needed desks with a large enough surface to hold the drawing board. Plus, I like a really roomy work space to spread out! 

These were easy to make, only cost us about $90 total (for two of them) and look so spiffy in our office space. Here's how we did it:

Supplies: 

• Slab of pre-cut wood from Lowe's (though, I'm sure you could cut some yourself if that's your thing).
• 2 Ikea trestle legs
• 1 can pre-stain wood conditioner
• 1 can wood stain & polyurethane in one
• Fine grain sandpaper

1. Assemble the Trestle legs following the Ikea instructions. 

2. Lightly sand the surface of the wood and wipe dust off with damp cloth. (The wood we bought was about $20 for each slab).

3. Apply coat of pre-stain wood conditioner with paint brush or cloth. Let soak for about 15 minutes. 

4. Apply first coat of wood stain and sealer. Let dry for about 6 hours and then apply the second coat. 

5. Put the wood on top of your trestle legs and get to work!

So, maybe this is almost a little TOO easy to qualify for the DIY category, but it's perfect for us. Affordable, adorable and assembled with love!

-Holli Anne

Inspiration: Green & Gold

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

- Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)
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Tyler Anne's 2014: Week 4

Week 4
 
Inspiring pin: Untitled by Jesús Garrido

Book I finished: Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 3) by Charlaine Harris

Book I'm currently reading: Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Book 1) by Laurell K. Hamilton - I need to finish this book!

Blog I'm loving: A Subtle Revelry

Blog post I can't get enough of: A Donut Cake by A Subtle Revelry

Word of the week: Fandom

So, what went down? Well, awesome ole me had to go to the doctor and be told I tore some soft tissue in my back and to not use my right arm as much until it heals. The first half of the week was spent blog prepping, designing, and being a big baby about doing it all left-handed!

Don't forget to see Week 4's posts: Inspiration: Slice of Bright / Inspiration: Morning Coffee / What does your patio say about you? / Holli Anne's 2014: Week 4

- Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)
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Holli Anne's 2014: Week 4

Birthday celebrating, Adobe and hard-core nesting essentially sum up my week 4. Here's the run-down.

Highlight of the week: My sweet husband's birthday, of course! Here's the recipe of the cake I made him (only I covered the middle and top with Oreos). 

Things inspiring me: My free trial of Adobe's Creative Cloud programs. Holy moly! They run so smooth on my little laptop. I had to make an annual report for work this week, and the laptop with InDesign had a run-in with coffee, so I had to improvise. It might be a bad thing for my bank account because I'm pretty sure I can't let these programs go easily!

Pins I'm pinning: Food with quinoa, like this Superfood Salad from Dreams in HD and this coconut quinoa breakfast from A Beautiful Mess. 

Books I'm reading: Finished Eye Spy by Kevin Hallock (ehh, it was alright) and currently reading (FOR THE FIRST TIME) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I can't believe I haven't read this series yet, and neither can anyone else so I'm getting on board!

Things I'm blogging: Inspiration: Baby Boy Nursery 

Don't forget to check out other Almost There posts from Week 4: Inspiration: Slice of Bright, Inspiration: Morning Coffee & What does your patio say about you?

Hope you had a wonderful week! 

-Holli Anne

Inspiration: Baby Boy Nursery

This coming week, I'll be just five weeks from my due date! Say what?! Time is really flying! 

We have officially disassembled our baby boy's room to cover the walls and a couple pieces of thrift store furniture finds with fresh coats of paint. (The walls are going to be a warm gray with white furniture). Currently, the walls are a dark blue.

Anyway, the next couple of weeks will be super busy for us as we put this little guy's room together, and I won't have very great pictures to show until we're all done. BUT, I thought it'd be fun to show you some of the inspiration behind our project. 

First, we don't really have a concrete theme. We are doing a Montessori-style nursery (you can read more about that here). Essentially, we are using a simple mattress on the floor, which I get may sound a tad crazy, but the idea is that the little guy can begin exploring his space whenever he's ready. Also, we'll make sure there are comfy things around his bed so if we does roll off or crawl off, it won't hurt. Toys are low and accessible and it's not dangerous because we are working hard to make sure his space is really safe for him. The beds below are a bit busy for a baby, but they are a good example!

We also have a big wooden shelf and plan on using a lot of wooden and natural elements for his toys. When he's old enough to really play with toys, we'll rotate them out so he can have a little to play, keep things interesting and not overwhelm him. 

And lastly, we don't really have a color scheme or particular theme in mind. BUT, we want to use a versions of primary colors, mixed in with some green. 

We want to give the whole thing a vintage feel, with soft, bright colors and awesome thrift store decorations. 

We'll post the final (hopefully) in the next couple weeks! 

Here's all the links to the pins above. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 

-Holli Anne