A Few Recent Faves

It's been a busy week around here but I had to share a few beautiful images that have across my desk recently.  Enjoy!

Stone, rosemary, oval window - so many beautiful details here!

I hope you found some new faves too!

I'm going to take a little break from blogging but I'll be back soon.

Have a great weekend!

Sources

A New Wall Color That I LOVE!

Happy Monday to you all!  We had a nice weekend with our family visitors and a lot of R&R...however, the house projects continue around the visitors.  :)


As many of you know we recently moved into our new house.  My husband keeps reminding me, as my house to-do list keeps seems endless, that I said I loved this house when we looked at it.  Well, I do, but...well, you know how it goes.  :)  I think unless/until we build our dream house I will never settle down on wanting to change/enhance/beautify things around the house, and perhaps not even then! 


Anyway, one of my latest projects was to change the wall color in our powder room.  The guest powder room is small and windowless, but I am OK with that.  The big challenge was that the walls are not in perfect condition.  I am not sure what the history is there but they need a lot of hard labor to make them perfect again...and that won't be happening anytime soon!  


That meant making the most of it for the time being.  I would have loved to go with a bold wallpaper or grass cloth such as the powder rooms below, but given the texture of the walls that would have been a major undertaking.  Check back for a blog post on that in a few years!  

via

bhg.com

So of course that led me to paint.  I was debating on lightening it up with a bright color, but in the end I went with a dark color.  The dark color hid the imperfections and gave it a cozy, moody feel whereas the light paint showed up all of the flaws with no forgiveness.  


The paint I went with is called Cracked Pepper from Behr and I'm so crazy about it I wanted to share it all with you:

I don't know if your computer will do the color justice.  I was going for a dark charcoal, which it sort of is, but it also has a deep blue hue to it that - although unexpected - is absolutely gorgeous.  It came with primer already built in, so I only needed one coat!  To me, that was huge since I tend to lose steam after the excitement of the first coat.

Here's a collage of two angles of our bathroom.  The picture doesn't look like it, but the new wall color blends well with the (already-there-when-we-moved-in) granite counters, too.  (Please ignore the very odd looking orchids that I didn't arrange better before the photo!)

It ended up having a very Asian vibe - the soap holder was purchased in Bangkok on our honeymoon, the wooden sculpture was found in Singapore on a business trip years ago, and the photo was taken on our recent trip to Bali.  Who knew all of these things would come together in one small spot?  I'm sure I'll change it out regularly, but that's how it's going to start.  

What an improvement over the odd pumpkin color that was there before.  I love pumpkin/orange in decor, but in this space it was all wrong.  Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you all because I'm crazy about it! 

By the way, for those of you that read my privacy post a while back, this picture (as well as the one I posted here) is the kind of snippet I was thinking about.  

Hope that works for you wonderful readers!

Focus On Bali: Shopping

This will be my last post on Bali but the design impressions that I gained there will definitely continue to shine through in my design choices.  They have such a strong artistic element and love of nature & beauty that the possibilities for shopping were endless.  I could have bought four times what I did!  Here are just a few of my favorite things:

I bought one of these antique offering bowls, used in the past for the women to carry offerings to the temple on their heads.  I loved the history, the faded design and the beautiful display it would make on a table in our new home.

This old guy and his wife are going to have a new place to kneel:  on our fireplace mantel.

I bought a gorgeous antique textile for use along the bottom of our bed, or as a throw. 

I'll show you guys once it arrives in the shipment!

Bartering:  definitely the name of the game all over Bali.

I hope you enjoyed our little shopping trip.

Any favorites?

Focus on Bali: Design

I hope you're enjoying seeing some of our photos from Bali.  I really could go on and on with the images of nature and more, but I'll try to keep it in check.  :)

Here are a few design photos from some of the chicest places we dined in Bali.  This is definitely more of the modern, tourist side of the Bali experience, so it's not as authentic, but still with their beautiful interpretation of style:

Don't miss the copper lighting. 

More great lighting and a stunning floral display.

This petrified wood stool/side table inspired us to find one of our own.

More on that when it arrives in the US!

The water features are a bold move but great for this large space.

I have one more post about my shopping experiences but I'll give you guys a little breather first. 

More coming next week!

Focus on Bali: Balinese People

Today I thought I'd post a few of my favorite shots of the people we captured on film on our trip to Bali.  Most of you know how much I have traveled, and as anyone will tell you the people can make or break a vacation.  Never have I come across a more consistently happy, polite, honest and contended society than I did on Bali.  Of course after I uploaded these pictures I noticed that hardly any of the people were smiling!  So you'll just have to trust me:  they were smiling - a LOT.  :)

They have a secret that we all need to get in on.  They were absolutely lovely to us.  I know they have their own challenges, but hats off to this beautiful island for the ways of their people! 

Here goes...

My husband took this picture and I think it's my favorite "street scene" photo from the whole trip.

 I bought a beautiful batik tablecloth for my sister from this lovely lady.  She smiled when she made the sale.  :)  Notice the rice paddies (and tourists) in the background.

An action shot. 

She actually looks kinda angry.  Maybe she didn't want me to take her picture. 

Most of them were happy when I did though.  Case in point:

The women gather to prepare offerings for the celebration.

You can't see it here but this woman is holding a huge offering, in a skirt no less. 

How she didn't fall off that scooter I'll never know.

These last two are of a sacred area on the beach itself.  I admired that way of making an offering, and so different than a typical man made structure, so I thought it was worth the two shots.

I'm curious to hear your impressions so please leave a comment!

Focus on Bali: Culture

As promised, but long overdue, are some photos from our trip to Bali last month.  I hope you enjoy them!

This was a fire dance at sunset next to the beach.  It was quite a moving experience!

Hindu offerings were everywhere and the kids had fun counting how many they could find. 

 Water lillies and temples = tourist heaven.

I went a little crazy on the stone sculpture photography.  Sorry.  But...isn't it cool?

 A stunning temple set on this cliff.

More intricate stone carving at a great little temple we visited.  Temples are a huge part of their daily life so remote ones sans tourists can still be found. Loved that. 

Offerings to the max, the day after a Hindu holiday.

Of course the doors got my attention!

OK I'm done with the stone carving photos now.  :)

Next up:  Shots of the beautiful, happy Balinese people.  I think you'll really like 'em!