"The colour you want is the colour you get."

Does that sound familiar? It's from an ad by Penelope Cruz for a hair colour or something. I thought she sounded so cute (sorry, can't find the right word) in that ad. It became a favourite line in our household for sometime.

"I think I want a white kitchen. White backsplash, white cabinets, white countertop." ~ me

"The kitchen you want is the kitchen you get."   ~ MDH

And MDH says the same thing when I pick for colours for the home. Am I lucky or what?

I'd like to share some of the photos I took that I go back to once in a while because there's something in each of them that inspires me. I hope it will inspire you too. Here they are:

I love French macaroons. My fave is pistachio.

We have enlarged the picture above, framed it, and hung it close to the kitchen area. I like the gray tone of the chinaware and the somewhat restrained colours of the French macarons.

chocolate with marshmallows - perfect for a cold evening like tonight

The one above may be very similar to the first pic but the chocolate bars make the pic interesting. Brown and pastel combo surely wows.

And here's something different from the first two -

I love the earthy colours of the pic above which is something I'd pick in a heartbeat. And btw, this is a candidate photo that I will hang in the kitchen.

And yesterday, while I was contemplating on what bling to make for today's outfit, I was gazing at this -

This was taken during MDH's birthday dinner over a year ago at Perspective Resto at Brookstreet Hotel.This was yum.

The dress was blue-gray. I'll take a pic of the bling some other time, when there's good lighting.

I hope you enjoyed viewing some of my colour inspirations and that hope they'd inspire you too.

Bling it on, Baby!

I love colours but I don't think my love for colours is very obvious in the home pics I post here.  I enjoy experimenting with colours. Just not on the finishes at home that require longer commitment 'cause it can become expensive if we change them often. Going bold with colours on one or two walls is okay. But not for things like wood floor stains. MDH and I must have visited several showhomes over a hundred times because I really, really wanted to be sure that the wood floor stain we'd pick was the one. Okay, over a hundred visits is an exaggeration :). Looking at over a hundred images in the web isn't which was what I actually did.

And oh, did I say I am easily affected by the colours around me? I am. I remember one time, we had to paint our family room twice in one weekend. I picked the colour I like but realized after MDH finished painting the entire room, I didn't like it on our walls. I was so bothered I couldn't sleep and I didn't want to step in the room. So no choice but off to the paint store we went and picked another colour. We picked a neutral colour.  Beige actually. BM's Alexandria Beige if you're curious :)

So where do I inject colours? Mostly in home accessories. And blings.Yes, blings.

I made the necklace above. Burgundy and lime green necklace worn over a gray cashmere sweater and a pair of jeans was what I wore for casual Friday this week. Then I remembered, I had to do an interview. Good thing you do interviews sitting down so the pair of jeans wasn't too obvious.

And speaking of blings, I've started making some for Christmas gifts. Mostly for our godchildren. Only for the girls, of course. I hope they'll like them. We still have to think of something for the boys.

Eager Beaver

... for December

We decided to place the Christmas tree in our living room which is adjacent to our dining room.

It will be our first Christmas in the new home. And I am so excited. So excited that as soon as the following events were over, MDH and I started bringing out boxes of our Christmas decors:

• Thanksgiving
• Halloween
• Housewarming

We're in Canada so our Thanksgiving was celebrated weeks ago.

The invitation we sent out

And yup, we had our housewarming last Saturday. Over 60 dudes and dudettes came to celebrate with us and we partied 'til 2 am. Clock was set to standard time so we had an extra hour of partying. It was fun. As usual, the kitchen was where most of the adults congregated. The kids, however, were all over the house which made it extra fun :).

So yeah, expect to see more Christmas pics in this blog. Here's one more -

Fireplace in the Family Room

My Not-so-LOFTy Pics

We've finally painted the 2 walls in our loft. Colour blocking is probably the least expensive an inexpensive way of putting umph in a room. And that's what we did for our loft. We used Prairie Lily by Benjamin Moore for the paint. It feels very cozy!

We've installed a white desk and white shelves to designate a work area. Love, love the contrast of the walls and the fixtures btw.

Not to scale :). I had to come up with a rough drawing to show to the boys.

For the pics above the desk, here are the pics I came up with. The dominant colour is white. Again. What else is new :). I also made use of the knick-knacks we have around the home as photo subjects. Needless to say, I like how they turn out.

I took the pics, made use of the stuff we already have around our home.

Here are the pics, up close:

BTW I call the loft walls my "happy walls." They make me happy every time I stare at them. Colours do have an effect on me.

Next on the list to do: paint the master bedroom and ensuite. The colour will be the exact opposite of what we've picked for the loft. Grayish blue is what we're planning to use in our bedroom, grayish brown for the ensuite.