Myers Maison // Designing, grilling and life in between.

Catching up

2015-06-01T12:05:00.000-04:00

Hello there friends! I must say, I have missed blogging! A lot has happened since my last post in August. I went back to Frisco, Colorado in September and it was a great trip.

Our Thanksgiving was great. It was a smaller gathering than past years, but wonderful nonetheless.

Christmas was equally pleasing as well as New Year's Eve.

I think the most pivotal point from last year, though, was finding out that we're expecting! As I type this, we are 6 days past our due date, but we're over the moon about meeting our baby girl very soon :-) Soooo...the Myers Maison will be filled with even more love!

As for other projects around the house, I honestly haven't done much outside of decorating the nursery which is 98% complete. Can't wait to share it with you guys soon! As for my online shop, Color Hug, we're in the final stages of launching our new product lines for the Summer, so keep your eyes open for that as well.

See you guys soon!

Master Bedroom Project List

2014-08-15T07:29:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday! I hope your week has been great, but I hope your weekend is even better!

When I last left you all, I was trying to decide if I wanted to go with a darker bedroom or a lighter one. I've decided to go dark...I want to feel like I'm in a cocoon when I'm sleeping, ha! But really, I've never had a dark bedroom and since we have the space for it I'm just going to go for it.

So with that, I do have new Before photos of the room (the last set of images weren't too great) and details of what I plan to do in each area. I'm going to start out facing the bed then go around each corner of the room.

Bed Area//
1. DIY a floor to ceiling headboard
2. DIY drapes
3. Add decorative trim to lamps
4. Add glass tops or something similar to the nightstands
5. Add different baskets to shelves on nightstands
6. Paint the front of the nightstands white
7. Add a few decorative pillows to the bed.
8. Paint walls black
9. Add plantation shutters
10. Maybe hang one image on the wall to the right with the grey paint sample on it (which has been there for probably 4 years now...this goes for all of the paint samples you will see randomly ahead).

Sitting Area//

1. Gold and white wallpaper on the three walls of the sitting area.

2. Either DIY a roman shade or add plantation shutters and DIY small drapes.

3. Add one floor lamp

4. Add a side table

Dresser Wall//
I'm not too sure about this area. I want to paint the front of the dresser drawers white, but I'm not sure if I want to keep it on this wall or move it somewhere else. I thought about putting a vanity here or maybe a floor mirror because I definitely need a larger one. You will see what I mean shortly.

Credenza Wall//
1. Paint walls black
2. Get four drawer inserts from Ikea for the open spaces.
3. Get a new TV (ha! No time soon...)
4. Get rid of that mirror and replace with a larger one.
(By the way, these doors are the doors to enter the room)
5. Hang enlarged photos and/or art work.

Entry Walls//
1. Paint walls black
2. Probably will keep the hampers there because there's nowhere else to put them and they're right next to the bathroom (the double doors on the right). Maybe I will move the dresser into this area.
3. Maybe hang one image on the wall to the right of the bathroom doors.

Ceiling//
1. Thought about painting the ceiling, but probably won't. Then again who knows how I will feel when the time comes.
2. Replace the fan.

So there you have it, my proposed project list. I just hope everything turns out as beautiful as I'm imagining because if not I'll have a crap load of black to cover up, heh :)

Master Bedroom- Light vs Dark Round 2

2014-08-04T08:50:00.000-04:00

Hello there people! I hope your weekend was relaxing or at least enjoyable.

It's finally time for me to tackle this master bedroom. I know what I want to do (for the most part), so I'm getting ready to press GO.

After much deliberation, I finally decided on a color scheme of coral, black, white and gold. The main "colors" will be black, white and gold and the accents will be coral. Simon was fine with a comforter that I picked out a few months back and it happened to have coral on it. I thought he wouldn't like it because it looks kind of pink, but he said it was fine (yay! thanks honey!). This is the comforter:

Now I just need to decide if I want the room to be dark, dramatic and sexy or light, airy and calming. I love both styles, so this is a difficult decision. I actually posted about this very topic here a little over two years ago, that's why this post is labeled round two :)

Here are a few photos of both styles. Which would you choose?

Light, Airy and Calming//

Dark, Dramatic and Sexy//

Upon searching I realized that there aren't many images with this color scheme in a bedroom, so just imagine a bed in these rooms :)

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5 Reasons I'm Glad That We Used a Travel Agent

2014-08-01T08:04:00.000-04:00

To finish this week off, I decided to share my experience with using a Travel Agent for our vacation. We've never used one before, and I'm really glad that we did. Our agent was Sharon Law with Pack Your Bags and Go Travel (catchy name, right?). Here are the reasons that this was a great decision:

By the way, the following photos don't necessarily have anything to do with the listed reasons, I just didn't want the post not to include images :)

Better Deals
A travel agent has access to multiple vendors that offer deeply discounted pricing to the agents that they work with. There are even deals that you cannot find online, but the agent has access to them. We got a great deal on our hotel especially being peak season and having an ocean front room.

Stress Relief
I don't know about you, but when it's time to start looking for hotels I expire in about 20 minutes. This is mainly because I start to feel overwhelmed and frustrated because I'm very particular about where I stay. With an agent, they are doing the brunt of the work and will send you results based on your requests (kind of like a real estate agent!). This took so much stress away from me.

Travel Perks
As I mentioned in the last post, our hotel stay came with two free tickets to a dolphin cruise. That bonus may not have been available if we'd booked our travel ourselves.

A Knowledgeable Representative That's "Team You"
If anything goes awry at any point of your vacation, you always have your agent to back you up and to handle any of those issues for you. An agent is well versed in travel and knows what to do in many situations that we may not know. Who really wants to deal with drama on vacation anyway?

Payment Plans
You may not want to use a credit card to pay for vacation and you may not have all of the cash on hand. A lot of agents offer payment plans so that your trip will be paid in full by the time your vacation starts. One less thing to worry about in my opinion.

So those are my top 5 reasons that I'm glad that we went with a Travel Agent this year. If you are looking to travel sooner or later, check out Pack Your Bags and Go Travel!

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**I was not compensated for this post, I just wanted to share my experience with you all because it was a great one!**

Vacation Recap Pt II

2014-07-30T07:57:00.000-04:00

Our vacation was relaxing. So relaxing that we had free tickets to a dolphin cruise but passed it up to stay on the beach and soak up more rays. We did take a break from the sun one day and ventured to St. Petersburg to visit the Sunken Gardens and the Dali Museum.

The Sunken Gardens was a tropical paradise. As soon as you walk in your shoulders drop. There were so many rare botanicals and everything was so beautiful. The trees were so tall that they created a roof for most of this outdoor attraction. We actually decided to go here on a whim and I'm so glad we did.

This tree looks painted but it actually grows like this! It's called a Rainbow Eucalyptus and I'm in love with it.

We planned to visit the Dali Museum and I found out that Thursday's the admission is only $10 after 5pm and the parking is free! I didn't take my camera with me because I was sure that I couldn't take photos inside (though I did sneak one photo of a cool illusion piece), and I was right although photos were fine outside of the galleries. There was a labyrinth outside which also had some cool pieces at the entrance. Lastly, if you don't know about Salvador Dali, he was a surrealist artist with some amazing paintings that will make your mind go nuts. He also had a really cool mustache which there is a sculpture of outside.

Dali image via

As far as the rest of our vacation, we ate well, drank well and enjoyed being off of work. We even saw a pirate ship sail by one day. The weather was surprisingly mild at night, so sitting on the balcony listening to music was my favorite thing to do.

So that's our vacation. As I mentioned before, I'm ready to go on another one. I'm thinking a long weekend around our anniversary maybe to a Bed and Breakfast. Have you guys gone on any fun trips this summer?

Vacation Recap Pt I

2014-07-29T08:17:00.000-04:00

Hello!

We are back home from vacation and I'm already planning out the next one! I told Simon that I want to start taking quarterly vacations, so we'll see how that pans out. In the meantime I wanted to share with you all some of the sights that were seen on our vacation to North Redington Beach, Florida. We've never been to this beach, but our travel agent (more on that later!) was able to find a great hotel at a great price. We were situated between Clearwater Beach and St. Petersburg, 30 minutes in both directions. This area of Florida was pretty quiet which is perfect for us. There were a lot of homes being built on the beach and they were GORGEOUS. No photos of them, however, so just image huge homes with 3 and 4 car garages.

To start, we left on a Monday morning. Atlanta traffic isn't too friendly, so although check-in was 4pm and it was an estimated 7.5 hour drive, we left at 6:30am in order to beat rush hour(s) and decided to make the road trip a mini trip in itself. We stopped for breakfast once we were well outside of the city (in Macon, GA to be exact) and relaxed for about an hour. We got back on the road, crossed the Florida line a few hours later...

...stopped for lunch at a gorgeous rest stop (that's an oxymoron right?) and ate at one of the pavilions. The rest stop was so gorgeous I had to snap photos. One thing that wasn't so cool though was the "Warning Beware of Poisonous Snakes" sign. Huh??

Maybe they were being funny (or not), but there was an attraction there called the Snake Wall which basically is a bridge that you walk up and the end is an overlook of one of the state parks as well as the interstate.

We even saw caterpillars! I've never seen this type in person and boy do those suckers move fast.

After about an hour here we finished our trip (even got a little turned around towards the last 15 minutes of the drive thanks to road construction/changes and Google maps not having current info) and arrived at our hotel, the Doubletree. Here are a few photos of the beach in no particular order.

There were hula dancers on Friday night at the cookout that the hotel had, and on Saturday morning I was surprised to see a beach wedding!

I will be back with part two of our vacation soon!

Road Trip Essentials

2014-07-16T08:13:00.000-04:00

Hello there friends! It's been a while, but all thanks to Katrina from Chic Little House for motivating me over the weekend to get back to blogging! As you may know, the Haven Conference was this past weekend in Atlanta. Though I didn't attend, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Katrina after being blog buddies for a few years. It was one of the best days ever and I'm so happy to have met such a kind, wonderful, genuine person. Now I have someone to visit on the west coast :)

With that being said, I have some exciting home projects lined up that I'm looking forward to starting (and sharing), but first Simon and I will be going on vacation soon and it will be a road trip. I wanted to share a few of my road trip essentials...i.e. things that keep me sane in a car for hours at a time. I'm not a fan of being in a car for more than four hours, so I get a little stir crazy after then. I'm usually a passenger for the majority of the trip because Simon enjoys driving. To keep myself calm and entertained, here are a few things that I bring with me-

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1. My phone (obviously)- Yes it's great for talking and texting on the road (and playing Candy Crush), but I have loads of music and can also listen to Pandora or Sirius XM Satellite Radio for a wide variety of music options.

2. Phone Charger- Don't want the battery to die two hours into the trip.

3. Motion sickness pills- I get an awful headache when I try to read, write or draw in a moving vehicle. In order for me to do any of these, I take these pills. They tend to make me drowsy which is fine and leads me to...

4. My pillow from home- An absolute necessity. Trying to sleep comfortably in a car in an upright position is nearly impossible without a pillow to take the strain off of my neck. Also, if for some reason the hotel pillows aren't as comfortable, I have my own pillow to fall back on.

5. Reading materials- A magazine or book is great after waking up from my motion sickness pill nap. Simon and I purchased a book of questions a few years back, so I read the questions and we answer them. It's interesting what you learn about your partner that you may not have known from these kinds of books.

6. Snacks and drinks- A HUGE must. We usually pack our cooler with water bottles (of course a few sparkling ones are thrown in there), a flavored beverage whether it's Jones Soda or San Pellegrino Limonata, sandwich ingredients (usually some kind of deli meat from the deli counter and a gourmet cheese to make the sandwiches a little more special) and fruit. As far as dry snacks, we usually pack Kettle chips, nuts, and some kind of healthier option of a dessert.

7. Comfortable clothes- Since we're in the car for hours at a time, I always wear comfortable clothing. This usually consists of loose shorts, a tank top, flip flops and sunnies. I still want to look cute since I like taking pictures along the way...

8. My camera- It's a way to flex my creative muscles in a moving vehicle (a design challenge for sure!). I also love state welcome signs and try to get a picture of them each time we enter a new state. I take pictures with my cell phone as well so that I can post to my Instagram for you fine people :)

9. Gum- After those naps I want to freshen my breath if we're not near a rest stop.

10. CDs- Even though I have music on my phone, there are still a few CDs that we like to listen to along the way (Radiohead, Thom Yorke and Outkast to name a few).

So there it is, the things that keep me sane on a road trip. What about you all? What are your road trip necessities? I would love some more ideas!

The Last of Winter

2014-03-12T07:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the high was 80...the highest temperature this year. Before these temperatures decide to stay around for a bit I thought I'd share a few photos from "Snowpocalypse 2014" and "Snowmageddon 2014" as Atlantans called it.

You all may have heard about the snow that Georgia received this year. SNL even did a skit about it. The first time it happened was when all of Metro Atlanta ended up on the road at the same exact time (1:00 pm) because all businesses and schools closed at the same exact time. My normal hour long commute home turned into six hours. I could have driven to Orlando in that amount of time! The problem in GA is that we aren't used to getting this type of weather, and our snow usually turns into ice...black ice. Ice is not cute nor is it fun to drive on especially when we aren't used to driving on it. Many people were stranded on the interstate for 24+ hours or just had to abandon their cars on the side of the road because they either ran out of gas, could not pass certain roads due to the ice or could not drive ahead because 18-wheelers spun out and blocked up the interstate. A woman even gave birth in her car and a lot of kids had to stay the night at their schools. Simon didn't come home that night because he would have been sitting in the traffic if he attempted it. Luckily his brother lives around the corner from where he works so he was able to crash there.

At any rate, a week and a half later after this fiasco we got even more snow with accompanied sleet. This time people stayed home. It was like...if school is closing then so are we! The city was shut down for two days. During the time off and because I'm a picture fiend, I shot some photos of the snow. Looking back at the images it's hard to believe that this was only three weeks ago. I'm not a fan of winter, but I love a good photo op.

Images from the first snowfall-

Can't even tell where the house ends and the sky begins.

Simon had to salt the driveway.

The neighborhood cat got in on the action.

Ice!

Images from the second snowfall 1.5 weeks later-

Right outside of our front door.

The snow was deep! About 5-6 inches.

There was ice on top of snow on top of ice. That's mostly ice on the street behind Simon.

We made a snowman :)

He got a little chilly so Simon lit the fire pit for him.

Enough of this cold business, bring on the spring!

Valentine's Day is almost here!

2014-01-16T07:37:00.000-05:00

Hey there! Just popping in to let you know that I have added Valentine's Day cards to my shop, Color Hug (www.ColorHug.com). Check them out if you are in to Love day

Guest Room Before and After

2014-01-13T07:41:00.000-05:00

Greetings!

Wow...I haven't posted about a home decor update in a while. I mentioned in this post that I needed to turn my guest room into a real guest room for Simon's parents for Christmas instead of the storage room. I pulled it off and am happy with where it is as of now.

This is how the "guest room" looked before:

And this is after:

Enjoy your week!

My Black Friday 2014

2014-01-10T07:52:00.000-05:00

Hey there! You may recall this post from last year showing what I got from Target's after Christmas 70% off sale (which I lovingly call my Black Friday). This year was a little different because there weren't as many items available as last year (possibly because the 70% off sale started earlier this year and I didn't know...sob!), but I still got a good amount of stuff and for $20!

My loot:

1. Three rolls of wrapping paper
2. Seven wine gift bags
3. Five rolls of ribbon
4. A stackable mug set
5. A hot chocolate carafe to match the mug set
6. Two medium sized gift bags
7. One small gift bag
8. One flask

I think I made out pretty well. Did you go to the sale?

Enjoy the weekend. I'm especially excited for the two-part season premiere of Girls on HBO this Sunday!

2013 Wrap Up Pt. II

2014-01-08T08:01:00.000-05:00

Since I took so many photos over the Christmas holiday I had to break this into two posts! Here are the rest of the photos from the end of the year including some baking that my Mother-in-Law and I did together, the tree that we decorated at my Mom's house and the beautiful tablescape that my sister designed for our Christmas dinner.

That concludes 2013 and our festivities. I hope yours was enjoyable as well!

2013 Wrap Up Pt. I

2014-01-06T08:06:00.000-05:00

I can't quite start the new year of blogging without wrapping up 2013 in a nice little bow. So how was your holiday? The holiday season to me was a whirlwind. Like everyone has been saying, Christmas came too fast. I didn't do a lot of things that I wanted to do for the Christmas season (annual Christmas tree photo of Simon and me, send out Christmas photo cards of us, blog posts of our Christmas decor, blog link parties, outdoor decorations, listen to a lot of Christmas music, watch White Christmas, watch A Christmas Story...I could go on...blah!). Still it was enjoyable. Simon's family came to visit and this was the first time in over 8 years that his immediate family has been together on Christmas. I was happy to see him happy.

As far as the Christmas decor, I was inspired by a group of Christmas trees that I saw last year in Nordstrom.

All red ornaments and gold garland with a nice spiky tree topper. Beautiful! So here is my interpretation of it along with the rest of our Christmas home decor.

More shots of the decor around the house-

The white cone shaped figure below was a diy that I made of a Christmas tree. I pretty much hole punched the bottom portion of a piece of white paper then rolled it into a cone. I placed it on top of a multi-colored led candle to make it appear as if there were multi-colored lights on the tree. The group of four images below shows the different colors that the candle changed to. The inspiration for it came from this pin on pinterest.

Here are a couple of images from Christmas morning at our house with my in-Law's.

Part II coming soon...

2014

2014-01-03T08:16:00.000-05:00

Amazing. We have started a new year already and I am so thankful for that. In fact we all should be. 2013 was a year that I will never forget. There were ups and unfortunately downs. The ebb and flow is a part of life though, and the way we handle it is what matters most.

I'm not one for making resolutions because I don't tend to follow through. I just look ahead with optimism and usually feel excited for what the new year holds. So on that note, I wish you a happy new year and many happy encounters and situations to come!

p.s. We put these party horns to use on New Year's Eve!

Thanksgiving Decor

2013-12-02T08:34:00.000-05:00

Hello and Happy December...wow, already! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and long weekend.

I wanted to post the tablescape that I created for Thanksgiving. This year I decided on a natural vibe, so browns and greens were the colors that I chose. After all, I am a nature lover (minus the bugs), so these colors were ideal! I also used a few natural elements such as wheat, fresh green apples (turned them into candles...found that idea on Pinterest!), a large roll of burlap ribbon turned table runner and feathers. The napkins were actually plain white bandanas (I brilliant idea that I got from my sister) and the ribbon that was wrapped around it was a green burlap. Enough talking, here it is...

I also decorated the coffee table to carry the theme across both rooms.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to get my house together for Christmas! We'll be having family staying over this year, so I'm going to have to figure out how to turn our "guest room" (aka the spare room where a lot of our things are stored) into a warm, cozy, comfortable, inviting space (on a budget). Wish me luck!

By the way, if you'd like to see our previous Thanksgiving tablescapes, click here, here, and here (the last link is from my old blog).

New Christmas Lineup

2013-11-22T08:29:00.000-05:00

Hey there! I hope you enjoyed your week. I have been super busy preparing for the launch of the new Christmas line for my shop Color Hug, and I'd like to share these products with you. Not only do we offer customizable photo greeting cards and traditional folded greeting cards, we now offer gift tags to add that extra special touch to your beautifully wrapped gift boxes and bags!

I have also added a few new greeting card designs to the existing lineup. To add an extra special and festive touch, the majority of the greeting cards are now accompanied by a red or white envelope decorated with a gold glitter envelope liner.

Check out my shop (www.ColorHug.com) to view the full line.

Have a splendid weekend! I plan on purchasing items for my Thanksgiving tablescape and making a few crafty items for it as well. This should be interesting considering I kind of don't know what I want to do decor wise yet. A few ideas have been floating around in my head though, so I'll figure something out.

Later!

Bedroom Updates

2013-11-08T08:39:00.000-05:00

To finish the week off, I will show you two changes to my bedroom. Well, one to the room and one to the closet. In the original list I stated, "Purchase another one of these as a credenza and style it"

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I got to the point of purchasing and constructing, but the styling is a work in progress. This is before-

This is after (excuse the different angle)-

Ultimately I want to place baskets inside of some of the openings so that the ugly wires in the back will no longer be visible, and also for extra storage. Something like this would be ideal.

Okay I got a little Photoshop happy.

All of the books lead to the next transformation. In the original list I stated, "Spray bookcase white and move into closet for shoe and accessory storage". I completed half of that by moving the bookcase into the closet. I also removed one of the fabric hanging storage shelves which opened the space up a little more. This is before-

This is after-

I still have a long way to go, but I really like the bookcase being in the closet. It fits in that space just right and doesn't even cover up the light switch (one of my concerns).

That is all for the little updates that I completed over the spring and summer. I still have a long way to go, but I think I'm making good progress.

Enjoy your weekend!

Dining Room Update

2013-11-07T08:34:00.000-05:00

Greetings! To continue with reveals for this week, I have a small one for you today. I mentioned that I wanted to "Add round light bulbs to the light fixture (and maybe spray paint it) so that it can look similar to this"

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I ended up just replacing the light bulbs but haven't gotten around to spray painting it yet (if I even want to do that still).

This is the fixture before-

And this is after-

I enjoy the change, but I think I would still like to spray paint it. Maybe next spring...

Updates to the Kitchen

2013-11-05T08:03:00.000-05:00

A few months ago my job moved to a new building and bought all new furniture. This was great because they were getting rid of every little thing that was in the old office (for the most part). I snagged a couple of items and have put them to great use since. One of those things was a kitchen cart. It was perfect because I wanted one for the kitchen anyway and I didn't even realize that it was a cart until I pulled it out of the corner in the break room that it had been in for years. I thought it was just a metal shelving stand and I had intentions on putting it into my office as a new more sturdy place for my printer and paper. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a cart with wheels and everything! I had been wanting to add an island here since last year when we had a small table in there temporarily and I liked the extra work space that it provided. I thought this cart would make an ideal temporary island. It cleaned up great and is a nice little addition the kitchen.

Here's a before of the kitchen a while back. It has pretty much been like this for 1.5 years.

And here is the "island" now!

Oh yeah, I also scored that vase from the old office, too (the flowers were from our rose bush out front)!

Next for kitchen updates is some art work that I DIYed. My intention was to hang a few art prints related to kitchens or cooking on the large wall that separates the kitchen from the dining room. I searched for a few quotes and came across one that I liked and turned it into an art print. I also liked the silhouette images of kitchen gadgets that I had seen around pinterest, so I got a few images from a free clip art site and made silhouettes of four different gadgets then paired it with the print. Here is the wall a few years back (old image, excuse the small size).

Still a work in progress, so this is it so far.

If I decide to stick with the gallery wall idea, I'd like to do something like this:

Of course I would use different images that match better and aren't as busy, but hopefully you get an idea of what I'm thinking overall.

So that's all for the kitchen changes thus far. I think it's coming along okay, but I have been thinking about repainting in there again. Oy!

Spring Forward Project List 2013 Edition Update

2013-11-04T08:04:00.000-05:00

Hey there people! Before I crawled under that blasted rock (the one that kept me from blogging for nearly three months), I posted this list in the Spring and wanted to update you all on what's been completed or is a work in progress. Here goes...

Spring

1. Finish decorating the living room

Create a new painting to hang above the TV
Style the mantel and hang a large image above it

2. Dining Room

DIY roman shades (or purchase on sale)
~~Add round light bulbs to the light fixture~~ (and maybe spray paint it)

3. Kitchen

~~Create artwork to hang on the larger wall~~
~~Add a small island~~

Summer
1 . Master Bedroom

Paint
DIY a headboard
Spray nightstands white
Lamp project for nightstands
Make a small table for the sitting area
Re-purpose a coffee table into a bench
Make two pairs of curtains and three roman shades
Add artwork (photography, paintings and prints all DIY)
~~Purchase another one of these as a credenza and style it~~

2. Master Closet (this may be for autumn instead, but this is the list)

Remove door and make a curtain
Remove all racks and replace with white shelves
Spray bookcase white and ~~move into closet for shoe and accessory storage~~
DIY a small table for all of my nail polish and nail care products
Change light fixture

Yikes...still didn't do as much as I would have liked. Oh well, there's always Autumn and Winter. BUT on a brighter note, all of the projects that are still in progress or already complete will be revealed this week!

And now for a couple of pictures...because as I've stated before, I like images in blog posts.

A Fresh GA Peach popsicle by King of Pops ...and this thing was FRESH...like peach skin and all. Chomp!

This is the cute little popsicle stand that they sell from.

Just looking at these images makes me miss summer even more.

Frisco, Colorado Part II

2013-10-25T08:18:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday! When I last left you I posted photos from the first half of my trip to Colorado. I took so many photos that I had to split it into two posts. Here are the rest of the images from this beautiful city.

I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Frisco, Colorado Part I

2013-10-24T08:29:00.000-04:00

Two weeks after our Florida vacation, I traveled to Frisco, Colorado for work. My department has an annual conference/training there and this was my first time attending. The meetings were informative, but the best part of the trip was the scenery in my opinion...oh, and the happy hour sponsored by the vendors each night...free drinks! :) When we arrived it was partly cloudy, but overall sunny outside of the airport. We flew into Denver and had a two hour drive to Frisco. We stopped a few times along the way to get photos. On the drive up (literally up, Frisco is at an elevation of 9,100 ft.) it started lightly snowing. It was surreal and beautiful. It looked like we were in the middle of a movie scene. Anyway, enough talk.

On the way to Frisco:

Frisco:

This was the view from my hotel room window to the left...

...and to the right.

The Colorado sunsets are amazing!

We found a cute little crepe stand in the nearby town of Breckenridge. The crepes were AMAZING! The ambiance was great as well as they had their fire pit blazing (it was in the 30's at night).

Since I took so many photos I had to break this post into two, so I'll be back tomorrow with the second half!

The Myers' in Florida

2013-10-21T08:34:00.000-04:00

Hello fine people! Yes, it's me, and I've finally crawled out from under that blasted rock! I hope you had a great summer and are having a great start to your autumn.

I wanted to share a few (a lot) of photos from our vacation to Orlando and Daytona Beach back in early September. We visited Simon's family for a few days in Orlando then went to the beach for the remainder of the week.

To start, moss is apparently a bad thing for trees, but it looks so beautiful to me just hanging there! Here are a few shots I took while we stopped for lunch along the way.

As we were about to drive into Simon's parents neighborhood I saw a tall figure standing by the street. After getting closer I asked "Is that a crane?!?", to which Simon said "Yep!". This was my first time seeing a crane in person. Well, I was in the car, but still. After we arrived at their house and settled in I brought up the crane. Simon's grandmother said that they hang out in the back yard in the afternoon! She said about 12-15 at a time! I was shocked and couldn't wait to see them the next day. By the time I started taking pictures there were only a few hanging around, but it was still amazing.

The next day we explored downtown Orlando hoping to find a cute restaurant to have lunch. Well that didn't happen...in fact we drove through downtown and few times and kept asking "Was that all??". Ha! So this is the only shot I got down there.

We ended up back in the suburbs and ate CPK.

The rest of our vacation was spent either beach side or pool side and trying out off the cuff restaurants (thanks to google maps!). Cue random photos from the rest of our vacation:

Did any of you go on vacation over the summer?

DIY Mouse Pad

2013-08-09T08:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I showed you all my updated desk area and mentioned that I DIYed a mouse pad. It was rather simple and quick. I found a gold glitter paper and cork board "paper" at Michaels, cut them down to size and glued them together. Simple as that!

Before, I was using two sketchbooks on top of each other.

Well, I'm still using them, but I made the mouse pad to cover up the top of the sketchbook. Also the mouse would glide smoother over the new pad.

Draw the shape that you want your mouse pad to be onto the cork board and decorative paper and cut them out. I just used the sketchbook as a template since it would be placed on top of it ultimately.

Next, glue the two pieces together. I used rubber cement because I have a big can of it and I'm fond of it.

And voilà!

I also had a little extra left over so I made this L.

Enjoy your weekend!

Office Updates

2013-08-08T08:20:00.000-04:00

Hello guys! My office has been a work in progress for a while now (definitely over a year), and I have slowly been bringing in things that I like and find useful yet aesthetically pleasing. The last time I showed you all my desk I had found a solution for holding my pens/pencils/markers.

A few months before that I showed you all the art work that I put together from a seven year old calendar.

Well on a trip to ikea a while back I picked up a couple of shelves that were supposed to be for pictures. I had other plans of course...but it took a long time for me to finally decide to hang them. I also purchased a different desk tray to hold items neatly. I changed out the lamp (free because I already had the base and the shade but they were already occupied by something else) and DIY'ed a mouse pad. Lastly, you may recall my new year's day shopping trip at Target where I racked up on $30. I purchased some pink LED string lights with the intention of using them in my office.

Initially I wanted to use them to outline my desk, but I decided on something much more neat/organized and...Me! Okay, enough talk!

Original paintings by moi!

My job moved to a new building last week, so the company gave a lot of things away to us from the old office. I snagged a few items that will be making their way into the office as well. Those transformations will come in a later post. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your day!

Myers Maison // Designing, grilling and life in between.

Catching up

Master Bedroom Project List

Master Bedroom- Light vs Dark Round 2

5 Reasons I'm Glad That We Used a Travel Agent

Vacation Recap Pt II

Vacation Recap Pt I

Road Trip Essentials

The Last of Winter

Valentine's Day is almost here!

Guest Room Before and After

My Black Friday 2014

2013 Wrap Up Pt. II

2013 Wrap Up Pt. I

2014

Thanksgiving Decor

New Christmas Lineup

Bedroom Updates

Dining Room Update

Updates to the Kitchen

Spring Forward Project List 2013 Edition *Update*

Frisco, Colorado Part II

Frisco, Colorado Part I

The Myers' in Florida

DIY Mouse Pad

Office Updates

Spring Forward Project List 2013 Edition Update