Harried and befuddled...

OMG. Anna over at Door Sixteen has the BEST post up right now. THE BEST.

I think all of us who enjoy cooking and creating in the kitchen probably have a dark little secret like my husband and I do. We have a couple of spaces that are crammed so full of the "essentials" that its tough to find all that exists in them at times!

Seeing Anna's picture of her new spice racks from Ikea immediately inspired me. Like a slap in the face kind of thing.

I'll follow up with posts that include pictures of this, but I'm planning a restructure of the spice shelf and the potholder/kitchen towel/tin foil and plastic wrap drawer in our house this weekend. Ooh buddy, am I excited! Stay tuned!

Stripes make EVERYTHING better...right?

I dont know why, but over the weekend, I started thinking that it might be nice to paint some stripes on the wall that runs along the east side of our living room. Give it some movement and interest. Make it more fun, maybe.

See? It's boring right now. Blah.
Oh! I remember where I came up with the idea! I was watching Color Correction on HGTV, and they painted some great, big neutral stripes in this woman's office, to tone down the gawdawful orange color she'd tried painting in there herself. (Why people don't understand that you don't have to paint the whole space the color in order to get benefits from it in the form of maybe an accent piece or two or three is beyond me...)

Anywho, they looked something like this:

Found that over at Apartment Therapy via a google search for stripes. I love, love, love the space, but I think its a bit too spare for my lifestyle. The stripes, however, are right up my alley.

I think I'd prefer to have a couple of different colors, though. More like this:

Wheee! I just love that look. So warm an inviting and a perfect mix of the modern with the traditional, IMO. I think that's a wallpaper, but the pattern could be simulated easily with paint. Especially if only doing it on one wall. I don't want to make my husband crazy with this project! I'm enough already in that regard, I think.

This subtle variation of shades is a nice idea as well...

Not necesarily into the colors on that one (found via the Painted House website, episode specifically concerning an Ice Hotel-Inspired house...um, no thank you), but the pattern and the idea of the subtlety is what I liked about it.

I can't wait for spring now!

Why, hello there, little ignored bloggy blog!

Just how fitting is it that I should be brought back to life through a photo I found on desire to inspire, hm? Very, I think.

This kitchen was one included in the portfolio for Gridley + Graves, who apparently make it their goal in life to take photos of kitchens that would make the average person (i.e. ME) drool over the pretty...the clean...the space.

WANT!