Grey-ddiction

Happy September!  Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Wow, is it Fall yet?  Growing up in Pennsylvania, this weekend always signaled the end of summer and the beginning of crunchy leaves, long pants, and football games.  Living in the south... it was 90 degrees last night while we watched Alabama beat Michigan.  Roll tide.

It has been a busy last few weeks - ten days of school are already under our belts!  Wow!  So far, the year is going well.  Nothing very little bloggable has happened, unless you would like to hear about how this year we have enough seats in the cafeteria for all the sixth-graders *and* the teachers, so I can actually eat lunch now.  I guess I could talk about how I kind of went Pinterest!crazy and neon!nuts in my classroom.  It's bright and fun.

Here on the homefront, the only projects since the dining- and living-room wall art has been a new duvet set (thanks Target + Tax Free Weekend) and lampshades in the bedroom.  Woo!  I've been eyeing this duvet set for awhile - the mustard color goes well with the art and the dresser... and the cover reverses to a grey that is sooo close to the wall color.  Amazing!  To keep it lightweight for now, I put the purple and white quilt inside instead of the down comforter.  To balance out the look, I picked up two grey king-pillow cases, too.

The grey lampshades were on sale for $4 each at Lowe's.  I love Lowe's.  For those of you with eagle-eyesight, don't hate on the books on the nightstand.  Yes, the top two are Twilight and Harry Potter.  They are in French, though, so it's okay...  Below is a close-up of an identical shade hanging out with my perfume collection.  Accent art: paint chips in a Goodwill frame.  Classy.

Speaking of my bff Lowe's, I got an email yesterday that they are having a rebate special for $5 off a gallon of Valspar Signature paint, which is pretty much my favorite paint ever.  Seriously, it covers ridiculously well.  Anyway, one of the walls in the bedroom needs some touching up and I made an executive decision to paint the downstairs powder room in the same shade (Bay Waves), so I stopped by Lowe's yesterday to get a third gallon of this delicious grey.  While I don't like rebates (coupons = instant savings), I was able to submit the info online so hopefully it will process without a hitch and then I can stare dumbly at the $5 check I get in the mail.

The neat part is I think the gallon is going to be more than enough for a small wall in the bedroom and the powder room... so at 1am, I started eyeing up the paint for the kitchen.  Hmm.  Subtle yet anything is better than the flat, dusty contractor beige the kitchen still has.  Note: someone really needs to hot glue the laminate strip back onto the face of that counter.

Apple cider, pumpkins, what are your fall dreams?

Doc, I think it's Francophilia!

Hi!  :)

Now that the downstairs walls are all painted, I've been wracking my brain about how to decorate the otherwise bare walls.  I put up a metal giraffe family on a nail the old owner left for me... The best part of this picture is that Usain Bolt brought a little yellow-and-green cheer to the yellow-and-green great room.  As usual, this was not planned.  

When my dad was here a few weeks ago, I asked his advice about how to decorate around the television.  His reply was, "Well I'd at least hang some pictures."  And that's just what I did.  Over the years, I've collected a few Parisian calendars full of black and white photography (landmarks as well as other off-the-beaten-path scenes).  

I bought 18 frames at Dollar General for about $35.  I cleaned them out of their 11"x14", 8"x10" and even the weird 8.5"x 11" ones.  I wanted the clean lines of the skiiiiiiiiiinny black frames, although I may mix others in later.  The people at DG think I'm crazy because I always bring my own bags.  

Once I had everybody framed, I set the 11"x14"s in the dining room for hanging in there (more on that in a sec) and then trimmed computer paper to match each of the twelve other pictures.  With painter's tape to stick 'em to the wall, I plotted out where I wanted each picture...while I watched the Olympics...  Here was one idea:

Once I was satisfied with the placements, I laid out the pictures on the floor to decide exactly which would go where... and then went back to the wall!  I folded each piece of paper in half to find the exact center, then pounded a small nail in about 3/4" from the top of the paper (matching the nail hole location on the back of the frame).  

Then it was just a matter of tearing down the papers and hanging up the pictures!

I like that this is a random smattering to which I may add in the future, because I also have a boatload of pictures I took myself on two trips to Paris.  Soon I will be enlarging/b&w-ing/framing those, too! 

Next, I turned to the dining room, where I had the six 11"x14" framed photographs... I wanted something a bit more organized (I like to keep it neat in the dining room, manners and all).  I laid out the pictures on the table...

And put them on the wall!  Here's the cat's eye view.  They do look a bit small here and they are not.  Hmm.  However, I feel the photographs do a great job continuing the never-ending Francophilia right up to the walls!  Love it!!

What is/are your decorating themes?