Houzz.com

Looking for some design inspiration? I friend emailed me about Houzz, saying that she loved it and think I might as well.  Well... she was right.  Houzz has a large database of inspiration for every room and space in your house.   There are also articles on different design topics as well as an idea book that you can create for yourself.  Here are a few of my favorites that I came across:

Traditional Closet design by Houston Interior Designer Munger Interiors

Contemporary Closet design by Detroit Interior Designer Dunlap Design Group, LLC

 I actually had this one pinned on Pinterest.

Traditional Bedroom design by Los Angeles Photographer Erika Bierman Photography

Modern Home Office design by San Francisco Architect Chr DAUER Architects

Traditional Bathroom design by Los Angeles Architect Tim Barber LTD Architecture & Interior Design

Contemporary Dining Room design by Design-build Phil Kean Designs

Have you used Houzz before?

Sunday Shares

Hope you all had a great weekend and Father's day today.  It's been a quiet, uneventful weekend for the most part here.   There have been so many great things I've come across and used lately that I want to share. I'm so excited to share the following and I think I may turn this into a weekly blog posting!

My Fitness Pal

My husband was looking for a useful tool to help him count calories.  He found this app and shared it with me and I love it!  The app does so much more than count calories.  You have to enter in all of the information about yourself (height, current weight, how active you are, your goal, etc.) and then start keeping a food diary.  To add what foods you consume throughout the day, you simply search through their database, which has almost every brand and type of food listed. Then, you'll be notified if you have met your goal for that day and then again for the week.  It stores your entries so that you can quickly add the foods you eat often.  You can also keep track of how much of certain nutrients and fats you are consuming, which is what I was mainly interested in. The best part is, you can share information and encourage friends on how their doing too! I'm sure there is more to this app than I have shared or found but I think it's really awesome!

via Heather Griffin

Sugar Paper

Sugar Paper is a website with blog that I actually just came across yesterday through this image I found on Pinterest.  They have an online store as well as two brick and mortar stores out in California.  I love paper and print so this was right up my alley.  They have notecards, thank you notes, recipe cards, and much more.  I can honestly say that I love every single thing I saw during the extensive time I spent browsing their website. 

via

Mandoline

We've been trying to eat healthier in this household lately and make smarter food choices.  I've been wanting a mandoline for a while now and I thought this is a great reason to get one!  Now I can chop and slice our veggies a lot faster and better!  We went shopping for one yesterday, not having checked the reviews on any, and decided on this one from Oneida based on the attachments included and how well it looked to be made for it's price point.  There were some very cheap ones made from plastic that we thought would fall apart during my first unexperienced use and then there were some that were way more than we wanted to spend.  Fyi- the husband says this can be a very dangerous item if not used carefully.  He seemed concerned about me using it, but it does have the safety food attachment  (the black knob that slides) that you use when slicing so that you aren't doing it barehanded.  So,  I'll let you know how well it works!

via

The Sock Bun

If you have ever been on Pinterest or googled hair styles, then you should have come across "The Sock Bun".  I've been wanting to try it for a while but was a little skeptical of how it would work in my thick hair.  However, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome and how easy it was to do!  I followed the directions posted here.  The results are shown below (sorry the pictures below are off-centered and not great quality, it's tricky taking a picture of the back of your head!).  My hair looks two different colors as well, but it's the lighting. 

via Heather Griffin

via Heather Griffin

This would be cute to do as well.

via

Words to live by

The perfect words to start a new week.

Sweet Summertime

The school year ended and today is the first day of summer vacation (for teachers at least).  I slept in this morning and will visit with friends this evening.  I do have plans for this time off though which do include being productive!  We don't have any big travel plans since we had our big trip this spring (remember Hawaii?!) but we do have one or two small ones planned. This will be my first summer without any scheduled work but I will still stay busy.  I have made a list of to-do's that I want to accomplish that include in no particular order:

1.  Catch up on reading- I want to read at least 5 new books!

2.  Take some time to volunteer or help others in some way

3.  Cook more homemade meals- (we're lucky that we live near some farmers markets too)

4.  Visit the pool and hopefully the beach at some point

5.  Spend time with family and friends

6.  Go for walks... hopefully at least 5 times a week

7.  Organize my home office and closets

8.  Update TheDulyNoted 

9.  Complete at least 2 furniture projects (will explain this at a later time!)
10. Keep my flowers alive and perhaps try some more gardening

11. Relax!

If I end up doing everything, who knows, but like I say, it's always good to have goals! What do you have planned for the summer? Anything exciting?

Tortoise

I love tortoise shell items because you can put them with just about anything.  I have the sunglasses and barrettes below and love them.  I also am in need of a new pair of eyeglasses because my old ones are no longer my current prescription.  I had a tortoise pair a while back but wanted something different last time so I went with a black frame, however, I think I'm going to go back to the tortoise ones and might get a pair like the one below.

Tortoise 

I also got this beautiful hurricane recently and have it set in the middle of our dining table.  It's use is for a candle but I may also use it to hold some pretty summer blooms.

Hope your weekend is wonderful!

Memorial Day cont.

We shall not forget the service and sacrifices made.  Thank you to the veterans and current service men and women for all that you do for our country!  Have a happy and safe Memorial Day!

Photo by Heather Griffin,  USS Arizona Memorial

Memorial Day

As we all know, Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start to summer when everyone wants to grill, relax and enjoy the outdoors, including myself. I've had an early start to this with some great weekends lately with family, friends and good food and this weekend is no exception.

For Memorial Day tomorrow, we're heading to my grandparents house for a cookout and some outdoor fun (we're taking our corn-hole boards again and hopefully I won't stink!). The hubby says he's planning to make the crab salad I mentioned a little while back and I plan to make one of these sweet treats.

Brownie n' Berries Dessert Pizza via Betty Crocker and Pinterest

Berry Cream Tart via Coastal Living and Pinterest

I hope you all have a great holiday and don't forget the reason we celebrate the day!

What's on your weekend to-do list?

Life has been busy again but good.  What do you have planned for this weekend?  The weather here is suppose to be nice so hopefully I'll venture to do something outside.  I'm also hoping to head to the mall at some point to return or exchange a pair of shorts that I ordered from JCrew.  I love the store, it's always go-to for me.  I receive their monthly catalogs and the newly released one for June is the best cover I've seen in a while (and I also love the dress on the model). The cover reminds me of their older catalogs that seemed to stand out against any other store catalog because the models aren't just wearing the clothes against a white backdrop or in the same location each issue.  The pictures for this particular issue were taken on location in Bali and here is the cover.  

JCrew

Also, to go along with the "shopping" theme that this post has turned into, Anthropologie is having a semi-annual sale that is ending this weekend I believe!  So here's to a productive weekend!