Orange you glad it's Fall

Orange you glad it's Fall? I love Fall, not only because of the weather but because of the football, the fashion, the weather, the pumpkins, the important dates (our pup's birthday, our wedding anniversary, OSU Homecoming, Affair of the Heart, Thanksgiving, my birthday) and all of the Orange!  

So, in honor of OSU's Homecoming week, on the same day that the fountain on Library Lawn is dyed Orange, I'm sharing some of my favorite OSU Orange looks from the past few weeks.

ALL IN THE DETAILS:

Shirt: Lush Fashion Lounge | Jeans: Lush Fashion Lounge | Shoes: Sam Edelman - Becker | Sunnies: Ray-Ban - Clubmaster | Earrings: Kendra Scott Danielle - Orange | Bracelets: Lily & Laura, David Yurman | Ring: David Yurman

 

  ALL IN THE DETAILS:

Shirt: Lush Fashion Lounge | Jeans: Lush Fashion Lounge | Shoes: Toms Desert Wedge - Cheetah | Sunnies: Ray-Ban - Aviator | Earrings: Kendra Scott Danielle - Orange | Bracelets: Lily & Laura

 

  

ALL IN THE DETAILS:

Shirt: Old (love this one) | Vest: J.Crew (J.Crew Factory version here) | Earrings: Kendra Scott Danielle - Orange | Shoes not pictured: Toms Desert Wedge - Chestnut | Pistol Pete Yard Sign: Artistic Yard Creations by Jan Kuehn

Terrariums, Painting and Decorating

I guess my creative juices were flowing this weekend. I kept filling the space in between normal weekend stuff with creative stuff. Somehow I managed to host an unofficial craft night, paint a 16x20 canvas and decorate a space that hadn't been decorated in nearly 4 years... in a matter of about 48 hours. 

It started Saturday, while running my errands I walked by a terrarium display at Lowe's. I've been wanting to make one, but just haven't gotten to it yet - so, I started gathering supplies. Knowing we were having another couple over for dinner, I decided us girls would have a craft night while the boys did their thing chilling on the patio. 

Terrariums are as easy as 1, 2, 3. Literally,  1 = rocks, 2 = charcoal, 3 = soil, 4 = plants, 5 = more rocks, done.

Sunday morning, when all I wanted to do was sleep in until 8am… and my body thought 6:25am was a better idea, I busted out a 16x20 canvas and painted. 
 

While B was away for most of the day, the big blank wall in our living room was really bugging me. I have purposely left the wall blank, because my Mom always said, just leave it empty until you find the perfect thing for over the couch. 

This whole time (nearly 4 years) I’ve been looking for ONE perfect thing, when I realized that space could definitely handle a couple perfect things. I laid possible items out on the floor so I could get a better visual for balance and spacing. Here was an initial stab at what the mix might look like:

 

One of my favorite parts of my married last name is the "Mc", so wanted to make use of the little 'c'. But the gold didn't look just right. I had to paint it.

Mackenzie-Childs Courtley Check-like of course.

Most of the items are result of my craft making. Two paintings by me, a big "M" I got down in Canton, TX, little 'C' from Hobby Lobby, and my 1st anniversary, paper gift to Brandon showcasing the Texas girl and the Oklahoma boy. 

The collage isn't perfect, but I love how it's quirky, colorful and ties in both Brandon and Me.

Our Kitchen: Granite Install (the unofficial after)

We can now proudly say that we have a kitchen with GRANITE!! Just remember (as mentioned in my last post), Thursday morning our kitchen looked like this:  

I took the day off from work so I could be there to see the magic happen. It was pretty neat to see our granite pull up on a trailer (wish I would have thought to snap a pic, sorry!). The installers came in and immediately went to work on demolition of the old white counters. Because I wanted to be out of the way, me and Dixie headed back to hang out in the office. With all of the ruckus we were hearing, I was kind of nervous.

When the ruckus stopped for a minute, I  could tell that the installers took a break or had left the kitchen so I snuck out to take a peek. Our kitchen was counter-less!

Dixie and I went back in the office for a while, watched some TV, surfed the net, pinned on Pinterest, Facebook stalked and checked in on work email. I was talking to my Mom, she told me to go out and take a picture of the granite on the trailer before it goes in… and when I walked out I saw the first piece had already been installed!

Not too much longer, I came back out again to see that most of the granite was installed and the sink was set.

Another cool thing, my husband is a Big Green Egg enthusiast. Haven’t heard of a Big Green Egg? It’s a ceramic, charcoal cooker that can grill, smoke and bake. Anyways, B actually built a table for his BGE and we worked a deal with our granite installer to get a piece to top his table. It’s a different slab of granite than ours, but think it looks great!

As the afternoon progressed, so did the backsplash. I should mention that there was one “uh-oh” moment when the installer looked up at me, holding up a piece of tile and asks if I’m sure this is the ivory travertine I wanted because it looks a little darker. After examining and re-examining against the sample I was going off of, it was the right tile (PHEW!)  – just looked darker because the old, white backsplash was SO white compared to the ivory travertine.

Here we are as the grout was drying. The sink and faucet still needed work and the new outlet covers are TBD.

And for comparison take a look at this side-by-side of the before and progress!

Once I get re-situated, decorated, outlet covers installed and a few other updated details complete I’ll take an official, after pic to post!



Our Kitchen: The Before (Naked)

The granite installer comes..... TOMORROW! So, I just officially made our kitchen counters look naked. Sunday afternoon I worked to organize the top drawers, clean out a few cabinets, clear out all the supplies from under the sink and cleared off most of the counters except for the necesseties. 

After clearning off our Keurig coffee machine, utensil holder, paper towel holder, catch-all bowls and taking off all of the switch plates this is what's left.

Looks a little stark, huh?

The white trash compactor has never been touched in this house. By us or the previous owners. In fact, the user manual is still sitting inside the bin. B and I have talked about two different options for replacing this - wine refrigerator or pull-out trash can (I think trash can would be more practical, B thinks wine fridge would be cooler). What are your thoughts?

I never would have guessed I'd be so nervous about getting granite. Maybe it's just excitement that has me stirred up? Wish us luck tomorrow, can't wait to share "the after"!

Our Kitchen: The Before (Decorated)

The official count down to granite is..... 3 DAYS!! Since this granite deal is about to get real, I wanted to share The Before (Decorated) pictures of our kitchen. 

This is our kitchen looking it's Sunday best.

Literally, I spent Sunday morning cleaning and making our kitchen look spotless and in tact as it would be if we were having company. I realized that the only "current' pictures I have of our kitchen were from Christmas time - and as it should be no surprise, there was Christmas decor everywhere - so I wanted pictures just a normal, June day with no holiday/seasonal decor to be seen. 

  

Of course, you probably noticed that Lime Green and Mackenzie-Childs are "my thing". Aside from all of the cute green and checker decor, let me introduce you to 1995. Light woodwork, white counter-tops, formerly brass hardware and florescent lighting.

In reality, I don't think our kitchen is THAT bad. We just can't wait to get rid of the white, 'stains easy', 'see every crumb', 'hard to keep white' counter-tops and back-splash.  

And see this cute little corner nook with the lamp? It will also be getting 'granitized' - thanks to my Mom for the great idea!  

I heard that our granite installer was cutting our granite today... in preparation for Thursday's install!

Count down to granite: 3 DAYS!!! Eeeeek!

Hand-painted Wooden Monogram

 

 

Over a year ago, I pinned this painted wooden monogram to my “Wishing & Daydreaming” board on Pinterest.

 

Fast forward to last fall when I was first introduced to the Groopdealz website; my first purchase was this 18” unfinished wooden monogram. I was so excited to check-off one of my wishes from the Pinterest board. (I’ve actually purchased 5 unfinished wooden monograms to give as Christmas, birthday and even bridal shower gifts – and they’ve been a hit!)

 

I didn’t know what color I wanted to paint it immediately, so I put it away in my craft closet until I decided on a color. After a few months, I thought painting it gold would be a good neutral option. Maybe it was my spray paint selection, but the gold was off-par and not at all what I had in mind - so, back to the craft closet the monogram went. It sat in the craft closet awaiting a new paint job for a another month or two until one Saturday afternoon, I felt the urge to paint. 

 

Inspired by a few pieces of my personal, Mackenzie-Childs, Green Flower Market Collection – I was excited to take on a personal challenge to paint a floral design on something that was not just a flat canvas.  

 

 

 

 

I was ‘in the zone’ painting, until I was rudely interrupted by storms and a power outage.

 

Sunday, I resumed painting until another round of storms came. That night, Edmond was hit with a tornado just 2 miles from our house. Also, the towns of Shawnee, OK and Little Axe, OK were hit by F4 tornadoes.

 

The next day, was Monday, May 20th the day an F5 tornado went through Moore, OK Which inspired me to paint for Oklahoma. The #prayforoklahoma painting can be seen here. 

 

This past weekend, I finally was able to focus some time to finish the monogram. With some input from miss Dixie Belle, there was still some detail work to be done before it was complete.

 

Using Mackenzie-Childs ribbon, our McDaniel Monogram now hangs on our mantel! I'm so pleased how it turned out and hope we get to enjoy it in our home.

 

 

 

 

 

Said "Yes" to a Granite Slab

If you follow me on Instagram (@McSwann) you may have seen Saturday's exciting news that I finally said “Yes” to a Granite slab!

 

 

Brandon hit this situation dead-on…. picking out a slab of granite is like picking out a wedding gown. You’re stuck with the decision for life; it’s a non-returnable, customized, expensive investment and someday, someone else will look at pictures and judge your selection. No pressure.

 

So, after 4 weeks of looking at and “trying on” a dozen different slabs with our cabinet door, we made a choice. We ended up with Santa Cecilia Classic (you can see some of the other color options in my last post).

 

 

Knowing that B and I were going Granite "shopping" on Saturday, I called Thursday morning to check current stock of the different colors I liked at both Granite Suppliers (GS #1 & GS #2). GS #1 had Santa Cecilia Classic in stock but in order to guarantee that we could see it Saturday was to place it on hold. So, I did. On Saturday, we went to GS#2 first; walked around, saw a slab of Napoli that we liked but it was already spoken for… so we left empty handed. Then we made our way to GS #1 and I was nervous; nervous we wouldn’t find anything or I would hate the slabs that were on hold in my name.

 

Turned out, GS #1 had a few options I liked… but I liked the slabs with my name already on them best. It must have been meant to be. This particular cut of SCC had hints of brown in addition to black, which is what I wanted. Some SCC slabs had black only and seemed to look too green.

 

 

Because I’m not the best decision maker, I had to walk up and down and look at all the granite selections again. And came right back to the slab with my name. At that point, B took a step back from the slab, looked at me studying the slab and said…. Are you ready to say “Yes” to this slab? And I said, “Yes”.

 

From there, we knocked out the rest of the “to be picked out” list in about 15 minutes. I already knew what I wanted by this point. 

 

Edge cut for the granite? Straight. Done. 

 

 

Back-splash? Ivory, tumbled Travertine 3x6 subway tiles. Done.

 

Sink? 60/40 Granite Composite in Cafe Brown.  Done.

 

Then to Lowe’s to pick out a faucet....

 

 

 

Done.

 

Now we wait for the install …. which in just 10 days we will be saying goodbye to 1995 and hello to 2013. The updated kitchen we've wanted since 2009. EEK! (this also, makes me nervous. The indecisive me, sure hopes I’m good with those decisions. And hopes it all turns out well!)