iPhone or Android...Your Thoughts?

Hi guys!  I hope your weekend went well.  Mine was great; it was full of getting my green thumb on and rearranging my office.

Today's topic is one of the greatest debates known to mankind...iPhone vs Android.  The time has come for me to buy a new phone.  Luckily Simon's previous phone has held me over for a few months, but now that T-Mobile carries the iPhone I have some serious decisions to make.  The current phone that I have is an Android.  I enjoy that it is Google based because I use a lot of Google applications.  It's great having all of the Google things already on my phone, and I can log into my Google account and see what's going on with my phone.  As far as iPhones, I have heard many people say they love them and many say that they hate them.

I know a lot of you have iPhones, so I'm opening this post up to you!

- Do you love or hate your iPhone?
- Did you formerly have an iPhone then switched to an Android and were glad you did or vise versa?
- Does the iPhone 5 have a swype keyboard? (this is a necessity for me...like, if it doesn't have it the debate is over)
- Do you ever have technical issues?

I'm so confused!  I'm either going to get the iPhone 5 or the Samsung Galaxy SIII.

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The iPhone is only $30 more, so no biggie in the price difference.  iPhones have cuter cases (yeah, I'm superficial in that a major part of me picking a phone is the vast variety of cute cases) and I can even design my own case!  Both phones have excellent cameras which is a HUGE deal to me.  iPhones seem to have better apps...but I don't like that you have to have an iTunes account in order to do any and everything.  I also don't like that iPhones don't play Flash websites.  Again...I'm so confused!


Help?

Big and Bold vs. Light and Airy

I'm working on my indecisive nature, but I'm having a hard time with it right now.  As you may know, the decorating of my master bedroom/bathroom/closet is on my Spring Forward Project List.  I decided on the color scheme and had a few ideas in mind on how I wanted to paint the walls in the bedroom.  It involved a navy blue accent wall where the bed is, navy blue walls in the sitting area, and blue-grey for the rest of the walls.  After some thought, I decided that I'm not feeling the accent wall thing.  For some reason I just don't like accent walls as much as I used to.  Now the problem is that I have to figure out what color I'm going to paint the walls.  Navy blue all over or a lighter color.  I'm so confused!  I love the dramatic and bold look of a dark room, and it's just so sexy to me...

...but I also love the serene feeling of a light room...

Luckily our bedroom is large enough to be able to have a dark wall color and not make it appear too small, but I still love the illusion of a larger room by using lighter colors.  Decisions, decisions.

What are your thoughts on a dark vs. light bedroom?

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Decisive Person in Training: Master Bedroom Colors

I need help.  You all know about my indecisive nature, so of course when picking the color scheme for my bedroom/bathroom I'm at a loss.  I love so many color schemes, I just don't know what to do.  I think I've narrowed it down to two options.  What do you all think?

Dark Grey + Light Grey + Coral + Off-white
                                                                                                      

  

Navy + Light Blue-Grey + Coral + Off-white

                                                                                                     

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Thoughts?  Hey, at least I know that I definitely want coral and off-white! That's a start.

Wooden cabinetry anyone?

I understand that white kitchens are the thing right now, and believe me I LOVE a white kitchen.  The problem is that the cabinetry in my kitchen is cherry...and the house isn't old, so there would be no point in altering them.  I still enjoy wooden colored cabinetry, and I'm going to find a way to make it sexy again (along with black appliances)!  Here are a few inspiring images-

 

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I feel another kitchen painting session coming on...have I mentioned the decisive person in training to you before?

Welcome to the S+L 3rd Anniversary Virtual Party!

It has almost been three years that I have been a married woman.  To celebrate, I will be posting some behind the scenes info about our wedding for the week leading up to our anniversary (which is on the 26th).  I borrowed this idea from Jenn at A Home in the Making.  We happen to share the same anniversary month and year (I didn't even know)!  She posted about her wedding day, the decor and other fun facts all throughout her week.  Loving this idea I decided to do it as well!  Thank you, Jenn!

A few things that I will cover:

Theme- colors, style
Paper Items- Invitation Suite, programs, dinner menu, etc.

Location- including decor

Elements- all of the things that made our wedding day reflect us

Attire
DIY

Honeymoon

Where are they now?- How we have incorporated some of our wedding items into our every day lives.

If you're into weddings, I hope you enjoy!  If you're not...maybe you will see something that you like at some point?  Let's begin?

To start, here's a cute engagement photo of us

If you remember reading, I've described myself as a decisive person in training multiple times.  Planning this wedding was the epitome of my lack of decisive...decisions.  My sister would back me up on this one 100% (thanks again for hanging in there with me, Sis).

I knew from the start that I didn't want a traditional wedding.  I wanted a few traditions, but I really just wanted our wedding to be a chic, modern party where two people happen to get hitched.  That was our unofficial yet official theme.  I think we pulled it off.

Because I wanted non-traditional, I didn't want to get married in a church, or in a place that had crazy carpet (aka a hotel...unless it was upscale).  I wanted a lofty downtown, sexy lounge feel and finally found that in Lambert Place.

This set the tone for the wedding, and when I finally decided on the colors, I decided on incorporating espresso since a lot of the decor at Lambert Place happened to be this color.  I also wanted a non-traditional color scheme, so after many MANY changes (here are a few)...

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{Though I didn't use these colors for my wedding, they were the colors for my lingerie bridal shower.  Sexy!  (image via here)}

 ...I settled on Espresso, Pool, Ivory and touches of Lime Green (apparently everyone else did in 2008 as well).

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*unfortunately I don't know all of the sources for the images I posted here because they were on my computer from '08.  If you know any please tell me!

See you in a few for part two!

Artsy Fartsy

Yeah, that's me. I'm an artist. I may not wear thick framed black glasses every day {the stylish type}, I may not have an avant-garde hairstyle, I may not wear mismatched clothes and I may not cut my ear off and send it to my lover...but doggonit I'm an artist! Here's proof:



I started this painting on Monday evening and finished Tuesday night. Pretty good for a decisive person in training wouldn't ya say? Now I have to decide if it's going to stay on the mantel or hang above the buffet in the dining room...

*Okay, I realize that was possibly stereotypical of artists, but I meant it in all fun. No harm intended :)

Live in rooms full of light...

...Says Cornelius Celsus. I agree with him. Light is such a beautiful thing, especially shining into a room. I prefer sunlight, but of course I have to see at night. With that being said, I have still been on the hunt for a kitchen light. As stated in previous posts, I really want to get rid of that builder's grade fluorescent rectangular growth on the ceiling. I want something more modern and chic. One issue...since we have an open floor plan, the dining room light and kitchen light have to look similar, otherwise it will just look crazy. This has been a challenge because I envisioned a different style of light in the dining room from the kitchen. Oh well, we'll figure it out. In the meantime, here are a few lights that I enjoy and am considering purchasing:




{The following is my favorite...but not the price...eek!}


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So confused...and this is where the decisive person in training would take over. It's not working though.

Finally!

Did anyone think of the CeCe Peniston song, "Finally", when you read that title? I did, and if you weren't you are now :)

Anyway, finally we have a place to comfortably plop down after a long hard day at work! After months of trying to decide what style to get (double sofa style sectional, sofa and chaise, two sofas, sofa and two chairs, etc.), we finally bought something! Yes I said months...remember that Decisive Person in Training thing that I spoke of? We checked out a few places to see what they had to offer. Rooms to Go didn't have much, American Signature Furniture had a few things but nothing that moved me. Some other place we went to didn't have much (apparently so because I don't even remember the name of the store). Then I thought back. One of my bestest friends and I are new home owners, so we love to shop for home items together. She's the only person that I can spend five hours with in Ikea and not hear any complaints (...literally five hours). The last time we went I fell in love with this sectional-
It's light gray and so incredibly comfortable, so after emailing pictures to Simon he agreed and we purchased it! This is Ikea though, so of course we had to put it together ourselves. There were five packages total hence even more fun! Cue exciting pictures of random sofa pieces, screws and tools scattered about...

This is how the great room looked before with our wonderful futon (and pillows and coffee table and black table in background) from Ikea.

This is the process-
Guess what was under here?
Figures.

And the directions were in the box with the covers, so if for some reason you opted against buying a cover from Ikea, you would be pretty much screwed.




After it's all said and done-

Success! Now for some pillows...and a little artwork...and mirrors...

Moroccan Inspiration

I called myself a decisive person in training in my last post. I just want to reiterate that.

Anywho, I decided to change the paint color in the kitchen. We (I) haven't actually painted yet, but I was set on a particular color (smoked oyster by Valspar). A few things happened that disabled me from getting the paint when I wanted to. Luckily so. Now I've gone back to the original thought of painting the kitchen a light gray. think long think wrong right? Oh well.

Next, I decided to carry out a modern Moroccan theme throughout the downstairs. Since we have an open floor plan, you can see all rooms from a central location. To make each room different would look crazy. I was browsing the internet looking for inspiration for Moroccan design. I love the jewel tones, and most of all the unique patterns. Here are a few images that I enjoy:

On our trip to South Beach last year, we stayed at a wonderful hotel, Palmer House, which had a modern Moroccan theme in the rooms. It also solidified the love of Moroccan decor. Here are some pics:





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