I wish I could get paid for this!

I could make mood boards all.day.long!  If I had endless money and the perfect house with perfect dimensions, I would redecorate rooms on a whim or by season.  But none of those are the case right now, and I must live vicariously through the internet. :)

Here's my current daydream:

dream living room by barthokr on Polyvore

I first saw this sectional on a house crashing post on YHL and I love it!  It just looks so cozy and there is so much space for multiple people to spread out and settle in for a nice long, movie!  It inspired a virtual living room full of classic and timeless pieces spiced up with some pops of color:

• I chose this rug at first and Dave vetoed it.  Even though this is not actual redecorating, only virtual, I guess I should let him have a say in our pretend living room, right?  Meh.
• The striped throw was my way of tying all the bold accents together.  It has bright, cheery tones as well as warm ones, so it is pretty versatile and should go with any seasonal decor throughout the year.
• I love pillows.  We currently have an overthrow pile in the living room because there isn't enough room on the couch for both of us plus the pillows.  I need a support group.
• To balance out the bright pillows, throw, and accessories, I included a leather club chair/lamp/comfy throw to create a timeless reading corner, plus an aged trunk as a coffee table that doubles as storage - score!  
• The curtains aren't too matchy but complement the blue in the rug and is a muted verson of the blue accent pillow and vase.
• The black and white wall art is a vintage map of Chicago - threw that in as an homage to our summer vacation...ahhh, wish I was back there.
• I felt like the room needed some natural elements, so I added a tree trunk accent table adorned with an adorable owl lamp.  I'm a bit obsessed with owls right now - it's a trend I'm trying to resist.  We'll see how that goes :)

I love that this combination includes lots of bold colors + neutrals, a mix of modern and traditional pieces, and shows how high-end items like a $248 throw blanket can co-exist with a $40 lamp from Target without either piece sticking out.

Here is a complete source list, if you're interested in any of the items!  Or if you want to go ahead and purchase them and have them shipped to me - thanks in advance! :)

Next up:  a nursery inspired by this rug:

And no, mom+friends, that's not an announcement!

Graves Mountain 2012

To continue our tradition, Bonnie and I trekked up to Graves Mountain for the Apple Harvest Festival - and this time we brought Sharon and Agnes with us.

Agnes was cutting a tooth and she had a virus, so she had an Aggietude all day.  Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

I rest my case:

We walked around the vendor spaces - lots of good stuff!  We were disciplined.  I wanted to buy Agnes a tie-dye onesie but they were like $20 and we all thought that was outrageous, even if they were adorable!  So we kept walking.  These olive oil soaps, by Old Dominion Soap Company, smelled so good - and LOVE the packaging.

Apple Harvest and Oatmeal Country Spice were the best!

Then we had some lunch and made our way over to the apple/pumpkin zone.  This apple butter smelled so good, but I'm not allowed to buy any because we never eat it before it expires.  Just admiring it from afar...

We got bags of apples - I picked Staymans and Fijis this time, although the Red Delicious were looking delicious:

When we were done at the festival we drove up into the orchard to see if there were any apples left - no dice.  So we headed home.  I rode in the backseat with Agnes and gave her my phone - look what she did?  Selfie!

The kid's brilliant, I'm telling you...

Via Colori

I'm a little behind on sharing our adventures because whenever my nose isn't in a texbook I feel guilty that it isn't and don't allow myself to anything that would make me feel guiltier.  Does that make sense?  It does to me.

Anyway, over a month ago (lol) I went to Fredericksburg to participate in Via Colori - city blocks are closed and plots mapped for individuals/teams to create art from chalk.  It's a treat to help create and observe others creating these one of a kind works of art before they're washed away!  Bonnie's company was a sponsor of the event and they reserved a 10x10 spot for their own chalk drawing.

Here's the design they came up with - The Evolution of Music:

Surrounded by bands that have shaped the music industry over the years, we see the evolution of man as well, from a creature on all fours carrying an LP, upgrading to bi-pedal status with an 8-track, cassette tape, and CD; then emerging as homo sapien with an iPod.  Quite a few years and types of media included here! :)

Since the team had worked on the plot al day Saturday, we took over where they left off.  They made a ton of progress, so we needed to fill in the primates and complete the bottom of the surrounding design.  SInce I am no artist, I stuck to the basic black forms that had already been outlined for me.  I got more brave as the day went on, but I didn't want to mess anything up.

Bonnie and Ashley were very careful and wore gloves to protect their hands and clothes from the chalk.  I threw caution to the wind, dug in, and this is what happened:

Black chalk is not my friend!  I was sitting/laying on a piece of cardboard while filling in the designs, but still managed to get black chalk all over my shirt, arms, and hands!  I used my gloves for filling in the color (they were great for spreading the color to make it consistent) rather than keeping me clean, and this was the price I paid.

Here's the finished masterpiece!

The only other contribution I made was the treble clef and eighth notes at the bottom center (Ashley did the ones on the right).  The boombox and headphones (by Bonnie and Erin) are AWESOME!

After we had cleaned up our area, I walked around and took some photos of other drawings - some of these were amazing!  Lots of local artists came out - some who are paid for their talents and others who are just realllly good at their hobby!  Here are some of my favorites:

UMW!

They even had a small parking lot blocked off for children to get in on the chalk action:

This was so much fun and I hope to participate again next year! :)

What's in your DVR?

Dave and I were just talking about all the TV shows that we can't miss this fall!  So we thought we'd share the ones we love, along with a running list of shows we want to catch up on when we get some free lazy Sundays - or a random day that allows us to watch an entire season of Boardwalk Empire in 1 day.

 

In no particular order:

• Dexter
• Homeland
• Modern Family
• Big Bang Theory
• The Office - even though it kinda sucks since Steve Carrell left, we've committed to 7 or 8 seasons so far, so we're sticking it out until the end (which luckily is this season).  We did it with One Tree Hill after Lucas and Peyton left; we can do it again.
• Parenthood
• NCIS
• SVU
• Walking Dead - #omglastnightwassogood!
• Once Upon a Time

Of course we watch more tv than this, but this list is only the shows that we watch together and get really involved in. Whenever one of us working on something and relinquishes control of the remote, I have my HGTV shows (total girl crush on Sabrina Soto) and Top Chef (Bonnie can have Padma but I heart Tom) - and my new guilty pleasure:  Doc Martin (thanks for the recommendation Sharon!) on PBS.  Dave defaults to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Futurama, or South Park whenever I'm not around

New Shows we checked out:

• Call the Midwife - I am digging PBS's re-airing of hits from BBC.  I believe they have another Downton on their hands!
• Elementary - FABULOUS, although Johnny Lee Miller talks waytoofast
• Last Resort - too much happened in first episode.  I watched it twice and was confused so meh.
• Revolution - save your time and Netflix LOST
• Nashville - If you've seen Country Strong, this is similar, but is so good!  

Then we shed a tear over the shows that have wonky schedules and won't be back until next year:

• Mad Men
• Downton Abbey (1/6/13 can't get here fast enough!  Shirley MacLaine and Maggie Smith as dueling MIL's is going to be EPIC-hipster alert)
• Breaking Bad
• True Blood
• Girls
• Army Wives
• Portlandia

We are kind of pathetic, now that I see all these shows in one place.  I promise we do leave the house and do fun things!  Sometimes.  Unless it's Sunday after 8, because no.  Important shows to watch. 

To close, here's a list of series we want to watch (in addition the aforementioned Boardwalk Empire):

• 24
• Sopranos
• Six Feet Under
• Boardwalk Empire - we started watching Season 1, but got distracted by something else and never caught up.  Why?
• Veronica Mars
• Dr. Who - debating whether to go all the way back to the beginning, or start with the David Tennant years
• Rome
• Game of Thrones
• Sidenote: We just decided that those 2 plus Tudors would fall into the non-existent "sex+history" category at the video store
• Weeds
• Felicity - I've seen most of this, but Bonnie got me all the seasons as a graduation gift, and I want to watch every.single.episode in order

 Now, off to do something outside.  After HouseHunters.