Accidental wins and fails

Much of the time I arrive at serious win for myself purely by accident.

I get excited about something I see, most often online, on Etsy, a design blog...and out of my excitement I get a bit giddy, turn into a twelve year old, email someone, tell all my friends, make new ones and before long I find myself alone in my office giggling like a school girl at all of the unintentional awesome in my world. It's just how my awesome seems to roll, in giant waves of win.

Many of you know by now that I have a serious love affair with hardwood floors, and even more so, aqua and turquoise painted hardwood floors. And ceilings. But, mostly floors. I dream of someday having a little cottage with white painted open rafters and bead board ceilings and aqua floors (with maybe some chocolately brown ones thrown in for good measure).

Kind of like these ones:

image via Coastal Living

image via The Working Woman's Guide to Domestic Success

images via House of Turquoise

(you get the idea)

Many of you also know that I rent. I may love my little loft like space on the side of a hill, but it's not my own cottage, there has to be some rules. My landlord(s) are about the most tolerant people I've ever met. I pick up free furniture from CL just about every day and they never complain or threaten to kick me out if I bring any more pieces home (or if my porch sometimes looks like this):

So asking if I could paint my porch turquoise seemed pretty audacious of a request, so I really didn't want to ask it. Even though, I really, really wanted to do it. Like, kinda bad.

I guess Kaya heard my internal plea, because Saturday as we were leaving to go to the lake for the afternoon, we walked out to find her standing next to a tipped over bucket of turquoise paint:

(and crap! That reminds me I forgot to jot the color down prior to pitching the can. Doh!). She looked so proud, "Wook what I did Cwisty! I twied to fwinish but my paws are twu small". 

She dumped so much paint the only option was to paint the porch with it. Which, was kind of awesome. Of course, this solved my having to ask permission or potentially being disappointed when I am told, "Hell no, you can't paint your porch turquoise". Yay. Thanks, Kaya.

"Yowr welcome, Cwisty"

My porch before Kaya's awesome metaphoric bucket of win dumped on it:

And now:

I still have a lot of work to do, but that's for next Summer.

Now, as you'd expect, I can't just be awesome and have accidentally awesome things happen to me all of the time. I screw up, sometimes pretty bad, and sometimes pretty often. Usually though, I don't mess up anything that I can't fix with some Dry Dex or Painter's Touch, but other times...

Yeah. About that.

Pretty much anyone who has been around since Stuff Chrissa Loves is incredibly aware of my recent obsession with yellow doors and my insane need to have one of my own. I blame Tobi Fairley.

Just LOOK at this door. It'd make anyone want a yellow door. Heck, it'd make anyone want a barn door.

image via Tobi Fairley

Soooo...I decided to paint my own door yellow. I had a gallon leftover from this dandy lil' project of mine:

Now before we get too very judgy, I have to admit a few things:

1. I didn't prime first. I know, I know, I know.

2. The door wasn't dry by the time I had to rush off to see my aunt at the hospital. And then it rained.

3. I used latex paint. And. I didn't prime first. Or sand. I know, I know, I know.

 I know, I know, I know.

Guess what I'm doing this weekend ;)

What are your biggest accidental wins and fails? I'd love for you to share them so I don't feel like such a doofus.

xo, Chrissa

Oh, what I wouldn't do with a lot of time and a little bit of money

Okay, so maybe not just a little bit of money...I'd need enough to buy a house, some paint and hopefully have an operating nest egg to fund all of my thrifting. In the meantime, I guess I can settle for refinishing free finds I abscond and living vicariously through the 200+ design blogs I am obsessed with.

This week I've been stuck at home pretty  much most of the time nursing the worst case of allergies ever. That, coupled with having left my cell phone charger at my cousin's house that lives a few hours north, has kept  me pretty much on the DL for days. Don't worry though, my time hasn't been idly wasted, I've been putting Blake's old toys up on eBay, doing (a little bit of) laundry and surfing blogs while I watch countless episodes of Moving Up, Designed to Sell and Color Splash (if David Bromstad wasn't gay, I would so kidnap him and keep him locked in my house until he succumbed to my feminine wiles, I'm just saying).

Today's favorites:

I love this room. I’d love it so much more with paint on the walls. Say, turquoise for instance:

image via BHG

What a perfect little breakfast nook. All that light! The turquoise French doors have me squirming in my seat.

I’d love the floor if it were blue, but what really gets me about this space is the view. I love the tree outside the window (is that a willow, cypress?). I would be so content to retreat to this space to drink tea and read a good book. 

I am terribly in love with this bed, and have been looking for an old fireplace mantle since I first saw this in print form. I found one last year at the Habaitat for Humanity ReStore, but they wanted $200 for it and I refused to allow myself to spend that.

And the letters? Love.

(Do I regret not busting out that $200 now? Yes. Yes, I do.)

Images via BHG

I totally love the idea highlighted in Coastal Living linked from The Estate of Things. I would absolutely love to use this washbin idea in a kids bath or in a garden sink corner (yes, I want an outdoor working sink in the back of my dream house by the gardening area so I can wash my hands constantly without having to go inside). - side bar, I had to correct the word "sink" in this entire post because I posted it as "sick". Freudian? 

Image via The Estate of Things

I would have never thought to use these colors together but I absolutely love it. They’re really uplifting

Image via Cote De Texas

I interrupt this blog to talk about how much I LOVE this look:

Image via Wifestyle Files

I am in LOVE with this bathroom mirror anchored by these beautiful windows with such a magnificent view. I really, really want it. Kind of bad.

Image via Wifestyle Files

I loooove the use of these mounts. The sheds make me swoon. One of them will become quite relevant in future posts:

I am in LOVE with this home office:

Image via Made By Girl

You know, the more design aspects I find and fall in love with, the more I worry that it will keep me from ever really being happy without having everything I want. I get so excited by something that catches my eye, but then with equal fervor, I WANT IT!! 

For now though, I am content working on my own home's current redesign. I hope to be "done" soon (is there ever really such a thing as done?) and I'll post photos. I've gotten several pieces refinished so I have a lot of projects to show off.

xo