Decorate Your Home Archives - Page 12 of 113

I’ve been keeping a secret from you.

I haven’t been keeping it because there’s some awesome secret blog thing going on. I haven’t been keeping it because of my fears of an ax murder showing up at my door. No, I was keeping it because I was afraid someone might come over and try to steal my furniture.

A few weeks ago, Tom and I took a trip – ALONE – to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. We hadn’t taken a vacation without the kids since Zack was born (over 8 years ago), and we where thrilled to have some time to ourselves. We all flew to Florida, handed Zack and Emma over to my parents, and boarded a cruise ship to the Southern Caribbean.

To say that we had the time of our lives would be an understatement. We ate more than we should have, drank WAY more than we should have, met new friends from all over the world and saw some of the most beautiful islands imaginable. Over our 8 night cruise, we visited Grand Turk, Dominican Republic, Curaçao and Aruba, as well as had 3 total days “at sea” where we didn’t get off the ship.

The time away was perfect to rest, relax and recharge. In fact, one day at sea, we woke up at noon. NOON! And we didn’t even realize we had slept that late until we looked at the clock. Do you know the last time I’ve slept until noon? It definitely hasn’t been my last 8 “mommy” years, I can tell you!

Without free and fast phone or Internet, I thought that I might explode. What if my blog went down? It did, and we were able to fix it using the 75-cents a minute satellite Internet access (Tom is fast!). What if my Facebook page went crazy? It didn’t. What if someone started tweeting that they hate me? They didn’t (and I probably took my “what ifs” to an insane level, huh?). At any rate, I survived it, and I loved not being so connected. It was really good for my soul.

But you can take a phone and computer away from a Blogger, but you can never take her camera. I took tons of pictures of the gorgeous scenery in the islands.

Of course, I did.

Willemstad, Curaço

…

Beige is a valid color. It has its place in decorating and there are many gorgeous rooms with beige walls or beige furniture. So all you beige-lovers, put down your pitchforks and hear me out.

Beige is like the mom jeans of paint colors… they are modest, plain-Jane, and wholly unflattering. Mom jeans are the high-wasted, full coverage default choice of jeans. They aren’t really flattering on anyone, especially the mom’s they are named after. You’ll certainly cover the midriff, squish down the muffin top, and avoid anything unsightly. But there’s also a strong chance they’ll give you pancake butt, a skin rash from the elastic in the back, and baggy thighs. You won’t look and feel your best, turn any heads, or get asked for your phone number.

Beige is associated with being a safe choice. It is neutral, a default. Never mind that it is just as easy to choose the wrong shade of beige as it is to choose the wrong shade of any other color.

I’m not just talking about builder’s beige, the color your home was likely painted when you bought it. I mean all shades of beige. It is not just because the beige trend has passed and we’ve moved on to gray, but because I am against you picking any sort of “default” color.

…

Color Palettes Inspired by Dream Vacations

Why Beige is Like the Mom Jeans of Paint Colors