Show Your Colors Paint Gallery Tool

If you asked me what I thought was the biggest way to impact a room’s look, I’d say one word: paint!  Painting is fairly easy to do, inexpensive, and comes in so many choices, so it can really transform a room’s look.  Of course, if you’ve ever spent time debating paint colors and trying to pick one out, you know that it can be a nail biting experience some times.  One cool tool to make things easier and find color inspiration is Glidden's My Colortopia Show Your Colors Gallery. The gallery has user submitted before-and-after painting projects to really demonstrate how paint can transform a room’s look.

One of my projects is even in the gallery!  The very first project we took on when moving into our house was repainting our powder room.  The previous owner had painted the bathroom a bright electric blue color and to make matters even worse, the walls, ceiling, and back of the door were all painted the same terrible color.  You know, so the room really felt like it was about to close in on you!  We repainted the room ASAP, but interestingly enough we stayed in the blue family- this time it was just a much softer and more elegant shade of blue.



You don’t have to go far to see all of the before-and-after projects featured on Show Your Colors, just check out the widget below!  It’s full of great paint transformations and inspiring projects.  Scroll through the photos below to see the projects.  You can even submit your own photos. 



Have you done any painting projects recently?  Do you have a go-to paint color or palette of colors you like to use?

Note: I have been sponsored by Glidden brand paint to write this post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Back in Business

I'm bacccckkkkk!  I was taking a blogging break for the summer, but now it's after Labor Day which means my white pants are packed away and I'm back in the swing of blogging things!

It was nice to take a break away from blogging and have one less thing on my plate, but I've been really itching to get back to it!  Now I feel refreshed, inspired, and have a great backlog of projects to share from over the past few months.

So what have I been up to?  At the start of summer, I put together my Summer Fun List - 2012 Edition with all of the just-for-fun things I wanted to accomplish.  Here's a reminder of my summer fun intentions:



I'm happy to report that I've managed to get almost everything on the list checked off (except for: pie - I ate pie, but didn't bake one; bike rides - my lazy summer included lazy legs; road trip- we traveled but I wouldn't classify anything as a road trip;  baseball - we watched Phillies games on TV, but didn't make it to the ballpark this season).

But pretty much everything on the list was accomplished (tough, I know, when "ice cream" is on my
to-do list!)  Here are some snapshots of just what it was that I was up to:



Ah, I love looking at all those summer snapshots at once, it reminds me of all the wonderful summer memories that took place this year and that I’m a very lucky girl!  I just made that photo my computer desktop background so I can savor the memories a little more. 

But I did plenty of things around the house too, and made sure to take photos so I can share them now post-hiatus.  To give you a sneak peek, my summer house accomplishments include: an update to our staircase, new lighting fixtures, outdoor updates, a fun new chalkboard, and tasty new recipes.  I'll be sharing each of these things soon and I'm going to get back to posting regularly, but I'd love to see what you guys have been up to too.  So if you have a project you'd like to share, please email me and I'd love to feature it!

How was your summer?  What did you check off your fun-to-do-list or productive-to-do-list?  Anyone miss me?  Please someone who's not related to me tell me that you noticed I was gone!

My Dream House

I’ve got some bad news.  I did NOT win the $640 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot on Friday.  Total bummer.  Even though I didn’t win, I had some fun waiting for my winning numbers to be drawn and dreaming about what I would do with all that moolah (besides my initial act of rolling in it and throwing it into the air to make it rain, gangsta style).  Of course I would give a ton of money away to my family, friends, charities, and travel around the world, but I also fantasized about what my dream house would look like. 

I’m thinking I’d want my dream house to be on a tropical beach somewhere with a big wrap around porch and some swinging or rocking chairs to enjoy the view.

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I’d love to have a big bright kitchen with white cabinets, a huge island, and lots of windows.

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And since this is my dream kitchen, it needs a big butlers pantry where I could prep and store food so it would be out of the way while entertaining in the kitchen (even in my wildest dreams I think practically)
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I’d love to wake up and go to bed to the sound of the ocean, so I dream of a bedroom with a big balcony with sweeping views.  And maybe it would have a window seat where I could look out and count my lucky stars too.

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Since my dream house is in a beautiful tropical place, I think it needs an outdoor shower and bath.

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And of course the dream house needs some entertainment space.  How about an outdoor movie theatre (although my practical self wonders how to enjoy a movie while avoiding mosquitos and other critters- my dream house would have to be in a bug free zone).

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I’d want to stay active, so basketball and tennis courts in the backyard would be amazing.  I know they’d be on my hubby’s dream list too.

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And I wouldn’t want to give up gardening.  I think I’d like a big garden where I could grow flowers and my own fruits and veggies.

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And chickens.  I’ve always wanted to raise my own egg laying hens.

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Of course, no dream home would be complete without a pool in the backyard.  I think I’d want one with palm trees and a waterfall.  Who am I kidding, it would need to have a water slide too.

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Ah, it’s nice to dream isn’t it?  So I didn’t win the lottery, but it was fun to find photos of these amazing homes.  What would your dream home look like if you won the lottery?  Would it be on a beach like mine?

Fun Paint Color Selection Tool

I am excited to share a new paint color selection tool today!  Believe it or not, there is actually a tool out there that makes choosing paint colors fun and easy!  Don’t believe me?  Take a look for yourself and prepare to be amazed.

The awesome people at Glidden Paints have come up with a tool called My Image Inspiration which lets you upload a photo of your choice, and they will recommend paint colors for you based on the colors from your image.  How cool is that!

I tried it for myself by uploading this photo I took in Bermuda.  As you may know, Bermuda is pretty much my favorite place on Earth!

I think Bermuda is gorgeous, so how great would it be to choose a paint color inspired by my very favorite place!  I uploaded this photo into the My Image Inspiration tool on the MyColortopia website and selected the area of the photo I wanted to draw color inspiration from.  The tool gave me five paint colors based on my photo and from there was able to click on each color for a suggested color pallet.

And you know how I can tell the tool works well?  I uploaded a photo of Bermuda, and one of the paint colors the tool suggested was called “Bermuda Bay!”  It was right on the money!

The tool was so much fun, I tried it with another photo too.  You know how much I love to travel, so I chose a photo from our vacation to Europe last year.  I got a kick out of this old woman doll/statue that was outside of a little shop in Corsica. 

I uploaded the photo to the My Image Inspiration tool and let it do its magic.

This image gave me a selection of warm colors to choose from.  I selected “Sweet Tea” and the tool recommended three different color pallets.  I especially like the middle one.  How cool would it be to show people that your home’s paint colors where inspired by your favorite place.

You can check out the My Image Inspiration tool for yourself on Glidden’s MyColortopia website.  The website actually has a lot of great other features too, like the fun color quiz I shared recently, as well as lots of really great articles from some amazing bloggers who are even answering questions submitted by readers!  Check out the MyColortopia site for that great info.

Note: I have been sponsored by Glidden brand paint to write this post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

What Home Bloggers Actually Do

I’m sure you’ve seen those “what I actually do” pictures popping up online.  I thought I’d have some fun and put one together for us home bloggers.  Check it out- what home bloggers actually do:

Hahaha!  What do you think?  Feel free to share this around if you like my interpretation!