Naturally-Dyed Easter Eggs

I really enjoyed dyeing Easter eggs when I was younger. I was always getting creative with stripes and layering different colors and drawing on the eggs with beeswax, in the Russian style my family used to decorate eggs (although ours looked nothing like that!). After H and I got married, dyeing eggs sort of fell by the wayside, as Easter isn't a huge holiday for us.

However, when I saw this blog entry from Two Men and a Little Farm (brought to my attention via Pinterest!), I knew we would be dyeing eggs again this year. The gorgeous, oh-so-different-than-the-PAAS-kit colors and all-natural dyes are totally up my alley and I was excited to try it out!

We only did 12 eggs/6 colors and I am really pleased with the way they turned out! It was so cool to see how each item colored the egg. Many of them ended up with a marbled effect, which I was totally digging. In case the picture is too small to see, the spinach and dill made a brown-ish/green, the beets a pink, the red wine a lavender purple, the carrots and turmeric a bright yellow, the coffee an earthy brown, and the purple grape juice a light blue.

And bonus- they are totally easy! Any of the items that aren't liquid to begin with need to be simmered in water for 30-60 minutes (and then strained of the sediment) to allow the color to come out. Then you'll need to add about 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar to every cup of liquid to help the color bond to the egg shell. They need to sit in the liquid for much longer than the fizzy tablet dyes, so I just left them sitting in the color in the refrigerator over night. Taking them out of the dyes was a wonderful Easter surprise!

Vacation Art

I love the print we bought on our honeymoon, which now hangs above our sofa. Besides the fact that it's bright and cheery and I love the color and style, it reminds me of our honeymoon every day. So much so that I asked H what he thought about picking up a piece of artwork on each vacation we go on as a souvenir. I like the idea because they'll be things that we see every day, to remind us of the memories of each trip we go on together. And what did I know (surprise, surprise), him being the amazing husband that he is, agreed!

So on our recent trip to California, we picked up a few pieces. The first is from Studio 6 in the Mission Village in Balboa Park, San Diego. It's called "Date Night" (how fitting!) and it's by Michelle Gonzalez. We bought a mat and frame for it and put it above our wine and beverage cart (maybe someday wine fridge... ) in the dining room. It looks perfect there! I love the color; the yellows and blues tie it in with the colors in the open living room (basically one big room), while it's a bit warmer, which I think works in the dining room.

The other pieces we got were from Studio Gallery in San Francisco. We bought a (self-created) series of three lithographs by Linda Pederson. They are cute, clean, fun little images of asparagus, beets, and a pineapple. The colors in the three pieces work perfectly together, you never would have known that they weren't created for each other. I was thinking these would go perfectly in the kitchen (they're food after all!), but I don't think they'd work on the blue wall, so I'd have to find space on the white wall- which is limited. They are currently in a vertical row to the left of our cabinets, but I'm thinking they look a bit cramped there and I may look for another spot.

Master Bedroom Mood Board

I am very happy to be able to say that we are making progress in the master bedroom. Over the weekend, we got a new duvet cover and lamps. It's really starting to come together, and the only thing I'm really still on the hunt for is art for above the bed. I really couldn't put my finger on exactly what I was looking for, so I decided to make a few mood boards to help sort out my thoughts.

Here is a mood board of exactly how the bedroom looks now.

white curtains: from llph.co.uk (not ours, just similar); curtain rod: from bedbathandbeyond.com;
furniture: from raymourflanigan.com; bedding: from bedbathandbeyond.com;
lamp: from casasugar.com (again, not ours, just similar);

Here is the first series of prints I found that I thought could do the trick. I'm not sure what I think of them- they feel too matchy, but they don't match perfectly. And so, I'm thinking that means they kind of clash.

wall art: artist jan weiss from art.com

Then I thought about bringing in brighter and warmer tones. They've always felt more appropriate to me for a bedroom. I like the pop of red in the panels here, but it still doesn't feel right- it feels kind of random to me.

wall art: artist chen ping hung from shutterstock

Then I found this one, which really caught my eye. It had the pop of color, but the browns that were already in the room are the main palate. I also happen to think it's really versatile.

wall art: artist mark lawrence from art.com

I'm definitely leaning towards the last one for inspiration. I'd love to DIY something, we'll see how that goes.

iStock art

I am really inspired to do a DIY art project for the computer room. I'd love to hang a series of three abstract canvases above the loveseat. I can vaguely picture what I want to do, but wasn't even sure where to begin to look for inspiration. I'm not sure why, but I turned to iStockphoto.com since I end up using them a lot for design work. And sure enough, they had a few that caught my eye.

I like the yellow in this one, it's a good pop of color, but I think there is too much going on.

I like the texture here. And something like this has good potential as part of a 3-set.

This one is my favorite! Love the color and texture and simplicity!

And then I found some drool-worthy real ones!

These are all from Linda Kent Paintings and she seriously has some awesome stuff on there. Those would look a-maz-ing as a series of 3. I wish! But seriously, I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty and playing with color and texture and canvas. It'll be fun!

Honeymoon Art

We went to Key West for our honeymoon, and there were SO many amazing art galleries there. We thought it would be a great souvenir to take home a print from a local artist. We could enjoy it on our walls for a very long time to come (and it would be so much more prominent and useful than a little trinket) and every time we look at it, we'll be reminded of our honeymoon.

So one day we rented bikes, gallery guides in hand, and were off to explore all the local art galleries. We found so many gorgeous pieces, but the one we finally chose was "Angela's Shutters," by artist Sharon Wells.


It is BIG, which is great, and we'll be hanging it behind the sofa in our living room. The colors will look great with our sunny yellow walls, and it even inspired us to choose a cobalt blue for the accent wall. I am so excited for it to come in :)