My blog has never really been specifically one type of blog.  Sometimes I craft.  Sometimes I cook.  Mostly it’s just been here for me to document life.  With our new home adventure looming, we’re trying to decide how to document that.  Do we start a new blog just for home stuff?  Do I put it on here and sometimes Seth will pitch in?  For now it will be here so hopefully it doesn’t get too boring! There may be changes in the future – or maybe not.  Such a solid answer, right?

Moving on.  If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook, you already saw these photos.  I’m sure everyone has their own method of deciding on paint colors.  I chose the elements that will be seen most in the rooms the colors are going into and used them for inspiration.

The living room color was the hardest to pick.  Between in being the most amount of wall space and also the room we’ll probably spend the majority of time in, we really have to like the color.  I knew I wanted a gray because it’s a good neutral.  I’m not a fan of lots of beige so gray was the next most likely option.  We both wanted a warm gray that wasn’t too dark.  Some went to green, some went to blue.  Some even went a little purplish.  We both kept going back to the first sample I ever picked out.  It’s the one on the top left.  We’ll get it color matched at Sherwin Williams but for anyone who wants to know, it is Partridge Gray by Better Homes and Gardens.

This was the hardest set of colors to photograph.  They look nothing like what’s in the picture.  They are all actually soft, light greens.  Since my mixer will now actually have room to live on the counter, any green I put on the walls would have to coordinate.  I’ve narrowed it down to the two samples on the right.  Hopefully I can get a better photograph once we paint it on some walls!

The last color to decide was dining room.  We are inheriting china from my grandma once we move, but we’ll probably still use our regular plates the majority of the time.  So, while I didn’t feel the need to match our plates perfectly, I definitely wanted something that would look nice with them.  The first round of paint samples were too blue and just didn’t look great.  And we didn’t love any of them anyway.  So, I went back to Home Depot and picked up some more samples that went more towards turquoise vs. blue.  I’ve got it narrowed down to the one that looks like a leaf and the one to the left of it.  I’m leaning more towards the leaf looking one. I’m going to need my mom’s opinion when she comes this weekend!

So that is my paint color picking  journey.  Hopefully they will all look fabulous on the walls!

How do you pick paint colors?

I haven’t done a music post in ages.  This doesn’t mean I haven’t been listening to music.  It means that Grooveshark jumped the shark and I haven’t found a suitable replacement.  I could embed a YouTube video for every song…but that get’s really tedious and clunky – not to mention space consuming.  Seth is trying to get me on the Spotify train, but has yet to give me a lesson.  In the mean time, I’ve got some tunes that have been hanging out on my iPod a lot that should be shared SO.  I promise you the songs are awesome, just search for them in the music player of your choice to listen!

1. What the Water Gave Me – Florence + The Machine

2. Black Sheep – Metric

3. Can’t Go Back – Rosi Golan

4. Call Your Girlfriend – Robin

5. Somebody That I Used to Know – Walk Off the Earth cover 

6. C’est La Mort – The Civil Wars

7. One Foot – Fun.

8. Ho Hey – The Lumineers

9. Diamonds in the Souls of Her Shoes – Paul Simon

10.  Safe and Sound – Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars

Growing up, I watched several documentaries on the making of the Hoover Dam with my Grandpa Buck.  He loved to know how things were made, how things worked.  He loved the Hoover Dam.  As far as I know, he never got to see it in person.  When we decided to go to Vegas, the first thing I did was checked to see how close the Hoover Dam was and if it was possible to visit it.  30 minutes outside of the city and Katrina gave us a car to get there.

When we came out of Boulder City and caught the first glimpse of Lake Mead, I kind of teared up.  Partly out of excitement and partly because I was thinking of grandpa and how excited he would be to get to see it.

We didn’t make it in time to do the super fancy tour, but we still got to go inside where the diversion tunnels run and see the huge generators.  The we spent a lot of time wandering around on the dam just taking it all in.

Seth kept wanting to throw a bouncy ball down the dam.  I figured that would get him arrested so I didn’t let him even spit off it.

He did manage to pee on it.

I was fascinated by the intake towers and all the surprising art deco touches throughout the dam.  We learned that there is a 2 years supply of water in Lake Mead at any given time.  And it’s really deep so I will probably never even step foot in it.

Not only did we cross the Nevada-Arizona border on a number of occasions while at the dam, we also switched time zones anytime we met the halfway point! Thankfully, no jet lag occurred.

We stopped at an overlook to catch a final glimpse of the lake before we headed back to Vegas.  This little side trip was probably the highlight of our trip.  I will definitely be going back!