Shutterly Lovely

We've Moved

2010-01-29T17:40:00.000-06:00

Goodbye Blogger, hello Squarespace (and our own .com!) Find us at www.shutterlylovely.com

A is for Apple

2010-01-29T16:30:00.000-06:00

I just love these alphabet prints by Paper Fingers.

The simplicity and the colors are wonderful. I think they would look great hanging on a wall as an alternative to a monogram or displayed in a baby's room (not that that applies to me).

Unexpected Inspiration

2010-01-28T18:24:00.001-06:00

The guest room has been one of those rooms that we "started on" by painting about 6 months ago, but it hasn't really received much attention...until now.

Here's what it looked like when we moved in.

As you might remember, we quickly painted the room a light aqua (Sea Turtle by Kilz).

But as you can see, it's pretty bare. I really like the wall color but had no idea what sort of color scheme I wanted to go with. Then, the other day I found an image while reading through my blog list and found exactly what I needed for inspiration.

I have to make the disclaimer that I quickly copied the photo to my desktop without taking note of where it was from and after searching I've come up empty handed as to where I found it. Please leave a comment if you know where it's from.

Now, on to the inspiration talk. I felt like this is the direction the guest room is headed. Here's what I'm thinking:

-sheepskin rug from Ikea

-rich brown comforter

-brown curtains

-glass lamp

-green accents

So that's what I'll be keeping my eyes out for when I'm out and about. Stay tuned for updates on progress!

So. Pretty.

2010-01-27T15:37:00.002-06:00

Sometimes I get crushes on wood decor and this time these two beauties had me at hello.

Pepper Sprouts

little miso

Valentine Cards!

2010-01-13T20:43:00.005-06:00

Well, I finally started up my etsy shop, Kayak Paper Co. Right now I have three printable valentines listed, but I'm working on adding other items as well. Eventually I'll add more greeting cards, wedding invites and wedding/baby shower items. But for now, here are the new valentines:

You're the PB to my J

I'm Nuts About You

Valentine Bird

Getting connected

2010-01-09T02:38:00.002-06:00

I finally joined the app community. I got an iPod touch and so far I love it. I'm hoping this will help organize some things. That is one of my goals for 2010. I also need to get more sleep!

By the Fireside

2010-01-03T11:20:00.004-06:00

Yesterday the Christmas decorations went down and the house needs something to make it a little more cozy. We have a wood burning fireplace, which is wonderful, but sometimes we don't want to take the time to build a fire. I've been wanting to get some candles for the fireplace for those nights we want a little glow. So I decided to see what others have done. Here's the roundup:

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T20:35:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years Eve. It's the first day of 2010 and I'm stepping in the right direction by starting some projects I've been thinking about doing. I'll post more when I have something to show for it. Here's to a fresh start!

Sydney and I have had some great time together over break hanging out! We've had our first snow of the season and have enjoyed seeing some sunlight.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T12:37:00.002-06:00

I'm taking off for a few days to spend the holidays with family. I'll be back in the new year!

Handcraft Love Land

2009-12-22T17:30:00.000-06:00

Love this video from United Fakes.

Handcraft Love Land from UnitedFakes on Vimeo.

A Wreath of Yarn

2009-12-22T11:30:00.002-06:00

I've been wanting to make one of these yarn wreaths all season, but haven't gotten around to it. In reality, it's 3 days until Christmas and I probably won't. I would have picked these colors if I did though.

I love the combination of the olive green and the aqua yarn. It's sold out now, but Junk Trunk has a few others left.

Buttons on the Wall

2009-12-21T17:17:00.003-06:00

As you know from my button ornaments I created for the Freshly Blended ornament swap, I love buttons. So when I saw this print from Eva Juliet I instantly loved it.

(via Eat Drink Chic)

Christmas Card, 2 Takes

2009-12-15T18:19:00.002-06:00

We took our holiday photo last night. Kyle decided that we weren't going to do 50 takes like we did last year, so he limited it to two. In the first photo Sydney didn't make it all the way in the frame, so at least in the second she made it. Sure, it would be all cute and perfect if she was looking at the camera, but I kind of like it the way it is.

Letter Pillows

2009-12-14T17:00:00.001-06:00

I absolutely love these letter pillows from Hilary Cosgrove. I feel like they are calling my name. The first photo contains my previous initials as well as first initals of me and the hubby. The second one has one of my current initals. The third one is what I do for a living. See, they're calling to me. Maybe I should answer!

Holiday Ornament Swap

2009-12-13T18:51:00.004-06:00

This year I decided to participate in the Freshly Blended Holiday Ornament Swap. I made button wreath ornaments and was very pleased with how they turned out. I took photos of all of them, but they're still on my camera. (I've been busy lately.) Here is a photo from someone who received one of mine.

If you want to see more from the swap, check out the flickr group.

Sources

2009-12-01T20:30:00.000-06:00

Here's an ever-expanding list of sources for items in my house.

PAINT COLORS

Living Room | La Fonda Wild West Green by Valspar

Dining Room | Belgian Sweet by Behr

Master Bedroom | Faint Maple by Valspar

Bathroom | Faint Maple by Valspar

Guest Bedroom | Sea Turtle by Kilz

About

2009-11-21T20:28:00.001-06:00

I'm Amy, a graphic designer by day and a photographer in my free time. My husband is Kyle. We recently purchased our first house. I love a good project so we've taken on the house, fixing it up, making it ours. Sydney, our dog, was adopted from the humane society. We think she's a beagle/lab mix. She has a mind of her own and loves to dig up old tennis balls from the yard. Luckily, we haven't spent much time on the yard yet.

PHOTOGRAPHY

I use a Nikon D40x. My primary lens is a Nikkor 18-200mm. It's great for taking anywhere at a moments notice. I use Photoshop for all of my post-work. You can view some of my photos on flickr.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

2009-11-11T20:39:00.002-06:00

It seems that Christmas is coming early this year. On the way to work the other day I noticed that one house already had their garland and christmas lights hung. This can probably be attributed to the fact that we had 80 degree days this past weekend, but I for one think it's still a little early. It seems like we're going straight from Halloween to Christmas, completely skipping Thanksgiving.

Well, since Christmas is just around the corner, I've been dreaming about decorations. This will be our first Christmas with the option for a full-sized tree. Do we go the artificial or fresh route? I grew up with artificial. In college my roommates and I went to a Christmas tree farm and cut down our own. There's something magical about the smell of a fresh tree in the house. Aside from the type of tree, I've been dreaming of a tree theme. Do we go traditional red and green? Maybe silver and blue or maybe more natural and woodsy. I've been doing some searching for inspiration and found these that I like at Martha Stewart.

Traditional:

Silver & Blue:

I'm also loving the aluminum/silver trees that are back in style. Apparently they used to be displayed with a rotating color wheel below it, changing the color of the tree. I like the simplicity of this one:

I'm a Pro

2009-11-09T21:30:00.006-06:00

Well, at least on flickr I am. I finally upgraded to a pro account and now have no excuses. I also finally uploaded the rest of my Europe photos, completing the task about 4 months late. Better late than never though. This past weekend I had the opportunity to take some senior photos for a friend's sister. I've started the editing process and I'm very excited about them. We had a beautiful day (75 and sunny) and they turned out really good. I'll be posting them once I get them narrowed down.

I'll leave you with a photo from Rome

Sydney

2009-11-06T21:44:00.002-06:00

It's been quite a while. I've been trying to sort through things and figure out where I want to take this. I'm finding that I don't have as much content for only house things, so I'm planning on throwing in some of my photography as well as other inspiration. My primary goal is to provide my own content, with my secondary goal being inspiration I've found from others. With that, here are some recent photos of Sydney.

Laundry is Lame

2009-09-24T19:46:00.004-05:00

I'm not a fan of laundry. I'm not sure why, seeing as how it's really not that difficult. I usually put a load in and forget about it until I'm getting ready for bed. There have been times this has happened and I've had to stay up late to finish it. This does not make me happy. Whatever the case, laundry is one of my least favorite "chores." Kyle and I do our laundry separate, mostly because I will procrastinate. I have a larger wardrobe than him, so this works for me. It doesn't for him, I guess! In our old rental the washer and dryer were in the cold, dark, and wet basement. There was no laundry room, just a washer and dryer in a basement. In the new house we have a designated laundry room. It's still in the basement, but it's a major upgrade. There is plenty of light and it's not dark or wet.

When we moved, the washer and dryer were placed in the room, but it just looked sparse. We didn't have any shelving, leaving the detergent to be placed on the floor. I decided this was pretty inconvenient and went on a search to fix the issue. I found a set of plastic drawers I had from college and a few rugs. The drawers went between the washer and dryer and the rugs were placed in front of them. Instantly the room felt a little more welcoming and functional. With the concrete floors, the rugs were a great addition to make the room feel less like the basement. That's my laundry room on a $0 makeover.

Motivation

2009-09-22T18:07:00.003-05:00

A big event at work kept me away last week, which is why there were very few posts. It was our busiest time of year, but great to see everything come together that we had been working on for months. For those who don't know, I'm a graphic designer. So I was away from the computer for a good 4 days straight, then recovering after that. So here I am, not sure what to write, feeling like I'm coming out of a daze. We received a call yesterday saying our buffet we ordered for the dining room is finally in. Here's what it looks like. It's Sitcom Furniture from the Hida collection.

We ordered it about 6 weeks ago and I was really excited, but as the weeks went by I slowly started forgetting about it to the point that I almost accepted the fact we were never going to get it. But we got the call and it's getting delivered Friday, so I should finally be able to find a real home for all of our serving dishes, etc...

Photoshop Fun

2009-09-14T20:32:00.005-05:00

I've been experimenting with some Photoshop actions from The Pioneer Woman. She has a lot of great resources on her blog that I recommend checking out. I've been meaning to try my hand at some of my own wedding photos, but due to lack of space on my computer they're on a disc and I haven't gotten around to it yet. I grabbed a photo I had taken as some friends and I waited at a wedding. I love how the bubbles turned out.

Checking In

2009-09-12T21:56:00.001-05:00

I haven't forgotten about the blog, we've been busy lately. I saw Julie & Julia last night and was inspired not only because she was a blogger, but also because she saw that she needed change and did something about it. Sometimes I think I get too comfortable and don't get out there enough. I love learning new things and I'm inspired to try my hand at new crafts. Who knows, maybe I'll even try to learn to cook. It's never been my specialty.

I visited the St. Louis Art Fair today. It was a gorgeous day outside and a wonderful time, walking up and down the streets looking at all of the wonderful work. Again, more inspiration was added to my life.

Another highlight of my weekend thus far was my first ever purchase at Anthropologie. I actually got two items and wanted to buy so many more. The first is this mug, perfect for storing pens, pencils or paintbrushes. Maybe you can guess why I got the "P"!

The other item was this fantastic ceramic egg crate.

I'm not planning on using it for eggs, but instead on top of my dresser to hold all of my frequent wear jewelry. The dividers will be perfect for earrings, rings, etc... It was the last one at the store and there was a teeny-tiny chip in the side, but they gave it to me for 50% off! That brought my total purchase to $12. I guess a bargain shopper like me can shop at Anthropologie! I think it's my new favorite store.

Clearance Extravagance

2009-09-03T19:56:00.005-05:00

Yesterday on my lunch hour I wandered over to Target and discovered it was clearance time. This is one of my favorite times of year to shop there because so many things I've been eyeing are finally on sale. Here are a few things I picked up.

I've been searching for a rug for the front door for a while, but haven't seen anything I liked, then all of a sudden I saw this and the awesome $5 price tag and couldn't pass it up. The salt and pepper set was on clearance and the birds were practically calling my name saying "buy me, buy me." The towels were my not-on-clearance splurge. I've been wanting new towels in the kitchen for a while and finally gave in to these. And finally, the reed diffuser I've been eyeing for a while and finally saw those little red clearance tags. I love the design on the glass. Each of these items ended up in different rooms, but it's fun when, as a whole, they work together nicely.

A Place to Cook

2009-08-31T20:07:00.004-05:00

The previous owner had a sign in their kitchen that said "I only have a kitchen because it came with the house." It made me laugh and then I realized it might be true.

Here's the before:

It wasn't really that bad. The faucet was pretty old but really, it wasn't in bad shape. In fact, we haven't really done much since we moved in.

After:

We replaced the white knobs with new stainless steel ones, which updated the cabinets. We got the knobs from Target in a value pack. They only cost about $30 and it's a big change. We also put a new faucet in, majorly updating the old faucet. Other than that, we just unpacked. We may be inheriting some countertops, so hopefully we'll get to replace the green ones (which I'm not the biggest fan of). I'd also like to paint once we get the new countertops. For now though, it's a functional kitchen.

A Real Guest Room

2009-08-25T19:38:00.005-05:00

In our old rental house our guest bedroom doubled as our offfice, storage room and my closet. Now that we have the basement and real closets in the master, the guest bedroom can actually be fully dedicated to it's purpose.

Before:

Don't worry, you're not seeing the sky...there is a ceiling. Had you fooled didn't we? This room used to be a kids room, which explains the cloud ceiling and brightly colored walls. We did have friends suggest putting glow in the dark stars on the ceiling so at night when it's dark, the clouds go away and the stars come out. As appealing as this was, it didn't really fit the look we were going for.

After:

We chose a calm blue-ish aqua. It's Sea Turtle by Kilz*. Besides loving the name, the color seemed great for a relaxing guest room.

You can see that the guest room has those great plantation shutters like the master bedroom. We really like the versatility of them. They can be open and let light in, while still providing privacy. In previous places, we've just had cheap vinyl blinds and I'm loving that this place doesn't have any of those.

*Side note: Kilz is my favorite paint I have used. We've tried lots of different brands, but Kilz by far beats them all. They guarantee a one-coat job and it's believable. Out of all the rooms we painted, this room was the only one that only needed one coat.

A Break for Work

2009-08-24T21:17:00.004-05:00

It's a little contradictory, I know. I want to take a break from the house tour to post my workspace board. These are some images I have collected and pieced together trying to figure out what I want to do with my workspace. I have a little nook in our finished basement that will be my craft area. I'm super excited about being able to have a place fully designated for this purpose. Unfortunately I don't know where I grabbed these from since I've had them saved for a while, so if it's yours, sorry. Please comment and I'll give you credit!

From the top, clockwise:

Clipboards: I love the various patterns arranged to create a large scrap board.
Peg board: Using something as simple as a peg board is a great way to add small containers without taking up workspace.
Mugs: I have an obsession with mugs and these would be great for holding pens & pencils.
Framed cork board: Can a cork board be elegant? This one can.
Shelves: I already have 3 white Ikea Lack shelves, so this is a great solution for extra storage.

We Live Here

2009-08-23T20:21:00.004-05:00

The living room is where we spend most of our time. It's also the room that has the biggest mixture of mis-matched pieces. Most of the pieces were hand-me-downs or wedding presents. We're working on making it come together a little better as we slowly get new pieces. As for the room itself, we had a pretty blank slate.

Here's the before:

The color was fine, but the walls had lots of marks, so we decided to paint. Since we were painting, we figured we might as well put some color on the walls.

And the After:

We picked La Fonda Wild West Green by Valspar. Some friends of ours actually had the color in their dining room, which we really liked, so we decided to paint it in our living room. It was nice to see it in person because I don't think I would have ever picked it based on the paint swatch, but it was great once it went on the walls. Sometimes those paint swatches are just too small to give off the true color. That's one reason sample cans are a great idea. If you're not sure if the color is right, spend $4 to test a spot instead of $20+ to later find out you don't like it.

On the other side of the room, we'd like to get a better solution for the tv. The current unit is too big for the corner of the room where we want the tv. We've talked about putting in some shelving on either side of the fireplace. It's functional for now though. I guess that's what really matters, right? So that's the living room. I'm sure there will be plenty of posts with updates from this room as we make changes.

The Master

2009-08-20T21:13:00.005-05:00

Continuing through the house tour, we have the master bedroom.

Before:

The yellow just wasn't working for us and the walls really needed a fresh coat of paint. The master (and pretty much every other room for that matter) had scuff marks all over the walls.

After:

It's great that a new layer of paint can totally transform a room. Not only does it polish it up but it makes it feel like our place now. We picked Faint Maple by Valspar. During the painting and drying stages we had our doubts, but once it dried completely we ended up being very pleased. Adding curtains we already had really helped soften up the room. We're still working on getting some art hung on the walls, but we're off to a good start. Due to the size of the room, we had no choice but to put the bed on that wall. The house came with those great plantation shutters so it works well to be able to use the window, but allow for privacy. Eventually I would like to add some curtains to the wall behind the bed to anchor the window.

My favorite feature of the bedroom is the closet, well closets. We have his and hers closets which are great for us. This way we each have our own space and don't have to worry about crossing the "line" in a shared closet. I also love that we both have closets in our room. In our previous rental I used the closet in the guest bedroom and Kyle used the closet in the master bedroom, which was smaller. It's nice not to go back and forth from room to room for things in the dresser and things in the closet. Sometimes it's the simple things we don't realize that make a difference.

Time to Dine

2009-08-18T19:50:00.007-05:00

I've finally photographed the "after" shots of the house updates! We'll go room-by-room through the house and start with the dining room. It's probably my favorite change.

Here is the before:

I actually didn't remember to photograph until after we had started priming, but you can still see the color the room was. It started out red, which wasn't too bad, but just not what we wanted.

After:

We decided to go with Belgian Sweet by Behr to give the room a warm, cozy feeling. We ordered a buffet for the wall under the three frames, but it won't be in for a few weeks, so the room is still in transition. The yellow curtains were perfect for the brown & yellow color palette I was going for. They came from World Market and were a great find as they were $20 for a pack of two! Eventually I would like to switch out the light fixture, but it does the job for now. I'm learning that there are lots of things we would like to do, but we need to take one project at a time.

Closed & Hard at Work

2009-08-12T20:51:00.003-05:00

We closed!! Well, it was really about two weeks ago, but since then we've been hard at work getting set up and moved. We closed on a Thursday, cleaned a little that night and then Saturday & Sunday we painted 3 rooms: living room, dining room and the master bedroom. The living room is LaFonda Wild West Green by Valspar. The dining room is Belgian Sweet by Behr. The master bedroom is Faint Maple by Valspar. Unfortunately we ended up needing 2 coats in each room. The dining room even involved a coat of primer to cover up a dark red. It all took a lot longer than we expected. We moved all that we could ourselves throughout last week and on Saturday had some friends help move all of the big furniture. Because we were able to set up a lot last week, we were pretty much unpacked by Saturday evening. Since then we've tackled a few projects including a new kitchen faucet and a bathroom light fixture. I'll be posting about those projects and more once I get my photos uploaded. That's the general update for now. We're settling in!

The Walk-Through

2009-07-28T20:25:00.002-05:00

It's getting closer! Tonight we did our walk-through to make sure requested repairs had been made and that the house still looked the same as when we first saw it. Everything looked pretty good, so we're excited to close on Thursday! I'm itching to get some new paint on the walls as quite a few of them showed marks left behind from wall hangings/etc... Still trying to figure out what colors do do where. Seems like a trip to the paint swatch aisle is in order!

New Look

2009-07-22T22:12:00.004-05:00

New look! The blogger templates weren't cutting it for my design side, so I dug in to some of my html knowledge and tweaked this little guy to work for me. I've been loving the pale pink lately.

The rug search

2009-07-20T22:41:00.005-05:00

After searching various places, even bringing home a rug to try out and returning it, we finally found a rug that we like. We gave ourselves a small budget, but were able to find this little gem from none other than the local Target.

Photos of it in place to come when we get moved in!

Making a House a Home

2009-07-20T20:51:00.001-05:00

We're closing on our house in a little over a week, so I've set up this blog to document our progress as we make it our own from the inside to the outside. The house is a 1940s gray ranch with shutters (hence the title of the blog). Eventually I'd like to paint them with a pop of color! The house has a great fenced yard perfect for our little pup, Sydney. We can't wait to get moved in and put our own touches on it.