Grassy Green Goodness April 30, 2008

I’m loving springtime! And I appreciate it more than ever now that I live in Northern Virginia where the winter seems to last FOREVER! I know this is technically the south but I’m from Florida and I guess I got used to wearing flip flops 11 months out of the year! 😉

Today while walking my moose of a puppy, Dexter, I just enjoyed the earthy smell and bright vibrant green of the freshly cut grass! I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated this season so much!

I love bringing outdoor elements into an indoor space. It gives the room life, energy and COLOR!

Here is some fun, grassy decor…

Retro Red and Aqua – in the kitchen! April 29, 2008

When we first registered for kitchen items, Brett and I were drawn toward bright red appliances! We chose a bright red KitchenAid mixer, a red, 1950’s inspired Oster blendar and Williams-Sonoma spatulas in red of course. But we needed a contrast against that spicy red and when I found the Martha Stewart line, heavy in shades of aqua and teal- I knew it was a perfect match!

Here are some other great items that inspire this palette!

Here is a great little DIY project that makes great use of aqua and red! This old vintage frame looks adorable when painted white and turned into a sort of shadow box! I found this a while back and can’t remember where it’s from!

Addictive links… April 28, 2008

In the past few weeks (when I should have been studying renal disease) I’ve found some seriously addictive stuff on the internet!

Post Secret – This website has been around for a few years but a friend just introduced me and all I can say is Sunday is my new favorite day of the week! Secrets range from funny to romantic, tragic to heart-wrenching! I have set a little goal for myself to mail in a secret by the end of the summer. I need to think of a good one! I especially love the fact that secrets are hand-made and mailed in the old fashioned way!

The Impossible Quiz – It may or may not be impossible but I don’t have another weekend to dedicate to trying to find out! Eeeek! I spent an entire cardio lecture trying to beat this stupid thing! Super super addictive though!

Stratosis – This isn’t something I found recently; I go to school with the author and I’ve known about it for over a year. But it’s extremely entertaining and if you like Larry David’s sense of humor you’ll love Adam Stratton’s!

Twitter – Ok if my husband sees this I will NEVER live it down. He’s been telling me that Twitter is the next big thing for like two years. But finally, people are catching on and even CNN is twittering. If you don’t know what twittering is I am pretty sure you’re not alone. Basically it’s Facebook “status” or AIM “away message” on speed. Users can view your updates, and “follow” each other. I’m still learning the whole twitter thing myself but you can twitter from your iPhone, upload “twitpics” to show rather than say where you are or go to tweetscan.com to search all twitter updates for something specific. So for example, if you are at a UCF football game you can type in “UCF football” and see how many twits have twittered it! Whew!

We’re going to be HOMEOWNERS!!!!

So my husband just got a really cool new job with Mid-Atlantic Consulting as a Macintosh Server Consultant. He basically acts as a consultant for various Mac based clients such as the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (maybe he can get me a job!) and Genetic Alliance (the group working on the Human Genome Project)! Pretty exciting stuff!

Ok the point of all that is now that Brett is mobile, we’re packin’ up and moving west! That’s right it’s back to Winchester, VA for us. Since our 1 bedroom apartment is skyrocketing to $1500/month we decided now was the time to buy! And it really is a buyer’s market! We looked around and discovered that we could get so much more for our money in Winchester (compared with Leesburg) and decided to look for a townhouse to buy!

We watched every home buyer show on HGTV and looked around in the area and found a GREAT deal on a 3 bedroom, 1.2 bath townhouse in eastern Winchester. Since it’s close to the highway, it saves Brett time on his commute. And it’s close to school for me!

Oh I almost forgot the best part! A big backyard for Dexter, our golden retriever!

We close on June 2nd!

Until then, we’re learning all about rural and FHA loans and considering upgrades we’ll want to make before moving in! One thing we’re set on is hardwood flooring throughout the house! Any suggestions on brands/materials etc?

We have an awful lot of HGTV to watch to make this happen! 😀

Weddings Unveiled Spring 2008 … and Elizabeth Anne Designs!

Wow! I am so excited to have had my wedding featured in Weddings Unveiled magazine – a Southeast Bridal publication that is absolutely fabulous! A huge thanks to our photographers, the Almasy’s, for submitting our photos for publication! This is insanely awesome!

As if that wasn’t enough celebrity treatment, the insanely creative duo Elizabeth and Anne at Elizabeth Anne Designs featured our wedding in a three part, all-day blog fest! We are really honored that they wanted to share our wedding with their highly discerning readers!

For all brides-to-be, wedding planners, designers or just creative types in general… check them out! It’s just such an inspirational blog with lots of fantastic inspiration boards for creating events in specific color schemes or general themes… They are available for consultation so don’t hesitate because they are totally awesome!

I attached the WU article and a couple of my favorite mini-collages EAD designed from my wedding photos! Enjoy!

Peacock Obsession March 12, 2008

 Is there any creature in the world more beautiful than a peacock? When I was little a peacock showed up in our yard and I fell completely in love with him. But I refused to believe a magnificent specimen such as that peacock could possibly be a BOY so I named him Melissa- I guess at the time I thought Melissa was the most beautiful name in the world. 😉

I would love to incorporate a splash of bright teal into our lime/chocolate color scheme… Also, our kitchen is a vintage inspired aqua/red so I think it would transition beautifully from one room to the next.

I love the unapologetic vanity of a peacock! I would LOVE this on canvas!

Photo credit: Laurence Shan

I’m totally loving this image…

Photo credit: disneymike

What a great incorporation of a sweet little peacock into the original color scheme!

For sale on Etsy.com

I heart choclate and lime!

No, not the candy and the fruit! Ok, well those too!

I love the combination of bright, fresh lime green paired with a masculine, warm chocolate brown! You can probably tell from the blog theme I chose! So right now our living room is having an identify crisis. Our birch veneer “Poang” chair sits next to a large paper lamp in one corner directly across from our glossy white “Besta Burs” TV stand.

So far so good…

Unfortunately we spent all our decorating money on a 42″ flat screen plasma TV, a Wii with lots of fun games including GUITAR HERO and an XBox 360 because we just couldn’t wait for the Wii to come out! (Then 2 weeks later we got a Wii because OMG we had the opportunity so who doesn’t buy a Wii if they have the chance right?)

So sitting across from our TV stand that holds pretty much everything we own that is worth anything (heehee) is a loveseat that I swear I have pictures of my husband sitting in when he was like 10 years old. It is cream (darker and darker every year) and dark green plaid with some burgundy running through it as well. It’s very Northern Virginia to say the least! Definitely has that “Country Clutter” vibe to it! Of course we were lucky enough to have this loveseat given to us because it was either this or milk crates 😉 But I think we’re about ready for an upgrade.

Besides the fact that it is horribly uncomfortable, its stained on BOTH sides of the cushions and totally doesn’t suite our taste! Right now we’re saving money for EVERYTHING (including a belated honeymoon!) but we’re hoping to get a new couch/loveseat when we move to Winchester. The move will hopefully happen early in the summer but more on that some other time!

So I’m digging around for inspiration and here are some things I love in the lime/chocolate combo…

Here is a fabulous photo from lindsayplan’s flickr… It’s not exactly the kind of thing I’ll have sitting around in my living room but don’t these colors just make you feel energized and cozy at the same time?!

Here is one more from Decor Amor:

Well that’s all for now! But there is so much great stuff out there in this color scheme…. I see an inspiration board in my future! 😉

So I’m married! Now what?

Welcome to The Helpless Housewife! I created this blog to journal some of my experiences as a new housewife 😉 I’m a 26 year old college graduate and currently attending pharmacy school in Virginia. I consider myself reasonably intelligent and fairly creative. But when it comes to “housewifey” things, I’m at a total loss! I have no housekeeping tips or tricks, I can’t stand dishes (ew smelly, discolored water!) and I have zero organizational technique. (I’ve always envied people with color coordinated dividers that are properly labeled and neatly organized drawers.) I pretty much can’t cook. I don’t think I’ve ever cleaned a toilet so I don’t even know what to say about that. I’m pretty bad at all things related to being neat, clean and organized!

But my goal is to LEARN!

I’ll *attempt* to post here daily with general tips I dig up from friends, family or Martha Stewart Living. 😉 HA! I’ll share personal stuff, housewifey activities and domestic pointers! I want to focus on cooking, cleaning, design/decor and organization. Hopefully this will help all you newlyweds who don’t know the difference between a steak knife and a bread knife make some sense of this whole married things!

DISCLAIMER: I am by no means just a “housewife” and I view this term LOVINGLY 😉 My husband cooks more than I do and we both clean about the same amount, which is close to never! Since I’m in school full time and he works full time we are BOTH learning how to manage a house, a puppy and our lives together as old married folks! This blog is for anyone who wants to learn how to deal with “life stuff” in general!