Roomations – Part 3: Let there be (diffused) light

The room updates begin!  Phase 1: We now have curtains and some new plants in our living room.  I love having softer diffused light during the day time and more privacy at night.  We had a slight hiccup with the size of the curtain rod but after some frustration we figured out a great workaround.  Aren't they pretty!  

Roomations – Part 2: Final Rendering and Shopping List

We received our final rendering and shopping list based on our mood board selection and survey feedback.  I think the final mock-up looks great!  I do plan to pick and choose which items to implement.  For example the rug, curtains, plants, and gallery wall are major home runs for me and we plan to work to make these updates over the next two months.  We’ll also be doing a major overhaul of the styling for our bookshelves including moving some of our books to storage to clean up the space.  We’ll be taking down the leaning bookshelf since early in the time we owned the house we got water on one of the shelves and it has some rust damage.  This will allow us to move the couch off the wall a bit to help open up the space.  

The suggestions I didn't care for were painting the whole room gray; instead we’ll be repainting the accent wall from green to gray (using the paint color suggestion).  I did not like the suggestion to add curtains to cover the openings between our bedroom and living room; I like having the open and free flowing space so we’ll be leaving that as is.  

Let the redecorating begin!

Homecoming 2014

UGA Homecoming is a weekend I look forward to every year!  Being a UGA Georgette in the Redcoat Band was a truly incredible experience.  They became my family and some of my best memories from college are from gamedays, practices, the annual Florida trip, and trips for bowl games.  I attended my first college football game during my first year and first season on the dance line.  I fell in love with the excitement, school pride, and the game itself.  Once a year for Homecoming I get the chance to be a part of it again by performing with the alumni band for pregame.  I love getting to see old friends, be a part of morning practice, and above all getting to step onto the field in Sanford Stadium to perform again.  Each year during Battle Hymn I tear up just thinking about the magnitude of it all and out of deep appreciation for the traditions and memories that live on long after each student graduates.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from homecoming this year. Gooooo Dawgs!

Roomations - Part 1

I enter online contests ALL the time but I hardly ever win.  This time I was lucky enough to win a design consultation and room design from an online interior design company called Roomations.  It was a really easy process.  You create an online account, take a style survey, and then fill out your design request.  We selected our living room since it’s the space where we spend the majority of our waking hours and we would love to have a more functional and fashionable space.  I like the space but it has always been missing the wow factor for me.   

The design request includes the functions of the space, the budget, any specific items you have in mind, and the room specifications (measurements, etc.). After a couple business days you get back two mood boards including notes from the designers.  Here are the two mood boards and notes we received.  After reviewing them we selected the Modecorist space because it felt very functional but had a more cohesive look than our existing space.  The rug and gallery wall were the wow factors for me.  We liked a few suggestions from Portico Design so we asked if they could incorporate those as well.  The main thing we adore about the Portico design was that amazing floor lamp, swoon!  We filled out a survey with our feedback and now they are working on building a 3D rendering for us including the shopping list and detailed instructions for the transformation.  I’ll post again once we get the final rendering, shopping lists, and instructions.

Message from Modecorist:

You have a great foundation with the sectional and open space. I tried to find you affordable draperies, which isn't difficult but what is a challenging is finding suitable hardware. Ideally you need a wall mounted or ceiling mounted track. A ceiling mount would be the best however it will be a challenge to find non custom draperies at that height. I went to Smith and Noble for a wall mounted track and custom drapery but it’s something of an investment and not within your allotted budget. It will add a wonderful texture to your space and help frame your view.

Overall I am recommending a variety of light and dark, cool and warm neutrals with textures and patterns to create a very natural space. The framed photos will add a more personal statement above your sofa… The plants will add a bit of nature.

If you can scrape together more money $250-500,save up for a large shag rug with a graphic pattern like in the inspiration photo. The rug I chose is a great pattern but
a synthetic material…

I also recommend organizing your bookshelves, adding plants and natural touches that are found or inexpensive… like shells, baskets, etc…

Message from Portico Design:

This design uses a few key elements to bring your existing furniture together to form a cohesive design: Large curtains, a large area rug, a large plant and large lamp. Notice a theme? You need some large scale elements to complement the scale of your amazing loft space! 

If you were to start with just one of these elements and add the rest over a period of several months, I would start with the area rug, which will anchor the whole living room area. I recommend FLOR carpet tiles because you can buy the exact number you need to create the right size and shape (an 11 x 11 square area would work great). Loft spaces best retain their open, spacious feel when you keep furniture off the wall and allow the space to “flow” around it, so I suggest pulling your couch out from the wall 3 or 4 feet so you can walk behind it. Do the same with the shelving unit that separates the living room from the dining area, aligning the center of the shelving with the center of the dining table.

For the curtains, buy a bolt of simple (inexpensive) white fabric and sew the curtains yourself. Remember that in order to have the curtains “ripple” you will need to make the length of the curtains about 1 ½ to 2 times as long as the length of the window. Use horizontal seams to create visual interest in the otherwise plain fabric. For the curtain rod, you can buy an adjustable rod from IKEA or make your own using ¾” metal conduit. If you are up for the DIY project, I think the conduit approach will better suit the industrial style of your place!

Lastly, add further style to your existing shelving by re-arranging the books by the color of the spines, lay some flat in different sections of the squares, and accessorize with vases, frames and other objects in different squares.

Corn Maze

This past weekend we took a group of middle school and high school students to the Corn Dawgs Corn Maze.  We had a really fun afternoon of petting animals, exploring the corn maze, playing outdoor lawn games, and “swimming” in the corn pit.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

Getting Past the Plateau

I have been volunteering with the high school ministry at the Bridge Church for six and a half years.  It has been such a fulfilling experience.  I have been overwhelmed, overjoyed, and truly thankful for the opportunities it has provided me to serve others.  It has also taught me a lot about myself.  In the last year I felt myself feeling less engaged which was a terrible feeling.  It’s a ministry I love but somehow my passion for being there was fading.  God started to answer my prayers with our trip to Sojourn.  I posted it about here.  After that evening I felt myself wanting to do more and to be more engaged in the ministry.  I found myself trying to connect on a more meaningful level with the other volunteers.  I noticed some of my jaded feelings from the past slipping away and making room for excitement for the future.

This happens to everyone who has been somewhere for a long time.  In reflecting on it recently I realized there are a few questions to ask yourself when you find you are disengaging from something you love:

Why did you get involved in the first place?  Is that reason still something you believe in passionately?

How would you feel if you walked away?

Are you still able to contribute and make a difference?

For me the answers were that I got involved because youth ministry changed my life in high school.  It shaped me and gave me a place to get Godly advice from people that were outside my immediate family.  It gave me friends who supported me and challenged me in ways I had not experienced before.  I realized I am still incredibly passionate about helping provide that experience for current high school students.  The second question was what helped pull me out of my funk.  I would be incredibly sad to walk away from the group.  I think it would leave an empty space in my heart that would be difficult to fill.  The answer to the third question was harder because I realized the main reason I was disengaging was because I felt my contributions were not as substantial as they had been in the past.  I had faced some really difficult challenges with my current group of girls and my confidence in my gifts was waning.  I wanted it to be the same as the group I’d had before but I had to realize every year and every group will be different and there are amazing things to appreciate about each experience.  I still have a lot to offer to the group I just needed to trust that God was steering the ship and stop leaning on my understanding of how He was working within the group.

As a result I decided to start a blog with Kyle for the youth group.  I’m able to utilize my gifts and something I love to do to help the ministry.  We also changed up the small groups to help move past the plateau we had all hit as a group.  I feel very positively about the direction the ministry is headed in and I am so thankful to have rediscovered my passion for the ministry.