Interior Design: Master Bedroom Details

A few weeks ago, I wrote this post about some of the elements in our master bedroom. While the bed/ bedspread, side tables/lamps and wall personalization are the key focal point in the room, I really think it's the little details that help round out the space.

The master bedroom is kinda "my space" in the house where Kirk gives me free reign (with some limitations - we have to have a flat screen in there. Ughhh! Oh well...) to implement my beloved shabby-chic-girliness.

I found this chair about two years ago at Pier One. I fell in love immediately! It's an off-white color with blue-grey French writing on it. I lived in Paris for a brief while, and also am fluent in French (I studied that fun language for 17 years. Now that I'm in Texas, I really wish I had pumped that effort into Spanish, but whaddyagonnado, right?). The sequined pillow was purchased after Kirk and I moved in together as part of a plea bargain. He got a blue throw blanket for the couch, and I got a frilly, ridiculous pillow for my chair. Win-win!

The black and white prints were actually taken by my husband! He's got a side interest in photography. They're of various landscapes and landmarks around Minnesota. (The black thing to the left is a small dresser, and my "beloved" flat screen).

This vanity and I go WAY BACK! I had always wanted a white wicker vanity - and by "always" I mean since I was literally about five years old. Back when I was 16 or so, my mom and I were out antiquing for mother's day and found one! We picked it up that day, and it has since made every move with me - multiple apartments in Minneapolis, a cross country move to Savannah, GA for graduate school, back to Minneapolis to a few more different apartments, and finally, another cross-country move to Dallas. Pretty sure this vanity has seen more of the country than most Americans. It's well traveled! I don't know if Kirk likes it, hates it or is indifferent to it, but he knows it's story and I managed to marry a man smart enough to keep mum about something so close to my heart if he didn't care for it.

On it I keep several pictures of my favorite ladies, a few vials of perfume I never wear (I'm actually allergic to perfume), and my jewelry box. On either side of the mirror are my tiaras from being Miss Saint Louis Park and Miss Minnesota (circa early, early 2000's). Yes, I've been in a few beauty pageants! They were a blast. And the Miss Minnesota title paid for my first year of college, so that was fantastic. This was not some Toddlers and Tiaras situation, mmmmmkay? My first pageant was at 18!

It's these little details that make me really love the space. The furniture (bed, side tables, book shelf and small dresser) are all dark and manly; so it's key that these pieces are in the room to provide some feminine balance. I also think it's important to have some deeply personal items in your bedroom, and these two items are just that.

Hey, This Site Looks Different...

Things look a bit different around here, don't they readers?

Heck, even this font is different, and I didn't even attempt to change that! Whatevs.

Here's the story: I purchased my domain (www.anuncomplicatedlifeblog.com) from Go Daddy in the beginning of March. I futzed around with Blogger and ultimately decided to also purchase some website building/design software to host the site, then simply have Blogger feed into the site to maintain the "blog" atmosphere.


This was great in theory, because I had more design elements to choose from and play with. But the end result meant that I started my posts in Blogger, then had to transfer them over to the design software, essentially publishing/positioning/editing two times for one post. Which is fine enough for now, but no-way-Jose for when this baby gets here. Aint nobody got time fo dat.

Also, the design software kinda blurred my photos, even though they were high res and I had WAY more control of the editing of them. Linking up social media sites and building out pages was super easy in that software, but I lost some of the functionality of a blog (being able to fully participate in link-ups and button publishing, immediate access to commenting, etc) by having an independent website. Also, my analytics tell me the majority of you read my site via your phones and the mobile app STUNK from my site, didn't it?! My pictures were everywhere and I had no control of editing the mobile functionality. So dumb.

So I decided to make the shift fully over to Blogger. I started to alter the design elements in Blogger to more closely resemble my site, and called Go Daddy to have my domain transferred over. The guy I spoke with told me my original site would remain live for 48 hours... So clearly, the original one voided and my new site went live immediately. Ummm, yeah, I wasn't ready for that!

This site isn't quite "there yet" in terms of design and a few functionality issues, but rest assured, I'm working on it! I thought I had a few more days to make it pretty for y'all. Nope! Ah, such is life. Thanks for hanging with me as I get the details worked out and get this website back in good shape.

Mommy Monday: Coed Baby Shower

We had our coed baby shower this past Sunday. It was a blast!

For days, meteorologists threatened severe weather on Sunday. Damaging wind, baseball-sized hail and tornadoes were all on the forecast. I became obsessive about checking the weather to get the latest update. In my personal experience, Dallas-area meteorologists tend to be some of the least talented in the nation, and usually get the weather wrong. I chalk this up to them normally being able to say that it's going to be dry, sunny, and triple-digit-hotter-than-blazes out... So when it veers from that norm, they get confused.

Well wouldn't you know, they also got this forecast wrong! (Unless you live up in Arkansas... Jeez, sorry guys! I hope you all are safe) It rained for about 30 minutes early in the morning, and quickly cleared out. And heated wayyyyyy up, well into the 90's.

Because we're still fairly new to the Dallas area and know mostly couples, we decided to have our shower be coed to be able to see all our friends. I knew that to entice the men to come out for a "baby shower" I had to include beer. And other non-baby man-things, like grilling and corn hole (that's bag toss to you Northerners). No tacky standard baby shower games, no excessive baby/birthing conversations (unless they were funny stories - then I just made sure the guys involved had a beer in hand!), and no crafty baby stuff.

Blue and white hydrangeas on tables and counters

It worked like a charm! We served grilled cheeseburgers, taco dip, apple/onion guacamole, Texas caviar, jalapeno-white cheddar veggie dip, white chocolate dipped rice crispy treat pops (with blue sprinkles!), baby boy-inspired petit fours; and beer, wine, mimosas, sweet tea. It was fantastic! Two of my favorite Dallas yogis offered to co-hostess the event with me, and I attribute our delicious sides and petit fours to them. Thanks Jenny and Brennan!

Some of the delicious food!

For decor, I decided to use the nursery theme of neutrals, blues and greens. So in addition to the blue and green cups and plates, we had blue and white hydrangeas in green pots or mason jars throughout the house, burlap table clothes, and blue and white pompons hanging from our outdoor pergola. My mother in law and I wrapped napkins around the flatware in the shape of bow ties and secured them with blue and white polka dot ribbons. At the last minute, I decided to put our dogs in blue bow ties, too! They looked good and festive for all our guests.

I also bought some fun blue and green "baby boy" confetti to put out, but completely forgot about it. So I'm hoping one of my friends becomes pregnant with a boy soon so we can use it at her shower instead. Take note, friends!! Get to working on it, okay?

Petit fours close-up

I'd say everything turned out great! It was one part DIY rustic, two parts Southern preppy, and one part Texan. Sometimes, I think coed events can be... A bit... Strange. Ever been to a coed or combined bachelorette/bachelor party?! Yeah, that doesn't work for me. Things get strange quickly. But since it takes two to make a baby, I really enjoyed having the dudes around for this party. It was a great compliment to the traditional baby shower my bridesmaids threw for me back in January in Minnesota.

Bow tie napkin/flatware

Thank you to all my friends who have made welcoming this little guy so much fun! Kirk and I are incredibly grateful and we can't wait to share all this love with our son.