Family Room colors and Modern Yardage to the rescue

When we moved into our new house I decided on a color palette for our open family room and kitchen and breakfast area. We did light gray paint on the walls and I wanted accents of teal / turquoise, coral and cobalt / royal blue.  The problem was I could not find fabric with all 3 colors in it if my life depended on it. And I looked everywhere... in a bunch of different fabric stores and online and I had my mom look for me in FL too. It is slightly tricky these colors have multiple possible names too... in some cases the same shade can be called teal or turquoise or aqua.

Then my mom suggested I email Modern Yardage which had just recently started popping up in different blogs with giveaways and such. They had really vibrant and fun fabrics on their website but just not in the colors I was looking for so I emailed to see if they would take requests. I heard back really quickly from one of the designers saying that yes they could work with me and she told me to pick out some prints that I liked.

I picked out 3 different prints from 3 different lovely designers (Heather Dutton, Katie Schrader and Cindy Lindgren). Then we all had a few emails back and forth where I told them about my color scheme and explained where I wanted which colors in the fabric designs. I had Sherwin Williams paint chips that I was going by for my vision and they went and picked up the same paint chips so they could all collectively pick fabric colors that were the closest to the paint chips. How awesome is that! They had swatches made and mailed them (along with sweet personal cards) to me ensure it was what I wanted before putting the fabrics on the website for purchase.

The 3 fabrics are called Take Flight in Aqua (the arrow like one), Bog Stars in Coral (the diamond like one) and Dance in Coral (the flower one). My mom was a big help in picking fabrics that would complement each other and then I decided on where the colors should be. I decided to have two of the fabrics have all 3 of my colors and one fabric just have 2. They all turned out fabulous!

I honestly cannot say enough great things about Modern Yardage and the designers. They changed fabric design colors just for me at no extra cost. Their fabric is very reasonable at $10.99 a yard, high quality, pre-shrunk and slightly heavier than traditional quilting weight fabric. They also put fun tips and info and stuff on the sides of the fabric (all fabric is 44 in wide but printed on 58 in wide fabric). I would not hesitate to buy more fabric there. I did notice they recently added a section to their website mentioning altering designs they already offer (so the process I went through) under Custom Fabric Designs.

I started off by ordering a yard of each thinking about pillows and such although I haven't started on anything just yet. And I think I will be ordering more of the Take Flight to make two decorative curtain panels for the family room.

These colors looks great with the teal chairs in the family room from World Market. This teal is a few shades darker than the teal on the paint chip/fabrics which is good... don't want to be too matchy matchy :)  I definitely want to eventually incorporate a painted piece of furniture or two in the color scheme too... thinking something painted that coral shade.

It seriously baffled me that I could not find these colors together in a fabric because I think they look fantastic together. Maybe I'm just completely ahead of the next big color combination :)  It even translates into fashion and I like wearing two or three of these colors together.

I compiled some affordable options below. For example you could wear this dress OR this top with jeans with the cardigan and earrings.

    

  

turquoise dress  turquoise top  skinny jeans  

coral cardigan  cobalt earrings

Or you could wear these jeans with the top, the cardigan and that necklace and bracelet. Super cute right?

             

 

coral jeans  gray top  royal blue cardigan  

aqua necklace  aqua and coral bracelet

I hope to start soon on some of the pillows and order fabric for the curtains but I'm definitely going to wait to tackle those until I have the help of my mom as I've never made curtains before. Keep an eye out for combining turquoise, coral and cobalt into awesome decor or even an outfit!

Comfortable Stylish Flat Boots

It's about time that I blogged about my favorite pair of boots, Born Sage boots. I got my first pair of these over two years ago after ordering a boatload of boots from zappos and returning all of them but these. They are comfortable the second you put them on and need no breaking in... I mean it when I say I've worn them walking around for the entire day and they never hurt. They are real leather, have a sturdy sole and great support.

I own 3 pairs of this boot. Yes, you read that right, 3 pairs. One in tan which is more of a brown/tan, one in medium brown and one in a charcoal gray. Every time I wear them I get compliments on them. The buttons on the side really make the boot. I am a thrifty person but these boots were worth every penny and then some. I believe in buying shoes that will last and don't mind paying more for that (unless it is a trend you think will fade quickly).

Born Sage

Good new for you is that these are on sale! If they do not have your size online I would recommend writing down the item number and calling Dillard's to see if they have it at your local store or have them shipped to you from a store that does have them (the associate can look it up in their system). I did this with my tan pair and they shipped them from a store in another state and they arrived 3 days later. Of course if they didn't fit or whatever you could return them to your local Dillard's if you don't want to pay return shipping. Dillard's stores have had the tan and black in stock.

These boots look great with everything! They run pretty true to size. I usually wear a 6 or 6 1/2 in shoes and I wear a 6 in these. I also have a narrow foot so that is why. I love that these do not have as tall of a boot shaft as some other riding boots so it still looks great if you are short.

If this isn't enough convincing to get these boots, my SIL has seen me wear these for awhile and even all over Europe for two weeks last summer and decided to get herself a tan pair and she loves them too!

Here are some photos of me in the boots

Here are a few other similar boots. All of these seem great for casual outfits or dressier outfits. I could wear any of them to work.

Born Terri also on sale and in tan and black

Born Cheyenne if you are looking for a slight heel

Born Lizzie fun nail head detail, in brown and black

Sam Edelman Penny my coworker has these and they are comfortable and even cuter in person, comes in brown and black. Occasionally they go on sale even more so keep checking on that if you like these.

If you don't own any flat riding boots I'd say start with a brown or tan pair because I think it is the most versatile (remember brown boots with black jeans or leggings are really in style!) and then add in a black or gray pair.

What I Wore

What I wore out on a Saturday night for a tree lighting, drinks and dinner with two of our favorite people.

This denim jacket was really affordable but has held up nicely and I've really gotten a lot of wear out of it and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. Such a versatile piece, highly recommend!

Coral striped sweater: Banana Republic Outlet, similar, similar
Denim jacket: Old Navy, similar, similar
Gray skinny jeans: Old Navy Rockstar Super Skinny, similar, similar
Turquoise scarf: Pashmina from London (not an infinity scarf but I styled it that way), similar, similar
Tan boots: BCBG, similar, similar
Turquoise earrings: Francesca's, similar, similar, similar 30% off

Oh and if you are looking for a light gray vest like Katie's below here is a similar one but in fleece. I think Katie got hers at REI but I couldn't find the exact one.

Linking up to: What I Wore Wednesday

Clemson vs. FSU Reunion Weekend

Once a year my wonderful college roommates (along with significant others, family, current roommates and other friends) get together in the place that feels like home to us.... Clemson, of course. This year we picked the Clemson vs. FSU weekend of Oct 18th which also happened to be a weekend Clemson had ESPN College GameDay.

Eric and I took a half day Friday and drove down. After dropping our stuff at the apartment we rented, we went straight to downtown which was already packed. We met up with The Morgan gang and Brooke to do some shopping and then made our way over to Bowman where the game day crew was getting everything ready. I will say as someone who really appreciates processes and planning, they must have it all down pat to roll in with dozens of big trucks, set up the whole stage, surrounding areas, crowd cameras on wires, Heisman house, line up all the special stories and speakers and guests all in 6 days notice!

Vickie and I spotted Danni, the winner of the Biggest Loser and Clemson alum, on Bowman field and took a photo with her and Tom (an FSU alum).We both enjoy the show and they still looked fantastic.

 

Next we headed over to Mellow Mushroom for dinner, delicious as usual.

 



 

Then in keeping with our tradition we had drinks and watched football that night at Tiger Town Tavern. The UCF game was on (strangely often when we have reunion weekend UCF is playing that Friday night) which works out nicely since Kelly went to UCF and Vickie went to grad school there. This is when many others for our reunion arrive in Clemson too and meet us at TTT.

 

The next morning we were up bright and early, out at the tailgate at 7:45am. Yep, more than 12 hours before gametime. If you didn't know, tailgating in Clemson is epic. We had 3 tailgating spots in Strom this year and set up 3 tents which was needed as it was sort of drizzly for the first couple hours.

We started off with breakfast foods and mimosas. I packed mini muffins into a baking disk so I could use my festive casserole carrier. Is it just great?

And you may have already read about the burlap banner I made.

These are the wonderful girls I spent 4 years with and I love that we all come together once a year. Also mimosas are so fun in mason jars don't you think? Or any drink for that matter.

Megan and Keith came to the tailgate this year too.

Clemson love :)

This was our sweet set up

We headed over to Bowman field for the gameday stuff around 10:30. We didn't want to stand out there for all 3 hours but we caught all the picks which is the best part. We were pretty close to the crowd camera line of sight so we may have even been on tv.

There was certainly a good showing with lots of creative signs. The tiger on the wrecking ball was great. There was a rather inappropriate sign some FSU fans made that I will not post a photo of here but it was only up for about 2 minutes before they were made to take it down. It's something you don't know about unless you are in person but ESPN does regulate the signs for anything inappropriate.

After gameday ended we headed back to the tailgate.

We played lots of cornhole and had lunch. This year we did a sign up on facebook for bringing food and I think it worked out really well.

It is rare that I get to see both of my littles together but due to a last minute trip decision both Jessica and Christa were in Clemson.

Emily and Justin joined us at the tailgate later in the day too so we were able to get a group shot of that group of friends/family.

The LaForce couples

A shot of all the girls that lived in Tillman 920. Always awesome to have all 5 of us.

We had an early dinner so we could pack up most of the tailgate and walk to the stadium to be in there with plenty of time for kickoff as we knew the walk there would be packed with people as well as the stadium with it being a sold out game.

There is just something special about the walk to the stadium with thousands of fans all packed together and hyped up. It is really hard to capture in a photo but those of you who have experienced this in person know what I mean.

Then it was gametime!

You can really see how packed the stadium is. I am sure it was close to record attendance and it was super loud.

Wall to wall student section on the hill. Everyone was so excited and jumping around but shortly after that all the fun ended when Clemson just was not prepared to play FSU and made many mistakes even right off the bat and then lost the game 14-51.

Even though that was not the outcome we were looking for and it ended my perfect streak of FSU losing whenever I was in attendance, we had a such wonderful weekend leading up to the first play.

 

We have great memories to hold us over until the 2014 reunion weekend. Love you ladies!