McCall's Bright Eclectic Office

 The Lucky girl, McCall, won my bloggy friends giveaway and therefore, won a FREE MOOD BOARD design! So today I am sharing that with you!

I love when I have specific clients/friends to make a board for. It brings me out of my comfort zone and keeps me on a budget :) Do you want me to create one for you?

I could easily determine McCall's style from her blog but I wanted to see what space she wanted me to design.

McCall said: "I would love for the mood board to be done for my spare bedroom that is used as our office. This room acts not only as our office, but also is my craft room (sewing, blogging, illustrating, photography painting, etc) and music room. (piano, guitar) Welcome to apartment life."

I decided to add in a futon just in case they needed to use the space as a guest bedroom. I also wanted to incorporate lots of storage for all of her hobbies! The painted mason jars also make for a unique, inexpensive desk storage option (for pens, pencils, scissors, etc.)

Inspiration

(found on McCall's Pinterest and my Pinterest)

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NOW, go to Design your Dwelling and....

** Make sure to 'like' your favorite design board - they will be featured next week!  ;) **

Resources

Desk: Ikea Micke

Chair: Target

Shelving: Ikea Expedit

Rug: Urban Outfitters

Lamp: Shades of Light

Storage Bins: Target

Pillows: Target

Futon: Target

Mason Jars: Etsy

Dry Erase Board: Target

Inspiration Photo and Colors: Design-Seeds

Do you like bold color? What are some necessities for your home office?

Also, I forgot to mention that my workplace {Courtney Ludeman Interiors} got a new website and added a blog! Be sure to stop by and see it :)

Come back tomorrow because I am co-hosting Wildcard Wednesday!! You don't wanna miss it!

Wedding Wednesday #5

Hey readers...you are in for a treat this Wedding Wednesday. Kalyn from Love. Laughter. Happily Ever After is taking over my blog! I "met" Kalyn when we co-hosted a Wedding Wednesday together and we instantly clicked. So please welcome her and check out her beautiful blog! (You may have seen her before hanging out over on my sidebar!) She is a newlywed like me and loves teal! She is very stylish, Southern and LOVES God!

Hi everyone! I'm Kalyn, a developing blogger spending time over at  Love.Laughter.Happily Ever After. I am so excited to have the opportunity to take over Samantha's blog and share with you all a little about wedding shower etiquette. I love to talk about wedding planning and am blessed to be able to share a few tricks of the trade with all the lovely readers of Designer in Teal.  


I have adored getting to know Samantha. I especially love that we relate so well on many topics in blog world and real life. Despite the miles that seperate us, I feel as though I have known Samantha all my life! Reading posts from her little corner of the dot com world is always a breath of fresh air for me. Also, as a new wife, newlywed world is SO much fun. It can also be difficult, confusing, scary even though love abounds. Knowing the things that my husband and I are experiencing is totally normal makes sharing and learning from others during this journey so much better, too! Today I hope to give you an insider look at wedding shower etiquette. So without further ado.... 

Wedding Showers. Let's talk about 'em. 

We all know wedding showers can be super awkward and boring. Most of the time, many of the showers we attend are for people that we have not seen in years. Then on the flip side, if you have seen the people on occasion, things can still get awkward when mixing multiple personality types, themes, food, or activities. As couples strive to personalize their wedding more so than ever these days, many get consumed and caught up in etiquette. It seems to me that the word "wedding" tends to scare people away real fast because of many reasons. Be it emotional stress, financial woes, family dysfunction, or time crunches, etiquette should not be one though. 

My husband and I had three showers, not including our Bachelor and Bachelorette parties or my Bridal Luncheon. He was given a home/garden/tool shower hosted by his childhood church family. I was given a kitchen essentials shower hosted by my college girlfriends. Together we were given a tea hosted by our home church family, which ranged from kitchen gifts to linens. 

Tool/Home/Garden Shower

Kitchen Shower Hosts

Bridal Tea Hosts

I am one of those Brides who ditched tradition. Yep. There was A LOT of judgment and ridicule. But, who's to call me out when the moola was coming from my bank account? Since my husband and I were paying for the majority of our wedding, we decided everything based on our personal desires. From the planning of showers, our wedding, our honeymoon everything was extremely unique and tailored to "us" which we loved. 

Thankfully, many of the hosts who asked to provide showers listened to my director as she explained our wedding theme and made our showers very successful! Today we have a home that is fully furnished and our cabinets to do hold all of the goodies we received. It was such a blessing to be able to know that we were taken care of and were provided with the essentials to start a home together. 

Listed below are the main do's and don'ts of hosting, planning, attending, and begin given a wedding shower. Many of these do's and don't are common courtesy honestly. 

The Do's and Dont's of Wedding Showers

• Do send thank-you notes to all shower guests—even if you thanked them in person at the shower. And don’t forget those who couldn’t attend but did send a gift.
• Don’t ask guests to address their own thank-you notes.
• Do send a thank-you note and a gift to anyone who hosts a shower for you.
• Don’t coerce anyone—especially bridesmaids—to host a shower. It’s a financial burden that many aren’t able to take on.
• Do include registry information on a separate sheet in the envelope with the shower invitation, but not on the invitation itself. The theme of the shower (Kitchen, bath, lingerie) may be noted on the invitation, but color preferences or sizes should be noted on a separate insert.
• Don’t invite anyone to a shower who won’t be invited to the wedding. Showers are intimate gatherings for people you know very well—not excuses to haul in more gifts. The only exception is a workplace shower to which a large number of coworkers contribute. (If an office shower involves only a few coworkers, thoughtful couples will probably include these colleagues in the wedding guest list.)

If anything, no matter the stage of your wedding planning, I hope that you may be able to use these skills in your lifetime. Whether it be for your shower or a shower that you host, spread the love and a little common etiquette. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post today, friends! I would love to have you visit my little corner of the internet and say "hello".  Here's to love, laughter, and happily ever after- Happy Wednesday! :) 

If you would like to read any previous blog post from the Wedding Wednesday series, click on the specific content of the colored text below. Happy Planning to all of the Brides and Grooms! Please feel free to contact me if I can help you in any way! 

1) Decor (Reception and Ceremony) Click Here

2) Flowers Click HERE

3) Reception Food and Cakes Click Here

4) Photographer Click Here

5) Make-up/Hair Click Here

6) Wedding Random Extras Click Here

7) The Dress and Shopping Click Here

8) Save The Dates Click Here

As always, until next time- Happy Blogging! 

Isn't she just adorable??? Maybe I will do a post soon our wedding showers! If you are stopping in from Kalyn's blog, WELCOME! Please leave me a comment and introduce yourself :) I would love for you to stick around! You can find more about me {here}

Be Inspired: Bedrooms

I feel like my blog has not been a whole lot about design lately so I am going to FOCUS! What better way to start the new year than with BEDROOMS! Why? Well because it really is an important space in our homes. It could really determine your mood for the day. And also it is winter so I know I spend a little extra time curling up under the blankets. Some people want their bedrooms to be really soothing and calm, some want them to be bright and fun. Some might prefer something plain or very intricately detailed. However you envision your bedroom, you should really enjoy the space.
Bedrooms are a personal place in your home; one that most people that visit won't see. I think its a great room to incorporate family photos and things that evoke memories and emotions.
Here are some bedrooms that inspire me and that I would love to crawl up in the bed and nap in.
Wish I could design some like these:
Enjoy~

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Here are some guest/kid bedrooms:

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What is your favorite thing about these rooms? Headboard/fabrics/window treatments/bedside tables/lamps/rugs??

Hope you are having a great week :)

P.S.- Check out my new tabs: Featured and Tying the Knot (located at the top of the page)

Photo Challenge! Day 1

Yay! I love excuses to take pictures. I found this on another blog that I follow and I couldn't resist signing up. I actually took a lot of pictures today of my Christmas decorations so I will have to choose from those.

What & How: Take one photo each day for the first 25 days of December and post it to your blog (or Facebook album or Flickr page, you get the idea). In this month of celebrations, there is always something new to see and document each day. The DPP is a fun way to challenge yourself creatively and share the results with your friends on a daily basis.
If you want to join here is the link to sign up: http://www.tredways.org/december-photo-project/ 

Day 1:

~Bowl filled with ornaments~

I found inspiration for this on Pinterest and figured it would be pretty easy to recreate. All you need is a glass bowl/vase and some ball ornaments. These were leftovers that we didn't have room for on the tree so it worked out perfectly. I love the mixture of colors and the sparkly/glossy/matte textures. It is now the centerpiece to our factory cart coffee table! What do you think?

p.s. If you look closely, you can see my reflection!

On another note, you will notice that I added snow to my blog :) I thought it was very festive! Is anyone else excited about the 25 days of Christmas on ABC Family? Elf is on tonight! 

I ordered some really cute custom Christmas Cards from Walmart. I really want to show them off but then it wouldn't be a surprise to the people that get them! So that will have to wait. (But I will say they have CHEVRON on them :)

For this photo challenge: some days I will post only the photo and a description and some days I will incorporate it into my regular post! I hope you enjoy seeing them. Be sure to check back each day :)

Happy December!

XO Samantha

Symphony Designer House 2012

Courtney and I got the opportunity to go visit the 2012 Symphony Designer house at Pinifer Park a couple of weeks ago. I have never experienced a "designer house" before so I didn't really know what to expect going in. Unfortunately I can't promote for you to go check it out because its closed to the public and I don't have any pictures but you can find out more about it here:http://www2.timesdispatch.com/lifestyles/2012/sep/09/tdflair01-richmond-symphony-designer-house-ready-f-ar-2181252/

I wish I had pictures of the kitchen and bathrooms :( They were stunning and the kitchen design was a very clever use of space and budget. Who knows..maybe I will get to be a part of the next Richmond Designer house?

I was thinking about what my favorite space was so that I could talk about it and to tell you the truth, I liked something about each space. I know that each designer put a lot of time and effort into their space.  It would take forever for me to mention what I liked about each space so I will show you the only pictures of the 2012 house that I could find. And did I mention that the property is GORGEOUS! I would hang out on that wrap around porch all day long!

Bridget Beari Designs did the hallway and stairwell

Dining Room by Ruth and Ollie

I loved the sophisticated feel of this space. Whether it was the lush velvet yellow drapes, the gold chairs with leopard seat cushions or the white hide-hair rug or the bright coral/red ceiling, I was drooling. :)

Here is the link to a video if you want to learn more about the house and some of the design concepts:

http://wtvr.com/2012/09/04/virginia-this-morning-richmond-symphony-designer-house/

Since I don't have many pictures from this, I will share a few past designer house photos as well!!

2008- Houzz

Cabell Design Studio

2010-Traditional Home

Jennifer Stoner

Have you ever been to a designer house? If so, what was your experience? What space in the house would you want to design?

XO Samantha

Celebrate.Remember.Fight Back

American Cancer Society's Relay for Life has been a big part of my life in the last 6 or so years. I became involved in my local Relay for Life in high school and I fell in love with this organization. Then, I went to Virginia Tech which has THE LARGEST collegiate Relay IN THE WORLD!! I was overwhelmed with excitement of my first VT Relay! I will never forget that experience. Every year after, I knew I had this event to look forward to, but it became more than that. It is year long fundraising event and took up a large portion of my out of class time. I was not only a team captain, but a part of the fundraising committee for 2 years. I hope to find a local Relay event in Richmond and continue to go to VT's event every year. If you don't know about Relay for Life check out this link: http://www.relayforlife.org/. If you want to know more about Virginia Tech's event and how we raised over $580K for cancer research, check out this link: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR fr_id=41402&pg=entry 

Here is a snapshot of my first Relay!

balloon arches

My team

farm theme

sign that I made

our decorated tent

wrist bands

me and my HUBBY

us with the Hokie Bird

me and my co-captain and roomie

luminary dedicated to my Papa

Here are photos from Sophomore, Junior and Senior year!

*note: some of these photos were pulled from the vtrelay.org website/facebook page

the low-techs

Burruss Hall

the event from Slusher Hall

the girls on the team!

my bible study group

freshman studio group

Because of my love for this organization, I chose to do my last Interior Design project on it. We were to do a healthcare facility or something similar. I chose to design a Hope Lodge, which is a place for cancer patients and their caregivers to stay when they are traveling for treatment. Here are some of my renderings.

Note: These designs belong to Samantha Horseman. 

Please do not copy or steal these images. Thank you!

Until we find a CURE,

XO Samantha