SpringHill Suites

Okay, first things first. Neither SpringHill Suites nor the Marriott chain of hotels has a clue who I am or that I have a blog. Therefore, none of the following post is in any way sponsored by the hotel or its parent entity. 

This year, for our annual holiday trip to Texas, Emily and I decided to drive. We thought it would be a great mother-daughter adventure. We were wrong.  It was a loooong, tedious, stressful drive. There were some great bonding moments, but I will wait at least a year before opting to do that again. Sheesh!

We ended the first leg in Tallahassee, FL (our state capitol) where I had booked a room at the SpringHill Suites. Best. Decision. Ever! I booked this particular hotel on account of its decor. Perfect reason to select one hotel over any other, right? See, Emily has adopted blue as her latest new favorite color so when I saw photos of this place on the Marriott website I knew she'd be thrilled. I was so totally right.

About twenty seconds after entering our room, Emily threw herself onto the aqua sectional.

I'd like to go on a tangent here for a second and have you note the sundress my kid is wearing here.  That's right; in Florida it is warm enough on December 17 to merit the wearing of a sundress. Are you jealous or what? But we were discussing the hotel...

The rooms are way cool. The "lounging" area is separated from the sleeping area by a built in desk and frosted glass wall. The "wall" is lit and can slide open to open up the space even more.  Genius!

My pictures are not stellar so be sure to go to their website for better photos since I can't seem to save their photos and post them here.

The super savvy feature of this room is the bathroom. The toilet and the shower are in separate rooms! This has got to be the most family-friendly amenity at any hotel ever! If I am taking one of my famously lengthy showers no one has to wait until I'm done in order to use the toilet! The toilet room has its own little pedestal sine and mirror too so, if needed, Ben could shave while I was putting on my makeup and generally hogging the vanity area in the shower room.  So cool!

 

Check out this awesome, backlit mirror in the shower room.

The king-size bed was amazing. The large beds were part of our mother-daughter adventure plans.  Em loves co-sleeping.  Mostly because she thinks she sleeps better when someone lays with her.  In reality, she sleeps about the same and I get totally beat up. But the beds was really nice and we got plenty of use out of it. Here, Em has spread out the supplies for her Christmas gift to her stepmother.

Besides crafting area, the bed also served as, of course, a place to sleep, and an energy depleter. In anticipation of nine hours in the car I totally let my kid jump on the bed for like 30 minutes. Shhh, don't tell the hotel. On another side note, see the bench in the background of the photo above?  So smart! It is built over the AC unit to add extra seating or an space to put your luggage.  Way to reclaim wasted space, SpringHill!

The next morning we had a short photo shoot in the cool, curtained lobby.

Who's mommy's little ham? Oh, and check out here leopard print ballet flats.  Yup, that's my girl.

And finally, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this light fixture. Would you call it a chandelier?

I am definitely going to file away some of these photos for future reference. Someday I'll have my very own house to decorate and light.

Thanks for indulging my very long commercial blog post about our hotel stay.  Emily and I just really really liked it there. It is now Never A Plain Jane certified.

A space of my very own

In roughly 20 days the chaos that is moving will commence.  I have something like a thousand things to think about. Plus, another thousand things I want to blog about.  I mean, I haven't had a chance to introduce you to The Commodore or tell you about my latest foils in cooking, and my advances in sewing, and all the fantastic books I've been reading. How is it life always gets in the way of good blog content about life? But, to be honest, I can only think about one thing: My. New. Office.

Ben and I have (tentatively) decided that one of the upstairs bedrooms will be designated as the Never A Plain Jane Space for the Production of Pure Delight. Or maybe we'll just call it Mommy's Craftroom. It will be a room of my own with a closet and window, real hardwood floors and space to house my sewing machine, computer, various stuffs from which to make things. I'm pretty stoked.  So while I should be considering whether I want to throw out my old running shoes or move them to Florida, taking pictures off the wall and puttying the holes, or finally doing a blog post on all the places and spaces I've enjoyed this past year in Virginia Beach, what I'm really thinking about is wall color, internet shopping for area rugs and task lighting, and getting caught up in looking at decor porn. And, since I have obviously already given in to my desires here, I thought I should include you in the fun. 

A short while ago I read this article about cool and warm colors on Apartment Therapy which says "cool colors are therefore best in private rooms where concentration, calmness and rest are most important, such as the bedroom, office, and nursery."   I thought about the space I'd be decorating (because, I can't seem to stop anyway) and I looked at the decor porn that inspires me (Botanical Brouhaha, Brooklyn Limestone, Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, etc., etc.) and I decided cool colors would be best.

Maybe I should take a page from Mrs. Limestone's book and go with gray or blue-green walls. Benjamin Moore's Silver Sage?  Or I could pick something with more blue:

Coddington Design via Sketch 42 and The Reluctant Floridian

I love that chair. I also love this blue room from the sadly defunct Domino Magazine:

 That family tree mural/photo wall makes my heart stop. Or perhaps, start with the black and white right on the wall as seen in this photo:

from Mythology Vintage via Sketch 42.

It all makes sense, it feels totally me, and then. Then I see these curtains:

They're from Pottery Barn Kids. And they are pink (a warm color). With monkeys. But I love them.  Every time I see them I am totally smitten kitten and I want them. Can't you totally see them fluttering against my Silver Sage walls from shabby chic curtain rods and cinched with lovely sage or almond-colored tiebacks? The playful brown monkeys playing off a rich espresso-stained desk...

While I'd like to think I want a sophisticated room with classic colors that'll last me through several moves, I think we can all agree I am still a whimsical little girl. But, internet, I'm still open to your opinions.  What do you think?

They call me mellow yellow...

Some of you might be asking "Dear Janice, where have you been?" Don't worry, I'm still here, I've just been indescribably obsessed with this blog. Talk about living the dream! Not the dream where one has oodles of money and a vacation home in St.. Thomas - not that dream. Mrs. Limestone, from what I can tell, makes a pretty average living for a New Yorker and she has no problem putting in the time to find things that fit both her taste and budget be it side tables or excursions to exotic realms. No, no, she lives the dream of finding a home you love in place you love and putting your stamp on it.  Okay, that and the totally posh vacations she takes and shares with her readers.

Thanks to Mrs. Limestone's sweet photography skills, I have developed a new-found love for the color yellow. To be honest, I think it was Kit's chic wedding prep blog that first put the color into a favorable light for me. But now I can't stop thinking about it!

 For Entertaining:

Left and center: Brooklyn Limestone

Right: via Love, Kit 

As Decor:

Left: Ish and Chi

Right: via  Brooklyn Limestone

Whimsically:

via: Brooklyn Limestone 

Honestly, yellow is everywhere.  Check out some of the stuff Amy found for me to enjoy when I was craving a lemon party. Real Simple did a spread on yellow decor and I swear the color is all over fashion.  It looks like it is going to be a sunny sort of spring.

Inspire me - Purple and Gold

One of the great things about moving is the opportunity to decorate. I am not one of those lucky beings who managed to get herself into an apartment complex that encourages free color expression on their walls.  No, no, I am one of those sad sad little people forced to live with beige walls.  Contractor beige.  Even better, some of the touch up paint between us and the previous tenant was done using a single coat of flat contractor beige.

But, I like a challenge. I've turned my attention to our "study" where we need some curtains in a pretty bad way.  First, the windows are kind of drafty so the extra layer would be nice.  Second, the walls are beige and the floor-to-ceiling bookcases are espresso so we pretty much have a brown and beige room with draft windows.  Doesn't that sound delightful? I am leaning toward brightening the space with curtains in a spring green, but a recent post by Amy has stuck me with purple on the brain. That might explain why I am suddenly drawn to these updated uses for the Mardi Gras color scheme:

and

Both photos can be found at Apartment Therapy. What about you?  How would you add a little something to a brown and beige room?