Digital Life of an Avid Reader

I've always been an avid reader - I love to absorb information. It took me a while to migrate from books to an e-reader - my parents generously gave me a Nook for Christmas last year and I haven't looked back since. I love the feel of books and magazines as well as the smell of printed paper, but the Nook converted me with its ease of use and portability. There is still something romantic and intoxicating to me about books and magazines in hand, though.

That being said, since it took me so long to adopt the technology of an e-reader, owning an iPad had never been anything I was really interested in. Yes, they're neat, but I didn't really want more technology in my life, until recently that is.

I've now come to the conclusion that I really DO want an iPad, sheerly for my magazine addiction. So many of my favorite magazines have gone defunct (I'm looking at you, Domino) or have just moved platforms from traditional print magazines, to digital only (Paste, that's you!). Also in the past year and a half, there have been several new magazines that have come into publication that are only available digitally and it gets cumbersome to read on the computer... maybe that's the first sign that I'm getting old - not wanting to read on the computer. Who knows. Plus, the technology of Issuu is pretty rad - it's just a nice easy reading experience.

Either way, I really want an iPad now. Time to start saving.

What are your favorite digital magazines?

Here are mine:

Lonny Magazine

Leaf (which just made its debut a few days ago)

Matchbook

Rue

Est

High Gloss

Design in My Home: House Tour, Part 4 - The Bathroom

We're now onto the bathroom in part 4 of the house tour.

I really like the bathroom - it's the first time in a while I've had a more modernized bathroom with regard to fixtures and tile, so I wanted to take advantage of that fact and use a more modern color scheme. The color the walls were painted were a bland dark tan, which just blended in with the tile and made the room look very dim and dirty.

Before:

To remedy the bland color on the walls and to give the room a more modern feel, we went with a dark, charcoal grey - Behr's Nature Retreat (430F-5). It made all of the features of the bathroom stand out and overall just cleaned up the entire appearance of the room. We are considering a new shower curtain, but since I still love our Lenox Chirp one from our previous apartment, which can be seen here in its former setting, I figured I'd stick with it till I found something I love more.

After:

Photograph of a traditional japanese tattoo by Jayme Thornton.

They say its your birthday...

To my sweet hubs...

Happy Birthday to the most amazing man I've ever met.

I'm so glad you were born - and your mom did a pretty excellent job with you.

You just get better each year - more wise, more handsome (if that's even possible?!) and more kind.

You truly are the most amazing man I've ever met and I'm so thankful you're mine.

Happy 31st Birthday, Babe. You're the best.

Design in My Home: House Tour, Part 3 - The Kitchen

The kitchen, while not the most impressive room in the house by far, has improved a lot with an intense cleaning, swapping out the outlet and light switch plates and just a few coats of paint. The dingy tan color definitely had to go. There isn't a whole lot to say about it, except that it does need renovations, so we're pretty limited on what we can do to improve it.

Before:

I picked a very bold green for the walls - Pesto by Behr (color number 440D-5), which happens to be one shade darker than the dining room (seen here). I really like to use shades of a few colors rather than a multitude of different colors. It makes the rooms work together rather than just be a kaleidoscope of color, which I find tends to make people feel uneasy.

The bold green made the contrast between the white trim and the walls a lot more dramatic so you didn't focus on the things we can't do much about (namely the floors and that the cabinets need repairs / replacing). We have a few more improvements that we're going to do, such as replacing the light fixture and possibly changing out the cabinet hardware, but it's pretty much where it's going to stay.

I can't complain too much - it's the largest kitchen I've ever had in my years of renting, so I can live with the less than perfect aesthetics. It does have some features I really like though, such as the original small rounded corner shelves that flank the sides of the upper cabinetry over the sink, which allow me to display my awesome set of original 1964 New York World's Fair drinking glasses.

Design in My Home: House Tour, Part 2 - The Dining Room

Happy October, everyone! I've been so happy to be able to comfortably have the windows open in the house lately - it has such a wonderful cross breeze! Lots of stuff coming up to do for October - sweet hubs 31st birthday, a trip to South Carolina for the state fair, a trip to the mountains, some pumpkin picking, hopefully lots of baking! I love fall - it's absolutely my favorite time of year.

Anyhow, now that I've professed my love of fall, let's move onto part 2 of the house tour - the dining room! You've already seen a sneak peek of it here in our how-to post on recovering our dining room chairs, but here it is, in full effect.

A few before shots:

And now the after:

Painting by Ashley Love

TCB Cross Stitch by the amazing Kristy Kizzee (aka Bombastitch)

Coney Island poster by Michael Michael Motorcycle

I actually quite liked the color of the dining room before, but unfortunately, it didn't go with the color palette I had in mind, so it had to go. We replaced it with a nicely pigmented, but light shade of green called Desert Cactus by Behr (color number 440D-4), which is a few shades lighter than our kitchen that you'll see in part 3 of the house tour, next week.