new home updates

Wow, I can't believe it's been a week since I've posted! Things have been crazy busy over here, but after this weekend things should be settling down and I'll be back to my normal posting. I've spent most of my time this week working on the last bit of moving and cleaning our old apartment, so I haven't had a chance to spend much time decorating our new place. Here are a few sneak peeks of what I've been able to do so far. After I get everything all styled up, I'll have better pictures for you!

 Our new office area. I am beyond excited to finally have a functional space to work!

Our new bar and dining area.

If you want to follow along with more sneak peeks, you can follow me on instagram @stacyandcharlie!

friday finds

With the Memorial Day holiday coming up I had to share these finds that are perfect for the poolside. I'm in love with these Nate Berkus beach towels at Target, and at less than $20, I especially love the price tag!

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changes are coming!

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I've had e-mail inquiries recently from people asking if I provide design services, and the answer is YES! At the top of this blog I have a link to my temporary website that I've been sending to people who are interested. It gives you a little more information on pricing and the services I currently provide. My permanent website will go live on July 1st (see below).

I've been hinting for the last couple of weeks that many exciting changes were happening around here. Right now I'm balancing wrapping up this school year, moving, and a few projects, but starting July 1st Stacy Graves Interiors will go live and I will be dedicating 100% of my time to design and being a new business owner.  Taking my design certification classes this semester have definitely helped me realize that this is where I want to take my career, so I've also decided that I will be going back to school this fall for interior design.  Finally, to top it off I also have a new shop that I will be announcing in the next few weeks. I couldn't be more thrilled and blessed with how things are working out right now.

I can't thank everyone who has helped me out over these past six months enough. Charlie, who has been my number one supporter during this transition, and all of my family and friends for being incredibly supportive and encouraging me to make this huge career change. 

Here's to dreaming a little bigger!

color combination

Recently, I took a class at Sherwin Williams where I got the opportunity to learn more about color combinations and different painting techniques. During this time I was introduced to their 2013 color forecasts and fell in the love with their "vintage moxie" combination. 

I haven't used many purples, pinks, or golds in my decor before, but I think this is a lovely combination, and it is exactly what I've been imagining for our new apartment. It is finally moving week (I feel like I've been talking about moving for months), so hopefully things will be coming together quickly!

instagram updates

Even though our apartment is an absolute mess and filled to the brim with boxes (did I mention how stressful moving is?), I couldn't resist stocking up on some flowers to bring a little pretty back into our place.

Also, how cute is he? It's hard to stay stressed when you look at this sweet, peaceful face.

 Like I mentioned in my post earlier this week, stay tuned for some very exciting things that are happening around here!

stuff

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Oh my goodness, this weekend was a little crazy. I'm not going to go into the million different things that went wrong, but I will say that my car broke down on the side of the highway on the way back home to Dallas, and after four attempts over two days we finally made it back home. My car is still stuck in Oklahoma, but we're trying to make the best of it. This on top of moving stress makes this quote particularly relevant for me right now. It's times like these that make me realize how incredibly lucky we are to have families that are willing to drop everything and help us out.

Posts might be a little sporadic over the next two weeks, but when everything is back to normal I'll have a lot of new decorating pictures and surprises for you! I'm so excited for the changes coming my way!

bedroom install

I'm helping to do a redesign of a tween bedroom this weekend. Here is the inspiration board that I created for her.

Her requirements were "Thunder colors" with zebra and leopard print.. you gotta love the imagination of kids.  Here were some of the goodies I picked up this week to make her vision happen.

I love doing kid's rooms because they are so bright and colorful. They're also usually open to pretty much anything, so you get to have some fun!

instagram updates

This weekend was our annual Jimmy Buffett concert weekend.

My dad and step-mom came into town, we tailgated all day, and then (even though it was freezing) had a great time at the concert that night. 

If you've never been to a Jimmy Buffett tailgate or concert, you must. They are fun everywhere, but in Texas they are especially large and crazy. I mean, for what other concert would people build a pirate ship!?

Even Toby got in on the parrothead action. 

The next day we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with some yummy Mexican food.

And after all of the festivities of the weekend we took a little Sunday afternoon siesta.

It was a great weekend! How was yours?

mmmMonday

There has been a lot of this happening... which means not a lot of cooking is going down over here.

Only fast, easy meals are on the menu for the next couple of weeks while we transition over to our new apartment.  

This is one of those meals. As an added bonus it includes cheese tortellini, and at only 331 calories for an entire bowl, you don't have to feel guilty about it!

Spinach and Cheese Tortellini

Ingredients
1 cup of fresh, frozen cheese tortellini (I find mine at Kroger)
3 cups fresh organic baby spinach
1/2 cup low sodium tomato sauce

Directions
Bring 1 quart of water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil, saute fresh spinach in a medium pan (without oil) for 2-3 minutes until wilted. Add pepper to taste (I don't add salt here because it is already in the tomato sauce). Cook tortellini in boiling water for 2 minutes, or longer according to your package directions. Drain tortellini and stir in 1/2 cup of tomato sauce. Add sauteed spinach and serve.

Seriously, we're talking only 5 minutes here. It's. so. easy!

Nutrition
calories: 331
fat: 7
sodium: 501

friday finds

My favorite finds on the cheap for this Friday!

1//Faux Birch Servers (large $16.99, small $12.99)

2//Table Top Terrarium (was 23.99, now $17.50)

3//Needlepoint iPhone Case (was $24.50, now $7.99)

4//Common Good Clean in Every Way set (was $90, now $69)

ceiling fans in the bedroom

In my last post I mentioned that we'll be able to choose the lighting in our bedrooms. I've always lived with the generic fans that they put in apartments, so I was excited to get to choose our own this time. We like to keep our room cool at night so for our master bedroom a ceiling fan is really the only option, and during the summer in Texas, it's almost a necessity.  After looking around I'm realizing there are a lot of seriously ugly fans out there, and almost every single one of my bedroom inspiration images shows a pretty chandelier in the bedroom, so they aren't much help. After searching for quite some time I finally came up with these images that show you can have a fan and a pretty bedroom!

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I've narrowed it down to my six favorites, but I'm leaning towards either number three or number six the most.

1//2//3//4//5//6

Do any of you know a good source for pretty ceiling fans? I'd love to take a look!

UPDATE: Check out my most up-to-date post on ceiling fans under $200!

new apartment

It's supposed to be moving week, but at the very last minute we changed our mind. This Saturday we got a call from a place that we really liked, but it just wasn't the right price. They told us they had dropped the price and were offering a month free. We went back to look at it and sealed the deal! It's newer, and doesn't have all of the weird quirks (small, uneven windows, niches, columns in the way, etc.) that the other place has, plus we like the location much more. You also get to choose your bedroom light fixtures that they install free of charge, and get this... the wall color isn't beige! It's a very light gray with a darker gray trim, which I'm totally digging. I just knew a better place was out there for us!

Kitchen in the place we were originally going to rent:

Kitchen in the new place:

It is a little smaller, but it looks a lot nicer don't you think?

I'll share a lot more pictures once we get moved in later this month!