Choosing an Exterier Home Color

It's Summer time!  Perfect time to spruce up the exterior of your home.  
Painting gives the most bang for your buck!  
But how in the world does one decide what color to paint their house?  
In a guest post by Zillow, Jennifer Riner shares some ideas.


6 Steps to Choosing a Home Color
It’s difficult to alter home exteriors without major renovations and large budgets. Repainting, however, is an easy, inexpensive way to give face-lifts to boring home façades. Along with fresh landscaping and a few décor features, new color schemes can transform exteriors from dated to designer.
Before purchasing paints and brushes, owners should determine which colors best suit their homes. Use these six steps to figure out appropriate exterior shades.



1. Research Surrounding Neighborhood
Determine the best exterior paint choices by examining other homes throughout the neighborhood. Location can ultimately determine if certain hues are regionally appropriate. For instance, it’s more common for homes in Florida to be painted pink than in the Midwest due to the warm, southern climate that welcomes bright and upbeat colors. San Francisco has “painted ladies” – or Victorian-style homes featuring perky shades of purple – lined up on some of the most popular streets in the city. Vacation homes in the Caribbean might incorporate more eccentric outdoor color schemes than bungalows in the Pacific Northwest. Uncharacteristic shades might draw negative attention, so try to match exteriors to their respective locations.

2. Match Architecture
Architects often paint homes with historically iconic colors or hues to complement structural genres of homes, which make the styles easily recognizable to the average onlooker. For instance, cottages benefit from light and bright blues and craftsman-style homes shine in earth tones such as green. Tudors give off rustic vibes that should be honored with classic red brick. Mediterranean homes usually feature terra-cotta pinkish-brown. These are just a few of the many styles of homes on the market, and some may not follow these guidelines precisely. For instance, Dutch colonials are often painted warm neutral colors, but might look great in classic white. Compare distinguishing color choices with personal preferences to come up with a compromise that satisfies tradition and individuality at the same time.

3. Pick a Palette
After choosing the color to paint the siding or brick, consider the additional features. More contemporary residences are the same color for siding and trim. However, there’s no shame in picking three to four varying shades for one home. Classic exteriors typically have varying body and trim colors with dark wood doors. From a selling standpoint, buyers may be overwhelmed by too many contrasting shades – keep the palettes somewhat neutral to broaden the number of potential offers.

4. Highlight Uniqueness
Paint trim in bright tones to stand out amongst darker siding. Oppositely, paint trim dark to offset stark home colors. Homeowners should direct focus to top-selling points, especially during open houses and listing photo shoots. The contrast between deep blues and grays with whites and beiges impress individuals searching for homes with updated, stylish exteriors.

5. Mask Eyesores
Paint gutters, vents and utility boxes the same exact color as the body of a home. Creating a monochromatic scheme helps hide some of the less attractive, but necessary structures. Rather than hide unsightly fixtures with overgrown landscaping, match colors to trick eyes into looking past imperfections.

6. Complement Landscaping
Homeowners who recently painted their front doors red might consider planting red rose bushes along the front of their homes in two symmetrical lines. Against white homes with black shutters, rosy hues stand out without being too dramatic. Already have well-designed front gardens featuring colorful flowerbeds? Use those arrangements to decide which tones to paint siding, trim, doors, railings and shutters. This way, only one feature has to be modified to match the rest of the front yard.

Aside from paint colors, think outside of the box when it comes to façade ornamentation. Consider bright yellow front doors or stained-glass windows to add unique elements to home exteriors. Even with neutral color schemes, fun décor can draw wanted attention to homes. Keep trinkets and accessories minimal to avoid an over-done look.

Graduation Gift

It's no secret that I love to give candy as gifts.
It's because everyone likes candy, right?
   
As I was browsing Pinterest one day,
I found a cute poem to go along with some candy.
So I decided to make something similar.



I used Starburst, Skittles, Extra gum, a Mounds bar,
Reese's Pieces, Milky Way and Good and Plenty's.
If you would like to use the printable, just right click, save to your computer and
then print as you wish.  


I put all of the candy into a bag and then attached the poem.  
As easy as can be.


Last week one of my YW graduated from Seminary so I adapted the poem for that.  




Do you know anyone graduating this year?  

Teacher gifts

Every time I spend any time at my kids' schools I come to the same conclusion:  
teachers are overworked and underpaid!!  
So to show our appreciation for everything they do every day, we like to get them
 a little somethin' somethin' at the end of the school year. 
This year I didn't get too creative, but it's the thought that counts right?


We got a a jar of chocolate treats and a Starbucks gift card for my son's Kindergarten teacher.  
Now that I'm looking at it, I think I may go back and put her initial on the jar.  
We will also include a hand written thank you note. 


My big kids have 6 teachers each.  And while I'd like to get each of them a gift card as well, 
that's a little out of my budget.  
So I made these little printables with a pack of gum. 


 It's not much, but it's something to thank them for their hard work!


Here is the printable if you'd like to use it.  


We like to do something for my daughter's dance teachers as well.  
We framed a photo from their competition and had all of the girls sign the photo mat.  


I also included some chocolate in a Mickey Mouse cup since her teacher loves all things Disney.  

Still looking for more teacher gift ideas?


Here is what we did last year.  I think giving jars of chocolate must be my thing.  



Do you do end of school year gifts for your kid's teachers?  



linking up to:  Tatertots and Jello

Graduation Party wreath and garland

It's that time of year- school is almost out!  There are lots of 
parties and celebrations coming up!  


I'm helping to throw a graduation party next week so I made a few things to decorate.  


I made a wreath and garland in the school colors, which are black and gold.


For the wreath I dug some holiday gold tinsel garland (amazon link for you if you aren't a supply hoarder like me) and a wreath form out of my stash. 


 I very simply wrapped the garland around the wreath.


Next I cut some black triangles from cardstock.  
Then I wrote out 2014 with glue and sprinkled it with gold glitter.


I clipped the triangles to black bakers twine with mini clothespins.


I hung the wreath with a length of black tulle, tied in a bow.


For the garland I gathered some gold and black tulle and ribbons, and tied small pieces onto jute twine.  


I used lots of tulle, but also used some gold and black ribbon and ric rack.  



My blogging friends all have some great party ideas.  Please stop by their blogs for ideas for your next party!




Mother's Day

My family spoiled me with gifts this year!


I love the hand crafted gifts from my favorite people!  
Of course I love iTunes and amazon gift cards too!  


This is my favorite.  My husband was super creative and had my kids each stand by a letter of 
M  O  M.  Then he had the photos printed and framed.  I was super impressed and can't wait to hang it in my office!


Being a mom is the best!  I love these babes of mine!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day too!



linking up to:  Simple as That


What to do when you've lost it...

My posts have been a little bit few and far between.

I think lost it.

 My mind... perhaps, but I also lost my creative spark. 

 Maybe you have gone through periods when you have too. 
 As a mother, crafter and blogger, being creative is really important to me.  
But sometimes the well runs dry.

So how does one get it back?  

Well I'll tell you how I do it.

I take a break.

I don't force myself to craft, to blog, to decorate my home, or to plan anything creative.

Instead I focus on spending time with my family.

And there has certainly been a lot going on in our little world.


My girl has been doing dance for quite a few years now. This year she is on a competition team.  
Her dance team had the opportunity to perform before a major league hockey game downtown.  


They have also attended a few dance competitions.  Even though this is her dance team's first year being together and competing, they have learned a ton and their dance has improved tremendously.  

Some other things we've been up to:


Our middle schoolers had their end of year band concert.  


Over Easter we went to Oklahoma to see our new baby nephew/cousin.  


While we were there, we were able to decorate eggs and have an egg hunt.  
And of course the Easter Bunny found us in our hotel room.


I've had the chance to help in my little guy's Kindergarten class.
(And he lost his first top tooth)


I also got to chaperon a few of his field trips.  


We've also been spending lots of time at the soccer field watching him play.  



After 5 or so years of braces (he needed lots of work) our big guy got his braces off.  



After not forcing it, I am started to get the creative spark again.  
I'm excited to see where it goes!  

Thank you to all of you for bearing with me!