Ennui......Pillows!

For the New Year, I splurged on the Whitney English Day Designer.   It is for the "Creative Entrepreneur", but I decided that shouldn't stop me--it gets great reviews.  And I sort of wish I were a creative entrepreneur instead of a corporate lawyer.

Pics via etsy

It starts out with worksheets...asking you to list your top 3 goals for different aspects of your life.  No, not annual goals...like deathbed regret level goals.  You then hack down the total list (15) until you get your 3 raison d'etre.  Those are supposed to be written at the top of each Month, so you can evaluate if you are spending your time properly.  

OMG that is some HEAVY SHIT.  And during seasonal-effective-disorder season, too.  It keeps going, and it is all probably a really good excercise, but I was not mentally prepared to realize that I have no idea what my top 3 family goals are...or that I have zero spiritual goals...or that I don't know what I want to do with my life...and that if I did, I wouldn't write it down in a planner that I carry with me daily b/c I'm apparently paranoid.  So I will re-evaluate at a later (possibly less hormonal) date, and try to use the daily calender sheets for now.

Pics via etsy

But since most existential crises can be cured by search engines, I figured I'd google what other organizing schemes could fix me.  Turns out there is something called the The Simplified Life Planner, which also has good reviews (and is sold out).

 

It actually looks like Whitney English "lite", so maybe that would have been a better fit.  But then, they start out like the below, and recommend that you work with Lara Casey's Make Things Happen worksheets to compliment the Simplified Life.

Well, here we go again.  And google wasn't letting up, either.

Do any of you engage in this level of planning?  

Could you do Whitney or Laura's worksheets?  

Am I being a baby?

This is what I imagine me having an existential crisis looks like.  via 

I do like the idea of getting my tangible life (e.g., what is that 401K from my old job doing or where is the dishwasher warranty information)  in order.  I'm considering doing the Buttoned Up bootcamp.  Actually, I had forgotten that I told Kevin this was what I wanted for Christmas back in the summer when I first discovered it.  Yes, I'm at the "forgetting that you were planning to do an organizing course" point.

Enough introspection and despair, lets discuss things that really matter, like throw pillows.  First, a pallette cleanser:

photo by Birgitta Wolfgang Drejer for Elle Decoration UK, via

Ahhhh......mental equilibrium restored.  (Side note:  this came from my new favorite eyecandy source out of Brazil)

So, confession:  I have always cheaped out on pillows.  I hit HomeGoods or Marshalls, I have one Thomas Paul Pillow but I bought it at a boutique on clearance for $30.  I've had some made, but I enslaved my grandmother to do it.

Time to grow up and do some research.  I'll use as many of the current pillows as possible but for some reason I didn't think buying pairs was a good idea so we need some symmetry help.  By way of background, the LR is blue, and the couch will be slipcovered in velvet in a blue that is pretty close to the walls (although this has been a long and difficult search...pea soup green is the current runner up).  And, in generaly, the couch isn't deep enough (or used too frequently?) to handle gobs of pillows.  I have some ideas of where to start--mostly things I almost bought.  But I went to reference the living rooms on my Pinterest Living Room Board and it turns out I have never really pinned anything specific on pillows.  So I looked at the full interior shots I pinned and it was not what I expected....

Good Living Rooms:

1.  Kelly Wearstler, Modern Glamour (photo via) 

 2.  via

Good blue living rooms....

3.  via

4.  Erin Williamson design, via

5.  Miles Redd in House Beautiful, via

And good blue living rooms with blue couches....

Thom Felicia I think, via 

7.  Romy Schneider wearing Chanel at Rue Cambon, Coco Chanel’s apartment in Paris, 1960

And here is why this excercise turned out particularly good:  at least in terms of pillows...I am drawn to 5 and 7 the most.  And those are WAY more conservative than what I would pick out in the great wide world of pillows.  When I started this post, I thought I was headed here:

Jamie Meares, via

Finding the perfect mix of prints.  But maybe with so much saturated color (and so much stuff, and so much mess), I don't want anything busy.

Anyhoo, here are my original shopping options I rounded up for your input:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I 

The top row of classic prints I wish I could afford 15 yds of (pcitured are all from Etsy); the middle row I think of as "toying with ethnic", and the bottom row are my current passing fancies (ps--G is metallic!).

Now the above random assortment aren't out of the picture completely, but I have some other things to  think about.  Reviewing the living rooms has definitely made me realize that I should invest in only one of the above options, and buy some good silk (or chintz maybe).  I'm thinking a solid and a pair of prints, or a print and a pair of solids.  A more neutral rug is on the agenda, and that will probably help tip the scale in one direction or the other.  And at the $200 and up price point, I might wait until the second sofa in the room is done (to be upholstered in a print).

Thoughts?  

What won't I get tired of?  

Is it just me, or is piping and/or turkish corners absolutely necessary? 

via

While the marbelized pillow above is from West Elm, my big plan was to do my own marbelizing.  I tried it this summer using supplies from Dharma Trading...it is not super easy, but I think it could be accomplished. Mixing up a good color combination (without spending a fortune) is the trickiest thing.

Unfortunately, to make a decent sized pillow (I think you need 18" or 20" on the couch....) I would need to get a tray that has 2" on either side of the material....which is hard to find and/or expensive.  I have stuff to build a frame and plastic to line it with...but you know, it is just one more thing that requires a drill, time, and a clear work surface.  And right now, I only have the drill.

And because I love tangents, and marbelizing is AWESOME, here are some links and eyecandy to hold you over until this Thursday's devotional.

Peace out peeps.

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Elle Decor did a round-up of the "trend".

Pic and article here.

Society Bride did a round up of marbelized wedding details.

Pic and article here.

 Pillows!

via Etsy

Dransfield & Ross, via

General eye candy:

from Shutterstock

via

via

via

And a few "How To's"

pic via Martha

• Martha Stewart
• Design Sponge
• Dharma Trading

Embellishments?

by Small Forest, via