C's Collection – Fancy Cocktails & Leopard Print Lover Living in D.C.

Monday Mockup – Olive Dining Room

January 7, 2019 No Comments

If you remember a few posts back I was searching for dining chairs and landed on the windsor style. Well thank goodness I finally found the ‘one’ but in the process I came across so many amazing dining chairs. And although I didn’t want to mismatch the chairs in my dining room, I love the look of two different chairs and it’s even better when they’re complete opposites. Plus I love navy blue and dark green… especially in leather so when I saw these dining chairs I instantly wanted to mockup a dining room for them to live.

I’m going to try and mock up some rooms every so often – preferably on Mondays to keep the ‘Monday Mockup’ theme going – so I can get my design juices flowing and hopefully inspire a few of you who are looking to redo a room or make some one off updates in the future!

Simple, clean, and natural. The boxy table has an unexpected twist with alternating leg directions, and the shade is a creamy dream. I played on the color with the black cane chairs from DWR while adding contrast, and pulled out more natural shades by going with an olive green leather wrapped chair. (Mouth watering.) To give an airy view, I’d place the cane chairs on either end and the wrapped leather chairs on the sides. A muted cowhide rug will add additional texture and an eye catching shape to the room full of rectangles. I love love the whimsical look of an olive tree so tuck that in a corner and let the fluted chandelier shine in all it’s simplistic glory.

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Home, Style

Before & After – Kitchen Addition

December 31, 2018 No Comments

Remember when our kitchen looked like this?

Yeah… I mean A for effort for trying to make it cute, right?! Ok, B+. After a year of living with it and really figuring out our pain points – like the non-existent counter space. We met with a few different contractors to begin figuring out how we could transform this peach galley into a dream kitchen and despite it taking longer than ‘promised’ (surprise, surprise) I could not be happier with the outcome. Looking at these before pictures have me pinching myself all over again. I can’t believe that from my current view there was a wall and instead I see pretty clean lines and the dreamest of dreamy countertops and a one slab backsplash. Our house just feels so much bigger despite not adding any actual space.

We saved nothing. Well I take that back, we kept the hardwood floors, but every cabinet and appliance and tile that was used for the countertop was tossed and I was singing hallelujah in the background.

Day by day, little by little it was re built. Black matte cabinets on the bottom, white up top. Quartz countertops. New [matching] stainless steel appliances. And a relocated gas lines and plumbing, to be more efficient. So without further adieu, here’s the finished product…

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Cocktail Recipes, Holiday

Holiday Cheer

December 17, 2018 No Comments

Before I start sharing the deets of this festive little cocktail, I want to say a quick thank you to everyone who reached out about my post below. It’s amazing to me that people I haven’t spoke to in years reached out and shared their journey – it really meant a lot.

Ok! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming… holiday cocktails!

The week before Thanksgiving I started testing out cocktails and it’s kind of a two-birds-one-stone situation since Thanksgiving and December holidays are so close. The Blackberry pear smash won Thanksgiving (recipe coming soon!) but this little cranberry peppercorn number might slide into first for our Christmas cocktail.

I have been so intrigued to make a cocktail using pink peppercorns. Pink peppercorns are a dried berry of the shrub Schinus molle, commonly known as the Peruvian peppertree but they don’t have as harsh of a “pepper” taste as say black peppercorns. Turns out, pink peppercorns aren’t even peppers at all! It’s lighter, brighter, and a little pop of spice.

To begin I made a cranberry “compote” using sugar, fresh cranberries, peppercorns and water. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat and let it simmer down into more of a thick liquid consistency. Remove from heat, and cool. Add 1.5 oz. of the mixture, 2 oz. of Gin (or you can substitute with Vodka) shake, pour and top with your favorite sparkling water!

It’s surprisingly a refreshing, light drink which is a great alternative to everyone’s favorite – spiked nog. Which I didn’t try to make my own, but I’m tempted this season to give it a shot!

Pink Peppercorn Cranberry Cheer

Gin based | makes one cocktail

1.5 oz of Cranberry Compote Mixture
2 oz of Gin (I used Hendricks)
Top with sparkling water

About Me, Home, Inspiration, Washington D.C.

Meet Florence Puppingale

December 10, 2018 No Comments

Life has changed a little bit over the last month and despite a few less hours of sleep, my heart is filled with a little bit more love. To give a little bit of a back story, over the past three years about every three to four months J would mention how great it would be to have a dog. We’d be cooking dinner and he’d say, wouldn’t it be fun to have a dog just laying in the back room keeping us company? Or if we’d go out to a vineyard or any place with open land he’d make a similar sentiment. I always had an excuse. We had some trip coming up or I wanted to enjoy our new furniture without teeth marks or scratches. And although those were legitimate concerns of mine, there was also another big reason and that reason was that we had decided to start trying to expand our family. (A puppy and a baby is a lot to handle.) But the fact is we’ve been trying to expand our family for well over a year… over a year without success.

It’s been a long year + of ups and down and feelings of hope and hopelessness. We’ve both been poked and prodded and yet none of the doctors we’ve met with can explain why we’re having difficulty. It’s been exhausting. And even more exhausting that for some reason it feels embarrassing, it’s a topic that no one discusses, and when you do bring it up, I hear “well at least you’ve got time on your side.”

We’ve tried to stay positive and distract ourselves with vacations, work, a kitchen renovation, and even a deployment– but every month we’re reminded and every month the house seemed to get a little quieter.

So it finally seemed like there was no better time to expand our family and hearts in a different way. After reaching out to a few different breeders, we came across Florence. Florence not only had the cutest little face, her name was on our “list” anyway since it’s J’s hometown, so it seemed like it was meant to be.

We traveled up to meet her, and when her siblings went off to play in the yard, Florence came over to meet us. She’s brought in a little bit more noise to our house, a lot more joy, and one day– hopefully in the not too distant future– she’ll make a great big [fur] sister.

So meet Florence. (Also known as Flo, Flor, Flo-Flo, munchkin, babes,.. and the list of names go on.) She’s a red mini-goldendoodle (F1B) who loves nothing more than to cuddle and chew on the corners of anything she can find. We’re expecting her to be about 25-30 lbs and a medium sized dog, but for now we’re loving her puppy stage and soaking in every puppy kiss she gives!

Cocktail Recipes, Inspiration

Changing Colors

October 15, 2018 No Comments

Changing Colors | makes two drinks

3 shots bourbon
2 shots apple cider syrup (see first line of recipe below)
1 shot fresh lemon juice
2 strips of orange zest (for the apple cider syrup &/or to garnish)
2 Cinnamon sticks
1 clove, optional

Add the bourbon, apple cider syrup, and lemon juice to the shaker.

Boil the apple cider, 1 cinnamon stick, and orange zest over high heat until reduced. (I boiled two cups down to 3/4 cup). Set aside to chill. Break cinnamon stick in half. Add the bourbon, apple cider syrup, additional cinnamon stick pieces, and lemon juice to the shaker. Add ice above the level of the liquid and shake. Pour over ice and garnish with your choice of a clove, cinnamon stick, or orange peel! Cheers!

Home, Inspiration

Chair Considerations

October 4, 2018 1 Comment

So in true ‘me’ fashion I decided to sell our dining chairs a couple days after our reno started. So on top of the kitchen renovation and work, and life, let’s just throw in searching for new dining chairs! I have good news and bad news when it comes to this. Good news is I think that I’ve narrowed down to a style, bad news is there are about a million variations of such style! Gah! So here we are, scrolling away on pinterest and finding some inspo to help narrow down which Windsor to choose. High back, low profile, mid-century inspired… What’s your favorite?

Statement – High Windsor:

Modern – Mid/Low Windsor:

Mid-Century Inspired Windsor:

This is our table for some reference, which is a dark stained solid wood, walnut table with clean lines and angled tapered legs. I love this table, which makes picking out dining chairs that I love just as much a feat!

Home, Inspiration

Kitchen Updates

September 26, 2018 No Comments

Kitchen update: We have no more wall, no more holes in the floor, and the drywall is up! We deviated from our project plans just a tad and asked the electrician to add recessed lighting instead of figuring out which fixture to put up. Dedicated lines have been run to the backroom, and we have tons of new outlets! Might sound a little crazy since it’s a dusty mess, but I was almost sad to see the cabinets be installed. The openness is so nice, especially since it felt so cramped for the year we lived here, but big changes are about to start happening every day and all the decisions that I’ve lost sleep over are coming alive!

The countertops, picking out paint colors, choosing a sink and the faucet are all on the horizon and I am happier than a kid on Christmas morning! I’m notorious for making quick decisions– and learned that quick decisions aren’t always the right decision, so I’m feeling reassured that this design process has taken some time. All these decisions are expensive choices to get wrong, so getting them right is important.

Here’s a few more of the choices I’ve made…

Color scheme: As you’ve learned from this post, the color scheme is my favorite of all time… black, white, and gray. Simple and clean.

Appliances: We went primarily with GE Cafe appliances. I’m most excited about counter-depth fridge that is super squared off (read not rounded) and a flat front. Since you’ll see the fridge in the distance as you enter our front door, I didn’t want any water or ice makers butting out. (The GE Cafe fridge still has a filtered water dispenser inside the door which is amazing!) I’m also giddy to use our slide in range. We went with a dual-fuel, six burner range with two ovens. …Yes you read that right, two ovens! With our small footprint, double wall ovens wasn’t an option at all but the GE Cafe range gave us the ability to have two ovens to make future Thanksgiving dinners a little less stressful!

Hardware: All of our appliances are stainless steel including our sink and faucet. I spent many a night looking at different knobs and pulls and decided confidentially to go all black everythannnng. It’s my favorite color and I love the edginess it adds.

Shelving and Decor: During the design phase we went back and forth on open shelving and ultimately I decided to go with shelving in the backroom in addition to adding a piece of my artwork to add dimension. (I’m currently working on a DIY project to frame a canvas – stand by!) The shelf is black, and three tiered and I’m planning to “decorate” with some of my cooking books, glassware, and wood accents.

Paint: Right now most of our house is painted Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray. It’s a good neutral, and I’m sure as heck glad that the sellers painted it that shade instead of some crazy colors we saw on our house hunt, but since our kitchen and dining room are in the middle of the house, I’m leaning more toward painting a shade of white. Not stark, but a softer calm shade to brighten the space up.

There’s all the updates I can think of for today but follow along my Instagram for more live happenings! Wish me luck and patience!

Cocktail Recipes, Home

Cool as a Cucumber

September 11, 2018 No Comments

Catasphrophic hurricane coming your way?! Flo is just reminding us that summer isn’t over yet! Forget the halloween decor and pumpkin spice lattes… go home, whip up a batch of guacamole and shake up this cucumber cilantro margarita and ignore all this gosh darn rain! Warning: Don’t stop reading if you hate cilantro, which I know is common, just skip the cilantro for a cool twist to the traditional margarita that’s still super delicious!

Cucumber Cilantro Margarita | makes 1 cocktail

4 thin slices cucumber

2-3 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves

2 tablespoons sugar

3 lime wedges

2 1/2 ounces tequila (*I used Espolon Reposado)

2 ounces triple sec

Juice of 1 fresh lime

Ice cubes

Kosher salt

Muddle 3 slices cucumber, 2-3 tablespoons cilantro, leaves, the sugar and 1 lime wedge in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add the tequila, triple sec and lime juice. Fill the shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Circle the rim of your glass with the remaining wedge of lime, and add salt or sugar if desired. Pour over either pebbled/crushed ice or a large ice-cube and enjoy!

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Home, Inspiration

Gallery Wall – Bowie

August 22, 2018 No Comments

Gallery wall, take 2. Last time I gave some tips to consider when creating a well curated gallery wall so today I’m creating a gallery wall and explaining how I picked each piece.

To begin, you have to start with one piece of art. The piece I started with ended up being my anchor piece but that doesn’t have to be the case! Can you guess which one the anchor item is? Ding ding ding… if you guessed the top left, Valley by Jess Engle , you’re correct! This piece immediately jumped out at me and although sure I could have picked it’s mate, I decided to spice things up and build a gallery wall around it.

The white space and shapes are what I used to help decide on the complimenting pieces. For example, the bottom right print, Escape Routes #8 by Massimilano Massimo Borelli, matched the half circle and contained lines. They’re diagonal from each other so it doesn’t look too matchy-matchy but continues the same vibe. The splat print also mimics the lines and diagonal direction. I primarily used black and white pieces of art and photographs, however I pulled the yellow out just a bit more by adding the watercolor, New York Street via Minted. Again the yellow isn’t right next to each other, allowing your eye to venture to all the photographs, not just the ones with yellow. Three of the photographs have a primarily black background, creating a very edgy theme. And the two photographs that feature people, are opposite. One is David Bowie’s face, facing forward, and the other is a man waiting for the train, with his back to us. This opposition also creates a good balance and repetition without being duplicates.

I totally picture this gallery wall in a loft, over this sweet daybed, draped with a mongolian sheep skin in front of some white washed brick scenario. Yeah- I’m taking this gallery wall a little far by now envisioning a whole room around it but hey, a good gallery wall warrants it!

Home, Inspiration, Style, Washington D.C.

Kitchen Renovation Inspiration

August 1, 2018 No Comments

{kitchen design sketch}

You guys. Demo day is less than a month away! The architect has been by, permits have been pulled, cabinets are being made, appliances are ordered, and it’s now almost not moving fast enough! I wish that it was August 27th, yesterday! Here’s a few images that inspired the end design that we came up with!

We’re going with a shaker style, stacked cabinet. The lower cabinets will be black and uppers white!

Two-Toned Kitchen Renovation Design Ideas

Controversial Kitchen Design Decisions That People Love to Argue About

MHouseInc | Westover Hill Residence

{via 1, 2, 3}

Countertops were a debate. We weighed the different materials – granite, marble, quartz and even porcelain! Each material has its own pros and cons but we ultimately decided on quartz. Low maintenance and being able to predict what each slab is going to look like (read: reduce my stress as much as possible) contributed to it became the clear winner! It was SO much fun going through and seeing all the giant slabs in person. So much fun that we changed our minds about 5 times on what we wanted! We narrowed it down to three and then two and after seeing the samples in our space (which I highly recommend because of lighting) and comparing to the color of our cabinets we picked a winner. We’re going with Calacatta Verona quartz!

Image result for calacatta verona quartz countertops

{via}

The veins are lighter than other slabs, yet still defined and will hopefully make a really beautiful match for the island’s waterfall edge and slab backsplash. Which brings me to the next piece of inspiration… backsplashes. Pretty much from the very beginning I knew that I wanted waterfall edges on the island and a slab backsplash. I love the look those two features both create. Unfortunately this meant that we needed to get a second slab to cover the sq. footage, but I thought it was worth the extra cost. Changing to a subway tile (which is everywhere) or some sort of design would change the whole look that I was going for and since our space is smaller, the less busy the better to create an open and larger appearance.

Calacatta Verona Default Scene

Love the white recess-panelled cabinetry in this kitchen! {Photography by Donna Griffith}

Step inside the midcentury home of the founders of Rifle Paper Co. // Anna Rifle Bond's gorgeous Lacanche Range

Image result for calacatta verona quartz price

{via 1, 2, 3, 4)

Now that the big stuff is figure out it’s time to make a decision on hardware, faucet, sink and a wall shelf for the back room! Stand by for those posts!

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