I cannot believe how many of you have experienced the terror of a missing pet before. It really is a gut-wrenching feeling and I’m so thankful that so many of the missing pet stories you guys shared turned out positive. It’s amazing the impact a beloved animal can have on our lives, huh?
My day today has been spent working away on my laptop with Sadie right by my side on the floor. The only furniture in our house right now is our kitchen table, but I was getting sick of sitting up at the table, so it’s been a work-on-the-floor kind of day.
I can’t wait until we get my home office set up! A trip to IKEA to buy the office furniture I fell in love with last week is in order.
Lunch
After working through the morning, I took Sadie on a quick walk around the neighborhood (yes, I’m all over her today) before making myself a quick lunch.
Lunch today included tuna salad on a hot dog bun served with a side of tomatoes and hummus for dipping.
As I was prepping my lunch, one of my decorating experiments from yesterday stared down at me.
I placed some colorful teacups on top of the kitchen cabinets. I thought they added a little color to the kitchen, but couldn’t decide if they looked too cheap.
When Ryan came home from work yesterday I asked him what he thought of the teacups. After complimenting all of my other kitchen decorating and unpacking, he let it spill.
“The cups remind me of the college apartments that had liquor bottles on display above cabinets.”
(Source)
I burst out laughing.
We then debated filling some empty vodka bottles with highlighters, shaking them up and turning on a black light in our kitchen to really relive the college days.
(Please rest assured that I never used my alcohol bottles as apartment décor in college.)
The cups are currently still in place until we can find something to replace them or we decide they actually look okay.
What do you think? Be honest! I’m not in love with them at all, so I promise you won’t hurt my feelings.
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maybe a big plate/platter? or two? something a little bit bigger, but the teacups don’t look bad!
I love that Ryan said that haha
I agree they are too small. Its better than our decoration. We’ve made it a catch all for junk and food that doesn’t fit in our pantry. Blech!
I must say how much I love your blog! I look forward to the updates every day ever since I stumbled upon it a few weeks ago.
I love how you show that a healthy lifestyle also includes eating ice cream and such. That it’s not strickly carrot sticks! As long as you keep active and eat healthy, why can’t you have ice cream or cake? For me, it’s pizza. I too, work out early in the morning (20 min yoga) and then do something at night 4- 5 times a week. But when pizza cravings call, I don’t feel bad.
And as for having that moment of pure fear with losing Sadie, I know exactly what you mean. I myself am a “Dog Mom” and have 2 Saint Bernards (They suit the Canadian weather great!) and if I were to lose them, makes my heart skip a beat just thinking about it. I am so glad that you found her. I think I held my breath reading about it.
Keep up the great blog! You are truly something I look forward to reading every day.
thank you very much, renee!!!
Pier 1 has a great colorful example. It makes me want to buy fruit dishes!
http://media.pier1.com/img/pier1com/getinspired/041408cabinets/yellow_lg.jpg
Those teacups are cute! They call for a great picture (as seen in Figure 4..haha, I’m in the midst of writing a paper, can you tell?), buuuuuut..I’m with the majority here..those little tykes need to find a new home! 🙂 I would have gone with some easy to manage greenery (which means artificial!), but it seems like so many comments scream “NO FAKE PLANTS” ..haha, okay, how about a fern?
Actually, what your kitchen is missing is a back splash. This would take your eye away from the top of the cabinets and towards the bottom. You really don’t need anything on the top.
Happy decorating!
Big plates or fun flower arrangement would do better!
I had tuna today for lunch too! Wheeee: )
Tall, large and light would be my suggestion………. I have several white ginger jars. I agree NO FAKE greens to collect dust. I also have a string of rope lights above my cabinets, makes a huge difference. I use blocks of wood to vary the height
Personally, I think the teacups are too small to have on display waaaaaaaaaay up on top of the cabinets. I think you’d be better off having larger pieces of pottery on display, like serving bowls or platters. Teacups, being so dainty, are better off lower on the wall, and on a daintier shelf.
You should get the oil-filled bottles like this: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3155/2679593691_7e9230c57e.jpg (copy and paste the link if it doesn’t work) – It’s really cute. I use to have them in my kitchen growing up which were filled with chilies, etc. You sometimes see them in Mexican restaurants. But you can go with any theme. Ours was an Italian kitchen, so it wasn’t quite the mexican vibe but still gave you a different authentic feeling.
I think the cups are too short and get hidden way up there. I think some tall vases would look cool!
Ha! I still have friends that are in their late 30s that have that liquor bottle thing in their house STILL. And they turn on the black light for every party. hahaha
Ok, teacups. I think they are too small to be up there. They would be cuter in that side space or somewhere lower.
I think the tea cups are too small for that area that is so high up. They can be hard to see. Maybe some big colorful vases would be cute up there. Or keep up with the mason jar theme and get some bigger ones (Hobby Lobby has big ones if you have that in your area) and fill them with something. Or a ivy type plant in a nice container in the middle of the area and let the leaves grow across. Gotta post a picture once you figure it out though!!
Something bigger definitely! Try some vases!
(Didn’t read any of the above comments, so this might be a repeat). However, I might try grabbing some really fun hooks (Anthropologie has great ones, or I’m sure you could find some far cheaper ones on Etsy), and arranging them so they’re slightly ‘whimsical’ and then displaying your cups on those. That way you can USE them and they’ll still look pretty 🙂
I like the pop of color, but think the scale is a bit off? Maybe if you had something a little bigger that would make them seem more like they fit?
Maybe you need big, classic/nostaglic jars of Peanut Butter? (Like old school Skippy, Peter Pan, Jif, etc. jars.)
Peanut Buttterrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! 🙂
such a fun idea!
Julie & Ryan ….
Ohgosh …. re your precious Sadie, I fully agree with all the emotions involved. I adore my sweeties with passion. They are my children. I do everything for them …. each and every one for many, many years. My first pooch was a gift, back in 1968 …. Panda! She was 2-3 months old. Lived to be 17!! What a delight. My life improved 10-fold with Panda! Throughout the years I adopted/rescued continually. So, of course, I know you would both be highly upset …. a lot, lot more than one can even think. I fully understand Julie. You are a very caring, loving and inspiring woman.
Glad my tears were short-lived. (sigh) So elated that Sadie was “found.” Did she just not hear you (both) calling her? I wonder where Sadie was hanging out?
Here is an idea for you both: we do have a fairly big yard …. completely fenced in. At nighttime, or any time in the early morning hours …. our poochies go outside. We have white Italian lights strung under our deck …. they go all the way around. Not too bright or glaring. Just enough so we can see where our babies are at. I wait for them. It is possible that there are wild animals in this area because we are surrounded by several cemetaries. Nothing to freak out about though after 20+ years. Ha!
Hugs for your precious Sadie!
oh great idea!! thanks so much for the suggestion… and the thoughtful comment!
I agree with what a lot of other commentors have said: love the idea and color but not big enough.
JULIEEEEEEE!!! Delurking to comment on the teacups…hehe. I don’t like them, but I’m not a fan plants up there either. Sorry I’m no help.
I always wanted to say I HEART your blog! And I love that little smilie face on the right hand side of your blog. NICE TOUCH! (I’m hoping that was intentional!)
thank you commenting, jennifer!! 🙂
Fiesta makes some pitchers that match their plates. Same idea as the mugs, but a little bigger for the space.
I think the tea cups are pretty cute. But I also really like when people put plants up above their cupboards too.
I like the idea, but I think the cups are too small. Something bigger and bolder may make a better statement!
Agree with the others — good idea to add color in that space, but the cups are too small to have much of an impact.
Do you have any colorful mixing or serving bowls you could store up there?
Or, if you have some cookbooks you don’t use very often, you could maybe stack them up there?
ahhh! LOVE the cookbook idea!
My parents had a decorator for their home in Fl. and she went to Burlington Coat Factory and found some large bowls (wooden) and huge vases and used those as accent pieces. You could give something like that a try. The cups look nice, but you need some large plates behind them. The cups are kinda lost. Good use of the mason jars though.
I think that the cups look cute, but agree that they are on the smaller side. I also tend to shy away from lots of different colors, so I’m biased! I like the suggestions of adding houseplants or artificial plants, that would look nice and go with your countertop decorations / the ball jars nicely.
I have been in so many apartments with the liquor bottle thing!! It’s sort of funny, I just moved into a new apartment and upon my friend visiting the first thing she said is, “You aren’t going to line up liquor bottles and stuff, are you?” haha I told her to rest assured that no, I most definitely would no. The cups are cute, btw! Maybe you should try something a bit larger, though?
I like the idea of the cups adding color, but i think it might look better if they were larger, or if you used a similar idea but with plates on plate holders.
So cute! I disagree about needing something larger. I think that they’re eye catching 😉
we have fiest wear too- some fun big plants or pitchers might look good up there. Or, what about plants?? I’m not much of a decorator either!
I like the idea and definitely the color, but I think you need something bigger. Check out Homegoods or Marshalls or Ross for cheap vases. I got huge ones we used on a ledge in our previous house from those stores for super cheap!
I like the teacups!!!
Hahah ohh that does remind me of some of my college guy friends houses! They put those bottles on display like they’re some prized possession haha.
I think you should add some other nick nacky type things up there. Check out anthropologie!!! They have the cutest plates, bowls, cups, etc!
I think the tea cups are too small..maybe some plants or wine bottles?
oh wine bottles are a neat idea!
Ehh they are too short, though it’s a good idea! I would suggest some vine type plant or some fun plates up on display?
You could even do something like this! http://www.thenester.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/oak-kitchen-cabinet-550×373.jpg
Pretty!
hahahahahahah!!! I love the colors, just not how small they are. =) ugh kitchen decorating is hard!!!
hahaha- I love Ryan’s response! I have to agree with him! Good luck finding a replacement, I think I will need to hire an interior decorator when I finally move into a grown up place (not a studio apartment!!) because I have no eye for any kind of decorating.
To create an illusion, I would definitely suggest putting something with more height on top of your cabinets! I find that decorating is trial and error–you really have to visualize it before making a decision.
I can’t wait to see your home office. I work from home too and have a pretty boring work station. I found a really cool office closet picture on Pinintrest, go figure, finding something cool on Pinintrest! Addicted! So happy to see you getting settled. 🙂
~Kari
kariburghardt.blogspot.com
It sounds like everyone has already said what I was thinking, you definitely need height. Yesterday I saw a great idea from a blogger with the same space problem and she made some DIY milk glass and it was really beautiful. Seems like it might go with your clean vintage style. http://elleapparel.blogspot.com/2010/12/milk-glass.html
I love the idea but think if you got big oversized mugs it could be adorable just so it takes up a little more room! Go to anthropologie even and get a few mismatched bowls/mugs, would be super cute as well!
Not loving them. I say try plants in colorful pots.