{inspired} artist Mina Georgescu

Today, I'm super excited to share with you all the work of artist Mina Georgescu. Mina contacted me a couple weeks ago to take a look at her work, and friends, I am in awe! Her beautiful interpretation of her world, through photography, makes me feel like I'm there. I've been taking a photography class, (trying to learn how to better use my camera!) and what struck me more than anything is the way Mina captures light. Simply beautiful!

On her website, Mina states: 

"I make Decorative Photography that expresses moods, feelings, reminiscence, happiness, joye de vivre. Scratches, textures, blurriness, saturated colors, all add to the modern-vintage, hand printed look of my works."

I asked Mina to answer a few questions so you all could get to know her a little better, and she graciously agreed!

From Coney Island to the forest .... where is your favorite location to shoot?
I enjoy all the places I've shot so far, there are endless possibilities, everywhere you are, it's important to have your eyes open and let the vibes of the place speak through you.

How did you get started and learn to take such beautiful photos? 

I started when I was very young, my mom bought me a plastic camera with film, it was the "bestests" present I ever got, never stopped shooting since. I have no formal training in photography or visual arts, I am not interested in technique or equipment, I shoot with what I have at hand. I am a visual interpreter of the world around me.

What are your top three best online sources for inspiration?
I do not draw my inspiration from the "internets", for me, everything that is inspiring is out there.

What are your best offline sources for inspiration?

Friends, family, life, people, nature, light.

Amazing, right? To see more of Mina's work, both current and past projects, visit www.minagraphy.com. For more information on purchasing prints, visit www.depuis.etsy.com or stay in touch by subscribing to her seasonal mailing list: http://minagraphy.com/newsletter/.

{inspired} sarah richardson

I remember way back in high school (and I do mean WAY back), even before HGTV was broadcasting hours upon hours of design shows, I used to watch Sarah Richardson. Friends, I don't even know what channel she was on, but it was something like public broadcasting. I remember watching her redesign a dining room, complete with an explanation of how to install bead board, and thinking: omg, I WILL do that some day. 

Chris and I don't have cable at home (which is good because we'd probably never get anything done) but yesterday we managed to catch three straight shows of Sarah on HGTV. Even Chris loved it. Her easy style mixed with her bold and yet some how restrained use of color make her finished rooms completely delightful. I never read anything about her or see her rooms featured. Maybe she's been talked about too much and I missed it? But, this weekend I wanted to leave you with a few of Sarah Richardson's gorgeous rooms. A little eye candy, if you will.

All images are from Sarah Richardson Design.

I hope you're all having a fantastic weekend!

{renovate} floor finishing touch

Hi friends! Thank you for indulging me in a couple days off from this little space. To say that life was a little overwhelming over the weekend was a bit of an understatement. From my lovely sister-in-law surprising us with a visit (!) to an super intense Monday work meeting followed by an intense job interview (!), I was wiped. Oh yeah, and there was that pesky little half marathon on Sunday. Which, I'll be honest, actually turned into a quarter marathon. I thought it would be better for everyone if I were fully functional at the aforementioned meeting and interview on Monday. Luckily I was in top form on Monday, but after the stress of the few days prior I crashed. 

I'm excited to be back here today, though, to share with you the finishing touch we made on our hardwood floors! And you thought we were done, right? If you're just joining us, earlier this year we refinished the hardwood floors in a couple spaces of our upstairs. You can read more that project here.

The problem, throughout our entire upstairs, is the house was built with baseboard and quarter round molding. Then the 80's hit and the quarter round was torn out so that ugly blue carpet could be laid over the hardwoods (I heart the 80's :). Quarter round isn't necessary if the baseboard goes all the way to the floor. But since there had been quarter round originally, we were left with a weird gap between the hardwoods and the moldings when we pulled the carpet back up. See the space in the above picture?

We remedied that with quarter round. I've mentioned before that Chris is a crazy-awesome *hunter*. He has the best eye at both thrift stores and garage sales and has saved us so much money in the process. About a year ago he came home from a garage sale with quarter round and an explanation of *some day* we need to install this in the rooms with hardwoods.

I get a little annoyed sometimes with the thought of storing for *someday*. It goes completely against my sense of living light and organized. But, I was super happy when we finally pulled these babies out. Because the quarter round above, which was just enough to finish installation in all four upstairs rooms - living room, hallway, and two bedrooms - cost all of FIVE DOLLARS.

Living room, before

For a long time, I wasn't sure if this step was even worth the hassle. I liked that the small space gave the room a *rustic* and not too perfect look. Plus, installing it completely turned our house upside down and inside out. Such a mess. I lived with end tables and lamps in my kitchen for days.

Living room, after

But it turns out that the quarter round is beautiful. It makes the room look much cleaner and put together. And really, it finishes the floors off nicely. It doesn't look to *perfect* like I  worried about ... it just looks right. If that makes sense.

Hallway, before 

 

Hallway, after

Bedroom, before

Bedroom, after

You can see the finished product really well in this photo of our living room. It's one of those seemingly small details that happens to make a HUGE difference. And for $5? Definitely worth our house being messy for a few days :)

How are all of you? Any fun updates you've been working on lately? I would love to hear about them! :).