Top of the morning to you!
I had a fabulous 8 hours of sleep last night! Wheeeeee. No nicky nicky nine door antics. This is progress.
My Vegan Overnight Oat Parfait was killer this morning. I feel like I haven’t had one in forever!!! Her Mix-A-Lot has been getting all of my love and adoration lately.
Carob, Cacao, & PB Vegan Overnight Oat Parfait
Ingredients:
- Carob Vegan Overnight Oats (1/2 cup oats, 1.5 tbsp chia seeds, 1.25 cups almond milk, 1.5 tbsp carob powder)
- Peanut Butter Banana Soft Serve (1 frozen banana processed with 1 tbsp peanut butter)
- 1/4 cup Rice Crisp cereal (for layering)
- Cacao nibs (for layering)
- Carob powder, for garnish
- Homemade raw chocolate, for garnish
- Unsweet. coconut, for garnish
Directions: Make the carob Vegan overnight oats by whisking the ingredients together in a small bowl and leaving in fridge overnight or for 1-2 hours. In the morning, Make the PB Banana Soft Serve. Layer the soft serve with the VOO, cacao nibs, and rice crisp. Sprinkle with carob powder and coconut. Add two chunks of homemade chocolate and enjoy!
This was incredible! I love, love, love the rice crisp added as a layer in the middle. Same with the cacao nibs. So crunchy!
My Simple Decorating Trick: Pick a colour scheme!
Ok, so last night I promised you some decorating footage!
On Sunday, I realized that Eric and I still had gift cards that were given to us for wedding gifts almost 2 years ago! We had gift cards to William Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Winners, and Crate & Barrel. I asked Eric to come with me and he said he ‘trusted me’ to do it alone. aka…he hates shopping! So I tackled it myself like a champ. One of my favourite things to do is decorate, so I didn’t mind.
We finished renovating and painting the family room in Fall 2009. And then we left it. No decor, no colour, nothing on the walls. We were scared.
It occurred to me that the reason why we never ‘finish’ decorating rooms is because we never develop a colour scheme to guide us.
I thought the colour scheme of chocolate, lime, and lemon would look awesome together (with yellow and green being the accent pieces). I picked those colours because there is a lot of chocolate already in the room (couch, wood, bricks) and I picked yellow and green because there are some engagement pictures I want to blow up that have yellow and green in them. The room naturally has lots of green in it with the large windows and the trees in he backyard too.
Now that I had three colours in mind, it automatically narrowed down a ton of options. I didn’t feel overwhelmed as I usually do when looking for home decor. I just scanned the stores for those three colours and it was so much easier!
One great way to add accent colours is with fun and bright pillows…
The two pillows on the right are from Crate and Barrel and the one on the left is from Wal-mart.
I got 6 so far and might pick up another 2 or 3 as I see fit.
I love how something as simple as pillows can transform a room!
Then I bought some accent pieces to add to the room…
This lime green pot is from Winners and the faux fruit are from Pottery barn.
Love this sculpted piece from Winners.
Also both from Winners!
The lemon tree is from Pottery Barn (sorry the pic is blurry!)
Right now all of that stuff above is on the fireplace because we don’t have any family room furniture aside from the couch and the Ikea coffee table.
My plan for the fireplace is to remove the large picture on top and add a print with the accent colours to give it more of a pop of colour. Maybe one of our wedding or travel pictures would work there?
I would love to purchase a nice coffee table, corner chest, and small table, but that won’t be for a while. I drooled at all of Crate and Barrel’s furniture…they have some gorgeous things in there.
What I am focusing on right now:
1) Prints for walls (see below)
2) Coffee table
3) Decorative Curtains
Something is definitely still missing to pull this room together!
We will also eventually be putting hardwood on the floors and removing the carpet.
I want to do prints of a few of our engagement pictures. I am going to pick some with the most vibrant green backgrounds. Luckily we have a lot of engagement pictures with bright green in the background so it works perfectly! I am going to do one huge one and 2 smaller ones.
I also want to hang curtains, but I find it so difficult to figure out what would look good!
Ideas?
I really dislike the hunter green blinds that are up right now. I would like to keep them up though because they were custom made and they are good when you need to block out the light. I would just like something to cover them up.
I also haven’t showed you the other side of the room with a fireplace. I will do that in another post.
Today’s question: Do you have a favourite room right now in your living space? Do you have a favourite colour scheme or colours that you are drawn to for home decor?
I am also looking for a colour scheme for the entry way and eventually dining room. Right now we have Biscuit by Sherwin Williams on the walls of the entry way, but that is it.
I’ve got a busy day of work and I am going to squeeze in a run at some point. See you later and enjoy your day!
We have been in our new house 2 months now, and every single wall in our house is completely bare. I just bought 3 pictures yesterday and was so excited about them. My hubby came home and commented that he doesn’t want pictures with “messages” on them because people will think we’re weird. They’re inspirational quotes and just gorgeous prints, so I was disappointed when he told me he wanted them to go in the basement (which is unfinished and only used for storage!). His idea of decor – his mounted posters of Army of Darkness, Kill Bill or Eddie Vedder….sigh….I wish he’d give me free reign like your husband!
I LOVE the green color scheme. It’s just enough to make it look put together without being over the top. Your breakfast looks so decadent!
Hi Angela,
I totally agree with you that you need a theme if you want to achieve a decoration that does look put together.
We have an Africa theme in our living room. The base colours are brown (furniture, couch) and beige/sand (base wall colour, base pillow colour). We than added the African accents with the colours red and orange (pillows, pictures, border on the wall) and with African art like wooden masks and figurines. That creats a very warm atmosphere.
Right now, I’m on the hunt for a floor lamp that would fit in………..
OMG, that is the best looking VOO I’ve seen yet, chocolate and peanut butter, it doesn’t get any better than that!
My entire house is done in Southwestern motif, I’ve always loved the Indian and western look! My favorite room in our home right now is our master shower. We recently had it completely gutted and re-done. We now have a complete stand up dual headed slate stone shower with all glass doors. We are about to work on our guest room/office next.
Angela, you are SO creative! That space looks like it would be a good fit year round.
We are re-doing our kitchen next month and have a bright happy yellow colour scheme courtesy of the previous owner that I love. You are making feel inspired, since I am not really a decorating person :)
Oh, and I tried VOO for the first time the other morning – massive time saver between swimming and work, though I need to remember to whisk and also make more of an effort stirring the PB in. I ended up with a couple of big globs in my mouth . . though no complaints there! :) Could you use cacao powder instead of carob?
Your new decor looks great! Decorating can be so intimidating. Jon and I were in our house for about 6 months before we started putting stuff on the walls!
We went for a vintage modern feel for our decor, and our color scheme includes chocolate brown (one wall in our living room), robin’s egg blue (dining room) and neutrals. Then we decided to go more fun with our office and painted it more of a brighter pea green. We love it!
I love your color scheme with the green, and all of your accents on the fireplace just POP!
I don’t have any suggestions for curtains, because I personally like to see the wood accents, but I’m sure you could find something nice at Pier 1 or Crate & Barrel. I’d get a dark brown color maybe — to blend in with the wood but to add some softness.
I like everything to be neutral (tan, brown, beige, white, etc) but to have really colorful prints/photographs hanging up. I do like to get colorful throws or accent pillows too, and that way I can change up the look of the room without spending alot.
I’m pretty awful at home decorating lol. When I get my own house, I might have to call in reinforcements (a.k.a my mom)
Your bfasts are always stunning :)
What a comeback for the parfait. I see you like some chocolate for breakfast too. :-)
We are redecorating our living room too. The old color scheme was blue and red but with a new couch I am going to mix it up a bit. The new couch is chocolate brown (perfect for matching the chocolate drips I might leave on it) and we are accenting with turquoise blue. I love redecorating! I used to do it in my dollhouse as a kid all the time.
Angela, I think your breakfast looks great! Anyway, I think something sheer-y for the curtains would be nice. It would allow for light to still enter the room but add a little color into the room as well — I’m thinking a light sheer-y color. Hope that helps!
Hey Ang,
I was at home depot yesterday and they have the most beautiful wall paper.. I was thinking about buying some and framing it, it’s so vibrant, lush and gorgeous!! It would make fantastic pops of color!! There were a bunch of green ones too!!
Looks awesome though, you’re doing a great job!! :)
Oh I love all he green details!! Green is my favorite color :) As for curtains.. I think a cream/off-white sheer curtain would look awesome.. with maybe grommets for holes?
I love our living room because it is a soothing sage green color and has lots of cushy seating! It’s so cozy :)
the colors in that room…WORK I love the accents :)
That looks great! I love decorating, too, but since I move every year and still rent most of my stuff is white. It works in just about every place you could possibly live. I don’t really have accent pieces because I think it’s a waste to buy them when you’ll move again and may not have room for them. One day, though, I’ll reach my dream of owning a house and then go to town. Or, you know, wish I had the money to go to town!
Your home is beautiful…and I love, love, love your couch!!!! Looks super comfy!!!!:)
Love the colour scheme! I could see a close-up pic of you and Eric smoochin’ for above the fireplace! ;) Or that last one on your wedding page? Something that says “family.” Can’t help with curtains, I’m kinda clueless there.
Your home is beautiful, I love the big open room. Have you ever thought of painting out all the dark wood into white?
These are great tips! I actually thougt you were going to talk about your Canadian accent for a second ;) I think it’s cute, by the way. :D
Wei Wei
I love those tall , large windows in your living room. I dream of big windows like that. If I were you, I wouldn’t cover them up with shades. I like the bare, clean look. I see a lot of bare windows in the Pottery Barn catalogs…and the trim may be painted white. I think their just lovely with nothing on them.
I think my favorite room in the house is probably the girls’ room. We just painted it this purple color that has just a hint of pink about and we bordered the room in white. It’s precious!