Pepper Design Blog - Page 40 of 438 - A Little of This & That... Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

Marlowe’s Newborn Photos

April 9, 2015 by Morgan

M’s first few weeks of life were so busy (and overwhelming) that I managed only a few true newborn photos (which I shared here, she was about 3 weeks old). I’m an okay photographer but I rely on photoshop and photoshop actions to give my images that extra boost. They are often not as crisp or bright as I like (there’s an art that takes so much practice!). It works out well enough for this blog and for capturing family moments, but my handful of photos for Marley didn’t feel special enough for remembering her beautiful welcome into the world.

I kept debating on whether I should invest in an actual photographer, and finally around 6 weeks I pulled the trigger. Since Marley was no longer a teeny tiny newborn (no sleeping or basket photos), our photographer Katie shot a few lifestyle photos instead and I decided to include the whole family (btw, if you plan on teeny tiny newborn photos, Katie suggests to plan on doing those within the first 5-6 days of birth).

Although Marlowe is still teeny tiny, her wide awake 6-week-old eyes and alert little body reveal something special and unique, too.

I have about 20 favorites :), so I would bog down the load time on the front page of this site to share them all right here, but I do invite you to click through for the whole shebang!

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Master Bath & Bedroom: Cement Tile

April 7, 2015 by Morgan

Did you have a nice weekend? Our Easter was so special – we celebrated Marley’s baptism! It was a beautiful morning followed by an afternoon of good food, Easter egg hunts and friends.

Very sorry if you’ve had a hard time loading this site over the last few days, I have too and it’s been so annoying. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on (I seem to always have issues with that despite caching and all of the other quick load time secrets).

So we are incredibly close to laying the cement tile floor in the new bathroom and I’m so excited. I feel like this was a bold design choice but one that I’ve had zero regrets about since picking the tile out, waiting for shipment and storing it. And that feels like it’s been a long time!

The cement tile that we chose is here (love Cement Tile Shop), but today I thought I’d share images that I’ve been attracted to for so long and that have helped me fall in love with the idea of using a cement tile in our bathroom (it also doesn’t hurt that our home is built with 1930s Spanish influence, so it works well for the integrity of the space too).

On to beautiful images…

1, 2, 3

Cement tile on the floor might be a favorite, there’s something about that intense graphic design at your feet.

4 | 5 | 6

7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

Not a bathroom… but I couldn’t exclude this image because this kitchen is incredible.

Cement tile isn’t the only way to draw attention to the floor in a space, the shock of blue on the right and the gradient herringbone on the left is perfection.

14 | 15

I’m all for one statement wall as well. We played around with one cement tile wall (even just a backsplash) instead of the floor, but I think for our layout what we’ve chosen is best.

16 | 17

A simple Pinterest search for cement tiles in bathrooms pulls up so many amazing options, and here’s my master bathroom Pinterest board for more goodness.

We’re planning on installing radiant heating underneath the cement tiles (rumor has it that it’s a very cold flooring material to use) and installation for that project begins tomorrow. What do you think, would you venture down the cement tile path? I can’t wait to see it in!

PS more master bathroom renovation progress here.

Natural Easter Egg Dye

April 3, 2015 by Morgan

As promised, an overview of our natural food dye Easter egg experiment!

For the record, food coloring is so much easier and faster. Liv was bored half way through the process of creating our natural dyes and began plopping big droplets of food coloring into cups of water before my veggie dyes were even close to being egg-ready.

But! These turned out pretty cool. If you have the patience to source the ingredients, boil veggies (and other fun stuff) down, and then to let eggs sit overnight submerged, you won’t be disappointed.

I was inspired by a Pinterest pin leading to this post to give veggie dying another go. I tried it back here with little success. This time around I expanded my color options and really went for it.

After online research/experimentation, here are my findings:

1. Red = red beets
2. Blue = blueberries
3. Purple blue = red cabbage
4. Light brown = coffee
5. Yellow = curry powder
6. Light yellow = yellow beets
7. Green = greens (such as mustard greens or chard)
8. Brownish red = paprika

I also tried yams (hoping for a nice orange-y color), but the starchy vegetable didn’t seep enough color into the boiling water to create a dye.

Most unexpected result goes to red cabbage! Who knew that those shiny red cabbage leaves would turn purple when boiled and would produce blue water as a result?

Natural Egg Dyes

Ingredients

Red cabbage
Red and yellow beets
Blueberries
Mustard greens or chard
Coffee grounds (not used)
Curry powder
Paprika
White vinegar

Instructions

Boil eggs.
Cut up vegetables into 1-2" chunks and cover in water (just enough to cover veggies) in a quart sauce pan. Similarly for blueberries. For coffee and spices, use a 1:16 ratio (aka mix ⅛ into 2 cups of water and so on).
Bring mixture to a boil for several minutes and then let cool.
Stir in 2-3 tb vinegar.
Add egg and allow to sit for several hours (preferably overnight).

The mottled texture of some of my eggs are a result of vinegar or resting on the bottom of their bowl. Too much vinegar resulted in a very bubbly skin (which was kind of cool). I omitted the vinegar from a few batches (such as the beets) so that I could keep the chunks of veggies in the dyed water with the eggs (to add more bulk to my water so that I could completely cover many eggs at once, otherwise I would have had to use a lot of beets or dye them in a small cup one at a time).

Since most of the veggies are now boiled and ready for a hearty salad, they won’t be wasted either.

Below and clockwise starting with the brown spotted egg in the top corner: paprika, curry powder, red cabbage, coffee, red beets, yellow beets, red cabbage (different batch and slightly different blue), blueberries, greens. Liv gave the coffee egg a nice crack against our counter, she was ready for a snack.

We seperately dyed eggs with leaf imprints from around the garden, but we’re off to have some family time so I’ll save that for another day.

PS a spring party palette.

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