We're back!

I have taken almost a 1 year hiatus!!! Oh my! I am back now and ready to go head first into the blogging action again. I am also offering design services. If you live in the North Metro Atlanta area and are interested let me know.

I have a bac. degree in Interior Design from The Art Institute of Atlanta.

I am doing photo makeovers for $20 per room. You send me a images (the more the better) of your room and I will offer ideas on paint color, furnishings, accessories, you name it. I will work within whatever budget you have and give you a product list so you can do everything yourself.

For $10 an hour I can help you with shopping for anything home related. From paint colors to fabric swatches to Home Goods and perusing the aisle with you! For the same price I am available for in-home consultations. In-home consultations have a 2-hour minimum.

For $100 I can do a presentation board with custom drawings for room makeovers. These are similar to the photo makeovers except you will have custom drawings, a fully detailed professional drawing of all your room measurements and elevations.

I look forward to working with you!

So much to do, so little time!

I have so much going on right now. But I knew I needed to post something on here real quick at least. I am *hopefully* going to be revealing a new entertainment center later on this week/end. Our TV broke and that was just the right push my husband needed to get a new entertainment center along with a beautiful flat screen. I am in love with our new tv.

So we bought a fairly decent entertainment center off craigslist for pretty cheap, under $200 bucks. Which seems like a steal for me because all of the open shelves we saw when looking for new TVs were that price. This is a laminate kind but it looked nice and the people who sold it too us kept it in very good condition. The best part about it was that doors that close so we can actually store our movies down there without my 18 month old taking everything out.

I am seriously excited to have it all done and put in place. The only hing we are waiting on is for the paint to dry! I hate humidity in Georgia. But it looks so nice. I bought new hardware for the doors so I can paint our coffee table to match. That probably won't get done for a while but we have everything we need to do it.

That wa my little update. I'll post another one soon about design star and my book of the month that I am reading. Happy blogging everyone!

Design Star, Episode 2

I am in love with HGTV. Seriously. I have been watching it ever since high school and knew that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to design. This channel was a major motivating force in what I wanted to do "when I grew up." I have always wanted to have my own show on HGTV. Which is completely unrealistic for me because I am not a good in front of the camera person and am very quiet natured.

When season one came out of Design Star I couldn't watch it because of my schedule, and had no DVR at the time, so I was only able to see like, the very last episode! Very sad for me because it looked like such a great show. I saw a few episodes of season two and was able to catch the end again, but still I was wanting to watch the entire thing sooo badly!

This season I am so excited to be able to watch every single episode. Because we now have that magic box that records shows. And I can watch them whenever I want. This is seriously amazing stuff people, I am no longer slave to the TV when it comes to shows like this. I can just set it up to record and watch it when I know I will have plenty of time. Like after all my kids are finally in bed at 9pm. On Wednesday! Or even Friday at 3am! No, I am never up that late...

So last night (yes, MONDAY!) I watched the second episode. I was pretty surprised that they threw out a group challenge like that so early on, and that it was the dreaded kitchen. Remember everyone, TILE is a four letter word when doing a kitchen project in a short time frame like that.

Then I was equally shocked at who they sent home. I know that Amy was not a good project manager but I really did feel that Tashica wasn't living up to her potential either and had failed two weeks in a row. Yeah, Amy was breaking down, but that was a lot of presure to throw onto someone that early in the competition.

I also felt like Amy and Nathan knew they weren't project leaders. They did their best, but you know when your personality isn't the crazy strong type and they did seem aware of it. I was a little taken aback when the judges pointed out the "real" leaders at the end. It seemed a little catty but at the same time I did get their point. Step up people, we aren't just handing this show thing out!

My last point on the show is that I was really not liking how Antonio was handling Nathan's descisions. I realize that he was doing 99% of the construction work and that would have ticked me off too. But when you are part of a team you need to act like a team player, even if you are getting the shaft. He should have waited until the end of the challenge to call Nathan out on everything, off camera and back at the house. It should have been more, "Hey, I know you were the project leader and all, but I really felt like you just gave me all the handyman projects and didn't let me input on the design at all. And I didn't appreciate it. Next time remembert to include all your team members, K?"

Now onto the kitchen designs. This is afterall a design blog.

Warm Modernism Kitchen:

Was a horrible failure. The entire time I wa watching the show I thought it was going to be the design that won. But when I saw how unfinished they left it (and poorly constructed, poor Dan being the only one with construction experience) I knew they weren't getting anywhere with the judges. I couldn't believe that Tashica who was in charge of the accessories didn't think to get them right out once the counters had been cleaned off. CRAZY! All it looked like was a cold, dark space with sterile counters. The original vision was so good and the execution was so bad.

Moroccan-Italian Fusion Kitchen:

Was so great and beautiful. The backspalsh and the cabinets made that kitchen! I was so happy to see Torie take complete charge of the backsplash and really make it her project and finish that beautifully. Jen has been a major dissapointment for me, a color expert should know how to apply color sparingly and she really did go way overboard in her selections. And the accessories were not tieing into the Moroccan-Italian theme at all. Was that a Buddha I saw on the window sill? There were too many knick-knacks and not enough substance. But they did finish and the homeowner was totally blown away, which is exactly the reponse you want when working on a design show.

Overall I can't wait to watch next week when they do the individual challenge!

Hello and Welcome!

This is my first post on Habit Designs so lets have a little introduction. :)

My name is Jody and I am a graduate of The Art Institute of Atlanta with a degree in Interior Design. I live in Cumming, Georgia with my wonderful husband David and three children. I have always had a passion for design and decorating. Knew exactly what I wanted to do getting out of high school. College was a great experience for me and I was so sure I would be working in the design world upon graduation.

But, life sometimes has other plans. I married my husband David in July '05 and June '06 I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. In between that I graduated college, we moved twice, and I decided that I didn't want someone else raising my child. I just couldn't send her off and miss all of the growing up she has done the past three years. Not the easiest decision for me, I have given up so much in order to be home with my kids. But we have been so lucky to be able to have this option.

However, I still feel like a designer and have been missing terribly everything related to designing. You would think I would find a hobby or something. I did. Knitting. And it is very relaxing for me. But I still needed to create something else. Something that had to with walls and floors and fabrics and finishes. I have been very focused on my children, and now it is time to take a bit of myself for me.

Blogging wasn't something I was looking into doing but then someone I know posted a link to a wonderful decorating blog. It inspired me. I had to do that too. From there I went blog hopping, which is quite time consuming, and found so many great ideas and resources. I want this blog to also be a great resource for others. This won't be taking huge amounts of my time in the beginning because I have to slowly build up to this. But I am so excited about what I can do for others here.

Which brings me to my next point, if you have read this far. I want your input. Love something here? Hate it? Let me know! Have a design question? Need ideas on how to decorate? Send me an email at jody@habitdesigns.com and I will send you an answer. If it is something I think would be great for others to know I will feature your question and answer on the blog.

I am also going to be picking up a new book every month to review. It will be all about books related to design. This could be a DIY book or a coffee table book of beautiful spaces. They will vary based on what my local library has, what looks interesting to me, and my motivation for finishing the book. :) But I do promise to find a new book every month to feature.

This is going to be a lot of fun. I hope that you enjoy the ride.