Home Paint Color Scheme

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I have deliberated about paint colors for so many hours that I may just be in the days (quite possibly weeks) range now.   I would like to add that this process would have taken less time if Adam liked all the color choices I picked out.  Of course, that would have ruined some of the fun.  I enjoy discussing color choices AND everyone needs a good healthy debate when it comes to decorating.  Plus, in the end I am hopeful it will turn out for the better.

Honestly it wasn’t that bad because we were in agreement about having blues and greens in our home to begin with; it is the hue we argued debated over.  I wanted more earthy tones.  If Adam were writing this post, he would describe my color choices as dreary.  He wanted brighter colors.  And seemingly contradictorily he wanted gray. We both worried about cohesion between rooms and if the colors would match our current and future styles.

Who knows if we accomplished that goal… at least not yet.  I am optimistic; we are new at this.  Apparently (based on my internet research) I should go for posh paints like Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore.  Based on family aand friend’s recommendations, I am going for Valspar.  It is a simple as for its value (and my wallet), Valspar seems like the right choice.  I also have a sneaking suspicion that I will be painting again someday anyway.

This is the final output of our color ideas merged into one.  I conceded and gave the okay to the grays.  Adam conceded and gave the okay to not so bright colors (being a nice wife, I chose brighter colors than my original picks to meet him halfway).

Here is the downstairs.

And here is the upstairs.

I used Color Swatches and good ole’ fashioned eyeballing it to get the colors as close to my color samples as I could.

The Valspar chosen colors are as follows.

  • 6006-3B Lunar Tide in the kitchen, laundry room, and upstairs bathroom.
  • 6006-3C Bayou Shade in the half bath, upstairs office bathroom, and as an accent wall in the office.
  • 5008-1A Montpelier Madison White in living room, hallway, office closet, and possibly one day the  garage (it currently does not have all walls, hence the “possibly”).
  • 4006-5B Adrift in the creativity room and in the SheekGeek inventory room.
  • 6004-2B Mountain Smoke in our bedroom and as an accent wall in the living room.

Seeing in all laid out makes me excited to see it in person.  I can’t wait to paint!

 

 

Color Inspiration

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When creating a color scheme for a blog (or any artistic endeavor), a great place to see your colors side by side is COLOURLovers.  Even better, if you are at a complete loss, you can view other people’s color suggestions.  In a moment of serendipity, the colors I had in mind for the SheekGeek.org redesign of *blue* and *green* were in a palette on Color Lovers.  Not only that, the palette had been created just 7 minutes before I visited the site.  (Not surprisingly, these are also common colors used in our home.  I am definitely influenced by my surroundings.)

City_by_the_Sea
Color by COLOURlovers

The colors also come with HEX codes, which make it easier for web coding (or should I say tweaking, since I do not code!) and photoshop.

These colors really got me going, because I completed almost the entire overhaul of SheekGeek.org in one night.  In that night, we went from this (keep scrolling!):

Nature Wdl 1.3 Theme

To this:

Arthemia Free Theme V2.0

I am in love with dreamy goodness of this new site design!  It has my creative juices on overdrive – oh the post ideas that are brewing…

By the way, if you are wondering how I got those super long screen-shots, it was a snap with a firefox plugin called Screengrab!.

 

How to Replace XP with Linux

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Many people are curious about linux, or maybe have even tried linux at some point. There is a huge difference between people trying linux, and people using linux. Hopefully this article will sort of ease your transition into using linux, either as a full time OS or even just enough to get around if you ever encounter it. Once you are familiar with software on one OS, its tough to move on but with this article I hope to list out some linux software that replaces many of the XP programs I once loved and how to run certain irreplaceable Windows software on linux.

The version of linux used here is Linux Mint, which is built off Ubuntu.

(Image provided by Wikimedia Commons. Authors Larry Ewing, Simon Budig, Anja Gerwinski)

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Reference Managment in Scientific Papers

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Citing references in papers has always been a tough nut to crack. Everyone has their own preferences and style when it comes to writing, and different scientific journals all have their own specifications for how to cite references. Some people swear by LaTeX and BibTeX, others use word and Endnote.

While writing my thesis, I’ve come across a set of applications that I believe can be useful for almost any and everyone who is writing a paper.

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Skywriting: Drawing Light Pictures

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Tree and Sky LED Photograph Example

Tree and Sky LED Photograph ExampleCreating led light drawings using a camera is a snap!  All you need is a camera (with the ability to set long exposure times) and a tripod (We actually used a table!).  Most of the pictures we took had shutter speeds ranging from 20 to 60 seconds; however, even shutter speeds as short as 4 seconds can work (you just have less time to draw!).  The camera we used for this project is my trusty (and no longer manufactured) Panasonic DMC-FZ30.  See more example pictures and tips after the jump.

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