**THIS GIVEAWAY IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING ENTRIES**

First of all, thank you, everyone, who entered our third giveaway and also a big thank you to Sasquatch Books for offering up a copy of Apartment Gardening! With the help of random.org, we have a winner! The lucky gal is… drumroll please… DANA! Congratulations! Dana happened to have a little confession to make…

After nearly two years of apartment living, we know how frustrating it is to feel like you don’t have your own outdoor space — much less a space to actually do something with like grow a garden. Well, a new book that was sent across our radar, Apartment Gardening by Amy Pennington, of Go Go Green Garden, completely shatters every preconceived notion of needing a plot of land in order to have a “real” garden. And today, we’re here to give one of our lucky readers a copy!

Now, let’s make this clear… this book isn’t just for the urban living wannabe gardener. It’s perfect for people like us who… cough, cough… haven’t grown a single thing in their entire life… with the exception of the lima bean project in 4th grade. Amy’s fun, charismatic approach to gardening makes us want to jump right in and get our hands covered with soil — actually, potting mix (we learned the difference in this book!) — and grow our own salad greens, strawberries, and lavender.

Apartment Gardening isn’t all about dirt, plants and how to grow them. Amy covers a ton of other DIY gardening projects. For instance… Ashley’s obsessed with the idea of repurposing a file cabinet for a planter on wheels. Apparently, it can be done:

The book not only covers an armful of useful DIY gardening projects, but also recipes using your own home grown ingredients. Some of our favorites include Zucchini Fritters, Thyme-Roasted Chicken Legs with Charred Onions, and Blackberry Buttermilk Ice Cream. In the book, you will also find recipes for everyday items like facial toner and lip balm.

This book has been so inspiring to us, that is doesn’t feel like we’re giving away just a book, but an experience. You will learn how to start a garden that “isn’t too high-maintenance and can fend for itself when need be, all the while offering up fresh ingredients for your kitchen.”

Time to get to the giveaway, right?! The nice people over at Sasquatch Books is giving away a copy to one of our lucky readers! Here’s the details…

PRIZE: Your very own copy of Apartment Gardening by Amy Pennington
2 WAYS TO ENTER: 1) Leave a comment on this post with the words “GO GO GREEN!”. 2) Leave a second comment telling us what you would grow (or are currently growing) in your garden. 
NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
PRIZE SHIPS: Anywhere in the US of A 
GIVEAWAY WILL WRAP UP: Friday, April 15th @ Midnight EST. As always, to keep things fair and square, up to two entries per email address. The winner will be selected using Random.org and will be announced right here on Saturday, April 17th. Good luck, everyone!

Inspiration boards are all the rage! In my book, anyway. They’ve been a “hobby” of mine for about five years or so. Whether it be for a room in our house, a space for a friend, or an event / party idea, inspiration boards (also called “mood boards”) are the cat’s meow. They help me think though every last detail and help me decide on major choices before I spend a single penny. They can also take away some of the headache in defining the style of a room. Basically, inspiration boards rock my world… well, our world. Greg has grown to appreciate them as well because he loves it when things are planned out before we start on a project (reason # 43,943 we make a good team). If you aren’t sure what an inspiration / mood board is, you can see some of the ones we’ve made for our house on posts here, here, and here.

As you may know, we are currently in the midst of shopping around for kitchen cabinetry options and designs. Our most recent experience was with KraftMaid (read more about that here). I was on their website yesterday scouring the pages for… actually, I can’t remember what I was looking for because I got totally side tracked with what I’m about to show you guys. I clicked on “Ideas and Inspiration” tab and found their Inspiration Board Design Tool:

Once you click the “Get Started!” button, you are asked to select a template. These temples are simple, stylish, and in my opinion – perfect! This takes most of the placement guessing game away and practically does it for you.  As Greg always says, “Work smarter, not harder!”

Now is where the real fun begins… The KraftMaid Inspiration Board Design Tool gives you a plethora (I like using that word) of inspiration photos, including shelving options, door styles, cabinet features, textures, and even “buzz words” that describe your dream space. However, the feature that’s the icing on the cake is the “Your Images” button where you can add images you’ve collected to the inspiration board. Cue the oooh’s and ahhh’s! With this feature, the possible designs are virtually endless. It also means if you want to make a totally non-kitchen related inspiration board, you can still use this tool!

Once you’re finished playing, you can save your inspiration board as a JPG on your computer. Better yet, if you have a smartphone, you can email the image to yourself so you will have your inspiration board when you are out shopping!

If you are in a creative mood or looking for some inspiration for your home, be sure to check out the KraftMaid Inspiration Board Design Tool. It’s a fun and super easy way to put together inspiration and could help you define your style. Happy creating!

It’s fun to find color inspiration for your home in unexpected places. In previous posts, we’ve talked about getting inspiration for a room from a favorite outfit, movie, or vacation spot. We’ve also talked about how to organize inspiration images from magazines, but how about gathering inspiration from the magazine covers themselves? When an editor chooses a magazine cover, it’s important that it jumps out on the stands and tells a story for the reader before they even turn a page. Basically, it’s the cover that sells the magazine. Have you ever noticed that each cover has its own color story? We can draw from these for color inspiration in our own homes. To drive home the idea, I’ve taken a few magazine covers, dissected their color pallets, and gathered photos of rooms that have a similar color scheme.

Funny girl Tina Fey graces the cover of InStyle magazine this month accompanied by an ensemble of bright colors. Throw these colors in a room and you’ve got a pleasantly chic combination of bright and bold:

This month’s issue of Real Simple consists of clean, subtle, Spring colors. Using these in a space would create a calming atmosphere — something like this:

This next cover inspiration from Vogue magazine is a little more on the eclectic side but when translated in a room, it can result in a fun space with a color combination that wouldn’t otherwise be considered:

Here’s an example using one of the covers of Billboard. I find the color combo used on this cover and in the room to be very soothing, warm, and sophisticated.

The Nest always brings a big color punch with every issue. This particular cover has bright shades of blue and orange that can obviously translate well in home decor — and happens to feature the faces of the ultimate shelter bloggers, and fellow Richmonders, John + Sherry (and you can’t forget Burger) of Young House Love. If you haven’t checked out their blog before… where have you been? Seriously. Where?!

This one is my personal favorite interpretation of using a magazine cover (in this case Elle) as color inspiration and another great example of an unexpected color combo. I wouldn’t ordinarily put these colors together in a room, but they totally work — and without being too feminine:

Do you find color inspiration in unexpected places? We’d love to hear your color stories…