Friday Finds: Outdoor Rugs

The weather is pretty ugly here today, but I'm still on a mission to fix up our balcony. My latest compulsive search has been all about outdoor rugs and, once again, RugsUSA.com comes to the rescue with their 50-80% off summer sale!

The walls of our balcony are an icky tan color and the rails are hunter green. I was trying to decide if I wanted to ignore them, or work with them. Then, I figured I should at least try to work with what I had before I pretended they were invisible. So here are my picks toward my effort at being collaborative.

Tan on tan...can go wrong here.

Tan and green...a little matchy matchy, but it works.

Tan and navy blue...a little contrast definitely couldn't hurt.

Not bad, but, thinking about all of that tan made me remember that I'm not a fan of tan...at all. I should, also, mention that I've decided to go with these chairs in white. I haven't actually gotten them yet, but they are pretty much directing my design plan.

So, I decided to ignore the walls and rails and looked for a few options that would play nice with the chairs. These are my favorites.

Love this one, but the hubs wouldn't let this one make off the UPS truck.

I can't tell if this is black or blue, but it's a good alternative to the pink.

An outdoor version of my favorite rug...could you ask for better?

Except for this. I think it's a good match for the super modern chairs and would be a great distraction from the world of boring that would structurally surround it. I like it. I like it a lot.

What do you guys think? Would you consider the tan...or ignore it?

Xoxo,

Coco

Photos via my Pinterest account. Follow me!

Upon Request: A Two Strand Twist Tutorial

I've gotten, probably, ten requests to do a tutorial on something related to my hair. So, I, finally, bit the bullet and broke out my real camera. This is real life! I was up til 3 am, so, there's no makeup and I'm in my lay-around dress. See how much I love you guys!?!?

Let's get started!

You will want to do this on still damp, freshly washed and conditioned hair (I've done it on dry hair, but it's just not as fun [detangling dry hair = pure hell!!!]).

Separate your hair in 8-10 sections.

First section:

Grab your coconut oil...

just about the size of a quarter;

and grab your Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie...

a little more than the size of a quarter...

and rub it all into that section.

Separate a section that would be your bottom row of twists...

Break out this miracle worker and detangle that row.

Pull off 1 inch sections; separate each section into two collective strands of  hair and TWIST!

Pull out a section directly above your twists to start your second row.

The above section has three rows of twists with 3-4 twists in each row. Just keep going in this order throughout each section.

Here are the back two sections done!

But,would a VIDEO would help?!?!

Guys, this is the first video that I have ever in my life edited! It took me all day and the lighting is crazy, but I have to say that I'm proud of myself.

And just for good measure, here are a few more after shots!

If this helps just ONE person out there...this was all worth it.

Xoxo,

Coco



Heading Outdoors: Lighting

Happy Wednesday! I'm back with an outdoor update. So last week, I told you guys that I had plans to hook up our balcony on a budget; especially, if it's looking like this piece of sadness:

So, first up: lighting! (and how I conquered it!)

I've always known that I would use clear globe string lights in our outdoor space. I kinda fell like they're the only way to go. I got the lights ($20 at Target for both sets), then I had to figure out how to get up up and hanging.

I headed to Home Depot looking for something measuring about 8 feet tall and that wouldn't wobble in the wind.

Found: a 1" x 1" x 8 ft. square metal pole

I also picked up some zip ties.

Insert pole in corner of balcony...

Use zip ties to secure pole to corner of balcony...

Cut the extra length from the zip ties...

Call your pole secure!

To get the lights going, I screwed a little cup hook into our overhang and wound the dead end of the lights around it.

Then, I had to figure out to attached the lights to the pole. If I were smart, I would've drilled a hole into one side of the pole and screwed in another cup hook BEFORE I secured it to the railings. But, since I was super lazy and didn't want to undo all that back-breaking work, I just rigged the lights up there with another zip tie. Hey, it worked.

I screwed three more cup hooks into the building and just kept stringing until I had the letter "M". I'm still thinking of ways to tackle the extra length of lights. It's the end that will have to be plugged in so it's gonna have to be a pretty creative solution. I'm open to any suggestions if you have any.

So, the balcony still looks like crap, but at least the crap will be well lit! LOL!

Up next: plants, plants and more plants, and tackling the trash can. Fun times!

Xoxo,

Coco