1.07.2023

The Wave



A year ago we sat, riddled with anxiety, mostly in silence or distracting ourselves with something on a screen, waiting for my mama to leave us. An unimaginable situation. Unthinkable. Unbearable. 

The face of courage. 

Selflessness.

My precious mama, dancing just days before, now so small and tired and undoubtedly wanting to stay for us. To be stubborn. 

We prayed for her to let go, to have the peace she so rightly deserves. 

Grief is waves. It is the sea. It’s not linear. Even in the best of circumstances, grief will last a lifetime. It will ebb and flow, you will bob along; days will be beautiful but maybe the colors will be just slightly less bright. Bad days may feel unbearable. You have a better grasp of despair, which, in my opinion, is a very acute emotion. I believe if my personal situation were more straightforward I would perhaps have more insight into a neater version of grief. That’s not the hand I was dealt though, so the process is maybe different. I don’t think tremendously different, but definitely less formulaic. You can’t quite check the boxes. When you face multiple losses at once, you’re not really sure how to direct your “process”. I have been so hesitant to share this past year because, to be very honest: I don’t like being vulnerable, I don’t want pity (especially given how blessed I know I am) and I haven’t known how to help others by sharing. My most special people (and my therapist) have all encouraged me to write, knowing somehow that it is a healthy outlet for me, so here I am, trying. While not necessarily ready to share, I know I need to start somewhere. And more than anything I want to be useful. 

I have reached an age where loss and disappointment are coming into fruition in the normal course of life. It’s simply that time. It’s reality. We are fortunate that we’re a generation benefitting from relatively easy access to therapy or even some of the wellness culture that is all over the internet, things our parents didn’t really have access to and therefore mostly weren’t equipped to deal with in an emotional or therapeutic way. 

I think what I want to tell you all is that grief is a motherfucker. Shocking, I know, groundbreaking news. And, as in my case, sometimes life will IN FACT throw more at you than you can actually handle, and you won’t be afforded the “normal” course of grief. In my case (and many others) I only get to crack the door every once in a while. A quiet moment watching the clouds at sunset driving down the interstate or maybe bearing witness to a small kindness in the Harris Teeter. It’s weird how grief can wash over you in those tiny moments of mundane life. In general though, right now it’s about powering through. Unless you have the means to check in somewhere for “exhaustion” like a ‘90s celebrity, you don’t have the luxury of truly sorting out grief. You don’t get to sit on a mountaintop in prayer or meditation. 

I am doing all of the things. I’ll keep doing all of the things. And I recommend that you all do them too. I have been in therapy, I’ve tried to take care of myself physically, I’ve picked up some new hobbies and tried to expand my horizons. Therapy is necessary. If you don’t have the financial bandwidth to fit in private therapy, find yourself a support group. Find an Internet forum. Do whatever you have to do, but you must do this thing. Taking a walk, being in nature, hiring a trainer. Do that shit. Just find a way to uncoil your body. You must. I have pushed myself to be more social and lean on my friends. I have opened myself up to some of my friends and asked to be able to entrust to them the confidences my mother allowed me. That has been one of the biggest leaps of faith of my life, and I can only attribute it to my overarching desire to do what I know my mama would want for me. I am an intensely emotionally protective person and the loss of my mother, my sense of family, has forced me to reckon with those restrictions. I want to tell you: if you have cultivated those friendships and built things that are real, that leap is worth it. Your friends are going to be the family you’ve chosen and the ones who will be your survival lines through this phase of life and after, ultimately. And another thing, the small act of reaching out to someone whose pain you identify with - that right there is a real act of kindness. The voice you don’t really expect, simply saying “I understand and I’m sorry”, don’t ever be afraid to be that. No matter what response you get, you should know that it is impactful and the exact right kind of good this world needs. I am not much of a “witness” type of Christian, but I must state unequivocally to you that leaning into your faith, whatever that may be, will serve you well. I am always, VERY CLEARLY, a work in progress, but my faith is one of the things that literally carried me through days that felt like black holes. Knowing that you are small is both terrifying and comforting, but ultimately helps you place your grief in the vastness of the universe.

These things are real. They are actually useful. They’re not platitudes, though you will have days when they feel that way. I am here to tell you that grief is a long game. I know that I will not be able to fully grieve the loss of my mother at this specific point in my life. But I know that I have to do my best to live the life she wanted (and wants) for me. She would want it for you too. Cling to the good. Do not give space to the things which no longer or never served you. Move forward and know that tomorrow is another day, another opportunity. Don’t spend a second on the petty. Not one second. Just be kind and be good and keep it moving. Ride the wave, don’t fight it. 


10.28.2020

A Little Bit Rusty

 



I have always liked camel colored coats and accents, and I still do. I also am liking the "rust" trend I've seen this season. We've even seen it at PAINTBASE with two of our most requested polished this fall - this one and this one.

Linking some extra rusty faves and some camel options for good measure below!


10.27.2020

Winter Whites

 



Winter Whites

Pointelle Sweater - here and here

Shop more Winter Whites here:



8.10.2020

Painted Floorgate: DIY Painted Laminate Floors




Hello friends. I, like many of you I'm sure, started looking around my house during lockdown and thought, "I'm feeling squirrely what can I try to f*ck up around here"? In my case, we live in an older house we plan to extensively renovate someday ("nOt aNytImE sOon" - husband) so projects do, in fact, abound. I have made out a pretty long but manageable list of home improvements I think I can handle without risk of structural damage or big $$$, and I am tackling them one at a time as my schedule and budget allow. I actually love a DIY. I'm very stubborn, have watched plenty of HGTV and really like to "make" stuff, so I'm dangerous (a liability) in the home improvement arena.
 DIY Stencil Painted Laminate Floor

On to the good stuff! Our kitchen is fine. It's an ok size and layout but it's dated. The uppers were like louvered wood cabinets and I'd already painted the lower cabinets a deep navy - we also ripped out a really obtrusive row of cabinets above the kitchen island. The countertops are/were laminate, but a non-offensive tan and a nice deep sink also tan. Y'ALL I STICKERED the countertops. I'll ultimately do a before and after post but this post will focus on the floors and the process for anyone looking for an affordable, medium-termish update for laminate/linoleum floors. Our floors are a laminate or vinyl "wood" that really was not bad at all but when we moved in we refinished the hardwoods (which are everywhere else) and the stain is so much darker it became an eyesore to me. Like they were fine in the home's old existence. 

My process started when the RUG I was considering for the kitchen was sold out in the size I needed. I had sort of resigned myself to adding a small rug and calling it a day but the Lord had a different plan for me folks. I couldn't get the pattern and color combo  out of my head, so one night (obviously after wine) I started googling ideas for prettying up linoleum floors. I was like can I paint this mess? I found some tutorials and decided that if they could do it, surely I could. 


Before I do the process, indulge me and allow me to give myself and this process a Yelp review! I get 5 stars for effort and 1 star for creating such a pain in my own ass. Long story short, ACTUALLY doing the stuff to repaint your floors isn't that bad. Adding on design or stencil work is a bitch. Adding the design I added means something is wrong with you. My brain is not wired for doing what I had to do to get what ultimately turned out to be (IMO) beautiful floors. 

THE PROCESS

What You Need:

A nice little orbital sander - this is similar to what I have
120 grit sanding paper
A paint roller
A nice paintbrush
Porch Paint - I used a Sherwin Williams-colormatched Valspar paint but I've read good things about this and this
Lint free wipes

For design:
More painters tape L O L
Stencil (here is a cute place and lots of options here) or you can get this stuff to make your own stencil (DON'T DO IT DUMDUM)
Tracing paper (if you're making your own stencil DON'T DO IT DUMDUM)
Small paint rollers and smaller brushes or sponge brushes


1. SAND Sweep your floor, mop it if you want but definitely let it completely dry. Then take your orbital sander and work your way over the entire surface you plan on painting. Make sure you hit all the spots, try to give yourself some visual markers to make sure you're covering the whole floor. I used the lines of the wood "boards" to create sections for myself. Sanding the top layer of the linoleum/laminate will create a rougher surface. You're trying to create a surface to which the paint can adhere well, so you want to get everything. It's not hard at all and doesn't really take that long (obviously depending on how big your space is). 



2. DEGLOSS Clean them floors again. Sweep and wipe down to your heart's content. Then you're going to want to use the deglosser. Again this is all about stripping the surface of things that will prevent the paint from adhering well. If you've ever painted cabinets you know how important this is. You can use an old mop to spread it around (I used lint-free painters' cloths on my Swiffer and it worked just fine) - I poured the deglosser directly on the floor in sections. Then you let it dry. All of the waiting over the course of this project was another thing that made this tough for me. I like to burnnnn through projects during insane fits of motivation. 




3. PAINT Do the normal stuff like taping trim or appliances etc. that you would painting walls and such. I brush-painted the perimeter of the room and under appliances (you're insane if you thought I was moving my fridge). Again, I poured my paint directly onto the floor and worked methodically across the space with the large roller. Plz use common sense and don't paint yourself into a corner. I used Winter's Whisper from the HGTV Sherwin Williams collab as my base blue. I tried a couple out first because I have a very French blueish TV console in the adjoining living room and, as I said, the navy lower cabinets. It took a minute to get a blue that was in keeping with the #rugspo and didn't look awful with the other existing blues. For the design part, I used xxx as the accent blue and SW Alabaster as the white trim - it's what we have throughout the house so I felt that would tie it together nicely. Using porch paint for this project makes sense - you're looking for a paint with superior durability and can withstand pretty regular use and abuse. The Valspar was easy to work with and could be colormatched with no problemos. I've heard that this is another good option if that's not a convenient option. I did two coats of the Winter's Whisper to get the coverage I wanted. I let it dry at least 12 hours between coats for all of this btw. 




Painted laminate floor
Base Coat Completed

4. SEAL If you're just doing solid color you can move to sealing it. Minwax Polycrylic was universally recommended in all the tutorials I saw. It's very easy to apply. You want to be careful in prepping it - don't shake it or stir it violently. If you do that you'll create bubbles that'll show up on your floors and make you sad. Trim the perimeter first and then this can be rolled on just like the paint. I watched multiple YouTube tutorials on this part of the process. I was terrified I was going to ruin all of my hard work. You can roll the Polycrylic on pretty generously, it settles nicely and will dry to a clear finish. I used the Satin finish so it's flat and not shiny. You can coat several times with the sealant, the Polycrylic dries quickly (2 hours-ish) so you can apply multiple coats. I kept people and dogs off of it as much as possible for a day after sealing. I think the longer you let it cure the better. You can shop it here as well. 


5. BUT WHAT ABOUT DESIGN? Well friends, lol I am here to tell you it's an undertaking. Was it worth it? Honestly yes, I think it turned out beautifully but it was one of the hardest projects I've done, and if I hadn't had to seal them because of an event that I of course had at our house I probably would have spent another 2 days on touch up work because I got in so deep. If you have the patience and bandwidth you can end up with pretty fabulous results. I 100% know and admit that my struggles were compounded by the complexity of my design and the fact that I had to create my own pattern. I'm terrible at math. Figuring out the scale and execution was very hard for me, but that's totally about me. The setup could have been much easier I'm quite sure. BUT, I think if you are doing a very simple pattern, like stripes or checker board, or have a pre-made stencil it would be far easier. I found some fun options here if you're looking. 

The process for adding a pattern, as I know it: 
  • My stencil and design required a lot of work, once I created the correct scale and shape for the "medallions" as I came to call them, I used tracing paper to create the template for the stencil. Once I cut that out I then traced it onto this plastic film I found called Grafix Dura-Lar - which I had purchased in a roll at the thickest mm they had in stock. This was critical, once I had the actual template I could work SO much quicker than I had been.
  • Once the stencil had been traced fully onto the floor, I then had to go back with painters tape and outline the inner and outer lines. I had to use small pieces of the same tap as spacers between the 2 lines. It was tedious AF. The tape did it's job though and created really nice, sharp lines. I painted all of the white lines followed all of the dark blue lines (after painting one full medallion as a visual guide for myself - all that tape was maddening). 
  • For this work I used a combination of smaller paintbrush - usually to lay initial paint down - and then the smaller roller brush. I like the smooth finish I got from the roller brush. Once dried overnight I pulled up tape, spent an entire day on touch ups, then moved on to the Polycrylic application. 




  • If you are using a pre-made stencil, your process will likely be different. Make sure you have considered where you want the pattern to start so you don't end up with like, half of the pattern in a high visibility area. Taking a moment to consider this before you start will probably save you some heartburn later on. 
  • Create some sort of guideline on the floor to make sure that your stencil is being laid straight. The last thing you want is to look back at 2 hours of work and see that it's crooked and will ruin the rest of the project. 
  • The next thing to consider is if this is a single or multi-color process. If you are using a single color you can simply lay down your stencil and apply the full color, then move to the next section. If you're doing multi-color you can apply full color and move to the next section OR you could lay down the first color, move to the next section and then come back to each section with every additional color. I'm not sure which I think will end up best, but I think I'd probably do the full color and then move to the next? Either way you'll just need to be meticulous about checking that you are staying on your guidelines and not getting wonky.





Tape helped me keep track of the places that needed touch ups or corrections

6. Let it dryyyy. I know the Polycrylic is a fast-drying product but if you can wait 72 hours to resume normal use, I think you're better off. Again, I was 1000% terrified that I was going to screw up my insanely hard work so I barricaded the kitchen for a few days beyond having a couple of people walk through. 

Polycrylic applied and drying!

Ultimately I will share the full room once I get lighting and shelving finished. Please feel free to shoot me any questions, I'm so happy to share any tips or challenges I missed here. 



4.14.2020

At Home Nail Care





One thing I honestly didn't see coming (I mean beyond a lockdown due to a global pandemic) was how underprepared we are for at-home beauty maintenance. I don't mean "self-care Sunday" and whatnot, I mean stuff like "How do I give myself a pedicure?" and "WTF AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT THESE ROOTS?" - and I apologize I cannot help with that, I invented ombre hair. What I can do is gently advise you on some products to pick up online that can help you do your nails at home - or at least keep them clean and healthy. My partner Heather has done some great tutorials on taking your gel off and doing a basic mani over on IGTV; if you haven't watched those I highly recommend. I'm toying with doing a pedi video (definitely drunk) mainly to entertain you and less for actual skillz. So the above are some of the tools we use - or similar at the salons. I'll do one of those picture carousel things too you can shop. But let's get into it. 

Manicure Pointers
1. Again, watch our IGTV video on mani basics
2. The tools I list here are good and important, but I truly recommend getting our Nail Care Essentials kit from the PAINTBASE website (all levels have been restocked!) to start if you haven't. It includes a buffer and most importantly our glass nail file which I recommend FAR AND AWAY over a regular emery board. It it much more pleasant to use - aka it doesn't feel like sandpaper, it's washable and reusable, and the file works to help seal the keratin at the end of your nail which makes for a healthier nail! 
3. You can massage the cuticle softener on or you can apply it and soak your nails in a bowl of warm water (TBH you don't have to do that and I'd do it if you want to feel more "spa" about the whole thing)
4. Our kit comes with an orangewood stick you can use to pushback your cuticles, but you can also grab this one (which is gold and is more about style) or this one by Tweezerman which has a nice soft grip. Please, be gentle pushing back. 
5. I want to be sure to kinda warning label this with a few things:

  • Cuticle nippers are addictive and you need to use them sparingly. We do NOT recommend cutting your actual cuticle. Once you've used your pusher you gently and carefully trim away the dead skin and carefully clip any hangnails or skin flakies. I personally have an anxiety-driven abuse cycle with nippers and I don't recommend it.
6. The nice thing about Essie's Gel Couture polish line is that you don't technically need a basecoat. That's one less step to mess up. We use it at the salons and love it. Heather's mani video highlighted the topcoat. It's fab. Long wear and it's "gel effect" - meaning it gives you the high-gloss look of a gel mani and a little more durability than a normal regular polish mani. I also ADORE Chanel's polishes and topcoat. They don't really advertise it (I have no clue why) but their polish line is 5-free, so cleaner beauty yay! They also have a "gel effect" topcoat which I love and think is wonderful. 

Pedicure Pointers
1. I think we're all going to have a massive new appreciation for our nail stylists after trying to give ourselves pedicures. 
2. I linked to the pretty gold mani clippers, but you probably want to get serious with your toes. This clipper set has both a mani and pedi clipper - the straight blade clipper is the one you want to use on your toes. It can help reduce splitting and avoid ingrowns. Also, please don't fuck with your ingrowns. You don't want to get an infection and try and deal with a doctor right now I promise you that. 
3. Same general advice for cuticle care, you're prob just going to have a lot more crust to deal with. 
4. This again -- > I want to be sure to kinda warning label this with a few things:

  • Callus removal: again, be careful. The products that soften your skin for callus removal can be overused - do not leave on longer than the 3-5 minutes suggested. While it's on your footsies, gently buff your feet with the Cuccio foot file to exfoliate. Be very careful of the edges of the file until you've got the hang of it, it's similar to the edge of a nail file and can nick you if you're not paying attention.
5. You can also add in our POLISH Sugar Scrub for a treat or instead of doing callus remover if that's too daunting or you don't need it. 

Gel Removal

1. God Bless if you've still got gel polish on. 
2. Watch the IGTV video on home removal.
3. Grab this kit and some acetone and get to it.

Wrap Up
I definitely recommend the PB Cuticle Elixir as our cuticle oil of choice. It is the best, smells great and is going to take excellent care of your nails. I'd say applying cuticle oil daily is the #1 thing you can do for the health of your nails. It all starts at the cuticle, that's why pampering them will yield great results. 

We also use our THIRSTY Hand + Body Lotion in all of our services at the salons. It's organic, made in the USA and smells and feels delightful. I am also yelling at everyone to invest in one of our BOMB BALMs, it's like our supercharged hand cream. I have mine in the fridge right now (speaking of which, get yourself a beauty fridge!) because my hands are getting destroyed by all the washing, and using it cold is extra soothing. 

Anyway guys, do your best! I know you're gonna nail it! *Thumbs up, wink.* Please don't hesitate to reach out with questions! I'm happy to help if I can. We're so looking forward to getting the salons back open so we can hand this back over to the pros! More links below!





4.01.2020

Some Bright Spots




Weird times folks, if you're interested in some retail therapy, I'm here to help. I haven't really figured out what my coping mechanisms are yet, have you? I'm torn between shopping seems silly right now and holy shit shopping is critical right now. Most of the places I've linked today are running sales:


I've linked to stuff like normal above + below, but there are also a few local (to me-ish) businesses I wanted to call out too!

- The white Show Me Your Mumu romper is also available locally at Voda Boutique. I also like these V Affordable pom pom slides.

- The kewt Peepsish bunnies above are from Videri Chocolate Factory and you can shop them online!

- I love the rug above, but another AMAZING resource for rugs is mah friend Jamie at Furbish Studio.

- Some other local shops I love who are absolutely WERKING to get y'all fashun even under these pretty dark circumstances: 




3.11.2020

It Ain't Easy Bein' Green




St. Patty's Day celebrations will probably look a little different this year, what with the avoidance of crowds and people. Oh wait, is it my new favorite holiday? The thing that sparked my green joy was the release of the Clare V for Anthro collection, which really is just overall pretty joyful. Lots of cute to look at, and not just in green. Oh I especially love putting that bright green with a mellow yellow style green-yellow, like THISSSS. I love her aesthetic in general, so definitely a fave for me right now. I've poked around and found some other greenish items you should see, check out the little carousel thingy below. 
 Enjoy!  



 

design + development by kelly christine studio