My friend Jessamie at Bird & Branch Redesigns is hosting a link party today.  She posted some cool design pics and had her hubby comment on them and it turned out to be one of her favorite posts, you can read it here.   So Jessamie decided to let us have a turn at it with our handsome men as well.  I had a hard time picking pictures for this and I did pick a few on the crazier side of design just to see what he would say.  Some made me laugh and maybe you’ll enjoy a chuckle or two as well.  Take it away Blooming hubs!

OK, cool space here, save for the giant descending spider on the upper left – hello arachnophobia!! Big clock is definitely cool with all the checkers or small pebbles all around

…and here’s the spider web where the other spider above came from, how nice!  And a nice touch of broccoli or possibly asparagus in the foreground, I’m sure that comes in handy in the kitchen.  And that table (?) looks like something a magician would use to saw someone in half, but maybe that’s just me.  On the plus side, cool molding and nice stove!

Definitely getting a sense that creepy lighting is the theme of these pictures, now we’re going for a sea urchin look here or perhaps a Medusa tribute piece or something like that.  Wall, color, gold shelving, brown chairs, and a sweet rug, however almost make up for that weird piece above.

And here’s the bird cage, how nice.  The bird ate the spider that wiggled and wiggled and tickled inside her….is that how the song goes?  My other thought here, on the bird theme?  Looks like a giant cracked egg has landed here, with the yolk on top of the chair and the egg whites on that other…thing…there to the right.

At ease, pink poodle soldiers!  Feel like I just stepped out of an Austin Powers movie or something

And here’s their little friend, the rarely photographed white long-necked labrador.  But hey, some props on those couches and the cool boat in the corner

Ummmm….OK then.   First off, what’s with the posing toddler above the mantle?  Kinda weird.  Looks like the kind of picture you give to your grandma as a 2×3 wallet, not turn into a 80 x 120 gallery-ready centerpiece?  Things get a little awkward at the photo studio perhaps?  Now that I’ve recovered from that I can see nice archways, a pretty cool table and of course some HYDRANGEAS (that remind me of my bride!)

“Hey Grumpy!  We’ve been looking all over for you!”

So giant wall that is made to look like some sort of exotic flooring meets the baby incubator?  Or maybe they are hatching chicks in the crib perhaps?

Well, this one isn’t my style so much here, but at least I can respect this one, especially after the others that have come before.  I’m not big on mismatched chairs (or really anything not matching, just ask Ange) myself, and the big Roman pillar thing is cool, but just doesn’t fit in here.

“Excuse me – your drain is showing!”

But I do like this room though, very classy and stylish.  Is the running horse supposed to be something to remind you of running water?  Just curious.

Not bad other than the massive beehive hanging above the table.  And exactly what room in the house is this?  I can’t tell what the purpose is here of this space.

Hallelujah! Nothing to critique here, this space has nice soothing colors and a rug that reminds me for some reason of that chart you have when you pick out Jelly Belly jelly beans.  I could just hop in this picture for a nice siesta me thinks.

Kinda looks like a few walls and some random furniture (including some sort of  like hammock chair) were just strewn in the jungle out the window.  Is this some sort of Salvador Dali picture?  Where’s the melting clock?

And last but not least…hey hon, I don’t think you should have put our actual bedroom picture in this set of pictures! (Kidding)  So massive pelt of racoons meets  pink velour headboard with space-age lighting and Chevron flooring!  So nice to see a minimalistic style used so well here, wouldn’t you say?  More is definitely less here…

Thanks babe for being a sport and playing along today!  Props to the hubs for knowing what Chevron is!  He really must listen as I drone on and on about this kind of stuff.  I’m linking up at Bird & Branch Redesign, won’t you come join me and read what other men had to say about design and decor.  We might want to pee first or make sure you are sitting on a oilcloth covered chair first.

A few weeks ago Brandi from do Not Disturb This Groove sent me an email asking me if I would like to participate in a Favorite Things Blogger Gift Exchange. I of course said yes because it sounded like so much fun. What I forgot about is how much I detest buying gifts for people. Not because I don’t want to give a gift but because the pressure I put on myself to find the perfect gift is enough to drive me insane. This is why if you are my friend you will more than likely not receive a birthday gift from me. It’s not that I don’t love you and want to give you something, it’s just that I don’t know what to give so I become paralyzed and do nothing. Bad friend, I know. If you have ever done the Five Love Languages by Gary Smalley, I can tell you that gifts is at the very bottom of my list. In fact, it fell off my list. My friend and Haven room mate, Lisa from Before Meets After was my bloggy friend with who I was doing the gift exchange.
My gift from Lisa arrived in the mail the other day and it was PERFECT!  Hello, you had me at Hydrangeas and black which is one of my favorite colors.  How cute is this camera strap from a diva and 3 dudes design?

This is about all you will see of me right now as I am sporting a Rudolph nose from blowing it 324 times a day.  After all the painting I’ve done in the past two days plus having a sick kid in my bed coughing and keeping me awake for hours, I think I’ve caught the plague that is currently running through our home.  
 Thank you Brandi for this fun idea and including me!  Thank you Lisa for playing along with me, finding the perfect gift and I can’t wait to meet you in June! 

So I’m signing off today, I need to go blow my nose again.  Check back tomorrow as I’ll be guest posting at one of my favorite blog’s on the web.   You love her too, I know you do!

Signing off, Typhoid Mary

If you like following The Blooming Hydrangea and you use Google Friend Connect you will no longer receive blog posts starting on March 1st. The GFC button has already been removed from my blog so no one else can sign up to follow with it.
 I will be switching over to Word Press sometime in the next two weeks and GFC will no longer be available for non-Blogger blogs.  If you are signed up to receive my posts through something else besides GFC, you will not need to take any action.  When my blog switches to WP you will all come right along with me.  If you do use GFC, you will need to take some action to make sure you still receive updates from my blog.  There are many ways to still receive blog posts from The Blooming Hydrangea. You can follow TBH on facebook. On the right hand side you will see a button like this:

When you click on this button you can have TBH blog posts delivered to your reader such as Google, Yahoo, Net Vibes, etc.  If you use Google Reader clicking on the Google button will set you up in Google Reader. 
You can also sign up to receive TBH posts through email on the right hand side of my blog by entering your email address.
Another great way to follow along is through a new follower tool called Linky Followers.   Linky Followers is a free widget that lets you follow along with your favorite blogs and acts as a reader for the blogs you follow as well.  This works for any blog that is signed up under Linky Followers, regardless if it’s a Blogger blog or WP or typepad, etc. 
So there you have it folks, GFC is going away and I won’t see your beautiful smiling faces on the right hand side of my blog anymore unless you sign up with Linky Followers.  If you have any questions or problems, please email me! 
I love hearing from you and hope you will continue to follow along.  Stay tuned because there will be a new look here soon, thanks to Elizabeth at The Mustard Ceiling Design Services who has done some excellent blog work for the likes of Cottage & Vine,  Emily A. Clark, Saved by Suzy and All Things Bright & Beautiful to name a few! 

Thank you for reading this blog, commenting and emailing me!  I love to hear from you and hope that you will come back soon!  If you have a blog that has GFC and it will be going away, please let me know so I can follow you as well!

If you follow me on facebook then you know that I should be painting trim right now. Well I am not. I’m trying to psych myself up for it and thought maybe playing this game of Blogger Tag might help. Lisa from Shine Your Light tagged me and I’m supposed to answer the 11 questions Lisa came up with and then tag 11 bloggers who have to answer the 11 questions I come up with. Now that I think about it, painting trim might have been easier.

1. What’s your favorite place in the United States?

Hmmmm…….anywhere there is water.  After growing up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and being about 15 minutes from some really great lakes including Lake Superior,  I really miss being near water so any city or area that has pristine lakes, that is my favorite!

2. Where would you love to visit that you’ve never been before?

This is a hard one but I’m going to go with Tennessee. When we originally thought of moving last spring, Franklin Tennessee was first on our list! This summer while on our way to Haven we will be stopping here so I can walk down the streets and take a gazillion pictures.  I love history and towns that have their historical buildings like Franklin are places that I would love to visit.  I also think Charleston and Savannah are on this list as well.

3. Favorite song you’re loving right now?

Ooh this is hard. I listen to many different styles of music but this song has really been in my head and on my heart lately. God is Able by Hillsong.  The hubby and I saw them live in concert in November and it was awesome!  I really feel like this could be a theme song for me,  it’s true,  our God is Able.

4. Good book recommendation?

I just finished reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton and I loved it. The beginning was a bit slow but she did a great job of combining history with modern day to make for an interesting story that weaves together three different lives.

5. What’s your best quality?

Well I think it would be my ability to make friends fairly easily, I like to meet new people and feel pretty at ease in social situations.  I can say for sure I don’t have social anxiety instead I worry about everything else.

6. What is something about yourself you’d like to change?

There are many things I’d like to change about myself, anxiety being number one.  If we are going with physical aspects, I would say my hair, this growing it out is for the birds.

7. What is the number one thing you hope to accomplish in 2012?

Driving somewhere outside my comfort zone, alone. That would be a big accomplishment and ties into number 6.

8. What is your favorite project that you’ve ever accomplished?

Wow, well I am going to say my first cloffice. I think the reason it’s my favorite is because it opened my eyes up to the home DIY blogging arena and gave me my first taste of room design, planning and making something functional and organized in our home.  I have always loved painting and decorating but this past year has been so much fun!

9. What is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Oh man, I’m sure if I thought long enough I could come up with something but I have nothing. I need to get back to painting the trim!

10. Favorite kitchen or home improvement tool?

My favorite home improvement tool is the Wooster paint brush. Love this thing and without it I’m not sure how my trim would look!  It is nice and small, with a flexible handle for hard to reach spots.

11. What do you enjoy about blogging?

It might sound cliche but I love all the great people I’ve met this past year. People who get what I’m talking about when I talk blog talk or DIY/home decor talk. I also love that I can share things from my own life like miscarriage and even anxiety, people not only encourage you, pray for you and let you know they have been there but it also puts it out there for someone else to find that might need to know they aren’t alone.

Thanks Lisa, for tagging me, this was fun! If you haven’t been over to see Lisa, you need to go and check out her blog. She has done some awesome things like her entryway and staircase, has great recipes and now a cool monthly link party where you link up your before and later in the month your after.  Best of all though, Lisa is just a joy to chat with and she is so sweet.  You will love her blog, I promise!

Now for the hard part, I probably shouldn’t be doing this after inhaling paint fumes all day but here are the 11 Bloggers I’m tagging.

Lisa Before Meets After
Andrea Our Blue Front Door
Patience White Lacquer
Shan Family Brings Joy
Brandi Do Not Disturb This Groove
Lauren Baylor Says
Aubrey All Things Bright & Beautiful
Kristy Hyphen Interiors
Anna Directions Not Included
Judy DIY by Design
Lisa A Room with A View

Here are the 11 questions!

1.   What are your favorite pizza toppings?
2.   If you could swap lives with someone for a day, who would you choose and why?
3.   Do you drink coffee?
4.   If you could vacation anywhere, where would you go?
5.  What was your favorite book as a child?
6.   If you were a color crayon, what color would you be?
7.   Best thing of 2011?
8.   Are you an early bird or night owl?
9.   Do you prefer a bath or a shower?
10. What is your favorite childhood memory?
11. What do you want to be when you grow up?  

Rules
**You must post the rules
**Answer the 11 questions that the tagger posted for you; then create 11 questions to ask the people you’ve tagged
**Tag 11 people and link them in your post
**Let them know you have tagged them

First of all I just want to say that your emails and comments were so wonderful! I sat at my computer and cried reading your stories that you shared with me, the struggles, the triumphs, the hard roads we all have to walk in our own ways. The prayers that you have offered up for us, the thoughts, the virtual hugs, the offers of phone calls, it was all so generous and lovely! I am still working on replying to a few of you and I will update as we travel along this road. This also has me thinking maybe I should post my own story with anxiety so you can understand a little bit more about me.

Secondly, I just wanted to point out that I have a new way you can follow my blog over on the sidebar on the right. In case you haven’t heard, Google Friend Connect is going away for all non-Blogger blogs and eventually even for blogger blogs according to the rumor mill. Right now I am considered a Blogger blog but I will be switching over to WordPress at the end of February. So I will be removing the GFC widget from my blog very shortly and would love for you to find another way to follow me. I have a fb page where I post the links, I also have RSS feed which would be for Google, Yahoo, etc. and finally you can also just enter your email address and get my posts through your email which is under the RSS button on the right.  It’s the turquoise button to the right of my fb button.  If you have any problems signing up, I’d be happy to help you, just shoot me an email at ange@thebloominghydrangea.com.

The newest way to follow is through Linky Followers created by Brent Riggs the creator of Linky Tools. It works for both Blogger and WordPress blogs, is completely free and looks like a great new way to follow all your favorite blogs! There are some nice options like being able to group your blogs into groups, creating private blog rolls,choosing a reader to be the featured follower and choosing how often you read a blog. Signing up is really easy to do and if you do sign up, I’d love to follow you as well.
Today is the first day of the applications launch so there may be a few bugs yet to be worked out. I haven’t encountered any and hopefully you won’t either but if you do send Brent an email brent@brentriggs.com and he’ll be happy to help you!
I’ll be back tomorrow with another post and once again, I just want to say Thank You all so much, this is why I love blogging! Hugs!

Wow is all I can say! You girls really know how to get stuff done in a year. The amount of awesomeness that I viewed though the links was really great. I was motivated, impressed and inspired with your projects, recipes, crafts and tutorials. When I decided to have a 2011 Year in Review link party my only thought was, please let at least one person link up and not only one person did but 48 of you did! I just want to say thank you for making my first real linky party a success! I didn’t put much thought into this, I had the idea, made a little button for it and decided to open it up on Thursday. I ended up changing my mind and started the party early because why wait, right? I thought I would take a few of your links and share them, it was so very hard to pick just a few, I want to highlight everyone because you all had such amazing links!  I picked a few but I might just do another highlight post next week.  Let’s get started, shall we?

Kelly from View Along the Way was the first to link up. She shared some great before and afters but my favorite is her headboard with a tutorial!

Lisa at Shine Your Light had many wonderful before and afters this past year, her kitchen was one of them but these stairs and this entryway were my favorite!

Linda from It all started with paint had a great kitchen makeover as well along with her entryway but I loved the kitchen transformation.

Sallie at Texas Cottage made some yummy dessert recipes this past year along with some great
crafts and a craft room makeover. But it was this picture that had me drooling on the keyboard, I love s’mores and these S’more Cups are going to be mine, soon and very soon.

Betsy from Romance on a Dime shared with us some great crafts but I think she really scored a winner with this star made out of a cereal box! What a great way to recycle and make some beautiful home decor.

Kimberly from Simply Living was quite the crafty girl this past year.  I love this Eat sign, wait to save the fruit art and turn it into something wonderful!

I truly enjoyed looking at your best posts from this past year!  Thank you for linking up with me and I can’t wait to see what you all do this year!