New Website and Blog - Cameron Jones Interiors

Thanks for stopping by but I have a new website!  I'll be continuing to blog over on CameronJonesInteriors.com so please come visit Adorned Abode there! 

xo, Cameron

Easy Coconut Shrimp Curry

I am a huge fan of both Indian food and curry in general after living in Scotland for a couple of years.  We typically have some sort of curry at least once a week.  What I think is surprising though is that my husband and I both agree that we enjoy our homemade dishes almost more than ordering take out or going out to eat.  This dish is definitely feels more Thai than Indian, but if you enjoy curry and coconut, it is super easy to make and delish.  If you aren't a big shrimp fan, you can easily substitute chicken (which we have done many times). Another plus, this is a one pan dish (with the exception of the rice) so clean up is a cinch.  This was another one of our favorite dishes from the dearly departed Scratch DC meals we loved so much.  

What You'll Need:

Salt and Pepper 

pinch of Cayenne

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup Basmati rice

1 tbsp butter

Canola oil

1 cup of canned, diced tomatoes

1 cup coconut milk (canned - found in International aisle)

1 cup frozen peas (you can cook from frozen)

1 cup onion, diced

1 tbsp garlic, minced

2 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp tumeric

1 tsp curry powder

What You'll Do:

First you need to marinade your protein for about 20 minutes prior to cooking.  Put your shrimp or chicken in a ziplock bag, season with salt and pepper and pinch of cayenne, and lemon juice.  Set aside.

Cook the rice in a medium pot according to package directions.

In a large pan, add canola oil.  Add onion and cook for 3-5 minutes.  Add ginger, garlic, coriander, tumeric, and curry powder to onion mix and season with salt and pepper.  Add more canola oil if needed to avoid spices sticking to the pan.  Add tomatoes and coconut milk and bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.  Add shrimp or chicken and heat until cooked through (this will obviously be a much shorter cooking period for the shrimp and I strongly encourage you NOT to overcook the shrimp).  Serve over Basmati rice.

Note: if I were making this, I'd have added chopped fresh cilantro at the end as the recipe originally called for but my husband hates cilantro so I didn't buy a whole bunch of it just for me to put on my plate.  But, garnishing with some chopped fresh cilantro would be delish if you are so inclined!

Darker Dining Room with one of Behr's 2018 Color Trends

As a follow up to my post earlier this week, I'm charging right ahead with my 2018 organizational goals.  This is the first step towards completion of goal # 3.  Behr recently released its 2018 color trends.  I picked up some color samples recently and ended up deciding to paint our tiny dining room in one of their newest colors - Unplugged.   It is this VERY DARK, really complex shade of brown that in some light looks brown, other lights looks nearly black and then other times almost feels an incredibly dark shade of army green.

Our house has a very small room in the back that I am sure was meant to be a breakfast nook.  It is right off the kitchen and has two walls of nothing but windows so it gets great natural light.  It also has two really cool built in corner hutches.  Originally I decided to make this little nook the playroom for our kids however after about 4 months in our house, we totally outgrew the space.  So, we made a swap and put the playroom in the room that should be the formal dining room.  Definitely not a move I ever thought I'd make (you can read about my decision to do that here) however for this time in our lives, it has dramatically improved how we live in this house.  So, the breakfast nook is now our dining room.  It's small but it can easily seat six for a dinner party so with the limited amount we are entertaining these days, it works for us.  Unfortunately, it has just been sort of neglected as I focused my efforts in getting the playroom and more "living" spaces in our house set up first.

To say this color transformed our space is an understatement.  I've got a few things to do to get it picture ready (namely a new light fixture) but in the meantime, you can get a gist of the color from these spaces:

Here's a swatch of it on our wall so you can see a sneak peak of the drastic change that is going to take place!

Happy weekend everyone!

Salt Dough Fingerprint Magnets for Valentine's Day

Yesterday's Valentine's round up really got me in the mood for Valentine's Day.  The kids and I made these super easy salt dough magnets to give to our family.  I love that they can be used year-round on people's fridges and that their little fingerprints make it so special.  I got the inspiration from Pinterest (which led to this Messy Little Monsters post) however, as usual for me, it turned out to be a major #pinterestfail.  The recipe I found for colored salt dough called to mix in paint instead of half of the water and instead of a bright, red color that I was looking for, the dough came out like a rusty, dusty light pink.  Not the look I was going for at all.  So, I doctored it up with a little red craft paint, added the gold paint to enhance the finger prints and voila! 

Getting both kids aged 3.5 and 1.5 to cooperate with their fingerprints was the hard part.  The idea was that two thumb prints form an interior heart on the magnets but I actually love how they all turned out different.  Some have just one thumb print, others have one from each kid and some have two from the same kid.   I put a little tutorial at the end of this post.

I already had some supplies on hand to put together Forrest's Valentine's for school so I used the clear baggies, filler and ribbon I had on hand to wrap these up to deliver to family in the next week or so. 

And on that note, I have to show how cute Forrest's little Valentine's for school turned out  That kid always does give me a "raisin" to smile!

I got the tags as a printable from LoveLucyDesign.  I adore all of her precious invitations and cards. 

We put together a little care package for our friends in DC that we used to have our nanny share with.  Forrest loved packing everything up to send to his buddy Archer and his baby brother.  The little glow sand Valentine's are from Target. 

Salt Dough Fingerprint Magnets

Tools:

**I used this salt dough recipe.  It was super easy and fail-proof, even for me.  I recommend doing this and skipping the coloring of your dough in the dough-making process.  Just paint the things afterwards. 

**I used these cookie cutters.  I love that you had three different sized hearts to play around with. 

**Pick any color paint you like but I went with this red and this gold. 

**You will need a rolling pin.  I add this in because I had to make a special trip to go out and buy this one from Target because I.do.not.bake.

**Modge Podge I recommend getting the gloss finish.

**Parchment paper.  Ever since this happened, I use the stuff for everything.

**Magnet backers.  I got mine from Michael's but something like this would work fine if you, like me, are an Amazon junkie.

Steps:

**Make salt dough and roll out until it is about an inch thick.  I found it easier to split the dough into fourths and then roll out one section at a time.  I cut the dough using all three sizes of the heart cookie cutters. 

**Place the heart shapes on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.  Have your child place their fingerprints in the hearts in the desired location.  (Good luck with this.)

**Bake the magnets low and slow at about 200 degrees until the dough is hardened.  Check the underside to make sure they are hardened all the way through even if they look done on top.

**Paint the entire heart red.  It took me about three to four coats until the color was as saturated as I wanted it.  Fill in the finger prints with the gold.  I just used a small paint brush and made circular strokes.

**Once all the red and gold paint has dried, paint a coat of Modge Podge over all the magnets. 

**Adhere the magnetic backing.

Enjoy for years to come! 

Valentine's Round Up for Little Girls

It's February 1st!  This means that we a) survived January (thank goodness!) and b) Valentine's is coming up.  I've become a bigger and bigger fan of Valentine's Day lately.  I think it is because with the house feeling so blah after Christmas, I look forward to having a little holiday to celebrate and it gives me a chance to do a little holiday decorating again.  

In honor of the upcoming holiday, I put together a round up of heart-inspired gift ideas for the little sweethearts in your life.  Speaking of sweethearts, here are a couple of pics of BUSY baby Gray modeling these cute Old Navy PJ's they have in stock right now, perfect for Valentine's Day!

xo, 

Cameron

*items listed clockwise from left

1. Heart Pajamas (these come in blue too for the little boys in your life!)
2. Heart Mobile
3. Heart Applique Tee
4. Multi-colored Heart Pillow
5. Conversation Heart Soaps
6. Felted Heart Tassels

Organization Goals

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions however this year I have told myself that I want to get more organized.  This involves some simple things that I have been putting off that just need to get done.  In an attempt to hold myself accountable, I thought I'd document a few of the things here on my blog.  We moved into our house over a year ago and there are still a lot of things that are still sitting exactly where they were left when we moved in because I was too sleep deprived from the baby, trying to work and overwhelmed from a cross-country move with two babies and a husband who was gone all the time.  Not complaining, just sayin'.  I'm (somewhat) back to sleeping and I feel a lot more settled now so the time has come to do something about some things around my house.

1. Organize my closet.  I need to get uniform hangers, get rid of stuff I don't wear anymore and go through all of my shoes.  That thing is a wreck.

via Brighton the Day

2. Get rid of the clutter off of my kitchen counters.  We have a big junk bowl that houses anything from candy and snacks to random business cards and coupons to screws that go to I-don't-know-what, etc., etc.   I spent more time in the kitchen than probably any other room and I want it to have a little style.  One first step is to get the junk off of there and then a little styling/decorating can ensue.

via Modern Home

3. Finish organizing/decorating the dining room.  When we switched the playroom and the dining room, the dining room was kind of left behind and it needs some TLC.   The wonderful built-ins need to be styled and I think the space needs a little color!

via This Old House

4.  Organize our bathroom.  The space underneath the sink is a hot mess and needs to be dealt with.  Pronto.  I'm also sure I keep buying toiletry items we don't need because everything is just shoved in a ginormous basket under there.

via Simply Organized

5. Organize the attic.  I'm on my way with this one.  I took advantage of the January sales at Target, Home Depot, etc. and bought a ton of those clear, stackable plastic bins.  Now I can see what I have stored up there and not have to rummage through cardboard box after cardboard box.  Also, our hot water heater broke a few weeks ago and water leaked out.  Thankfully I was able to keep it under control and get the water switched off before any major damage was done but it did make me realize that those cardboard boxes offer things like old photo albums and keepsakes no protection in a situation like that.  Now that we have just purchased a brand new water heater (ouch!), we shouldn't run into that problem again but you never know...

So, those are a few of my small organization goals.  I will challenge myself to complete this list by the end of March.  We have dear friends coming from Scotland then so hopefully we (and by we I mean I) can get all of these little things done that I think will go a long way towards helping me feel a little less crazy! 

Vanity Love and a note about framing

I saw this vanity on Framebridge's Insta (**) last week and stopped dead in my tracks.  It is one of the coolest pieces of stones I've ever seen.  You frequently see lots of lighter marbling used in neutral tones but it is not often that I see pictures of stone that bold and I LOVE IT!  You could go so many directions with this.  I love the very contemporary feel of this space with the gold accents paired with the graphic black and white tile but I could also envision it paired with brighter colors, in a more traditional style or even outside of a bathroom in say a wet bar/butler's pantry area.  

**As an aside, if you have art or photographs sitting around that you have been meaning to have framed, I highly recommend Framebridge.  I've used them for several projects and they are great - super affordable, stylish custom framing and you mail it all in so you don't even have to leave your house!  If you do use them, you can use a coupon link here and we both get $20 off our framing!  

I just recently got this picture of the kiddos back from Framebridge and love how it turned out.  Just waiting on a couple of other pieces before I hang a few more things in our bedroom.

Weekend Trip to Norfolk

My little guy Forrest (age 3 1/2) took a quick trip to Norfolk this weekend to visit my aunt and cousins.  Forrest was really excited for the trip with mommy.  We spent Saturday afternoon at the Virginia Aquarium which was great!

Forrest loved seeing all of the fish, sharks and amphibians.  I'd say the two highlights were the seals outside and getting to touch the sting rays in the touch tank.  He was SOAKED afterwards but it didn't seem to bother him at all.

The water views outside of the display areas weren't bad either and they have lots of docks and outdoor paths that you can walk around. 

Immediately after feeding the sting rays, they have an area set up where you can touch things in the sand followed by touching a live horseshoe crab. He was soaking wet and then played in sand so you can imagine that his OCD mother was a little upset at all of the sand glued to him.  :)

They also had these gigantic Komodo Dragons and inside the glass enclsosure where the dragons were, you could climb underneath and "pop" up inside a big plastic bubble so it felt like you were in the cage with the dragons.  Thankfully Uncle Beau volunteered to climb underneath the dark cage so Forrest could "pop up!"

Forrest loved meeting his cousin Harrison aka "Mav".  He is four months and absolutely adorable.  Here's Forrest giving him the low down on his PB and J.

My cousins have moved into the main house since they have the baby and my aunt stays outside in a little guest house which we all fondly refer to as the "shed".  The shed has its own bathroom and is a pretty decent size.  My aunt has her bedroom area on one side and then they have their office for the non-profit organization they run, The Chas Foundation, on the other side.  (Side note: my older cousin Chas committed suicide in 2011 - he was bipolar - and afterwards, my aunt and cousin Beau started a non-profit organization to help families of the mentally ill.  It's a great organization that is doing wonderful things for the community.  I'm proud of how much they have achieved considering they built the whole thing from the ground up.)

Years ago I did a blog post about my Aunt Tucker's house (it was in my early days of blogging and the pics aren't great).   I did notice there is a picture of the shed in that old post if you are interested.  She has such a great knack for mixing old and new and has a great eye for things.  The pictures never do it justice but I was impressed with how homey she made that "shed" feel with just a few pieces of art.  Most of them are Asian inspired and so, so cool.  Hopefully one day she will gift them to her favorite niece!  (She loves to remind me that I am her ONLY niece.)

This one isn't Asian but it is a vintage needlepoint piece that she has framed.  I've loved it for a long, long time.  It's faded over the years but it has such great texture and character. 

Our drive back was through pouring rain but we made it home in one piece.  I haven't traveled that much lately because it just is such a hassle packing everybody up with all of the baby and toddler gear, etc. but we got this great new inflatable toddler bed and Forrest did really well on the drive so maybe I can start getting out and taking more trips! 

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.  Happy Monday! 

Big Changes to this Little Blog

I've been blogging here since 2009 (with about a year-long hiatus after baby #1 was born while I juggling that and a full time job).  I love having this blog as a creative outlet.  I love it even more when people contact me because they enjoy reading something I've written about or an image I've shared.  And mostly, if I could, I would eat, sleep and breathe interior design.  Okay, well, I love food too much so maybe just sleep and breathe interior design but still cook yummy food.  And drink delicious cocktails, duh.

And while I can get around on a computer fairly well from a business standpoint, I am by no means great at graphic design or web design.  Hence why my blog still looks like it is from the late 90's (okay, maybe early 2000's??).  So, I've enlisted some help and hope to be able to reveal the new look (along with some other exciting updates) in the coming weeks.  My goal is that my blog be a better reflection of my actual style.  If you've been reading my blog for a while, you can probably get a gist of what that style is but I thought it would be fun to put together a few images that really speak to me from a design standpoint.

A long time ago when my Pinterest obsession began, I started a board called My Style.  It doesn't get as much play these days however, I went back through it and there wasn't much on there that I didn't still agree with.  If you look at it, you'll see a lot of animal print (namely leopard), a lot of classic black and white, and a lot of mixing patterns and styles (ie traditional and contemporary).

via Dimples and Tangles

This space has ME written all over it.  I love how bold and fearless Jennifer's designs are yet at the same time they have very classic elements.  Note the more traditional coffee table and silver urn that the orchid is in paired with bright, colorful patterns...and of course a little leopard for good measure.   

Amber Interiors via Chic Geek

I'm a sucker for anything Morocco, anything with textured wood grains or bamboo, and of course a good, colorful print like these suzanis and ikats here.  I love how the space feel so well-traveled (something I like to think I used to be!).  While we are on the subject of style, Amber is pretty much a God in the design world.  While  her style tends to be a little more minimalist and muted than mine, I love, love, love every space she does!  She definitely has the mixing old/new part down to an art.

pinned via Amber Interiors

This mix is everything!!  And I adore day beds in general.  I can't wait to get one (I'm thinking maybe my daughter's room down the road) and fill it with soft, elegant pillows (in an awesome mix, obvi).  

 via La Bonne Vie

This might quite possibly be the sexist chair I've ever seen in all my life.  End of discussion.

via Flickr (original source unknown)

Vintage glassware and a beautiful glass vase.  Awesome, eye catching side table.  Pattern on pattern in a traditional, comfy updated wing back chair.  And books galore.  I could definitely see myself spending time in a space like this!

via A Daily Something

Peonies are for sure my favorite flower.  They are simply stunning and one day I will have a cut flower garden with peonies galore.  And handwritten notes?  I'm a true southern girl who knows the importance and appreciates a good handwritten note.  Neither of these two things will ever go out of style in my book.

via House and Home

I love being organized!  Having children has made that ever so much more difficult but I still strive for organization in my life.  And who says organization has to be stark and boring?!  Look at this beautiful display of fun baubles in pretty little dishes.  I love the mix of colors, textures and rich jewel tones.  Old and new are perfectly married in this little vignette.  I've loved this image for a long, long time.

So, there's a little overview of some important style elements in my book.  Design truly is so personal and that's what I love about it.  Stay tuned for updates to Adorned Abode coming soon!

xo,
Cameron

Buffalo Gal Won't Ya Come Out Tonight

I'm on the hunt for affordable but attractive curtains for our upstairs guest room.  It has a small nook of a window that is going to be hard to address.  So I have just kept ignoring it.  However, we have frequent guests stay there and I'm starting to feel guilty because the street light is bright at night and there is bright daylight early in the morning.  Not to mention a complete lack of privacy.  So, I'm working on how to remedy that situation.  I've got some black and white botanical printed bedding from Pottery Barn (I don't think they sell it anymore but similar to this but much more black) and so I was thinking that a black geometric pattern would look good with it.  I came across these buffalo check panels from Target.

I love the oversize, almost watercolor appearance of the checks.  Now I've got to measure everything and see if these might work.  I was a little worried that buffalo check might feel a little county but after sourcing some other inspiration, I think these just might be the ticket.

via OKL 

via Caitlin Wilson 

via Caitlin Wilson

via Dimples and Tangles 

via Beauty for Ashes

#buffalocheck #modernbuffalocheck #bigbuffalocheck #moderntraditionalmix #blackandwhitecheck #blackandwhitefabric #curtains #buffalocheckcurtains #targetcurtains #targetstyle #potterybarnbedding