A Bright Summer With Pier 1 - Gift Card Winner

From the day we set up our new patio furniture from Pier 1, I swear we have been out there enjoying it Every. Single. Day. We find any excuse to get ourselves out to go sit on the comfy cushions and watch the world go by. 

I feel ridiculously proud of this. I thought we spent a lot of time out on our porch, but now it's become A Thing.

The other morning, I made cinnamon rolls. (Every now and then the urge hits, what can I say?) Eric was working outside digging and fixing up our new planters. 

"Can we just eat out here?"  (I have a feeling this is going to be happening a lot this summer.)

Which is how the Darbys of Mission Viejo ended up sitting outside decadently eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast on their new, beautifully re-designed porch. Look at me, living the lifestyle magazine life. This is the stuff my dreams are made of.

Every morning I can find Eric out there doing his morning reading. It makes me happy to see him so content.

All this to say that I'm super grateful to Pier 1 Imports for the awesome inspiration for our new outdoor living space. It's made a huge impact already on our day-to-day living. Also, the weather has cooperated beautifully. We're seriously on the cusp of summer and my plan is to spend as much time here as possible, thankyouverymuch.

I want to thank you all for entering the giveaway. If you want to be inspired, go through the comments on the last post: Hello, Summer - A Pier 1 Giveaway and see what everyone would choose for their outdoor space. You guys are kind of fantastic. 

Oh, yes! A winner. I chose one, of course.

I took the number of entries (not counting the doubles - you know who you are or maybe the website glitched on a couple, but that's not important right now) and entered them into the True Random Number Generator on Random.org which chose a number (randomly, of course). 

The winner of the $50 Pier 1 Gift Card is:

Congratulations, Laura!

Please send me an email that says, HEY, MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! in the subject line (so I won't accidentally delete it). Include your home address so I can get this gift card out to you ASAP. 

Thanks again to all of you for participating! A very special thanks to Pier 1 and Latina Bloggers Connect for sponsoring this really fun summer giveaway. The opinions are all my own.

Hello, Summer. - A Pier 1 Giveaway

Today's the day for the Big Reveal and a cool Pier 1 Giveaway. My patio is seriously so bright and inviting now. I'm so excited to share.

To see where I started, read my original post here: Making My Summer Bright With Pier 1.

My vision was to create a new, brighter and much more inviting space in the front of our home on our porch. Like I told you before, we spend a lot of time there and I knew I wanted something that felt super welcoming.

I also knew I wanted lots of color. I wanted it to practically scream, "Hello, Summer!" 

I trotted off to Pier 1 with my trusty iPad mini under my arm wtih all my Pinterest pins ready to feed my inspiration. Wasn't that super post-modern of me? I know. 

If you're feeling it, you can follow me on Pinterest by clicking here: Marta Darby on Pinterest

I chose the furniture first. I knew I wanted the rattan and I was totally drawn to the Pier 1 Coco Cove Collection. So the question then became: What color? 

We had just recently painted our home a bright yellow, so I decided the Mocha would add the most dramatic contrast with all the bright colors I intended to add, so I went for it. 

I ended up getting the Coco Cove Settee, the Ottoman (to be used as a coffee table), and the Armchair. All in that beautifully rich Mocha. 

I'm thinking I can now call this my Outdoor Oasis. Behold the awesome...

I confess that choosing the color for the cushions was much more of a challenge. I wanted them all. And while I love online shopping, is there anything better than seeing and touching and dreaming in person? 

Kudos to the friendly Pier 1 gal who was completely helpful and gracious as I was moving furniture and cushions around in the store. Because it's very difficult to commit to new stuff unless you establish a relationship. Am I right?

I opted for solid seat cushions in bright green for the settee and orange for the armchair. I chose the Kaeden pillows to pull in all those fabulous bright colors. 

If you've been following my crazy on Instagram (I'm Smrtqbn, by the way), you know that I have been a little bit on the obsessed side with these ceramic stools. I just couldn't decide between red or green. If you know me at all, you could have safely guessed I'd go for the red one, of course. Because....hello...RED.

I think it makes an ideal plant stand, don't you? I'm thinking that if I just had one Summer accent piece to choose, this would be the one. 

The ottoman is the perfect size for us to use as a coffee table, and of course to put our feet up when we're not. I added the red lacquer bamboo tray for when we serve drinks out here. I'm so looking forward to my Saturday Porch Time with my next-door-neighbor and friend, Debbie. See how wonderfully inviting this looks?

If you look a little closer, you will see that there's a $50 Gift Card from Pier 1 that could possibly have your name on it.

That's right. Today's giveaway is a $50 Pier 1 Imports Gift Card for you to do some mad summer shopping yourself. 

1) To enter this drawing for the $50 Pier 1 Imports Gift Card please click on this link - Pier 1 Imports and choose a few items you might like to have on your own Summer Outdoor Wish List. (Or maybe it's your Summer Entertainment Wish List, or your Stuff I Really Like Wish List. You choose. It's your List, after all.) Maybe you need a gift for someone special? 

2) Leave a comment on this post and tell me what you chose. 

Please leave your comment on this post and I'll choose a winner on Friday, May 30th, 2014 at 11am PST. 

Hello, Summer! 

Disclosure: This is a compensated campaign campaign in collaboration with Pier 1 Imports and Latina Bloggers Connect. The opinions are all my own.

Making My Summer Bright with Pier 1

It's 90 degrees here in our little corner of Southern California and I know it's only May, but this weather is making me sooo ready for summer. 

As I mentioned before, we have been in serious remodel mode around here. Read about that here:

Where There Is Life, There Will Be a Mess

And now that the painting is complete, everything else that we had outside is looking a little old and shabby. Not in a cool, shabby-chic way, either. See what I mean?

I started with the question: What do we actually do on our front porch? 

Actually, we spend a lot of time there.

It only gets a tiny bit of setting sunlight because of it's north facing position, so we can sit out there comfortably pretty much any time of the day. Eric sits out there when he's working from home and catching up on phone calls.

We love to sit out there together in the late afternoon and do the recap of our day together with some iced tea. (Or maybe some Cuban Materva or a cafecito, but that's not important right now.)

Also, my next door neighbor and dear friend, Debbie comes over just to chat and catch up on the events of the week. This usually happens on a Saturday morning, with a cup of coffee. We call it our "Porch Time." It feels very comfortably Cuban in an old-school "portál" way.

So, now that the old wooden beams are torn down and the house is painted a sunny yellow, I felt like we needed to give some love to our Front Porch/Patio area.

Enter Pier 1 Imports. I had already been thinking and looking for inspiration for how to make our paito more colorful, which in 2014 means pinning ideas to Pinterest, of course.

I know. I know. Pinterest World has a wonderful element of perfection to it, which is both overwhelming and wonderful. I've always been the tear-stuff-I-like-out-of-magazines-for-inspiration type, so I like to spend time really thinking about what it is I want to do and what feeling I'm trying to evoke and then I start pinning away. 

(Also, if you don't already follow me, please consider this your official invitation to follow me on Pinterest. Thank you.)

I knew I wanted lots of color. Bright, happy, vivid, summer colors. Like there's always a party going on out on my porch. You're already catching my vision, aren't you?

I've been pinning my bright, happy, vivid, summer color on the following Pinterest board: Pier 1 Outdoor Oasis. 

Allow me to share a bit of that inspiration:

I fell in love with this beautiful wicker collection called Coco Cove. I like that it's a dark, chocolate brown, which will make the super bright pillows and cushions I plan to add pop just that much more. 

I loved that little ceramic end table thing. I found this one at Pier 1 in red and also in green. Once I decide on the cushions for the furniture, I can make a better decision about the color, I think. Although...hello...RED!

I'm shopping online for this one and having it delivered because, well, can you picture me wrapping my chubby little arms around this beauty? I thought not. Yay for online shopping. Thanks, Pier 1!

So I pinned photos of outdoor spaces and found they all had tons of color in them. "Hmm..." I said to myself. (because I often speak to myself in thoughtful tones, but that's not important right now) "I'm obviously on to something here."

I probably should have just said, "You're sooo predictable." (Of course, I'm attracted to color. Hello! Cuban!)

Pier 1 Imports is totally speaking my language. They have tons of bright and colorful made-for-Marta items.

Not really sure where or how I'd hang these lanterns, but aren't they fabulous? I took a vow I'd find a way to work at least one into my decor.

Also, I'm thinking I need a table of some sort for our coffee cups or iced tea (or Materva). We don't really eat out there, but a table is a necessary thing for Porch Time, don't you agree? 

I found that in the original Coco Cove Collection that I was first drawn to there was a small ottoman that could double as a table if I added a tray to the top. Win! (Can you just feel my creative wheels turning?)

I'm going with Bright (!), but there's something for every taste in the stores. 

So, I'm pinning, and visiting my local Pier 1, and shopping online to create a beautfully bright summer place. I promise I'll share The Big Reveal next week. 

Hurry, Summer! 

Disclosure: This is a compensated campaign campaign in collaboration with Pier 1 Imports and Latina Bloggers Connect. The opinions are all my own.