Monthly Archives: September 2011

What I Haven’t Worn Yet

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Just a heads up: Though I love fashion and clothes and outfits and “lewks,” you probably won’t see a “what I wore” post from me any time soon. Know why? Because what I wore is jeggings, a Target tank top and a grandpa cardigan. Oh, except for last Saturday. That was when I was planning to spend the day outside in the sun, but realized that none of my shorts fit, so I threw a hissy fit until Brad let me cut up a pair of his jeans. He didn’t have a choice – his pants were the only ones left in the house that fit me, and I certainly couldn’t go out pantsless. Not before having a few cocktails, anyway.

No, I am not knocked up. Pick up your jaw from the floor. I’m just enjoying some post-wedding weight gain. All jokes aside, it is not cool. I love my clothes, and I can’t wear any of them. Not even my “fat jeans.” But it’s totally my fault – I spent three months eating everything in sight and barely working out, and that’s what happens. Time for me to face the consequences, and then, time for me to get my ass in gear.

I’ve got a (sort of) foolproof plan to drop the extra pounds, but until that happens, no fun clothes for me. All I can do is look … and sigh … and eat some Twizzlers … and sigh some more.

Here’s my “wish I was comfortable in my own skin” wish list.

  1. Topshop Taupe Asymmetrical Jacket (To be paired with something dark and edgy, like #4.)
  2. Topshop Self Tie Silk Shorts (To be worn with tights, ankle boots and a leather jacket.)
  3. Robert Rodriguez Silk Sequin Panel Dress (To be worn in my dreams, in which I am very, very rich.)
  4. J Brand 901 Waxed Legging Jeans (To be worn with EVERYTHING.)
  5. Marc by Marc Jacobs Babylon Stripe Sweater (To be worn with jeggings, if they survive being stretched out within an inch of their life.)
  6. Rebecca Taylor Faux Fur Bomber (To be worn for a maximum of two months, the only amount of time in which it’s cold enough to require faux fur in Atlanta.)

Sigh.

     

Scared of Stenciling

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As I mentioned last week, I’m planning to refinish a big ol’ wood media cabinet for my office. Though we did buy it used, it wasn’t all that cheap, and I’m kind of terrified to ruin it. I should have started it this weekend, but a) I’m afraid, and b) I spent the majority of the weekend attending and then recovering from Music Midtown.

So, as I wait for the courage, I’m thinking more about what I’d like to do to it. Originally, I thought about adding O’verlays to the doors, but I’d have to get a custom size, and that’d be more than I’d like to spend. The other option is a stencil, but stencils are intimidating. I was never good with them as a child, and I wouldn’t expect to have any stenciling skills nowadays.

But when I saw this image today, the inspiration just hit me and I felt like I had to stencil this mother.


via Marcus Design

How pretty is that gold design? I love the way the semicircles mimic the demilune shape. I started thinking about my Cricut, which is a cutting machine that I spent a pretty penny on for my wedding. I spent extra to get the largest one available at the time, but never ended using its full cutting area of 12″x24″. You know what that giant cutting area is great for? … Making big stencils. I can do this.

I wanted a fairly simple design that would reflect the boxy shape of the cabinet. And luckily, one of my favorite designs just so happens to be overlapping squares. Have you guys seen my blog’s background? Yeah – that one.

I’ve wanted these West Elm chairs for ages. (I’m watching you, Craigslist!)


via Style at Home

I found a similar wall stencil on Etsy.


from royaldesignstencils

And I feel pretty confident that the design is well-suited to cabinet doors, based on this credenza from my new favorite dream store.


from Room Service

I dove right in and made some squares in Illustrator, and then imported it into my Cricut software, Sure Cuts A Lot. It looks pretty promising, I think!

I’ll just hook my Cricut up to my computer, load in some posterboard, and hit “Cut,” then I’m in business. I’m feeling pretty good about this, but I rarely take action without creating some sort of mock-up. You know what that means, y’all. Bust out the excellent Photoshop skills again!

God, I’m talented. By the way, it has been hinted that my genius mock-ups look more like a product of MS Paint than Photoshop. Well, friends, you are wrong. I work on a Mac. I don’t have MS Paint. So there.

Before I take a paintbrush to my cabinet, of course, I’ll definitely need to practice stenciling somewhere else. I’m thinking about making something with metallic gold chevron, like this amazing tray that the beautiful Sylvie of silver lining pinned a couple weeks ago.


from up in the air somewhere

Thoughts, friends? Does anyone know if stenciling is hard for naturally sloppy and impatient people? Got any great stenciling tutorials to share? Help a sister out!

EDIT: Perfect timing! Young House Love just posted a fantastic stenciling tutorial – complete with video – this morning! Thank you, blog gods.

     

Dahlias and Discoveries

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My mom calls Brad and me “The Bickersons,” and our friend Mary Alice often has to remind us that she “hates when Mom and Dad fight.” We’re two strong-minded, passionate people who always want to be right, and sometimes (OK, a lot of times), that leads to an argument. But I do hope our friends and family know how great our relationship really is. I had a nice reminder last week.

  

When we were planning our wedding, I discovered that I absolutely loved dahlias, so when we moved into our new place, Brad planted some in the front yard for me. We didn’t really time it right, though, so while we had several plants come up, we only had one that bloomed. Brad wanted to make sure I was able to enjoy it, and he knew that I was stupidly excited about a vase I had “made” out of a Patron bottle, so he cut the flower and brought it in for me. Isn’t it pretty?

I wanted to take a picture of it immediately, just in case it drooped overnight, but the batteries in our external flash were dead. My friend Jess had just told me that fixed 50mm lenses can take better pictures in low light, so I gave it a try. I’d shunned the fixed lens in the past, because I didn’t like not being able to zoom, but man, was I missing out! It’s definitely a little harder to shoot with (especially because I’m clueless about photography), but I liked the results a lot.

I love these next three photos of Macy. I think I’m going to frame them and hang them in my office/happy place.

Isn’t she photogenic? My little model.

     

All Tied Up

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I’ve never been a big fan of super-girly fashion. It’s just not my style, and plus, I don’t think it flatters my frame. I go for structured clothes and chunky accessories, all the way.

Having said that, though … There’s just something about the tie-neck blouses that are popping up all over the place. They’re fun and flirty, yet at the same time, so grown-up. I might be willing to break my No Blouses rule for these, but I’d have to pair it with something more structured and edgy on the bottom.

    
    

1. Top: Alice + Olivia. Skirt: AIKO.
2. Top: Zac Posen. Skirt: LNA.
3. Top: Diane von Furstenberg. Skirt: Aqua.

    
    

4. Top: Marc by Marc Jacobs. Skirt: Forever 21.
5. Top: Trouvé. Skirt: Gap.
6. Top: Alice + Olivia. Skirt: Zara.

And of course, all these outfits would be perfect with my new House of Harlow ankle boots.

Man, I’m liking pink one day and chiffon blouses the next! I don’t even know myself anymore!

     

Lacquer and Lucite and Louis Chairs, Oh My!

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It’s no secret that I kind of die for The Rachel Zoe Project. The plot may not be super-thrilling, but the eye candy alone is enough to keep my interest permanently piqued. When Taylor was on the show, I would tune in every week with my laptop by my side, desperately searching the internet for every leather item and gold accessory that showed up on her spindly frame. I think her fantastic taste is singularly responsible for my current credit card debt.

Nowadays, there’s a significant dearth of stripes, almost-all-leather outfits, amazing ankle boots, and of course, Taylor’s ubiquitous Wayfarers, but there’s still plenty of pretty to look at. In last night’s episode, Rachel’s new assistant, Jeremiah (speaking of eye candy, AM I RIGHT?!), worked on decorating Rachel and Rodger’s new home. “If it were up to [Rachel],” he said to Rodger, “everything in here would be white, lacquered and mirrored. She’s like a gay man.” Me too, Jeremiah! Decorate my house next! (Bonus points if you show some of that immaculate man-cleave while you do it!)

When Jeremiah finally had Rachel’s taste pegged, he visited an L.A. store called Room Service. The moment the store’s interior appeared on my TV screen, I quite literally shrieked. My visceral reaction was mostly to these chairs:

I mean, really?!

I drooled all over my couch (figuratively) for the remainder of the scene, then grabbed my laptop to let the internet stalking commence. The store’s website did not disappoint. Check out some of my favorite pieces, but beware: drooling and shrieking may ensue.

   

All photos via the Room Service site and Flickr Photostream. Click the images to see the product page.

These people seriously know how to do a credenza. Their pieces are eons away from a price range I could ever afford, but luckily, it’s free to look! And in the case of this insane life-size horse lamp, it’s free to laugh.

What a noble (and functional) beast.

     

Holy Hardware!

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Lucky me – I’m cursed blessed with a husband who actually cares about interior decorating. I appreciate his enthusiasm and all, but the flip side of the coin is that I have to share creative control. I hate sharing.

However, our most recent rental home has three bedrooms, and because I work from home fairly often, I got one of them as my office! This means that for the first time since college—when I was too poor and clueless to know anything about decorating—I have my very own room that’s all mine to design. I call it My Happy Place.

The plan for this room is bright, glossy white furniture with gold and sunshine yellow accents. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to replace everything at once, so I’m working with used Craigslist pieces and remnants from my dorm room. Some of it will be refinished, and some of it will be simply tolerated for the time being. For now, I’ve been working on making little tweaks. Tweak #1: Hardware adjustments.

One of the “tolerate for the time being” pieces was the Ikea “Mikael” drawer unit. Sorry to disappoint you – they don’t sell it online anymore, so I can’t link you to it. It looks like this:

via Kaboodle

There’s actually not that much wrong with it. The shape is fine, and at first glance, the colors work. But when you look closer (in real life) … GASP! Those drawers aren’t white! They’re off-white! When you’re going for bright white, there’s nothing worse. I’d paint it, but I have no idea what it’s made out of. The only option to make it more bearable? GO FOR THE GOLD!


[There are so many hanging cords in this photo. They're driving me nuts. The Hubs needs to staple those jerks underneath the carpet, stat.]

I just spray-painted the drawer pulls. I’m not sure if anyone else would notice the difference, but I think I actually might like this little guy now! Maybe I’ll do some research on how to paint it. I just bought some spray lacquer for another office project, and I think the drawer fronts might really enjoy being a little glossier. That black lamp needs a makeover, too. I’ll deal with that later.

After I finish refinishing a $15 Ikea Rast nightstand as my practice project, I’m going to tackle this beast:

No, not the heinous 2002-era TV: the media cabinet. We bought it on Craigslist. It’s solid pine and has some potential, I think. I’m planning to paint it mostly white with gold accents, and then of course, hit it with a bunch of lacquer. Kind of like this, but shinier:

I’m awesome at Photoshop. Shut your mouth.

I tried spray-painting the existing knobs gold, but they came out terrible. Plus, they’re too small.


Yuck.

Luckily, I found these pretty ones at Lowe’s.

They’re clear from the side, but a really pretty, warm yellow from the front. I can’t wait to see how they look against white!

I’m feeling pretty good about this cabinet. Cross your fingers for me that I don’t totally destroy it when I attempt refinishing it, OK? Thanks!

PS: Can you spot the striped kitty tails in this post?

     

Strutting and Sipping

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Yesterday, despite his massive list of yardwork duties, The Hubs agreed to accompany me to East Atlanta Strut. I love festival food more than … well, more than a fat kid loves festival food. So I was pretty pumped. Obviously, we ate everything in sight.

It was 72 degrees yesterday. The fact that it was 20 degrees cooler than what we were used to made us think that we could dress for fall. Idiots. We roasted, and I ended up having to strip down to a skimpy tank top. My beach bod is long gone, so my apologies in advance for that. Ah, well. Funnel cake!

I generally don’t support funnel cake. I consider it to be the poor man’s fried dough, and it really bothers me that it only comes with sugar. Where’s the marina sauce at? Am I right, fellow Connecticut residents? But I decided to put my prejudices aside and eat some anyway. I’m so open-minded, it hurts.

We also discovered that a bar was selling frozen margaritas for just $5. We spent a lot of time on a bench outside that bar.

Brad had a raspberry margarita, and as you can see in the image above, it was really just a regular margarita with raspberry syrup poured on top. When we got home, I decided to see if I could do better.

I was hoping to post the recipe for what I came up with, but unfortunately, it’s very difficult to record the Mix-By-Smell method. I use it for pretty much everything. It entails pouring things into a mixing receptacle until the mixture smells the way I want it to.

Works like a charm, but makes it difficult to write down recipes. My guess for my ingredients would be this:

  • 2 parts tequila
  • 2 parts fresh lime juice
  • 1 part Triple Sec or any orange-flavored liqueur
  • A small squirt of agave nectar – not too much! It’s very sweet!
  • A handful of raspberries (I think I used about six)

Helpful, right?

And of course, don’t forget a bunch of ice.

I served these in my favorite Crate & Barrel margarita glasses with salt, but they’d also be great with cocktail sugar.

My last stroke of tipsy genius led me to add a raspberry to each glass as a garnish. “Ooh, pretty!” was my reaction.

“Ooh, boobs!” was Brad’s. Sigh.

     

Skulls That Sparkle

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Guess what, guys! Halloween is now just six weeks away. To most people, that probably means it’s almost time to start decorating. For me, it means I’ve already been working on my costume for weeks. Growing up, Halloween was always my favorite holiday. Now that trick-or-treating isn’t involved, it’s lost some of its appeal, but I still get giddy when October approaches.

A while ago, I came across a post on Cupcakes and Cashmere about Emily’s Halloween decor. Predictably, I fell in love with this black glitter skull from Z Gallerie.


via Cupcakes and Cashmere

I just had to have one, but the store near me didn’t have them yet. My extreme impatience led to ambition, and I decided to attempt making my own.

Apparently, Michael’s likes to give crafty holiday lovers some lead time on the decorations, because they already had plenty of Halloween pieces. I spotted a shelf of paper maché skulls, and I was in business. I also grabbed some black spray paint and gorgeous fine black glitter.

Creating a glitter skull seemed like a fairly simple process in my head. 1) Spray paint the skull. 2) Hit it with a buttload of spray adhesive (my favorite is 3M Super 77). 3) Dump a bunch of glitter on top. 4) Step back and admire.

I already owned a nifty funnel tray to catch and re-use the extra glitter. So quick and easy, right?

Wrong.

It looks all right in that photo, but trust me – in person, it ain’t pretty. The glitter was clumpy and uneven, and I couldn’t touch the damn thing without getting glitter all over my entire life. Even after a coat of Krylon Clear Sealer, the glitter wouldn’t stay put. Luckily, I had a back-up plan.

While I was at Michael’s, I had spotted a product I hadn’t seen before: Krylon Glitter Blast in “Starry Night.”

I had purchased it in hopes of adding some extra sparkle on top of the regular glitter. But when I tried it out on the ground (my expert testing area), I found that it was incredible on its own. I immediately ran right out to buy more in “Golden Glow.” I already had gold spray paint, because … duh.

I hit my next two skulls with Krylon Spray Primer, then coated them with some gorgeous, glossy spray paint.

Before I started spraying the glitter, I wondered to myself if it was actually made of colored paint PLUS glitter, or if it was just glitter with a clear coat. Being the genius that I am, I tested it out on … my hand. While wearing my engagement ring and wedding bands. Yeah, I still haven’t gotten the little black bits off. Not sure I ever will.

FYI: It’s just glitter with a clear coat. Good to know.

Anyway, I made one gold skull and two black skulls – one for me, and one for my fellow-glitter-skull-loving-friend, Jeff. I lined them up for a photo shoot with the jacked up original skull (all the way to the right) because I felt sorry for it.

I have to admit that the gold one is my favorite. I named him Disco Skull.

I intended to put the glitter skulls in my foyer with the rest of my Halloween decor, but I love them too much to be so far away from them. I think they’ll live in my office, where I spend most of my time when I’m at home.

I have to be honest: they’ll probably stay there all year long.

     

Just a Little Pink

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Despite my love of nail polish, Gossip Girl and sparkles, I’ve never considered myself a girly girl. And I’ve certainly never considered myself the kind of girl who likes pink. Black combat boots have always been more my speed than patent leather Mary Janes, you know? But my Pinterest account begs to differ.


from AREAWARE


via The Inspired Bride


from COZAMIA


via Marcus Design


via The Sweetest Occasion


from Phyllis Morris


via Pinterest


via wood love

What can I say? Maybe I’m just going through a phase. Or maybe we all have a secret pink lover inside of us, waiting to show herself when the tough exterior wears away.

     

Tuesday Shoesday: Laser Croco

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I want to kiss whoever came up with the concept of “Tuesday Shoesday” right on the mouth. For me, honestly, every day is Shoesday, but I love that there’s a specific day in the blogosphere dedicated to my favorite fashion item.

For my very first Tuesday Shoesday, I’d like to introduce my new girlfriend, Natalia.


[House of Harlow 1960 "Natalia" - Photo via Shopbop]

I told myself that this year, I could have just one pair of fancy shoes for fall. I’ve had my eye on Natalia for quite some time. Week after week, I watched her sell out on Shopbop and stalked her on several other sites. When Shopbop received a new shipment and my size became available again, I paced around the house deliberating for days. At the same time, The Hubs had secretly stashed away the knowledge of my latest craze, and as soon as he needed a favor, out came The Bribery Card. Before long, I was happily clicking “Place order,” and Brad’s friend was shacking up on our couch.

Natalia is so worth it.

house of harlow natalia haircalf

I was originally a little hesitant about ordering the haircalf in “laser croco” instead of the plain ol’ black leather (I mean, they’re hairy!), but I ultimately decided that if I was going to spend a pretty penny on some pretty shoes, they’d better be extra special. Since I already own several pairs of black leather boots, this was a no brainer.

house of harlow natalia haircalf

I love that these ankle boots don’t torment me with the age-old “do I tuck my jeans in or pull them down over?” question. I love the beige sole. And I especially love that they remind me so much of the gorgeous Giuseppe Zanotti platform booties I’ve been seeing everywhere, except they were less than half the price and are much more manageable to walk in.

house of harlow natalia haircalf

Natalia, girlfriend, I think we’re going to have a really solid relationship.

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