Online Shopping

I ordered these shorts from Jcrew and they were waiting for me on the porch when I returned home yesterday after a very Manic Monday. My purchase was made extra special with a 20% coupon found in my recent catalog to put towards my already on sale shorts. Whoot-Whoot!

Jonathan Adler

Jonathan Adler is another designer that I adore. He splashes fun all over his designs. In fact, if I had my pick at any designer to style my home, TODAY- it would be him. Here's some of his work that I fancy:

Until Mr. Adler can make arrangements to style my home, I'm thinking about purchasing his new covers he has designed for iphones. You can buy them at See Jane Work. Enjoy!

Katie and Crew

Be still my heart for the love of Jcrew. By the way, have you see the photo shoot styled by Jcrew for the upcoming movie The Romantics?! Well you should. Here you go:

My Guest Bathroom is a Blog Star

Erin (yes, her name is Erin too) at House of Turquoise posted my guest bathroom pictures on her blog. HERE, you can check out the complete post!

Drapes

With the fabric I find HERE for my future drapes, when I escape reality for a few days(very soon), I want to add a ruffle like this:

O, how I love a drape that drags the ground a bit. Now when I see any shorter of a length, it reminds me of "highwater" pants. I regret to admit that I own highwater drapes.

Kelly Wearstler

Yes, more Kelly Wearstler. I was watching a Color Splash the other day and had to pick my mouth up off the floor as David took his audience on a tour through the Viceroy Hotel in Miami, Florida. Now, I so desperately want need to go there. I heart Kelly Wearstler's style. I see my own personality in a lot of things she does. I wish I could afford to have her style our home. My favorite top three four things that she adds with ease and perfection: Pops of Color, Rich Awesome Textures, Dramatic Furniture & Accessories, and Fabulous Over Sized Art. The images below are from the Viceroy!

Design Star Recap-Finale

I was UBER-excited to see that Emily won Design Star this season. I had decided last week that I loved her show pitch and secretly hoped someone would pick up the idea in case she lost. I will be watching or recording her show every week. Secrets From a Stylist starts this week too! Here's the skinny for this week's show layout:

"Do you truly know what you like or don't like when it comes to interior design? Or do you need an expert to help evolve your taste? In this 1-hour special, Design Star winner Emily Henderson will customize a room layer-by-layer through great styling and decor techniques in three different evolutions in order to fine tune it to the very specific likes of our homeowner – the co-creator of the hip show Glee. In the process she teaches him her Secrets From A Stylist. After determining the perfect design style for that one room, our designer will go on to style out two others so that the entire home is transformed."

My Dog Ate It

In case you have forgotten, I am a college student again. I am more than overwhelmed right now and I'm only taking 1 online course. The accelerated courses are your standard 16 weeks courses crammed into 9 weeks. My current course concludes in October and I will then pick up 2 new courses. EEK!
Between emailing my small group, completing HUGE homework assignments, and studying for weekly quizzes-I'm finding it hard to come out of my cave on the weekends after traveling for work during the week.

Thank goodness I'm only a mommy to a fur-baby! This is typical Cooper while I do my homework:

West Virginia

I found myself HERE golfing in a charity tournament for one of our customers last week. The course was absolutely beautiful and the event was a lot of fun.

Annually, I host my company's charity tournament. It's nice to see what others do in preparation for different events. Somehow coordinators always tend to compare notes at the end of the day.

I had to keep it girly. What did you expect? Here's my ball of choice:

Chicago

Sorry for the lame amount of posts recently. I have been a busy working lady state-hopping and living out of a suitcase from week to week. Luckily, I got to see our dear friends Caroline and Sean while I was in Chicago. I even stayed the night at Hotel De Caroline & Sean for the first night I was in town. Caroline and I ventured to THIS yummy place for dinner and dined out on the patio. We had such a good time laughing until it hurt and drinking Pinot Grigio, but who doesn't have fun doing that?!

The next day I found myself here:

I thought about streaking the field. Don't you think I could've taken that guard out? By the way, how great are my seats?!

Before leaving, I made a point to eat one of these:

Of course we had pizza too, check out this innovative mirror idea I saw while waiting for our pizza! I think it would look killer in a dining room...something fun and unexpected.

Design Star Recap

OK. I give. Last night was good. We finally witnessed an individual challenge!
We said goodbye to Casey and see ya next week to the remaining contestants; Emily and Michael. I love love love the final two. I liked Casey but looooove Emily and Michael. I do adore Michael's design ideas, such as the angled winged mirror, but I am more excited to see what Emily does each time. I would absolutely add her show to my DVR recordings. Ha! Her show pitch was genius.  To take one's outfit and design their decor aesthetic around their wardrobe sounds like a show that should be aired already!Two things I love: Fashion and Home Decor. Gosh...why didn't I think of that???

Drill Weekend

This past weekend was nuts.
I was extremely tired on Friday after catching my 6am flight home from Pittsburgh. I woke up at 3am to get to the airport. Craaaaaazy. I couldn't begin to think about scoring a nap when I got home because Lee was leaving for drill in a few hours. When he left, I did manage to catch a few zzzz's, but not for long because I had homework to complete and a quiz on Sunday! I stayed up too late on Friday and stayed in my pj's until Saturday evening-just in time to put on a fresh pair. However, with my phone on silent I did complete and my ace my homework assignments and did relatively decent on my quiz.
I ventured out of my cave Sunday afternoon and scored a cute pair of heels. Lee came home Sunday evening and we had date night on Campus Corner at our favorite pizza joint. I do Maui Magic. Canadian bacon, pineapple and mandarin oranges. Don't hate. It's yummers.

B's College Pad

Recently, I helped B move into her new rental house before her Fall term begins. When I left, her place was close to finished. Does this Anthro shower curtain look familiar? I've seen it on several blogs: Like THIS one, THIS one, and THIS one!

Since we were working with a rental, only minor changes could be made. We sprayed painted the brassy hardware and light fixture silver. Figured, if the property manager has a problem with the change, we'll spray it back to brassy!

It's hard to tell in this image, but we found some adorable black/white hounds tooth fabric and made a $2 curtain with Heat & Bond tape! Grandma was wishing she had her sewing machine, but I was pretty impressed with the 15 minute curtain to place over the kitchen sink. O, how I love Heat & Bond...

This punch of color on the front porch was hard to design with my Alma Mater's rival colors. However, it is cute!

Originally, the turquoise pillow was a zipper bag that housed the shower curtain. We added a 18x18 pillow insert and ta-da!

Today (Pic Update)

Don't you think every ice cream shop should have a row of chandeliers?

Can you guess which on was mine? We didn't come close to finishing half of either one.

Today

Today my feet hurt. I stood at the trade show for 5 hours near my exhibit and talked my mouth dry. I then treated my sweet tooth to a yummy ice cream sundae for dinner at an old fashion parlor on my way back to the hotel. I took a picture with my phone and I would show you, but my phone is lacking reception. Maybe tomorrow? Until then, stay sweet!

Design Star Recap

I know you were wondering if I was going to get around to making this post today. I almost didn't. I've been traveling all day, stuck in airports, and battling a monster headache. I think the headache has something to do with my sore jaw (wisdom tooth removal). Anyway, I had to check my grad school stuff online because it all starts today! Whew...
Back to Design Star...I'm glad Courtland went home. He didn't surprise me and his attitude wore me out. Although I'm not crazy about this season of team challenges, I do like the "HOW-TO" projects. Did you not LOVE Michael's mirror? I love, love, loved it. I enjoyed watching the designer turn "chauchky" (as described by the designers) type furniture and accessories into something that could be styled into their dining room designs.
Lee watched the show with me last night. He was in disbelief that I named the challenge before it was announced and predicted who was going home before it was determined. This season is too predictable.Whatev...I'm still watching, right?!

Decorating for College

While in undergrad, I explored many stlyes of decorating. Ever year I chose something different from cottege chic quilts, zebra prints and neon paint choices. I liked moving too. Roomates and I signed a lease after every Spring term or the beginning of a new Fall semester. My parents joked about putting my furniture on rollers. Moving day was always made fun and accessorized with my need for placement perfection. Past college roomates endured my spontaneous rearrange of the furniture too. Story time: One afternoon after class, I came home and decided to put our living room furniture in the dining room and vice versa. My college roomie at the time, Caroline, enterted the house with our mutal bestie Mal and I swear their mouths hit the floor. There I was sitting in the the new "living room" with a disappointed look. Epic failure. This weekend I will be helping my cousin, Brandi move into her Sophmore house before she begins her Fall term. Last year, she decorated with all things black, cream, and red with a splash of Anthro everywhere. I am super excited to see if she does more of the same or explores a new design personality.

(Image: Brandi & I circa 2007. Football Homecoming)

Speaking of Anthro...if I were moving into MY new college space, this would be my Anthro design personality this semester:

Steal vs Splurge

See my DIY on the Menu tab for a tutorial or click HERE!

Designer: Betsey Johnson

$995 can provide you a pillow to sleep on in the newly decorated Eloise Suite designed by Betsey Johnson at the Plaza Hotel. $3,450 will allow you to host a slumber party!

I love the girly, glam Betsey Johnson adds to her design. Whether it's clothing or decor, her design always adds a splash of fun. I did manage to get a pink guest room, but I highly doubt Lee would ever go for anything like this:

More than the color pink, I like the way she adds big bold pieces to her design element. I adore the furniture, lighting, mirrors, etc. Oh my!

Laundry Room

"Before" images were given to us by our realtor prior to purchasing our home. Before

After

The baskets on the ground are separated by white and colored clothes. The basket on the counter is for dry cleaning.

What's that hanging to dry behind the door?Lee's camelbacks, of course. Eventually, I will be spraying the wall hook red or yellow. Eventually.

Also, I plan to paint this sign, "Abracadabra" because that's often what I think of when I walk into the laundry room. I'm searching for some fabric to hang over the window of the door leading out into the garage. I'm thinking about doing a red and white strip. To be cont'd...

Lee says this is a saying in the Army. I see this quote everywhere. However, I got this poster because it was $1 and I already had a frame at home. I had a matte cut to fit and ta-da I get a punch of color in my laundry room. This will be the red I use in the curtains and the painting of the other wall pieces, etc.

I want to get a basket with a lid to replace my dry cleaning lanudry. I also want something with a bit more interest. Especially if it's going to take up counter space. I'm thinking about something like this for the replacement:

Design Star Recap

We're getting down to the nitty-gritty. Alex was sent packing last night. He seemed like a good guy, but he didn't voice his opinion loud enough. We're down to the top four now! Unfortunately, I don't have a standout favorite. I would if there had been more individual designs! The team challenges have a way of blending everyone together. None of the designers have had a "WOW" moment for me. I think it's funny how literal Courtland saw the Parmesan cheese. Silly boy. Vern was right. Courtland's story was on queue but his follow through was boring. He should have brought in textured color on the walls instead of matching the room to his cheese. Emily would then have had to clutter less groceries all across the counter. By the way, seeing Emily in the bottom two gave us another chance to see her personality while hosting. It was cute!

TV Stand Dilemma

My recently engaged friends, Stacy + Charlie have just moved into a new place. Stacy is having a design dilemma decorating around their television. Here’s the skinny:

In this picture, I can see that Stacy has two free pieces of fabulous art. Idea #1: She could get a couple floating bookshelves or hooks to secure the guitars to the wall. Having a guitar on each side of the television will anchor the TV and provide height too. This idea can create instant storage and easy design. Here's snippet of my vision:

I'm going to assume that mounting the TV might be out of the question since we are decorating a rental. If mounting weren't out of the question, I would go bananas for this idea. I know I've mentioned THIS before, but I'm definitely going to frame the TV in our bedroom one day... Check it out:

I couldn't find an image to replicate my exact vision for Idea #2, but here's a couple close calls:

I love the idea of align-lefting (yes, this is an Erin phrase) the television on the stand rather than centering it. I would love to create a large mixed display of ornate and modern frames with eclectic art. This will add color and personalize your space. Frames can be easy finds at any Goodwill. Got spray paint? Choose a fun, punchy color to add some pizazz to a couple frames and get them to really stand out! The bigger the better. Have a frame but indecisive as to what to put inside the fame? Hang it empty!

Misc: I heart orchids. I can see myself putting a couple orchids and even a cute little cactus on the right side of the television to add some life to the room. Empty vases that make you drool would be cute also. I would consider moving the bookshelf in the picture and putting an accent chair under the lamp to add some more seating and provide a good reading space. (I'm reading "Eat, Love, Pray" at the moment.)

Do you have any ideas for Stacy? This is fun!