Cheers to a new year!

Normally NYE is a holiday which I love to celebrate in a very low key way. Full of movies, good snacks and my hubby.

 

This year though I’ve been bitten by the party bug. Perhaps it was helping my sisters prepare for the big night that has made me want to be donning a cocktail dress this evening instead of sweats!

 

This decision was totally made way too late so I’m still donning the sweats and actually ok about it, but in my mind I’ll be living it up like I was a guest at this party:

 

 

Ah one of my favorite movies.  Gotta love her curls!

 

I hope you all have a lovely new years! Thanks for making 2009 such a sweet year for me. It had many ups and a couple of downs as well, but with all of your love and support I was able to make it through it!!!

 

2010 will be bringing you many new DIY projects, reveals of my home (room by room), a new professional website and blog re-vamp (after 4 graphic designers I finally found the one) and hopefully, fingers crossed a bun in the oven!

 

xoxo,

Camila

Blue light special!

Last year I was lusting after this sweater from French Connection:

 

 

It never made it’s way into my hands.  It was over $150 bucks and when I actually made the decision to fork over the dough for it I couldn’t find my size at local shops.

 

This year, Kmart came to the rescue with the sweater I was still vying for with it’s look alike version. It’s available at a fraction of the price at $19.99:

 

I heart it plus it must be a good find, because Danay has already asked me to simply just give it to her please.

Jonathan Adler-esque Find!

Insanely busy today. Had to help hubby at his job for a couple of hours and then spent the afternoon with my sissy’s who are home on vaca for the week, which means I’m on vaca as well till the new year, but I had to share this fab find!

 

I’m in love! Totally screamed JA to me and it was only 70 cents!

 

I’m very sad to see it go though, because I’m hoping some new clients* give it the okay and to it’s new home it will go.

 

* Jen and Modz do you love it?

 

** Took this picture with my iphone! Thanks for all the helpful hints. So excited to check out all those apps you shared with me!!!

There’s an ap for that…

This year me and Jon decided to forgo gifts.  I of course had to buy him a thing or two even though we said we wouldn’t and simply attached Moo and Bear’s name to the card. Total loophole!

 

Moo and Bear must have been very busy this holiday season, because this little lady was gifted with an iphone!

I’m super excited about it and can’t wait to start using it to it’s potential. Only problem? Me and technology just don’t mix. So, help me out what fabulous AP’s are must haves? Any pointers, tips, etc for my new phone?

 

I have already purchased one new accessory for my new phone. The otterbox, because I tend to be a bit clumsy with my phones. Fingers crossed nothing happens to my iphone.

 

 

 

 

One of the selling points of the otterbox was that you can drop your phone off a second story window and all should be fine. We shall see….

 

What did you get under your Christmas tree?

Happy Holidays

Hello Loves,

 

It’s Christmas eve and this lady is still full of many things to check off of her to-do list!

 

Christmas shopping was finally finished yesterday (ok I guess it was also technically started yesterday as well!), presents have been wrapped and now it’s time to help my mom prep for this evening and bake some goodies.

 

 

I hope you all have a lovely holiday! My best gift was already revealed this morning. I got an email alerting me that someone had nominated me for The Homies and it wasn’t my sisters (ha ha) Woo hoo! A big thanks to whoever nominated me and those that have voted!

 

I have many big things in store for this dear blog of mine and I can’t wait to share it with all of you!

 

Sending many hugs and kisses your way.

 

xoxo,

Camila

Paper your home in High-Fashion

Vivienne Westwood has now gone from designing  clothes to also designing wallpaper for Cole and Son!

 

I love when the world of fashion collides with the world of interiors!

 

Check out more of the prints here.

 

* Thanks for the heads up sissy! Now hurry home.

Blogger Spotlight: Joy the Baker

While design will always be my number one love list next on the list of passions and dream careers would always be a baker. I’ve always dreamed of opening up a combo bake shop/bookshop. Perhaps one day it will happen. Till then I’m happy with baking as my go-to hobby!

 

 

One of my favorite baking blogs is Joy The Baker. I actually start salivating when I see all of her amazing pictures and quickly bookmark all the recipes that I want to try. With Christmas right around the corner here are a couple of things I want to taste!

 

Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies:

 

Red Velvet Black and White Cookies:

 

Peppermint Meringues:

 

I’m going to try and talk my sisters into helping me try out one of those recipes from above and I’ll report back!

 

Any other baking blogs I should know of?

 

* I just pulled the last number for my Effortless Style Give-Away. The winner is Kate who left a comment on Dec 17th, 2009 at 11:37am. Please email me at cpavone0107@gmail!

Blogger Spotlight: Nuestra vida Dulce

The past two weeks I shared a bunch of my favorite things with all of you in time for the holidays.

 

Now that Christmas is quickly approaching this week and we all probably (hopefully) have a 3 day week and 4 day weekend I thought I would use this week to share with some of my favorite reads that you can get up to date with during your days off!

 

I’m not sure what lead me to Nuestra vida Dulce, because normally one clicks leads to another and another and by the end of it I can’t even remember where I started, but I’m so happy that I found Joi!

 

 

Not only is she adorable and incredably sweet, but she is quite the queen when it comes to home projects.

 

Take a peek at some of her projects:

 

She saw the potential in this $45 craigslist find :

 

After a quick trip to the upholster she now has this in her living room:

 

You must check out this amazing DIY projectas well. How sweet are those butterflies that she made from scratch! The blue chair is actually another one of her projects as well.

She is a craigslist junkie and took this:

 

And made is look like this:

 

Due to her intense love for craiglist and her amazing ability to find fab pieces she now has a feature on her blog called, “ What's good in your hood?”. If you send her an email with your neighborhood she will get back to with her picks.

 

I love the idea of craigslist, but easily get frustrated with my searches. I’m itching to email Joi and ask for help!

 

I hope you all go over and give her visit!

 

Any great blogs that I should be reading, but I’m not yet. Keep me in the know! 

 

Don’t forget my last give-away is open till tonight at midnight, EST!

 

Emerson Made Give-away winner is Amanda!

Mythic Paint & Frog Tape Give-away winner is none other than Roeshel from The DIY Showoff! I’m certain she’ll put it to good use!

I’m so excited….

My sweet parents and two amazing sisters decided it would be a great idea to gift me and Jon with a winter get-away for Christmas! Since they know I tend to be a bit controlling and anal they decided to tell us in advance so that we could have a say in where we stayed.

We were given our very generous budget and I was all set for a Madrid/Barcelona vacation. I recently re-watched Vicky Christina Barcelona and can’t seem to get it off my mind.

 

Being that I’m not going alone I had to discuss this with Jon and since we are only going away for 4 nights/5 days he thought it was best to do a beachy type vacation and not a social studies vacation as he likes to call them.

 

So, what did we pick?

 

COSTA RICA

We are both super excited. It took me forever to find a place to stay. We tend to like small, off the beaten path hotels as opposed to massive hotels like Sandals. I know some people like them, but I guess we are anti-social, because I was searching for a hotel with the least amount of rooms.

 

After an SOS tweet I had the response I wanted. A big thank you to Millie of Brilliant Asylum for her suggestion.

 

Without further ado here is where we are staying:

{They are rated #1 on trip advisor}

 

{ Many hotels in Costa Rica say they are beach front, but then you have to walk miles away to get to it. They are actually beach front!}

 

{ There are only 6 rooms in the entire place}

 

{Daily yoga classes are included}

 

{We are staying in our own 2 story Casita!}

 

{ I look forward to curling up on that bed and reading many books! I’ve also now decided that a kindle is a necessity. Santa if you are reading this..wink wink.}

 

So, lovely readers any suggestions for Costa Rica? Well be staying in the Tamarindo area.

 

Also any takers for guest blogging while I’m away? It will be from Jan 23-27.

I swear Monday’s post will be design related. I’ve been working a super fast and inexpensive project at my Mom’s house that is about to finish up today!

 

Don’t forget about the following give-aways:

 

EMERSON MADE GIVE- AWAY OPEN TILL DEC 19TH, SATURDAY

MYTHIC PAINT GIVE-AWAY OPEN TILL DEC 20TH, SUNDAY

EFFORTLESS STYLE INTERIORS {That’s me!} GIVE-AWAY OPEN TILL DEC 21ST, MONDAY

Last Favorite things GIVE AWAY… a tear

Ah it’s so sad my list of Favorite things has slowly come to a close. I hope you all enjoyed the give-aways this year. The response has been amazing and it will now become a yearly tradition!

Last week I was finally able to watch Julie and Julia. Ever since I’ve been watching previews for this movie a certain clip has always made me a bit teary eyed.

 

In the scene Julie is explaining her love of Julia to her husband and says, “ She saved me. I was drowning and she pulled me out of the ocean.”

I hate to get sappy, but that is exactly how I feel about blogging and my readers. When I started this blog I was at a total stage of discontent with my job. I had moved around a bit trying to find the perfect fit and nothing every felt right. My thoughts always went back to being my own boss and interior design.

 

This blog gave me the confidence to do that.  My schooling is 99% finished (just waiting on my grades for my final unit), after 4 web designers I’m finally with one that is doing an amazing job on my professional site,  after that the blog gets a re-vamp and then hopefully a little secret side project I’ve been working on with some fellow bloggers will be revealed.

 

All of these give-aways was my little way of saying Thank you! There have been many ups and a couple downs this year and I have been able to get through it all with your support.

 

So, what’s my final give-away and favorite thing?

 

Well, it’s me of course!

One lucky winner will get one of my e-decorating packages

What that includes:

-Design plan that explains all the sets neccessary to get the look you want to achieve in the room.

- Design Moodboard, which provides you with inspiration images, lighting, furniture, window treatments, artwork, etc.

-Resource list, which will have all the stores/links where you can purchase items according to your project. To the trade items are available as well!

-Unlimited access to me via email with any questions, concerns you may have.

 

The rules remain the same as before. Here is what you have to do to enter!

 

- Make sure you are a follower. Either on this blog or through google reader.

 

-Leave a comment letting me know what room you want done!

 

- If you tweet about this give-away go ahead and enter again.

 

- If you post about this give-away on your blog do the same and enter again.

 

Remember anyone can enter!

 

Make sure you leave your email address with your comment.

 

This give-away will be open till Monday , Dec 21th at midnight EST

 

Readers always make for the best clients so I’m really looking forward to this!

 

Don’t forget the following give-aways are still open!

 

Emerson Made is open till Sat Dec 19th at midnight EST

Mythic Paint & Frog Tape is open till Sun Dec 20th at midnight EST

Favorite things: For the DIY-er!

Ok so this isn’t exactly a holiday gift idea, but it is one of my favorite things. I find that as the holidays roll around people are trying to make their home the best that they can be.

 

Case in point me and Mom just started a massive project yesterday to make the house prettier that needs to be finished by this weekend when my Aunt is coming to stay and spend the holidays! Talk about a time crunch!

 

I’m a complete marketers dreams and I’m not going to lie what struck the most when I saw this product was the pretty label.

 

I loved the retro vibe of it and I was pretty sold right away.

 

Mythic Paint:

 

Not only does it look pretty, but it’s 0% toxic which means it contains ZERO voc’s! It has ultra low odor plus amazing durability and coverage.

 

They have 1,232 colors in both interior and exteriors and a variety of sheens. They can also color match any competitors colors.

 

Here is what is up for grabs!

 

- 1 color deck. Color decks are one of my favorite things. I have numerous ones in my office from all the different paint vendors. It’s a well worth small splurge at your local paint shop.

- 2 gallons of paint! One gallon of paint covers 400 sq ft.

Now since the winner will be painting I couldn’t leave you without a crucial element in my painting jobs….Frog Tape!

 

The winner will also receive 2 rolls of Frog Tape!

Plus 2 Frog Tapes t-shirts!

 

In order to enter here is what you have to do!

 

- Make sure you are a follower. Either on this blog or through google reader.

 

-Leave a comment letting me know what you want to look stylish in!

 

- If you tweet about this give-away go ahead and enter again.

 

- If you post about this give-away on your blog do the same and enter again.

 

Remember anyone can enter!

 

Make sure you leave your email address with your comment.

 

This give-away will be open till Sunday , Dec 20th at midnight EST

 

Check out our latest and last GIVE-AWAY here

Don’t forget Emerson Made give-away is open till Saturday, Dec 19th at midnight EST.

 

Fabricadabra winner is Katie!

Weekend Recap: Christmas Balls

So, this past weekend my dear sister, Danay and her roomies decided to throw a housewarming/Christmas party.

I thought I was all set to go during the week. Had a stylish outfit picked out with my favorite skinny jeans and chunky sweater when both of my sisters informed me that it was a bit more formal than that and to top it off I had to dress like a Christmas Ball. Hmmm..

 

Saturday was spent running around like crazy trying to find an outfit that reflected a Christmas Ball.

 

I was in search of something full of sparkle and probably totally gaudy, but fab at the same time. Oh yea I only want to spend around $40 bucks. This was not an easy fit to accomplish.

 

I find decided to go with traditional black, a pop red with my shoes and of course some Christmas Balls!

 

Here are my stylish shoes:

I could only find an image in purple, but I got them in red. In searching for an image today I just realized that they are part of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s new line at JC PENNEY. I got a ton of compliments on them and due to a crazy sale they were only $21.

 

Here is the happy couple:

 

 

As for my Christmas Balls they were used as earrings! Everyone loved them, but they were super heavy and inserted into my ears with metal ornament hangers, which meant they were very quickly taken off. I tried to pouf my hair up. It looked wonderful at home and then deflated completely by the time I arrived. (Did I mentioned that we drove around for 40 mins looking for parking!)

 

Jon wanted a cheesy Christmas sweater to wear so I was not only searching for myself during my shopping outing. Apparently cheesy sweaters were either already sold out everywhere or no longer being sold, because this is the closest I could get to.

 

After a trip to radio shack Jon was set to rig up his lights. It’s a little hard to tell from the image, but there green and red lights on the snowflakes! He was a big hit. Guys take notice rigging lights up on your outfit will the get the attention of every girl or guy at the party. Jon had his pick with everyone vying for his attention.

 

Here is a family shot so you can see what everyone else was wearing.

 

Lauren (our sister from another mother) came dressed in plaid, Danay (our hostess with the mostess) was in 80s garb with a poufy tulle dress and statement headband, Ximena (my other sissy) came as a Hanukah ball and was dressed in silver and blue from head to toe.

 

Ok so one more picture that I totally have to add. My sister, Ximena completely hates when people give a thumbs-up. So you must know what I had to whisper to Jon about a second before she snapped a pic.

 

 

All in all fun was had. I laughed and laughed and laughed some more, which was completely what the Doctor ordered. We finally called it a night at 2 am. Ah we are getting old. These other young things stayed out to the wee hours of the morning.

Don't forget to enter to win some of the latest give-aways

Favorite Things: Emerson Made GIVE-AWAY

You know that girl? She is always stylish, completely beautiful, talented, smart, the list goes on and on.

Well I know one of those girls and she was kind enough to join me in my holiday give-away and share some of her talented.

 

Enter the breath taking work of Emerson Made:

 

She give’s Carrie Bradshaw a run for her money with her handcrafted blooms!

 

One lucky winner can pick from the following items:

 

7" Big Poppy

One flower clutch:

 

Set of 4  E.A.T. napkins:

 

Dahlia Stash:

 

In order to enter here is what you have to do!

 

- Make sure you are a follower. Either on this blog or through google reader.

 

-Leave a comment letting me know what you want to look stylish in!

 

- If you tweet about this give-away go ahead and enter again.

 

- If you post about this give-away on your blog do the same and enter again.

 

Remember anyone can enter!

 

Make sure you leave your email address with your comment.

 

This give-away will be open till Saturday , Dec 19 at midnight EST

 

Don’t forget the Fabricadabra give-away is open till tonight at midnight.

 

Blueprint Bliss Winner: Linds

Jess LC Winner: Jen

Dabney Lee at Home Winner: Emily Johnson

Decorative Instincts Winner: Tara

 

Busy working today on my nutty project. Will share details tomorrow. Give-away tomorrow is a wonderful find the DIY-er!

Stay tuned for Weekend Recap later on today! Aren't you excited to see what I wore to my Christmas Balls fete!

PoP into action!

Today I’m very lucky to be taking part in a wonderful event.  Several bloggers are coming together today in a collaborative effort spearheaded by Paloma Contreras of La Dolce Vita,  in order to make a difference for a very deserving charity. Pencils of Promise is a  wonderful 501(c)(3) organization based in New York, that partners with local  communities and organizations to build schools of early-stage education in developing nations for some of the world’s most impoverished and undereducated children.  Sadly, there are more than 75 million children in this terrible situation worldwide.

 

Our hope for today’s blogger collaboration is to raise money to help the people of  Champet, a village that is home to the only high school in the area for surrounding villages.  In order to attend this high school, the students must leave their families and homes to live in dormitories like boarding school style, only that the style is far from what comes to mind when we think of boarding conditions in the US dormitories. Most importantly we wanted to point out that girls are moving and living in these unsafe dormitories which consists of make shift bamboo huts.  It is heartbreaking but so courageous at the same time.

 

The money from this event will go to building a dormitory will accommodate about 200 Laotian girls.

 

In the spirit of the holiday season, we are asking for your help today on behalf of these children. Just think of the enormous impact we could have if each person who reads this post donates just $1.00.

 

We are in the midst of the giving season and hope that you will find it in your heart to make a donation to this worthy cause.

If you would like to stay informed about the difference Pencils of Promise is making, be sure to become a fan on their Facebook page.

 

To learn more about PoP check out this video:

 

 

So, dear readers of mine I would love it if we could all join together and help out this cause! I don’t talk about it a lot on my blog, but I’m a huge believer of giving back and trying to help everyone I can. Girl power is always my main cause and last year my main cause was helping V-day. This year my eyes are set on helping Pencils of Promise!

 

Give-aways will be back tomorrow! Plus info on a nutty project I decided to take on with and have a handful of days to accomplish!

 

* All images are by photographer Nick Onken.

Santa Baby: Great $20 gift find!

I know ceramic garden stools have been around for some time now.

I always oh and ah when I see them in magazines, but

I’ve yet to bite the bullet and pick one up for my self.

I’ve seen them at numerous price points from ridiculously expensive to a steal at Homegoods.

Today though I found some at even better than a steal!

Available at Big Lots and only $20! I went and checked them out. They are perfect and sturdy. A total must buy. Talk about a wow gift for a secret Santa exchange.

 

Did I get one? No, I walked away empty handed thinking maybe there are just too many of them out there to be unique. But now as I was getting images for my post I realized how much I do like them. So, guess who is going back tomorrow to snag a white one.

 

I hope you are all having an enjoyable weekend. I’m about to get ready for a Christmas fete I have this evening. The theme was Christmas Balls.  I have two outfits to pick from a black short mini dress or a sequined leopard number. Both total impulse buys from today. Either way I’m going to be rocking some red lipstick! I’ll talk pics and report back on Monday.

 

FYI: Jon is in the shop trying to rig some LED lights to his outfit! I’ve already heard an Oops from there so we’ll see how things go.

 

Enjoy all the GIVE-AWAYS!

Favorite things: Fabricadabra GIVE-AWAY

Many times a room in your house can get a quick new look by simply switching out accessories.

 

I tend to have a small pillow problem and my hubby’s closet is stuffed with my extra toss pillows for the living room that I like to rotate to switch things up.

 

Now being a design lover I know that many designer pillows are in the $100 and up range. That’s a bit too much for this thrifty lady. But don’t you worry for those of us who are watching our wallets there is Fabricadabra. With a price point in the $40-$50 range a new pillow could be on your doorstop in days.

 

I contacted Donna and she was more than happy to participate in my favorite things give-away.

 

One lucky winner will be getting a pillow of their choice!

 

Here’s what I’ve had my eye on:

 

Yellow and green is always a favorite combo of mine:

I’m trying to talk a client into using some suzani fabric in their home so this pillow was calling my name:

 

This reminds me of NY so it’s a must have as well:

Want to add a little Rubie Green into your life? I know I do. There are many RG options to pick from. You knew I would have to go with zebra.

 

In order to enter here is what you have to do!

 

- Make sure you are a follower. Either on this blog or through google reader.

 

-Leave a comment letting me know what pillow you would want!

 

- If you tweet about this give-away go ahead and enter again.

 

- If you post about this give-away on your blog do the same and enter again.

 

Remember anyone can enter!

 

Make sure you leave your email address with your comment.

 

This give-away will be open till Tuesday , Dec 15 at midnight EST.

 

Don’t forget you still have time to enter the following give-aways:

 

Blueprint Bliss give-away ends tonight at midnight EST

JESS LC give-away ends Saturday, Dec 12th at midnight EST

Dabney Lee at Home give-away ends Sunday, Dec 13th at midnight EST

Decorative Instincts give-away ends Monday, Dec 14th at midnight EST

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.