Happy Halloween!

Hi Loves,

I'm certain many of you are counting down the hours till the weekend were many halloween costumes will be worn and parties will be attended.

I'm pretty low key for Halloween. It's been years since I actually dressed up, but today I started to get the finally that it might be fun to get all dolled up and go out. We'll see what happens.

Wonder if I can talk Jon into something like this:

Don't they look like a fun couple? The picture above is actually part of the NY Times archive photos that are now available for purchase on their site. They asked 5 well know interior designers for their top 10 favorite photo's. Leopard people happens to be one of Jonathan Adler'sfavorites.

My pal Julia was lucky enough to interview him about out. Check it out here!

Now what are you dressing up as for Halloween? I'm sort of leaning towards Sookie and Bill from True Blood or Kourtney and Scott from the Kardashians, but I have a feeling Jon's not going to love my suggestions.

IN HER SHOES: Design Dump

Blogger Autumn from Design Dump has been on my radar for quite some time now. Not only is she an amazing interior designer, but she's a wonderful mom to 3 kiddos and wife to her contractor husband. How fun! Due to her husband's career they have lived and remodeled many homes and her blog readers are the lucky ones that get to do none of the work, but see all of the jaw dropping before and afters, diy projects and tips of trade.

One of my favorite rooms designed by Autumn:



Autumn gets more accomplished in her day than I ever do! Not sure how she does it. She manages to juggle mom duties, design work and being a super cool wife all perfectly.

Enjoy!
________________________________________________________________________________________________
7:15 My alarm goes off. Usually I hit the snooze button at least twice, but this morning, I have three kids to get in costumes for the annual Halloween Parade at school. I lay in bed for a few minutes, checking my e-mail on my iphone. I'm guest posting today at Finding Fabulous, and so I sneak on the computer, and copy the address from the post, and quickly write a linking post for my blog.




7:25  I shower, throw on a pair of jeans, sneakers, a blue and white striped button down and an orange jacket, in honor of the Hallowen festivities. My husband, Allen wakes the kids up (Olivia-11, Charlotte-9, and Grady-6), while I dry my hair.


7:45 As Allen walks out the door, I kiss him, (he's getting a ride with a friend) and he takes out the trash. I ask you ladies, is anything sexier than a man taking out the trash?  I think not...well, maybe a man vacuuming or installing a light fixture...


8:00 It's breakfast time...grits and scrambles eggs. My southern husband and my 12+ years in the south has rubbed off on me! Plus, I'm trying to offset the sugar I know the kids are going to get at school today.


8:15 The next 20 minutes are a blur. I transform my pajama-clad kids into Medusa, Cleopatra, and one ferociously cute pirate, pack lunches, and make sure that they all have a change of clothes for after the parade. I somehow manage to throw some hot rollers in my hair, put some makeup on my face,  give my pirate a scar and a goatee, and put makeup on Cleopatra and Medusa.

8:35 Leave the house with 4 kiddos (it's my turn for carpool with my neighbor) for the 1.25 mile drive to school. I'm turning around in our cul de sac when I realize the hot rollers are still in my hair! Ahhhh! Run back into the house, take out the rollers and spray some hairspray on my hair. Ah...better!

8:45 At the school, I drop off the 6 dozen cookies and 32 treat bags I made last night, claim a primo spot in the gym for the parade, and chat with other moms until the Halloween Parade starts. After the Parade, I help out for a few minutes at my oldest daughters party, and then kiss her goodbye.

9:30 Head to my husbands office. They have hired me to do some work on their lobby and a private office, and I am just wrapping up a few last minute items. I grab two large frames, and the 2 new photographs that I selected to go in them, and check on a few photos that will be mounted in the office of the VP.

 10:00 I realize I am starving! With all of the craziness this morning, I realize that I didn't eat breakfast, so I stop at a gas station and grab a granola bar and a Diet Pepsi. While driving, I crank up the music and daydream of the day when we buy our next house. Living in a rental house is no fun when you are a designer!

10:30 Back to the house to let the furnace repair crew in the house. It's been snowing off and on all week here, and our furnace is broken. Stinking rental house. Grrr...hopefully tonight, I will come home to a warm house! I also grab my paint deck and bag, and a framed print that I bought for $20 at a thrift store.

10:45 I head to the framers to drop off the 2 frames from the construction office. New mats are selected. I also pick out a nice linen mat for my thrift store treasure.

11:45 I pick up lunch for myself and a client at one of my favorite local restaurants... 2 greek chicken salads to go. Yum!

 12:00 At my clients house, we munch on our salads and discuss the progress of the two rooms we are working on...her 6 year old daughters room and her living room. We decide on pillow sizes and fabrics for the living room, unpack a mirror that just arrived, and check out the stripes that she painted in her daughters room last week.

1:45 It's back to the school for my son's party. I 'm in charge of the Halloween Bingo station, and nearly get hoarse while trying to read the kids a book after bingo. Since there are 5 groups of kids, I play bingo and read the same book 5 times. 

3:25 School is out! The kids and I head home, grab some leftover cookies as a snack, and tiptoe around the furnace crew, who are still there. I convince my very stubborn 6 year old to get dressed for Tae Kwon Do. Tears and begging ensues, but I prevail. We WILL get our $80 worth this month if it kills me.


4:00 Arrive at Tae Kwon Do, only to realize that it's starts at 4:30, not 4:00. Take the kids to a nearby park and let them play while I return a few e-mails on my iphone. 


4:30 Tae Kwon Do. I dress Grady in his battle gear, and then leave to go pick up my husband. His car is in the shop, and so I have been picking him up  from work. More daydreaming. My imaginary house is. SO. awesome.

5:45 Back at the house. The new furnace is in, and the house is warming up! Hallelujah! However...it's still too cold to cook dinner. (cough, ahem...*wink) We catch the most amazing sunset!

6:30 Dinner at our favorite chinese restaurant...Sizzling Rice Soup, General Taos Chicken and Five Taste Shrimp. Our faves. It's dark outside now. We stop to get gas. My hair is flat, my makeup is smeared, but I am full and happy.

8:00 Home to our now toasty house. I love being warm! The kids need baths, and turn the bathwater green and black from all the halloween hairspray and makeup. Since they don't have school tomorrow, I let them watch How To Train Your Dragon for the 15th time.


9:00. Get into my lounge gear, and head to my computer to write this post. Up next: Catching up on Glee, Survivor, Flipping Out and House Hunters International, while using the laptop to check my email, catch up one some design blogs, and work on the post for my one year blog anniversary, which is THIS weekend!

10:00 Tuck the kiddos in.


11:30-12:00 Lights out. No school tomorrow, so I get to sleep in! Yay!


Thanks Camila for letting me take part in this fabulous series. I had a lot of fun bringing you along on my crazy Thursday! And, thank goodness I actually had a semi-interesting day...there are days when I spend way too much time at Costco, and run countless errands before I get home to spend hours sorting socks and folding laundry while watching back episodes of Modern Family. Oh, and usually on these days I skip the shower and wear a hat all day. N---o---t pretty.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Whew I'm tired just reading that. I keep saying it over and over, but I must say it again... Mom's are super hero's. They really do it all.

Sitting Pretty

Guess what may or may not have been purchased by me today?

Need a hint?

I texted Jon while at the store and told him I needed it and now wanted to completely re-do the living room. His response, "Are you insane?" My response back, " No, just a decorator."

We are picking it up on Saturday. Smart man that husband of mine is.

Don't worry I'm not re-doing the living room...yet. I just couldn't think of it going home with someone else. :)

Playful Patterns

In most cases purchasing a sofa for our living rooms eats up a big chunk of our budget. Due to this we normally stick to neutral sofa's so that we can switch things up as the years go by.

I did this in my own home and it's something that I always recommend to clients.

Lately though this pattern lover has been lusting after playful patterns on sofas:

Elle Decor:


Steven Sclaroff:


House to Home:


House Beautiful:


Pure Style Home:


John Loeke:

Domino:


House Beautiful:


Could you do it? Or do you think buyers remorse would set in after a couple of weeks?

The fabric of our lives...

I hope I'm not the only one, but I'm obsessed with those cotton commercials on TV.

Not only do I find the songs catchy, but I love everything in the featured lady's closet along with the design of the closet.

My current favorite has to be Leona Lewis:

Love the wallpaper, clock, chair, and that amazing horse photo!



Also love this stunning chevron jacket she wears in it:

I must know who makes that jacket. Amazing! Anyone have any ideas? I really wish commercials were like pop up video so I could see where all of the props, clothing, etc were purchased.

Who has your favorite closet? Zooey, Miranda, Leona, Colbie?

Dirty little secret: My Closet

Normally I'm a super organized person. Things are always put back where they belong and my house tend to look neat most of the time.

Well for some reason the same rules do not apply to my teeny tiny closet and on most days my it looks like this:

Back of the door:


Left side of closet:

The previous home owners had shelves built on this side and I use them to shove my shoes. Due to it's tiny nature I have two storage containers stuffed in there with all of my purses. You can't seem them, because instead of nicely hanging everything back up I've just piled everything on top of the container!

Main overview of closet:


It's nice to have a small shelve above the clothes, but it's not wide at all so I can't really fit much other and while I try and keep it organized up there it always looks messy.

I've just surrendered to the fact that it's teeny and not much can be done to make it look pretty. It's just a closet, right?

Wrong! I can't live with the mess or lack of decor one more second.

Especially after seeing this:



All those stylish peeps at Kate Spade always knock it out of the park. They took a simple & small closet and made it stylish & chic with a little lining to delight you!

No need to break the bank on a quick fix like a little wallpaper.

Ebay has some fun vintage finds that would work in a small space:

Flowers



I think KS would approve of this one:



A touch of orange



Floral Splash:



I love what a fun pop of color it would be add to my dreary closet. I think it would make me keep everything nice and neat in there. Hmm we shall see what I do.

Please tell me I'm not the only one with a dirty little secret.

Little Ruffled Dress

The lovely ladies over at Nesting Newbies gave me the heads up that their pictures from the NYDC New Curators event was up on their site!



I must tell you that along with getting to meet and hang out with many of favorite bloggers one of my favorite parts of the event was the dress I was wearing!

You all know that I love a good ruffle so when I spotted this dress by Elizabeth McKay it had to be mine. Plus it was navy one of my favorite shades and I made sure to finish up the look with orange heels!

Elizabeth's pieces are classic and I quickly find myself wanting more of them:

Elephant shirt:



Little black dress:



Striped skirt for the holidays:



Totally in love with her collection.

DIY: Homasote Jewelry Organizer

The organization kick continued on Sunday and after I fixed up my vanity I realized I need a home for all of my necklaces.

So into the garage I went and I found all the tools I needed to make something quick! Using a piece of left over homasote from an old DIY project, a stapler gun and some leftover grass cloth ceiling.

Here are the easy steps:

Cut piece of Homasote: This was a left over piece that was already a good size so I didn't need to cut it. The nice thing about homasote is that you do not need a table saw to cut it. So if you purchased a large sheet at your local home improvement store you could use a knife or razor to cut it to size:



To apply wallpaper use spray glue. I used grass cloth, because due to it's texture it will hide push pin marks and I used spray glue, because due to the porous nature of the homasote wallpaper paste would steep into the board rather quickly. Spray the homasote and the back of wallpaper:



Then flip it over and staple it into place to secure wallpaper even more:



For the corners make an angled cut to get a smooth finish:

Ta da you are almost finished! Now just nail it into the wall. We just used 4 nails and tacked them in the corners.
*Excuse my sparkly walls. We did a candlelight technique in the room and when the flash hits the sparkles come out!



Last use clear push pins as your jewelry hangers and start placing your jewels:



Close up of jewels:



Best part was that we hung the board behind our door. So when it's opened my manly husband doesn't have to see sparkly gems all through out our room:



So easy and it cost me nothing, because it was all supplies that I had around the house.