Simplify: Tip #5

Anna Kern

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." ~William Morris

Vena Cava

Loving the egyptian-inspired Spring/Summer 2009 line from Vena Cava.

My Funny Valentine

Tons of sweet Valentine's Day cards on etsy (of course).

Top to bottom, left to right:
I Heart You, by Invita Paper Studio, $9 set of six, Charming Elephant, by Annie Bee, $3.50, Perfect 20/20, by Lavish, $14 set of eight, Love In A Jar, by Your Wish Cake, $2.50, Kitschy Squirrel Holding Hearts, by Eartha Kitsch, $3.00, Typewriter Valentine's Day Card, by Jocelyn Gomes, $5.75

Interior Infatuation

I heart this house. A whole bunch.


This lovely gray number is the sofa of my dreams. In five years we are buying a new sofa, and yes, I am counting the days. With little ones it really doesn't make sense to buy a new one until they are a bit older.

I love the colors they chose for the accent pillows. I would have never paired gray, light blue and gold (or is it chartreuse?) together, but it looks wonderful. I also love the little black floor lamp there on the side.

Yes, I love the sofa so much that I am posting three photos of him. And would you get a load of that bookshelf? *sigh*

I'm not sure why, but this office is working for me. Such a fun, eclectic mix of items.


I would love to have a fireplace in my dining room someday. It just seems so cozy and would set a great mood for a dinner party. The three gold pendant lamps above the table are perfection.


Heck, I'm even digging this wallpaper; monkey's swinging through the branches and all.

To view more pics, visit Living Etc.

Happy Third Birthday Natalie!!

I can't believe it has been three years since you were my tiny little first-born baby:

And now, here you are, three going on sixteen:

I love you so much, my little Sweetie Pie Pumpkin Noodle! (Ever wonder where my blog name came from?)

Peacock Blues-Part II

Why not let the color inspiration spill over into the fashion arena as well?

Poly set with product info here

Australian Vogue

style.com

Simplify: Tip #4

Via

"Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." ~Lao Tzu

Peacock Blues-Part I

Casa Sugar

So I know I've waxed poetic about my peacock obsession before...but I just now realized that taking color cues from my little feathered muse is just the touch I need to spark up my home's interior!

Southern Accents

Southern Accents

BHG

NY Social Diary

Domino

Bliss Living

Annie Schletcher

Ami McKay

BHG

I'm not going as drastic as painting the walls these colors, but I am definitely going to be on the lookout for little accessories here and there. In fact, I have a thrift store lamp I picked up a few weeks ago that is in need of a pick-me-up...perhaps a blast of peacock blue spray paint is what the doctor ordered! I'll keep you posted.

Anthony Nak

Drooling over these gorgeous jewels from Anthony Nak, currently available on Gilt (yes, Jill, you got me hooked):

WWDD?

Do you ever find yourself frozen in indecision when it comes to picking out accessories and such for your home, and think "What Would Domino Do?" Well, my friend, you are in luck. The other day I received yet another Ballard Designs catalog in the mail. I ordered a shower curtain from them about a year ago, and I swear they have sent me one catalog a week ever since. I was about to toss it in the recycle pile, per usual, when the title "Domino Picks" caught my eye. I flipped it open and lo and behold, everyone's favorite design magazine had selected various items as their "Picks"-basically the cream of the Ballard Designs crop!




Then, while on the West Elm website, I found they had done some "Picks" over there as well:
You can check out the rest of what Domino has so kindly picked out for you here:
Ballard Designs
West Elm

Natalie's Room Re-Do, Part I

I had mentioned awhile back that Natalie's room needed a makeover. One of the things that needed to be fixed was her closet situation. Thankfully, our home came with wonderful built-in closet organizers that I absolutely love. The problem came when I recently broke her closet doors (guess all that pumping iron at the gym is working!) and they needed to be removed. I decided I wanted to cover it with curtains for a softer look.

Here is the before pic, sans closet cover-up:

And here is the after:


I ended up finding this great queen size quilt coverlet at Homes Goods on clearance for $10. It was the perfect size to cover the closet dimensions, so I thought, why not use it for that? The color also matched her walls perfectly (the paint color is Paris Pink by Martha Stewart) and I loved the bold, slightly funky pattern.

I'm very happy with the outcome, as I would have never found curtains for that cheap. I also got a great deal on the rod and rings. They were 50% off at Joann's Fabrics, so the rod only cost $15 and the rings only cost $5 a pack (I needed two).

The whole project totaled only $35, and was super easy to do. All I did was clip the rings onto the top of the quilt and slide them onto the rod. No sewing needed! I left a few inches at the bottom of the curtain because I do plan to sew the rings directly onto the fabric sometime in the near future.

I am still working on the rest of the room, so when it is all finished I will post those pics. I have a few etsy prints that need framing, a mirror that needs to be put up (I am creating a dress-up area) and another mirror that I want to turn into a chalkboard.

Oh, and don't worry, I bought this stuff before the spending hiatus.

Simplify: Tip #3

via

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
-Leonardo DaVinci

An Inaguration Bash Outfit

Here is a little Polyvore set I put together to enter in a contest sponsored by SimplySoles.com. The challenge was to use at least one item from their online store and create a set around it with the theme being what you would wear to an Inauguration celebration. I decided to put together a casual chic look that I would wear if I were attending a party thrown by a friend. I like to keep it real folks, it's not like I would ever be attending a fancy one in Washington. What I was immediately drawn to on the site were these fabulous pearlized purple leather shoes by Chie Mihara. I absolutely love them! Then I picked out the gorgeous brown leather clutch by Frye to accompany the look. I felt like the shoes would look great with a light, flowy dress, and when I saw this silk dress from Halston I knew it was perfect. Throw in an amazing YSL animal skin effect necklace, a snazzy cocktail ring from Miriam Haskell, and a chunky wood Coach bangle and you're all set to party in style!

Would You...

Spend $30 for one four piece set of "Deluxe Plastic Flatware"? Check out their sales pitch: "Dispense with stuffy formality and exhibit the elegance of a fun, confident point of view. Plastic fantastic reusable 4-piece place setting stamped with traditional Italian silverware patterns." Give me a break people! It's plastic! I'll go to Dollar Tree and buy one, 100 piece set of floppy plastic flatware thankyouverymuch.

Pretend Shopping

I'm on a spending hiatus. For one month I am not going to purchase any unnecessary item. It's only been a few days and I am itching to buy something! Here are a few fun etsy finds that I am "pretend buying" to try and take a little of the edge off:
Top to bottom, left to right:
Pebble Ring, Funky Pillow Covers, Hand-etched Wine Glass, "Another Day" Original Mixed Media Painting, "Can I Be Honest" Stuffed Bunny, Dark Holly Green Wallet.

A Clean Bill Of Health!

Happy Day Card from LittlePretty on Etsy

My computer had it's appointment with the doctor this morning at 10:00. Finally, 7 hours later at 5:00pm, my little computer is cured of it's nasty virus and is good as new!

Let me tell you a few things I have learned from this experience:

1. NEVER let your almost three year old play around on the computer. "Ahh, she won't hurt anything" is soo not true. But, I mean, come on: what toddler knows how to access the internet? I never even taught her that and somehow she figured it out.

2. The free "Security Suite" that your internet provider gives you is good for nothing. I thought I was protected form viruses, spyware, etc., but I obviously was not. After talking with several computer peeps, it seems to be the consensus that those free programs are not nearly as comprehensive at protecting your computer as ones you can purchase such as McAfee or Webroot (which is the one I bought).

3. You can save a good wad of cash by calling the customer service from your antispyware software to fix your computer than by taking it in to an actual store to get it fixed. When I went down to Best Buy and told the "Geek Squad" my problem, they suggested trying the Webroot program first to see if it would take care of the problem. They warned though, that some viruses and spyware are so darn smart, that it will reject your attempts to install the program. The "Geek Squad" guy then said the next step would be to bring it in and for $199 they will fix it. So I bought the program for $50, took it home, and , sure enough, I was unable to install it. I called my brother and dad, who are better with computers than I am and they suggested calling the customer service available from Webroot before taking it in to Best Buy. Well, that was the best idea ever because Webroot only charges $99 to remove the virus, and you don't have to take your computer anywhere. They remotely fix it by some magical way that gives them access to your entire computer. So today they removed the virus (which was no easy task) and then installed the antispyware and antivirus program so that I will hopefully never have this problem again!

Whew, that was wordy. If you read this far, I hope that my experience will help you should you ever run into a problem like this in the future.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Mystery Tree

My home is depressingly void of houseplants. I have one little guy named Henry up on my mantle that I bought at IKEA a few months ago, and I just love him (yes-I gave him a name and gender-don't you?). He is holding up pretty well considering my black thumb. I come from a long line of gardeners with green thumbs, so I really don't know what went wrong with me. My grandmother was a member of her local garden club for years. Every time she had a show she would bring me and I would wander through the rows and rows of floral arrangements in awe. She had a wonderfully lush backyard full of blooming beauties that I would play in and let my imagination run wild. I really want to try to improve my gardening skills, so I am going to take baby steps and start inside.

I had recently been noticing a lovely tree popping up in lots of interior shots, but I had no idea what it was:

Via Peter Dunham

Via Desire to Inspire

Via flickr

Well, upon reading the current issue of House Beautiful, the mystery is solved. Celerie Kimble gave a tip in the 101 Designers, 101 Makeovers article:

"Buy a tree in a basket or planter and put it in your loneliest corner. I love a fiddle leaf fig for it's sweet platypus bill-like leaves."

I immediately knew that she must be describing my mystery tree! A quick google later confirmed that it is in fact a fiddle leaf fig. My next goal is to find where to purchase one locally. I would like a smaller one like in the last photo. Like I said, baby steps!