Yearly Tradition

Tomorrow the BF and I are going to get one of these





Yes, we cut down our tree, and don't get into it about the green issue with me. Cutting your own is greener than a fake tree for numerous reasons which I wont get into here. So, no nasty comments here please. kthanks.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS, best.friggin.time.of.the.year!!!!!

Cyber Monday

Today is the hottest online shopping day of the year, better known as Cyber Monday. It was named that because when the internet first came out households mostly had dial up connections. Shoppers would wait till Monday morning when they were back at work with a faster internet connection to do all their online shopping after Thanksgiving.

Already I have emails from Banana Republic, JCrew, Gap, Victoria Secret, Ballard, Kate Spade and more with coupon codes and specials to use today. My credit card should be frozen in a block of ice, uh oh.

Anything in particular you are buying today?? Did you go shopping on Black Friday and get any amazing deals?? Do tell.

Full of Thanks

While I'm sure most of us won't have Thanksgiving tables as fancy as the ones at the White House State Dinner last night, the table setting and colors were just stunning.

There is much to be thankful for this holiday season.

I know one thing I'm thankful for is all of you, my blog readers, who take time out of your day to read my blog and leave comments. So, thank you, it means so much to me!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with friends, family, loved ones and great food!!

AP Photos

Long Overdue

You all have seen my first chair makeover project (if not you can see it here) and I loved that redo so much that I decided to do another one. I posted about the before HERE, and then forgot to post the after pics, oops.

Before I get to the after, here is what the chair looked like before I started



and here is what it looks like now



The Hot House pillows I won from Kristine at Living with Style awhile ago and never posted the pictures of them in my apartment or said a proper thank you to her. So thank you Kristine, the pillows are more than perfect!! Its like they were made just for me- I love them!

I was playing with my new camera, so here is another picture showing how great the new pillows look in the room

No more chair projects for now...but never say never :)

The end is the new beginning

So this woman quit last week...



...as of 2011...

...and is taking over the Discovery Health channel with her own network.

Which means that this little hottie



could be coming into our homes on a daily basis on this new network.


I'm just speculating, but I really, REALLY hope its true :)

Please Don't

Since we are all in the planning phase right now....

...I say, reject the fake glittery shit this year- its so 1997

I'm feeling a little MFAMB come out in me today...can you tell? (love her!)

One thing after another...

I feel like I have a list a mile long and no time to do that list. I know you all know how I feel, so I'm not going to look for sympathy. But this is my blog and I feel like bitching so I'm going to. I am feeling overtired and feisty and I just want to crawl back into bed and hope the never ending to-do list goes away.

I know that's not happening so I figured I would procrastinate a little longer and look for cute to-do lists online to make me feel better.

from Vale Design

Save me List from Amazon

One thing list from HERE

from HERE

I know these aren't to-do lists, but these folders are really cute and would make my day right about now

And my personal favorite is this list

love it!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

(lists not sourced are from Paper-Source)

i love...

click to see the whole photo

Totally loving Mary McDonald's new website & this hot family room!!

I love the...

David Hicks fabric pillows

the horns

the curtains

the zigzag rug

the Asian side chairs with shiny red cushions...swoon

the bookcases

the coffee table

the painted brick fireplace

the Bourgie table lamp

the wood basket

What do you love??

(photo from Mary McDonald)

Holiday Cards

New holiday cards in stock over on my Etsy shop...have a look if you please

From the Archives

Since so many people loved my last From the Archives post, I'm bringing it back again. This time from the February / March 2003 issue of Elle Decor.



This white on white 1,000 square foot Manhattan apartment (on lower 5th Ave, I might add) has me seeing green with envy. Since its a small space the owner and designer, Timothy Whealon, went with a tone on tone color palette for the space. In the article he explains that even though it is painted white, its never really white. Depending on the time of day the space can be any number of colors, from a golden brown at night to a blueish green color during the day.



Genius if you ask me...if only I had a high rise 5th Ave apartment of my own to paint white too :)



The mahogany table above can be folded and put against the wall when not in use. Multi purpose furniture is a must have for apartment living, and Whealon uses this space well.

In the first photo you can see the table under the windows in the family room. Below is the same table set up, just beautiful!





The carpet in the bedroom might be my favorite thing in this room- love the graphic pattern.



I'd love to send this bathroom photo to my landlord...this is how a small city bathroom should look! Classic, easy to clean, all one color and cohesive looking, a dream come true to me.

I must have a kitchen like this one day, loves it!

Hope you all enjoyed a look from the archives.

(All photos from Elle Decor Feb/March 2003 by Pieter Estersohn)

Blogger Love

A little blogger love to the very talented and sweet Linda over at Surroundings for the Honest Scrap award she gave me.

Since I already went on and on about myself HERE- I'll talk about Linda for a second. Linda is an interior designer here in the Boston area as well as 1/3 of The Skirted Roundtable, not to mention her 100's of other things she is a part of in the design world. This is one busy woman- go see what I mean here.

If you don't already read her blog you are missing out on all her fun kitchen renovations. She is blogging the step by step process to turn her dated kitchen into a custom masterpiece. Thank you Linda for including me in such a great group of bloggers!

_______________________________

While we are on the subject of talented bloggers, can we talk about Jamie from i suwannee for a second? Love her blog, love her style, love her new store Furbish Studio! I wish I lived in the North Carolina area because she has having a grand opening celebration that is sure to be a grand time.

She has posted pics of her store transformation along the way and I can not, for the life of me, get this armoire out of my head- I AM OBSESSED!

Go give these two ladies some love today!

Waiting SUCKS

But I'd wait with him any day of the year- yummy!

Mixin it up

I'm loving this room! The mix of items in here is fab. The Barcelona Chair and the open arm side chairs along with the Oriental over a natural sea grass rug, it is all beautiful. I love how the designer chose not to use curtains and to let every bit of natural light shine through.

Photo from Charleston Home Magazine

Lesson Learned

Remember in Home Alone when Kevin climbs Buzz's bookshelves to try and get to his piggy bank? You know the part where the tarantula gets loose?

So, if you know what I'm talking about you remember the part where the shelves crack right down the middle and everything comes crashing down.

Here's where the warning comes in- it really can happen, I did it this weekend. Stupid me was on an organization rampage and the little step ladder I have was not tall enough to reach the top shelf in the linen closet. So...I thought just a little step wouldn't hurt, then I could reach the top- WRONG.

I came crashing down along with everything else I had just neatly organized on the shelves. At this point I was so overtired I sat there and cried at my own stupidity.

So...lesson learned- do not climb on shelves, they do break.

You may now go back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Early Inspiration

I know some people don't like to think about Christmas till after Thanksgiving...well I'm not one of them. I love to think about Christmas all year long, it's my favorite time of year!!

I feel like I'm getting a late start this year because I was so wrapped up in all my Halloween party stuff. Usually by this time I have my list of decorations, presents to buy and cookies/candy to make all set and stuff bought. Ahhh now that I think about it, I'm so behind!

This year I'm going to decorate around my new peacock blue bookshelves. Normally I'm not such a matchy matchy girl, but I'm really loving the color and I'm also loving the colors in peacock feathers.

So that's my inspiration this year- here are the colors I'm thinking about

More color inspiration photos to come later.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I Wanna be a Maxxinista

The buyers at TJ Maxx have really stepped up their game...either that or the economy is so awful that people are trying to give away these luxury items. During my birthday shopping day I came across these items at my local TJ's.


YSL Muse bag...LOVE THIS!


YSL Downtown bag

Pretty yellow Prada

They had lots of Burberry, even nice Burberry luggage

And my personal favorite, this Ralph Lauren feather skirt. At 999.99 it could have been mine, but I had to leave it as I didn't think I could get alot of wear out of it.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed at least one of the bags goes on major clearance, lets hope no one likes yellow patent leather!

New Toys!

Hello all- I'd like to thank you all for so many wonderful birthday wishes! it was so nice to come home after a great day of shopping to see such sweet notes!! You are all wonderful and I'm so lucky to have made such great blog friends, so thank you again.

I had a wonderful day, the BF spoiled me as usual- he really is the best BF ever!! I guess he does read my blog because I got this yesterday:

I cried I was so happy- I've wanted this for a long time and never thought I would have one of my own. I LOVE it!!

Now comes the hard part, learning how to use the friggin thing. There are about 100 million buttons and each one does something different, its going to take some getting used to. I also have like 4 different lenses on my wish list now, not sure what they all do but I read that they were cool. I just see the $$$ adding up haha.

So does anyone have any great words of advice, blog sites, Q&A's I should be reading online today?? I would LOVE to hear them.

A little R&R

Today marks my 28th birthday.

I wanted to spend the day at the dermatologist getting pumped full of toxins to erase a few years, as I fully intend to age gracefully with needles and knives. But since the economy is in the crapper I figured I would wait. Instead I'm opening a new savings account. It's the "Future Face Fund" or FFF as I will call it (FFF can also stand for three choice words in a row, I like that meaning too).

So I'm taking the day off to rest a bit. And by rest I mean I'm dragging the BF around with me shopping all day.

I'll be back tomorrow...don't get it too much trouble without me, I hate being left out in all the fun!!

No Shine

Matte nail polish seems to be in this season. The jury is still out on how I feel about it.

What I am loving is that I don't need to go buy a whole new set of nail polish- I can just get a matte top coat and use the same colors I already have, score!

This hip version of a french manicure just might be the way to ease into the whole matte thing.

I may be rockin' this look the next time I go in for a manicure. LOVE it!!

Tell me, do you go matte?

(Photos from Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, Essie, and the last one is unknown, sorry!)