"Secrets of a Stylist" Host Does It Again!

Howdy! That's right, I have just arrived in Texas and have yet to venture out of my mom's house to brave the heat. Getting off the plane at 2 a.m. felt like exiting into a sauna fully clothed; I can't imagine 2 p.m. out on the tennis courts later. But what I can imagine, rather what I have been daydreaming about is the map bfm printed out for me outlineing detailed routes to all of the best vintage and antique stores in Downtown Austin. I know it is a far cry from the antique marvel of Canton, but it will just have to do! :) In the mean time, while I wait for my chance to hit the streets, I have found some superb design inspiration to tide me over.

I have been known to watch a few HGTV shows in my time; Color Splash, House Hunters, House Hunters International, Income Property, Design Star, and of course Divine Design with Candace Olsen, just to name a few.

My newest tele addiction has to be designer Emily Henderson's show "Secerts of a Stylist". Emily blends client's tastes to make an entirely unique living space that suits the lot of them. My enjoyment comes in watching her seamlessly blend vintage, re-worked, and new pieces to make a new space feel collected over time.

Check out the stunner she designed and posted on her blog, here!

Polynesian Kitsch, whoddathunkit!

Cheers Ya'll!

Side Note: This is the correct spelling of Ya'll, not Y'all as previously posted. As stated by a true Texan :)

Feeling Crafty? CORK IT!

I try to reuse as much as I can and re-purpose everyday items into cool crafty projects. 

With all of this wine I have been sampling I've acquired a nice little collection of wine corks. Even bfm has started saving her wine corks for my new venture.
My glass bowl of corks looks interesting, but seeing as it has been steadily growing I have begun looking for ideas for what to do with them.  I have seen them cut in half with an opening made on the top and used as place-card holders at a wedding, but with no major event like that on the horizon, I am looking for something else to do.

Makezine.com had a super cute idea on their blog that is definitely share worthy.

 
It is a wine cork trivet!  This is not only adorable and useful,  but made entirely out of a product that would have otherwise ended up in the trash. 

What other projects have you tried or are thinking about trying with corks?  I'd love to hear!
Cheers!

Decorating Trends: Vintage Wedding

Reaching this level of vintage perfection is hard.  From the decor to the guests attire, this at home wedding is the perfect example of someone knowing, when it comes to vintage, it is all in the details.

Vintage Wedding Inspiration - www.iamkristenmarie.com

The beautiful photos of this wedding capture an exquisitely designed home with well upholstered wingback chairs in  modern prints, walls full of vintage frames, and rustic touches of natural wood and antlers.  The bride and groom, the wedding party, and even the guests are wearing vintage clothes making the event seem like a warm memory in a digital frame.  The house and wedding on their own look cozy and impeccably put together, but the photos are truly spectacular.

Check out the rest of Kristen Marie's photos from this wedding and her other photos, here!  They are totally inspiring and this wedding album is jam packed with great vintage decorating ideas!

My personal favorite, the mason jar cups!  Mason jars can be both useful and a nice decorative elemnet.  Using them to serve drinks is a smart idea because once you have your drink in hand, you become part of the vintage setting.  They help set the mood giving your event a down-home comfortable feeling.

Vintage Wedding Inspiration - www.iamkristenmarie.com

Try This at Home:  want to try this awesome idea for your own wedding or even an end of summer party?  If you are like me and are already a mason jar fanatic, then you know some of the coolest vintage jars are from companies like Kerr, Ball, and Atlas.  If you are looking for the real thing you will be able to find them at vintage and antique stores, but if you are up for it, try estate and garage sales for better prices, I have been able to pick up large mixed batches for around $15.  I try to do a little pre-sale research online via craigslist; sometimes people will advertise specific items for sale, like jars.  If you have a larger event coming up on the calender and need a lot of jars you can mix in less expensive reproductions which will still give you the same warm vintage country feel. I have seen reproductions at craft stores like Michael's. 



The key to using these fun jars as drink wear?  Look for jars that have the words "Wide Mouth Mason" on them.  This means they have a larger diameter at the top as opposed to regular mason jars that taper in at the mouth.  This makes them much easier to hold and drink from because they resemble regular glasses. 

Cheers!

Life Lessons: When you bite off more then you can chew, it can take a bite out of you

I had the brilliant idea to switch bf and myself's bedroom with my office.  This seemed like the Tomas Edison of ideas because seeing as we don't spend a ton of time in the bedroom, sorry bf it's true,  it has the largest square footage and the smallest closet.  On the other hand I spend quite a bit of time working on projects in my office where I have the most physical furniture but the least square footage, however it has the BIGGEST closet space.  My clothes needed a bigger home; it was like a constant flood of hoodies, denim, and heels spilling over a failing dam.  Bf said, no.  But, why? Couldn't he see it made sense?  I mean duh, right?  I couldn't live in this disorganized clutter of crap piling on crap piling on stuff that I didn't even know was there half the time.  There just simply wasn't enough closet space, and the extra floor space we had in the bedroom, was tragically being put to bad use by me and my spill over.  So I took matters into my own hands.  I said, "you wont have to help me do any thing except move the beds, I'll do the rest."  I got my yes, but I got the biggest pain in my ass along with it. 

Sometimes we think we are super woman and no task is too big for us.  I struggle with this way of thinking to a fault.  When I do a project I want to plan it, buy the materials, start it, change it, fix it, start it over, and finish it all in one day.  Whatever it takes to get it done nothing can stand in my way.  I am learning that while it is good to be motivated, sometimes pushing yourself too hard can make experiences in life seem less rewarding and even painful.  Is it about getting it done, or is it about enjoying what you are doing?  Yesterday while switching the rooms, I became exhausted after finally completing  just the movement of items from room to room.  Everything still needed to be put away, hung up, organized, and moved to the right places. As I started to move things around in the new office I could really feel the fatigue in my muscles.  In order to put stuff away I needed to move the bed around so I could put the desk and the book case where it needed to go.  I didn't want to waste time so I didn't wait for bf to get home from work, I just muscled my way through each task banging a lip here and a shin there.  I don't know why I am like this, and maybe you can relate, but I am one of those people who doesn't like to wait around for help.  Knowing this, I could feel this task start to get more and more daunting as it got later in the day but giving up felt like a failure to me for some reason.  This was a wrong feeling to ignore.  As I went to move a bookcase the shelves dropped off, hit the bottom level and broke the whole thing into two.  I had no book shelf and I had no where to put this clutter that had manifested on top of my guest bed.  I choked back a break down.  So, then I managed to carry my giant Ikea desk, by myself, through  two doors and into my office, an action deemed "HULK-ing it" by the guy who carries my Goodwill donations in for me.  Thanks bro.  And as I tried to push the desk into the corner to meet it's final resting place, I heard a deafening crack and then a boom.  Me and the desk both hit the floor, and at that moment I couldn't tell which one of us was in more pieces.  While the entire left side of the desk had snapped off in such an aggressive manner that the interior particle board was showing and it resembled the bite of a great white shark,  I  on the other hand was trying to hold back tears of frustration and whimpers of disappointment because my ego had been shattered.  I still couldn't just walk away. I tried to remove the broken desk from the room so I could keep working and in doing so I sliced my finger on the jagged edge of the desk.  I hit my wall.  I was tired, frustrated, and as I got more tired and more frustrated things kept getting worse.  I finally realized I am not super woman, and maybe I had bitten of more then I could chew, and some proverbial "it" decided to start biting back.  This was supposed to be fun and when it stopped being fun I should have stopped.   I am slowly learning, especially when it comes to matters of the home, that no one and nothing is perfect, everyone needs help sometimes, and that it is just the way it is.   

Cheers!