5 Things Friday

Happy Friday, internet!  I hope y'all have had a good week.  Mine has been a little crazy, and I need a nice long break with my books and my bed. Until then, here are five things worth sharing on the internet:

1. This fall I'm planning to take my mom on her first trip out of the country, and I'll be showing her London (my favorite city!) and then we'll be exploring Amsterdam together.  If you have any recommendations on places to stay/eat/see, please let me know!

image via S. Lo on Flickr

2. I don't typically get serious or political here, but no matter how much your views differ from mine, I think we should all be horrified that there are upwards of 400,000 rape kits sitting around untested in the United States.  Women are waiting years for justice, and thankfully there are some wonderful nonprofit groups working to change that.  I recently learned about Test400K, a group working to fund testing of rape kits and right now, donations of $50 or more will be supplemented to cover the costs of testing a kit for DNA evidence .  Learn more about them here, and please consider a donation if you can.

3.  Can you believe that it's been 15 years since Sex and the City premiered?  I was too young to watch the show back then (I was 14), but discovered it when I was about 20 and have loved it ever since. 

Random:  My friend Julie and I have had a 10-year running joke about how you can say anything with a Samantha Jones voice inflection (lots of ups and downs) and it will sound dirty.

 

4. I have a love/hate relationship with my house.  It's about 1800 square feet, but without a lot of storage space since people in the 1950s didn't have as much stuff as I do.  Since I refuse to believe that we can't survive without a ginormous house, I'm starting to look at unused spaces and find ways to (elegantly) fill them.  One space is a wide aisle between my sectional and the windows and I think a long, low bookcase like this would be perfect.  Got any affordable or vintage finds I should consider? 

5. Fishtail braids are hard, y'all.  This tutorial is supposedly pretty good, but I can't get a result like the one below.  What do you do with the layers??  (I do, however, rock that makeup style a few times per week and love it so much)

Bonus 6th Thing!  If you are a Philippa Gregory book nerd like me, you'll be excited to learn that the BBC has made a series based on The Cousins War series (The White Queen, The Red Queen, The Kingmakers Daughter) and it airs in the US in August on Starz.  If I didn't tell you now, I'd forget.

And with that, I bid you good weekend!

Fun With Pinterest: A Mood Board of Me

I mentioned on Monday that I'm preparing to commission a blog redesign, and I'm really excited about it.  I've been browsing portfolios and deciding who to approach, and I recently put together a summary of what I'm looking for a in a design.

The funnest part of this process was carving at the time to sit down and actually look at the 2,171 images that I've pinned on Pinterest. (That number has probably risen by the time you read this!)  I clipped the ones that I felt were "me" and put them together to make this collage:

It's really cool to look at hundreds of images that you love all in one place, and I highly recommend it.  Once I saw everything all together, it's clear that I love me some leopard, gold, rich browns and pops of pink, green and teal.  Good to know!  If you've got time to step back and examine your style, I highly recommend it!

Now let's play a game:  If you could pick one (or more) images to represent your style, what would they be?

Chic Sunglasses for Ladies Who Lose Them

Happy Monday, internet!  I hope your weekend was lovely - mine was pretty busy, and I'm not dreading the work week, so I'll call that successful!

On Sunday afternoon, I spent some time poolside with my friend Leah, and got to thinking about how glad I am that my sunglasses aren't expensive.  Strange, I know.  But, you see, I worked at Sunglass Hut during college and even though I sold pricey glasses all day, I can't be trusted to own them.  I'm very hard on them and stretch them out by wearing them on my head, and get spray on sunscreen all over them.  This would be tragic if they were expensive.

Luckily for those of us who can't drop $95 like it's nothing, there are TONS of great options under $30.  And if you know a bit about picking the right pair, you'll always look great.  Here's what I learned in my time at the store:

• Scale is more important than shape.  The width of the temples of the glasses shouldn't extend much further then yours, and the bottom of the frame shouldn't go further than the top of your cheek.
• Round frames are hard to wear and don't look best on most people.  Stay away unless you're really certain!
• No matter what, make sure the lenses block 100% of UV rays.  Polarized is, of course, preferable, but not essential.
• If you have a round or heart shaped face, you can rock oversized frames all day.  Anything too small will make you look larger.
• If you're petite, look for sunglasses at stores that sell clothes your size, and you'll often find smaller scale frames.  If you're buying online, make sure you've measured the width of your face so you'll know if they're narrow enough.
• Aviators look good on everyone if they're the right size.  Most every woman can wear retro styles, as well, if you're brave enough!

And, of course, I wouldn't be a very good blogger if I didn't share lots of affordable options:

5 Things Friday

It's Friday, internet!  Even though this week was a short one at work, it felt like it would never end at times.  Now I'm super excited to see Aziz Ansari with my husband and get a blowout at my friend Maryam's salon (let's have a primping party ay Pouf in Dallas!)  I may even make someone take my picture (or 100) in hopes of getting a few for the ol' blog.  Maybe.

Until then, here are five things worth sharing on the internet:

1. I'm a pretty decisive person, but when it comes to small details like pillow fabric or picking a blog header font, I will second guess myself for weeks.  I'm in the process of creating a mood board for the blog design I'll be commissioning soon, and I can't even decide if I want something scripty or minimal or something else entirely.  What do you think would look good in white over this color (Hague Blue by Farrow & Ball)? 

Is this a cheerful swirly font blog?  I kind of think so... I'm not very chic and minimalist.

2. This past weekend we hosted our annual crawfish boil and it was a lot of fun!  I was in charge of dessert and made these brownies (via Kevin & Amanda).  However, mine look nothing like the photo, but they are ridiculously good.  You basically take a box mix, but instead of adding water you add cookies and cream ice cream and a ton of hot fudge, then a layer of Oreos!

3. I've been wanting some white skinny jeans, and after lots of trying on I ended up with my old faithful Always Skinny from Gap.  The online only style does not have holes in it (which I will never understand - I do not like it at all!) and they're the best inexpensive option I've found if you've got some curve to your hips.  However, like all Gap pants, the sizing is wildly erratic.  I had to go up a size from my usual dark wash skinnies since white denim is much less forgiving.  

I'll wear mine with a fancy tunic and look just like this:

4. Ever since I saw this photo, this Southern girl has been planning on a DIY version of this print.  (I know, it's crappy to look at someone's artwork and think that, but I need a small size)

via The Hunted Interior

5. I found this to be helpful:

And with that, I bid you good weekend!

Things That Blogging Makes Me Forget

I can't believe it, but I've been blogging for almost three and a half years.  The landscape has changed a lot in that time, and it has changed me too.  My old posts make me giggle, and I'm glad to see that my taste level has evolved and that I have a more defined style.

However, sometimes I have to step back and remind myself that the blogosphere is not actually real life.  It's a carefully curated collection of the prettiest things we see, with occasional "I'm going to get real for a minute"posts like this one. 

Often times, I find myself laughing at some of the things that start to make me feel bad about myself, and today I've made a little list so that I don't get delusional again:

So, what has blogging (and Pinterest) caused you to lose sight of?  Please share!

P.S. This is not intended as a shot at anyone or their blog, just my own commentary on what I've noticed and caught myself doing on occasion.

Reader Request: Baby Girl Nursery

Hello!  I hope all of you had a great holiday weekend.  We had a great party on Saturday, and a couple of downright lazy days after that.  It was wonderful.

Today I'm happy to be back on the internet and helping Claire, a blog reader looking for some ideas on decorating a nursery for the baby she's having this fall.  Even though I'm no decorator, I like playing with mood boards and had a great time playing around online to create these options for her.

For a baby girl, Claire likes a gray, coral and yellow color scheme.  I don't care for true themed or super juvenile rooms, so I tried to create a mix of items that could grow up to include a regular bed and desk.  That means staying away from matching furniture sets so new additions don't look out of place, and buying quality pieces for long-term use and cheaper things for baby years only.

  

lacquered dresser  |  elephant print  |  curtains  |  flamingo print  |  mermaid print  |  mirror  

rocker  |  yellow otami bedding  |  pillow  |  lamp  |  animals

Claire is also looking for baby boy ideas, but that board is still bouncing around in my head so look for it later this month!  Until then, check out the queen of nursery mood boards - Joni at Lay Baby Lay.

And, all of you mamas out there, please chime in with words of wisdom and suggestions.  I have no children, so my ideas may lack practicality.  :)

5 Things Friday

Happy Friday! I hope all of you had a great week and are gearing up for a long weekend full of sun (and sunscreen!), good food, and friends.  I know I will be!

Until then, here are five things worth sharing on the internet:

1. This week I spent a lot of time restyling our living room and moving our artwork around.  I also replaced our coffee table and got new pillow covers made for the sofa.  I'm excited to take some pictures and share, but until then I wanted to pass along an amazing source for artwork.  We Are 1976 is the cutest boutique and they have so many great, affordable prints! If you're in Dallas, you should visit in person, but they have an online store as well.

I picked up these two pieces (Eclipse and Rain Shadow) by Cathy McMurray and they coexist nicely with my Charley Harpers.  Now I'm excited to collect more of her prints (also on Etsy)!

2.  Another one of this week's activities was my attempt at hacking an Ikea Rast chest and making a cute end table.  Last me tell you, it did not go very well.  I wanted to stain the top and sides a reddish brown a la my favorite mid-century pieces.  So I busted out the Minwax and went to town in the backyard.  Unfortunately, only the tabletop and kick plate took the stain properly and the sides were a hot mess.  Then I tried to paint over the ugly stain and assembled the chest anyway, but the only adjective that came to mind was "cheap".    ... here is the look I was going for.  May all of you have better luck than me.

image via tinywildthings.com

3. Who else watches Call the Midwife?  I love it so much.  I especially love Sister Bernadette and loved finding this picture of her out of the habit.  (Mild spoiler alert:  Oh my gosh the finale made me cry and collapse on the couch with happiness!):

4.  I have long admired Osborne & Little's Coronata Star wallpaper, but at about $200/roll it's a big investment.  However, I was thrilled to see this project from Kristen F. Davis involving paint and stencils.  Much cheaper!  It could also be achieved with silver contact paper and a Cricut!

5.  True Blood comes back in 23 days!