Light & Airy

Happy Monday! I hope it's an easy Monday and a lovely week for all of you. I thought to get us started, we shall look at a beautiful home, designed with natural wood, a light color palette, with pops of color and high contrast. I am so behind on homeworks, but I figure maybe getting this out there, I'll have no choice but to get back to it. I'll keep you posted on that. :-)

I am seriously crushing on that mint cabinet. Check out those chunky legs too!

 

 

I wish you all a beautiful week!

(Images: Bolig Pluss)

Home Tour: Tailored Industrial

There are some pleasures in life that can sometimes look frivoulous and unless you can relate it doesnt make any sense. However, knowing that I'm among friends, I know you will completely get the joy getting a stack of design magazines can illicit. Yesterday was one of those days...it was like opening presents, each magazine prettier than the other filled with inspiration. Elle Decor really got me reeling though, with Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi's home. I was giddy with excitement flipping through the pages, they were dripping with amazing shots.

I love the mix of rustic, industrial all balanced with a tailored approach. You can see that everything was carefully selected. I had no clue that Ellen is a huge design buff, and moves a lot because of this just so she can have an opportunity to decorate a new space.

The landscape which they fell in love with, understandably so...is intoxicating.

I am completely smitten by their home, though absolutely gorgeous, it also has heart and soul.
What do you think? You can see the full article here, or pick up the latest issue of Elle Decor if you already haven't. I hope you are all having a lovely Sunday.

(Images: Elle Decor)

Long Silence

If you could see me typing this, you would see a girl hunched over with guilt as if the whole world is pointing at her with accusing stares. Dramatic…well you all know that I can be that, but I seriously feel so terrible about the deafening silence on this blog.
Life had gotten so hectic that I could no longer juggle all the responsibilities on my plate, and unfortunately, the blog was one of the casualties. Something had to give, and with work, school, family, there just wasn't any room in my brain for creativity or available time to curate anything worth sharing.

I hope to be back to full time blogging, and I hope you will all forgive me and pretend this break never happened.

Have an awesome day!

Image: (Fatou Bah)

Beautiful Elements

I strongly believe that a room should not only tell a story of it's owner, but having stand out pieces that make you stop every once in a while to admire makes life a lot more interesting. I like interiors with a quirky detail that make you smile, or an unexpected piece that instantly captures you. I saw these rooms, and they each had something interesting that makes you want to linger a little bit longer, or come back for just one more inspection.

So much to love in this room for me, from the neutral background with the pastel accent pillows, and the combination of textures. I like the visual texture of the chair and throw, paired with the very gorgeous metallic/mirror coffee table, and side table. I like too that they used round tables and ottoman with the very linear sofa and wall panels.

The sweetness and feminity of this room is what draws me in.

It's all about the hand…(on a side note, anyone know where you can get this), the antiqued cases and the cute little frog handle perched on top.
I like that in all the spaces all the little details are functional, but still visually pleasing.

How is everyones' new year going so far? Did you make a resolution for this year? I did even though in the past, I always dismissed it as cliche. But you think about, its a nice time to make a commitment to make sensible changes to move your life in the direction that you'd like. Mine are all nice and easy, just working on being the best me, without putting too much pressure on myself.

Have a lovely day good people!

(Images: Skonahem)

Mint - Soft and Pretty

I guess the color seasons have changed for me again, from saturated moody colors, to soft pretty ones. I am loving all things pastely (new word alert :)) with a grey undertone. I really don't pay attention to Pantone's color of the year, even though I like to know for the sake of knowledge. I'm sure you too have heard by now that emerald is the color of 2013. So this brings me to my quandry, I have really been loving green's sweet cousin mint and aquamarine, and I wonder if it's because the green hue can be seen everywhere, and somehow it just snuck into my radar. Do you find that you start gravitating towards something just because it happens to be around, and without knowing it you've fallen in love?

via Style At Home

via Skonahem

via Skonahem

Notice how the aqua and mint has been used in each of these spaces in small doses and how gorgeously it pops! It's a great accent color, using accessories to add it to a space.

What is your color crush, or design trend?

(Images: Linked to source)

Here's to a Fantastic 2013!

I'm glad I made it through 2012, and a lot of great memories were made, but a lot of hard lessons were learned,  and too many loved ones lost. So, I for one, am ready to bring the lessons of 2012 into the new year, and the rest will be left behind. I hope for a fantastic new year, filled with love, more quality time with family, good health and tons of laughter!

To you my dear readers, I wish you a ton of love in this new year, I hope you get to do things you love, spend more time with people you love, and explore more of the things that will bring you joy . You have all contributed to the wonderful memories of 2012 for me, and, for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!
So, here, is to a fantastic 2013!

(Images: Dawda Bah)

Hello Kitty Party

While people were busy planning Christmas dinners, picking up presents, I was running around picking up party supplies, cutting out Hello Kitty faces, gluing and sticking bows. I think I mentioned here that my older daughter was turning five, and she asked to have a Hello Kitty everything. I wasn't too crazy about the idea at first, but I quickly got sucked into the cute world of this special kitty. I decided early on that unlike years past, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible as far as food goes. I also wanted the party to be adorable, but to be as little stress as possible. I think it turned out very nice….

My absolute favorite DIY project were the plastic cups. I played with different ideas of what I could  do to spruce them up, and somehow the bow just happened, and it was quick and lovely - literally took about 30 mins to tie all 25 bows and stick them on. At first, I bought the 3D stickers on Etsy to just stick on the cups (again thought of keeping things simple), but the scale was all wrong. I started playing with the ribbon that I already had, and before you knew it I had several bows that I stuck the stickers on, I used mounting tape to stick them to the cups. The paper straws I purchased on Amazon. Adding bows really took the cups to another level of cuteness.

Making these Hello Kitty faces were a fun and easy project. I just traced and cut out the shape using card stock paper, then hubby drew the perfect bow, again I cut that out, and the birthday girl herself helped cut the whiskers. I used my hot glue gun to stick them on lollipop sticks, and I used mashmallow as stumps.:-)

This was my first attempt at cake pops, and they turned out pretty good. I used white chocolate to cover up a red velvet cake. The chocolate seized up on me, but I kept on trying, I left it over the warm water in the bowl that I was melting it in. I took out bits of the warm chocolate that I flattened in my hand, then rolled the cake balls that I had in the freezer for about 10 minutes in it…sprinkled them with some pink sugar, and, voila! The kids, and big kids had a blast eating them.

My almost two year old could have probably eaten that whole tower if I left her. She just set up a station by that table, sneaking them into her mouth. All the pictures from the first part of the night of her, had her mouth full of clementines.

I was so busy worrying about the design of the cake and having the cake designer get the perfect shade of pink that I forgot to have the birthday girl's name added to the cake. 

For the most important person of the party, hugged me the afternoon after setting up everything, and said, "Mama thank you for making the best decorations I ever seen." Now, that, was all this mommy needed.

(Images: Fatou Bah)