As promised

After a...well...let's call it long weekend, I'm back on the grind this morning. Here's a look at what I was telling you all about on Friday. I was checking out Jonathan Adler's amahhhzing site, and was inspired to throw together a nursery look. I then realized they have an extremely limited line of children's furniture (mainly just a couple chairs and casegoods), so I mixed and matched with some pieces from the Restoration Hardware Baby and Child line. I love to rep some Resto, they are always coming up with the cutest little masculine and vintage-y goodies for children's rooms. If anyone received the Holiday catalog this week, how cute are the little furry fighter-pilot style hats?? Love em! And I'm really thinking I need a faux Lynx throw for my sofa. Ok, that's beside the point! The only other resource I used for the idea nursery was an online antique dealer for the brass crib.

I liked the idea of using a more rich color palette than is typically used in a nursery. I also think a huge miss in many nurseries is a lack of seating. I mean, hello, a glider chair shouldn't be the only place to rest in your child's room! It's nice to make it an inviting space for sitting and being around the baby. I played off the brass in the chandelier with the brass crib and brass hardware on the furniture, which are all great contrasts against the deep olive green, navy, and warm grey paint. The white in the deer head and lamp, as well as the pillows and background of the portraits will serve as a way to lighten the room a bit and contrast that reserved look. I also love the idea of the roller coaster art pieces that play on the lines of the crib they would hang above. I chose all furniture to have fairly high legs as to not look so heavy since I'm using predominantly dark colors. Hope you like!


On a total side note, I follow all the Kardashians on Twitter and they just filmed an Extreme Home Makeover centered around the Walker family. I did a little Googling and found a multitude of articles on the family and their personal tragedy. Read the article about the tragic death of their son due to bullying here and about the show and what they're doing to help here. This is a quote from Rev Run that he posted on his Twitter this morning that I retweeted and feel like everyone needs to hear.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. - Plato.

Love you guys!

It's a JA world, and we just live in it.

So, today I had to return some overdue library books before cleaning for our guests that are arriving tonight (exciting!) One of the books I checked out what Jonathan Adler's My Prescription for Antidepressive Living.  I adore JA, and this book is pretty genius. I used to use JA for ideas frequently in design school, and when I saw this brand new shiny book, I had to pick it up! It has wonderful, full color images and some brilliant words to live by. One of the things I'm most inspired by is his transparency. He just tells it like it is, and if you know me, that's my style too :)

He loves color, pattern, and all things funky.  As do I, as do I! Take a look at his

Aren't these amazing?? Here's my take:

1. Quit being boring and safe! All beige=safe. Although it's beautiful in some settings, it won't make you happy. Let me rephrase that, it wouldn't make me happy. I love an all white room, but there has got to be some kind of interest in the objects you choose to adorn it with. Not necessarily color or pattern, but interest. Let a room have layers of interest to lead the eye up and down, left and right.

2. Who would have thought? DUH! If you can feel luxurious in a hotel because of the opulent surroundings, why not do the same in your home? Every room doesn't have to be that way, but why not your bedroom or a sitting room? Treat yourself like a star in your own home...it is yours afterall, isn't it?

3. X-benches speak for themselves. Actually, any benches do. Multipurposeful and wonderful!

4. AGREE AGREE AGREE! I love monogramming or anything personalized. I don't think there is ever too much! It makes a home feel like a home. I mean, isn't it weird when you walk into someone's home with kids and you see none of their art up? Hang those crazy drawings up, people!

5. My thought on this-- be chic, but comfy! It's okay to have a white, hard, absolutely uncomfortable couch in a sitting room- but for Heaven's sakes.... please have a deep, cushy sofa in your living room for all to rest on!

6. It's always a wonderful to learn about another designer and what makes them tick. We could spend hours learning about others, and therefore influence and refine our own design taste.

7. This is the only way murder is okay, right??

8. Orange is a favorite of mine (hence my orange velvet-like sofa in my living room.) It brings a room alive.

9. We used to play beer pong on my Midcentury teak dining table in college, does that count? Of course- it was covered with many table cloths and seriously protected because it's my baby!

10. Make your home the one to be coveted. And better yet, if you use a designer, recommend them to that neighbor and you can both admire each other's homes!



A couple other pieces of wisdom compliments of my boy JA in his manifesto:

"We believe tassels are the earrings of a home."
"We believe handcrafted tchotchkes  are life-enhancing."
"We believe in being underdressed or overdressed always."
"We believe you should throw out your Blackberry and go pick some actual blackberries."
"We believe in irreverent luxury."



Check back on Monday for a nursery image board I've compiled based on his Ten Commandments, and his products of course!

Have a spooky and boo-tiful weekend! 

Thanks, Rachel.

We all know The Zoe is bananas, kills it, and shuts it down. Hellllllo, have you seen her? She so cracks me up with her Zoe-isms...and they are all great. People can hate on her saying "I die" and "kills it" as much as they like, but it's majorly obvious they are super jealous because she is so fabulous! After I got home from sharing a wonderful dinner and bottle of wine with the best friend, I ran inside and flipped the tube on to Ms. Fabulous herself. One thing that amazes me other than her wittiness and obvious fashion taste, is her uncanny ability to pick talent.


For her assistants, as well as the people that actual run Rachel Zoe, Inc., she always hits the nail on the head. That's why I was totally shocked that they let the uber-talented Jeremiah go. I'm convinced it was the pregnancy brain (both of her and Rodger), so he's sure to be back in the near future. I mean, hello, they called him in a panic because two women didn't know how to pull a nursery together in a short period of time. Yep, he'll be back. He clearly showed out when he shopped for and styled her home. AMAZE! It was all done in a rushed, unorganized, and short period of time...but he still made it work. Let's be a little more realistic- most designers have creative brain and are totally all over the place. But, if they are truly good designers, they figure out a way to execute. And that he did.


And if you really think about it, it's amazing that he was able to pull the design together based on what she told him she wanted. She basically just said white. Very open to interpretation, right?? Sometimes with clients, open to interpretation can be great because you can have pretty much free reign over the design with very few limitations. And sometimes it can be really bad because while they may say very few words leaving you to be very creative, they may actually have needed to pin down a few more details for you if they are looking for something specific.


Take a look at some of his work around the Zoe household:

Fab. And if you saw baby Skylar's closet... well, you'd know he'll have his own man-Birkin by age 6 months. For his toys. Jealous. 

Now, here are a few of my favorite looks that Rachel has rocked: 

Did you guys notice a few detail changes to my blog? I hope so...love it!

Hope everyone is having and productive and bearable Monday...

Shut it down!

you are already naked

'Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.....'

'....Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by

 dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.'

Steve Jobs


What are we so afraid of anyhow, failure? Failure Schmailure. 

DIY: Fall Wreath

So, as I posted about last week, I've been trying to figure out which style I was going to go with when making a wreath for the season. By the time I went shopping last year for a wreath support, it seemed that Michael's and Hobby Lobby were permanently sold out for the season. Either that or I just kept going multiple times when some lucky soul stole the last one! Therefore, I had to try to make a wreath form out of an old wire hanger. Epic fail. It wasn't strong enough, and just didn't have enough shape. My wreath looked a lot like this one: 

via isrelspace

Let me rephrase that... it looked a lot like the one above, for about a week. All that work in stringing burlap ribbon back and forth on a stupid wire hanger and all I get is a week?? Not to mention, my door is a painted metal one, which does NOT take nails. And I do NOT use those plastic self-adhesive hooks for things like that..refuse! I sought out a clear plastic wreath hanger (I would have preferred a gold to the clear one, but all of them were cheap and brassy.) Hung it on the door, used the door maybe 10 times, wreath hanger broke. That's my final epic fail for this post, promise. I'm turning over a new leaf this year, I promised myself to make a beautiful wreath that I could actually display for longer than a week!


As you probably remember last week, this is the wreath I was inspired by:

via TheWrightWreat

Further investigation for inspiration led me to a wild goose chase of photos on Pinterest. Oops, where did that hour go?? This one was my first find, and inspired me to keep looking. 

via marcusdesigninc

From there, I went here:

via madamederosa

do you SEE those heels? Do you??!

via faemyst

i love this look..almost like a negative photo but with color

via let--it--shine

burlap ribbon is always a yes

via stylemepretty

peacock weddings can be overdone, but not if done with taste

via pinterest

beautiful mix of iridescence, florals, and moss

via wahooart

the peacock room from whistler, automatic

via designwali

i love the styling here

via dezeen

peacock chair by dror

via pinterest

i would work SO hard in this office. i need it! and that mug...yes

via designmanifest

i love the play on scales here..that screen wants to come home with mama

Here's what I have made for this year. There is limited light in my corridor, and the flash makes crazy firework-lookalikes because of the gloss on my door, so photo quality is not great. It'll do!

Tada! This only took about 20 minutes to make, excluding shopping time, which is very reasonable for something that will hopefully last for many fall seasons to come. Instead of letting the hanging solution overcome me, I just decided to hang it through my door hanger with burlap ribbon. That ended up making it hang kind of low, which I surprisingly don't mind. Hey, I'm short... I actually get to enjoy it! I was very tempted to do something with orange, gold, and sunflowers...but decided to switch it up. I did buy the ribbon for one of those, though! Maybe I'll do one as a gift...I can't resist anything to do with fall!

"I worked with a wild leopard,

 who bit me. But I kept on working

 with him, because I have a wild side. 

I think I was an animal 

in a previous life."

Bai Ling

me too, me too!