Get yourself to Old Navy

I've been wanting to hop on the colored skinny jeans train for a while but haven't found any I was really willing to pull the trigger on. But this weekend I found these at Old Navy and bought 2 pairs. I wasn't expecting the fit to be great but was so surprised. GREAT fit and they are only $19.00 this week in stores. Yep you heard that right, only $19!

(One thing they told me in the store was to buy 2 sizes up, the colored jeans were built really small. I  normally wear a 0 and the 4 fit me perfectly. So make sure you try them on!)

Beachy Waves

I have long fine hair and curling it has always been a pain and  it always falls out fast. Well, I found Kendi's hair tutorial and my faith in beachy waves were restored. Super easy and fast and stays in all day. Thank you Kendi, I love you. (Don't we all have girl crushes on her? )

 Well I just saw another tutorial from one of my favorites, Kinsey who guest posted it on A Beautiful Mess. Her technique uses a straighter instead of a curling iron and I want to try her way too but can't decide if the straighter would work on my hair. 

So I want to know, have you used both? Which was was your fav??

Monday

 great outfit (jessica's pinterest)

great room (pink wallpaper)

Happy Monday! And what better way to start your week then a little inspiration and a winner?

 

The winner of our  Gallery Wall giveaway is Natalie of Designer Bags and Dirty Diapers!
 I'll be emailing you shortly, and make sure you show us where you put it in your house :-)

Thanks so much to everyone who entered, and of course thanks to the sweet Sarah, you rock! (She just added a lot of new pieces to the shop, so make sure you go check them out!

(winner was chosen via random.org)

Party Time

Yeah, we made it to Friday, finally! Luke and I are escaping this weekend for a little getaway, and I fully intend on turning off my phone, stuffing my face, and being clingy on my hubs who has been working way too much recently. 

But whatever we do, we'll be home by Sunday night in time for the Oscars! (sidenote: I'm totally an award show geek, and watch everything from the beginning red carpet to the after parties. pls don't judge me.)

Friday's Fancies was dreaming of an Oscar party outfit, and this is the one I would love to wear on a fancy girl's night out, when in reality, I'll be snuggling up in my pj's with ice cream. Do any of you have glamorous plans so I can live vicariously through you??

And today is your last chance to enter our Gallery Wall giveaway! Just leave a comment on the post here to enter :-)

Pink Out

I used to be all about some pink growing up but over the past few years I've felt like I've moved out of that. Well my inspiration pictures beg otherwise.

I blame you pinterest.

Now anything girly or neon makes my heart go pitter patter...

 

 

Look Twice

I think this ASOS bikini looks eerily similar to this one I've had my eye on for forever at JCrew..
what do you think? 
Luke and I are planning a big trip this year to the Cabo San Lucas to celebrate our 3rd anniversary and what better way to celebrate then buy all new bathing suits???

 

P.S the Everygirl really is as awesome as we all thought it would be, isn't it??

Can't get enough

Gorg, right? I spend so much time stalking new designers on etsy that I thought I would make all that time worthwhile (aka research for my blog honey) and  start posting my fav new shops. Jennleedesign definitely made that list (esp love those aqua earrings!) And almost everything in her shop is on sale, bonus!
Are you as obsessed as I am?

True Beauty

It seems easy enough, get dressed in an outfit and take pictures of yourself in it. What they don't tell you is how awkward it is to take pictures of yourself, or in this case, for Luke to take pictures of me. The neighbors are all watching and you make weird faces, but I really wanted to link up with Anna of In Honor of Design's True Beauty Files this week, so I toughed it out.

I've been living in maxi skirts recently, and I can't get enough. This shirt from old navy is one of my favorites and I wear it at least once (ok maybe twice) a week.
I love Anna's inspiration for this series, to encourage women to dress in a way that shows your true beauty, your confidence and your self worth.
Happy Monday lovelies! What did ya'll do over the weekend? We went up to Anderson for an amazing conference with Newspring, and then hit up our favorite restaurant ever, Smoke on the Water. Their macaroni and cheese will change your life. Gouda cheese with a bread crumb topping... is your mouth watering yet?

Umm follow me?

I'm on twitter. A lot of you thought this day would never come,  and a big shoutout to Carly for staying on my case and making me sign up, love you girlie!

(Confession: I was talking to Anna about it and asked if she would be my first friend on twitter... she was like, you don't friend people you follow them. haha) 

my twitter

So I really just got on twitter so I could talk to all you lovelies, so follow me so we can be friends :-)

Elizabeth Schneider Styling Consultation

Liz of Sequins and Stripes always inspires me with her right on styling picks and absolutely adorable self. She just launched her new company Elizabeth Schneider Style and gave away a styling consultation to celebrate and I won! 

(Ahhh I know right, so exciting!!)

Her new website is amazing of course, Danielle designed it!

Liz has been working with me over the past few weeks through emailing, an in-depth styling questionnaire and she developed a personal styling strategy to help me really develop my style and edit my wardrobe. I really can't tell you how much I've loved every step of this process and how much Liz got my style and helped me get more where I want to be.

I shopped my closet and added a few key pieces that she recommended that work with what I already have but pushed me toward developing my personal style, and she encouraged me to be bold and rock outfits that I wouldn't normally put together.

Thanks Liz so much, you made me excited about my closet again :-)

(I'm going to take some outfit pics with the new pieces and outfits she recommended, so check back for those!)
Happy Friday!

Giveaway: GALLERY WALL

I'm sure by now you've all heard that one of our favorite designers has launched a collection of affordable art that is a perfect way to add a graphic pop of color, and all her pieces are only $10! Sarah from Flourish Design + Style is such an amazing blogger and total sweetheart and I'm really thrilled to be giving away one of the pieces from her etsy shop Gallery Wall.

Pssttt, Did you see Gallery Wall featured on Style at Home?? So fun!

All the pieces are so fun and I had a hard time narrowing down which one to give away, but I landed on the navy graphic. So fun, and navy is the new black, right??

One of the best things about the blogging community is all the support and love we can send each others way, and I'm so glad I can support one of my favorite bloggers who actually inspired me to start my own blog way back when. So enter below and share with all your peeps and lets show Sarah some love :-)

To Enter:

All you have to do is leave a comment below. Yep that's it.

(Giveaway closes 2/24/2012 and winner will be chosen via random.org and is open only to US Residents)

Loving on Gold

Happy Valentines Day loves!
In honor of the big lovefest today, I thought I would round up what I'm loving right now, besides my hubby! I've wanted a made by girl LOVE print for forever, and I think the gold would be perfect to hang above my bed. It might have to be my valentines present :-)
Do you have any fun plans for tonight? Luke and I loaded up at the Gourmet Shop with our favorite wines, cheeses and desserts and are going to have a relaxing night at home, and I couldn't be more excited! Want to hear about all your plans... and wishing you all the love in the world. Thanks for the love and encouragement you all show me each and every day, you all rock and mean so much to me!!

shoes, earrings, bracelet, made by girl print, diy, gold wall

DIY this...

Do you ever see one of those DIY's that make you think, that's the best idea ever why didn't I think of that? And you then immediately want to go grab your hot glue gun and start gluing anything in site?

Well I was over at Dana's cute blog... and she linked over to Design Blooms where Nicole made these DIY sea urchins .

So fun right? Nicole made hers big but I think I want to make some smaller versions for my coffee table. What do you think, are these a good knockoff?

LOVE

Hi lovelies, Happy Friday! 

This week of Friday's Fancies was all about PINK + RED... and since valentines is right around the corner, I thought I would dream up my outfit for date night. We aren't doing any super fancy, but are heading to Charleston for the weekend to hit up all our favorite shops and restaurants and I want to wear this while wandering around downtown. I didn't want anything too cheesy but I loved these simple little heart studs!

 

polyvore 

And updates to come about the Alt Summit class I took yesterday, it was AWESOME and Nicole did the best job explaining how to grow your blog. I was frantically taking notes the whole time. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my post here for more info )
Did any of you take the class? What did you think?

Meet my new carry-on

 It can fit a full size pillow, comforter and a small dog. J/k but it is huge! With all the traveling I'm going to be doing this year I decided this was a necessity. Totally an affordable way to jump on the colorblocking trend. I love it! Do you?

forever 21

My Home Tour

I'm finally giving you sweet readers a peek into my home. I know I've been promising this tour for about 5 months, but better late than never right? 

Luke and I moved into our precious little home in October, and we love it. It has creaky wood floors, high ceilings and loads of character. (Sidenote: When we first walked through the house, we said we wanted it within 5 minutes, we didn't have to talk about it or anything. We both knew!)

Our dining room. My favorite thing about the room is... the art, the chairs the table and the rug. I can't decide! The art is by Wostudios from etsy, to say I'm obsessed is an understatement. I stalked every piece that Destiny created for a month, and she had a sale one day, and I snatched this massive 6'x3' piece. 

Luke made me the dining table for a wedding present. I know, he's hot and he's crafty! The wood was salvaged from an barn and still has the original saw mill marks on it from 100 years ago.  The Eames chairs might be my favorite... I'm an architecture nerd as you all know, so any furniture designed by an architect and I'm in love.

Sweet tea vodka on my makeshift bar cart.. I do live in SC after all :-)

 Our living room is everything I love. Grey walls, ikat ottoman and all white upholstery. (What you don't know is that hiding under that pottery barn slipcover is Luke's couch from college... think red, maroon and green plaid. Heck yes.) The burlap skirted table is a DIY, blogged about here...You walk right into my living room, so I created a separation of space by having the skirted burlap be the division between living and entry space.
 
  Our entry wall is one of my favorite spaces in the house. I loved the look of a wall decal but just treated a 10' stripe on the wall to add definition to the entry area. We were already painting the room grey so Luke taped out the 10' stripe and pattern with painters tape and we just painted the grey areas. As renters, we wanted to add our design aesthetic to the space but still be renter (aka landlord!) friendly, so all we have to do when we move out is paint over with our leftover grey paint. 

 I love my turquoise lamps that are in the windows... They've been in every room in my house at some point :-) Curtains are ikea

 Ok so here's the deeds on the ottoman. About 4 years ago I bought the ikat ottoman cover for about $6 in the clearance bin at pottery barn outlet. I think the style ottoman that the cover went with had been discontinued. I shoved it in the back of my closet and promptly forgot about it. Well... we pulled it out when we moved and Luke said, Ummm I can make that. So we made a plywood box, and ssshhhhh, don't tell, but we wrapped the box with a queen mattress egg crate, and voila, instant ottoman!

My lucite nesting tables make me happy :-) 

$2 chair with my DIY chopstick art... a la Jamie. 
This is on the wall directly ahead of you when you walk in the front door, and I love looking at my leopard fabric everyday :-) 

P.S I have to give a HUGE shoutout to my bestie Anna, who took all these pictures. Thank you love, I couldn't have done without you :-) Its so awesome when one of your bff's is a professional photographer...

Whew... that's a lot of information and pictures in one post. I hope you lovelies enjoyed! Your support means the world to me and when I started this blog, I didn't at all expect all the wonderful friendships that I've developed and the creative inspiration that you guys give me each and every day! Love you all :-)

 

Let's Alt Together...

If you are like me, you are kicking yourself that you didn't sign up for alt this year and jealously stalking everyone who did get to go. Well, there is hope for people like us, and its called alt channel. 

Its like alt over the internet. Online classes that cover the same topics covered at the summit, and it launched last week!
You can sign up for lots of different classes, here are just some of the ones offered this month....

Liz Stanley February 8 Introduction to Blogging
Nicole Balch February 9 Growing A Readership
Laurie Smithwick February 13 Business Cards 101
Liz Stanley February 15 Getting Started with Advertising for Bloggers
Susan Peterson February 16 Getting Your Blog or Shop Noticed
Laurie Smithwick February 22  Site Design: Tips & Tricks for Beginners

So here's my idea....

I thought it would be so fun if some of my favorite peeps from around the blogging world wanted to join with me and we could take classes together! Sounds like fun right? Do any of you want to go to school with me? We could buy matching lunchboxes and write notes during class :-)

(I just signed up for Growing a Readership, let me know if any of ya'll sign up too!)

Its coming.... home tour

My home tour is coming early next week ... but here's a little sneaky peek. Can't wait to show you guys :-) Happy Weekend!

Spring Fever

This whole weather thing is confusing me. Its a high of 75 degrees today, what? Not that I'm complaining, I'll take it! The awesome weather made whipping up an outfit for Friday's Fancies that much more fun, its all about spring fever! I pulled together an outfit I would love to be wearing right now... if only it were May :-)

 

polyvore

Guest Posting at a {little} dash of ash

I'm guest posting over at a {little} dash of ash today! Besides having a killer sense of style that inspires me all the time, Ashley is also so sweet and fun to work with. I was so excited when she contacted me to do a guest post, I've LOVED her blog for a while now and am so happy to be blogging friends :-)

Check my post out to see more of this yummy goodness...

here

Pssttt....

 (Pssst... I'm over at Anna's today for her I Heart series, you don't want to miss it!)

Gild it

I about fell over when I saw this creative redo via Glitter Guide. Brittney used gold leaf to add instant glam to her $5.00 thrift store chair. Imagine the possibilities... I'm thinking gold leaf side table, night stands... maybe gold leafing the bottom half of my eiffel chair legs... I need to stop!!

Check out the full redo here...