Seeing spots

Guys, I'm just really feelin the leopard lately. I dunno what it is, but I'm diggin the clothes, I'm diggin the fabrics, just everything. Do you equate leopard with hooker? I kinda do too... or old ritzy lady? Or how about old lady dressing like a hooker. Speaking of which I saw an emaciated lady at the grocery store yesterday, only from the back. She was so skinny, sporting tight jeans with holes, and her blonde hair was teased so high I could see her scalp. She didn't even need to turn around for me to know she was 80 years old and TRYING TOO HARD. And she wasn't even wearing leopard, so that's besides the point...

Regardless of the fashion and decorating disasters by people who are embarrassing themselves, leopard and animal prints CAN be classy!! After all I was reminded on some show today that they are a neutral, you can pair it with any color!

I kinda think some animal print steps the glam factor up a notch, and you can mix it with all sorts of styles and patterns.

thedecorista

 Cute chairs yeah? What white spotted animal is this from, I'm not sure?

 Kimora Lee Simmons closet: sweet rug

I wouldn't think to use a bunch of orange, accented by leopard rug and pillows but it rocks

 brabourne farm

You can barely see em, but there's leopard pillows on each end of the sofa. See? Goes with everything!

So have I convinced you yet? Imma be buying me some leopard stuff reeeeal soon.

Project for the housewife

I can not take credit for this super cute and creative silverware makeover, for I saw it on the way we are a couple weeks ago, but I totally loved it!
We live a weird lifestyle, where we bring out like half of our belongings- the crappy half- for the summer, and unfortunately I only have one good set of silverware... we've been using plastic disposables for the past 2 weeks, so I was excited to do a little bargain project-o.
I did a little googling of these, and I found em for sale for $35 a piece!!!! Ridiculous. And mine cost $0.25! (Plus the plasti-dip but we'll get to that).

This is what it looks like, the site you can buy em at, I don't remember... but just don't do it. Make your own.

I loved the color, but could only find plasti-dip in basic tool colors: red, yellow, black, etc. Plasti-dip is that rubbery stuff you dip the handles of pliers in, usually found at Home Depot and the like.

Again, I did a little googling and found Plasti-Dip Create your own color Kit!! So stoked about it, though it was around $22 but split it with a friend. This stuff is way flammable & toxic, so keep the place well ventilated

I rummaged through silverware at Goodwill, and found 6 of each (so 18 pieces of silverware) for $4.50 total, and they're all mismatching. Personally, I like the floral ones best and it could be cute all matching, but then again it's fun like this.

So the how-to:

Really you just follow instructions on the plasti-dip can, but you gotta let them hang to dry for at least 4 hours. So what I ended up doing is tying dental floss (ya I'm ghetto and that's the only string I had) around the top of each, and then I hung em from my spice cupboard, with a can holding each down.. it worked! And just know that the stuff looks super thick and not very good, but it dries thinner so the pattern on the silverware shows through still.

These sweet napkins I found at Home Goods recently, love em!

But then again they look super cute with my napkins for my husband's birthday today!

Water for Elephants

I know this totally has nothing to do with Interior Design or anything of that nature, but sometimes it's fun to switch it up right? 

This week Steph and I finished this great book Water for Elephants so of course we had to run out right away and see the movie. We made it a girls night out with our friends Carley and Jenna and no kiddos!

We both liked the movie, but we loved the book. I highly recommend it for a good read. Just keep in mind there is some bad language and sexual situations (that are actually pretty hilarious if you ask me).  

kitchen love

I've been kind of obsessed with white cabinetry in the kitchen. It's so fresh and pretty and light. And I'm so over the dark woods, and especially the knotty woods that saturate the interiors of Utah kitchens. I love the look but wonder how realistic it is... for who has a white kitchen, is it hard to keep clean? To me it seems worth the extra effort and extra cleaning so I can have it look like these =)

shop top shop

Once upon a time i was bored and messing around on instyle.com or some celeb mag online and happened upon celebrity style, "where to get the look" sort of thing, which I never really look at because 1, I don't care, and 2, guaranteed I can't afford whatever it is they wear. 

Seriously like half of the photos showed cute clothes from what was sited as top shop (I've never heard of it, have you?) and I hesitantly checked it out just to see what it was. I believe it's British based but they have a US option, and it's actually affordable! I was very surprised... Look how cute their stuff is!

happy easter

Hope you have a wonderful Easter and remember the reason for the holiday.. and it's not just a cute tablescape and a scrumptious ham dinner =)

colour lovers

I discovered a site a while back where you can create your own color palette, great for decorating your house or even planning an outfit! I know some people struggle trying to find the right combinations, so I like that you can play around and customize just what colors you think look good together, and then apply them. You can even create patterns with specific colors, and save all your "creations" so it's very cool, check it out!

http://www.colourlovers.com/

goals

I've thought of doing this and haven't yet, but I was reminded of it when I saw this on a blog, cupcakes and cashmere. 

So my husband and I have recently been doing 8-week challenges, organized by his friend, to get into better shape. Embarrassingly I sucked it up this last 2 months by not hitting my goals. Honestly I didn't think about them everyday & we all know that we need to constantly be reminded of them otherwise it is NOT happening. Ya know what i mean?

So why not print off your goals on some nice paper and put them in an awesome frame somewhere you'll see them frequently? (It doesn't have to be New Years either!)

I'm kinda obsessed with this frame, but any good looking one will do! Combining fitness with decorating, yeah i try.... =)

Easter Craft

This is my sister Tressa, She is very crafty and very great at refinishing furniture. She helped me with my sewing table. I am sure I will be putting more of her stuff on this blog soon.

 She saw a tree on Pottery Barn some years ago and thought that'd be easy to make and really fun. She changes it up for some holidays, putting it in a different pot and hanging different things on it. Here is her cute Easter one.

 She picked a cute pot and used styrofoam to hold up the branches. She covered that with yellow rocks. The branches were simply picked from a tree outside our parents house.

 To make the cute eggs she used plastic eggs covered in ribbon and lots of hot glue! Just dab each end of the egg with a little hot glue and wrap the ribbon around it.  Simple and cute right?

Pottery barn also does a similar virson of this with christmas ornaments.

Caps... Caps for sale.. 50 cents a cap!!!

Anyone have that book as a kid? As I recall, monkeys steal some peddler's caps. Anyhow, I've seen people use pages out of a book to frame as art, but this one (from apartment therapy) is awesome, I think especially if you have kids =)

The arrangement is a little weird, and obviously they have that random obnoxious protrusion in the wall. Family photos are great & important, but....

I think this is much cuter- a conversation piece. How many people walk in and say, hey I remember that book! Love that they coordinate with the pillows too

Nice and orderly yet whimsical. Love it... good job random stranger who did this =)

OFFICE plans

(This is Steph again now)

For probably a year I've been mulling in my brain ideas for our home office, which is at the moment non-existent, but I still had fun putting together at least something. I figure our house is & will be pretty girly, I've got some floral prints and cutesy patterns, so I wanted at least some masculinity in the office to appease my husband =)

He hasn't seen it yet, mostly because I'm constantly showing him ideas that he cares little about so I decided I'd wait til we get back to Utah. But I'll show you! I totally love this white desk, and then wanted some black and neutrals with a few pops of color. The yellow-green pattern is for drapery. (I do have a backup color if he rejects my coral). My favorite thing is the awesome Robert Abbey taupe lamp on the left. I will be saving up my pennies for that!!

The wall

I think it's pretty obvious that I LOVE wallpaper! Remember my office Steph posted a while back....




I am going to wallpaper my craft room when we go back to Utah so I keep looking at old pictures I have had to help me figure out exactly what style I want.






















I just think it's the perfect thing to use when you don't know what to do on a wall behind a bed or a couch, even a hallway. It pops and adds texture to a room. Take a risk...try it.