Cyber Monday

I hope you all had a fabulous long weekend, I know I did! I got most of my Christmas decorating done, but I still have to fill in some gaps since I changed the color scheme of my tree this year. Last year I did all aqua and apple green on my white tree, but this year I decided to just stick to blues and I love it, but I need to find some more large aqua ornaments to finish it up. Did you start your holiday decorating yet? Maybe you have some gaps to fill in also....I'm having some great sales in my etsy shops today that might help:

All of my wreaths are on sale today at junktrunk :

tree wreath

bird wreath

winter friend wreath

And all of my stockings are on sale at L Studio today, plus free shipping on everything!

red deer stocking

My etsy shops are keeping me busy today, so I'll see you back here tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm signing off for the rest of the week to enjoy a great Thanksgiving day with friends, to decorate the house for Christmas, and spend some nice quiet time at home. I'm so thankful that you take time out of your day to visit my blog, I appreciate it so much!

Have a great weekend!

*via Martha Stewart

Score!

You may have noticed that I have a thing for lamps. I LOVE lamps (& chairs), and I undoubtedly have too many of both. It's not that I go out looking for them, they just seem to find me. The thrift stores and estate sales in my area are full of excellent quality vintage items at very reasonable prices and it's hard to say no to such great deals. Since I have collected so many lamps throughout the years, many of them 'singles', I have made a new rule that I can only buy lamps in pairs unless I have a specific spot where I only need one. I liked the eclectic, mismatched look for a while, but now I'm looking for more symmetry (and this will significantly narrow down my purchasing options). Sometimes I feel like I'm stealing from the nice elderly folks that put on the garage/estate sales because they price their items so low. I mean really, why even sell something if you're only asking 10 cents for it? What are you going to do with 10 cents?

Here are some of my major scores from the last couple of weeks...

I bought these lamps last night at GW for $6 each!

They didn't come with shades (not that I'm complaining), so I'm thinking of something like this:

I think they'll be perfect for my bedroom!

I found these lamps a couple of weeks ago for my back hall, again for only $6 each. I haven't decided what I'm doing with the shades yet because I'm looking for a new console table for this spot:

The glass candelabra was another score at only $2!

And now for the chair that is causing much controversy in my house at the moment:

This chair was FREE! It was sitting outside across the street from an estate sale so I scooped it up and somehow managed to fit it into the back seat of my car. It swivels and rocks, the only problem is that it has a somewhat large tear where the back hits the seat of the chair. I was thinking I could just tape it up with black electrical tape and cover it with a pillow...is that tacky? I know it is a little bit, but I'm cheap:) My husband says he would really like the chair if we reupholstered it, but hates it the way it is and doesn't want it in the house. Why did I have to marry the one guy in America who cares how his wife (who is an interior designer) decorates the house??? Not that I don't want to reupholster it, there are just a million other projects ahead of that one. Wouldn't it look great with the wood painted glossy white?

Any thoughts on the chair dilemma?

Chicks Picks

How fun is this ring from Chicks Picks? It is a vintage Chanel button coated in lucite and attached to a gold plated adjustable band so it can fit any ring size. It was featured in this month's Country Living and is a steal at only $44.

As I was poking around the Chicks Picks website, I noticed they carry a lot of other fun & unique gifts from jewelry, soaps, accessories, and home decor, many of them one of a kind. Here are some of my other faves from their website:

Check 'em out, you may be able to cross a few people off of your holiday gift list!

Two things

First, I'm thinking of implementing "Black & White Fridays" where I post my favorite black & white design photo(s) of the moment . I am forever drawn to this perfect combination and I'd hate to bore you black and white photos everyday, so I'll try to keep it to Fridays.

Since my mind is on kitchens and pendants this week, I chose a kitchen that I loved the second I first saw it in Domino:

I love the zig zag wallpaper, the number plates, the chairs with the snakeskin print, the Imperial Trellis pillows, all of the natural light, and oh yeah, the pendant. Gorgeous!

And the second thing.....

Hello, lover. I'll be seeing you later:)

*via domino, GQ

Pendant inspiration

I've got pendant lighting on the brain lately. I've been searching far and wide for the perfect fixture to put above my rectangular kitchen table and it's been no easy task. It is a tricky spot since it's the only eating area and is open to both the kitchen and the living room, almost centered at the pitch of the vaulted ceiling. I want something classic, yet modern, sophisticated, but not too fancy, unique, and not too pricey. Is that too much to ask for? So far I'm leaning toward some kind of drum pendant, but these rooms are giving me some other ideas...

love the shape of this shade and the crystal ball accent, in fact, I love everything about this dining space

simple & classic

this might be chandelier overkill, but they're all pretty

this ceiling is perfection and would probably make any fixture look good

still love this one every time I see it...

a cluster of pendants is a nice twist...this looks like something from a designer's guild ad

a good option if you don't want to commit

What do you think? Any suggestions?

*via living etc, desire to inspire, domino, oprah

A little bit of sparkle

Since it was cooler here over the weekend (and by cooler I mean in the low 70's), it really got me in the mood to start decorating for Christmas. I am SO feeling all of this mercury glass...

I will be waiting until the day after Thanksgiving (my husband's rule, not mine) to get all of my decorations out, but when I do, I hope to do a similar arrangement on my entry console. I can just picture the candlelight bouncing off the mirror and all of the glass...gorgeous!

*via elements of style

Happy Monday

I hit some great estate sales over the weekend which inspired me to update my shop with some new items. Here are just a few:

owl pendant

vera neumann scarf

ribbon brooch

I've also added a couple of fun stockings to my other shop:

I'll be adding more in the days to come, but I wanted to get a few up on my site because the Christmas season is fast approaching. Sorry for all of the shameless self promotion today, hope your weekend was nice and productive, too!

Country Girl

I admit it, I'm a country girl at heart. I dream of someday fixing up a cute little farmhouse in the country where the houses aren't 10 feet apart from each other and I can raise little chicks, duckies, bunnies, and whatever else people put on a farm. Of course I would have no idea how to take care of all these critters and I couldn't survive if I lived more than 10 miles from a Target, but I like the idea of it:) So for now, I listen to my country music, take care of my two little yorkie pups, kill everything in my vegetable garden and call that good. Of course I watched the CMA'S last night and they really put on an awesome show with tons of great performances. My favorite was miss Reba who I have a slight obsession with, but that's a whole other story. I was so happy for Taylor Swift who won best album and entertainer of the year. She is such a sweet, talented, and successful girl and she's only 19! I love it when good things happen to good people!

And of course, she looked gorgeous in her simple & elegant dress...

And to make this post somewhat about design, here's how I would translate this classic elegance into an interior:

I have been drooling over this image ever since I saw it at Apartment Therapy a few weeks back. The chandelier is more than gorgeous! That and the small mirrors add the perfect amount of sparkle to this room.

*photos via CMT, AT

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Do you ever browse through your inspiration photos and notice a common accessory, book, or furniture piece? I found this mirror in three of my photos, each time used in a different way and a very different style. The mirror is borderline gaudy on it's own, but as a part of the total composition, I think it works.

I'm definitely a mirror person, and it has nothing to do with vanity. I love the way that mirrors add sparkle and light to a space and can add a new dimension of depth. I'm not sure where the above mirror is from, but I thought it looked like something that could be from Uttermost. While poking around on their site, I found these other great options:

The best thing about Uttermost is that a lot of their mirrors end up at HomeGoods for under $100. A mirror can add so much to a room and there are many affordable options out there.

*via domino, elements of style, uttermost

Black and White Love

It's all about the contrast...

I'll take these two chairs, please

Is there anything more perfect than this door?

Check out the lamps... I think they're following me

*via decorpad

Kitchen Style

I cannot get over this amazing kitchen redo from Pure Style Home:

This is what it started out as:

All I can say is WOW! You can see the rest of the kitchen here.

Have a great weekend!

Cozy candles

I just received the new Anthropologie catalog in the mail today and there's so much in it to love. How cute are these ski cap & sweater sleeve candles?

Makeovers

I've been a busy bee lately finishing up some random projects around the house that I've been meaning to get to forever. I FINALLY finished painting my master bath & walk-in closet which took a full 3 days last week. I don't know whose idea it was (it was totally mine) to paint the closet (in two different colors no less), but it was a much bigger job than I had anticipated. I didn't realize how much stuff was in there until I had to take it all out and then put it back in. It was totally worth it though, because I was able to do a lot of editing & added more storage so now everything is perfectly organized and the bathroom & closet are looking fabulous.

And then over the weekend I got a little crazy with the spray paint...it all started with my obsession with this lamp from last week:

I remembered that I had this lamp that I currently wasn't using and wondered if I might be able to recreate the look for less:

And it turned out pretty nice:

I'm happy with the results, although I wish that I had two of the lamps so that I could use them on either side of my bed.

And since I had my spray painting area all set up, I decided to finish a few more projects. I didn't photograph everything (because most things weren't that exciting) but altogether I ended up with about 10 refreshed items and a little bit of a buzz from all of the paint fumes:) The chair in my office got upgraded from this:

To this:

Not bad, huh? So these two little projects cost me a total of $7 to complete... $3 for the spray primer and $4 for the metallic paint. I already had the black & white spray paint, the lamp (which was from Target a few years back), the shade was on another lamp in my house that was not in use, the chair (from Goodwill) and the fabric was left over from a pillow project (which is actually a flat sheet scored at Goodwill for $2). So I got creative and worked with what I already had to make a big impact on a {very} small budget. Sometimes your greatest creativity comes from having limited resources, so don't let a small budget stop you from completing those projects that you're wanting to get done. Plus, you'll feel so much better when you get to cross something off of your to-do list!