[kreyv of the day]

image from Martha Stewart

[in five]: Thanksgiving Place Settings

Are you hosting Thanksgiving on Thursday? I'm not, but I'll sure be stuffing my face with complex carbohydrates at my in-laws' house. The rolls are my favorite part about Thanksgiving…the turkey and pies? Meh. Anyway, nothing adds a great finishing touch like a personalized place setting. Here are some that are simple and chic.  Which one is your fave?

image from Classic Casual Home

image from Country Living

image from Julie Song Ink

image from Life is a Dance

image from Martha Stewart

[color kreyv]: Orange & Black

I'm still going strong with the fall and Halloween theme, because honestly, if the decorations don't come out this week, they may not make an appearance. They are buried very, very deep in, what I like to refer to as the Monica Gellar closet. Yes. I have one. I'll show you pics some day. It's actually quite organized, it's just stuffed from top to bottom. Anyway, I'm really just trying to motivate myself to get them out.

Back to black and orange...I honestly didn't think I would be able to find a lot of spaces with that color combo. But I did, and rather than them metaphorically shouting "BOO!" at you, they are really quite pleasant. Dontcha think?

image from Remodelaholic 

image from Mary McDonald Interiors

image from Martha Stewart

[color kreyv]: Ombre

Oh my goodness. I have had so much fun the last two weeks, but I'll be honest,I am wiped. Out (yes, still). People, the days of staying up late (as in after 10:00pm) are oh-ver. I know. I'm crazy like that. But, let's talk about something almost as fun as sleep: ombre. Love it...especially in pinks and corals. I'm thinking of doing a big ombre statement piece in Stella's room, which is moving along pretty slowly, and by pretty slowly, I mean not so much at all. But, trust me, her room is super amazing in my brain. Give me a week or so to recover, and then I'm totally on it.

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image from Livet Hemma

image from Martha Stewart

Dipped

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend. We had lots of fun family time at the pool and BBQing with friends. The hubs had to work on Memorial Day, but I got lots of cleaning and organizing done around that house, which quite frankly, is on my list of top ten things I enjoy doing. I know. I'm crazy like that. Our real vacation starts tomorrow, and then on Wednesday, we are heading to Chi-Town and then Milwaukee on Thursday. I can't wait!

In the meantime, I am LOVING dipped furniture (and baskets). I'm thinking I need to dip Stella's table and chairs. What do you think about dipped furniture? You likey?

image from Martha Stewart

image from House and Home

image from Serena and Lily

[color kreyv]: Honeysuckle

I know, I know...honeysuckle is so 2011. Don't you still just love it, though? Would I ever paint an entire wall in honeysuckle? Not likely, but I'm really wanting to add more (I should say some) pink to my home, and honeysuckle is probably one of my favorite shades. In fact, right this moment, I am remembering that last week I posted about fuchsia, which is clearly different than honeysuckle (and a lot harder to spell). Apparently, I have pink on the brain. Two weeks in a row. Oops. The bright side is that I'm taking giant strides with my decor ADD if I'm actually thinking about the same color family for that long.  We should all be very proud of me, unfortunately, this means that I have thought about it for long enough, and now it's on to the next step: purchasing.

image from Martha Stewart

image from UKTV Home

image from Samantha Pynn

A Place for the Good Stuff

I absolutely love open shelving in a kitchen. I think it adds so much character to a space, which can sometimes be tricky in a kitchen full of cabinets. Plus, it gives you a place for the good stuff. You know, the dishes that you only use when you have company. I mean, we have stepped it up quite a bit. We used to use paper plates every night...now we have cute melamine plates for everyday use. I know. We're fancy like that.  We wouldn't want to break the good stuff that we imported from Maryland to Utah, then to Wisconsin, and now St. Louis. After all, it is limited edition...from Ikea. Don't be jealous.

image from Decor 8

image from Better Homes & Gardens

image from Martha Stewart Living

[kreyv of the day]

image from Martha Stewart

How Hard Could it Be?

I like to say, "How hard could it be," because to naive, little me,a lot of things look like they would be easy to make. This is coming from someone who can't sew, can't use power tools, can't build things...you get the point. If not, here it is: sometimes I don't know what I'm talking about, and things are actually hard to make. But, I have to say, I really do think I'm right on this one. How hard could it be to make these lights? 

I would SO be all over this if I wasn't renting. I've changed out lights before while renting, but I don't have anywhere to store the massive glass lights in this place, so I'm asking for you to make the lights, and I can live vicariously through you. 

First up, is the Martha Stewart ombre light. SO gorg. Lampshade, light kit, and voile...oh and something to stick the voile on the lampshade with.  Here's the tutorial. I'm quite jealous that someone else gets to have this in her home. I love it.

image from Martha Stewart

I'm kind of doubting that this next one was a diy, but same idea: lampshade, light kit, glue some circle thingies...voila! It is kind of similar to what I did with Stella's lamp, but it's done with wood or vinyl or something stiffer than fabric. I'm sure they totally copy catted me, but made theirs even better. That's the worst kind of copy cat. Just sayin'.

image from Rees Roberts & Partners

Again, may or may not be a diy, but seriously friends, go get some tumble weeds out of your backyard, spray paint them, and you have designer lights. Uber cool. So, I've given you three options. Can't wait to hear how your projects went. Now, run along and go make some lights for me yourselves. 

image from House of Turquoise

Halloween Tablescapes

It's only 8:30pm, and I am ready for bed! Poor Stella has some type of virus, and quite honestly, it's making both of us tired! (Don't kids always have "some type of virus?" That's my own diagnosis, by the way.) I pretty much blame myself for her illness. The sister and I wore her out with all of our shopping shenanigans that ran way into nap time.  Sorry Stella. (What...you don't think she reads this blog? And, speaking of people who read this blog...to my hubs: If you are ever bored enough to read this post, I should never say I'm tired around you. After all, I'm not on call at the hospital for 24-30 hour shifts. You read that right. Day 1: 6:00am - 9:00am(ish)(27 hours, not 3!); Day 2: post call (try to get some sleep) Day 3: 6:00am - 5:00pm(ish), then back to day 1. Worst. Rotation. Ever.)

Besides being tired (if I can even use that word, anymore), I am super excited about these chic Halloween tablescapes. (The black, silver, and white is ridiculously fantastic, right?) The trick with creating a Halloween tablescape minus the cheesiness? Skip out on the corny decorations, and instead use a Halloween inspired color scheme to to create your setting. This year, I am so in love with all of the white pumpkins. They are perfect for both Halloween and Fall with just a few tweaks, and we all know I love me some resourcefulness!  

image from Martha Stewart

image from Martha Stewart

image from Urban Comfort

Image from Hostess with the Mostess

Complete Preciseness

My name is Jamie, and I am OCD. Seriously, I catch myself doing things during the day and think to myself, "Self, is that necessary?" (Let's not even discuss my conversations with myself.) Ever seen Sleeping with the Enemy? Well, the bad guy likes his food cans perfectly lined up with the labels out. My cupboards look just like that, except I'm not a murderer. Today I was putting the clean kitchen towels away. Towels for cleaning go on the left. Towels for drying hands go on the right. Sounds (kinda) normal enough, right? Did I mention that I rotate my towels, so that they all get used the same amount of times? I also rotate my plates. I think you get the point.

Since there's no turning back in admitting my craziness organization, let's discuss one more issue: Stella hides her toys. It is going to drive me to insanity, people. Why do I care? Because, I can't stand having incomplete sets of things. Her magnetic numbers--she's hid the three and the four. (She always hides the three and the four.) Sure, I should be concerned that my daughter may learn to count one, two, five, six...but my real concern is, "WHERE COULD A TWO YEAR OLD POSSIBLY HIDE THOSE MAGNETS?!" Don't even get me started on the blue cube and yellow triangular blocks that are missing.

On that note, let's take a deep breath and look at these pictures of pure organization, bliss, serenity, sanity...

image from Apartment Therapy

image from Fifi Cheek

image from Martha Stewart

[color kreyv]: Blush

Truvy: What are your colors, Shelby?

Shelby: Blush and bashful.

M'Lynn: Her colors are pink and pink!

Shelby: My colors are blush and bashful...I have chosen two shades of pink, one is much deeper than the other.

M'Lynn: Oh, how pretentious is this wedding going to get I ask you? That sanctuary looks like it's been hosed down with Pepto Bismol.

Steel Magnolias

Go here to catch up on my potty training adventures. On second thought, I shouldn't call them adventures. That would imply that I'm having fun.

image from Martha Stewart

image from Marian McEvoy

image from House Beautiful

[color kreyv]: Pink

Pink. Pink. Pink. The color of the Pink Panther, Victoria's Secret Pink, and...my legs...AND my arms. More specifically, my right leg and my right arm (and a little bit of my chest and neck). I did something completely irresponsible, something ridiculous and plain old dumb. I went to the pool on Memorial Day with sunscreen on my face...and only my face. I never burn. I'm careful in the sun. Well, never say never. When it's the first time you've been in the sun for almost a year, and it's 95 degrees, use sunscreen. Everywhere.

I'm not going to lie. I hurt (on the right side of my body). But, on the bright side, we had such a fun day at the pool. We didn't know how Stella would react to the water this year. She is absolutely fearless. She just couldn't get enough and would only come out of the water for pretzel breaks. And, don't worry, she, of course, was covered in SPF 50 from head to toe. I was only dumb when it came to myself. What can I say? Lesson learned.

image from Jonathan Adler Designs

image from Robert Petril

image from Martha Stewart

Lonny Mag's 5 Trends for 2011

Michelle Adams from Lonny Magazine appeared on the Nate Berkus Show to feature the top five trends for 2011. So, if you're looking to add a little somethin' somethin' to your pad, here are the latest and greatest!

[five]: MIRRORED ACCENTS

image from Elle Decor

image from Decor Pad

image from Design Ties

[four]: TYPOGRAPHY

image from Swiss Miss

image from Design Sponge

[three]: STORAGE ART

image from Martha Stewart

image from Martha Stewart

image from Martha Stewart

[two]: MID-CENTURY LIGHTING

image from Gear Patrol

image from Decor Pad

[one]: RUST

image from Morgan Harrison

image from The Lennox

image from Pottery Barn