Sorry For The Silence!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing holiday! I have been so busy seeing family and then traveling the majority of the day yesterday to Cabo for some end of the year fun :) this morning I saw a grey whale momma and baby swimming just off the shore and it was amazing.. I am off to a pretty great vacation. I won't be posting as much for the next 2weeks, but will keep you updated on the highlights of my trip and some south of the border design inspiration!

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful and blessed holiday... lets hope 2012 is just as good or better than this year!

High Gloss Magazine

High Gloss Magazine was a really great online publication for design and decor lovers. Unfortunately, there has not been a new issue since August of 2011 as the creators have decided to pursue different ventures. I was looking through their February issue of 2011 and picked my favorite spaces to share with you. My post today is short and sweet because it is my birthday :) So I am spending time with the family.

Enjoy!

I Love Jeannie Mai

I am watching How Do I Look? on Style and I just have to say... I freaking love Jeannie Mai. She is so precious - super sweet, great style, edgy but feminine at the same time, overall fabulous! Love her.

Amazingggg Closets... that are bigger than my bedroom. Wa.

Good Afternoon!

I am having a mayyyyja storage problem in my one bedroom apartment...I love shopping and so does my bf and as wonderful as shopping is, it isn't so wonderful when you run out of room for your stuff. I started looking for clever ways to store lots of clothes/shoes/jackets in a small space, and ended up drooling over huge, room-converted-to-closet spaces. Ahhh.. I wish I had an extra bedroom. Oh well. Enjoy!

Want to drop some LB's for NYE?

I came across an awesome recipe for a green smoothie... really great nutrients (so its good to have even if you aren't trying to lose weight) but also filling and delicious! Best of all, it is super easy to make. I just went to the grocery store and got the ingredients, as I will be wearing a bikini in a week (FML).

• 1-2 bananas
• 1/2 cup of frozen peaches
• 1/2 cup of mangos (for some reason my grocery store didn't have any, so I got strawberries instead)
• a couple handfuls of spinach
• ice
• I added almond milk instead of water to get more protein

And wa-la! Glorious smoothie for breakfast/lunch/whenever. I highly recommend it, its really yummy.

Wild Wednesdays: Crazy Nail Trends

I am LOVING all of the crazy nail trends these days. For any of you that are on pintrest, this post is hardly wild, considering some of the crazy nails that people post. However, to the average gal, anything other than one solid color is pretty exciting. I have tried the Sally Hansen nail stickers, and while they look so good, I have long nails that break if I don't have polish on 24/7. So, I am sharing the most up to date looks you can get at Sephora, via OPI for Sephora polish. Have you tried any of these?

Images from www.Sephora.com.

Elle Decor's Favorite Rooms Of 2011

This month, Elle Decor asked 30 designers to pick their favorite rooms of 2011. Below are my top 5 picks. Enjoy!

What: Library of Thomas Haynes and Kevin Roberts
Why: As if the coffee table alone isn't amazing enough, the large sofa and low pony hide chairs would make for some extremely comfy places to curl up with a book.

What: Courtney Cox's outdoor living space
Why: Optimizing the beautiful water front property she has is brilliant, and this spot could not have been done better. The glass holds in heat from the fire pit and there are plenty of throw pillows to aid relaxation.

What: Living room by Alex Papachristidis
Why: I am absolutely loving the wild patterns in the art and chair as well as the funky sculptures, all toned down by the traditional chest piece. It is a great balance of trendy craziness with practicality in mind.

What: Hallway by Celerie Kemble
Why: Although this isn't decor that I can personally see in my home, it is very fairy-tale-like and is so gorgeous. Maybe in the room that I turn into a closet one day.. 

What: Clairborne Swanson Frank's living room
Why: I love the crisp look of this room, as well as the way the space was divided into two open and comfortable living areas. I also have a weakness for ikats and ethnic prints with a pop of leopard, so clearly this got on my favorite's list.

Images from Elle Decor.

Fabulous People: Kelly Wearstler

I have mentioned Ms. Wearstler in my blog before, but I wanted to do a little Fabulous People segment on her after reading a New York Times article about her career. For those of you unfamiliar with her, Kelly Wearstler is a well known interior designer on the west coast whose style is described in the article as "cartoon-y and pop-up". She started her career in the early 90's, a time when modernism was slowly becoming a forgotten trend, and she blew away the design world with her outrageous but smart style.

I think it is amazing when people start something, be it a trend or a movement, that no one else is on board with at the start, but they stick with what they feel and create something incredible. I admire Kelly because she never went along with the crowd - she did what she felt was best (and most exciting!) and it turned out really well for her.

Kelly has an envious career; she runs her own design firm, she has designed many hotels and residences', she has fabric, rug and wallpaper lines, a home/fashion/accessories line at Bergdorf Goodman, she has authored a three books, as well as appearing as a judge on Bravo's Top Design. Basically... she rocks. Check out her stuff below.

These are a few of my favorites... not the complete line. View entire line here.

The lovely Ms. Wearstler

Checking out her window displays at Bergdorf before her line debuted

Images from http://www.kellywearstler.com/

Lunch Time Post: JLo Bangs :)

I am getting my hairs did tomorrow... just color and basically want to add some bangs, but am leaving the length. I found these pics of the glorious JLo and am loving the front layers. I don't really even want to call them bangs, because I think of hair completely covering my forehead when I think of bangs. But with long hair this style looks pretty fab. What do you think?

Weekly Holiday Post: Bergdorf Windows

It has been a few years since I have been in NYC around Christmas, but I always made sure to see the famous Bergdorf holiday window displays. If you have never seen them in person, you should try to visit around Christmas because pictures hardly do the windows justice. The amount of detail is outstanding and I would imagine that accessorizing these displays would be any merchandiser's dream. Which is your favorite? The are all so stunning that it is honestly difficult for me to choose, but I think I like the first window, The Brass Menagerie.

The Brass Menagerie

Teacher's Pets

Testing The Waters

Artists And Models

Breaking The Ice

The Exception To The Rule: Powder Rooms

Good Eveningggg y'all. I wish this post wasn't so late but I have been trying to research how I can crop and connect the images in my posts so that it is easier to look at. I like to have a lot of pictures but I don't like how you have to scroll down for ten years to see all of them... so I'm working on it!

Anyway, one of the most fun rooms in a house to design are powder rooms because it is a small space that you can kind of go crazy in. Because powder rooms are not connected to any other room, you are able to use a wild wallpaper, paint color, mirror, light fixture, etc. that may be too overpowering in a larger room. I found some fab pictures to share with you.

Happy Friday! Can you believe Christmas is a week away? Craaaazy. And exciting :)

Pops of turquoise make this a exotic bathroom even more wonderful

Can you imagine trying to use this powder room if you are a little tipsy? Just sayin'...

Love the red, black and white theme here

Perfect mix of rustic and glam

Basic black and white stripe is complimented by the modern elements in this space