Mirror Makeover

I have loved the look of sunburst mirrors for quite some time. I like to think that I was in love with them before they were a trend. Anyway, most of them are quite expensive and on a nursing school budget they were all out of my price range. A few years ago I came across this mirror on clearance and snapped it up for $23.00.
It hung in my living room above the fireplace for most of it's life, yet it never felt quite sparkly enough for me. I found these inspiration photos of the type of mirror I really wanted.

So recently I took a trip to Michael's, spent $7.00 and this is what I have created. Stay tuned for photos of it hung in it's new home above my bed... (sorry for the phone picture quality)

Sneak Peak

Here is a glimpse of the progress being made on the remodel I'm helping with. This is the beginning of what will be the worlds cutest playroom!
These are the scary before photos

Splish, Splash

After years of living at the beach in Orange County, I am experiencing my first Northern California summer and I'm melting! Luckily it's a mild summer so far, but that hasn't stopped me from dreaming of cooling off in one of these pools...

Friday's Quote

Going Camping

One of the benefits of moving up to Northern California is that I am closer to my family. This week we are off for a family camp trip! When I was young we camped almost every summer. I went off to college, got a job, etc. and the camping stopped. Thankfully we started the tradition again and I'm looking forward to some fun times and lot's of s'mores.

This is a picture of our standard camp site

These are picture of "glam camping". Way too beautiful for ants, spiders and peeing in the woods!

Source: Sunset Magazine

Source: Camping Les Ormes

Friday's Quote

I love this quote. They sell it on canvas, but I have always wanted it in a pretty little frame in my bathroom. I wonder if I can DIY something cute?!

Source: Quotable Cards

Bold choices

I've been working on a remodel project for the past few weeks and we are in the paint selection process. My client (and BFF) is super fun to shop with and we are having a ball picking out fabulous colors for her house. I am super lucky that she is willing to take a risk and go bold with color. We both have fallen in love with a rich brown/gray called Porcini. I can't wait to show you pictures of the final product, but for now these are a good representation of what the color might look like.

Pretty organized

There is being organized and then there is being pretty 0rganized. Sometimes it's hard enough to get it together to just organize my desk, let alone make it pretty. But these pictures give me inspiration to try.

Source: DesignSponge

Glassing it up

I've been phasing out all my plastic storage stuff with glass. I started using glass water bottles last year and at first I was scared that I would break them, but so far so good.
I got these Glasslock containers recently and threw out my Rubbermade. I love them... they are dishwasher and microwave safe and can even go in the freezer. I end up usually re-heating leftovers in them and then eating straight from the container (I'm single, don't judge!)












Rice, pasta, breadcrumbs, pretzels all go in canning jars (mine aren't this good looking, I just use regular Ball canning jars)












These are great for juice and coffee. I used to make fresh coffee everyday with a french press, but now I make enough for 2-3 days and store it in the fridge.













And finally, I have fallen in love with baking soda as my all purpose cleaner. I bought a HUGE box of it which can be difficult to use. But it sprinkles very nicely out of a sugar shaker like this, and I can re-fill occasionally.




Do you have any great glass storage ideas?

Cupcake Party!

My niece just turned 2 and we had a cupcake party for her. Her two greatest loves (besides Jasco the dog) are Minnie Mouse and the book Pinkalicious. So I did a little research on the web for cupcake ideas.

If we went with the Minnie theme, I was going to try making these

Source: Flickr.com

But we decided Pinkalicious was the way to go.

So I used these as inspiration...

Source: and everythingsweet

...and this was the final result. Needless to say, the birthday girl was very happy with her party!

Pillow Love

There are so many great sources out on the internet for pillows. I do a lot of browsing on etsy.com. If you haven't visited that website, it's a must for all sorts of handmade decorative goodies.

I guess I'm going through a geometric phase, because all of these current favs have bold graphic repeats, including Riad just below.

Source: Caitlin Wilson

Source: Furbish

Source: PlumCushion

Source: My Sparrow

Source: Nenavon

My grandmothers lamp- the "before"

When my grandmother passed away a few years ago, I picked out some of my favorite pieces of hers to come live with me. This lamp has been sitting in the garage since then.

Here is what it looked like back in the day

Here is what it looks like today in my new house sitting on the same teak nesting tables (another re-do project later down the line).

I took apart the lamp so that I can re-wire it with this Home Depot kit and paint the wood base. Haven't decided what color to paint it yet, I just know that I don't want to keep the matte black. Also, it's out with the 70's tall shade and in with a smaller more modern drum shade.

My first post... soo exciting, and it only took me two hours to figure out!

To start off my new blog I though I'd post some pictures of things that I am loving right now.

#1 is this fabulous chandelier from Eurofase Lighting. Small little price tag of $5000. I'm wishing it would appear on craigslist someday!




#2 My favorite Buddha statue. Shiny white porcelain from Emissary. It comes in two sizes, the larger one being around 26" tall. It really is a great statement piece.








#3 Kravet Riad fabric. I saw it on a pillow awhile ago and fell in love. Of course I'm seeing it everywhere now, but that isn't stopping me from wanting to make drapery panels out of it.

Those are just a few things to give you an idea of my design style. I just moved into a new home and am excited about all the design possibilities. I will be blogging about all my exciting DIY adventures, design love, craft projects and yummy baked goods. Thanks for checking out my new hobby!