i call it: restoration hardware under the big top

some fancy 60's yard sale furniture- a la marcia brady.

some framed paper from ps- and a wonderful wall of stripes (like a circus tent, get it?) thanks, ryan :)

my proudest achievement- a pennant banner originally made for maribel's shower (also kind of circus-y). actually that chair rail is my proudest achievement. do you know how i feel about chair rail and crown moulding and wainscoting?

my lovely anthro lamp which matches the smaller one in the living room, and my very favorite cliche poster- which i now own two of.

here's what our room looked like last week. if i ever get around to ironing (and starching, judging by the picture above) my new duvet cover and sheets and pillowcases, i'll post pictures of what it looks like now. although, it took me about a year for these pictures, so don't count your chickens.

unique la

this saturday, my mom and i went to unique la, a neat show at the california mart downtown with a bunch of crafty local designers. we saw stacey winters, who makes (and photographs, cause she's a photographer!) the following stuff:

and her bluebird print is the cover art for a new book!

and kelly robinson, who is a friend of a friend, and had this neat booth setup:

she also has a cupcake and event planning business, where she does amazing stuff like this:

so much talent! we bought a few things for each other's stockings, and i could have spent thousands pretty easily. we had a lot of fun, and maybe next year i'll have a booth of my own!

marlo noël in a new shop!

marlo noël jewelry has landed here right down the street in encinitas, just in time for the holidays. it's a fabulous little shop called dreamy run by the nicest networker ever, heather o'quinn. if you're local, go over and check it out! or go to their website, cause it's so lovely.

ps: clearly not my jewelry above, but isn't that picture beautiful? it's actually jewelry from chris bolton, a customer of mine at paper source who sells to celebrities like gwyneth paltrow. how neat!


and look at that little bubble- dreamy was just featured in in style magazine- what timing!

they also sell wonderful gift items. you should do all your shopping there. or here.

the animal

we caved (i caved; ryan cheered), and finally bought this very expensive piece of machinery- the dyson animal. bed bath and beyond sends us 20% coupons every week or so, and even though dyson is listed as one of the brands it cannot be used on, apparently it can. as can all but about three of the brands listed. we saved $110, then ryan won a poker game last night, so it's like it only cost us a couple hundred bucks. what a deal!

we'd been struggling with a vacuum purchased from sears 6 years ago that seemed to emit dirt instead of sucking it up. everytime we use it, our house smells pretty awful. we decided we'd had enough after max vacuumed the whole apartment saturday and we were fairly certain it picked up nothing from the floor.

our suspicions were confirmed when we got the animal home and ryan vacuumed the whole place again (with excitement and ease! thanks to the easy maneuverability of the ball action), and he dumped the filter out three times. we ran it right next to the wall and it picked up stuff lurking in the corners. we realized how grimy our carpet felt before compared to how it feels now. apartment carpet with almost no padding underneath, granted, but still, much better.

now the boys actually want to vacuum- i know this will not last forever, so i must take full advantage of it now. there's even a motorized attachment for couches, curtains, and cars, which looks pretty neat.

so, although it was pretty ridiculously expensive, i feel like i can breathe in here without getting sick, as i so frequently do. and dangit if it isn't the coolest looking vacuum in the world.

jurassic park peonies

i bought some unopened peonies at trader joe's two days ago.

by that night, one flower had opened up completely and was about the size of my head.

one by one, the others have followed suit.

we thought we might put a stop-motion camera on one as it opened, but i have no idea how to do that, so i hope you like these macro shots instead.

i had an idea in my mind of what peonies looked like, and it's certainly not like this. however, they are very beautiful and have received rave reviews from everyone.

i only spend money on very important things...

here are the beautiful pillows i bought yesterday:

don't ask how much they cost.

room for baby

i've been hanging out with babies lately, and it's inspired me to post some cute baby rooms. oh, and because it seems as if every other person I know between the ages of 25-30 is pregnant. i'm only 24, so stop those thoughts.

seafoam and yellow, who knew?
from ohdeedoh


oh, those tiny clothes.
from ohdeedoh


unexpected colors, and neat silhouettes.
from ohdeedoh

not as cutesy as i prefer, but fun and outdoorsy.

love those vintage book pages above the bed.

great butterfies, fabulous jenny lind crib.

above three from domino


scarlet's room. that baby has no choice but to be stylish.
from the tiny bean sprouts!

yellow and black. like a bee, only better.

feels warm and cozy.

those circles remind me of the season 1 winner of project runway.
above three from domino

easy, beachy, fun.
from beachbungalow8: gum tree, los angeles

boho baby.
from beachbungalow8,
bedding by rikshaw design

easily transitionable into a kid's room.
from pottery barn kids

can't go wrong with pink and brown.
from pottery barn kids

it's my m!
from pottery barn kids

good pattern combinations.
from pottery barn kids

bedding looks like orla kiely.
from making it lovely


i've never been a purple person, but i like it here. seems restful.
from cookie magazine


i hope my nursery post inspired your nursery decor. because i know you're all working on one.

design overdose

i spent the better part of my day reading design blogs today. i took one off my favorites toolbar, and added about eight more. i read making it lovely all the way back to the beginning, two years ago, and also discovered (as just about everyone in the developed world already has) decor8. i learned that anthropologie is offering craft classes at select stores, which i will be sure to find out all about at a fabulous dinner sunday night with a few former anthro coworkers. i also learned that shabby chic is filing chapter 11 bankruptcy. ryan said, "at least it's not chapter 7." i figured i'd email rachel ashwell and we'd reminisce about madre's.

the day wasn't totally unproductive, though. i did regain a strong desire to continue decorating our apartment. in particular, this time, ryan and my room. first up: a bed. we have a fantastic mattress (my first really expensive purchase), but no headboard. one that's stuck in my head for a couple years now is this:

i wasn't sure it was exactly what i wanted, but i honestly haven't seen any that are as versatile since. i also like metal-framed beds, like from restoration hardware, but sometimes they remind me of an orphanage. obviously a glamorized orphanage in annie the major motion picture, but still.
i like the idea of being able to read with my head against the cushy headboard, and the nailheads almost remind me of jewelry. and it goes with my anthro lamp, which looks like this one, except taller. (to be fair, the one below is in my living room)

the lampshade is blue/cream/brown printed, and this is very similar to our bedding (bed cut in half, and all):

we i also really want to paint our room. it is bad bad shiny crack den apartment white with popcorn ceilings right now. there's not a whole lot we can do about that, but it would be lovely to paint the bottom half of our room chocolate, and the top half an eggshell cream and white stripe, with some chair rail to divide the two. that's all! i really don't think that's too much to ask. and this picture in a coordinating robins' egg blue to hang above the bed:

currently, there are awesome patches of about six different colors in various places around the room that we painted a few months back just to see which we liked best, and about a 5 sq. ft. sweet untextured section of wall where a plasma was once hung. and then fell. and then the hole was patched. and then evan touched it while it was wet. you can imagine how that looks. you'll have to, because i refuse to post pictures of that embarrassment. and then we didn't know if we were moving, and we still don't really know how long we'll be here, but c'mon! this neither here nor there is driving me crazy! i just feel like i have such high standards to live up to after reading apartment therapy all afternoon.

I'm feeling pink

Paper Source, the fun company where I work, is introducing new colors this year (woo hoo!). Currently, we offer about 30 solid colors, including two pinks and four purples. A single new color introduction carries along with it about 10,000 pounds of paper. PS uses every scrap of paper they print, which means the edges get turned into business cards and tiny envelopes. This also means that they have to be pretty darn sure a color will be popular with the masses before they go printing a bunch. Up first- fuchsia (I really thought it was fuschia):

What a lovely color choice. People seem to be surprised about my affinity for pink, but I really do love it. Now, I wouldn't paint my room this above color, but i definitely have some jewelry storage boxes in the hue. I would, however, very gladly take this room:

The Eames rocking chair isn't absolutely necessary for me at this time, but i just love how warm and cozy the mixed colors and patterns feel. This is actually the living room of Nicole, from Making it Lovely. She even included a cradle, creating a sweet space for the whole family.


Anyway, upon seeing these pictures last night at 1am, I immediately wanted to re-do my entire living room. I once tried to paint a tiny room in our apartment (that at one point was going to house Max's captain's bed) pink, and the boys revolted. They could care less what else I do, just no pink walls! This coming from the boys who wear pink ties and painted-on jeans. When all was said and done and blue, Max said, "yeah, pink would've looked better."

And last, ranunculas, because, who doesn't love those?