Weekend Snapshots

May 21, 2012 Leave a Comment

By Erin

Happy Monday everyone! Or, should I say, Happy Almost Summer! I can not wait for Memorial Day. The attitude in New York just changes once it hits. People are more relaxed, anxious to be outside, and ready to hit the beach. With summer on the brain the ONLY thing I wanted for dinner tonight was homemade guac. I used my easy recipe here, added some chips and a very tasty dinner was had. I mean, I guess guac isn’t really dinner, but I decided it was.

I spent most of the weekend in the Poconos, cheering the sweet husband along as he ran the Pocono marathon. I unfortunately didn’t get any good pictures of him running to post, but know that he looks really cute when he runs.  I was a little jealous I couldn’t run this time around, but that’s ok.  The 80-degree heat was far too hot for a marathon.

I also bought a few basil plants to plant outside in my planter. I’m not sure why they’re so droopy.  I’m hoping a few days of sunlight and they’ll be growing tall!

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Where the Action Happens: A Work in Progress

April 2, 2012 1 Comment

That title was just to make you laugh. Or blush, depending on who you are. In all seriousness, the Sweet Hubby and I have been living in a bedroom that resembles his bedroom in the frat house. When he was 19.  It’s an unacceptable way to live, really, for two adults well into their 30′s.  (Yes mother, I AM admitting that our bedroom is unacceptable!)

For years we slept on the Hubby’s old IKEA bed – one of those real low to the ground ones, in a box, with no box spring. Just a mattress. Which was NOT new.  But my double bed that I slept on for 10 years was no better.  So we went with it.  Finally, post-wedding, we splurged and got fancy, cushy, high mattress that we LOOOOOOOOOVE.  Normally, I don’t sleep. Now, I have no probelm sleeping thankyouverymuch.  Who knew a fancy mattress could fix all that?  But we still had my Queen sized comforter (from high school), no headboard, and a mish-mosh of IKEA and hand-me-downs that didn’t match.  So here’s the before:

Yes, our bedroom DID look like this, just with a different bed, for two years.  And yes, I am an adult, and yes, we are both gainfully employed and do like nice things.  You just wouldn’t know it from here.

The master bedroom is in the basement, so people rarely see it but us.  So frankly, it was easy to ignore the situation, especially as we were getting ready for the wedding, and had many other things on our mind.  It’s not pretty. I admit.

After getting the new mattress, we decided it was time to get bedroom furniture. We went to Ethan Allen, and I fell in LOVE with their fabric bed frames. Like love, love, love.  I selected grey velvet with silver nail heads.  And then I ordered a ruched duvet cover from Pottery Barn.  Here’s the new bed!

I need to get a bottom sheet, on the box spring to hide it!

We LOVE our new bed.  It’s so beautiful, and so, so comfortable.  The only problem: we ended up spending our entire bedroom budget on the fancy mattress AND the fancy bed frame.  So everything else had to be put on hold, just a few more months!  But that’s OK, we’re making progress here people. Stay tuned!

And total confession: we loved one of the beds we slept in on our honeymoon SO much, that I called the hotel to ask them which kind it was.  We then went to Sleepy’s and checked out everything in that line!

 

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Sometimes the easiest solutions…

March 30, 2012 Leave a Comment

For weeks I have been wondering where all my hair clips were going. They seemed to be disappearing at a slightly faster rate than normal. Yesterday I found out. My boyfriend has been secretly using them for chip clips!

At first I died laughing. And then I realized how genius it was! Wanted to share. A little cheaper than a good chip clip, too!

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Living Room Redo

January 24, 2012 1 Comment

For someone who loves perusing interior decor sites, reading magazines about architecture and decorating, and just generally loves pretty things, I am spectacularly lazy when it comes to actually bringing these elements of style into my own home.  In fact, two years after moving into my current apartment, I think most people would guess that we just moved in, which, let’s be honest, is shameful.

So when we recently resigned our lease for two more years, I was really inspired to take the bull by the horns and actually make our house look like a home. The only problem is, as mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’m on a very tight budget in 2012. But where there is a will, there is a way.

I have three main areas of focus: the living room, the master bedroom and the kitchen, as these are the areas where we spend the most time.  I showed a brief preview of the bedroom last week, but the living room came together a little faster thanks to some super-helpful tips from a truly wonderful book: SouthernLiving Style. Not only is the book absolutely gorgeous, but it offers really easy tips to update any room in your home.

I’m a big fan of cozy rooms, with mixed-yet-matching patterns that don’t shy away from color but aren’t super bright. For the living room, I wanted to create something calming, that takes advantage of the great natural light we get in the room.  The only problem? Without much money, you have to be clever.  How clever?  Well, the couches I’m working with look like this:

What you see here is a hand-me-down couch that despite being clean and extremely comfortable, looks anything but -covered in make up stains, food spills and other accidents from over the years.  The pillows were a little something I picked up in a bad attempt to make it better.

But with new couches out of the question, I was a bit stuck until I picked up SouthernLiving Style.  Imagine my delight when right there in the front of the book, they give a whole lesson on slip covers as an easy way to transform couches. Say what?!

So, I searched high and low for months to find two slip covers – one for the sofa, one for the equally disgusting love seat – that could bring these babies back to life. Since I loved my new pillows, I used their palette to guide me during my search – looking for anything in dark green or brown.  Finally, I found them at a great home store in my Queens neighborhood – two, dark green, corduroy slip covers from SureFit. The total cost for two?  About $130 – just a fraction of what a new couch would cost. Here is the transformation!

Please excuse that I did a less-than-stellar job at tucking everything in nice and tight before taking this shot and they are a little wrinkly on the bottom. But not bad right?

And that’s not all. To help finish the room, I:

  • Painted the walls a nice tan color (Behr’s “Plateau”) to create a nice, neutral wall color
  • Decided to use the end table I repainted last week in this room versus the bedroom.
  • For more funkiness, I had salvaged these lamps from my apartment’s giveaway pile as their greens, blues and browns matched the pillows.  I put one on the end table, and one on the bookshelf to provide some symmetry.
  • Put a comfy throw blanket a few shades lighter than the paint across the loveseat. What you see there yarn-wise is me teaching myself to crochet so I can crochet some cozy afghans to continue this trend!
  • Placed my recently recovered lamp in the corner. I love how the lamp fabric and the pillows are getting that that mix-and-matchy feel going.

And though looking considerably better from where we started, the work isn’t done. I’d still like to:

  • Paint this stool to serve as a nicer home for gadgetry and other doodads.
  • Paint this chair to go with the pillows and recovered lamp. I think it could be REALLY cute when done.
  • Find a rug that can fill the floor up a bit.
  • Create either a window box or some nice, sweeping curtains for the windows

So stay tuned…more to definitely come on this front.  And find SouthernLiving Style on Amazon.com for just $19.77! It’s worth every penny!

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Splurges on One King's Lane

January 12, 2012 Leave a Comment

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m in full on apartment redecorating mode.  It’s kind of shameful that it took me two years to really make strides in terms of making our apartment look like a home that people actually live in, but better late than never!  And well, I bought a chandelier.

I bought it on One King’s Lane, which if you are not familiar is pretty much the best home decorating site in the world. I’m obsessed with it.  Several months ago, I purchased a Living Social Deal where if you paid $35 you got $70 worth of stuff on the site…so I used that and pretty much bought this $200 chandelier for $75 (my original $35 plus about $40 extra).  I have no idea where it will go, or how to even hook it up once it arrives, but I will figure both out because it makes me so happy.  I just think it’s so pretty and I don’t want to wait for the finer things in life! I want a chandelier now!

If you haven’t joined the site yet, today is a great day to go ahead and do so.  The site just unveiled a number of framed prints from John Derian (based on vintage wall paper he found in Paris. AGGHHH!) that are to die for. They start at $99 and the sale lasts just 72 hours. Here’s a few examples. I want them all.

I’ll let you know if I splurge again or take this as inspiration to DIY. I’m so torn!!!

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Help the Holiday Spirit with Scentsicles Scented Ornaments

December 13, 2011 1 Comment

For me, the holidays aren’t really real until I have a tree up in the house.  When the living room lights are off and the twinkling tree lights provide the only light – that just brings the holiday feeling right on home.  But it’s not one hundred percent complete without that delicious, comforting Christmas tree smell.  It’s only when I smell the tree that I can go back to the nights in my childhood that are so filled with happy memories, laughter and the crazy anticipation only Christmas can bring.

Problem is – in these times, I can’t exactly afford a huge tree and unfortunately, that distinct aroma is sadly missing.  Enter, Scentsicles Scented Ornaments!

As you can see, my little $20 tree is super cute, but unfortunately, just not strong enough to fill the house with the distinct Christmas tree scent.  These scent sticks, which can also be neatly disguised as ornaments, fill in the gap.  Here, you can see it just hangs nicely disguised in the back:

If you have a big gorgeous tree already filling the house, Scentsicles also come in some other scents – like Cinnamon – that would be a nice compliment.  Or – they would make a great gift. You can also tuck them into wreaths, hang them in a closet or any other area where a little waft of scent would be appreciated.

For the tree, they are pretty potent – so you only need one on the tree (or two, depending on the size of your living room) to fill the space – so use sparingly! I am using the “Fresh Cut Fir” scent.

You can find Scentsicles at stores like Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Michaels and Cracker Barrel – as well as year-round at Scentsicles.com if you never want to let Christmas go! Suggested price is just $6.99.

Full disclosure: We received this product  for review by company representatives for Scentsicles, however, all opinions expressed are that of the author.  Yay! DIY only promotes products we think our readers would enjoy!

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Chappaqua Tag Sale Haul

November 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

One of my favorite things to do each fall is jump in the car and venture outside NYC to see the gorgeous leaves, enjoy the crisp air and just generally leave the noise and distraction of the city behind.  Each year, we try to pick a different destination and this year, our finger fell on the city of Chappaqua, NY on the map.

Chappaqua is a wealthy hamlet in the larger county of Westchester.  Driving around town, looking at gorgeous houses and just generally enjoying the afternoon, we happened upon a street where there were a number of tag sales.  Of course, curiosity got the best of us and we had to stop in – and boy, I’m glad we did!  For just $20 I scored some AH-MAY-ZING finds!  Truly, this kind of afternoon is why you should always scour thrift stores, consignment shops and garage sales for one-of-a-kind finds! You never know who’s parting with what for cents on the dollar. Here are my finds!

First, the practical.  I picked up these salt and pepper grinders, which I’ve wanted forever but never felt like chalking up the money for, for just $1 a piece:

I couldn’t resist this “Scorpio” mug – as it’s both GC and I’s astrological sign. Also – just $1!

Then, I couldn’t believe it, I picked a  fleece-lined, waterproof North Face jacket, looking like it’s never been worn – for an amazing $5! It fit like a glove.  Picture to come!

Just a few doors down, we found another house where a woman was selling thse absolutely gorgeous dolies that her mother had made in 1920s.  This handmade kind of work just doesn’t exist anymore.  She had a whole set that was out – including a table runner and a full table cloth, but ultimately she wasn’t willing to part with those…which was just as well because it was going to be a little bit out of my price range and oh, I don’t even have a full on kitchen table.

I mean look at this detail:

She was also selling these gorgeous brass candle stick holders.  She asked for just $12 for it all! How could I resist? With a little polish, they’ll spiff right up.

Best $20 spending spree ever!  Where do you go for great finds?

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Taking Time to Smell the…Heirlooms

October 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

This past Saturday was bright, crisp and clear in New York and I found myself quite suddenly in the middle of the Union Square Farmer’s Market.  No matter where you live in the country, there is little substitute for finding yourself surrounded by the vibrant colors and yummy smells of a farmer’s market on a weekend afternoon…and I snapped some quick photos to capture the moment.

This guy provided a great backdrop of music and a closer look at his piano showed he’s playing his way across America and been to 38 states so far.  How cool is that?  In another time, I may have just asked to go with him :)

A bushel of gorgeous green brussel sprouts was calling my name, but my hands were already full :(

A few doors down, a giant basket of peppers in all colors caught my eye:

It looked like the big pumpkins, minus one, were quite popular:

And this just seemed apt as the day started to come to a close, even though the sign’s author forgot one little “e”:

And the best thing about this table were the tons of bees (though the photo can’t really do it justice – but you can see the occasional wing or tail here) that were swarming about the grapes! Me and the stranger next to me agreed that if the bees were buzzing, the grapes had to be delicious.

My lone purchase for the day? The biggest guy I could find from this table, which was quite delish when drenched in balsamic vinegar and pepper :)

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Garden Inspiration: James Beard Foundation House Garden Renovation

September 20, 2011 Leave a Comment

A couple of week’s ago, we were invited to the opening party of the newly redesigned garden at the James Beard Foundation House.  The house, home to the late James Beard, (the food writer and chef whom all those fancy awards are named for), is in the heart of Greenwich village, on one of those streets you walk down and think…”if only this was my life.”

The garden is in the back of the brownstone, and is long and narrow, as you would imagine a brownstone backyard to be.  It is just slightly larger than my patio space…but the similarities stop there.  The garden was redesigned by Garden Design Magazine, and it was simply breathtaking.  I chatted up the style director, Lindsay Taylor, asking about the plants, trying to get some ideas for my own garden – which sadly, never really came together this year.

Here are some photos of the James Beard garden’s new look:

I LOVE these white and green plants in the lower right corner of this picture. And ones in the white planter.  I think they’d look great in my backyard.  Lindsay said that the white/green ones are shade plants – perfect for my backyard!

My favorite part of the garden was this guy, which Norman Vanamee, Garden Design’s editor in chief, said had been there previously – it was one of the older items they incorporated into the new look.  I love random statues in a garden, and am glad to see I’m not the only one!

I came home filled with ideas and inspiration for my garden next year, which is good, because the sweet fiance told me the other day that it looked like crap.  (Which it does, so I guess I deserved that.) Details on the James Beard redesign will be in the November issue of Garden Design Magazine, or, check out their website, which I think is super helpful!

As a total aside, the party was hosted by The Green Table, a farm to table restaurant in Chelsea Market. Ah-mazing.

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How To: Mason Jar Planters

September 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

Image property of NotJustaHouseWife.net

How genius is this??  I know that at my apartment, window sill space is at a premium (especially in the windows that have sun) – but it never occurred to me to go ahead and just bolt those suckers to the wall!

Stacey of NotJustaHousewife.net posted this how-to for attaching mason jars to the wall for growing your herbs and spices, which we found via Craftzine. Living in New York City, we should have known better – when you can no longer go horizontal – go up!

Craftzine.com has this tutorial from “Not Just a Housewife“

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