Bullseye

I don't really know what these are but I kind of love them. They're little vintage wood pieces, but the lady I bought them from doesn't know what they were suppose to be used for. I'm going to mount them, frame them, and turn them into art. Stay tuned.

eBay

I love ebay. I love ebay so much in fact that about 6 months ago I had to put myself on ebay restriction because I was buying too much stuff. There's just something about your heart racing at 2 am while continuously upping your bid to a price much higher than you had originally planned. I was addicted, to say the least, but with good reason because there is some pretty killer stuff to be had at really great prices.

In the past couple of weeks I let myself ease back in to "browsing" ebay. Here is some cool stuff I found tonight:

This lamp will be mine in 10 hours and 27 min.

These are in San Diego, it's always nice when you don't have to pay for shipping. $650 for the pair.

Mid Century table in excellent condition.

$2450. Ok, it's not a bargain, but I love it anyway.

I'm always fond of the pieces that need a little TLC.

Vintage headboard in really good condition.

Who doesn't need brass elephant book ends?

My Best Friend's Wedding

The highlight of my summer was my sister's wedding. As previously mentioned I dubbed myself wedding planner and I loved every minute of helping my sister plan. I tried to be there for every step of the planning process...cake design, table design, favor design, floral design, dress design, ottoman design, reception layout, and of course, food tasting and selection. It was a bit difficult participating in all of the wedding hoopla (greeting guests, rehearsal dinner, etc.) and also making sure everything was perfect for the big day, but I had the time of my life and wouldn't have changed a thing, and hopefully my sister feels the same way.

Knowing that doing all of the flowers the day before the wedding would be a big undertaking, Melissa (the bride) kept checking with me to make sure that I didn't want her to hire a florist to do the flowers. Biting off more than I can chew is my specialty, so hiring a different florist was out of the question. As always, I couldn't have done it without the help of my dad, and this time my brothers even stepped in (thanks boys!). 6 bouquets, 18 centerpieces, 6 ottomans, and 160 favors later...here are some photos of Mel and Brian's happy day. Congrats guys!

Most of the photos are by the super talented Mike Cunningham of the Digital Orange, see all of his photos here.

Mel and Brian at the head table.

I love my sisters.

Cake designed to match the wedding announcement.

Gift boxes. Cute paper for a reasonable price in the right color and style is hard to find. So we used wallpaper.

Table setting.

My growing family.

Happy marriage sister!

Warming Up to Earth Tones

There are so many things I love about my job, but one of my favorites is working with different clients and meshing their design style with my own. As fun as it would be to design and decorate for myself all day everyday, I don't think I would grow very much as a designer that way. My clients' own personal taste and style encourages me to try new things, and many times in the process, I end up loving something that I never gave much thought to beforehand.

I've been working with my client Lynn for a few months now and she has really fabulous taste. She loves reds and browns and rich earth tones...something I've never been naturally drawn to ( I tend to gravitate toward brighter colors and lighter color palettes). I have loved working with her because she has become such a good friend, but also because through her project I developed a love of rich, dark earth tones with punches of red. Here are some things we started with and I hope to show photos of the finished product very soon.

I'm not the best renderer, but even quick sketches with a little bit of color help clients visualize their future space.

Our fabric and wall covering palette. We covered the entire living room and entry with a textured copper/bronze paper. It added a ton of visual interest to the space and when you use wall covering, it doesn't make you feel like you need to cover every inch of empty space with artwork, especially in a room with high ceilings.

She has a vaulted ceiling in her living room, perfect to hang this metal beaded chandelier.

In Love

I've wanted a nice camera for quite some time now and two weeks ago I took the plunge. I went to Fry's and bought the Canon Rebel T1I. Isn't it adorable?

I took a black and white film photography class in college but have since forgotten everything about aperture and shutter speed, wait...are those the same thing? Anyway, as you can see I have a lot to learn, but I seriously can't wait to figure out what this baby can do.

There has been a serious lack of blogging lately, but a lot of that had to do with my lack of camera. Afterall, what's a blog on design without visuals? But now I'm happy to say, we're back in action!