Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Brightly Colored Spring!

Hello ladies! Sorry I have yet to post a recap of my valentines party, this weekend was pretty busy because we had an auction for school, but hopefully I will get it up here soon! As well as the rest of the house tour! Uploading pictures with my good camera is such an ordeal that I have been avoiding it... I promise to get on it soon!

Anywho, have y'all been to the mall/ checked out any style reports/ mags recently? Oh, hello there bright colors!! I am so glad that brights are back in and could not resist this darling pink ponte dress I saw at Ann Taylor last weekend. I have to admit, I always love Ann, but this season she has got it GOING ON!! P.S. They are having a BOGO 50% off sale right now, so hurry on over!!

I wore this to church on Sunday and got lots of compliments on the color

J.Crew is also impressing me this Spring with some brights, including great new colors in the Cafe capri (an all time favorite of mine!) I bought the fuchsia ones for my valentines party and they are amazing. And lets not forget about their seriously cute shoes this season!! I am in need of some new flats these days...
Love this color!! This will be my next pair, I do believe!

Oh, and i'll take these darling paisley ones as well. Welcome back J.Crew of yesteryear!

Are y'all loving the bright colors this season? I admit they don't hold a flame to my beloved Lilly since they lack patterns with cute things, but hey, it works for me!

Any trends y'all can't live without this Spring? Do tell!

ERK

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Erin Condren Goodies!!

Hello ladies!
I got a cute little brown and white envelope from FedEx Friday and it was the address labels from Erin Condren! First of all, the packaging was darling and they so kindly included some personalized gift stickers with my order! Um, I love them so much I am thinking I might have to order some more (of the gift labels, that is)! What do y'all think, fab or fab?
Blacked out my address and last name... don't want that info out on the interwebs.

I got 10 of these little cuties as a special gift!
I am so pleased with my first experience with EC and will definitely be ordering from them again!!

ERK

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Tuesday Thoughts

I know you're all so interested to know whats been on my mind, so here ya go! (Warning: may be random)

I learned last week never to put on hand lotion before opening a jar. I finally got it open, got some honey out and put the lid back on. I was putting it back in the pantry, holding it by the lid when the bottom came off and crashed to the floor. I thought it was tight enough, but I guess not. And THEN, while I was cleaning it up, I cut the bejeezus out of my finger! Lesson learned.

I have a serious addiction to salty food. A few days ago I decided to treat myself to a cupcake from Piece of Cake (amazing!!!) but for some reason i pulled into chick-fil-a and got fries instead. I don't know why, because I was thinking about that cupcake all friggin day!

I am digging blogging more often.

Im pretty sure my dog is the most precious thing on this planet, and I am not at all bias. I mean, check this nugget out!
Obvi she needed an outfit for our party last weekend!
I need a new wardrobe, pronto! I am not saying this because I am bored with my closet. I actually love so many things in there, I just can't fit my large back side in them! Ok, its not that large, but too large to fit into a lot of my clothes. I have refused to give away several items that are collecting dust because I hope to get back into them some day.  I just see them as motivation! (should have thought of that when I swung through Chick-fil-a the other day)

My iPhone 3gs is about to bite the dust and I am dreading having to get a new phone. Y'all, I love the features on the iPhone but dang they are pricy on my limited budget. Cupie's gotta eat, ya know?

I have a major problem with magazines. As in I subscribe to too many, look at them once and pile em up. The stacks I have going now are getting pretty high so I think I need to go through them and tear out anything I like (workouts, recipes) and recycle all the rest. I didn't resubscribe to Glamour this year, so thats a start (although I did subscribe to Shape instead, woof).

I am pretty much obsessed with the gel nail polish trend. I love that it doesn't chip (for the most part) for 2 weeks! However, I am kind of scared it does bad things to your nails and I have how it looks when my nails have grown out for 2 weeks (the gap between the cuticle and the polish). Despite those minor downturns, my nails have looked pretty fab for the past few months with very little effort.

I need to start liking healthy foods more, but anything fried or with butter just tastes so much better!

Looking for a summer job is hard...

I just started volunteering with Girls on the Run, Atlanta and it is so much fun! The girls are mostly in 3rd grade and are so stink in cute!

Thats all I've got for today, check back in tomorrow because I am going to do a lil recap of my valentines party!

ERK

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Address labeling to the Extreme!

I think I explained here about my affinity towards paper products, but I may or may not have gone a little overboard yesterday and today.

It all started when I was sending a valentine to my bff Lauren (if you're reading this I guess you and Lu know your surprise now!) and I realized I didn't have any sort of address sticker/ stamp/ embosser to put my return address on. No biggie, I just wrote it, but it got me thinking. I have always wanted a PSA Essentials address stamp and was just waiting until I had a more permanent address to order one. Well, hello, I have had a pretty permanent address for months now and have completely forgotten about it. So, I went on Rossomer Square's website and ordered the Cipher Deluxe stamp. Done and done.
I just got my monogram in the middle and my address around the outside, I didn't end up putting my name on it.

The only problem is, yesterday I bought a deal for some Erin Condren address labels on One Kings Lane. (my first purchase from them, it was a pretty good deal. I used to be obsessed with Gilt until it started to be like "will ship in 9 years"... slight exaggeration, but you get it. That being said, I may be back on the flash sale site bandwagon. The only thing I thought was weird was that I paid on OKL for the "deal" but then I had to pay separately on the Erin Condren website for shipping Even so, it was a steal!) I got the rectangle candy lace pink and lime label. I may be WAY behind the bandwagon, but I had never heard of Erin Condren before. However,  I am pretty sure when my old August-to-August planner (anybody else use those bad boys?) runs out I will be purchasing one of their adorable planners!

So now here I am with not 1, but 2 forms of address labeling coming to my front door. And the crazy thing? Almost all of my stationery already has the address printed or embossed on the envelope. I'm a nut.

Anywho, I got an awesome deal on Rossomer Square, a stamp that usually costs $40 was only $27, not bad eh? Head on over there if you are in the market for a stamp because that deal is too hard to pass up! Or head over to OKL and purchase some Erin Condren goodies.

Anybody else paper-obsessed? Don't even get me started on cocktail napkins... oy!

I hope y'all have had a lovely day! I know I have! (It did involve checking out a few more Marshalls/ TJs/ HomeGoods... Beyond ridiculous, I know)

ERK

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Valentines Party!

Last year I had a really fun Valentines day party, so I decided I would just make it a tradition and have another one this year. Who doesn't love an excuse to have a party, right?

Anyway, I have been working like a madwoman and hitting every TJs/ HomeGoods/Marshalls in the metro Atlanta area looking for cute little items to make it extra special and I think I have gotten just about everything! One thing that I had to get was more flat wear and plates/ bowls, because as I think I mentioned, I am having 18 people over for a sit down dinner, am I crazy?!?

But I know we'll have a blast and some of my older friends are going to come along with my law school friends so they can all meet!

So, plan for the evening:

Apps-- Spinach and artichoke dip and a cheese platter.

Dinner-- crock pot coconut chicken curry with brown rice, salad, and possibly another veggie. The problem is that I know curry is one of those things that you either love or hate. I love it, but I don't want to serve something people don't like. The predicament is that I need to fix ALOT and that is pretty easy (throw it in the ole crock pot for a few hours and as Emerald says, bam!)

So, any suggestions for other easy-to-make-in-mass-quantities dishes? I need some help ladies!!

Dessert-- cupcakes with valentines sprinkles.

This year I am doing the mini champagne bottles with the red striped straws again because they were a hit last year! (Look here to read all about last year's soiree)

I want to do favors, but last year I did cookies and I just don't think I can make that many decorated sugar cookies. Maybe just some little candies or something in a cello bag. I ordered some cute V-Day gift tags last year that I would like to reuse.

Here is some of the decor and such we have so far, but I will definitely share with y'all the tablescape and all that jazz after the party! One thing I really want to do (this idea is TOTALLY taken from Kappa Prep, she is so stinkin creative!) is get apothecary jars and fill them with candies. Take a look at how cute hers are!
One of the 3 tables I am going to have. I have a pink toile tablecloth my mom had made for my dining room table at some point that I will use on that one and I still need another for the 3rd "table" (aka 2 card tables pushed together)

Red wine glasses from Pier 1 and cocktail napkins.

Pretty little wreath for the back door

Festive serving bowls and platter

A whole jumble of valentines day swag. Isn't that cupid napkin so cute?!? My mom always has the best napkins for every occasion!
Is anybody else having a heart day get together? If so I'd love to hear your plans!!! Also, please give me suggestions on what to serve for dinner!!

ERK

Oh, and my outfit for Saturday night? I know I will be rocking these hot pink pants from J.Crew and probably just a black turtleneck and flats. I had to order the pants online and I hope they are more pink than purple when they get here, I can never tell the true colors on their website!

Monday, February 6, 2012

House Tour Part Two: Beds and Baths

I'm back with another round of house pictures! These are of the two bedrooms in the house, my room and the guest room. As you'll be able to tell, striped walls were definitely a must!

I hope y'all enjoy!

Guest room and bath:
The guest bath is a little small and the blue tile is BAD, but after replacing the vanity and at least changing the tile on the floor from that blue to white, I think it looks pretty good! It was originally r.e.t.r.o. The entire bath was that shade of blue and the shower still is.

A monogrammed shower curtain is an absolute necessity!

The lighting in this picture is terrible, but the twin beds were my dad and his brother's when they were little and we also my brother's when he was little. I think a lot of people aren't into the whole twin bed thing (I was pretty much the only one of my friends to have them when I was little) but I find them fairly useful. Also, the shams are a little granny (the quilts match on the other side) but we looked everywhere for something to match that yellow that wouldn't break the bank. One day I want to have shams and duvet covers made from a really pretty fabric we found that is yellow with purple/ blue hydrangeas.

Better lighting. That chair was a find from my mom and dad's attic and the fabric on it is really pretty blue embroidered linen.

Since the bath is so small, we put this bathroom cabinet (I don't know what is its called) just inside the bedroom to stash extra towels, etc.

The chest is from Tarjay that I have had since sophomore year of college. I put it together myself! haha It is very sturdy, though, and currently houses all of my winter sweaters.

Some Paris prints, another find from mom and dad's attic, add a little snaz to the striped walls.


Master bedroom and bath:
My bedroom! Sometimes it feels a little pre-teeny bopper with all the pink but I love it!!

Y'all have seen this little "lady's sofa" in this post. The only lady who sits on it is little Miss. Cupie. And do you see her Andy Warhol-esq picture on the wall behind it? What a diva!

I wrote about this in the "what I'm Lovin" tab above, but this is a lamp I got while I was in college from The Pink Giraffe and it goes perfectly with my pink and green theme! It's hard to see, but its monogrammed (duh!) haha Oh, and the light switches behind it, lets just say the lights in my house are pretty confusing so I went CRAZY with the label maker. Obsessive compulsive right there...

My chest, a find from Scott's (it is really bothering me that the bottom drawer isn't all the way closed!!!)

My closet, which is pretty big but I can't seem to fit all of my junk in, and my tiny t.v. The table the tv is on was my grandparents and its a sewing table so it has some cool drawers and such. Also, the top has a sea shell design in a lighter wood that is so cute! And the corner chair didn't end up in a corner and is usually covered in clothes that have been taken off, but it has a cute green toile fabric.

My bath! This looks so much better than it did before we gutted it! (See picture below, the bath used to be 2 rooms) It is great and has plenty of room for all of my cosmetic and beauty products because y'all know I tend to hoard that stuff! And I like the privacy wall in from of the toilet so its hidden away a bit.


Pre-renovation

This cabinet used to be in my bathroom at my parents and I love it! It gives extra storage space and I like the look of a real piece of furniture in the bathroom. (the top blue towels are flooded wonky and are totally bothering me!! haha)

Shower

Vanity

Whoa, that was a long post! What do y'all think? I hope you enjoyed!

I hope to have the rest of the house for you soon!

ERK

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Mobile Blogging!

Hello All!
Sorry I haven't posted any more house pictures, last week was crazy at school but this week should be easier so hopefully I'll have time to straighten up a bit and take some more pictures! I have to really clean up anyway because I'm having a valentines party next Saturday so I want my house nice and clean!!

Anywho, I am trying out the blogger app so maybe I will be able to blog more on the go!! I know posts without pictures are boring, so I'll leave y'all with some recent iPhone pictures of Cupie!

I'll be back tomorrow to let y'all know about my party next weekend, I'm expecting 18 people at my house! Oy!!

ERK