New Living Room Pillows

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The “new” living room is coming together piece by piece – and I’m loving it so far. I had to share the fun pillows I ordered on Etsy.

These arrived yesterday and I’m in love. I didn’t realize when I ordered them that the design is actually hand stamped onto the fabric. Gorgeous! Here’s a link to the seller’s shop.

Etsy Vine Pillow Covers

And these pillows are being custom made for me by this seller (which is a fancy way of saying I was too lazy to make them myself). I can’t wait to see them in person!!!

Etsy Orange Damask Pillows

Also, the new rug is in it’s place in my living room and I love it. This is where I should insert a real life photo of said rug in said living room…but I’ll let you wait for that and instead post the Urban Outfitter’s stock photo. Yes…I’m truly that lazy right now…or more accurately, I truly am that busy. You should see the dishes in my sink… Sorry loves.

uo flower stripe rug

I’ll keep you posted on the progress!

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Where’s the Fun At?

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I wrote a post last week about my love for Anthropologie, and it kind of make me look around my living room and ask myself, “Where’s the fun? Where’s the whimsy? Where’s the personality?”. It just kind of felt a little stiff, a little serious, a little too staged. It was pretty and comfortable, but not totally representative of me. In fact, it’s the only room in the house I haven’t really loved yet. So I thought, and I thunk, and I thinked, and I decided to freshen things up a bit.

I’ll give you the “full reveal” soon, but I will tell you it involved a little of this…

And a dash of this

uo flower stripe rug

And a teaspoon (or gallon) of this

And my own homemade version of this

Anthropologie Ruffled Curtain

Stay tuned!

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Anthropologie Dreaming

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Back when I was a single gal dreaming of owning my own home, I used to imagine what it would look like. I always thought it would look like an Anthropologie store…more or less. You know – all artsy and feminine. Now that I actually own my own home, I’m not totally sure why my house looks so…well, normal. Although, it probably has something to do with not wanting to embarrass my son when his friends come over since Anthro stores can be a bit over the top. I still can dream, though. Want to dream with me?

In my dream house I would have this bed. I love this bed. I’ve big fat loved this bed for years. Yes, it’s $1500, and yes, it’s a little over the top, but we’re dreaming here. Remember?

I’d probably add this floofy fluffy white bedding. Doesn’t it look like a cloud? All feminine and dreamy-like?

And may I tell you how much I love this Astrid Chair? I even love the name. And are you noticing that absolutely nothing in my house even remotely resembles the style of this chair? Hmmm, makes one think.

I want one of these letters that I talk myself out of every time I visit Anthropologie because they’re $28. Were they $18 each I would have done it, but that extra $10 is a deal breaker for some reason – which ironically I’ve probably spent over and over again at Starbucks or McDonalds. Go figure.

For my kitchen I want these fancy measuring spoons that would make me smile each time I used them. 

Same with this adorable milkmaid butter dish. Oh c’mon. The cuteness is killing me.

And I seriously want to eat off of these dishes…or maybe even just lick them.

And after dinner I’ll retire to the study where I’ll light a few candles

Sip some tea

 

And read Sense and Sensibility…or just gaze at its darling cover.

Ahhh…isn’t it fun to dream.

What would you have in your dream house?

Demystifying Polyvore – Part 2

Monday, May 10, 2010

I wrote a basic tutorial last week about using Polyvore to create design boards. I wanted to do a second post to show you one other really cool thing you can do in Polyvore – you can grab items from other websites.

First, remember in my last post how I told you to follow this tutorial to download the clipper tool? You need to do this before you can grab items from other sites. Okay? Okay (you’re so compliant..love you).

Okay, so let’s say you’re browsing the Anthropologie website like you do everyday occasionally, and you stumble upon this rug. Your heart goes pitter pat, you let out an audible “Ohhhh”, and you instantly want to use it in a design board.

Polyvore clipper 1

Since you already downloaded the clipper tool all you have to do is go over to your “Favorites”, and then “Links”, and then scroll down and click on “Clip to Polyvore”.

Polyvore clipper 2(Yes, I blacked out a couple sites I didn’t want you to know about. In my defense, they’re work related…and I like having a job. Also, I have no idea why I have so many Yahoo links! Sheesh!)

Once you’ve clicked on “Clip to Polyvore” a little box will appear in the upper right corner of your screen, telling you to click on the photo you want to save to your items in Polyvore. Once your mouse is over the photo that you want to import, a green box will appear around the picture. Once the green box appears around the picture just click on the picture.

Polyvore clipper 3

A new box should then appear in the upper right corner of your screen asking if you’re sure you want to save the photo to your items – just click “Save”. You also have the option of including tags. This helps others in Polyvore to be able to find your item to use in their design boards. So, it’s kind of a nice thing to do to add tags.

(Note: My computer was acting up and wouldn’t let me grab the Anthro rug like it should have. So in the interest of finishing the tutorial, we are now looking at a different rug…same principle. Okay – carry on).

Polyvore clipper 4

Once you’ve clicked “Save”, the item will appear in your saved items in Polyvore and you’ll be able to see them next time you visit.

One little caveat is that you can’t clip every photo to Polyvore. Only certain photos can be uploaded. For instance, I’ve tried to use photos from Ebay listings before, and no dice. Drats. Most “store” sites can clip to Polyvore though.

And that’s it. Happy creating!

A Few Things I Learned from My Mother

Thursday, May 6, 2010

  • Just about any problem can be fixed with a good meal and a new outfit
  • A good color sense and some paint are the only tools you really need
  • Thinking inside the box is highly overrated
  • Eating a donut for breakfast is totally acceptable
  • Wisdom is earned through gracefully weathering the fierce storms of life
  • Patience is a virtue and a little selflessness can move mountains and touch hearts
  • After taking that first sip of a perfect Diet Coke you should say “Ahhhh” and then smack you lips and say “Mmm that’s a good one”
  • With a little strength, creativity, prayer and perseverance you can accomplish just about anything
  • God’s love is displayed through mothers

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the amazing mothers out there. And I’d also like to thank and celebrate the many non-mothers out there that inspire me daily.

XOXO

Demystifying Polyvore

Sunday, May 2, 2010

As some of you may know, I have a bit of a Polyvore addiction. To me, being able to go in a program and virtually create room design boards is the equivalent of playing with Barbies as a kid (…without the whole Barbie-Ken smooching thing). I’m a really visual person, so when I’m designing a room it’s a huge help to be able to see how my ideas will actually look before I actually start working on a room. It also helps me to be able to experiment with different design elements without the commitment of going out and buying that wacky Amy Butler fabric or faux deer head. It’s basically risk free decorating. Love that. Okay – hang on for a highly technical (but hopefully informative) post.

Polyvore can be really confusing the first time you look at it. First you need register to create your own account.

Polyvore 1

You’ll then want to follow THIS tutorial to download the “clipper tool”.

Then go back to the Polyvore Homepage and click “Create”.

Polyvore 2

Now the real fun begins!!! You’ll see a screen that looks like this, which is still really confusing.

Polyvore 3

No worries. Go to the search box and type in whatever you’re looking for. This can be an item like “sofa” or a brand like “Pottery Barn”.

Polyvore 4 I typed in “Pottery Barn” in this example, and of course, I got tons of results. You can type in more specific searches too, but they don’t always yield that many results. This is unfortunately due to the way items are tagged when people upload them. Hopefully Polyvore will come up with a solution at some point.

Okay, so you’re looking through the pages of Pottery Barn items and you see something you really like and want to use in your design, like this blue Charlotte Armoire…mmm yummy.

Polyvore 5 

All you need to do is click on the item and you can then select from 3 options: 1) Add to set, 2) View details, 3) Save to my items. If I really like the item I want to save it in my items to use again later. So I’ll click “Save to my items” first, and then I’ll click “add to set”.

Polyvore 6

Sometimes you’ll add an item to your board and it will look kind of fuzzy and see through, like this:

Polyvore 7

All you need to do to fix this is go up to where it says “Background: Remove”, and click “Background: Keep”.

Polyvore 8

Ahh, much better. But wait, I don’t want to see the wood floor behind that rug. So I go back up to “Background” and click “Background: Custom”. It then pulls up a screen that looks like the photo below. You just use the little squares to draw a line (or box) to crop the photo…keep want you want and eliminating what you don’t. When you’re done, click “OK”.

Polyvore 10

Now I want my rug behind the sofa, though. So I go up and click “Backwards” until the rug is behind the sofa. It usually takes a few clicks…not sure why. Also, if you want an item in front of another item, you click “Forwards”…but I’m sure you would have figured that out.

Polyvore 11  Also, if you want to duplicate an item (like I wanted the rug to be double sized), just click “Clone”. No photo of that. Sorry. You can also rotate photos by clicking “Flip” or “Flop”. You can’t rotate them 45 degrees though, which is a bummer.

Also, a note about finding items: Don’t be too worried about finding the exact item you want to use in your room. If they don’t have my exact sofa, I find one that’s similar enough to give me the right look.

Once you’ve created a “room” you like, you can either click “Save draft” to save it for later, or click “Publish”. Clicking “Publish” is the only way you’ll be able to save the photo in your own computer file.

Polyvore 12

Once you’ve published your room, just click your username (mine is obviously AnNicole).

Polyvore 13 All of your published design boards will then show up. Then if you want to save the room to your own computer file, just right click on the photo and save it the way you would save any other photo.

And that’s it. You’re Polyvoring!