Set Up & Gifts I Treasure.

I was cleaning on Sunday afternoon and it was time to clean up my table, which I leave set all the time (since I never eat at it). I took everything off and wiped down the table and decided to reset the table with new place settings comprised of gifts my sisters gave me. My sisters, Rachel and Ruthie are amazing girls. I talk about them from time to time here because they are a huge part of my life. I love having things around the house to remind me of them. An oven mit, a food processor, a cookbook that collects more dust than anything since I don't actually cook.

I closed on the my pad only days before Christmas (the 22nd). Rachel gave me red napkins and pearl napkin rings that first Christmas and I loved them. This Christmas Ruthie gave me dessert plates for when I have people over and black napkins for my table. So I decided to set the table with a combo of the gifts so the table would radiate both my sisters beautiful back to me. So ta da....

The place mats I bought with a gift card I won on Tara's blog a while back. Aren't they darling? If you're new here you may not know that my entire house is done in zebra print and accent colors. I love zebra. So the places pretty much stay as is.

I've been cleaning in prep to have a few ladies over for a dessert night since it's Valentine's weekend. We're going to do a dessert night and watch a chick flick of some sort (still working on which one). I love, love, love to have people over. I treat prepping to entertain like all things and I bask in the set up. When I have somewhere fun to go, like on a date, I spend all week thinking about what I'm going to wear, how I'll do my hair, what shoes...ok, sometimes buying new stuff (don't tell). For entertaining I set up a little everyday so the excitement can mount...

Those are the dessert plates Ruthie got me which I will be using for the first time this weekend, aren't they precious? Every other plate has a red or white background.

Mom made the table as well. She sent me paper napkins with bible verses a while ago and I thought this would be a cute time to use them. There's also black and white ones on the other half of the table. Thanks Ma.

I had to close by showing you this picture because it just shows you a little more of my personality. I have a surprisingly girlie house but somehow football has intertwined itself into my whole home as well. I was giggling about that as I drank from one of my favorite football glasses (I have 8) in front of the TV the other night.

Wish you could all come sample some goodies and hangout with me for a night.

Love,
B

House Work.

Projects, projects, projects! The work just never quite ends, now does it? I’ve been in the mental planning process for a while of deciding which of my list of mini-projects that are swimming in my head I want to take on first. The top three are:

- Home office space! I need a place to land with some of my paperwork, my laptop, writing projects, blogging, and let’s face it – bills! I don’t have a desk of any kind so all of these items have found odd little places to land around my house but it’s time to make them cohesive and accessable. This is to be this weekends project, starting with the purchase of a desk at Ikea. Thanks to my mom’s side of the family I’ve had a little stash of money they gave me for the condo for months now and have been waiting til I decided what to do first to spend it.
- Living room revamp. I have 2 cheap, out of place book shelves I’d like to rid my living room of. But where do put the items that are in need of that space. Also, my TV currently sits on a very cute, but small piece of vintagey furniture that just isn’t doing anything for the room, in that location. So, I’d like to move that to where it could be more useful, and replace it with a larger entertainment center, to better fill the large wall space (a drawback to high ceilings). This may also happen this weekend, if I can stretch the money far enough to deal with both. And if I can stay motivated enough to put together and organize 2 new piece of furniture and as a result, 2 rooms.
- The guest bedroom. Ah, the not-so-dreaded guest bedroom project. My Mom is (hopefully) visiting me for 5 days in August to work on a few little projects at my place. I want to start by painting an accent wall in that room (color scheme is: kelly green, black, and white). Then I need furniture. That’s right, I’m short a whole bedroom suite! I believe we’re going to do the guest bedroom with white furniture to switch it up (my whole house is black and white – my bedroom furniture is black). It also needs lamps, I may install a ceiling fan, some wall art, etc. So Mom and I will begin (and maybe end) that project while she’s around to help (doing all of that along in a day seems a bit too overwelming to me).

For those of you who have seen the condo (or enough pictures), the desk will be a corner desk in the dining room area. That sounds odd, but if you’ve seen the room, it makes sense. It’s a pretty decent size room and only houses a table at the moment and I want to make better use of all the extra space. Plus, in true tackiness, my internet is just laying on the floor in the their, as that’s where the best hook up is. Yeah, we’ve got to fix that asap. I’d like to move the phone (yes, I have a house phone…go ahead and judge me) to the desk area and out of the kitchen, asap. I want to keep my space organized in a way that makes sense. My files are stored in a kitchen cabinet as well. Ack.

So, this weekend (the hours the sun is down) I will be working on projects around the house. I hope to post some pictures and/or videos throughout the process so keep an eye out for those.

Love,
B

The Party Planner Diary - Decorating.

If your venue (or home in my case) is already decorated, there's no need to go over the top with additional decor. My place has quite a bit of character as is, with black furniture, red, and zebra accents. As a result I chose to keep the decor simple. I lit my bar with tea light candles in red holders (from Pier One), borrowed candle holders and vases from a friend, and filled 2 vases with red roses and white carnations.

I found great party platters for the food at Home Goods in Lutz,

FL at reasonable prices. I also found a table runner (pictured below) on sale for $5. I kept my theme the same as my house and my invites - red, black, and white. You could certainly run with any number of theme ideas. Since last night was an 'Oscars' party, I could have gone movie themed with balloon bouquets (Party City has excellent ones) popcorn boxes for goodies, and a 'real' red carpet.

For a party about beauty products and VIPs, full of 10 of my favorite girls - I kept things glamourous and maybe a little 'matchy tatchy' as my mom says of people who get carried away with everything matching. But it fit my crowd, my place, and me.

Here are some pictures, a teaser of what is to come as I review last nights events!

Love,

B

Here you can see the bar with candles set out. I should have gotten pictures before the place filled up. Oh well. You get the idea.

Auburn reminded me that a fresh market by the spa we go to, sells a dozen roses for $6.99! I bought 2 dozen roses and a bouquet of carnations and made my own arrangement. : ]

Vase is borrowed from Aubs, who was sweet enough to lend me several great red pieces. The candle holders I found for, get this, 9.99 each at the South Tampa Marshalls. Score. This is also my $5.00 table runner. Love it.

Vibes.

Feng shui, a Chinese practice of using decor in your home to promote harmony amongst your household has never held much weight with me. I'm a social worker. Therefore I think harmony goes much deeper than the color of my walls or the layout of my living room. I do however, love a good vibe.

Being at home is essentially going to make you feel something. In my book, you might as well pick what you want that feeling to be. As I was designing the decor of my condo in my head, I was trying to decide how each scenario would make me feel when I was at home. My peace comes from the Lord, but I won't deny that high thread count sheets make climbing into bed that much more relaxing, or that candles don't put my mind at ease as I'm slipping into a bubble bath or going through my routine at night.

Each of my three floors makes me feel something different. My bottom level which houses my garage and my laundry makes me feel efficient (and sometimes a bit disoriented). That's the only place in my house where a bit of chaos is allowed. I think that is healthy. Everyone needs that one place that you don't have to be perfect. I have a giant piece of carpet (let behind by my guys) in front of my washer and dryer so that when I do laundry I can sink my toes in (and be barefoot in the garage).

My middle floor makes me feel glamorous. This may sound a bit silly...but it's true. With high ceilings, black furniture, red & zebra accents, granite counter tops, and huge doors leading to the balcony - I feel like a queen on this floor. This is where I spend the majority of my time. Typically with the balcony open, under a white throw, on the velvet couch (reference former entries for pictures of this). I'm finding that I've become more comfortable in the kitchen now that I have one to myself, and Sunday afternoons are usually spent in the dining room playing cards with friends. This floor my favorite for vibes and because it houses my company.

For a look at glamorous...check the photos on this blog. This house is insane. But I would definitely say glamorous. I'm not sure I'd ever be able to rest in that house though.

If your read many magazines or keep up with any design blogs (I've recommended a few recently) then you're seen that some people like to take glamour into every room. Here's an example of a bathroom posted on the Material Girls blog...

Now that is on intensely decorated bathroom. In my mind, if it takes your eyes several minutes to find the toilet, your bathroom is over the top! But for the sake of a picture, this is kind of fabulously cute.

I use my guest bathroom for my more than once a week bubble baths that usually involve candlelight and a good book or some music. I can't imagine feeling very serene in a fuchsia bathroom with a mound of pillows! I keep my bathrooms fairly streamlined. My guest bath is black and white with orange accents. My master bath is black and white and has yet to acquire an accent color (still torn).

I recently joined the white sheets bandwagon. I read a design book that said they're more conducive to rest. I'm not sure about that...but high thread count white sheets make me feel like I'm taking a nap in a spa. And you all know how much I love a good spa day. My zebra bedspread is quite a bit less 'rest producing' but I've never been one to have trouble sleeping. Most essential to my sleeping is that my room is a little bit chilly and I have a fan to run throughout the nights. Check and check.

My third floor houses 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. This floor makes me feel at home. When I climb up the stairs I shed all the weight of my day, however good or bad it was. It's my escape. I always feel comfortable and at home when I hit the top of the second flight of stairs. I love that. There's still a little priss to my master bedroom though. From the huge closet full of high heels, designer bags, and over 50 dresses to the candleabras on either end of my dresser, to the chinese lanterns, magenta wall, and vase of 'diamond flowers'. It's actually surprisingly prissy for me...but I love it.

Ok before I sign out I have to show you a few heavily decorated bedrooms from the same blog (material girls) that I find fascinating...

Love,
B

Finally I can reveal...

The couch!  

In decorating, I like unique pieces. I don't want my living room or bedroom to look just like someone else's.  I want it to be me.  When I found this couch (on Craigslist) I just knew it was perfect.  The first picture shows the couch with the pictures that will be on the wall behind it (eventually).

I had wonderful help from friends to pick it up and get it in.  I'm so grateful, I could never have done it without them.  I'm so pleased.  I LOVE it.

Love,

B

Noteworthy.

I try to balance not overdoing what I share with you all on other sites while still giving ample credit where it is due. It's no secret I've been condo crazy these past few months, and I love decorating. So, I found a great blog that shows INCREDIBLE decor from several major cities and I just have to pass it on to you all.

Check out the Material Girls Blog.

You can thank me later.

Love,
B

Learning to Cook.

I've promised myself that in 2010 I will learn to cook. For a handful of reasons but mostly because I need more relaxing activities in my life and because I have a sweet new kitchen to do it in. As you can now see.

I decided when I determined I wanted a house that was black and white all over to pick accent colors for each room. Since my living room, kitchen, and dining room are attached, I'm keeping red throughout.

I went on a huge hunt for red appliances and as you can see found a few. I also hit the jackpot with red KitchenAid at Marshall's. I'm obsessed with Marshalls, TJMaxx, and Homegoods. By the time this adventure is over I'd say 90% of my condo will have some from one of those 3 stores.

Putting together my kitchen has inspired my to commit to learning a new recipe per week. But that is beginning after I get moved in. : ] Maybe I'll cook something on a video blog soon. Or at least post a recipe.

Love,

B