5 Favorites

I know I know, I'm awful at posting during the summer. I'm working on it I absolutely and wholeheartedly swear!

It's been a rough couple of weeks with construction, work, and general life happening all at once so I thought I might start up again with a post about 5 of my favorite things of the moment (in no particular order of course):

1. Maurine by Say Hi

I have no idea what it is about this song, but it just gives me all the feels. Lately I've been listening to it nonstop at work.

2. Giambattista Valli's Fall 2014 Couture Collection

Can't stop won't stop looking at these runway photos. This collection is everything I love about fashion, it's playful, elegant, vintage inspired, and straight up awesome.

3. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

A bit fluffier than my usual book choices, but it's got some heft to it at times. Love, loss, growth, and understanding, I highly suggest it for a quality beach read.

4. Food Instagrams

It's literally the widest known fact that I love food, and even more so than that, that I love beautiful food. In the last couple weeks I've gone on a following binge, adding dozens of new people to follow on Insta and droooooling over their phenomenal cooking/plating/all around coolness.

These are some of my recent favorites:

@semivegan

Gorgeous photos, yummy smoothies, fruits of all sorts

@lifeofavegetarian

Best lunch boxes I have ever seen in my entire life

@roadtoeverywhere

Lovely food styling in every single photo and some seriously inspiring meals

@funkyforestfood

SO MUCH COLOR! So much yum

5. The Happier App

I discovered this app a couple weeks ago and have been trying to use it at least once a day since. It's along the lines of this post in the sense that it's all about noticing and remembering the little things in every day that make you happy. I love it!

Room Tour

I've been meaning to do a post like this since I got home for the summer, but never found a time in which my room was clean and I actually had the right light to take pictures. But! At long last here it is, my bedroom in good old Darien, CT.

It's been through many evolutions since we moved here when I was 8, from the same furniture and linens I had since I moved up to the big girl bed in toddlerhood, to the early tween years of bright neon colors on literally everything, to it's current state of clean white meets spatterings of color plus minor hoarder.

While it's always a bit of a mess (even when it's clean) I seriously adore my bedroom. I find solace and inspiration and energy in this room and the memories that I've saved up here. So, without further ado, here's a peek into my little paradise:

 A recent, but long awaited, addition to hold all my big statement necklaces.

 My absolute PRIDE AND JOY, the biggest and baddest moodboard I've ever made.

Left: The creativity corner, consisting of art supplies, half finished paintings, an old guitar, and all my favorite books from childhood and adolescence.

Right: One of many stacks of books supporting the foundation of the room.

A close up on the mashup of personal photos, handmade items, old jewelry, and magazine tears that is the Wall of Awesome.

Souvenirs and photos from Paris waiting to be scrapbooked and my beloved bag of yarn (note: second stack of books).

 My nightstand and stack 3 of books (these are actually currently in circulation).

My rainbow library/chotchkie collection (and more book stacks that are not being counted).

 My second favorite part of the room, the chalkboard. Updated every few weeks with a new inspiring quote to remind me and all visitors to my abode of the important things in life. (To the left, photos from my high school photography career that I still think are pretty ok).

 A truly excellent 15th birthday gift.

Hoarder evidence... I keep at least one shopping bag from every store I go to.

 Left: The Bed. And yes that is a teddy bear and yes I'm pretty sure I'm cool with the internet knowing about it (pretty sure). PLUS! One of my new favorite magazines, Darling. Check it out. It's fantastic.

Right: Stack 4.

 And finally, atop my dresser, more rainbow books, keepsakes, flowers, and photos.

Dark Room Love

We're in the midst of renovating our house (a much needed bigger kitchen and a new family room yay!) and even though I'm not technically in charge of the renovating, or even the owner of the house for that matter, you better believe I'm giving my two cents on all the design decisions. As a result, I've been thinking about things like paint, furniture, and wall hangings even more than usual. 

 

The current trend on my mind (that I'm almost sure my parents will never OK for any room in our house but that I of course love for any room): dark walls.

 

Rather than making a room feel, well, dark, or small, black, charcoal, or deep navy walls can bring a cozy intimacy into a room. They're also a fantastic backdrop for a gallery wall that really pops and great as accent walls. They're even better if the paint is chalkboard, making a statement wall into something versatile, practical, and creative. While it may sound a little crazy my personal favorite way to use black wall color is in bathrooms. Paired with clean finishes and tasteful touches of color dark walls can make a bathroom modern, unique, and inviting.

 Via Southern Shore Decorating Blog

 via South Shore Decorating Blog

 via Live Breathe Décor

    

via flickr

Journaling

I've always loved journaling. The writing, the notebooks, the gel pens, I love it. Recently, what with the influx of Project Life photos on Pinterest I've started getting even more interested in writing more regularly. I think the concept of documenting your experiences, even the most mundane ones, like you can with something like Project Life is absolutely wonderful.

via flickr

via bloglovin

Another popular journaling form that I've noticed growing online is the calendar journal. Be it in a handmade calendar out of a sketchbook or an index card system, calendar journaling involves writing down your daily life and organizing it in a beautiful way.

via Whit and Whistle

 via Flickr

While I have yet to find the time and/or stamina to start any of these things, I desperately want to. I have a pretty terrible memory and love writing about my day as a way to wind down before bed so it's pretty much ideal for my journaling needs. Before moving up to the expert level of making my own calendars and accumulating a million dollars of Project Life stuff, I'm beginning with the simple act of writing down 5 things from my day at the end of the day. Good, bad, memorable, or boring, I'm writing down 5 things to remember. Eventually I'll hopefully find a store of overwhelming creative juices and turn these little journals into big, colorful, ticket stub and photograph ridden journals.

SortedFood

So it's no secret I'm obsessed with food (cooking it, eating it, looking at pretty pictures of it) but I'm also a pretty big fan of England, and who best combines those two things? The guys at SortedFood. Primarily a YouTube channel with recipe videos, SortedFood is based around bringing easy and delicious recipes to the public. The videos are hilarious, packed with pranks, cooking jokes, and the occasional awesome YouTuber collab, plus the food never fails to look amazing.

Not only do they have a super cool YouTube channel that I may or may not be addicted to, but their website is packed with fantastic recipes and even more videos as well. Recipes are curated by type of food, eating restrictions, meals, and more making it easy to navigate and very helpful for finding a recipe for any occasion. By far my favorite part of SortedFood is how GORGEOUS the food always looks at the end, with some great photography/filming and careful plating these dishes appear simultaneously mouthwatering and attainable for your average inexperienced cook.

Here are some of my recent favorites:

The first in a series of educational chocolate videos from a SortedFood fieldtrip to Ireland:

Multi-colored Pasta!!!:

 Grilled tikka paneer with AMAZING looking butternut squash dip:

Summer in the City

For the last week or so, I've been interning for a very cool jewelry designer in New York (Robin Rotenier, check him out). The studio is located right in the middle of the diamond district in midtown Manhattan, aka between Times Square and Grand Central. PLUS, across the street is the Conde Nast headquarters. What with the jewelry people and the magazine people, there is always very fashionable crowd out and about while I'm working. As an avid people watcher, I'm constantly paying attention to what everyone is wearing in order to find some inspiration for dressing like a fashion person when the temperatures are climbing above 80 in New York City.

Most of these fashion editors look very thrown-together-at-the-last-minute chic. There's usually a solid amount of walking involved in the job, so I spot a ton of flats and comfortable wedges. Also, of course in New York, all black is often a staple with accents of leopard, denim, or gold. SO! Here is my example of how to dress like a New York fashion editor, without giving your feet blisters, sweating in the summer heat, or over-dressing:

I paired a sporty tank top with a very on-trend perforated skirt, all black of course. Leopard flats for comfort and style with a statement choker necklace and stacking rings. And on top we have a distressed denim jacket for those chillier rainy mornings!

1. Theyskens Theory tank from Net-A-Porter, 2. Kaneo laser cut skirt, 3. Jessica Simpson flats from Lord & Taylor, 4. Necklace from Baublebar.com, 5. Stacking rings from Baublebar.com, 6. Denim jacket from Topshop

THE MET GALA AT LAST

As usual, my apologies for the pause on posting... the end of year wrap up was (as it always seems to be) more busy than normal. But at long last the night of my beloved Met Gala has arrived and inspired be to find the time to post again! The Met Gala, my favorite red carpet event of the year, always brings out the best in sartorial craziness and I look forward to it every time spring rolls around. This year's theme was "white tie with decorations" (whatever the heck that means) hollywood, artists, and designers alike totally brought their A game. Plus, HONY was there taking pictures and collecting fun facts about all the awesome attendees, check out the coverage here.

Here are my favorite looks from the night with my first thought upon seeing them (to keep things short and sweet) :

Tabitha Simmons in Dolce and Gabbana

"Like a dewey forest nymph with great hair."

Gabrielle Union in Prada

"Thought there'd be more crop tops... this one's cool though"

 Liu Wen in Zac Posen
"HOW is it even possible to be so beautiful?"

 Dree Hemingway in Proenza Schouler
"Some kind of majestic 70's goddess action going on here"

Dakota Johnson in Jason Wu
"Be my friend. Give me your hair."

Georgia May Jagger in Thierry Mugler

"AWESOME. Wait is any skin even covered? Hang on."

Rachel McAdams in Ralph Lauren

"It's like it's just your skin... how do you do that and look so good, Rachel? How?"

Katie Holmes in Marchesa

"Katie? Is that you? You look like a runaway Versailles princess with amazing taste."

Jay-Z and Beyonce in Givenchy

"-makes happy crying noise-"

Emma Stone in Thakoon

"So much pink! SO MUCH PINK! So much wonderful. Oh and also more crop top!"

Amber Heard in Giambatista Valli

"You are so cool, so elegant, and so so stylin'."

via Lucky.com

Nate Berkus Has a Pretty Cool House

So I'm an admitted HGTV addict. I could watch pretty much anything on that channel for a year and still be happy to continue watching, especially anything more focused on the design aspects of home and garden. I've been a huge fan of HGTV Design Star for a few years now, but my latest obsession is Nate Berkus' new American Dream Builders show on NBC. Not only does this show display some amazing design, but all the contestants involved in the competition are already big names in the industry, meaning they've already got some seriously impressive experience under their belt (aka we're talking GORGEOUS home re-models here, people).

I've also been a fan of Nate Berkus since his Target collab days began so I was pretty excited to here that he was a part of the esteemed judges panel for Dream Builders. Obviously all of this means that I freaked out a little when Rue posted this article featuring Berkus' glorious LA home. His style is incredibly distinct, dark and masculine with a unique mix of worn and glamorous details. I love the careful architectural executions of the home and the fact that while everything seems perfectly curated and placed throughout the space, it feels welcoming and comfortable at the same time.

Ugh Nate Berkus just be my friend and decorate beautiful homes with me:

via Rue