BACHELORETTE GEAR

I designed an invitation, t-shirt, and koozie for my friend Jessica's bachelorette weekend. The party was at the beach (Destin, Florida) and I wanted to incorporate the location into the look without being too "beach-y" generic. Blue is the main color in Jessica's wedding so that was our (the fabulous MOH, Deidra) start. The designed morphed into a 60's, retro, sunburst feel and I really dig it, do you?

[this was my first picture collage so I apologize for any quality issues.]

You can check out Jessica's full re-cap of the weekend here and here. It was a pretty awesome time if you ask me. Jessica's wedding is next weekend and I can't wait! I also designed Jessica's wedding suite and I will share those pictures later. They are beautiful, if I have to say so myself.

P.S. if you check out Jessica's blog, I designed her blog header too :)

DESKS

Recently, I purchased a desk for "my" office in one of the guest bedrooms. Brandon has his own desk in the study with his computer, filing cabinet, etc. But, don't be fooled, his ever-so-beautiful [laminate] wooden desk that he COULD NOT part with was found outside the Sigma Nu house because it was going to be thrown away. (side note: I did not discover this secret until Brandon was bragging on it to his Uncle about 2 months ago! The whole time I basically thought this was a family heirloom from his childhood!) . I think Brandon asked himself, "How could anyone throw this beauty away? This is a gem!" and since then she has made her way from Auburn to Montgomery, to now Birmingham where she rests. Hopefully she will R.I.P. oneday! ;)

The room is painted a mauve gray and I want to accent the room with lots of golds and white so I wanted something simple and not too harsh. I collected desk images of designer's and blogger's work areas to inspire me. Oh the day when I can work at my desk all day and blog and design as I desire. Until then, here are some of my favorites:

[aubrey road]

[coco & kelley]

[cafe cartolina]

[nest egg]

[unknown]

[nate burkus' desk via cote de teaxs]

Obviously, I am attracted to the sawhorse desk and that is the direction I decided to go in. I ordered this desk from West Elm:

I love the sleek black frame and the glass top, plus it fit the designated wall perfectly. Now, I just need a chair. Any suggestions? I am looking for a white fabric tufted chair. Until then, I am temporarily using 1 of the 2 dining chairs we have. 

I have also been collecting images of offices in general and focusing on the storage supplies, arrangements, inspiration boards, filing cabinets, etc. and will share those in a future post. I have basically set up my office and will post pictures asap. 

BEAUTIFUL BABY ROSES

It has been a mystery as of what type of roses were growing up Melrose's mailbox, but this past weekend the mystery was solved! We had our first few blooms and they are too stinkin' cute! How do I know it was mystery roses growing up the post? That is because my mom, with the green thumb, spotted tiny thorns along the stems and knew exactly was they were.

I can't wait to see the entire bush full of roses! There are tons of buds on the vines so I am sure they will be blooming very soon. The roses are very petite and their color matches perfectly with Melrose's front door. As for the other plants and flowers around the house, our azaleas have all fallen off (now it is time to trim them back), the tulips have bloomed and deceased, the hard rain this past weekend knocked the petals off of 2 of the 3 sets of yellow flowers, and the squirrels keep digging holes in the soil and bark chips around the flowers. Goodness, I never realized keeping up with flowers was so much work!

For the future, I hope to plant a tea olive bush in a gap outside the front door and some hydrangeas in the backyard. I LOVE the smell of tea olives - they may not be that pretty but they sure do exhale a fresh, springy scent that makes my day.

You can clearly see what is left of our azalea bushes on the brick walkway. Sad day. 

[please ignore the crazy pink ghost that decided to make an appearance in the photos, and the quality - taken from iphone]

HELPFUL BOOK

I was reminded of this book while thumbing through a new "daily read" blog and thought I would share my love for it as well. You can read her post about it here.

I am big into researching anything before I buy or commit. So, when the time came to pick out paint colors for Melrose I knew I needed some help. I stumbled upon this wonderful little book at Barnes & Noble (but decided to order it off of Amazon) and fell in love immediately. I probably read it cover to cover 20 times and marked all my favorites and its prospective use with tabs. I eventually had to narrow the choices down.

I love reading the designer's favorites and how the paint truly looks in person because you can never really tell until the paint dries. I love a good review! This little ball of joy helped me pick several of Melrose's colors and I am happy with all of them. I definitely recommend this book if you are getting ready to paint a room. For $10 you can't beat a little custom interior design help!

[all pictures via made by girl]

M.I.A.

Yes, I know, I have been M.I.A. lately. I vow to upload pictures and post some recent projects THIS WEEK (or, maybe this weekend). I have been super busy with some freelance projects and wedding parties. But, I have found time to catch up on:

I love Blake Lively, especially with her hair like this:

and I love Blair Waldorf's rad style. But, my favorite part about GG is:

And on top of GG I enjoyed some:

I was reminded today by one of my daily "home" reads, La Dolce Vita, that The Hills and The City returns to MTV tonight. Very exciting. I mostly DVR all my shows and watch at my leisure with NO commericals.