HOLIDAY WISH LIST

Since today is the first day of December I thought I would share my holiday wish list! Maybe these suggestions will help spur ideas for you as well! The hubs and I are celebrating our first newlywed Christmas together with my family in Virginia. It should be a fun, snow filled holiday and I can't wait. 

ONE: I love these new ring and bracelet cloches from Pottery Barn. I could definitely see these sitting on my dresser. (the web says they are unavailable, but hopefully that is temporary or they are still in store!?)
TWO: Flash reflector to help prevent the flash lighting being too harsh 
THREE: I can totally see myself sportin' these long button gloves this winter! I hate cold hands and feet!
FOUR: These "tiny tots" canvases by Lucie Wallace have been making their rounds on the blog world lately and I am obsessed with her style! I would take any of her paintings, but these cute little ones are more wallet friendly!
FIVE: This Timex watch face paired with the leopard strap is so classic. 
SIX: These mini ikat bowls from Anthropologie are perfect for storing jewelry. I want my drawer to be filled with these and look like this! 
SEVEN: This is a little unrealistic at the moment, but I would love a 35 mm lens for my Canon Rebel. I currently use a 50 mm and it is fantastic for close ups, but this 35 mm can capture so much more!
EIGHT: I can visualize this faux fur throw on my bed right now! So warm, cozy, and stylish!
NINE: And this would be perfect on Brandon's dresser to house his watch, change, wallet, etc. - need something for his jewelry too, right!?
TEN: I also think this would be adorable for holding jewelry on my dresser - check out this image!


What is on your wish list? Please share!

CREATIVE DESIGN

Here's some creative Christmas designs for your Cyber Monday! I love finding beautiful typography and illustrations in unexpected places! 

Panera Bread 

This is the bookeyed suzanne font that Abode Love and I have been drooling over ever since we purchased bookeyed jack (I really love all the tart workshop fonts)! We know have both bookeyed fonts and are forcing it onto all our designs! I love the sweet, winter illustration paired with the delicate type - such a great way to warm up a chilly day!

Eddie Bauer

I love seeing different types of mediums used in marketing rather than just graphics. This watercolor illustration is so simple, but perfect for this seasonal campaign - just the right amount of color and detail to not over power the message! 

INSPIRATION BOARD: melrose's master bedroom

I just posted my inspiration photos and now I wanted to share my official design. So far we have successfully updated the paint color (wall and ceiling), hung curtains and rods, purchased a dresser for myself, replaced the fan, and arranged few knick knacks, but the main issue is the furniture. It is in desperate need of a new home (yard sale!). It was Brandon's furniture as a child and has made it's way to Auburn, to his frat house, to Montgomery, and now to Homewood so you can imagine the war wounds it has incurred since then! 


I am not a huge fan of matchy-matchy furniture sets - nothing against them, just not my style. I like to find separate pieces that work well together so you have variety in the room. And this way you can add pieces that contrast one another so it doesn't end up seeming "too dark" or "too masculine/feminine".


Brandon got it stuck in his head that we needed all wood furniture for some reason so that is where the search began. I love the upholstered, tufted headboards that are so trendy right now, but apparently that would not cut it with B. After much research and deliberation, I settled on this beautiful, modern sleigh bed with carved rosettes. Our bedroom is not very deep, so I am still anxious to see how the exaggerated sleigh headboard fits in the room. We had to order the one without the footboard to leave walking room for the dresser. 


Here is a simple layout of one side of the room to illustrate the new bed and decor. Due to my industrial design background, I have to make sure everything fits and coordinates perfectly so this is to scale!

sorry for the image of the quilt, Serena & Lily no longer makes that so I had to use the only miniscule pic I could find

Yes, that is Brandon's skull mount above the bed. I thought the space looked too symmetrical and since the headboard is straight across, I thought it needed something above it to balance it. The large white frames above each nightstand will be 30" square and display a wedding picture in each. They will be similar to the ones I made for above my bar except with a large matt and small picture. And above each frame is a small, gold gilded convex mirror. 


For the rest of the room, I created an inspiration board with the other items I have in mind for the room. I can't wait for it all to come in so I can begin arranging it all!

ONE: restoration hardware empire rosette sleigh bed
TWO: trio of antlers
THREE: brass lion door knocker
FOUR: west elm striped sheets
FIVE: coral ikat fabric for euro shams
SIX: round wooden mirror
SEVEN: serena & lily gold quilt
EIGHT: haven's harbor nightstand
NINE: cape comber bachelor's chest
TEN: restoration hardware empire rosette dresser 


Don't worry, this isn't all ... I am leaving some stuff to the imagination! I will be sure to post B&A pictures once I have it all in place. Also making it's way into the bedroom and on my nightstand are a few of these gorgeous books I posted about earlier. 

follow my pinterest board for quick updates too!

MELROSE'S MASTER BEDROOM

I have been gathering inspiration photos for Melrose's master bedroom for awhile now and I wanted to share a few. I picked a dark gray paint color for the walls since the room has a lot of natural light. We have a large window and double doors that lead onto the back porch. Plus, I knew I wanted to accent the room with lots of white, cream, and gold to brighten the room as well. Other than those decisions, I have started from scratch! 


After moving in our current furniture I knew the layout of the room, but I needed decor inspiration. My toughest decision has been deciding on what type of finishes will not clash with the dark gray walls. I knew if all the furniture was dark then the room would look like a black hole. Here are some designer rooms that I have saved to reference while designing this room.

 lots of white with gold frames

 painting with light?

 simple, but sophisticated 

 our walls are similar to this color ... 

 beautifully designed ... 

 white matted photos with coral

 I like this layout a lot 

 I am obsessed with this room - the large photograph, matching fabric on bed and curtains, crisp, white decor, shag rug ... should I go on?

 dark walls with white furniture

 the artwork in this room is fabulous - who knew a white canvas could be so dramatic?

I'll post my layout mock up and inspiration boards next so you can see the correlation between inspiration and reality. Decisions, decisions! What kind of furniture do you pair with your darker rooms?

FANCY CHICKENS: correction!

In honor of Thanksgiving I thought I would post about one of our main attractions ... 


This past weekend we were in my hometown for my little bro's engagement party and we had a chance to visit with all the new additions. As I have posted before, my parents have just recently increased their  chicken family to 2 different breeds. It is fascinating to see the reds intermingle with the blacks and for Bob (the rooster) to govern over all of them. He is actually a kind, mild rooster and will take his share of bread and feed it to the hens rather than eating it himself! After all, it is the season for giving and sharing.


Well, our neighbor raises chickens as well so we hopped the fence to see what he had in store. Apparently, his chicken family consists of 5 different varieties of chickens! And some are super fancy! I was bewildered by this one breed and kept wanting to "pet" their fluffy head pieces. They are polish chickens and here is a brief description about them:

Polish are a very special and unique breed of chicken with their huge bouffant crest of feathers and v-shaped comb. They are tame but their behavior can be a bit wacky since their crest limits their vision. When in a flock with more aggressive breeds, Polish will tend to be on the low end of the pecking order. Egg laying is varied in this breed - some lay well and some very poorly. In short, Polish are sweet, beautiful exhibition birds and can be good layers in the backyard flock, but they're not reliable.

These are actually back views of their heads if you can believe it! How crazy is that? Here are some front views I snagged from the interwebs:

No wonder they can't see very well! If my eyebrows were that huge I wouldn't be able to see either. I only had time to take a few other pictures. Maybe next time I am home I can take some better ones and capture all the breeds.

I loved these black and white striped ones, dominque

This breed (silver laced cochin) of chickens are huge! And you can't tell in this shot, but their feathers actually cover their legs like chaps and swish when they walk. They look like this:

photo from the web

It was all so amusing! Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving week! 

***Our neighbor actually has 12 varieties of chickens! I don't know how I missed the other 7 but here is a complete list for those interested:

White Crested Black Polish
Silver Laced Cochins
Silver Laced Wyondotts
Hamburgs
Barred Plymouth Rocks
White Plymouth Rocks
Buff Plymouth Rocks
White Leghorns
Blue Andalusia
Australorps
Rhode Island Reds
Dominique