Ruffle me up!

It's been several seasons since ruffles came into style in the fashion world...my closet can attest to that. One of my favorite purchases in the past year has been these gray satin ruffle heels by nina:

Imagine my excitement, then, when I saw this beauty over on Apartment Therapy:

In fact their whole post was about ruffles in the home. Check it out for more visual goodies. I'm in love.

A Feast for the Eyes

It's been a while since an update here, but just wanted to share a few great blogs that have been making my day lately.

print & pattern
This snazzy blog features pretty patterns, whether they be for paper, fabric, cards, stationery, or other goods.

bryn alexandra
An aspiring interior designer (and my former fellow knottie) shares her finds and DIY projects. See how she refurbished two secondhand dressers (one from craigslist and the other from salvaltion army) in one design project.

These blogs inspire me daily to live in color and be creative. What are your go-to inspiration blogs?

Stripes and Stamps?

So I've been married and living in my own place (well, K lives there too I guess) for over a year and a half now, and our living room has yet to have a Look. You can look at it, yes, but it has no Look.

There are several reasons for this. First, we've always had mismatched, hand-me-down seating. Tan. Black. Green. Sofa. Metal futon. Wood futon. Second, we've only made minimal progress on getting anything up on the walls since we move every year (it's hard to break the college habit).

And then it hit me, a solution to bring unity to my hodgepodge living room...

couch pillows

I went to Joann and grabbed some blue upholstery fabric, trying to pull some colors from the photos on our wall of Lake Tahoe, taken during our honeymoon. Then I it, the perfect blue and tan stripe. And then I saw another perfect fabric, a blue and white stamped motif. I had to have them.

Uh...won't that look weird? K asks. No, I tell him, it will look modern! But really, what to I know. A few days later, newly bought fabric not yet touched, I got affirmation.

Enter, Pottery Barn's outdoor pillows:


And my end products:

Did it tie my living room together? Well, nothing is going to remedy that mess completely, but it's a good start!

Color Waves

Most people have near white walls, so what to do if you want a splash of color but don't like wall art? Bring in a little excitement with Chroma Lab's deep sea dresser. It'll probably make you want to change your clothes 14 times a day, but that's a small price to pay for something so pretty.