'tis the season

[our very first Christmas tree in our home]

[one of the many festive headpieces I've been making]

[stockings over a much used fireplace]

[white and crystal wreaths]

[mercury glass Christmas trees]

[my hoop.. one of the best ways to take your mind off everything]

[more mercury glass adornments over the hallway door]

[freshly chopped firewood]

Just a few things that are currently making me very happy.

xx

A

fall decor

 [I decided to get creative and paint something for our mantle that would pull the living room together]

 

[One of the many sparkly skulls that serve as some glam yet spooky Halloween decor]

 [Fun matchbooks from the local folk art gallery and West Elm]

 [A beautiful, vintage book my gorgeous friend, Eleni, gave me for my Birthday]

 [More glittery skulls take center stage on the dining room table for October]

[Another sparkly skull to decorate the house for Halloween]

Here are a few changes I've made to the house to freshen things up and bring in the new season.  

I love decorating for the holidays, and Halloween is no exception.  Glittery black skulls (I got mine at Kirklands and Target) are a simple and chic way to make your home a bit more spooky.  Also, the city I live in is big on Halloween, so I'm looking forward to picking up a few more eerie accessories from the local folk art gallery this week - I'll keep you updated.

I'm also glad I finally sat down and busted out my painting supplies to do something for the mantle above the fireplace.  The structure and contrast of the paintings really tie the room together with all the random books and chotchkies we have lying around.  Painting also served as a nice, therapeutic experience.. There's something so relaxing about putting on a great album and completely immersing yourself into something.  I really need to do that more often.

xx

A

new beginnings

 guest room with DIY burlap dust ruffle to go with the rustic theme

guest bed for all of you lovely people who will be spending many, many weekends here*cough cough Eleni and Berkeley*

 shoe display (the rest of my shoes are sneakily hidden in the built in cabinet underneath all the pillows)

 an ever-changing extra clothing rack that serves as a sort of a seasonal inspiration piece

I know that taking this long of a hiatus in the blogger world is simply unacceptable, but moving into the new house and getting acclimated has occupied way more time than I expected.  By the time I'm actually done working for the day, I usually spend my nights having a few glasses of wine with the boyfriend while enjoying our new pad, then dozing off in this sleepy little town pretty early.

Anyway, I thought I'd give you a teeny tiny sneak peak into the house.  I wanted to feature the guest/closet room first, as I'm sure that's way more interesting than a kitchen to all you fashionistas.  We had to be creative  with our closet space, as the house was built in 1910 and walk-ins didn't exist back then.  With the help of my handy grandfather and understanding boyfriend, we made it all work.

Since I only had a few small closets to work with, I decided to display some of my favorite pieces out in the open to free up more space.  I used the guest bedroom as a place to showcase some of my favorite pieces; the handmade, wooden rack displays my favorite shoes of the moment (as well as classics like my Louboutins), and the clothing rack (I can't believe I just got one of these - I'm OBSESSED) is filled with current trends and general themes I'm currently feeling.  I plan on changing it out frequently - either by season, or just when a new wave of inspiration hits me.  I'd like to think of it as a 3D inspiration board - plus, it helps me choose my outfits so much faster, as I tend to struggle with that at times.

Hope you enjoyed the tiny sneak peak, and I'll be able to give you a proper tour of the new place as soon as it's finished and worthy to show all you fabulous people.  I've missed you!

xx
A

apartment envy: kate foley

A peak inside the home of Kate Foley, a buyer for Opening Ceremony.  The artistic yet playful way she decorated her space is completely inspirational.  See the rest of the story here.

xx

A

photos via refinery29.

anthropologie christmas ornaments

As I continue on my search for amazing Christmas decorations, I've found my perfect one-stop-Holiday-shop in Anthropologie.  Their ornament selection alone is simply stunning.  The collection strikes that perfect balance of "rustic yet glamorous" that I always look to have in my home (a style I first told you about in this post).  The beautiful animal ornaments combined with the sparkly globes are sure to make any tree look absolutely gorgeous.  Also, most of the items are between $8 and $20, so I'll hopefully be making my way to the nearest Anthropologie (with a yummy Starbucks in hand) soon to scoop some up before they're all gone.  I can't wait!

xx

A

getting into the holiday spirit

December, so far, has proved to be a busier month than usual, so decorating for the Holidays has become a bit more difficult to get around to.  I'm not even close to being finished with making my house into a cozy winter wonderland, but it's a start.  For the area under my tv, I went with a muted color palate of brown, silver, and gold but added some flair with the bright peacock feathers.  I picked up the mercury glass Christmas trees on sale last year at Target, but found some similarly shabby chic trees here and here.  It was a relatively cheap way to decorate, as well, since I just used some extra candles, my grandmother's fur collar, and other random nicknacks I had lying around the house.  I have a long way to go, but so far so good.  I hope to have many more Holiday decorations to show you soon!

xx

A

ferocious

If I haven't made it glaringly obvious yet, I really love deer and other furry creatures found in the forest (see here, here, here, and here).  The stag cheese board and knife and the grizzly bear bottle opener pictured above are two of my absolute favorite things in my house - They always prove to be great conversation pieces when I'm hosting parties.  So naturally, whenever I'm out shopping I always have my eye out for more crazy animal pieces to add to my collection, and when I stumbled upon these items in my online shopping adventures, I just had to put them at the top of my wish list for Holiday entertaining.

Deer & Moose Shot Glasses

Pewter & Glass Animal Shot Glasses

Deer Port Pourer

I'm obsessed.

xx

A

glitter/goth

Halloween is one of my favorite Holidays, so decorating my house with lots of eerie knick knacks makes me one happy girl.  I touched on Halloween decor earlier, but I found even more items recently; I bought the large black skull at Target, the raven at Michael's, and the small skulls and the silver skull at Kirklands.  I'm actually kind of bummed that Halloween is only a few days away.. I might just have to keep the decorations up for a little bit longer.

xx

A

apartment envy - coco rocha & james conran

Lauren Santo Domingo's new feature in Vogue, APT with LSD, lets us get a peek inside the homes of some of the fashion world's most interesting people.  The first segment of APT with LSD features the beautiful Gramercy Park apartment of model Coco Rocha and her husband, artist James Conran.

This apartment is my absolute dream - a perfect mix of quirky, eclectic, and elegant pieces. I love how the color palette is neutral but still undeniably glamorous, and interesting conversation pieces pop up everywhere (the Yves Saint Laurent piggy bank actually says "youve saved la rent!").  I love it when people's homes really show their personality, and every little knick-knack has a story behind it.  This makes me want to go out to the nearest flea market for a little shopping spree..

xx

A

p.s. To see the article, more photos and sources, head over to Vogue.