Another saturday night

Darius Rucker - Might Get Lucky

"There's a window of opportunity,

when the kids are tucked in and a half a glass of chardonnay,

She knows what I'm thinking, 

Reads me like a book.."

Closet Talk

If our clothes could talk, what would they say about us? Don't worry, that's not my real closet up there. I have buckets and buckets of shoes that get no play, and a whole side-wall of dresses that are not really in constant rotation. I can't get rid of them, though. I'm no longer in the business of disposable fashion, but consciously making an effort to keep inventory and build a wardrobe that not only speaks to who I am, but can be tapped into each season without ever going too far-off trend. Don't get me wrong, not everything gets play. There are things that must be held onto even though their fashion cycle is over. We all know it always makes its way back around again...

Unlike Cher Horowitz, I unfortunately do not have a hyper-meticulous, super matching closet system. What I do have is something that inspires me, and most importantly clothes me for all the right situations I find myself in. I think if my clothes could talk they'd probably coin me in 3 words:

• Simple - I always think less is more, so when it comes to accessorizing, 3 things and I'm out.
• Classic - Stripes, lots of black, skinnies, cargos, neutrals, v-neck tees, trenches, and ballet flats. I can't hide who I am and it works in my favor, I think. I'm pretty practical and I like being able to layer and interchange pieces so keeping them classic makes it easier for me to get dressed in the morning.
• Feminine - Billowy blouses, draped dresses, ankle-length pants, heels and flip-flops. I've always kind of known what works for my body-type and more importantly my personality. I have no curves and I run the risk of looking like a boy...my face looks like I'm 12 so if I wear the sweet pinks, glitter and bows I look under-age. Luckily I'm prone to Boho. Being a beach baby growing up I had the uniform of tank, shorts and bikini. Hence the 'less is more' approach. Wanting to dress loosely and comfortably stems from this most definitely.

It's hard trying to describe your own style vs. someone else's but I think it's a worthwhile exercise to understand your current fashion journey and help make your shopping process more focused. When you recognize what works right for you the easier it is to create outfits and more importantly, get out the door faster in the morning!
Give it a try and see if you can coin your closet in 3 words or less. Now if those shoes could talk, they'd probably say "Pain is beauty, bayy-by!"

Pantone Profiles: Pale Pinks

The second in the series, focuses on non-other than Pale Pinks. Hello, Girly!

PSA: All photos are my findings from tumblr, Pinterest, Etsy and the expansive assortment of images on google. I cannot credit every single one, but know that I am in no way taking credit for a photo unless I say it's mine.

Whatta'ya Love? Weds

What's on my mind...

.....What's it take to have good hair?

I'm not sure about y'all, but my hair is getting on my last nerve. I'm not one to keep up with my 6-8wk hair appointments and I know, I really should. I usually just wait until it becomes painfully unmanageable.

This is what my hair usually looks like on a daily basis....

On the days that I do take the effort and the time to make my locks all flawless, wavy, and callous-free, I always wonder why I don't take the few extra minutes every day to make it look this fabulous. Nothing can go wrong in the world when my hair is working in my favor. I feel feminine, beautiful and completely in control. I mean when it comes down to it, all I really want is good hair.
I'm a sucker for hair products that make me believe that they can change my poof into the first photo above. I've probably tried everything on the market past and present. At 28, I've now come down to the  five go-to products that I cannot stray from or this mop will be life-less, dull and unruly.

1. Tresemme Fresh Start Dry Shampoo - You all know how unhealthy it is to wash your hair everyday, right? Well, this dry shampoo is a life saver on getting the longest shelf-life out of your strands and I live for this. I swear my hair looks better using this than regular shampoo.

2. Moroccan Oil - I was first introduced to this at my hair salon in Brooklyn about 5 years ago and I loved how it made my hair smell. A little goes a long way, and over the years, I've found that if I put it on my wet hair right out of the shower, into a turban, it makes it super soft. I also use a dab after I blow dry to smooth and soften any fly-aways. This stuff is well worth the price-tag and it lasts practically forever.

3. Jojoba Hot Oil Treatment - We're all familiar with the VO5 hot oil treatments we used in high school, but didn't you always hate that awful smell they left you with for days? Well the Jojoba HO is not only cheaper, but it smells way better without that chemically smell. Since I have really thick/dry hair, I use one of these tubes every 2 months to bring life back into my mane. They're just as good as the conditioning treatments they do on me at the salon, but cost less than the tip to my stylist.

4. Dove Extra Hold Hair Spray - I picked up a trial-size of this hairspray for a vacation back in college and I was obsessed with the fresh smell it left my bun. I don't know about you, but I hate the smell of all the hair-sprays on the market that make you smell like you just came from sitting under the dryers at the salon. Before this, I hated using hairspray because it completely over-rided my scent, yuck. This one smells so fresh and clean, like you just washed your hair. I need it for those days I sweep it back and I want it to stay there. Nothing worse then having to fix your falling bouffant throughout the day. It's extra hold, but it goes on super light, and the best part is, it does what it says.

5. Round Boar Bristle Brush - This brush has been my savior. I never could re-create my salon blow-outs at home and frankly, it p'ed me off. Once I got this brush, magic happened. Not only do the boar bristles smooth my hair like no other, but the size helps me when blow drying and effortlessly adds that little flip to my ends. When I'm in a crunch I use it just on my bangs to get them all Farrah Fawcett-y and out of my face.

All of these products can be purchased on Amazon.com

I always love finding out what products people can't live without. Do you have some secret hair products that help you control your do? Please share!

Hair care

Another success & an easy How - to

Last Friday, I was feeling a bit creative as I was turning over my house from Halloween to "Harvest". I'm not a big wreath girl, but I've been watching some of the homes around us with their doors looking rather festive and I decided that if I could find the right one that spoke to me I would go there. I mean, how else are you supposed to get your house ready for Thanksgiving? A wreath does a pretty good job welcoming your guests for turkey-time. Long story short, I found a glittery, acorn, pinecone, silver leafy wreath that was perfectly me, if I had to deviate from the norm. But since it was of course neutral in color, that left my pumpkin sticking out like a sore-thumb on our porch. Well, that left me with no other choice than to monogram the sucker! I'm really happy with the outcome and my small success of Friday afternoon, so I'd like to share with you my super easy how-to on pumpkin monogramming and how you yourself could turn your harvest friend from sad to fab.

This was my pumpkin before; you could see why it needed some life shot in it.

Before

First, I tried to be frugal so I just used some left-over house paint we had in our utility room to paint the base of the pumpkin. You can certainly use any sort of paint you want, in any color you want, but just FYI, I used Sherwin Williams 'devine white'. In the photos you can see that on my first attempt I used foam brushes. Bad decision. Just go with any normal bristle paint brush.. it'll save you some headaches.

As my pumpkin was drying, I took a photo of it on my porch and uploaded it into Photoshop so I could play around with the font I wanted to use for my monogram. 

It looked like this.

You can basically do this on any program that allows you to type on top of a jpeg. You can even skip this step if you're not so OCD about this kind of stuff like I am. I figured 2 minutes of time to visualize the end product will save 15-20 extra minutes of printing out multiple letters as I go thru each one shaking my head. Curse of the designer.

Once you figure out what font your letter will be, pull up a new 8x11 document in either Word, or like I used Photoshop. The easiest way to do this, (which may not be so easy for you, and by any means please proceed with the best way you deem better) is to fill your letter to the entire page. Then if you're in Photoshop, press control+click the layer with your letter in it to select. Go up to the top and drop down "Select">"Modify">"Expand".... make it say 2 pixels. (You could do 1 or 2, no more.) Next step, create a new layer. Make sure the layer is active, click black for color, and then click the paint bucket tool, and fill inside your letter (it should still be selected). Press control+D to deselect. Take the layer that your original letter was on and drag it to be on top. Change the font color to white so you are then left with only an outline like my photo below. 

using just an outline helps save printer ink

If you are only using Word, then just typing the letter to fill your page and then going into the font settings to click 'outline' to change it to just being an outline of the letter. My word for mac did not have this setting which is why I used Photoshop. Some older versions of word still have it though, you just have to see if yours does. Also, printing just the letter is fine, it just uses a ton of unnecessary ink.

Cut your letter out and tape it to your pumpkin. Trace with a pencil the outline of your letter so it can serve as a guide when you're painting. 

You can do the monogram in any color you like, but I think black really stands out and looks clean. I used one of those little acrylic paints from Michael's to paint my letter. I also didn't have a tiny paint brush so I used my smallest foam brush. It didn't leave me with a clean line, but I ended up liking it better because since I used a script, it made it look like calligraphy. Score. I love when things like that work in my favor.

When you're done you should have something like this.

After

You can go ahead and dress it up as you like. I took some baker's twine to give it a little bow and drug over some crunchy leaves that were in my flower beds to play up the harvest decor.

My only advice is to make sure you bring your pumpkin in during rainy days. We don't have many here so I'm in luck. When we do get a sprinkle I just bring it closer to the door so it's covered from the heavy stuff. It would probably hold up, but I wouldn't take a chance after all that hard work. How devastating to see an orange pumpkin again with all the paint in a puddle on your porch!