Three Things I’m Loving Right Now

Happy Friday everyone! I hope your week was wonderful and that you have a great weekend coming up. Here are three things happening now that I am very excited about.

1. The Oscars!

I love award shows. The red carpet interviews with celebs, the fabulous fashion, and the celebration of great films and actors…I just love it all. I had set a goal to watch all the best picture nominated films sometime before I’m 30, which unfortunately didn’t happen this year. So far I’ve only managed to see three: American Hustle, Captain Phillips, and Dallas Buyers Club. All of them were excellent and very worthy of their nominations. Have you seen any of the best picture nominees? Which was your favorite?

2. DietBet

Have you guys heard of DietBet yet? I just came across it and I think it is brilliant. The whole idea is that you join a group of other dieters, make a monetary bet that you’ll lose a certain percentage of weight in a certain amount of time (like 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks), and if you do lose the weight you get to split the pot with the other winners. For example, I’m starting the Fitblr March Madness game tomorrow, and I bet $35 that I will lose 4% of my body weight by March 28. Right now there are 182 players in my group and the pot is up to $6370. So if we say 100 people out of the 182 players hit their goal, each winner will win $63.70! Now that is some pretty good motivation.

3. The West Elm Rug Sale

West Elm usually has some kind of great sale going on but I am particularly excited about this 30% off rugs sale. I have been searching for a great deal on a rug for my dining room for a long time and I think I might have finally found the one: the Graduated Stripe Cotton Dhurrie in Feather Gray. It’s only $69 for a 5’x8’! What do you think, should I get it?

Apartment Makeover Source List

Yesterday I showed you my friend Kate’s apartment makeover and I think you guys liked it. Thanks to everyone who read it and especially to those who left nice comments, I really appreciate it!

Today I’m back with a breakdown of what we bought and how much we spent. You might remember from the mood board post that we had a tight budget of only $1000. We spent pretty much all of the money on the living room since she already had furnishings for the rest of the apartment.

This is what the living room looked like when she moved in:

The only pieces we kept here are the gold chaise, the coffee table, and the TV/TV stand. We replaced the side table and moved the floral chair and table lamp to the bedroom. So now the living room looks like this:

Here’s a breakdown of everything we bought:

Sofa: Target (no longer available), $300

Side Chair: Hudson Swoop Chair-Gray/Citron from Target, $150

Silver Table: Threshold Metal Accent Table from Target: $60

Pink Table: Target (no longer available), $10

Ikat Curtains: HomeGoods, $30

Throw Pillows: Blue Geometric and Coral Ikat Print Covers from 5C Home Décor on Etsy, $15 each

Area Rug: 6’x9’ Moroccan Trellis in Spa Blue from Rugs USA, $170

Lamps: Room Essentials Torchiere Floor Lamp-Silver from Target, $8 each

Total: $781

We spent about another $100 on a few accessories, hardware for the curtains, supplies for the shelves, and incidentals like paint, so even with the extra $100 we only spent about $880…well below our $1000 budget!!

Kate already had most of the accessories and art so we didn’t have to spend much money there. She also saved money by doing a few DIY projects.

The shelves under the countertop were a Pinterest-inspired project that Kate thought of and executed all on her own (though I did help style the shelves a little). She hit up Home Depot and picked up 8 cinderblocks and 3 boards, which she had them cut to size in the store. So easy! So for hardly any money she created custom built-in shelves in a space that would have otherwise gone unused. It’s the perfect spot to display books, framed art and photos, and other special knick-knacks.

Other DIY projects included the “Let it Be” art and the tray on the coffee table. The painting started out as a floral still life Kate painted at one of those paint and wine party places. It was really cute but the colors were kind of overwhelming and it just didn’t go with the other art, so Kate bought some vinyl letters, stuck them on the canvas, and painted over them with some blue paint. I really love how it turned out!

The tray started out as the top of a wine bar, but since Kate already had another bar table that she liked better she got rid of the old wine rack but kept the detachable tray top. She simply painted it white and added a pink border to give it a little pop of color. It goes so well with the pink side table and the pink pillow in the center of the couch.

The yellow chevron pillows were a DIY project from Kate’s last apartment but they work great here. She bought some inexpensive fabric at Hobby Lobby to recover a couple old pillows using a no-sew method like the one shown here. Easy!

I think that about covers it. If you have any questions about where anything else came from feel free to ask in the comments section and I’ll get back to you!

Apartment Makeover Reveal!

Hello friends, I have a big post for you today! If you’ve been following me for the last few months you know that I’ve been helping my friend Kate decorate her new apartment. You’ve seen the mood board and a few in-progress pictures, and now I am so happy to show you the finished project!

What do you think?! I’ll be back tomorrow with a source list and a breakdown of what we spent, make sure to check it out!

New Additions

Hello friends! It’s been a while…last week I just needed a little time away from blogging and this week I hadn’t gotten a chance to put together a post until today. But I do have a few good things to show you.

If you follow me on facebook or instagram you may have already seen this: the week before Valentine’s Day I made a really cute Anthropolgie-inspired Valentine’s banner for my mantle. I had intended to put together a step-by-step DIY post but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Oh well, I guess that post will have to wait until next year.

Ben and I had a low-key but lovely Valentine’s Day together. We had a delicious dinner at Spin! Pizza and Ben got me a few roses and a pair of Jonathan Adler love dove ornaments. Who says Christmas ornaments are only for Christmas!

Yesterday I got out and enjoyed the warmer weather. I stopped by my favorite thrift store and picked up this lovely gold faux bamboo frame for only $1.48!

I also did a little shopping at TJ Maxx and I picked up these two cute tech accessories:

A Kate Spade Saturday iPad folio for $20 and a Jonathan Adler iPhone case for $8. This was the first time I had seen Saturday merchandise at TJ Maxx, I was very pleasantly surprised!

Finally I wanted to show you these adorable glasses I found. We were grocery shopping the other night and we came across a Bailey’s gift set (presumably left over from Christmas) on sale. I love Bailey’s but we usually buy the off brand to save a little money, but I decided to splurge just a little so I could get the free gold polka dot glasses.

Aren’t they pretty?!

That’s all for today, but I did want to let you know I finally finished decorating my friend Kate’s apartment and I’m working on a blog post to show you the completed project. Here’s a sneak peek from my instagram account:

See you again soon!

Whole Lotta Love Gift Guide: KC Edition

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and this year instead of buying a cliché gift like red roses or a cheesy teddy bear, why don’t you get your love a really special gift from one of Kansas City’s finest? I put together a list of gifts that should satisfy everyone: girls, guys, romantics, non-romantics, anyone who drinks coffee or owns a smart phone, etc.

First up:

Okay, so a heart shaped box of chocolates is definitely a Valentine’s Day cliché but this gift box is really special. Christopher Elbow is Kansas City’s own chocolate master and his candies are sooo good. The truffles are literally almost too pretty to eat and they come in interesting flavors like Macadamia Praline, PB&J, Tequila Lime, Spiced Orange Caramel, Red Wine Caramel, and French Lavender. The Valentine’s Day 20 Piece Heart Box costs $40; if that’s a little more than you want to spend they also have a box of 9 assorted chocolates for $20.

Speaking of Christopher Elbow…

If you live in Kansas City and don’t live under a rock, you’ve definitely heard about this Chocolate Ale. It’s a special collaboration between Boulevard Brewery and Christopher Elbow released just in time for Valentine’s Day and it is crazy popular around KC. Like lines of people waiting outside stores or stalking delivery trucks just to find a bottle crazy. The Chocolate Ale was first released in in 2011 and then again in 2012, but they took last year off so they could perfect the recipe and prepare to make double the beer to help satisfy demand. About half of the Chocolate Ale will be shipped outside of the KC area so if you don’t live here don’t worry, you can likely find some Chocolate Ale near you; use the beer finder tool to help track some down. This is a really unique and excellent beer perfect for Valentine’s Day, I high recommend it!

And for the coffee lover, try this:

The Christopher Elbow Chocolate Blend coffee from The Roasterie. The Roasterie is another local favorite and they make exceptional coffee, so when you blend amazing coffee with the perfect chocolate you get, well, an amazing coffee blend. You can buy it online here. I suggest mixing in some Bailey’s or Godiva Liquor and adding some whipped cream on top for the ultimate cup of coffee.

Okay, now for the non-edible gifts.

I absolutely love this print by Ampersand Design Studio. Ampersand is run by two Kansas City girls who both worked for Hallmark for almost a decade before launching their own design studio, so you know they really know what they’re doing. The C’est Tout (It’s Everything) Love Screen Print is only $25 and it also comes in a mint/navy blue/gold colorway.

 

These phone cases from Red Dirt “Goods for Good” are really special. Each case is a limited edition design by an artist and a portion of the sales goes to Water.org to provide clean water to those who don’t have access to it. They have a ton of beautiful designs but I’m partial to these four by Dolan Geiman (whose work I have hanging in my hallway), Chet Flynn, Dan Padavic, and Callie England.

Bath bombs, soy candle, bubble bath, and shea body lotion.

I’m normally not a big fan of bath and body gifts but I would be thrilled to receive a gift basket of goodies from Mixture. Another fabulous Kansas City company, Mixture hand makes all their products locally and they strive to make their goods as environmentally friendly as possible by using natural ingredients and recycled packaging materials. All of their bath and body products, candles, and home sprays come in lovely scents like lavender lemongrass, white ginger, blood orange, flower market, and sandalwood vanilla. I personally recommend the orange vanilla scent: I have two of these candles and they smell incredible! You can buy everything online here.

Luxury Room Boards

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you’re all still surviving this crazy polar vortex. We’ve been relatively well-off in Kansas City until this weekend when the city got covered in a sheet of ice, and now we’re expecting 6-8+ inches of snow tomorrow. No thank you, snow.

So while I’ve been stuck inside I’ve been entertaining myself by creating room boards for Polyvore’s Project Decorate contests and I really love what I put together! If you’re not familiar with Polyvore it’s a site that lets you create and view mood boards for fashion and home décor. It’s a really nice tool that I’ve used for a lot of my blog posts.

Last week Polyvore, along with designer/blogger Julia Ryan, hosted a contest to create the ultimate room mood boards with Julia’s “Updated Traditional” style. I made two glamorous rooms boards: an office and a bedroom.

For both of these rooms I combined some really gorgeous high end items, like the Jonathan Adler Louis Arm Chair and the Zanadoo Large Gold Chandelier, with some really affordable items from Home Decorators and Target.

This week’s contest theme is “Palm Beach Chic,” a style I really enjoy. For this contest I created a colorful and chic living room. In this set I also mixed affordable furniture and accessories with some lovely more expensive pieces.

 

I would be absolutely thrilled to have any of these rooms in my house! For all product sources visit the sets on my Polyvore page, and feel free to “like” the sets while you’re there