Issues With Magazines

Anyone else love magazines as much as I do? It always seems like a special treat to find one in my mailbox after a long day at work. My favorites include Real Simple, House Beautiful, Lucky Mag, Martha Stewart Living, InStyle, and US Weekly (I love US Weekly except when they put "Teen Moms" on the cover...I'm also pretty sick of seeing Kim Kardashian anywhere right now too, but that's a topic for another post.)

As anyone who has helped me move in the last decade can attest to, I have a problem throwing the best magazines away - they are full of inspiration and gorgeous spreads! (I still keep all issues of "Real Simple" in magazine files on my bookshelves. Someday they'll be collector's items, right? I'm sure I'll be able to sell them on ebay and fund our future childrens' college educations! Right...)

A few years ago, I started tearing my favorite pages out of each month's issues and collecting a pile of those pages instead of whole magazines. While this pile took up a lot less space, it wasn't easy to look through and one knocked over bottle of Miller Lite on the coffee table could've ruined the whole she-bang. So I found an inexpensive binder (mine is from Target) and bought a giant pack of clear page protectors to make my ever-expanding inspiration book:

Eventually, I'd love to separate it with tabs to make it even easier to find what I'm looking for in the binder (i.e. paint colors I love, Art, DIY projects, gift ideas, etc.). It's fun to have my favorite pages from 3 years of magazines all in one place! Anyone else love magazines? Have a recommendation for one I might be missing?

PS: All this talk about magazines reminded me of one of my all-time favorite marketing campaigns:

Source

Vegas with Grace

This past weekend I went to Vegas with fourteen of the most fun gals I know, to celebrate Erin Gracey and her upcoming wedding (two months to go)!! As you can see in this pic, the attire for the weekend was (in the words of Rachel Roberts) "sequins or bust"!

MANY exciting things happened over the brief 2.5 days we were there, but here are just a few of my favorite highlights...

SHOPPING! Some fabulous purchases were made, including Erin's wedding shoes. ;) This is at the shops in the Venetian (where we stayed) - and yes the sky is fake:

Dinner at STK (in the Cosmopolitan):

And the dance party dinner turned into (the DJ was really good, and we couldn't help ourselves). Whitney won the prize as the dancing queen:

The "personal" shower that Erin's sister and mom threw. It was amazing. I couldn't believe the party they packed in their suitcase and then put together in their hotel room...

Me with Erin. (I got my dress at Express and really love it - the back is the best part.)

There was one particularly special thing about Erin's shower that I wanted to share with you. Her sister Erica deserves major props on this one, because it was just the coolest and sweetest thing ever. Earlier in the day, she had Erin write down answers to questions that her fiance Matt had already answered (things like "What was your favorite date?", "What of Erin's would you throw away?", "When did you know you wanted to marry Erin?" etc.). She had to write what she thought Matt's answer would be. I'm sure you've heard of this game before, but this time there was a very special twist. As Erin read out the first question and shared her answer and it was Erica's turn to share what Matt's actual answer was, rather than reading an answer she opened her laptop... and pulled up video footage Matt had pre-recorded telling us the answer. He had recorded an answer for each of the questions - some of them funny/entertaining, some of them touching/sweet (he walked us through a photo album of a trip they had together when he knew he wanted to marry her, and the tissues were coming out). Matt's ability to ham it up on camera contributed largely to just how awesome this was, but the idea itself is just adorable and perfect. We all got to learn a little more about their relationship and just how much they love each other (as if we didn't already know)!

I was honored to be a part of this fun, funny, special weekend. #VIVALASGRACEY!

Confetti Betty

When Jayne and Mom came to DC about a month ago, I was bound and determined to get their help with a few projects around the house. After I saw this confetti canvas on Pinterest, making something similar was added to my list:

 

From the Mint Love Social Club blog

I thought it might be cool to incorporate a little more color, so my mom and I picked out a few sheets of thick paper and some shiny tissue paper at Michael's, along with a giant canvas (I only buy these when they are at least 50% off.) I already owned a circle punch (mine is from Michael's, but I couldn't find it online. This looks similar.)

The process is as simple as it looks - we cut circles out of all the thicker paper using the punch, then traced and cut circles from the tissue paper by hand. Jayne and I spent about 30 minutes playing around with the circles on the canvas until we came up with an arrangement we liked. During the process, I took pictures to see if we liked it on the camera, which we both thought was helpful.

Then we just used Elmer's glue to glue them down. I watered some glue down in a little bowl and used a paint brush to attach the tissue paper circles. If I were to do this again, I would probably use spray adhesive. To make sure everything was secure, we used books (Henry's law school books came in handy!) to weigh down the circles overnight. 

And here is the finished product, hanging above our bed:

I'm happy to have something on the wall...I like it, but I'm not in love with it. I think it might look better once we paint the room. I do love making our own art because it wasn't expensive ($25 for the canvas and approximately $5 for the paper), so if I want to change it up down the road, no big deal. I could always cover the canvas in fabric or add more to the circles to mix it up. Plus, I was able to customize it with colors that I chose (the curtains in our bedroom our navy velvet, so the navy circles pick that up.) Anyone else have ideas for large, inexpensive art?

PS: I added this to the "Fall Pinterest Challenge" submissions over on one of our favorite blogs, "Young House Love." See the challenge those professional bloggers took on here.

IHWSH - Flats

Ballet flats have always featured heavily in our shoe rotations, so it was an obvious choice for this week's "I'll Have What She's Having." They're comfy and cute, and gosh-darnit, we like them!

Katie's Picks:

1) Bow-Back Ballet Flats - I recently bought these (Gap always has a sale!) and they quickly became my favorite flats of the season! They are super comfortable and I love the style.
2) Nine West Luminaries
3) "Abria" Leopard Print Flats
4) Liz Velvet Bling in a Box - I own 3 pairs of Lindsay Phillips flats and 5 or 6 sets of snaps. They are VERY comfortable and I love being able to switch out the snap (genius.) These are the new "holiday" shoes, and I do think black velvet flats would be cute all winter long!

Jayne's Picks:

5) Tory Burch Caroline Ballerinas
6) Glitterati Ballet Flats
7) Kimchi Blue Sweetheart Ankle Tie Skimmer - these seem like a total steal.
8) Sandy Flats - I even love the inside of these! And the name makes me think of Dac's favorite dessert, Sandy Cake!

Garland Party

Garland creates a little extra party anywhere it hangs - whether on a wall, a mantle, a doorway, or above a dessert table. Something about pretty colors and textures strung together makes me very happy. You can go DIY style, buy it pre-made, buy an easy-to-assemble kit (Paper Source has some good ones) - whatever method you decide, there are endless options out there - including...

Penants/Flags:

(via Etsy)

Ribbon:

(via Southern Weddings)

Scalloped:

(via Etsy)

Pom Pom:

(via Etsy)

Clothespins (a different shade of clothes pin on each strand - how cool is that?!):

(via Style Me Pretty)

Knitted (if I knew how to knit):

(via) 

(Paper) Animals:

(via Paper Source)

Photos:

(via)

Words:

(via) 

This is a sparkly little 2011 garland Katie and I made last New Year's Eve, thanks to a handy little Martha Stewart tutorial:

Happy garlanding!

Just Like Mama Said

Between trying to get over the worst cold ever and catching up on what I've missed while out sick, no time for anything exciting here today. Basically, this print sums out how I'm feeling:

Found here on Etsy.

Hope y'all are having a great day!

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

My awesome and super stylish friend Erin Gracey is getting married in January, and this weekend I am attending her bachelorette party in VEGAS!! There is no doubt that this will be a weekend to remember... starting from the moment we all get in around 8am on Friday morning. ;) Can't wait!
Going to Vegas makes any girl want to get, in the words of Fergie, "G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S"... and this year especially (since it's everywhere) that means sparkle, and lots of it.

In honor of Vegas + Grace, here are some sparkling inspirations...

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

"Some girls were just born with glitter in their vains." - Paris Hilton

These are some of the sparkling gems on my wish list:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

Found here.