It's here! The last day of 2013! It has been an exceptional year for us because good health was at the core of it entirely and with very trying past years this was a star year for sure. We achieved, experienced, traveled, conquered, discovered, created, wrote, laughed, cried, danced, shared, and celebrated so many amazing things as a family and individually that I will surely treasure 2013. And even though it was a wonderful year I always look forward to starting a new one. 2014- we can't wait for your arrival! A New Year is the perfect time to organize thoughts and ideas, rev up motivations, and begin with a fresh and clean slate. This time of year many of us take refuge in our dreams as we focus our attention on making plans as to how to achieve our goals and make our dreams come true. What kind of a dreamer are you?
[ painting | Carven Faux Raffia Dress | Charlotte Olympia Clutch (on major sale!) | Oscar de la Renta bow ring (on sale!) | shoes (on major sale!) | champagne flutes ]
We had a wonderful Christmas with our family and now am mentally preparing to receive the New Year (oh as well as dieting a bit before our last big celebration on New Year's Eve!) So there is a lot of list making going on of things to do and organize as I try to figure out my major goals for the New Year- personal, work related, blog related, home related, even technology related. I should print these lists out and laminate them so I don't skip over anything. In the meantime....what are your big NYE plans? Do you have any fun traditions? We love getting dressed up and going out to dinner and ordering tons of champagne! I saw this dress and fell in love with it- talk about a classic LBD so the art to outfit New year's Eve edition was born.
Happy Friday! I want to wish you all a wonderful Holiday surrounded by all those you love best. I'm excited to be with my family and celebrate all the blessings we have. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband an amazing daughter and the best parents anyone could dream of. I will take the next days to fully be with them without the hustle and bustle of school, carpool, and meaningless errands. But I will pop in here and there. I also, take this opportunity to thank you for reading this little blog of mine. I'm honored that you come and spend a few minutes of your day here. I work hard to create a special place here to
Some random thoughts for you today-
Chocolate Caramel truffles with black sea salt || I have been dying to try and make these delicious treats. My good friend, Alison from Heart of Gold, who always has such divine recipes made them. And they seemed easy to make so I think I will attempt them this weekend (that and real eggnog...YUM!). I asked her about the black salt and if you can't find it at a gourmet market near you she told me you can get it at Amazon here. My other favorite recipe of Alison's is this lemon and olive oil cake (my husband adores this one and is constantly begging for it.)
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Looking for home inspiration I found this beautiful image that had me at jewel tones. It is such a pretty corner in its bold yet simple design. You all know color and pedestals are some of my favorite things so of course there was no way around it. I had to like this image. I wanted to try and recreate a similar look and feel.
Congrats to Heather from Pineapples and Pearls for winning and thanks to Shop HDB for such a wonderful giveaway. Heather- we will be in touch!
[Home: Silk Hydrangea Arrangement $170/Laura Ashley Gold Candle $20/Oly Studio Side Table $1,575/Garfias Chair $1,252 Upholstered in Calico Corners Jamil Natural Fabric $30/yd/Capel Honeycomb Indoor-Outdoor Rug $124]
[You: Cable Beanie $32/Valentino Retro Sunglasses $296/Animal Print Coat $158/Faux Patent Box Clutch $28.80 (ON SALE!)/Helmut Lang Stretch Leather Leggings $920/Rover Black Bootie $185]
We are just a week away from Christmas! So exciting! With all these national snow storms and cold weather nothing can be cozier than a touch of animal print for both you and your home. Sam
and I are so excited to bring to you some ideas of how to incorporate a
bit of animal print in our fourteenth edition of the "We love"
series. Here was the last post in the series in case you missed it. To refresh your memory Sam from The Peak of Tres Chic and I
will be gathering inspiration under a certain theme a
couple of times a month and sharing it with you. Sam will guest post here in my blog and I will post at Sam's.
I guess you could say we are swapping for the day. And of course a bit of leopard
is perfect for this time of year and we just had to include it.
Sketch42 was the first blog I ever read. I'm not sure how I stumbled upon it but became immediately obsessed. I love Nicole's voice. Her content is so original and I love the creative and philosophical explorations she embarks upon. If you don't know about Sketch42 it's about art and interior design and just about creativity in general. Nicole is just purely a cool soul and I just love everything she comes up with. She started an art swap where she tagged fellow bloggers and creative friends to swap home-made things for the holidays. Brilliant!! I can't wait to send her something and see what she sends me in return. I thought this would be a great idea to carry forward because, really, who will best appreciate something you made? Why a fellow creative of course!
Happy Friday! We have a family wedding this weekend so it will be nice seeing family and friends. And guess who gets to be a flower girl? You can bet Little Miss A. is the most excited little girl ever. Today, I have for you easy-to-make Jeff Koons inspired boxes. So easy! This little pup is actually a Target Christmas ornament! Can you believe it? They don't have them online but I'm pretty sure you can find if you visit your Target nearest you asap.
This recipe my friends is a keeper. It's one of those easy peasy recipes that looks and tastes 'sophisticated'. Your friends will feel pampered and you will emerge like the super hostess of the evening. This Grenoble tart really is delicious. I first tried it at my friend's house (the same friend who gave me the recipe for the caramel flan that leaves me addicted every time). She always find the best recipes. I always ask for her permission to post these in case they are some secret family heirloom recipe! Ok- here it is-
I love a good cocktail especially in the holidays. If its pretty and delicious it can really make a casual gathering so much more festive. This recipe that I have for you today is DELISH! So yummy and easy. It contains a new-to-the-American-market liquor called byejoe, a reinvention of China’s ancient spirit baijiu, the equivalent to Mexico's tequila or Russia's vodka. byejoe imports small batches of the original spirit from China, and then filters it again in the US. The result is an ultra premium spirit, that is smooth and sophisticated. I think the cocktail menu at Chinese restaurants is about to get all the more exciting.
And let me
tell you: byejoe is distilled from 100% red sorghum, a super grain that is
naturally high in anti-oxidants, gluten free, and yes my friends, low-cal! You can kind of say it's magical.
And how do I
know so much about byejoe?
The brand is owned by one of my good friends and her husband. I'm so
proud of what they are accomplishing. It's really all very exciting. Imagine
the parties at their house!! Ok, here is the recipe and remember friends you read all about byejoe here first!. And this drink is aptly called- THE RED LANTERN
[ row 1 | origami set | flamingo tray | acrylic tape dispenser] [row 2 | ice bucket | bowl | knife spreader set ] [row 3 | scarf | arrows ][row 4 | agate bookends | silver and white bread baskets | pillow ][ row 5 | napkins | blanket | jewelry rolls ] [ row 6 | coasters | bracelet | cutting board (on sale for $19!) | blanket]
I'm so excited to share this giveaway with you from Shop HDB. This is a GOOD one my friends. Be ready to fall in love with so many fabulous things. The best part? It's for $100!! There are so many beautiful things you can get!! I picked out my faves up there. I'm so jealous- jealous like the green-eyed monster.
Honestly, that ice bucket (which is beautifully priced at $80) is PERFECTION. I would be between that and this colorful alpaca blanket- either I really need it or someone in my Christmas list is getting it. Make sure you follow them on Instragram to be the first ones to know about new items. Alright, let's get down to business. Here is what you need to do to enter-
Honestly, that ice bucket (which is beautifully priced at $80) is PERFECTION. I would be between that and this colorful alpaca blanket- either I really need it or someone in my Christmas list is getting it. Make sure you follow them on Instragram to be the first ones to know about new items. Alright, let's get down to business. Here is what you need to do to enter-
On my last birthday a few of my friends got together to give me one of Devon Baer's ruffled tunics as a present. I ADORE it! It has been my casual Holiday uniform for the last two seasons. I love pairing it with jeans and with either a beautiful statement necklace or earrings for those little Holiday cookie exchanges or informal open houses. And each time I wear it I have at least three people ask me where I got it (promise it's true).
This is really exciting and novel. I couldn't believe it when I read the article but Picasso's grandson, Olivier Picasso, is promoting a raffle of one of his grandfather's cubist gouache's valued at around $1 million to raise money for charity. And anyone can buy a ticket (they are only selling 50,000) for $135. Not a bad deal if you win right? Tickets are still available- buy them here. The official raffle draw will be on December 18th at Sotheby's in Paris. I love this idea of raffling art. The odds are way better than buying a lotto ticket. Do it. What a great way to raise money. Here is some of the back story-
I am currently dreaming about a beautiful black and white Holiday theme. Aren't these inspirational images lovely?! We usually decorate the same way every year with a few changes from the precious year to make it exciting. It's nice to revisit with old decorations that marked a special year or that have been passed down from my parents and remind me of childhood years. But it is also nice to come up with new projects and ideas to commemorate the season. I especially love planning and executing a wonderful Christmas Eve tablescape that is always new and exciting.
This holiday season will be a bit challenging though as we are scheduled to move right before or right around Christmas time thus limiting the amount of decorations I can and want to put up this year in order to avoid all the unpacking, packing, repacking.... Even though the move is minor (we are just moving down the street) it is difficult because this is my favorite time of year and I love having sparkly lights all around and seeing gold bows and santas everywhere. As a compromise we ended up getting a miniature tree for my little one, but every time I see it out of the corner of my eye I think it fell over or something as I'm not used seeing such a tiny thing. So, alas, I will dream vicariously through images on pinterest and other blogs to get my holiday decorating fix. This time black and white are what have caught my attention-
[ one. pyrite and baroque pearl necklace | two. jimmy choo lips clutch | three. green earrings | four. rebecca atwood clutch | five. silver and black rope bracelet | six. seaweed gold earrings | seven. the little dictionary of fashion | eight. colorful bracelet | nine. earrings | ten. ring ]
A little guide to help you shop for your fashionable friends. For the first time ever I actually bought most of my gifts online. I'm kind of dreading the mall and the crowds this year and have so many things going on that I thought I would be better of saving the time. And it just so happened that I found what I was looking for. So, I have everyone's gift....except...the most difficult gift to buy...my mom's!!!
[ one. domino set | two. naughty and nice socks | three. crocodile wallet | four. Barbour vest | five. notepad iPhone case | six. umbrella | seven. put hair on your chest flask | eight. hermes bat tie | nine. marble bookends | ten. cole haan shoes]
This is officially a diet week for me! I'm so glad it's Monday because I cannot eat any.more. We had dinner, after lunch, after dinner....and every meal was better than the next. I bet the gym will be busy today! I hope you all had a happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday as well! Today is my gift guide for men. I always find it so challenging to buy for the men in my life there are only so many belts and shirts they can have right? Hopefully these ideas will help.