Wedding Week Preview!

Get excited...because YOU are invited!

In just a few weeks, we will be inviting all of you to get your wedding posts ready!  For two weeks during the month of March (the start of wedding season!), we will be hosting linky parties on the topics you see above!  Please share your wedding pictures, details, vendors, and tips for the blog world & future brides!  We want this to be a fun time to showcase your weddings and inspire future brides as well!  This is a party for everyone!

To get you in wedding mode, I thought I would share a few pictures from my wedding on July 30, 2010!

FUN FACT about my wedding - I was cast in the show "Four Weddings" on TLC & we were the lucky winning wedding!  Kind of crazy, huh!?!  Will definitely share more details on that after wedding week!

Spring Fever ~ Z Gallerie

Welcome to my 4 week series titled, "Spring Fever"!  I don't know about you, but I am so ready for Spring to arrive!  Every Tuesday, I will be sharing some fun new items from my favorite stores and designers to get you excited for the Spring season ahead!

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I love so many of the new additions to Z Gallerie this Spring.  It was so hard to choose my favorites, so you will definitely have to check out their collection.  I was loving all of their fun patterns, greys, and aquas this year.  

These chevron coasters are also so adorable!  I think I will have to pick some up this weekend!  Plus, they are only $9.95!

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Do you all have any favorite new Spring items to share?  Would love to hear about them!  

AND...Coming March 19th...

Myself and 5 other bloggers will be hosting a two-week wedding extravaganza link party!  More info to come soon!  Have a great day!

2012 Oscar Fashion ~ My Best Dressed Selections

Did you all love Oscar fashion as much as I did?!?  I love love LOVE seeing all of the beautiful dresses each year.  Below are some of my favorite dresses of the evening.  I have to say Emma Stone was so stunning to me.  I just love her and thought she looked gorgeous!  

Emma Stone ~ Giambattista Valli

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Milla Jovovich ~ Elie Saab

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Cameron Diaz ~ Gucci

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Michelle Williams ~ Louis Vuitton 

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Kristen Wiig ~ J. Mendel

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Gwyneth Paltrow ~ Tom Ford

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Stacy Keibler ~ Marchesa

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Octavia Spencer ~  Tadashi Shoji 

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Angelina Jolie ~ Atelier Versace

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Would love to hear who YOU thought was "Best Dressed" of the night!  Happy Monday!

Friday Fancies ~ Hollywood Glamour

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I don't know about you, but my favorite thing about watching the Academy Awards is seeing what everyone is wearing!  So, this Friday Fancies was especially fun for me to pretend what I would where if I were to walk down the red carpet! ....haha...I can dream, right??

So, to celebrate the upcoming Oscars, I wanted to share a few of my favorite "Best Dressed" from last year!

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I hope you all have a great weekend!  Do you have any fun plans for Oscar night on Sunday?  I especially can't wait to see all the beautiful dresses!  Happy weekend!

Spring Cleaning!

I've been seeing alot of blogs lately posting about getting rid of the daily clutter piles that accumulate near the kitchen/front door.  Mail, bills, keys, papers, purses, etc....  

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(This is how I felt!)

We have no excuse.  Yes we started a business last year that keeps us busy in addition to our regular jobs...BUT...It is just me, my husband, and our dog.  No kiddos, and yet we still had an crazy amount of junk piling up on our entry way table.  No "before" pictures of that today...no way!  ...(and I forgot to take the pics!)  Just imagine a bomb going off on our table like the image above :)

To give you an idea, I made a list of the pile of junk that I found:

Mail, bills, TWO cameras/cases, magazines, my purse, keys, sunglasses, dog leash, wedding invitations, gift cards, birthday cards, catalogs, insurance cards, a prescription, brackets to be returned to Home Depot, Adobe Photoshop, a jump drive, my grandmothers house keys, camera cords, a lamp, friends glasses, Philosophy face wash to mail to my sister, business documents, stamps...

...I mean...just R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S!

So, I finally had enough...I marched over to Home Goods, bought a wicker basket, came home, and went through it all.  I tossed alot of trash, and put away things we don't need.  Later this week, I plan to steal Courtney's brilliant idea by purchasing a of couple binders to keep all of our important papers that have no specific place to go.  I love how this will keep those things in a centralized place and get it out of my sight!  

Now, on to the AFTER pictures!

It's not super organized, but it has everything we use on a daily basis, as well as things that need to be looked at, returned, etc.  It definitely feels more organized!

Excuse my purse and coffee mug in the mirror :)  

SO much better!  Hope you all have a great day!

New Ulta Beauty Buys!

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Good morning everyone!  I went on a little shopping spree at Ulta yesterday and picked up these 6 items.  I was out of hairspray, foundation/powder, and almost out of my go-to eye shadow.  So, I decided to try some new things!

I am most excited about the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser (Brightener #60). I have heard amazing things about this product and loved it after my first test run.  I put it over my foundation and blended it under both eyes.  It definitely gives you that bright open-eyed wow factor.  This product is really amazing and made my eyes seem so much brighter and more awake.  

I also am excited to try the Redkin Guts 10 root spray as a new volume booster for my hair.  Will definitely post later about how this worked and if I liked it.

I usually am a Mac Studio Fix Foundation girl (have used it for about 5 years now)....But I decided to give this Smashbox High Definition Foundation & Bare Minerals Original SPF 15 Loose Powder a try.  Will let you know how it goes!  I also got another bottle of the Sebastian Shaper Plus Hair Spray.  I use this alot and find that it gives a great hold for my hair...especially when I need to wear it in a pony tail for work.

My last fun product is the Smashbox Eye Shadow Palette.  This is from their Soft Box collection and I love all of the colors.  I tend to wear neutral shades during the day and they all seemed to blend really well.  Plus, it was something new for the Spring season ahead!

Do you all have any go-to beauty products that you love?  Would love to hear about them!

Happy Wednesday!

DIY Calendar Love

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Have you all seen the adorable printable desk calendars available on Etsy lately?  Last Christmas I bought a couple of these and printed them to give as gifts to friends and family.  This year, I purchased and printed this cute 2012 Calendar by Lemonade Paperie and love it! 

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I love how each month has a cute graphic for the holidays!

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Here is ours sitting in our kitchen - I printed this at home and used a paper cutter.  You could also do rounded corners like the images above, but I wanted a square shape.  I bought the little stand from Michael's, and it works perfectly for this small calendar.

Hope you all have a fabulous day!

Living Room Updates

Good morning & happy Monday!  Today I wanted to share a few of my favorite home accessories that I have incorporated to lighten and brighten our space without having to spend too much money.  As I have shared before, our living room is a little too dark for my taste these days, so I have been adding whites, golds, grays, and blues to help lighten everything up!

This is one of my favorite candle holders that I found at Home Goods.  It is such a cool design and really is a focal piece in our living room.  Plus, it only cost me $7.99!

I shared my gold transformation last week and have loved how this little nook now stands out instead of fading into the background.  This also was a very quick and low cost project.  It was great to be able to transform something that is just "ok" into something that I love!

Pillows are another great and easy way to change the look of a room.  I fell in love with this Robert Allen fabric and had my grandmother sew two 20x20 pillow covers.  They are able to break up the heavy brown of our couches, and I'm really happy with how they turned out!

I recently got this West Elm Tray for my birthday and switched it out with our old brown tray from Pottery Barn.  I love having a tray on our coffee table, but the brown was just too dark for this location.  I try to make this area personal to us by adding our engagement book, fresh flowers, and my favorite Anthropologie candle.

Thanks for stopping by to see a peak into our home!  Have a wonderful day!  

Friday Fancies ~ Let's Fly Away

We will be going to Rosemary Beach, FL this summer on a family vacation and I was SO excited to create an outfit to get me into beach mode!  Can't wait to see all the fun outfits on Friday Fancies! Hope you all have a fabulous Friday & weekend!

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I'm off to a bachelorette party this weekend!  Have a safe and fun weekend everyone!

It's a GOLD Transformation ~ Living Room Stool Update!

Yesterday, after all this gold inspiration floating around in blog world, I finally finished a little project I've been meaning to do for years!

When we moved into our apartment a year and a half ago, I had no idea what my "style" was or what colors I liked.  When registering for wedding gifts, I tended to go gravitate towards more greens, browns, tans, and reds. We ended up painting our walls a tan/beige color (which I know hate!), and I have been dying to lighten up our space lately.  After I started reading blogs last year, I began to fall in love grays, blues, and white.  So, slowly, I am attempting to "lighten" up our space and phase out all the blah!

Here is my little red stool before.  We have it sitting by our TV and it really was just taking up space and simply faded into the background. 

I also have this wire basket on top that is red as well, which holds our remotes.  

I first removed the seat from the base.

Then I recovered it in a light neutral fabric from Pottery Barn that I had on hand.

Next was the fun part!  I spray painted the base of the stool gold, sanded a bit (you'll notice the drip marks).  Then painted a second coat.

I also decided to transform the wire basket as well!

Here it is!  I got the cute little basket on the floor from Home Goods to keep all of our dog Finnley's toys in one place...instead of all over the living room!

Ahhh much better!  Now instead of fading into the background, this little nook has some personality! And, it only cost me $11 for the spray paint and staple gun!

Hope you liked my little GOLD transformation!  

I'll be posting regularly about my attempts to lighten up our space! Thanks for reading - I love hearing your comments and feedback! Have a great day!

Linking up to:  The Shabby Creek Cottage