Show Us Your Life – My Fashion Style

Kelly at Kelly’s Korner is hosting a Fashion Tips Carousel and I thought it would be fun to participate in so 10 years down the road when I read this, I can look back and see what kind of funny things I was wearing in 2010. 

First of all, I would not consider myself cutting edge in the fashion world at all nor would I give anyone fashion tips so I changed it to my fashion style.  Ha!  I love classic style.   I stick with pieces that will still be in style in 10 years like solid colors and stripes.    That way, when I splurge on garments, I can wear them for many years.   I’m not sure why but I just like solid colors.  Occasionally, I’ll purchase some things with patterns like dresses and a few fun tops.

My top picks for Winter:  Large Akoya Pearl Earrings (of course, because it has been my business for years), Paige Denim Jeans (they don’t flare out at the waist in the back and they maintain shape), Solid-colored tops, Tory Burch Flats

This pic is what I wear most days:

My top picks for Spring Summer:   Large Akoya Pearl Earrings, J crew shorts, Gap and Jcrew Tank tops or RL Polo collared-shirts, Tory Burch Sandals and Francesca’s dresses

I love to stay with solid colors and my favorite is white. I think half of my wardrobe is white. It’s just so fresh and pretty. If I had a beach house, I would decorate it all in white as well 🙂

I’m pretty conservative with fashion.  However, I do love shoes.   They are great for spicing up a style.   If I want to dress up a pair of jeans and sweater, I wear boots or fun heels. 

Some of my favorite things for Spring (I’ve linked to the product so you can click on the picture):

I love these because they go with everything.  I wear them with black, white, and everything in between:

 

I love this cute dress from J. Crew.  What a pretty color!

I really like this white ruffled Tee.  Her look is what I what consider my style. 

Cute White Top from Gap:

Love the top, not the skirt…from Francesca’s:

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Valentine’s Gifts

I really love Valentine’s Day!  I remember being in college and cringing at the thought of it during my single days.   Now I just want to make tons of handmade gifts and celebrate.   I should correct myself…I WANT to make tons of handmade gifts but will be more likely to BUY them on Etsy because it is easier.  Ha!

I’ve recently changed my homepage from RealSimple.com to MarthaStewart.com and she has so many creative Vday ideas.   I love everything on that site.  It’s like my cup of coffee (since I don’t drink coffee) before work.  For Avery’s classmates, I found the perfect ideas for making our own little cards.  I’m excited about doing it with her.  

On another note, I’m shopping around for Avery’s gifts (Scott’s too but can’t be disclosed here) and I think I’m going to go with a pair of shoes.  She grows out of them at an extraordinary rate and she absolutely loves them.  She loves them more than me and I’m not kidding.  I love shoes but she LOVES shoes.  The problem is there are so many options.  I need to stick with Tennis shoes because she has almost outgrown her Lacoste tennies that we picked up for her in Miami.   Seems like just yesterday.   These are my favorites:

These are my top choice for now.   Puma’s $39.95 at Zappos.com

Nike Shox $32.80 at Zappos.com:

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Back from Vegas

We are back from Vegas and I’m glad to be home!  It was nice to be back with Avery Sunday evening.  We drove straight from the airport to my parents house to get her.  Thursday to Sunday is quite a long time in Vegas….for me anyways.

We had a lot of fun but that place is exhausting. We stayed at the Bellagio which is a beautiful hotel. My favorite part was eating and we did a lot of that. We went to Hubert Keller’s Fleur de Lys and Bradley Ogden’s restaurant in Caesar’s Palace.   We also ate at Yellowtail, a wonderful sushi restaurant in Bellagio.   There was plenty of eating in between as well 🙂   

As far as gambling goes, I don’t like it so we did very little.  I gambled $1.   Actually, I started gambling and was going to cash out at 93 cents and the machine jammed so the assistant just game me $1.  I then put it  back in the machine and lost it.  Scott played some black jack.    If you like to gamble that’s excellent, but why just throw your money away.    The stock market is about all the gambling I can handle.   I know plenty of people who love it.  I’m one of the many few who don’t. 

 We went for the Builder’s Show so Scott could see customers and I could get vendor information for the house.   That was certainly interesting and I found a few things I would like to have including huge stone slabs that are 18×24 for our outdoor area and possibly some indoor spaces as well.   We looked a lot at pavers because personally, I would like something more authentic like stone rather than pave stone (manufactured) but we have a ton of driveway square footage so I don’t know if that is going to be a feasible option. 

On another note, Avery had a ton of fun at Nana and Papa’s house.   She got to play outside a lot because the weather was beautiful. Avery would spend her whole entire days outside if she could.   She LOVES to be outside!   She got to go see the fishies in the pond, the moo cows in the pasture, jump in her jumpie, eat lots of great food, ride in her wagon, and all the fun things children love to do in the country.   When we were driving back from Nana and Papa’s on Monday morning, I realized that being in the country brings a calm and nostalgia that the city just can’t.  Maybe it is because that is where I grew up. 

(P.S.  I don’t have any pics.   We didn’t bring our camera and I wish we would have. )

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Climbing Out

We had a really nice weekend at home.   Our Friday evening was comprised of our usual Central Market outing.  It’s one of my favorite places.   If you’ve been and you like food, you would understand 🙂   It’s delightful! 

 Saturday was a cold and yucky day.  We went up to see how our home is coming along.  There were some men there making sure that the pad was dry so they could pour this week.  Finally, the weather is on our side!!   The day was relaxing until it was time for Avery to take a nap.  We were in the living room when all of a sudden we heard a huge thud followed immediately by screaming.  Scott knew right away that she had climbed out and I freaked out.   I was so scared to go in her room.   Scott found her on the floor and luckily she seemed okay for the most part besides a bleeding tooth and a scatch on her tummy from the nearby dresser.   If there is such a thing as losing 10 years off your life because of being frightened, I lost 40 years.   I now have padding all over her pretty dresser.  Nice!   I recovered about an hour later.  

On Saturday evening, we went out with friends for dinner at a new restaurant called followed by games at Elizabeth and Brian’s house.  I always love playing games.  It makes me feel like a kid again.

Check out these fun little cupid pics below!  Avery loves to dance so she had fun twirling in her tutu.  Notice she also likes to wear my hair rollers as bracelets.   I can’t believe she’s going to be 21 months this week.

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God Sent An Angel…

God sent and angel to Earth from above,
To a Mommy and Daddy with hearts full of love,
They hoped and they prayed for a miracle
It’s true…
God sent an angel and Avery,  she’s you.

Author: Tricia Cole

 

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Home Design Software

Yesterday, I was at lunch with Scott and I mentioned to him that it would be awesome if I could find someone to design a software for me where I could design my rooms and see what it would look like. They have this software for fashion so why not for homes. I just found a fabulous software that does this for interior design! I’m so excited and it isn’t that expensive. If you are like me and not a professional designer this is super helpful: http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/interiordesigner/ I can design the room exactly how I want it to look without commiting until I get the exact look I want. I would imagine that it would also be very helpful professionals as well. It allows you to do a lot of detailed work. You can actually choose paint colors from Sherman Williams or Benjamin Moore. It has a feature that allows you to upload your own images as well.

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Her…

I’ve been practicing my new photography skills. I still have a long way to go but I’m forcing myself to stay in Manual mode until I feel really comfortable with it. It’s quite difficult when you have a very active subject.
I took her out this morning before school for a little fun practice shoot.


This one was right after she got scared. Scott was knocking the ice off of our fountain. You can still see her tears.

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Gorgeous Clay Tile Roofs

Okay, maybe it’s just a phase I’m going through but I have become obsessed with looking at beautiful homes so you’ll probably see a lot more postings of this kind of thing.   I’ve finally found the perfect roof for our home.  We are going to go the authentic route with an imported 2-piece clay tile and I’m really loving the hand made ones. Gorgeous.   It’s a LOT more expensive but I just can’t visualize our home without this beautiful detail.  

This is kind of a distant picture but I was taking it in a hurry (for obvious reasons) and my zoom on my camera only goes to 120mm.   This IS the look I want for our home.  I love everything about that roof from the multi-color, 2-piece clays to the antique look.   This is the guest house of this home and it is right down the road so I drive by often and really slow so I can study it.  They probably think I’m stalking them. Ha!  I actually really love everything about that guest house.  The simplicity of the colors along with the authenticity of the limestone and the clay tiles really comes together perfectly in my opinion. I’m using this picture as my inspiration.

This so happens to be another home in our neighborhood so I stalk it as well so I can get a good hard look at the tile roof.   This tile is antique imported tile.  It’s so lovely!

I think the tile on this roof is pretty, too.  It’s handmade clay. It ages very nicely so in a couple of years, that roof will look 100 years old. Awesome!! One thing I learned today during our roof meeting is that the exact same tile roof (colors) can look 100% different with different stucco colors.  I prefer a whiter stucco so this roof would look completely different with a whiter stucco.  Interesting, right?  It’s funny how that works.

P.S. On another note, I can check one thing off of my New Years Goal List. Well, at least the class part. I still want to learn a lot more through practicing. I joined Elizabeth and Mariam on Saturday for an all day photography class. It was so informational and I soaked everything in. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a class that I listened so intently. I left with a huge headache! I’m very excited to start using the new techniques I’ve learned and I can finally start taking pictures in M, A, and S mode (Nikon) and kind of know what I’m doing rather just using the auto feature. Yay!

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2010 Resolutions

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Interior Styling

I don’t know about you but I find styling to be one of the most challenging parts of interior design. I can pick wall colors, carpet, plumbing, and even furniture all day long, but when it comes to styling, I get nervous. It’s most definitely an ART form and I’m learning.  Right now, I consider myself  a beginner and maybe by the time I actually have to start furnishing our new home this summer, I will be an intermediate 😉  Styling is so important because it is the icing on the cake to a beautiful foundation. I want so desperately to be good at it. I know what I like, but putting it all together is challenging. I just love reading Holly’s blog at Decor8.   She has had this fabulous idea to have her readers post their beautiful styled spaces to Flickr for the world to see.   That makes me so happy!!   I love to get ideas from real people rather than just magazines.   These are some of my favorites to draw inspiration from:

by Chez Larsson

By KristopherK

By IvaYaneva

By SimplyGrove

by Ninaribena1

by the happy home

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