Friday Flick Picks

Anyone else feeling a little drained after the Oscars? Ok good, I'm not either! Slightly hard on myself for only getting 16 out 24 right on my ballot, but lucky for me I'll get another chance next February. Unfortunately, after the Oscars the movie world goes into a horrible dry spell. Bad movies are released weekly to fill our hearts until Summer blockbusters come out. So now is the perfect time to catch movies I never saw in the theatres, documentaries, and old classics. Don't worry apples we'll weather the bad movie storm together!

This week I was happy to get in four movies. I saw Amour on Saturday night, and really wished Emmanuelle Riva had won best actress. The movie is rip your heart out touching. It truly is a beautiful telling of love between two people. It's my pick of the week. The other movies I saw this week were just all right. I wouldn't highly recommend any of them to watch, unless you love you some B. That woman can dance, sing, and flip her hair, like crazy!

What A Girl Wants

I'm a girl of wants, what can I say? I am all about finding pieces to enhance my living room look right now. My 70's style sofa, in the perfect grey micro suede, an antique storage chest as a coffee table, and a brass trunk end table, need dazzling accent pieces. Here's what I've been thinking on:

(L to R, top to bottom)

cozy wool pillow in a small herringbone pattern in navy and cream (arhaus)

fun yellow chevron pattern pillow (society6)

paisley patterned plate to corral tiny succulents under my terrarium lamp (anthropologie)

faceted ceramic end table (west elm)

arc lamp in simple silver, probably change shade to black to match other lamp (target)

soft cable knit throw to wrap myself up (free people)

I can't decide if I want to match my existing brass trunk end table with one with a similar finish. So I'm torn between the martini side table (west elm) or two drawer trunk-esq (1stdibs)

patterned accent chair in my favorite accent color: yello (target)

Friday Flick Picks

I had to get in one last Oscar nominated movie before Sunday, plus one more for good measure. I wasn't wow-ed by either one to tell you the truth. I should have trusted my instinct and saw Die Hard 5 instead. Silver Linings was ok, but a little all over the place for me. I wasn't blown away by JLaw's performance, to me, Chris Tucker gave the surprise great performance  Side Effects was no better. A total disappointment.  Steven Soderbergh and, my new favorite actress, Rooney Mara, and I still couldn't get behind it. A slow plot, with a bad pace, and plot twists that seemed obvious and confusing all at the same time (if that's possible). Save your pennies, and see something next week, or catch some of the Oscar winners after Sunday.

And speaking of which...Oscars are Sunday! If you can't tell, I am pumped! It's the Super Bowl to a movie nerd like myself. Research will be done, blogs and articles will be consulted, to ensure I have the most right answers on my ballot. I've seen 8 out of the 9 Best Picture nominated, and had good SAG and Golden Globe ballot answers, so I'm feeling pretty confident. Argo is winning best picture of 2012 you can bet on that, and in my favorite category, best animated short, Paperman will definitely get the win. Watch it here, and tell me your heart didn't melt.

Happy movie watching my little apples! 

BHLDN: Houston

When I first heard I was going to Houston, TX, I thought, "I have to work on my birthday?!?" But my immediate second thought was, BHLDN's first store is there. Luckily, only a few miles down the road from the Arhaus store we opened, I took my lunch break one day to bask in their wedding loveliness. Ethereal, vintage, glamorous, bohemian dresses, shoes, accessories, and decor surrounded me as I shopped in their beautiful store. I would imagine it would be hard to shop for a wedding dress exclusively online, but if you were to decide on a BHLDN dress you wouldn't be disappointed when it showed up on your doorstep. These dresses looked so much better in person (not that I think they look bad online, but they are so pretty in real life)! I had so much fun looking, and touching, and photographing, all the things in their store. I have no doubt in my mind I will one day be a BHLDN bride. If I hadn't had paint under my fingernails or had more than an hour to browse, I totally would have played dress up in their store.  

I loved this baby blue lace tea dress, so fun for a bridesmaid or garden party

I was all about the sparkles in this tulle caplet 

The jewelry in these cases were to die for! so many vintage and one of a kind pieces

Paper made flowers filled the window display

The decor room was probably my favorite part of the store. Floor to ceiling shelves filled with invitations  cake toppers, and decorations. I actually squealed when I saw Ann Wood's handmade birds in the shop! 

Melt Your Heart

Is there anything sweeter than a dog's unconditional love? With every new picture on ayasakai's Instagram feed the "aww" sound I'm making keeps getting longer and more high pitched. If you'd like to experience the same emotion, check out a mom's documentation of her son and his inseparable best friend. I need a cuddle asap!

30 Never Felt So Good

A week ago today, I turned thirty years old, and it feels great. I had an amazing time celebrating with friends and family on the day of my birthday and this past weekend. I was away for a work trip to Houston, TX on my actual birthday, but my co-workers went out of their way to make me feel really special despite our rigorous work schedule. And to top the day off a small group of us had a very yummy dinner at Del Frisco's. This weekend my best friends surprised me with a big group of our friends meeting to go ice skating! We had a blast laughing and shakily making our way around the rink. A Mexican fiesta for dinner, and a side splitting game of Cards Against Humanity made for a perfect celebration. (Seriously the funniest game you'll ever play with your friends. It's like a dirty version of Apples to Apples)

But the biggest accomplishment I have to talk about is my 30 Before 30 list. Right after my 29th birthday I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish by February 11th, 2013. I've blogged about most of them, but I'm really proud to have completed so many. There are 10 pesky ones still hanging out there, but I've really enjoyed having this set list of things I want to do in my life, and I hope to cross them off soon. 

Thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday and supported me here on the blog. Here's to life in my thirties! 

1. Get another tattoo
2. Dye hair red
3. Be brave enough to try a funky haircut
4. Volunteer for a charity I've put my name in to volunteer for 
5. Buy a car
6. Have 3-4 months of expenses saved up still working on this one! 
7. To be able to have a hard conversation argument with someone without crying (I'm a big softie what can I say?)
8. Make an origami paper crane
9. Find the perfect shade of lipstick, and wear it!
10. Pay off credit card or at least get balance below $500 still working on this one, but with my tax refund this one can get marked off very soon
11. Do Jillian Michael's workout for 30 days consecutively
12. Take styled pictures of where I live for blog
13. Find a reason to wear my sequin dress from Anthropologie
14. Make a 3 course meal
15. Add new page to my blog
16. Rent or own a shallow depth of field lens for camera and use it effectively I lost some of my enthusiasm for taking photographs lately, but I'm working on bringing that back to rent the lens
17. Make a cinemagraph
18. Own professional make up brushes, and know how to use them 
19. Get in a better beauty routine with my hair, not just let it be naturally stick straight everyday
20. Own dishes I love to eat off of
21. Read a classic novel like Pride and Prejudice
22. Have at least 75 followers to Little Yellow Apple at 70! I can only go up! 
23. Make some sort of progress towards learning French I have downloaded a program to help me learn French, now I have to make the time to learn it 
24. Travel to a fabulous place like NYC, LA, Europe or Disney World (or have plans to travel to one of these places) This year I went to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Houston. It was great to be able to travel so much, but none of it was for pleasure. I'm hoping to go on a real vacation this summer. 
25. Meet a celebrity (a girl can dream right?) Still dreaming on this one! 
26. Go ballroom dancing didn't make it around to this one either
27. Watch all of Audrey Hepburn's movies since Roman Holiday (I only have 11 left to see) this turned out to be harder than I thought. It's hard enough to find a movie rental place, let alone old Audrey movies.  
28. Choose a handful of Pinterest challenges to replicate or try out and blogs about the results
29. Plant a terrarium 
30. Have the best 30th birthday party! 

The Winner is...

Yay! The winner is...Michelle Fallman! 

Email me at lileyllowapple@gmail so I can send you your box of goodies!

Thank you to everyone who is a follower, I didn't quite reach my 75 goal, but I know I'll get there! 

Thank you again for all your continuous support. 

Texas Love

My heart's in Texas y'all! Until Friday I'll be working up a storm at an opening of a new Arhaus store in Houston. I'm super pumped to be in warmer temperatures and seeing friends that come together for these openings. I'll make sure to check in during the week too, especially on Monday to reveal the winner of my birthday appreciation giveaway. I only need 4 more followers to make my 30 goal! Tell your friends!

PS If you have any must-have places to share, I'm all ears!

A little love

I know, I know, how can I even recognize another holiday in the same month of my birthday? But I'm giving Valentine's Day some slack this year. Perhaps it's because I've been out shopping lately and everywhere has hearts and romance all around. Part of me feels a little sexy, the other part feels like snuggling up in cozy jammies and watching a sappy movie. Which side of my personality will win out on the day of love? Only time will tell (who are we kidding, I'll still be on a birthday high)!

Pajamas: Forever21
Bra: Victoria's Secret
Tshirt: Old Navy
Panties: Victoria's Secret

The Mindy Project Apartment

Are you guys watching The Mindy Project? If you aren't, then you're in luck. It comes on tonight: 9:30pm EST on Fox. It's like the come to life version of her blog from back in the day, "Things I've Bought that I Love," and the funny parts of her character Kelly from The Office. It's hilarious, and if you're a girlie girl, then you will love all parts of her character and dynamic of this show. But more importantly than loving the fashion choices she makes you will LOVE the apartment she lives in. I mean check out that dining room above! I'm totally digging the mixing of pattern, texture and colors all pulled together seamlessly into her open floor plan. I would die for those yellow captain's chairs or blue tufted seating bench.

I pulled together my own dining room inspiration board to mimic Mindy's apartment. What do you think, am I close?

bookends, bench, chandelier, curtains, table, prints, carved buffet, white buffet, yellow chair

Giveaway: One Week To Go

So I told you guys I would have a surprise for my followers, and soon to be followers, when we got closer to my birthday. In 7 days I will be 30, and I'm actually really excited about turning the big milestone year. It feels like I have a true, fresh new chapter in my life to begin. So to celebrate the clean slate I want to have a little giveaway. A grab bag of things that make me happy to show my appreciation you guys.

Here's how to enter:
1. For ONE entry: become a follower of Little Yellow Apple, and submit a comment letting me know you've become a new follower.
2. If you're ALREADY a follower of Little Yellow Apple (you're awesome, thank you!) then your name will be automatically entered twice in the giveaway, no comment required
3. For an EXTRA entry follow me on Twitter, and let me know in the comments you're a follower. If you're already a follower there too, write a comment saying you're already a follower.

The Goodies Include: a striped scarf, a Fossil makeup or jewelry travel pouch, my favorite goat's milk soap in orange sage and lavender scents, a LOVE stamp, a mini Hello Kitty notepad, floral cupcake liners, and vintage inspired stationery. PLUS...no favorite things grab bag would be complete without items from my favorite store: Anthropologie. To fit the "yellow" theme: a patterned bowl and chalk board spice jar.

The giveaway will be open until midnight, EST, on Monday February 11th. I will notify the winner shortly after the 11th.

Help me reach one of my 30 before 30 goals and enter to win "My Favorite Things, I Love All My Readers So Very Much" giveaway and good luck!