Challenge Complete

Pinterest makes it so simple to find a how to on just about anything. I have a lifetime of pins saved up on how to refinish a piece of furniture, make at home carpet cleaners, recipes for deserts and dinners, holiday decorations and makeup tutorials. One of my 30 Before 30 goals was to choose a handful of Pinterest ideas to replicate. There are especially a lot of home improvement pins I would have loved to try, but when I have a place of my own it might be a little easier. But I'm pretty please with the ones I set out to tackle.

It started with skinny monkey cookies as part of my 3 course meal I cooked. Next I decoupaged mini gourds and pumpkins with scrapbook paper and decked out a white pumpkin with a trick or treat message. For Thanksgiving my family has a tradition of making pies the night before the big dinner. I had been obsessed with making a sour cream apple pie and found an easy recipe to pin. Last but not least what are the holidays without some Christmas crafts? I duplicated the ever popular no sew Christmas tree skirt. I used burlap instead of linen or cotton to give my tree a more rustic vintage feel.

You can follow me on Pinterest to see what pins I have on my radar to try next!

Links:
Sour Cream Apple Pie
Decoupage Pumpkins
No Sew Christmas Tree Skirt
Skinny Monkey Cookies
Painted Trick or Treat Pumpkin
Pumpkin Muffins

Pinterest Moves Me

pinterest- you can follow me here!

 A friend of mine recently shared some personal and family issues that she's going through, and they are really taking a toll on her emotions. She said that it was hard for her to stay positive right now and she wished she had more things making her happy. And my serious suggestion to her to improve her mood was to join Pinterest. I can literally be having a boring, bad, uninspiring day, and five minutes on Pinterest can totally turn my day around. Maybe I'm too much like Scarlett O'Hara when it comes to dealing with a problem; "I can't think about that right now; I'll think about that tomorrow," but escaping to a world of pretty images and quotes makes me forget about life's problems for a little while.

And what makes Pinterest even better is knowing the man behind it all, Ben Silbermann, is as inspiring and wonderful as the site itself. Many of my blogs I follow have returned from Alt Design Summit and besides the awesome parties, friends, and pictures they took, everyone can't stop talking about the keynote speaker: Ben Silbermann. Everyone has said the words he spoke really motivated and moved the audience. I wasn't present for his speech, but the quotes and bullet points other bloggers have taken away from him and shared on their blogs have motivated me too. To be moved by someone who was over a 1,000 miles away is a mark of a very inspiring and talented person!



sfgirlbybay



Conde Nast Travler via Design Crush

I was totally green with envy in the weeks leading up to Alt Design Summit and during this past weekend when everyone seemed to be there. But I am determined to make my way there next year! I'm not the best saver in the world but I am starting an Alt piggy bank and I will be there next January. I even have one of my roomies picked out, and we will dance Johnny and Baby style all night long!

(If you have no idea what in the world I'm talking about check out Alt's website and blog and get yourself excited for 2013 too!)

I Tumble for Seasons

Even though I'm literally addicted to checking Pinterest, (seriously, someone I know should be making an intervention banner) I still love checking in on my favorite tumblr sites too. One particular site I love to scroll through is one titled "Winter." The site's author, Grace, fills her page with snowy sunsets, mittens curled around marshmallow filled coco mugs, and girls in fair isle sweaters. As much as I hate the cold weather, her site makes the bitter season a little cozier. And the good news is the popularity of her site has initiated a start of tumblr sites in the renaming seasons. So when I'm in the middle of a 20 degree day I can escape away to tropical beaches, gardens as far as the eye can see, or pumpkin patches. If you're in need of endless amounts of eye candy, check out Grace's sites.

Winter. Spring. Summer. Autumn.

P.S. it's also a great place to find images to pin to Pinterest too!    

Relaxed Polish



top: Ann Taylor loft (old), jeans: AE jeans, shoes: TJMaxx, belt: Forever21

What do you do when you get out of bed in the morning and have no idea what to wear? My solution to this problem is to scroll through my most recent outfitting pins on Pinterest. Is everyone else nodding their head in agreement? I noticed that I've been pinning a lot of outfits of girls in relaxed jeans with super cute heels to give the look some polish. So this is my attmpt to initate her and her. This is a pretty basic look: black top, heels and a lepoard print accessory. I think need more heels in my closet to pull together more unique looks. Like I need an excuse to go shopping!

Happy Pins

Thoughts of bows, Christmas trees, and clothing perfect for staying warm are dancing in my head as we near closer to Christmas!

Happy Pins

left to right (clockwise): love a mix of stripes and sparkles. simplistic Christmas displays, totally into matching wrapping paper, and I could seriously rock this look every single day

Happy Pins

(clockwise) I could live in cozy cuddly cardigans like these ones (in these colors) every single day of winter...I have a weakness for vintage ornaments...the cutest night light I ever saw...no party is complete without stripey straws

See more of my pins here!

layout via pugly pixle

Happy Pins





(clockwise)

1. Love the colorful little bunting on this tree. A good way to bring a pop of color into a space

2. Warm cider and cookies look like they could be on the other side of this orangey-red door

3. Could totally use a suede tote like this

4. I'm a total sucker for a fairy tales, and silhouettes

You can see more of my pinnings over on Pinterest!

(template from pugley pixel)

Happy Pins

1. I really think this mug needs to be apart of my coffee drinking mornings.
2. Seeing this beautiful and colorful bedroom is encouraging me to inject some color and warmth into my own.
3. I am totally making this snow mobile for Christmas.
4. You know who you are.

Happy Pins

(clockwise) 1. Please excuse me while I geek out for a minute about my first pin. This is a promotional poster for a TV mini series on AandE called Bag of Bones. It's based on my favorite Stephen King book and it airs in December. Bag of Bones is my summer pool side reading staple; I love it. I know books are usually better than the movies but I'm just excited to see something I've imagined so many times in my mind come to life on TV. (And it's starring Pierce Brosnan...how can it go wrong?)

2. Fox sweater
3. Warm drinks
4. A super cool site called society6. A network of thousands of artists from all over the world who's art can be turned into prints, tshirts and iPhone cases. I'm totally in love with this entitled "Le Voyage" by Ilaria Lazzaroni

Follow me on Pinterest too!

Happy Pins

Bless you sweet readers that embrace the every changing style of my Wednesday post. I realize this is three things shy of making it a true '7 Things' post; but perhaps four is better? These images have all come from my Pinterest account this week. They are all motivating me in some way: to do some fun pattern mixing, experiment with my makeup, tackle styling my Expedit bookcase, and making a tree skirt.

Hopefully I can settle on a design of this post one day that makes me happy.

P.S. You can always follow me on Pinterest too!

Chop 'Em!

I'm thinking a hair change is in my future. I'm not ready to chop it off to my ears or anything but while I debate more layers or a color change I think I can at least change it up slightly with some bang action. I feel like a girls constant struggle in life with her hair is: to have bangs or not to have bangs. I've had the straight across and the swoopy bangs before, and battled the amount of likeness I had towards both. With the help of Pinterest I think I've found a length I like. What do you guys like, long or short bangs?

Seriously, what did we DO before Pinterest???

Happy Fall

To celebrate the official start of Fall today I did a roundup of some pretty pictures from my pinterest account. Let's all raise our glass of hot cider to pumpkins, colorful leaves, chunky sweaters, crisp nights, apple orchards, and Halloween. Have an amazing weekend guys!

Hello There, Pinner

I got so much joy from shining the spotlight on one of my friend's pinterest boards that I thought I'd do it again. This time, it's on my sweet friend Mallory Hanson, a student of fashion retail management at the Art Institute of Indianapolis. She has a bright and spunky personality with amazing taste that allows her to carry off yhe newest trends or the most classic of looks with total ease. I swear she had the best collection of ballet flats and colorful scarves.  Check out some of my favorite pins of hers; there's no question she has a love for fashion!

1. Where do you find all your great fashion pins?
I find a lot of my fashion pins from the fashion category on Pinterest. But more recently I have started to type in a designer name in the search box and pin away! A lot of my friends at school in the fashion retail management major have Pinterest accounts so we are all finding inspiration from each other's boards.

2. What do you love most about Pinterest and pinning?
I LOVE the organization of Pinterest and how I don't have to keep a notebook at home full of torn out pages from magazines. It's a great way to catalog inspiration for so many different things. Since joining I have re-created outfits, cooked recipes (normally not my thing), and have successfully done a few DIY projects. Pinterest is my ultimate source for inspiration and I'm completely addicted!!!

3. If your fashion board isn't your favorite to pin to, what's your 2nd favorite and why?
Besides fashion I find myself getting lost in the Home/Furniture category. There is everything from luxe Manhattan apartments to cozy beach side bungalows. I'm looking for inspiration to re-do my bedroom and have found so many different ideas!

If you've liked the pins you've seen you can follow Mallory on Pinterest here, or you can check out her blog Indigo. Thanks for sharing Mal!

Hello There, Pinner

So it's no secret we're all obsessed with Pinterest by now. It's that one place I can go to everyday that inspries all areas of my life. One person I follow, that just happens to be my friend also, who has me clicking 'repin' all the time is Mary Glassmeyer. Mary and I worked together at Anthropologie and her nickname is Christmas Mary. Which not only describes her love of Christmas 365 days a year but perfectly sums up her personality too: full of good spirit, fun, and sparkle.

So I did a little round up of my favorite pins of hers, and asked a few questions about her love of pinterest.

What category or board do you pin to the most and why?
That would be a tie between my board "fashion" and my other board "love, love, love." My fashion board has lots of different outfitting ideas. I was once told that I have Jackie O style with a twist (I like to think that twist is glitter!) I pin to my fashion board anything to give me inspiration for my wardrobe. My board "love, love, love" holds all pins that I look at and in the words of the great Rachel Zoe, say to myself, "I DIE!" These two boards give me realistic inspiration for me every day, and make my heart jump a little!
Why do you love Pinterest?
Why do I love Pinterest or why am I addicted to it? I believe the answer is the same! It is the most inspiring, uplifting, happiest, and most rewarding app I have ever come across. How great is it that something so small such as a pin of Anna Wintour, a vintage dress, a chocolate peanut butter brownie, vintage Pyrex, and a bunch of peonies can absolutely make my day. Pinterest is my place to be creative and wonder off to a far away land of fashion, food, and interior design!

Where do you find your pins?
I find ALL of my pins from other pinners. That search box is a great tool.

If you like what you see you can follow Mary here. Thanks for letting us have a glimpse into your pins!

Pretty Pins

Being the Southern girl I am, I had to do a post about my home state's big event this Saturday:  The Kentucky Derby. To get into the spirit of the races, I've been finding images to pin to Pinterest to share with you all. If you love the combination of preppy and Southern style, then watching the Derby tomorrow is the perfect place for you. Bow ties, floral dresses, and fabulous hats are the order of the day!