0 sonya winner rugs

Love these beautiful bright rugs from designer Sonya Winner!





See them all at sonyawinner.com

3 tea time

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending a royal tea with some lovely ladies here in Atlanta. Yes, a legit tea party, with big hats, gloves, elaborate table decor, 3 tiered serving trays... everything you pretended to have a little girl. It was absolutely fabulous! Some of you may be reading and thinking, she can't be serious! But as a girl who grew up coveting all things girlie & southern, I loved it.


Me, super geeked to be at a tea party in my extra large hat!


Maxine, of In A Fabulous World, and I.


The ladies at our table, including the chair of the event, Mrs. Kendra Hatcher King.

After the tea I was convinced that I need to have a tea party of my own, and soon! Here are a a few essentials I'd include in my tea time.



1.2.3.4

Who wants to come over for tea next weekend?

6 design talk webisode 3

Happy Monday Guys! As promised, I just uploaded a new webisode of Design Talk! Tricea and I had so much fun making this one. We wanted to have a little chat with the FELLAS this time, because we've noticed a few bad habits that seem to stick with them.


*Disclaimer: No gentlemen were harmed in the making of this video! ;)

Here are a few examples of GREAT man spaces:



image sources

For more examples of great spaces, check out our Design Talk Webisodes board on Pinterest.


Hope you enjoyed the video! Please share, comment and feel free to repost!

3 first and best trip of the year

As you know last week I was in NYC as a guest of Brizo to learn about their amazing brand and experience Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. The Brizo team did a fantastic job making all the designers feel so welcomed & special and I had an amazing time. I wish I'd taken more pictures, but I was too busy taking it all in!

Right after I took this photo, I realized that Susan L. Taylor, formerly of Essence Magazine was sitting across the aisle from me. This was such a full circle moment for me because I grew up LOVING her magazine, and I'd had the chance to hear her speak at a conference I attended in high school. We chatted for a bit on the plane and it certainly was an amazing start to my trip! 

We arrived in the big city and were delivered to the fabulous Eventi Hotel just a few blocks from Times Square by a car service. 

The "living room" in the lobby of the Eventi...

....absolutely gorgeous! The entire hotel was designed impeccably. I wonder who designed it?
The first night we had a cocktail party to meet & greet all the other designers. Everyone came from all over the country but some of us "knew" each other via Twitter and had never met in person. Everyone was super sweet!


The next morning I got dressed up in my brightest colors for our day of Brizo brand training. :)



The team educated us on the entire line of products, including Jason Wu's upcoming line. It was so amazing to see how they draw inspiration, come of up ideas, and the process of putting them into production. Brizo truly does approach their product as a fashion line!



We got to see prototypes and give feedback on brand new designs & finishes. It was really cool to see the ideas, as well as here the design process of the industrial designers.

After class we took a short break before we were whisked away to the Hearst building to take a cooking class at the brand new Sur La Table located on the first floor. *Side Note* This was a "Mary Tyler Moore" moment for me! When I hopped out of that limo and saw this beautiful building in front of me, I wanted to do a cartwheel and squeal with joy! Haha





We made handmade pasta & pesto and ate everything we made. SO delicious!! And fun.


The next day (Friday) we had a champagne brunch before heading out to Jason Wu's show! 

On the way in a big Lexus came rushing in and out hopped Anna Wintour. Just like The Devil Wears Prada. I could not make these stories up y'all!! I snapped this photo before I almost lost it; I was too excited!! 

The show was AMAZING! I was in the first section, on the 3rd row. His inspiration story was so clear, the clothes were amazing and the music was phenomenal. I kinda want the soundtrack! You can see the entire collection here.


Lastly, we attended a cocktail reception at this penthouse with gorgeous views of the city. Jason Wu came, watched his show with us (this is the first time he got to see it!) and had a few drinks. It was a great ending to a fabulous trip! The entire trip was a DREAM. Thank you so much to the Brizo team for including me and I'm so proud to be a part of the Blogger 19 group now! 


I hope you enjoyed the photos!

1 happy friday

This week has been amazing for me! I'm sitting here in my hotel room with a view of the Empire State building preparing to attend Jason Wu's fashion show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. <----- Look at that sentence. Six months ago, I would have never imagined that coming out of my mouth. Although I'm always a hopeful & open minded person, I often find myself working so hard that I don't really anticipate the results of said work. My colleagues here at this event are all older, more established designers, some have very popular blogs & thousands of Twitter followers. The labels being carried around vary from Gucci to Prada to Louis Vuitton. I'm not there yet! But what I do know is that I've been writing this little blog for over 4 years now, I've made some amazing accomplishments within my short career in design & it finally hit me today that hard work DOES pay off! Even when you can't see how the pieces are coming together, if you work hard, are genuinely nice & believe in yourself, great things happen!

So whatever you're working on this week or weekend, keep it up!!

1 flavor paper

Check out these AMAZING wallpaper designs from Brooklyn based company Flavor Paper. I dream about installing wallpaper like this for a client! They even have 'scratch & sniff' prints... Pretty cool.



Lenny Kravitz is a fan; he used one of their prints in his home music lounge as seen here. Look at that lucite baby grand!!



And here is the owner giving a tour of the studio in Brooklyn:



Visit their beautiful website to see more awesome designs.

3 eventi hotel

I'm so excited that I'll be staying right in the heart of Chelsea at the beautiful Eventi Hotel as a guest of Brizo later this week! The other designers and I have been emailing back and forth making plans for a meet & greet in the gorgeous bar for a cocktail (or two!) on Wednesday night. Can't wait!



Here are a few pics of this gorgeous contemporary hotel.


The exterior at night...


...Bar Basque inside...

...one of the guest rooms...

...another gorgeous suite. Love that sofa! 

And lastly, this is the awesome courtyard area outside the hotel. I'm hoping it's warm enough for us to enjoy it! It features "food trucks" and specialty beer vendors. Yum! 

I'm counting down till Wednesday!


Disclaimer: As a guest of Brizo, my airfare & travel expenses have been comped.

8 what I'm reading: commander in chic

I'm starting a new series here on the blog where I share what books I'm reading! I don't always have time to sit and enjoy a novel, but I'm always reading SOMETHING. Last month, I read through Mikki Taylor's Commander in Chic. This book is a how-to-guide for any woman who aspires to put her best look forward just like our First Lady Michelle Obama does so (seemingly) effortlessly!





Mikki uses Michelle as an example throughout the book with step by step instructions and sources on how to keep everything from your hair to your shoes on point. It's a really fun read full of "Mikkisms" - rules according to Mikki - about beauty, fashion and more. I love that she suggests embracing color, making sure you have a foundation of great hair and nails and ALWAYS rocking fabulous shoes. She gives great sources to fit any budget, from the Target fashionista right on up to Neiman's. The entire book is written in a really approachable way that will appeal to a 20-something year old just starting out as well as a 50+ woman who just wants to revamp their style.




The book is probably about 30% photos of Mrs. Obama, so it's definitely a great coffee table book. I sat down with Rosalynn of Chic Boutique Tour and got to hear what some other ladies thought about the book too!





Have you read this book? If so, let me know what you thought! If not, be sure to pick up a copy.



Full Disclosure: This book was gifted to me by Chic Boutique Tour. All opinions expressed are my own.