progress in my studio

I found these two photos on Pinterest of a gorgeous apartment with the same color scheme I am aiming for in my studio & it has me determined to finally FINISH my own place. Any designer will tell you that designer for yourself is the hardest, because we have a million ideas rolling around, and it's just so hard to settle on one!

If you've been watching the Design Talk series, you've seen a sneak peek at my bedroom area... If only it looked as LUX as this one!



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Love the red curtains here against the Tiffany blue walls. Right now I have white, but I'm thinking about dying them red!


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I have a gallery wall in my little entryway, which I created with old frames that I painted black. Right now, they still have the art that came with in them, but I'm thinking about swapping the art out for black & white photos, as seen here!



Other things I need: an area rug & curtains for my living area, finish a painting I started, bar stools, and I'm working out a way to dress up my ugly kitchen cabinets!

I'll keep you posted on the progress, and my goal is to have a big reveal before High Point Market in April! Hold me to it, guys...

it's official!

Finally, my episode air date is posted on on HGTV and I am too excited!! APRIL 27th, at 1PM. I filmed this episode during July 4th weekend of last year... so this has been almost a YEAR in the making. I hope you all aren't disappointed! Of course, I'll remind you when we get closer to the date, but I just wanted to share my excitement with you today.

How's that for a Monday pick me up?

happy friday!

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I hope you have a wonderful weekend! My sister is visiting me from NC & I'm so happy to have her here for a few days. This week I've been reminded several times of how fragile life is. I try to be grateful everyday but I'm going to make it even more a priority to say thank you for LIFE; hope you do too!

See you next week!

roman holiday + the next cool event

I'm so bummed that I missed the Next Cool Event last weekend here in Atlanta! From the photos and rave reviews of my friends that attended, it was nothing short of spectacular! Check out this gorgeous booth from SMITHBOYDinteriors. Can you spot the Roman Holiday theme references?




Photos by Christina Wedge

My jaw dropped when I saw these photos! Can you believe this is inside an old warehouse building? I will NOT miss the next one! See the rest of the Micheal Boyd designed booth here.

sonya winner rugs

Love these beautiful bright rugs from designer Sonya Winner!





See them all at sonyawinner.com

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?

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:



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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!

happy friday!

After a whirlwind time in NY last week, I played catch up for most of this one! The week flew by, but I am happy to say that I'm FINALLY editing new webisodes of Design Talk, so look for a new one on Monday! Tricea and I had so much fun making this one... can't wait to share!

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend.

tonight!

Come out and celebrate the opening of the KAWS exhibit at the High Museum!
I'll be there, make sure to say hi if you see me.

malibu tightrope

This video, and the cover of this song in this video, are AMAZING. Kelly did an amazing job capturing sexy California style. I'm inspired by it, are you?


via The Glamourai

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!

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!!

hello from NYC

Hey guys! I'm in New York today having a ball learning about the Brizo product line with a great group of designers & bloggers. I feel so blessed & humbled to be here! The hotel is amazing, the people are so kind & the information I'm getting is so inspiring.

You can follow my trip on Twitter & Instagram. Have a great day!

kenzo spring 2012

Two things you should know about me: One, I rarely "match". Ever since I was little I've had a more is more approach to color. I can't help it! And two, I'm obsessed with playing with volume. I love long skirts with fitted menswear shirts, or big voluminous tops with skinny pants or a pencil skirt. So this collection from Kenzo screams to me!









See the rest of the lookbook here.