1 MEMPHIS: the peabody hotel

Last week I was fortunate to attend a reunion of the Blogger 19 hosted by Brizo Faucet. All the guests were treated to a suite at the historic Peabody Hotel right in the heart of downtown Memphis.


The lobby at the Peabody has historic décor...


...everywhere you look there are beautiful details...


...this was just one of the vent covers!




The hotel is famous for its twice daily duck march and fellow attendee Chris got the best shot of them doing there thing. It was really cute!


Brizo set up workshops for us to learn about their newest product lines in the ballrooms (More on that later!)


And the guest rooms were surprisingly the cutest shade of lavender.


I loved this comfy king sized bed, and the headboard had reading lights that flipped out of it. Another cool feature of the room? Motion triggered LED lights underneath the bedside tables. No need to fumble for the light switch in the dark!


After we all checked in on Tuesday night, a group of us headed out on the town in Memphis. Brizo put together such an amazing group of bloggers and design professionals; it was awesome just to chat in person with the people I follow online everyday! Tomorrow I'll share what we all did at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Delta Faucet manufacturing plant!



*My stay at the Peabody was sponsored by Brizo.

3 raleigh: lunching with rachel stewart

As promised, I'm going to be featuring what's going on in the Raleigh area more on the blog! I thought it would be great to start of with a lunch date with my friend Rachel Stewart. We went to lunch a while back at this super cute grille called Rock Harbor Grille. The food was amazing! It's located just southwest of downtown in Apex. A little out of the city limits, but worth the trip.





I loved the tin tiled ceiling...


...Rachel being fabulous as usual!


Rock Harbor specializes in seafood, and this plate did not disappoint!


I was excited to see that they had a good selection of local craft beers too. I forgot which beer I'm drinking in this photo tho, oops!


And I had this amazing salmon burger with fire roasted tomatos, pesto and melty provolone cheese. So good!

By the way Rachel has a new collection up on her site! It is inspired by her favorite sci-fi novelist Octavia Spencer. I love the statement pieces, because they are a great way to dress up a simple outfit in this humid hot weather without adding more clothing.




Check out the rest of Rachel's new collection HERE.

0 hey there

"Where have you been Niki?" Well last week was my birthday. And I actually took some time off!

On Thursday, I had dinner with some of my best friends and family at the Pit. I have been resisting the over abundance of carbs and fried food in NC since I moved back, but on my birthday, I indulged!

Then over the holiday weekend I visited Chicago for the first time...

Amazing city - I think I fell in love the first time I laid eyes on THIS. Frank Gehry is one of my favorite architects, and I'd never seen one of his works in person. Absolutely stunning!

And across the park from that amphitheater is the iconic "bean". Very cool, but it didn't wow me like the amphitheater!

I ate at some amazing restaurants and checked out Randolph Street Market, too. I wanted to live in that market and never leave. So much amazing vintage!

I'm sorry that I didn't take more photos, I was too busy gasping with excitement.

I did buy some "new" vintage navy cowgirl boots tho! ;)

I flew back to NC early Tuesday morning and went right back to work. I have to say that this may have been my best vacation yet. Can't wait to visit Chicago again.

Hope you had an awesome holiday weekend too!

4 surprise! new design talk webisode

Good Monday Morning! Tricea & I realized that we never really introduced ourselves at the start of the Design Talk series, so here is a little video about our backgrounds & design styles. Enjoy!

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?

3 dreamer's digest: week 9

Today is my 22nd Birthday!! Not only am I in disbelief that I am turning 22 today today, but I can't believe I'm able to celebrate my birthday in the beautiful city of Paris! Bringing in a new year of life with new friends in a new city is no ordinary birthday and I'm beyond grateful!



Celebrating this birthday is a little bittersweet, because I'm also coming to the realization that I only have 3 weeks left here in Paris. As you can see by my lack of blogging last week, my friends and I have been doing everything we possibly can to enjoy our last month here. Almost every day last week, I left my house at 11 in the morning and didn't return until about 10 at night! We are making sure we are seeing everything we want to in this amazing city, and of course, spending as much time together as possible.



Today for my birthday, I plan to visit Berthilon for a few scoops of their world famous ice cream, have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Tribeca and hoepfully take a night stroll to the Eiffel Tower!

By the time you all will be reading this, I'll probably be half-way through my birthday so Birthday pictures next week :)

3 what time is it?

Did you look at your watch or clock when you read the title of this post? I bet what you looked to for your answer didn't look anything like this...







Found on Yanko Design


I wish I could find one of these for my music loving client! Anybody seen something similar on the market?

7 drawing on the walls

Ever get in trouble for scribbling on the walls with a crayon or marker? Well this guy makes a living doing it.









See More Tim Goodman here on his super cool blog.