Butterfly Inspiration

Today's inspiration comes from me being in the mood for flowers and butterflies. How great would it be to be a butterfly? Flying around from flower to flower enjoying the bright colors and fragrances of each bloom. Today I wish I were a butterfly. I hope you have a great weekend and stop to enjoy the flowers!

Images: 1. Ange's photos 2. pony tail 3. mesec od papira 4. steph parke

Parisian Bistro Chairs

If you have never visited Little Brown Pen, then you are missing out on a lot! Nichole's blog has the best inspiration and photographs (a lot of Paris) and I can never get enough of her work. She and her husband and their kids visit Paris every four weeks or so and when they are there, she takes the most amazing photos. Below are some of her images of Parisian bistro chairs. I have always loved bistro chairs but the ones that Nichole has found are in varieties of colors and shapes and evoke the Parisian's love of a long lunch or visit at the cafe. Maybe one day when I have a house with a backyard, I'll splurge and pick up a few in a wild color!








Images: little brown pen

My Spring Wedding Outfit

A couple of days ago I showed you an idea for an outfit that I was using as a model for a wedding that I am attending in a few weeks. While on the search for said outfit, I came across this cute blue dress at Target and knew that it was the perfect color for this wedding. I decided to pair it with these yellow shoes from Target that I bought last summer and so the color scheme went from there.

In order to stay within my budget, I also decided that I will use my new Liberty of London wallet as my clutch for the night because it has a pocket that I can put lipstick and kleenex in (because I ALWAYS cry at weddings). I also found a yellow scarf at Charming Charlie and a great set of clunky yellow beads online. All-in-all I think this outfit came together nicely, don't you think? Now, on to Chicago for the wedding!!!

Items in this set:

Dress: Target, $40
Wallet: Target,$17
Wood Beaded Necklace: Poland by Mail, $17
Shawl: Amazon, $18
Shoes: Target: not available anymore

Happy Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day today, I wanted to show you this great idea for a mobile garden that I found via Oh, Joy. How fun would it be to have one of these to just take around with you everywhere! It's available at A+R Store.

Image: A+R Store

In my Queue

I loved this idea that I saw from Martha Stewart's own Kevin Sharkey via Twitter last week. He realized that a lot of the movies in his Netflix queue were design inspired and so he decided to share those on his blog. I thought I'd do the same with a few that either are on the top of my list or that I've gotten recently and loved. Another one of my favorite bloggers, Rachel from Black*Eiffel did this as well. I hope you enjoy my list!

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Two for the Road

An Education

The Last Station

A Single Man

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Pirate Radio

Terrain Spring 2010

Lately, I've been getting my 'garden' ready and planting my herbs and tomatoes in preparation for the growing season. Even though I live in an apartment and have a small bit of land, I always want to have flowers and herbs and even some vegetables growing. I didn't have much luck last year growing tomatoes in the ground, so I'm going to try growing them upside down and see what happens. Today I wanted to show you some of my favorite garden and outdoor products at one of my favorite outdoor stores, Terrain. Terrain has a great mix of vintage and contemporary garden products and you can purchase them through their online store. I hope this gets you in the gardening mood and you want to go out and till up your ground and plant something!

Items in this set:

Grow Your Own Vegetables book, $19.99
Bespoke Slatted Bench, $2,000
Clam Basket, $38
Lotus Wall Planter, $68
Gardener's Soap, $8
Twig Birdhouse, $18
Terracotta Splash Pot, $190
Floral Doormat, $42
Two Tier Plant Stand, $200
Terracotta Plant Labels, $18

Images: Terrain

Outfit for Spring Wedding

I am attending my friend, Sara's wedding in a couple of weeks and have been trying to decide what to wear. The wedding is going to be outdoors and in the late afternoon. Coral has been my color of choice lately and I think I am leaning that way. Here is an ensemble that if I had an bigger budget, I would purchase each piece in an instant. The hat is my favorite piece and part of the new Eugenia Kim line for Target (probably one piece that I WILL purchase!).

Items in this set:
Penciled Abronia Skirt, $59
Lucky Loop Flats, $160
flicker mini mirra at kate spade, $195
Eugenia Kim for Target® 20's Style Straw Cap with Green Trim - Natural..., $16.99
Merona® Collection Women's Caitlin Top - Salmon Dome : Target, $13

Apartment Decor

I have been working over the past two years on decorating my apartment and going room by room in this effort. I started with my kitchen/dining area then went on to my craft/office room. Now that those two areas are basically complete, I've been focusing on my living room and bathroom. Once those are done, I will be tackling the bedroom. Since I rent, I have the problem of not being able to paint or put up wallpaper, but my apartment has neutral colored walls and wood floors which have acted as a great backdrop to what I want to do.

In my living room, I have been using a neutral palate of tans and off-whites along with black as an accent color. I have dark wood furniture and all of the pictures on my walls are framed in black. I like this color palate because it allows me to accent with brighter colors and change things around easily according to the holiday or time of year. I recently purchased a couple of items from the Liberty of London for Target line to go with my color scheme; a tray to hold some of my books and an accent bowl. I also purchased a decorative ceramic plate to hang on my wall from the new West Elm line by PATCH NYC. I love this plate because of the thistle design and got it as an ode to my Scottish heritage.

Liberty of London for Target tray

Liberty of London for Target bowl

PATCH NYC West Elm plate

In my bathroom, I have used the hint of green in the wall color to draw from and have accented with greens and blues. My uncle has given me some beautiful vases in these colors and they look great next to my Raoul Dufy framed art work. So when I saw that Amy Butler's new line of towels for Bed Bath & Beyond were available in a green and blue floral design, I had to get them! These were a birthday present from my parents and brother as I've been wanting them for a long time and they are a bit pricey.

Amy Butler Towels

Now that I am getting things together in each of these rooms, I promise pictures of the room when they have been completed! I hope you have a great weekend!

Yellow Inspiration

It's been a couple of weeks since I did a color inspiration post. I've been saving up on the perfect color for spring, yellow! Here are three sets of images that are in my Flickr favorites that I thought you might be able to draw some inspiration from. As you've seen, I've got a bit of a thing for yellow and have been buying a lot of yellow tulips lately. I guess it just puts me in a bright and cheery mood. I hope you enjoy them!

Images: 1. patti | dearmissdoll 2. a creative mint 3. unkong 4. _cassia_

Images: 1. perseverando 2. Madeline Bea 3. Admiral and Tea 4. lenubar

Images: 1. lisa teso 2. tres.jolie 3. little brown pen 4. i R i s

Switzerland and Germany

Today's images are ones that I took in Switzerland on Lake Lugano and in Germany while on a river tour (I can't remember the city we were in). I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my snapshots from my trip quite a few years ago. I am hoping to scan in some more in the coming months and will share them with you here as well. Enjoy!



Images: vintage yankee

London and Normandy

One of my favorite places to visit while we were on our trip to Europe was England and France. Here are a couple of shots from London and one from our afternoon visit to Normandy beach. I hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather we are supposed to have.



Images: vintage yankee

A Good Day

Today is my birthday and I'm going to celebrate me a bit so I'm delaying one of my Europe posts by a day. Tonight I am going to enjoy Ina Garten's wonderful Parmesan Chicken and Bruschetta for dinner (two of my favorite dishes) and an awesome coconut cake made by my mom (I promise pictures of the cake!). Hope you have a wonderful April the 8th!

Image: Citrushearts

Italy

Today's pictures of Italy and the few days we spent there. The first two are of Venice during the afternoon we got to spend exploring the city. The second is a shot of the Verona Arena (Amphitheatre) were we had the unfortunate pleasure of seeing a production of the opera Carmen. I say unfortunate because the performance ended up being delayed by rain five times and when they finally decided to call off the performance, it was 1 a.m. and we were drenched, tired and frustrated because there was still a whole act that hadn't been performed. Needless to say, I had the best time in Italy and I would definitely go back!

Images: vintage yankee

Paris in the Summertime

This weekend while I was looking through some old boxes, I found a few photos I took when I went to Europe in 1999 on a trip. I thought I'd share a few with you this week as I reminisce how much fun I had on the trip. The honor band that I traveled with performed concerts all over Europe for a month. The scenery was spectacular and I've always wanted to go back and visit many of the places we stayed and performed. Today's pictures are from Paris and our three day stay there.



We stayed in a hotel about two blocks from the Eiffel Tower and as soon as we arrived in our hotel late in the evening, I remember the whole group decided to walk on over and see what the Tower looked like at night. Being the summer before the millennium, they had the countdown clock going on the side of the Tower and it was such a wonderful sight to see. I remember taking about 200 pictures while on the trip and it costing me an arm and a leg to develop them when I returned home. Thank goodness that we have digital photography now!

Images: vintage yankee

Let's Go DAWGS!

Today's post is short and sweet! LET'S GO DAWGS! My alma mater, Butler University, is in the NCAA Championship tonight and needless to say, I'm excited! My mom decided to make a cute Bulldog banner to put in her teller window at work today. I just had to share it. Isn't it so cute!


Image: my mom's co-worker, Rachel

Happy Easter

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and eat lots of yummy goodies today. I got these cute vintage inspired Easter eggs here last week. I love the bunnies playing musical instruments on the smaller one. Have a great holiday!

Images: vintage yankee

Sara and Tom's Wedding Invitation

As you may remember, About a month ago I posted about my friends Sara and Tom's Save-the-Date postcards. So last week when I received my invitation, I knew they would be just as creative and artistic. Well I was completely right! Sara and Tom blew me away again by how personal and artistic they could make their invites.

I love how the used two pigeons as the main graphic for the top of their invite and how on the reply card they used their cat Paisley again and show her waiting for all of the replies to arrive. When I asked Sara why they used pigeons she said "I love pigeons! You see a lot of doves in wedding iconography, and pigeons are 'Rock Doves'. They're urban and wild, but beautiful! They're monogamous, and homing/carrier pigeons will fly for very long periods without food to get back to their home or mate!"



Another great idea that you don't see on the reply card is that they ask you to send in a song request for the reception. What a great idea and the perfect way to get your guests more involved with the party.

Images: vintage yankee

Pink Inspiration

Since spring has sprung here in the South and tulips are blooming, I have been drawn to a lot of pink lately. My flickr favorites are reflecting that as you can see. Here are two sets of my favorites with a bit of pink in each. The first set is calming and represents how I would like my life to be right now and the second set reminds me of spring and flowers and fresh breezes in the air. Enjoy!

Images: 1. tangobaby 2. cherryvanillastudios 3. _cub 4. sandra juto

Images: 1. IrenaS 2. liiva s 3. Selina Lake 4. Nen August