Fashion: Rolled Skinny Jeans

j. crew skinny rolled jeans

I'm a big ole jeans fan. I love paring them with a cozy, neutral but still sexy tee.  Being super short, I either get ankle length that work okay with flats, otherwise they  are always crazy long. So, I am simply loving the rolled jeans. The messier and more rugged of a roll,, or slouched a bit... the better in my opinion. J. Crews's dressing tip tells how to achieve the look here:

"With the jean fully unrolled, fold over an inch of fabric to make the ankle opening tighter. Then hold on to that fold as you roll up from the bottom to desired length (we like ours to hit just above the ankle).

       denimology, megan fox destroyed and slouched in  current elliott jeans the skinny in super love destroyed

the sartorialist, on the street palaise de tokyo, paris

 katie holmes... she is definitely a start of the trend, as I remember a lot of critics not liking this particular photo when it first came out, now of course they rave it. Perhaps it's the bagginess of the leg fit.

Sincerely Jules

blouse: Emporio Armani // skinny jeans: bdg (DIY ripped holes) // heels: Seychelles // bag: Alexander Wang // necklace: thrifted.   She gives great advice on creating the holes in her jeans:

"A good pair of denim jeans go along way. On mine, I added the ripped holes so that they look

imperfect and super worn in. 

Try this on a pair you hardly wear to test it out first. To add holes to your jeans you simply:

- grab a pair of scissors, poke a hole through the section where you want the rip

- Just cut through, the bigger the whole, the cooler it looks

- Stretch out the rip a few times

- lastly, throw them into the washer/dryer so that all the threads come out, voila!"

  dwelling and telling

Homefront: Mid Century Finds

 

I got this cute little mid century two tier end table a month or two ago for $7 at Goodwill. Then, a few weeks later, I saw this Lane mid century modern chest there for $50. It locked and I didn't see the key, so I talked them down to $30. Anyways, got it home and realized we could still open the lock by pushing it in and turning it, and the key was discovered inside the chest tucked neatly inside it's little envelope.

I'm considering moving the chest at the foot of our bed though, my boys are having a grand ole time scratching the heck out of it. I'm hoping to look around for a coffee table that I don't mind getting beat up, that maybe I can give a chippy paint job to. I put that linen fabric scrap on top of the chest to help, but you know how that goes with two little ones! I love a hodge podge look in my home, but at the same time, I don't want to look like everything I own is from a garbage heap, you know?

Also, I adore this chair, really I adore all chairs. Our wonderful friend gave this to us because it was just too big for his place and he prefers more of the streamlined, IKEA type design. I would like to paint it and reupholster it, or slipcover it somehow. The back cushion would be easy, then maybe do just a simple skirt for the bottom portion, similar to this below. Where can I find someone to tackle this sewing job? If you are a seamstress, contact me and I'd love to work something out. UPDATE: I spray painted the blue chair with awesome black fabric spray paint. Looks so much better! See it here :)

style files

I saw some adorable mid century club chairs the other day, $5 a piece. I desperately want them, but they too would need to be reupholstered. I am wondering how to go about that, as the cushions don't look like they screw off or anything. Sometimes, I wish I was all powerful, ready to outfit any situation, staple gun, orbital sander and fabric tacks on the go. I will consult this country living upholstery guide and think about it. But for now, I feel largely inadequate for the goals I have for this place. Perhaps I just need to refocus my energy. Easier said than done, I presume.

Changing Ur Clothes

dressing closet, the selby

As usual, I'm always more productive when the husby is away on business. So, hopefully today, I'll tackle some projects I've been putting off for months. One of which will be the closet. I have a plethora of clothing, and wear maybe only 10% of them.  It's a physical representation of how much brain power we actually use at any given time *myth*. Due to changing body shapes, changing styles, changing from working to being a stay at home mom... who knows when I will ever be 'changing' into this things again? (see what i did there, so clever). It's time to shop the closet and get creative, or say 'bye bye'. I love those fun little shop your closet, the remix outfit of the day, cut and resew tshirts, type clothing blogs, but then it's just something else to get addicted too and I really can't let that happen, now can I? Do you have any favorite blogs like that? Right now, I'm lovin' The Daybook, Have a Cute Day, Writing Rainbows,  Totally Tessa, Kristine Machine, Righteous Republic, Clothed Much, Dwelling and Telling, Kendi Every Day, The Sartorialist, Some Girls Wander, Selective Potential,  Delightfully Tacky, Sincerely Jules, MoMoMod.... If so, please link.. or not, I suppose...

the selby

Painting One Man's Junk

This past month or two, my husband has lifted a filing cabinet, a table and an end table from the side of the road, and I grabbed two chairs sitting in front of a dumpster. I'm totally shocked, we haven't done this in a while, but especially my husband, who actually saw most of the items and stopped and suprised me with them. I think my frugal furniture huntingness has caught hold a little spark in him. So adorable.

And speaking of adorable, the end table he grabbed is actually kind of hideous in a really cute way, just the way I like them. I love this table that Holly, from In the Fun Lane painted and decked out with anthropologie key hole knobs. It has a very Alice in Wonderland vibe going on. Well, the end table we have has the real thing, this adorable little decorative key hole. And I only just noticed the eagle drawer pulls when I uploaded the pictures. I kind of love them. I usually prefer silver or a dark oiled bronze, but the patinaed brass is sort of charming.

 

 

I'm considering painting it a similar blue as well, although her table has more of a greenish hue to that blue. I'm thinking, should I do the white on the armoire and the blue on the end table? Or the armoire the blue, Nester style... but then it makes me feel too committed to the color on such a large piece. What do you think? Maybe I'll make a Home Depto run next week.

Inspired Home : Little Glowing Lights

 Catherine of Little Glowing Lights has a warm, colorful, flea market style Australian home. In her interview with Victoria of sfgirlbybay, she shares some of her favorite pieces, books and haunts. For me, I adore the white walls, the random garlands, the mix of florals and stripes and the use of little vintage chairs, and the picnic table. More photos of her lovely home can be found here on Design Files. In her interview there, she states that her main consideration really has been a modest budget  – ‘I have decorated my flat with a very small budget and not buying very many brand new pieces at all. Most pieces have been hand-me-downs given a lick of paint or bargain finds. In the future I would like to splurge a little bit more.’  Love it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Treats: Valentine's Cupcakes

Today, I made cupcakes. Once again, I used the rainbow chip mix, and dyed my frosting with the gel food coloring. Gel coloring seems to be much brighter than the liquid ones.

The little scribbles are so cute and easy. Just melt chocolate, stir it ( food color it if you wish) and pour into a ziplock bag. Lay out a long strip of wax paper and snip a tiny hole in the corner of the bag. Pipe the chocolate into shapes on the wax paper and allow to dry. Before piping, you can draw shapes on paper and place the sheet under the wax paper so you can trace those shapes. After about 20 mins or so, carefully remove and place on frosted cupcakes, (this is why I made tons of extras, for all the ones that I broke while removing). A much, much better tutorial (with pics) of this technique is here on i am baker.

Our family delivered some cupcakes to neighbors, friends and children I teach in Sunday school. But it got dark early and people weren't home, and we were getting hungry...

 ...so we grabbed pizza, went home, and gobbled cupcakes, along with these ginormously, beautiful strawberries the hubs brought home.

Aren't you loving our 5year old's, double black eye? He acquired it yesterday from jumping from our coffee table to the sofa and banged his pour little nose on the sofa arm. The same day, our 3 year old got a bead stuck up his nose. Oh the painful joys of childhood!

Our 3 year old having a melt down b/c the wrapper wasn't peeled perfectly from his cupcake.

Oh, and my husband brought flowers too. These lovely purple ones, because he didn't want to be "too cliche'" and get roses.

I hope your Valentine's Day was as sweet as ours!