Halloween Party I wish I had attended!

As I was dreaming up the perfect Halloween party I could have for Payton and her friends when we move into our new house, I realized that if life goes accoridng to plan (which it rarely does) we will be moving in the week of Thanksgiving! Given this fact, and that my dear friend, Kathleen, has her own rockin' Halloween party, I decided the best fix was to live vicariously through others' fab. party ideas.

And this, my friends, is the most adorable party I came across. Whitney, of The Smith Family, totally killed it. :) Those are some seriously lucky munchkins!

How cute is Whitney with her two little skektons?!

Hello perfect use of the Zig Zag fabric in this pic.!

Spookiest little snack plate around!

They even made popcorn witch hands! Delicious.

Hopefully, I can come up with something this adorable next year, but in the mean time I will look forward to Kathleen's Halloween party this coming weekend and Payton in her Pony costume...

Happy Halloween to all of you, too!

The perfect Summer Plates!

I am so in love with the entire website from iomoi, but especially with their adorable children's plates. Their functionality reminds me of the ones I designed in elementary school that my mom still has in her pantry :). However, they are much more sophisticated and would even be cute for adults to use on the patio for Summer garden parties! My favorite of this moment would be perfect for the little ones...

{iomoi Hippo plate}

But if I were buying one for myself I am thinking it would be...



{belt frame in green)

Or perhaps this one...

{stripes pattern in navy}









p.s. Sorry for the leave of absense! My daughter was having some asthma issues and the blog had to take a back burner... I appreciate all of the email inquiries. :) Hope everyone is having an amazing week!

Fresh Finds Friday: Clever concept!

I came across this very lovely shop this morning, as I meandered between some new house blogs. (Ha! Fancy that!) I imagined the Newport, RI coast and all things that get better with age... This shop specializes in the concept "buy the house", where the items are sold in a grouping to create the feel of an aging mansion. Brilliant!

                                         {Pip and Estella}

Monday Musings: Words on getting stuck in a rut...

I was talking to a colleague yesterday about how it seems that everyone's style aesthetic gets stuck in a rut after a certain time. We were remembering back to our first apartments after college and how every dining room seemed to be red, and there was a buddha in everyone's entryway. The asian style that was so popular at the end of the 90's now looks so depressing to me.

My husband and I are house hunting right now, and I am telling you I would be a very wealthy lady if I were given money every time a correctly guessed the age of the current home owner. I believe I could even tell you how long they have lived in that house.

Even my parent's house, which is lovely and decorated like an art gallery, seems to have a certain feel that comes with being in their mid-50s and having moved in when their children were almost all out of the house.

I am convinced that it is because we all get attatched to what we first find "stylish" and we get so comfortable living in that environment that we are scared to make change.

I am not saying we should all decorate our homes with trendy, cutting edge decor, but that we should continue to explore the world of design in a fresh way.

I am certainly going to try.

Here is an example of a fresh room that I covet... Hello pops of color! (Source unknown)