FINALLY a new post!

Sorry I’ve been MIA!

I got extremely busy with my online summer class, which ended up being heinous and annoying. Plus I’ve been working hard on the house!

Want to see my newest project? I’m refinishing my Grandpa’s old desk. It was painted and antiqued a sagey green color in the 60s by my Grandma. It’s really cool and I decided that I wanted to have it, it will be a very special piece of furniture for me to keep forever.

Here is the desk as is:

I really wanted to do a strong purple on something as a statement piece, and when I decided on working on the desk I thought it was the one for the job. But I changed my mind and think I’m going to do a pale teal with gold accents, sort of like the Louis Chair on the cover of Country Living a couple months ago:

Sorry that is so small… I’m thinking it will look really cool though. I’ve been sanding it for the last few days – so today I’m going to buy the paint and get serious

Also,  crunch time has begun because my Mom arrives on Monday the 28th and I really need to get the place cleaned up and organized so it’s a little more liveable! More on the desk soon.

A

The Keys Trip

So it was Justin’s birthday last week, and I wanted to get him a vacation that was a surprise…. I planned it in March and it was AGONY keeping it a secret ha ha. But I finally told him the week of the trip – I had intended to wait longer but it ended up that he was planning stuff for work and I got worried that my nice surprise was going to backfire.

He was really excited – we left on Saturday and flew back Thursday. It was so relaxing.

I began this Florida trip the same way I begin all the others: completely decked out in my favorite Lilly stuff. I maintain that I could wear Lilly every day if I lived in Florida, I love it.

We flew into Miami, and after some adventure, finally managed to get out Red Prius Rental Car ha ha. If you’ve never been to the Keys, basically you’re driving on puny pieces of man-made escarpment and bridges the whole time. But it’s gorgeous. Here is what much of the drive looks like from the passenger seat.

I really liked watching the boats – there were a ton of people fishing at all times of day and night.

On Monday we went down to check out Key West – we actually stayed in Duck Key at a place called Hawk’s Cay which was pretty fabulous.

Anyway we went to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park which has one of the nicest beaches in Key West. It was really hot but such a gorgeous day so we sat on the breakwall together for a while.

After we got sufficiently scorched, we decided to go see Ernest Hemingway’s home. I had been looking forward to this, and if you ever go down to Key West, it is definitely something worth seeing!

The house itself is a big Lowcountry house with double porches and a guest house. The grounds are stunning. I was riveted by some of the design, which I will include, and also of course, the CATS!!!

Look at this cute little cat house!

When we went into the front room which was the living room, I was amazed to see a sleeping kitty on top of one of the glass preserving cases! I liked snapping this picture of the cat next to Hemingway’s portrait.

There are a few hundred cats on the property, all are fed and cared for by a whole fleet of caretakers. Besides that it was so hot, they all seemed to be in kitty heaven! I guess a few of the 6 toed cats on the property are supposedly the descendants of Hemingway’s cats.

Check out this blue and brown hand painted tile in the kitchen.

There was also a small guest house where Hemingway did a lot of his writing. You walk up this narrow set of steel stairs to get to the second story. He was an avid hunter and there were some mounts on the wall, along with a bunch of other cool stuff.

While we were walking in the gardens, I discovered this snoozing cat.

While I was taking pictures, this cute guy walked up.

Poor things were trying to keep cool any way they could. It was stifling.

The next cat, the pretty black one, has six toes. You can sort of see his front paw.

This was my favorite scene. In the upstairs bathroom, this huge fluffy orange cat (who looked like Garfield) was stretched out in front of this big oscillating fan.

On the way home from Key West, we went to the Key Deer Preserve on Big Pine Key. A guy from the DNR told us that we could probably see some deer and other wildlife if we went up to this old quarry, which has been filled with water. I saw some really cool stuff here, like this huge iguana!

Iguana are invasive to southern Florida and are apparently taking over because the habitat is so perfect for them. I also saw these pretty turtles, which are long time natives of swampy Florida.

We didn’t see any deer, so we decided to head home. Right by the road, on our drive back, we saw this little guy!

Key Deer are members of the white tail deer family, but are much smaller in size, probably due to the lack of nutrients in the food down there.

On the way home we also saw this Great White Heron, which is also only found in Southern Florida, who Justin called George. He was fishing for a snack.

Here is a picture of Seven Mile Bridge, which spans southward from Marathon Key. It was really good fishing down here and we came to Marathon to eat seafood a couple times so we frequented the bridge!

What you can see on the left is the old bridge, which is now a bike trail and a lot of people walk across it. On the other side is the real bridge, and the high transmission power lines.

Now these lines had been freaking me out the whole trip – they are such a high voltage you can hear them sizzling and crackling… It’s terrifying I think. When we got home, Justin’s Dad told me that they were probably around 500,000 Volts (which would basically make a human explode) since they run all the way from Miami to Key West. So crazy.

This is how we spent some of the sunny days on our vacation.

Justin also caught this cute grouper. We threw him back, of course.

I also spotted this little crab, who didn’t like getting his picture taken.

I have some other pictures that are cute on the phones, so I’m going to work on getting those organized and posted too

Hand Fetish

As my close friends and family know, I have a sort of hand and nail fetish.

I’m obsessed with nail polish, rings… you get it…

So I have two new acquisitions in the hand and nail department that I just had to share with you.

First, as a present for being done with school and getting GOOD grades Justin bought me this beautiful watch by Michael Kors.

Here it is on my wrist, all sized up.

Isn’t it soooo pretty? I’ve been coveting the real ceramic watches for over a year now. Particularly this Chanel variety which frequently graces the back cover of Vogue US and costs around $10,000.

However, that’s obviously not in my budget ha ha and I like the Michael Kors one a lot!!! I think It’s gorgeous. So I’ve been enjoying that these past few weeks. I’ve never had a nice watch before, EVER! It was a wonderful surprise.

Then, last week, I was browsing the new Sally Hansen Salon Nail Polishes – and I came across the most amazing purple greige color called “Commander in Chic”. I bought it immediately (of course) and I’m obsessed with it.

It looks more purple in the bottle, but it’s amazing on. I’ve gotten a ton of compliments on it!

Do you like it? It’s very grown up – in a stylish way – I think.

I also wanted to share something I came across a while back, this nail polish color trend reminded me of it. It’s the new greige trend in design, which is just like it sounds – the combination of Grey and Beige as a design color. Of course this can be interpreted in many ways, but I saw this blog I wanted to share.

It’s a blog about Greige design – they also have a Design company based in Orange County, CA. Check it out here.

Do you like the greige idea? Would you use it in your own home?

More tomorrow, I need to post a little update about my Florida Keys Vacation

A

The Newest Family Addition + New Artist Friend

So over here at the SmallTownSvelte residence, I have some exciting news!!!! I just received my new blog business cards!!!

Aren’t these fabulous? I LOVE the birds, I think they make it really cute and not so serious. Also it was perfect to incorporate the chandelier, which of course definitely represents me!

I just love them. I couldn’t be happier. They also are partially UV coated, so some of the objects are shiny in the light. I tried to capture that but it just wasn’t happening.

My plan is that I’m still working on my blog header, and once that is done I will be able to really start sending out some invites. I actually haven’t invited ANYONE to look at my blog yet besides my Mom and Grandparents! So I was ecstatic when my new friend Victoria found me and has been following the blog! So THANK YOU Victoria, you are my first real blog follower!!!

Anyway I am going to send out a few of my business cards with each invite for people to share with friends. I just am a complete perfectionist so I don’t want to really advertise the blog until I’m satisfied with it. I have some great ideas for the header pictures and styling so check back – sadly it won’t be until, at the very soonest, the end of next week because I’m going on vacation this Saturday!

So back to the cards, I wanted to do a little artisan heads up to help anybody who might be looking for a crafty person to help them out! Of course you all know about the wonders of Etsy, but I want to direct you to an incredible woman I met.

Her name is Eva Tseng, she is based in Hong Kong and is a freelance designer. She is also the proud mother of a 16 month old daughter.

Check out some of her new cards:

Aren’t these incredible? She’s so creative! Visit her BLOG HERE or her oh smile by Eva Etsy store HERE.

She also has another cool etsy store called KEEP CALM by derder which you can visit HERE.

And it would be a great answer to this post on Apartment Therapy!!! (Visit KEEP CALM and you’ll see why!)

Please visit Eva’s etsy store and check out her blog. She’s amazing to work with and I’m already excited about getting her to help me with my next little projects!

Have a wonderful day

A

A Few Inspirations

It’s a rainy day today and I’m feeling ‘blah’ so I wanted to share a few spaces that have caught my eye recently.

I put these next to one another because I loved both of them the day I found them, but they’re SO different. They are both from House Beautiful, which by the way has a really cool lookbook where you can find inspiration from fabulous rooms!

I can’t believe the use of the very snobby looking table (snobby in a good way ) can make that hot pink seem completely normal. It’s definitely for those with more wild taste, but I love the young modern feel of that accent wall mixed with the older feeling furniture and accessories!

I think my favorite part of the green room is the use of the butterfly+moth print and unmatched mod rug. I would NEVER choose that but it looks fabulous – I think that is what the kind of design I love is all about. I also love pale green and naturals… I find them so relaxing for a bedroom. When I  get everything cleaned up in the post-construction phase for the house, I will show you my spare bedroom which uses those same natural themes!

These two are also very different in terms of color palettes… but I love both of them. Like I said before, I love the cool off whites and natural themes in bedrooms. I LOVE birds and so naturally, I love those prints. The ceramic stools have been really popular the last season or two, I don’t have one but they are cool. It’s surprising to me how good those two colors, the grass green of the dresser and  deep teal of the stool look together.

The room on the right, in my opinion is to die for. Chartreuse and Orange are two of my most favorite colors. I love that rug, and I can’t believe baby blue, chartreuse and dark orange could ever look this good together! I also think that textured wall provides an interesting base for the other bright colors.

I found this last picture while I was searching for some inspirations using the colors I have been thinking about for the living room. I was looking for light floors, whites+off-whites and interesting accent colors. I like to do this every once in a while to get fresh ideas about color. I’m in love with these old intricate ceilings – I want a house that has them one day. I’m sure they’re hell to paint but they sure make up for it in the end.

I also love girly chandeliers – and WHITE. So check out this next one I found:

How gorgeous are those mirrors? Okay well anyway, enough dreaming for me ha ha. And I have something exciting to tell you about in the next post!

A

Ode to Mom

In lieu of Mother’s Day yesterday, and my Mom’s new blog, I decided to dedicate a post to her.

For those of you who don’t know, my Mom lives with my Stepdad Phil in a remote region of Western Australia. I usually see her once a year, for the last few years her visits have been in summer. Here is a photo of us from their last visit. This is what a lot of West Virginia looks like – not to preach tourism but if you haven’t been here, you’re missing out.

My Mom and Phil love plants. This is a photo accurately describing how my Mom spends 90% of her time outdoors.

My Mom was a single Mom, and so she and I liked to do things outside. We took a lot of canoe trips and went hiking. So now when she comes in, we try to still take a few trips out into the wilderness. Justin and I take a 4 wheeler when we go down to the farms because the properties are so huge it’s impossible to walk. I took my Mom for a ride and I actually almost killed her ha ha but I won’t talk about that.

Manual reverse on the 4wheeler is really tricky and I think that’s why I was making that pensive face.

On the way back from this particular hike, which is on a farm in Onego (pronounce 1 – Go) WV., I found this tiny frog. One thing that I’ve noticed in the last few years is my hands have really started to look like my moms.

Here is a picture of my Mom in her kitchen at home. She’s cute.

So in my Mom’s new life, she has some land and animals to care for. She has geese (and parrot visitors) and turkeys :

She also has this adorable cat named Cattitude.

They have an acre or so, and they have a little nursery and grow a lot of pretty trees and plants. Phil is an arid plant specialist.

And where arid plants go, it’s usually pretty hot, so when I go there in summer (which is our Christmas time) I mostly do this:

I love these pictures of us together:

Anyway I want you to check out her blog – she just started it but she is getting warmed up!

The link is OutbackSpinner.blogspot.com and it’s really cute. I forgot to say, my Mom is an avid fiber artist and she specializes in spinning and knitting. She has like 20 spinning wheels at her house in Australia, to my stepdads delight. But she’s incredible. One day soon I’m also going to do a post about some of her work, which is so beautiful. You would not believe the stuff she can make. Anyway I love her blog because she also shares cool things like how she makes her own olives, and chili sauce from chilis in her garden. So if you’re into food its great. Plus they go on some pretty fabulous trips!

Okay well love you MOM! Happy Mothers Day!

Porch Play

I’m trying to decide on a conversation set for my porch. This isn’t a great picture, but if you remember from the first post – this is what the front of my house looks like.

The porch is a light green color. Everything else is white really, which has actually made it hard for me to find a set. Here are some of my choices:

1.Canopy Willow Glen Collection All-Weather Wicker 4-Piece Conversation Set, $748 at Walmart.com

I really like this set because of the appearance and utility – not the price. If you follow the link, it shows pictures of the table also serving as a storage chest. The Cushions are a good color  - not an exact match to the floor but in the same family – and the dark brown wicker would provide a dark contrast which I think would look nice.

My other must is comfort, and these cushions look pretty ample. I sit out on the porch a LOT in summer, especially when my Mom visits. So I want them to be comfortable enough to sit on for extended periods of time for reading etc.

2. Garden Oasis Oxborough 4 piece Deep Seating Set $499 at Kmart.com

I really like the table that doubles as an ottoman in this piece, as well as the lines of the furniture. I don’t really like the color and it’s hard to tell if it would be better or worse in person. But since the cushions are nice and thick and look comfortable, and the price is decent, I’m keeping it on the list.

3. Country Living 4 piece Patio Seating Group $499 at Kmart.com

I really like the way this set by Country Living looks. The patterned light yellow cushions are really attractive and  the lines are simple and neat. However, I don’t love the plain table that seems a little to high for the set.

4. Ty Pennington Bouchelle 5 piece Patio Seating Set $699 at Kmart.com

In terms of looks, I think this is my favorite set. I’m just not sold on the price… maybe if I could get a good coupon or something. I think it’s really pretty and I actually enjoy the neutrality of the colors.

5. Hometrends Urban Haven II 6 piece Conversation Set $698 at Walmart.com

I like the way this set has two ottomans which would make the chair seating really comfortable. However I don’t love the cushion colors or frames of the chairs. So I don’t know…

I’m still trying to decide. I also  checked out Cindy Crawford’s line for JCPenney’s, and didn’t see anything I loved. The rest of her interior stuff is HIDEOUS, by the way.

Which do you prefer? Or is there something I haven’t included that you might suggest? I’m trying to keep my max prices around $700 – $800. I’d really love to only have to spend $500 on it but maybe that’s impossible.

Let me know what you think. I value your opinion!

Coral Crush

I am ridiculously in love with coral right now. I want everything I can get my hands on. Here are a few of my favorite picks for summer.

1. Von Zipper Alotta Sunglasses in Coral and Gold $90 at vonzipper.com

2. Volcom Little Jazz Maxi Dress $50 at swell.com

3. Romeo & Juliet Couture EJ Blouse $68 at bluefly.com

4. Kenneth Jay Lane Coral and Gold Ring $75 at multichic.com

5. Seafarer Coral Dress $61 – review at kaboodle.com

6. Vans Lo Pro Sneakers $52 at swell.com

I’m also a huge fan of surfwear and boardwear. I love the way brands like Hurley, Burton, Matix, and Volcom use bold colors and funky lines. I guess that’s kind of a throw back from my days in Hawaii. I think that if it’s done the right way, high fashion and surfwear/boardwear can be mixed and it looks incredible.

One of the most important things about fashion, in my opinion, is to be capable of being influenced by external sources while still keeping your own style individual and unique. There are many impeccably dressed women, but the ones that stand out are those who surprise your eye with the unexpected: Chanel flats with a Hurley sundress, or Stella Mccartney for Adidas mukluks with a Burton Parka.

Love it Love it Love it.

Okay that’e enough for tonight. Guess what?! I’m done with school

A New Bag

I wanted to shoot out a quick post about my fairly new bag – it was a steal but I think it’s really neat!

It’s from Nicole Lee USA … the bags are really cheap, I got this one at TJ Maxx and it was $30, not on sale. Some of them I don’t like as much, but I think this one looks really nice, and the faux leather looks so real.

The other thing I hate about cheap bags is the linings… the materials they skimp on are always on the inside. This one even has a fabulous lining, check it out!

It’s also got the two way inside pockets which are hard to take a picture of but I did anyway.

It reminds me of this Rebecca Minkoff Rocker Bag:

I’ve got a lot more to come, sorry I’ve been so complacent about posting lately!

While I Should Be Studying

It’s the first day of Finals Week, and I should be studying even though my first final isn’t until Wednesday. But I’m taking a little break because I haven’t posted in ages! I’m really looking forward to summer so I can get post happy.

I borrowed Justin’s stepdad’s Nikon D200 and I’ve been taking a billion pictures so I wanted to share some. The quality is really incredible.

First I’ll show you some from a few weekends ago, which I took with my old camera. They’re actually quite good too. Justin’s friend Ben has a lab puppy named Gunner, who is featured with Bentley and Gentry in most of these. We’re at the Rhine Farm, which is a property another one of Justin’s friends owns in Bruceton Mills, WV.

Isn’t it pretty? It’s usually a good 10 degrees colder up in Bruceton so you’ll notice the trees don’t have nearly as many leaves.

He’s so cute. They got into the creek and got SOAKED, as good labs like to do.

This describes perfectly how the boys play. Gunner chew the crap out of Gentry mid-run, and Bentley walks away by himself with the softball in his mouth.

The dogs also like the football but its hard to catch!!

Isn’t this a really cool spooky old barn?

While the boys threw the football some more I snooped around the barn… I found this cool old strap. Look at it up close… it’s got to be so old. I don’t know what it was for, I’m assuming its an old piece of horse tack.

I like all these new buds and flowers at the very beginning of spring.

I also like bugs when I can photograph or observe them from a safe distance ha ha.

Bentley likes to smell the flowers, like Ferdinand the Bull. Have you read that story?

Here is a typical scene on a Bruceton back road

Okay now here are the pictures with the D200. The main thing that’s most incredible is the FLASH. It’s like an eclipse.

Have you ever seen a cuter dog? ha ha This is Gentry, the little one.  I’m sure it’s hard to tell them apart if you don’t know them!

Gentry pesters Bentley constantly when he’s sleeping.

Here is how Bentley likes to sleep on the upstairs couch at Justin’s. There’s a spot worn away he lays there so much. And his head is usually on the remote.

Albert is my beagle, he stays with my Grandparents because they are home all day and Dedecek likes to walk him around the neighborhood to catch up on the latest gossip and get exercise (in  order of importance). He is staying with us while my Grandparents are on their trip to New Mexico.

I also took some pictures of the flowers blooming in Justin’s yard. The Rhododendron is the state flower of West Virginia, and is one of my favorite native plants. Justin has hot and light pink bushes in the yard. They’re just beginning to open.

Justin and Bentley watched me taking pictures of everything in the yard like a crazy person.

Gentry was hot…

The lilacs also bloomed, and people that walk by keep asking if they can cut a few to take home.

It’s so nice to have the warmer weather finally, everything seems like it’s coming together! I’m going to post again right after this about our recent property hunting!

Love! A