Favorite Find: Say What?

One of my favorite Pinterest boards is my “Say What?” board. This is where I collect all sorts of witty, inspirational and sassy sarcastic sayings. I keep collecting these thinking that I’ll make some fun art in my home office out of these, but like a lot of things that project has yet to see the light of day.

Anyquote, I stumbled across the Etsy store, hairbrained schemes and fell in love with their great quotable prints.

Kate

Week in Review AND Favorite Etsy Finds

It's time again to find out WHAT WENT DOWN THIS WEEK. 
(non-local blog followers, scroll down for Etsy Faves)


First and probably most important, we have many new followers on our blog!  Welcome everyone, we can't wait to share our inner most ramblings, cravings and obsessions with you.  We like to keep it pretty.  There are plenty of other blogs that share the news and all the bad stuff going on out there.  We chose to write a lifestyle blog filled with pretty pictures, the latest trends and lots of style.  Please join in and share with us, we're thrilled to have you.


#2- I just saw some sweet-ass pumpkin plants at Trader Joe's tonight.  I don't know why I didn't buy them because all I've done is think about them since I left.  They kinda looked like tomato plants at first glance, but such a great idea for a pop of color.

3.  All of the awesomesauce fall sitcoms are back on.  Thank GOD for Modern Family and Parks and Rec.  

4.  Check out the insane list of to-do's in our area this weekend.  I'm fairly certain there's something for everyone. 

     - Old Towne Manassas Fall Jubilee

     - Montclair Community Yard Sale

     - Fall Festival at Cox Farms

     - Okra's Louisiana Bistro's Pig Roast

     - Kids Fest at Fall for Fairfax

5.  I re-hired my assistant, only to find her sleeping on the job…

Finally, here's the weeks favorite Etsy finds (if you're just tuning in, we can't get enough of etsy.com).

Wood iPhone Cover | Handpainted Leather Clutch | Lightbult Aquarium | Chinois Pillow | Schumacher Lamp Shade | Brass Quail | Quatrefoil Business Cards | 

Happy Friday, folks!

- Bethany

Home Office Inspiration

As I put the finishing touches on my home office, I'm remembering my inspiration photos fondly.  A beautifully styled office can be just as pretty as any other room in the home.  Here are some of my favorite office beauties.

- Bethany

Cute, right??

Comes in tons of colors and works with your phone or your iPad.  Also supposed to reduce cell phone radiation (I'm pretty sure I'm a goner by now).  Totally considered this as a viable option for my office. :)


-Bethany

Week in Review

As you may or may not know, Kate and I have been hella busy this week starting our new gigs (so crazy it happened to be at the same time!).  While I miss working with her in the office everyday, at least we only live a couple of miles from each other.  
We usually like to do an 'Etsy Faves' post at the end of the week, but I'm gonna go ahead and break it down for you all and give you a lil' somethin' special.


1 - Local Alert - have you checked out Olivia Bloom?  It's headed up by a local gal who sources unique and totally cute kiddie clothing.  And while you are there - check out another local chickie's photos that showcase Olivia Bloom's threads - Randi Honey Morgan from Honey and Child.  Her portfolio is mostly baby headshots, but I thought this was an adorable outtake.

I went to high school with Randi (in Prince William County!) and she married a childhood friend of mine, but I never knew how talented she is until I stumbled across her cutesy-pie headbands in her Etsy store! 

2 - My friend sent me the latest Bloggess post today and I thought she deserves a big ups.  If you haven't read that shiz, check her out, she talks about pet drool, weirdo convo's with the hubby and all kinds of relevant stuff that us women folk deal with.  And BTW - just the header alone begs a read.

3 - Apparently Kate (RHoPWC) is off the sauce now (coffee, you freaks..).  Give her a big round of applause.  Me on the other hand - not so much.
4 - I MISSED THE EMMY'S.  Oh well, all I needed to see what the glitz, so the photos kinda did it for me the next day.  Here's my summary.  Did Katie Holmes just roll out of bed?  Why were the nude sparkly dresses so amazebuckets?  How come Christina Hendricks and Kate Winslet are the only women who ACTUALLY look like real women?  Whoa Julie Bowen - hot!  And Heidi Klum wore a peony from Seal's garden. 

5 - I had to fire my assistant, after only 4 DAYS, for goofing off on the job. (I work from home now)

APPLICANTS INQUIRE WITHIN. 

Happy Friday, folks!

-Bethany

For The Love of Stamps

Not much to say here but check out Lettergirl’s shop on Etsy. I’ll take one of everything please!! And also, can someone teach me to print like this as well? I feel inadequate ;)

- Kate

Busy Bee

On a day-to-day basis I find my type B personality trying to live a type A lifestyle. Lately I’m finding that I just can’t juggle everything because like the movie “I don’t know how she does it” (warning: wait for this one to come out on DVD) I’ve got too long of a list for one person. For those of us with husbands, roommates, kids… it’s okay to make a list for them and share the responsibility every once in a while. Also known as asking for help.

These asks get lost a lot in my household because the hubby and I get so freak’n busy. This weekend I went searching online to find a great little printed list to pencil in things for my honey to do - won’t he be so excited by this?! Here are some fun finds I came across on Etsy and Paper Source.

- Kate

Favorite Finds: Office Style + Organization

Okay - with all this talk of office chairs, curtains and the like I thought it was about time I shared one of my favorite sites for office organization items. See Jane Work! If you need inspiration or to find something unique and useful for your workspace then this is where I’d start.

If you’ve got any similar sites we’d love you to share. There’s a lot that Bethany and I are doing in our respective home offices to get in tip-top shape.

- Kate

Tick Tock & You Don't Stop

If a watched pot never boils, does that mean a tracked package will never arrive?

I ordered two linen panels (featured below) from West Elm for my home office mini--redo. When they arrived the color was too light for what I had envisioned. Drat! So instead of sending them back they found a new home in my living room, where I’ve got them layered over Restoration Hardware’s open-weave burlap drapes. Yum!! Even the hubby liked it. But of course this meant that I was missing on panel for the second window in the room and I’m wishing the it would arrive immediately. Seriously… like, right now.

- Kate

rando ramblings

I dislike the steampunk movement.  I feel like Helena Bonham-Carter violated Father Time.

QUICK, change of scenery.  I cannot wait to get to the beach for our vacation, it's taken way too long to get here this year.  I'm pretty much treating myself to a large slice of Smith Island Cake and a bushel of blue crabbers while looking out over this pretty body of water.

Lastly but probably most importantly, I NEED YOUR HELP. I have to find a chair for my office and I need to find it pretty quickly.  I have a lil something in mind but I can't seem to find just the right thing.  I want distressed leather, preferably whiskey/vachetta or saddle leather brown and I'd like it to have some personality. Not just a club chair or a dining chair or something non-descript.  Campaign, English, MCM...anything.  Any of you design gurus have any ideas??   Here's the feel I want from this chair:

I'm crazy for this chair, if only it were for sale!

 A MCM chair in consideration, from Wisteria.

 This should be easy enough to find on eBay or CL... but it escapes me!

The end-all-be-all chair, but just don't know if it's comfy (from Restoration Hardware).  Some solid options as far as leather chairs go, but still not loving the rest of their vibe.

Anything, ladies?

-Bethany

Favorite Finds: Stylish Recycling

My home office reorg continues and so too does my office related favorite finds! While purging myself of the ridiculous stylings I selected 6-years ago (seriously, what was I thinking?!) I’ve been searching for beautiful solutions to my ugly, cluttered office woes.


A serious passion of mine is reducing, reusing, and recycling (yay for good ad campaigns!). I could go nuts talking about this topic but I’ll save that for later because this is a favorite finds post and not a green-rant. But I do hope that all of you are doing your part… a piece of which is recycling your office paper. If you look back at my post Home Wasn’t Build In a Day: Office Part I (yes, I know there’s a terrible spelling error there but I’ve linked this post in so many places that there’s really no turning back now) and check out the pic “Exhibit C. Hell from another view.” That sad brown basket, under the pile of down comforters, was my previous recycling bin. Gag. Because we’re talking about paper recycling we can get creative about the solutions. There’s no liquids or other goo to mess up your bin. And since this needs to live in the home the container should fit your décor.

If you’ve got a stylish recycling solution we’d love to see it. So please share by leaving a comment.


- Kate

Favorite Finds: Thumbtacks/Push Pins

Well, you wouldn’t know it by reading my recent confession post on the disastrous state of my home office but I’m pretty much obsessed with all things organization. My office at work is tidy, colorful and sprinkled with little things that I love – to make my 8 hours productive and beautiful. In this space I have a rule (actually I have lots of these) about only using clear thumbtacks. But at home, I think it’s time to get a bit more adventurous and I’ve always loved decorative thumbtacks. I’m on the hunt for the perfect ones but here are some I found that are delightful.

Classic

Fabric Covered (if you google it you can make these on your own)

Travel Inspired

Fruity

Also, to add to my new thumbtack obsession – I saw an amazing art installation done only with thumbtacks. I did a little googling to find it (Fail Harder image) So creative!

Kate

Home Wasn't Build In A Day: Office, Part I

So I come to you, hanging my head in shame, with this admission and photos of the disaster that my life has become. Those of you who follow us on facebook may have noticed a trend of bitching from me about the unsettled state of my home décor. Well… it’s not even just the décor. If I’m gonna be completely honest I’ve been living like a slob. My husband has been putting up with this from me (lately) and I of him and now it’s time to do one of my favorite things – create some rules on how to get back on track (Bethany, please stop laughing at me!).

Exhibit A. Red = slobtasticness

We’ve been in our 945 sqft house for 6-years and we bought it as a real fixer upper (I’ll share pics with you in future posts to illustrate the understatement that this is). Like most first-time home buyers we were eager to fix things up to create a place that felt like ours. While we definitely jumped in head-first, over the past year my interest and our time to redo just hasn’t been there. But as I look through all our favorite blogs (see list to the right) I’m feeling inspired and shamed into finishing what we started.

So where to begin? Our home office. This space serves double duty as my hubby’s office, where he thought he’d be running the admin side of his music career (this is actually done from the living room couch); this is also my office, where I manage the household stuff, surf the web and blog. There’s a lot of other hodgepodge in here because, after all, it’s a small house and every room does a bit of multitasking. After a few months of life being turned up-side-down by a family tragedy and packing for a 4th of July trip that turned the man-of-the-house into the incredible hulk (he straight up trashed this room trying to get a suitcase out of the closet to the point of requiring paint touch ups)… oh and the universe's my tendency towards chaos – I give you exhibit B and C

Exhibit B. Hell

Exhibit C. Hell from another view

And now I’m officially kicking off my "Home Wasn't Built In A Day" series so I can share with you the dumbness that I’ve created and hopefully the amazeballs house we (the man and I, not you and me) talked about for years. This inaugural mission has an August 1st deadline… for those of you still reading this that means just over two weeks. I’ve got everything from paint touchups to replacing a door on my task list so this may be aggressive.

Let the obsessing begin.
- Kate

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KEEPING IT REAL [7/25]
I am sooooo behind. I've got this room all cleaned up but have yet to make any noticable updates beyond that. Hmmm... need to get this done.