Necklace Obsession

I don't know why, but lately I've gone a little overboard on necklaces.  I usually go for bracelets and earrings, but recently I bought a necklace and then before I knew it I had a bought two more...I've become obsessed!! haha Somebody stop me!  Here are my new treasures:

 Stella and Dot's Vintage Stella Link Necklace - LOVE it!!  It's a piece that is classic, but still bold and fun all at the same time.  It's so versatile!  I imagine I'll get a lot of wear out of it over the years to come.

Kendra Scott's Tavi Chalcedony Necklace - I got this necklace on Gilt!  A good deal, and I adore the color. 



Sea Blue Necklace from IKE and Co. on Etsy - I saw this necklace and fell in love with it and ordered it immediately.  When I received it, I loved it even more in person! So pretty!!  Perfect for Summer!  In addition to her store, Angie also has a blog, Life with IKE.  If you want to visit her, click here.



What are your current obsessions??  Any new treasures that you would like to share with us?

Tara

More Wednesday Wishes

I adore Sarah Richardson! Okay, I will say it...I confess that I have a designer crush on Sarah.  A Major Crush!  When I first watched Sarah's House on HGTV, I was hooked and raved about her designs and remodels to my friends, and now they know what all of the fuss was about.  Some of them are now hooked on Sarah too!  She has seriously outdone herself on Sarah's Summer House - the house is to die for!  I wish that one day Sarah could design a room for me in my house!  Here are some of my favorite Sarah Rooms:

 

***All images are from HGTV

Sarah definitely inspires me!  I'm going to try to learn from her use of color, pattern and texture when adding those elements to my own kitchen and dining room.  That is unless somehow, my wish comes true and Sarah wants to re-do the rooms herself.  A girl can dream can't she?

Tara

Adding Layers to Our Kitchen & Dining Rooms

I'm seriously obsessed with houses!!  I know most of you can relate.  I have always had a passion for looking at houses and home decor ever since I was a little girl.  I used to dream about the house I would have, and I used to absolutely love going to the furniture store.  There was one in my hometown right by the bank, and every time we went to the bank, I would beg my mom to go to look at the furniture store.  Seriously!!  I was only in elementary school then, and it wasn't until recently that my mom and I talked about about it.  She admitted that she started avoiding going to that bank when I was with her if she didn't have time for the furniture store as she knew I would want to go.   haha  What kid begs to go to the furniture store?! not the toy store or candy store, but the furniture store?  

I still could spend hours in furniture stores, and I obviously have no problems buying the funiture.  My dilemma now is that I love all different styles of decor, so when decorating my own home I find it hard to pick colors and patterns, especially for curtains, pillows, rugs.  I do realize that these items are easily changed and if I perhaps don't like what I picked, I can always replace it...pretty simple concept, right?  But I still have such a hard time committing!! It's really funny to me because with the big pieces of furniture, I had no problem knowing exactly what I wanted.  Well that is after I did my diligent research of course, but once I made my decision, I was done.  No buyer's remorse!  I've loved our furniture since the minute it was placed in our home.  The funny part is that those pieces were expensive, big dollar items.  So one would think that I'd have a hard time making a decision on something that was 1) going to cost a lot of money and 2) I'd most likely be stuck with for a very long time!  However, it's quite the opposite, I have no problem with those decisions, but it's the little ones as in the fabric choices, rug patterns, curtains that I've had a really hard time with and those items can be purchased pretty reasonably and be replaced if needed. 

My goal now is to start adding layers, texture and color to our house.  I have to start somewhere and there's no time like the present, right?!  I just need to go for it, and then let myself now that it's OKAY if I decide I don't like it, and I can always change it again.  

For a start, here is our Kitchen/Dining Room:



As I noted, I'd like to add curtains, rugs, maybe even slipcover the two end chairs to mix up the look or eventually get upholstered chairs!  I did get a new rug to go in front of the kitchen sink from Ballard Designs.  I'm still figuring out if I like it.  I adore these striped drapes that Courtney did from A Thoughtful Place.  Maybe I could get brave and give it a try?!  

Tara

A Fabulous Giveaway!!!

I don't know about you, but I just LOVE STELLA & DOT.  I actually just ordered a necklace yesterday and can't wait to receive it...but while I'm waiting, I entered this FABULOUS Stella and Dot GIVEAWAY for a pair of beautiful earrings at

 

You should go over there right now!!! It ends tomorrow...don't wait until it's too late!

Tara

Introducing...

Today, I'm wishing I was curled up on one of these porches drinking an ice cold lemonade and reading a great book.  Blame it on my southern roots, but I have a special place in my heart just for BIG welcoming porches!  I'm hoping one day I'll have a porch similar to one of these...

 
**Pictures from Better Homes and Garden and HGTV

What's on your wish list?

Tara

It's Friday!!

Hope all of you have a fabulous Friday and an even better weekend!  I hope to be able to do more of this...after some work of course.

What are your weekend plans???

Tara

More Looks for Less

When the time finally came to shop for a new dining room table and chairs, I shopped at multiple stores trying to figure out what look I wanted.  I even drug Jeff to many stores to have him help me look at sizes, quality, and of course prices.  I wanted something in dark wood that looked rustic and could seat a lot of people since we entertain quite a bit.  Naturally, I fell in love with a table from PB AGAIN!  I knew that I wanted something that would be for the long-term and I dreamed of our holidays all gathered around the table for elaborate dinners or all of our family members in our pj's around the table playing board games (my mom is passionate about her game playing to say the least!).  Sorry getting a little off topic, but I tend to put a lot of thought and emotion into my furniture buying as you can tell.  My husband on the other hand views it as simply a table.  So the hunt continued to find something that would satisfy my "wants" but be affordable so that we would both be happy.  I then took a different route, and I found a local custom furniture store that could make a table very similar to my PB dream table for a lot less - $700 less that is!!  And to top it off, you aren't going to believe this, but they had already made the table I wanted for another client before!!  I drug hubby to go look with me and he gave me the go-ahead, and a table was made!! Well after about two months, but nonetheless, we have the beautiful, handmade, solid wood table in our home now!  It's so heavy that it took 3 men to carry it into our home.  Definitely going to last for a long time! 

I think the table searching/buying mission was a complete success....do you agree?  Here are the pics to compare below:

Pottery Barn's Benchwright Table

Our Dining Room Table:

They did an amazing job, don't you think?

Now, as you can see, I do have very similar Leather Parsons Chairs as those in the PB picture.  You really didn't think I'd stop at the table did you?  Well, PB's Parson Leather chairs run $299 a pop!  I think this made my husband's head spin.  Of course I was on another mission, and I ended up finding these chairs at JCPenney on sale for $140 a pair - $70 per chair! 



Tara

LOOKS for LESS!

Pottery Barn is definitely at the top of my list of favorite stores!  I get excited every time a new issue of their catalog comes in the mail - I love looking through the pictures for decorating inspiration.  However, it's not always the most affordable store to shop at when you have a whole house to fill.  Do not get me wrong, I have bedding, dishes and accessories all from PB that I love.  I just can't help myself though as I always fall in love with their furniture too, which the hubby is not so fond of the big ticket price!!  Here's the trick though - I've learned to use PB as my inspiration but challenge myself to shop elsewhere to find the same look for less, especially for those big ticket items! 

When shopping for our Master Bedroom, I absolutely adored PB's Hudson Bed.  After a little research, I found a VERY similar bed at Bassett Furniture, which was perfect since we have one about ten minutes from our house.  I knew the price was already a lot cheaper than the PB price, but when we bought the bed, they were having a Memorial Day sale, and we were able to get the King Bed for only $500!  Can't beat that!  Here's the comparison of the two beds:

Pottery Barn's Hudson Bed

And now our Bed that I showed you before from our Master Bedroom:

I think the two beds are very similar, and I still get the same look I was going for, so the savings was totally worth spending time to shop around and find the look for less!



Tara

Happy Monday!

Hope all of you had a fantastic weekend!  I know I did!  Had a great date night with my husband Jeff on Friday night, but then since it's been a while since we've actually been in town with no major plans, we hosted a BBQ at our house to hang out and catch up with all of our friends!  We decided that my husband would do some kind of BBQ on his smoker, and I'd make a couple of things, but then we'd tell our friends to bring something if they wanted - potluck style!  This was HUGE for me as I LOVE to cook and entertain so usually I go overboard and make tons of food....however, I must say this was super fun as our friends brought over some amazing dishes, and we were all able to try and taste new things and now want to exchange recipes.  This might have to happen more often since it was so fun! and of course we still had TONS of food!

Here's what I made:

Black Bean, Corn and Avocado Salsa

Mozzarella, Avocado and Tomato Salad (served w/ Baguette)

This was from one of my favorite blogs, Val So Cal

White Wine Sangria

And Jeff made smoked pulled pork sliders and grilled corn!

I forgot to take a picture of the Strawberry Cake I made, which just means I'll have to make it again to share with you soon!  It was AMAZING (if I do say so myself)!!  We all agreed that it was almost like a big strawberry pancake....Mmmm.  Let's just say we started eating it before dinner and then couldn't stop eating it after dinner!

Also, my friends brought over Elote (a roasted corn dip that was delish), Ceviche (some of the best I've ever had - honestly!), Redfish (that the guys actually had caught on a fishing trip and they seasoned and cooked it perfectly) and Buffalo Chicken Dip (one of my husbands favorites).  Oh and let's not forget the Chocolate Sheet Cake that was so good people just started digging in with their forks! hah

Yes, it was a gluttonous day for sure, but it was so great to catch up with some of our closest friends.   A perfect weekend.

CELEBRATING THE 4TH!

Happy 4th of July!!!  Hope everyone is having a fun and safe day!

Here's a picture of the cupcakes I made.  It's a new low cal recipe - I'll let you know how well they go over! 

Also, a little shout out to my amazing Mom - it's her Birthday today! AND Wedding Anniversary!!  She and my stepdad are celebrating 10 wonderful married years together!!  Happy Birthday and Anniversary - you deserve only the best!

Fashion for Summer

I hope all of you are having a fabulous summer so far!  We've already had many fun-filled weekends with our families and friends enjoying the warm weather and water activities (ok, it's TEXAS, so I mean HOT weather and submerging yourself in a pool, lake or ocean to cool off...but back to what I wanted to share with you).  Here are a few of my favorite summer fashion pieces and accessories that I've been enjoying!

Gap's Woven Straw Fedora Hat

LOFT's Knit Dress with Ruffle Trim

Banana Republic's Murphy Aviator Sunglasses

Anthropologie's Languid V-Neck Top

Elaine Turner Suzie Sandal

(I have these on today!)

What are your favorite summer fashion pieces or accessories??  I'd love to hear!

Tara