#112 Spring Sparkle

Early springs make me happy!  I hardly had to wear a sweater this winter, so I will really not need to buy too many new ones next year. I keep telling myself this in hopes that I can save money and closet space but i'm not sure I'm fooling anyone but myself...


It's a little cooler today than it has been, so I figured I better wear my sequined sweatshirt while I still can.  Here's to wearing more sparkles & sequins to celebrate spring!

via "keep calm and..."

 green sparkle purse by amanda pearl

 sparkle nails via pinterest

 best kind of closet ever...the sparkly kind! 
via pinterest

#111 Furniture Painting Daydreams

In my rebellious phase, I decided I was not going to be like my mother...I was going to paint!   At that time, my mother thought paint was the devil.  She refused to have any painted furniture or woodwork or walls in her house.  Only cherry wood & wallpaper was allowed.  What a funny teenager I was that this was the way I chose to rebel and since then I've become the one obsessed with wallpaper.  In those days, I daydreamed about painting & obsessively collected paint chips at the hardware store.  Then came the day I decided to paint an entire secondhand bedroom set.  It was the middle of the summer of '04 and I was armed with an orbital sander.  Lots of learning happened in those 4 pieces of furniture. 


Recently I've been dreaming about painting again.  Somewhere out there a piece of furniture was calling out to me for a makeover.  I found it in the basement of a pre-war building covered in dust & locked shut.  An early 1900's china cabinet... oh Craigslist, I love you.  I brought it home, picked the lock & cleaned it like crazy.  

oh so lovely looking grainy photo disguising all the dust & damage

lock-picking tools

After cleaning it, I sanded down all the nicked and rough areas & patched the fretwork.  Then I primed the whole thing & painted the inside a light grey to match the apartment walls.

damage repaired and getting ready for primer

primed...lots of fumes

Let me just warn you that I had to use some crazy primer (B-I-N primer- it works on any surface oil-based paint, stain, or latex) on this because I'm lazy and didn't want to do any more sanding or stripping.  The stuff smelled like I was swimming in a vat of alcohol fumes.  While in this vat of fumes I decided I wanted the color to be dramatic & I had some peachy-coral paint left over from another project.  When it was dry I realized I must have been high on some paint fumes. The color was Barbie Dream House pink.  Not quite the kind of drama I was going for...

pepto pink = not quite right

The great thing about paint-- I decided to paint over the pink. I chose a dark navy with polished nickel knobs.  Way classier, but still dramatic.  Perfection.

navy & knobs- all done!

#110 Secrets & Shopping

What's the secret to the perfect Fall wardrobe? Perfect boots? Perfectly cozy cardigan sweater? Cute hat & gloves? A new fall bag? I'm pretty sure it's a combination of all these and more (forgot to mention jackets, scarves & a pile of crunchy leaves!).  Something doesn't feel quite right with my current wardrobe though.  So, I've decided to do a wardrobe "make-under" (check it out at MakeunderMyLife.com).  It started last week.  I took everything out of my closet & put it all on the bed in my guest room. "Nice job!" I told myself.  The next day I get an email from a friend who's coming to visit.  Yay!  Friends!  Pile of clothes returned promptly to closet.  This week I'm going to start afresh.  No trying to get out of making decisions by just throwing clothes in the guest room.  No trying to keep everything and just rearranging it.  I'm going to be serious about only keeping things that fit my perfect wardrobe.

unrealistic dream of a wardrobe via pinterest

My other remedy to the wardrobe blahs has been to go shopping.  How come there are so many good deals?!  Here are my newest wardrobe additions to shake up the massive piles of t-shirts & jeans that have taken over my closet.  A leopard print coat (I'm not normally a leopard print kinda girl, but I'll try anything once), grey practical (i.e. "flat") loafers & a deep forest green a-line wool skirt (totally chic & goes with all those t-shirts).  I'm still dying for a new bag...

latest & greatest: Old Navy leopard print coat, Sole Society Capri loafers, J. Crew skirt

What's your secret to the perfect fall wardrobe?  And if you have any wardrobe make-over/under secrets, I'd take those too.