Archive for November 2010

Fashion Styles

Out of all of creative releases I pursue, fashion is by far my favorite. Allowing me to express myself, personality, and love for style everyday is exhilarating. For me, deciding what to wear is a challenge that I aim to win every morning. Putting together a unique blend of colors and textures is like decorating; it takes time and requires an eye for style. I love how fashion is constantly changing, requiring one to be innovative in your attire.


Over the years my fashion sense has evolved, greatly changing from the high school years of just wearing what was "cool" to wearing what I perceive to be rousing, despite what others proclaim. Being in the workforce, I'm silently restrained to a dress code, but there are always ways around that. :) 

I love taking pieces from the variety of style categories.  I'd say I tend to stick within these three main categories:

  • Classic - a modern, timeless style
  • Eclectic - a style comprised of broad and various trends
  • Indie - an independent, original style with thrift or vintage hints 






My style varies with each setting. For work I tend to shift more towards a classic look, whereas on the weekend or when I'm just bumming around, I like to wear Indie inspired clothing. 

What fashion style do you tend to lend upon? Has it changed over the years or stayed the same?

In future posts I hope to provide "look books" of my current fashion style and how I go about each day creating a unique look.

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Color Scheme

The way you and others visually perceive your surroundings carries great significance. Is your living room an eye sore because of the particular shade of pea green it gives off? Color is often the hardest decision a person will make when decorating a house. Ironically it is often the easiest to overlook.  Color has such a powerful influence in our daily lives, much to our amiss.  It infuses us with emotions and expresses personal style.

Becoming familiar with color schemes and theory will dramatically make decorating simpler and look more professional. Understanding what harmonious colors are (colors side by side on the color wheel) and what complementary colors are (opposite colors on a color wheel) along with many more color schemes will aid in the process of deciding what colors "go" together.


  


          Websites for Color Inspiration

                             Colour Lovers
                             Color Schemer
                             Color Matters











I recently found an amazing book that has helped me when I pondered over what color palette would work best for my wedding. The Color Scheme Bible discusses color theory, lighting, moods color creates, and how to find inspiration in color. The rest of the book is basically a color palette directory, displaying 200 different colors. 


The Color Scheme Bible




Color Palette Directory


I highly recommend buying or renting this book from the library if you find putting color palettes too strenuous or are just interested in expanding your color awareness. Many people fear color. DON'T! The more you realize how fun color is to play with, the more intriguing your decor will become.  Step out of the box and try a bold color on one wall. What is the worst that could happen? It look horrible and you have to repaint a wall? This is nothing compared to the delight you will receive when finding that perfect color that completes your look.

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Simple and Organized

Personifying myself through my fashion and the way I decorate my surroundings (i.e. apartment and work space) has always been a creative outlet that I continually seek to improve. When I was in high school, I declared to my parents that I wanted to paint the ceiling of my room purple. I also painted the inside of my closet the same color; hand-painting shooting stars throughout. I still have the birthday card that inspired me to do so.




Once moving into my own apartment, the decor became essential.  It's funny how the state of one's living space can greatly enhance one's happiness.  Going home after a long day to my own space that displays my interests, alway puts me at ease.  I grew up in a meticulously clean house and have been raised with that same instinctive desire to always have organization, along with an interesting decor.  

These are just a few of the several amazing websites that I utilize to help me keep my decor fresh and my organizational tools top-notch. In my following posts, I'm sure these will continue to pop up. 

I've found that one of the best ways to inspire new ideas for decorating is to physically go out and window shop. My favorite places to find hidden treasures are antique and thrift stores. With a keen eye and clever imagination, many "junk" items can be transformed into the focal point of a room. Not only do these items come with a pretty price tag, but they allow buyers to reuse and recycle high quality goods. Most older furniture I've come across is constructed with more solidarity than furniture of current, making a great bargain buy.  My preferred store to find unique refurbished items is Second Chance in Holland, MI or Estate Sales Warehouse in Grand Rapids, MI.  

With any urge to redecorate, my first task is to envision how I want the space to eventually appear.  Mood boards are a perfect way to start your visualization. Rip out pages of items that spark your interest in magazines or create a "Home Design" bookmark on your Internet browser for pages you want to save.  Let products from outside of the decor realm become inspiration for you; fashion, nature, food, architecture and industrial. Beauty is all around. Being able to pick up on that beauty and incorporating it into your decor has great potential for success. Another helpful tidbit to jump start your decorating journey is to find out what your "style" is. Knowing this can save you time deciding between what you like and do not like in terms of furniture and accessories.

Picking out one item that you want to be a focal point in each room is key.  Say your focal point is an inspiring  abstract painting in bright colors. Utilizing the colors and textures in this painting can be a starting point to picking other colors in that same color scheme that you'd like to incorporate into the rest of the room. Keep the room consistent.  If it helps to take a picture or color swatch of your focal point and bring it with you when shopping, then do so! I always carry a card with the color wheel on one side and my "color analysis" on the other in my wallet. These come in handy usually when I'm shopping for clothes and want to remember what colors look best on me, but also help when deciding what colors blend best for decorating. I'll talk more about colors in my next post.

Upon deciding your focal point and a color scheme, buying the items can actually be the easiest part. Take your time when buying items for your apartment/house. If you go without a lamp or chair for a couple of weeks, it won't be the end of the world. In that time, you can make sure you know exactly what you want and know that you did your research prior.  Try not to buy all your house fixings at the mall. Yes, it is convenient, but usually bland and not unique at all. There are so many awesome online resources and plenty of cool antique/thrift stores out there to quench any decorators thirst. Remember to remain true to yourself and to buy items that reflect your personal taste.

Try to use your space wisely, balancing between overcrowded and sparse.  Nothing leaves guest more uncomfortable than coming into a house that doesn't have enough seating or is so crammed that there is no room to move! When placing furniture in it's intended spots remember that you can always rearrange your furniture in the future, it does not have to permanently say there. This is a cheap and quick way to change the way a room looks.

More to come with helpful hints on decorating!

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Centerpieces

When guests arrive for your wedding reception, the first thing most people notice are the centerpieces. These usually present important questions. Did you make these yourself or have someone else do it? Are they tacky or elegant? Expensive or Thrifty? Creative or just boring? 

I wanted these to reflect Zach and I, while staying within our budget. Once again, the assortment of blogs helped me narrow down this vision to something I could put together with the help of my florist.





To help with the "thrifty" aspect of these, I had my mother and future mother-in law ask friends and family if they'd be willing to let us borrow any blue mason jars. With our luck, we ended up with way more than we needed! Who knew that so many people would have these.  They run any where from $5 - $10 a piece at antique stores/online and we got them for free!

Wanting to focus on the details, I struggled with finding other pieces to go with the mason jars.  Since we could only find rather large pieces of driftwood, we nixed the idea of putting these on each table. Going with our "wood/nature" theme, I found inspiration on craigslist. While searching for paper lanterns, I came across this picture and knew at once that I wanted to duplicate the wood slices they had on each table.










I love the rustic vibe these centerpieces give.  The burlap table linens give it a dramatic flair and complete this look. This is similar to what we envision our reception to look and feel like. I'd love to incorporate one more item to our tables besides the wood slices (with candle) and blue mason jars. Grouping items in three gives a space visual interest and a "decorator look" to it. I'm contemplating using succulents, but not sure if this will clash with our theme. Here are my inspirations thus far.

Succulent Centerpieces





Succulent Place Cards

With plenty of time, the rest of these preparations have been put on the back burner for now.  Moving on to more pressing matters like what Zach and his groomsmen will wear! :)

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Color Palettes

What is one of the first questions any woman asks another who recently gets engaged?

"What are your colors?!"

For me, I've always been pulled towards the blue spectrum. Ever since I was little, it has been my favorite color. This was definitely an important feature to our wedding and Zach was all in favor of a blue scheme....I don't think he realized how many types of blues there were until I asked him what shade of blue. :)

So with the color blue in mind, I searched for inspiration and fell in love with sea glass.


                            


Getting Inspired with Color by Pearls Events

J Crew

I knew that I wanted to incorporate our love for the outdoors and nature in general; so along with the sea glass color scheme, hints of wood tones helped bring that rustic outdoor feel to the palette. Of course, driftwood came to mind first. Having the lovely Lake Michigan at our disposal, we found some nice pieces before the winter hit. My vision was to drill a few holes large enough for candles to sit in and use these on our bridal party and gift tables. Once we got home, I realized we had way too many pieces of wood...so Zach surprised me by displaying one of the pieces in our apartment. A cheap way to liven up a plain apartment wall! 



With the color palette set, choosing bridesmaids dresses came easy. Being an avid J Crew shopper, I knew I wanted to get the dresses there and figured I could find them cheaper than most bridal shops. I was pleasantly surprised to find four different style dresses all in "Fresh Mint" color on super sale! 






Having a clear focus and vision for my wedding, I was able to get all of this decided and bought before October...about a month after I got engaged. Yes, my fiancé calls me crazy, but I am pretty content knowing that I won't have to scramble to find the perfect bridesmaids dresses and that I am not making my girls pay an arm and a leg to do so! 

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Growth

Like any good idea that comes to mind; it stays, dwells, festers for a while, until it is utilized or discarded. It wasn't until I'd done plenty of soul searching that I went to pick up that discarded idea.

I've been told that once you become engaged, the wedding fever ensues.  Well I got the fever alright...along with that came a slight obsession with blogs. Wedding, fashion, photography, cooking, decorating, the list of blogs goes on. Enlightening my mind, stirring senses, and reviving my creativity, I began dreaming of what I could do in the daily grind to embark on these feelings.

I began with the decorating and design aspects of my wedding.  Using the many inspirations online, I envisioned a vintage, rustic dream wedding. I added fashion styling to my repertoire, practicing on my willing mother. When that wasn't enough, I took a wack at sewing and other crafty endeavors.

My hope is to be a source of knowledge for others who enjoy the designs of the heart; those daily tasks and creative moments we all have.  Whether it is decorating, giving fashion advice, organizing clutter, crafting odds 'n ends, or slaving away in the kitchen, I'm happy, content.  You could say my heart is full of daisies...

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