Celebrity Holiday Homes

I’m feeling very uninspired by design these days. Which is terrible as its Christmas, my absolute FAVORITE time of year and everywhere I look should fuel creativity in me. So I’ll lean on the creativity of other designers tonight.

I caught part of HGTV’s Celebrity Holiday Homes special the other night. Though the celebs were sort of ho-hum, (why won’t the decorate Jennifer Aniston’s house or something?!?!) the designers had some sort of cute ideas. The special runs periodically throughout December so check your listings.

{Brooke Burke and David Charvet's White and Silver Christmas}

{Sherri Shepherd's Gold and Champagne Holiday Motif}

{Trisha Yearwood's Simple Southern Christmas}

*All images from the HGTV website*

Fabulous Farrah: a DIY t-shirt project

"Once upon a time there were three beautiful girls who went to the police academy, and they were each assigned very hazardous duties. But I took them away from all that and now they work for me. My name is Charlie."

I love Charlie’s Angles. To be very clear, I love the 70’s Charlie’s Angles à la Aaron Spelling…NOT the crappy Cameron Diaz movie Charlie’s Angels. Disgrace.

I love how chic and glamorous the Angles were running in heels with perfect flowing hair and always, always solving the case and catching the bad guys. And they drove such cool cars.

My absolute favorite angel is Jill Munroe played by Farrah Fawcett. My grandpa had the real iconic 70’s red swimsuit wearing Farrah poster hanging in his basement when I was young. It seems to have vanished after he died and my grandma sold that house, but I have faith that it will resurface someday and find a new home on my wall. My dad recalls that he painted black light paint over that poster when he was younger so that she glows. Even more 70’s!!!

I googled the poster a while back just to see how much they were going for these days (a lot for an original), but I came across many other items with the same poster image. One item in particular was an orange t-shirt with the Farrah image screen printed on the front. The seller was asking $65 and I thought, “Well hell, I can make that for next to nothing”. So I did!

I found a pale orange v-neck t-shirt at Old Navy for $5.99. I used a leftover iron on transfer from our Lost finale party. I had purchased the transfers from Michael’s for $9.99 for a pack of 10.

I found a high resolution image online of the poster and then reversed the image in Photoshop (you will need to reverse it so that it prints as a mirror image on the transfer). Print image from a laser printer onto the iron on transfer.

Place transfer on shirt where you want the image to be and press iron down for 20 seconds. Move around the image pressing each section down (do not drag iron back and forth over image like you do when ironing clothes). I went around the edges a second time for an additional 5 seconds. When the transfer is cool enough to touch, slowly peel back the transfer to reveal image. Voila!

{snapshots of t-shirt making}

{modeling Farrah t-shirt next to my friend's Farrah poster}

“I’ve been cheating on fashion with furniture,” -Carrie Bradshaw

Last night, Nat and I opted for a girl’s night featuring a little vino and a lot of Sex and the City 2. While the movie was fairly mediocre, the fashion and new men (HELLLLLO Samantha’s new international architect find) were fun. But the real scene stealer was the interiors of Carrie and Big’s new Manhattan apartment. I’m literally drooling over every design decision!

Check out some snapshots of Carrie and Big's new digs...

How eye catching is that backsplash tile? Its Oval from Health Ceramics. I am also loving the whimsical print on the chairs...Belgravia from Lee Jofa.

Accent pillow is Birdie Blossom by the Rug Company. Retro-inspired coffee table is Ninfea from Poltrona Frau. I love how the books are displayed upright.

Closet shot.

I love the large scale of the upholstered headboard...fabric is Velvet Gate Tuxedo from Kravet

My FAV FAV FAV part about this apartment is the dramatic wallpaper. The bedroom features Rococo Damask by Cole and Son.
The entry features Oiseau in Chocolate by Katie Ridder.

A Little LOST Love

I love Lost. I mean, I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE Lost. Some friends and I had a pretty spectacular Hawaiian themed Lost finale viewing party this weekend complete with Dharma beer and Mr. Cluck’s fried chicken… “Have a cluckety-cluck-cluck day!”. One of our party activities was to make tshirts using iron on transfers and puff paints. Needless to say, we became a pretty creative bunch, pretty fast!

Geo's "Polar Beer, Maaaaaaaaaaalt Liqour" design

My friend, Pharon, modeling her "Mr. Eko in a Dharma Logo" design

A friend sent me a link to these spectacular gems. Each poster, designed by Ty Mattson, is available on abc.com for $45.95 each. Not only are these retro style posters a great way to immortalize my favorite show on my wall, I’m thinking that they may make an awesome tshirt as well! :)

Finale party pics…just for fun…

good v. evil, balloon form

Dharma beer, a product of the Hanso Foundation

wall of candidates

Dharma Initiative cupcakes

Counting Down the Days...

I have that feeling that I used to get when I was a little girl. That feeling of sheer excitement I’d get a few days before my birthday party when I had just been to the store with my mom to pick out all of the decorations and favors, selected my cake and was trying to pump my brothers for hints about the contents of the beautifully wrapped gifts just waiting for my big day. Yesterday, I came across this awesome news over on The Love List. Then today, I saw this promo air on Bravo.

My current design crush is actually a ménage à trois. Bob and Cortney Novogratz are a husband and wife design team who own the NYC based design firm Sixx Design, and authors of my current favorite design book, "Downtown Chic”. I’m in love with their chic, eclectic style of combining old and new; budget friendly items with definitely not so budget friendly items, and amazing detailing solutions. These two think crazy far out side of the box to solve those annoying little design problems. Why have a typical sliding door to get to your patio from your kitchen when you could have a fully operational garage door instead?

The extra cool twist to these two is that they are the parents of SEVEN children! I’m tired just thinking about that. Their crazy lives are featured on Bravo’s new docu-series, 9 By Design, premiering Tuesday, April 13. I have followed (and worshiped) Sixx Design’s work for years and cannot wait for a behind the scenes look at their design process and personal lives as they take on several new design projects including the design/construction of their own home.

Kitchen to patio via a garage door

Novogratz clan

{images from here}