A little rule.

I have a little rule that I often tell myself now that I'm trying to make it in the big, scary world of interior design/decorating: A room doesn't have to be complicated and over-styled to be beautiful*.

Case in point:



*Of course, beautiful architecture helps.

{found via homesweethome}

a little sad...

Confession: My husband and I live 19.1 miles from the beach, yet we haven't gone once this summer. Not only that, but I haven't put on a bathing suit once, either.

Depressing.

It's not that we haven't wanted to... but time is very hard to come by these days. I'm going to make it a point to go soon, though. Not this weekend (no time!)... maybe next weekend, husband? I need to show off my changing bod, after all (6.8 lbs lost during WW so far).

In related news, I'm loving this bathing suit from Anthro:

just cool.

This space is just "cool". Really, there are no other words for it.



Cool factor: table in the fireplace to house the TV. Four ghost chairs. Industrial crate for a coffee table, stacked with books of course. The metal leg of that couch! The mid century modern chair peeking out of the corner of the image.

All in all, cool.

found here.

Practice

As I mentioned before, I'm working on a teenie tiny little project. Tonight I started with some styling practice. Okay, it was actually me just playing around. When I "play", you'll find me like this: stare, move things around, stare some more, cock my head, burrow my brows. I thought you guys may be interested in my practice playtime outcome. Here are some iphone snapshots:


Inside my head: "Hmmm. Too left heavy."


Inside my head: "Okay, now the right hand looks weird. I think it's the stark white."


Inside my head: "Black is much better. The plant print even mimics the actual plant a little."

I'm pretty okay with the last vignette, especially since it was created with items found in our home. But we'll see if I decide to play around some more later....

Cutting Glass - ?

Can you please help me?

See, I'm planning a teenie tiny little project in our home which involves fitting a piece of glass on top of a table. Unfortunately, I don't really have anyone handy in my life so I'm a bit clueless as how to actually find the glass and have the said glass cut to fit the table top.

I'm hoping I can go to Lowe's or Home Depot and they can provide this service? Is it expensive? Maybe plexiglass could be a good alternative?

Can anyone out shine any light onto this? If so, I'll promise to share what I have up my sleeve (even though it's not too exciting), and it may even be featured on another blog ;)

UPDATE - WOW. Again, my readers know how to deliver! Thank you so much for all the tips! I found two glass companies locally so I'm going to price them out. I may also check Lowe's. But I'll start here.

Thanks again!!!!!

Blog Love (!!!!!)

The reason for the (!!!!!) is because I am so in love with this blog I've recently come across:



You just have to see these amazing pictures...









And these images are just on the first page! The designs of Tracery Interiors are so fresh and unique. Truly amazing. You must go here and save the link to your blog roll.

July 23rd & I'm dreaming of Fall...

Is it too early? I've been dreaming of fall lately. A little list of why fall is my favorite...

- Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes
- The building excitement knowing the holiday's are coming (sometimes the anticipation is even better than the actually holidays)
- Weather turning from way too hot to beautiful and cool
- Pretty, lightweight coats that are more fashion statements than weather protectors
- Wedding anniversary! (which is why we got married in the fall, because I love it so much)

Specifically this fall, I'm excited for becoming debt free. (by end of August to be exact!) It's a great (and greatly anticipated) accomplishment for us. There may be some other exciting things happening this fall, too. Maybe! Too early to tell.

Speaking of fall & our anniversary, I completely plan on spending our anniversary someday doing this:



Perhaps not this year's anniversary, but September is the perfect month to have a candlelit outdoor dinner. What better occasion to do that than our anniversary?

So it's only 8.5 more days until August... that's not TOO early to be dreaming about fall, is it?

the origin of 'urban cottage interiors'

I just received an anonymous comment on my "Goals" post below asking this:

also ... why did you select "urban cottage interiors?" cottage isn't a word i'd use to describe your style.

This is a great question that I'd like to address. Of course, I want my business name to be something I can stick with for years (decades?), and I want to make sure it's the right for me. I plan on becoming an LLC in the near future (there are a couple little details I'm working out), so before I go through the legal stuff, I want to make sure the name is the name!

The reason I chose urban cottage interiors is because I've always considered my style to have a juxtaposition of urban [contemporary] and cottage [casual] elements. I like mixing new, modern pieces with old refurbished antiques. When I think about my company and the "target" customer, I imagine a home in a somewhat large city, like Los Angeles or Atlanta. The owners are both working parents with children or maybe a young newlywed couple just starting their professional life. They live busy lives and want their home to be their sactuary. They like nice modern things, but also want a casual, comfortable place to come home to at night with linens and jute and simplicity. I've always considered "urban cottage" to be a great way to describe that type of style.

But now ms.anonymous has me doubting it?

I've found some pictures that I feel is my "style":

urban: graphic modern chair
cottage: natural fiber rug, antique pedestal

urban: clean lines, modern, dark nightstand
cottage: white! simple colors and textures

urban: black walls, glossy black dresser, that orange pendant!
cottage: Ikat fabric, traditional chaise lounge

Please, do let me know what you think!


EDIT: Oh my gosh!!! Thank you so much for the amazing feedback, and quick too! I think each and every one of you had great points. I think the fact alone that I'd need to "explain" the name is a red flag. Jenny from Green Little Notebook put it best - "cottage" means something different to everyone. That is not a good thing, I definitely do not want to pigeon hole myself. I am now leaning toward my own name: bryn alexandra interiors. Thanks again!

Goals

I've been thinking about them a lot lately...



Serious Goals
- Build a business plan
- Launch official urban cottage interiors website before summer is over
- Write a press release (and of course, send it out)
- Create a beautiful and organized work space for myself

Not So Serious Goals
- Have my work linked to Home Sweet Home
- Future home tour on Apartment Therapy (we need the home first... haha)
- Get my blog readership up
- Have some popular design blogs save my blog on their favorites

One of these things is not like the other....

Here's a snapshot of my photobucket inspiration folder*:


Hey, that's a lady, not a room? Well I stumbled upon that image (I think it's from J.Crew? I found it via i suwannee) and just fell in love with it. The yellow cardigan, a pop of red, charcoal pants. So I decided that I wanted to design a [make believe] room around it. Designing rooms around clothes has definitely been done before, and I never really had a desire to start doing it, but those colors are just too good to pass up.

I'll debut the room sometime this week...

*Unfortunately for now I keep my inspiration folder private because I have my personal images in my Photobucket as well. I'd like to put all my inspiration pictures in my Flickr, but as you can image that'd be a daunting task. Someday!

dinner

I love when my husband cooks. I've mentioned before, but he's been doing it a lot more lately.



He really wanted pork tonight, I'm not a fan.... but I gave in when we found a recipe that included an entire head of garlic.

UPDATE:
I've had some requests for the recipe. It's actually a WW recipe but it didn't taste like diet food at all. On a side note, we've really been enjoying simple dishes with very few ingredients lately. Not only does it make life easier, there's something magical about making a great dish with less than 10 ingredients. Here it is...

Garlic Pork Balsamico - 3.5 points per serving

Ten cloves of garlic may sound like a lot, but after cooking garlic's pungent flavor mellows to give the chops a mild, slightly sweet taste.

1 small bulb garlic (about 10 cloves)

1 cup water

12 ounces boneless pork loin, cut into 8 slices

1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp honey-mustard

Fresh rosemary sprigs (optional)

Separate garlic bulb into cloves. Do Not peel. In a small saucepan combine garlic cloves and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Drain; cool slightly. Peel cloves and set aside. Sprinkle both sides of pork slices with rosemary, pressing into surface of the meat. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet. Cook half of pork and garlic cloves over medium heat for 6 to 7 minutes or till no pink remains and juices run clear, turning meat over after half the cooking time. Remove from skillet; keep warm. Repeat with remaining pork and garlic. For sauce, stir together vinegar, 2 tbsp water, and honey-mustard. Add to garlic in skillet, stirring to scrape up any browned bits. Bring mixture just to boiling. Reduce heat. Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes or till sauce becomes slightly thickened. To serve, spoon sauce over pork. Garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs, if desired.

Makes 4 Servings

PER SERVING: 143 Calories, 13 g Protein, 7 g Fat, 2 g Saturated Fat, 6 g Carbohydrate,
128 mg Sodium, 38 mg Cholesterol, 0 g Dietary Fiber

Salvation Army Find

You may have seen on my Twitter that I found an amazing piece of furniture at my local Salvation Army...




The hardware is my favorite part. Can you see it? This piece is huge, heavy and in great condition. I picked it up for < $100!

Now I have to decide whether or not I want to keep the original stain or paint it. I think it'd be fabulous in a color similar to this console table:



The room I've planned it will go in (for a client) will have white walls and a black bed. Hmm... decisions! :)

The most beautiful thing I've seen all week!!

I made a silent little gasp when I saw these chairs:





They are the most beautiful things I've seen all week, maybe all month.

Found via the wonderful Design*Sponge, done by Ames Ingham.

Design Your Life Interview

I was so excited when Jessica from Makeunder My Life asked me to be a part of her great "Design Your Life" series. As you all know my life is a bit crazy right now, with a full time day job and trying to launch my own interior design career all at once. This interview came at the perfect time and it was a great excercise to sit down and think about my true intentions.





To get an intimate glimpse into my life, click here and check it out! And if you haven't seen Jess's blog, definitely add it to your reader. It's one of my favorites.

I love lantern pendants!

One of my favorite lighting options of all time are lantern pendants. My absolute favorites are blown glass caged pendants like this one via sfgirlbybay:



If you love the look but cannot shell out big money for a real vintage, Anthropolgie has some great options right now...

Cathedral Lantern - $58

Caged Light Lantern, Barrel - $198

In their current state, they are just for candles - but that doesn't mean they won't work as pendant lights. All you need is this:



A little chain and a ceiling canopy kit/hardwire light kit, like this, and you're set! A pretty, inexpensive alternative to the real thing :)

dreamy

I'm really loving this blue velvet couch.



Happy Monday :)

great dinner

Hubs knows how to work the grill, thanks hun! Great dinner :)



and for you WW friends:

(2) corn tortillas - 2 pts
avocado, 2 oz - 2 pts
salsa - o pts
brown rice/beans - 3 pts
carne asada, 2 oz - 5 points

total: 12 points

New to You

I was going through some idea boards I've recently done and realized I didn't post these... here are some "new to you" boards :)

Bathroom:

Dining Room:

Little Boy's Room:

Teen Girl's Room:

My weekend's agenda is to clean like crazy (our home is so messy right now!), date night/grilling with the hub, and lots of work.

Have a great weekend :)

Char's on Twitter!

The other night my husband and I were playing around and started a Twitter account for our dog, Charlotte: CharTheDog. At first it was a silly little joke but I've grown to really enjoy seeing "Char"'s updates her Twitter.



Are we the biggest dorks ever? Possibly. Feel free to follow her if you want to see some really dorky posts from a really cute dog (not to mention lots of twitpics).

excitement

Today, in the mail, I received my first swatch book*.



It's a very exciting feeling and I hope it's the first of many. Someday I hope to have an office that looks like this:

{erika's work space from urban grace interiors}

* I found this vendor online, they offer dupioni silk for $15/yard. Not bad, especially if you know how to sew your own curtains.

watching the weight

You may have noticed on my twitter last Thursday I started Weight Watchers. I'll share the journey with you just in case anyone out there is interested in trying it out.

I normally would not have signed up on my own, but a group of friends at work put it together - we hold all the meetings at work and it was too good to pass up! The cost is $99 for 9 weeks.

I weighed in on Thursday. Since last year, I've already lost 15 pounds, but I joined WW to lose the last 10. I also joined to support my husband, who is also doing it with me. Before I joined, my perception of Weight Watchers was that you had to be overweight to join. I'm in the healthy BMI rage and thought I may be turned down. This is not the case! It's a great program to help you learn about portion sizes, working out and just being healthy.

So far our experiences have been really great. The Fourth of July weekend was a bit rough, but WW allows you to have "cushion" points so if you go over your points it's not the end of the world.

The thing that surprises me the most is I'm never hungry. I get 20 points a day and my husband gets 31. My husband actually struggles reaching all his points! It also has opened our eyes - we added up a typical meal we'd eat at Chilis and it was around 60 points. That's 3 days worth for me! I'm really realizing that I would mindlessly over eat for no reason.

Today is the first weigh in since my initial weigh in. I'm going to post my pounds lost on my sidebar more to keep myself in line and also just in case you're curious!

Feel free to ask me any questions about it. So far I'm really enjoying it. 8 more weeks to go ;)




UPDATE - Wow, I just had my week 2 weigh in and I lost 4.4 lbs. I'm sure it's all water weight and I'm expecting to gain some of it back next week :-/

Someone asked how I survive off of 20 points - it's actually very easy and I am rarely hungry. For instance, here is a basic day:

Breakfast: Fiber Plus Bar (soo good) & Tea = 2 pts
Lunch: Smart One's Pot Roast & water & fat free yogurt = 5 pts
Snack: Small apple & 100 cal popcorn = 2 pts
Dinner: Baked chicken (with breadcrumbs!!) & smart pasta with ranch a couple ranch dressing spritzes & diet coke = 10 or 11 pts

= 20 pts

You should also add in some veggies to the dinner (0 pts) but we didn't have any on hand.

lotus

I've been drooling over this pendant for... hmm... prob a year?



And I convinced one of my clients to put it in her dining room (size small). I can't wait!

Client's Elegant Dining Room

One project I've been working on is a formal dining room for a client (in addition to her formal living room). She has a beautiful home with beautiful core pieces of furniture already purchased.

I want to share some gorgeous pieces of furniture that I chose for her dining room... this space really had me channeling Urban Grace Interiors. Elegant, with a touch of casual. I love Erika, she's always a great source of inspiration to me.

{Blix Side Chair by Hickory Chair}

Isn't this chair AMAZING? I love everything about it - the gold inlay, the amazing wood grain, the lighter back and darker legs. The nail heads, the fabric. Here's another picture for your viewing pleasure:



The dining room is a bit too small to have a full sideboard or buffet, so I chose to go with a bar cart. When I found this via a Los Angeles dealer, I was amazed how perfect it fit with the chairs:


The straight gold lines of the bar cart mirrors the straight gold lines of the gold inlay on the chair. Perfect! See, I like things that don't match, but play off of each other.

I'm presenting tomorrow night; I hope the client loves these pieces as much as I do!

Sneak Peek

Mid century modern sideboard for a client...



It's a gorgeous piece, especially when it's right side up :) I purchased it planning on painting it a glossy white, but I may play around with the design to perhaps keep it au naturel. Either way, it rocks.

<3 <3

I hope everyone had a great fourth of july! I spent the day at my in-laws who live up in the foothills; everyone climbed on the roof to watch fireworks all over the city. I got to the top of the ladder and just couldn't do it... heights don't bother me too much when I'm in something super secure and stable (elevator, building), but heights terrify me when it's associated with something wobbly (ladder) and steep (roof).

Today we're attending the in-laws clam bake party and I can't wait!

I'll leave you with these two items I'm lusting over from A.P.C...

This swimsuit reminds of something I'd wear at my grandparent's pool in the 1990's around 10 years old - I love it! (Mom - do you have any pics of me in Tulsa in a cool 90's suit?)

& this bag is perfection - it's beaded & navy blue!

street ballet

I've always wished I was a ballerina. I love everything about them - their strong but graceful bodies, the way they walk and move. Their perfect posture!! (I have terrible posture). And of course, their dancing.

My mom signed me up as a young child but I really sucked at it. haha! I had a good friend in high school who was one.. she moved to San Fran to dance with the company there before we graduated and I went to visit her. I got to go visit one of the rehearsals and it was such a cool experience. They take a lot of abuse though.. which is another reason it could have never been for me.

I found these pictures and something tells me this girl is a ballerina.




{images found on altamira}

My husband will kill me for revealing this, but he has the most perfect ballet arches in his feet; they are seriously unreal. I tell him all the time he would have been a perfect dancer. I'm hoping our children inherit his arches, maybe we'll have a little dancer of our own someday!

a little gem

Long time, no "chat". I was out of town for the day job.. but I'm back in action. I'm here to share with you some little gems I've found a la Home Shopping Network. Yes! I'm totally serious.

Nate Berkus, of course, is one of the greats and did you know he sells his items on HSN? It's not new news... but I had no idea. HSN isn't really a channel I frequent.

Here are some of my faves:

Kilim Stripe Rug - $159 for an 8x10 (!)

I love that blue color!

Jute Braid Rug - $199.90 for 8x10

Velvet Studio Sofa - $499

Orbit Lamp - $129.95

I love this lamp! I'm a sucker for black shades..

Moroccan Table - $129.95

This table is a reflective top, not glass like it appears in the picture. This makes me love it more.