Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Cupcakes & Glitter - 2 of my favorite things

So, I love cupcakes.  I love glitter.  They are two of my favorite things.

I think I was subliminally influenced by them both when I got my newest mani / pedi last week...

I recently took a weekend trip and stayed at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo.  If you are not familiar with this place, take a look around their website.  It is kitschy, gaudy, over the top, strange, amazing, tacky, and I LOVE IT!  Their overnight rooms are all themed (some better than others).  Their main dining room (picture at left) is almost entirely pink (another of my favorite things).

If you show up not knowing what to expect, you are in for a BIG surprise.  If, however, you are fully informed and fully aware of what this place is like, and you aren't afraid, you are sure to love it!

For dessert, we had a piece of their pink champagne cake.  YUM!  How do they make pink chocolate, and get it into the curly ribbons?  I don't know.  I DO know that it is delicious and beautiful, and I love it.

So, I guess with cupcakes and glitter and sparkles on my mind, I selected my colors.


On fingers: Orly Cupcake.   This is the lightest cupcake-iest pink.  Love.

On toes: Orly Citrine Cheer under OPI Bring on the Bling.  This came out wonderfully - the Orly base coat is a light sparkly gold and the OPI glitter is mostly gold (with some other colored glitter) sparkly loveliness.  I had gold on gold a while ago, but it was a much deeper gold.  Loved that one.  Also love this one.

In keeping with the cupcake and glitter theme, I found a few other things on-line that inspired me and made my mouth water.

Cupcakes.  What's not to love?  Small, petite, gorgeous little round puffs of sugary goodness with pretty, flowery, puffy frosting.  I love all of the decorating on the cupcakes in the pictures below.  They look almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.  (I have a monster sweet tooth, if you couldn't tell...)




I found a picture of this AMAZING glittery gold tablecloth on a blog that I follow - Pretty Shiny Sparkly -  but wasn't able to find where to purchase this unique tablecloth.  I've never seen anything like it.  I found a reference to it on Polyvore, but again, no info on where to actually get it...  Boo.


Pink and sparkles.  Sparkles and pink.  A match made in heaven.

I happened upon a show on HGTV this morning - Secrets from a Stylist - where a stylist takes a couple with conflicting decorating taste and marries the 2 into an amazing room that suits both people.  The episode I saw this morning was called "Single Malt Noveau".  The girl in the couple is super girly and likes pink, gold, and sparkle.  The man in the couple likes modern, clean, manly things.  How did the stylist pull it off?  Quite wonderfully, in my opinion.  Love that she shows the audience that you can decorate with pink and have it not be overly girly and fluffy.  The final design was really beautiful - a nice compromise of styles that go together wonderfully.  Not too pink & sparkly.  Not too modern & manly.

What combination do you like?

Until next time...  Find some way to shine!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Mad for Monograms, Loony for Letters

So, I've always had a thing for monograms & letters.

I remember way back in elementary school when we did arts & crafts projects with our names.  One of my favorites was turning your name into a butterfly.  This was accomplished by taking a piece of paper & folding it in half lengthwise.  Then painting (in black) your name in cursive along the crease, then folding the paper in half so there is a mirror image of your name on the opposite side of the paper.  Then coloring in the white areas of the letters, and voila! a name butterfly.  The other of my favorites was writing your name in black on a piece of paper (cursive or printing), then outlining it in various colors until the outlines run off the page.

That was then, this is now...

My love for letters has evolved some.  I still love letters, but in a slightly more sophisticated way.

I LOVE these "letter" mugs from Anthropologie - $6 each (below left).  I also love letters you can hang on your wall.  My first "J" came from Anthropologie - made out of zinc - $18 each (below right).  Over the years, I've collected letters from all sorts of stores including Anthropologie, Ballard Designs, Pottery Barn (kids & teen), Restoration Hardware, etc.  If you look, you can find letters in lots of different stores.  A little boutique here in San Francisco, Timeless Treasures, has a vast array of vintage letters in all shapes, sizes, and materials (below middle).

In addition to letters, I'm pretty mad for monograms.  These days it seems you can get anything with a monogram.  Land's End has some great canvas tote bags (and most of their other items) that they can monogram.  The bags come in several sizes and colors as well as the available monograms.


I also love letters & monograms on jewelry.  When I was little I had a little "name" necklace with "JENNIFER" in capital block letters.  I was so sad when the letters broke apart between the "N" and "I".  I think I still have it in an old jewelry box...  More recently, thanks to Sex and The City, the "Carrie" name necklaces came back into popularity.  I got a new one with my name in script, and absolutely love it.  There are a ton of websites that will custom make for you.  Here are just a few I found from a quick Google search.  I can't endorse any of these, as I haven't personally used them, so just take the typical precautions when ordering things from the internet.  Name Necklace, The Name Necklace, Zales.

I saw this site mentioned in Lucky Magazine - they have some really cute options - Jane Basch.


I also am falling in love with monogram necklaces.  I also found this site in Lucky Magazine.  Moon & Lola - they have adorable acrylic monogram necklaces in all kinds of colors.


I am also loving these script monogram necklaces too.  I found this site on Google.  Can't vouch for the quality or speediness, but they are super cute!!  My Name Necklace.

Whatever your fancy, there are lots of options out there at all different price points - a letter or a name to match any budget and style.  What's yours?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."  ~ W. Shakespeare