Friday Five: What I Wore
This is the last post about Alt, I swear.
I kind of stressed over my wardrobe for this thing. I mean, I knew I had no hope of being the most fashionable girl there. Those girls wore lots of color blocking, big 80s glasses and had perfect Taylor Swift hair. (Jessie with the pretty hair, if you’re reading this I would seriously be interested in the Hair Curling Tutorial.)
So a month or so ago I sat in on this “getting ready for Alt” webinar, where the speaker gave the advice to have a “look” that’s consistent throughout the conference. I have been on a monochromatic kick lately, where I’ll wear various shades of the same color range. Like a pink button down over a raspberry v-neck sweater with a wine-colored scarf. So. I started to approach my Alt outfits with that in mind, with liberty to veer.
Wednesday night I assembled with a group of bloggers at a dinner cooked by Stephanie and Romina, owner of SLC patisserie Les Madeleines. It was the perfect way to ease into meeting people. Then, for the rest of the week, it was like your college orientation peer group—you always had that little “I knew you first” bond. (Hi Fred Wix and Kelly Crane!) I wore a maroon-ish jersey dress with these awesome pencil pleats and skinny braided dark brown belt that I found at Dillard’s when I was supposed to be shopping for something white. The necklace is from Ann Taylor Loft a year ago and has painted silver beads entwined with ombre ribbons. It’s hard to tell, but I have on Spanx tights (you’re not supposed to be able to tell that…but they’re the BEST) and tall, brown suede boots.
This was a back-up outfit that I decided to break out early. A vintage Burberry skirt—sounds cool if I say it that way, but really it’s just old. It was my Mom’s from the 80s and I had it shortened to knee length from mid-calf. Long sleeved red J.Crew tissue t-shirt. Gap denim jacket. My big ol’ bag is a “fake Fendi” from H&M and I mostly love it but it occasionally makes me sad because it’s a not this bag. My black pleather and gold stud bracelet is from Target. I’m also wearing brown tights and cowboy boots.
Thursday night’s dinner was a “Dinner en Blanc” where everyone wore white. Brought me back to sorority ritual, only with wine. And less singing. I purchased SEVEN different dresses for this occasion and selected this one (Cremieux from Dillard’s) because a) out of the ones that fit it was the least expensive, b) it was the one that made me look least like a cupcake and c) wasn’t too Kate-Middleton-Engagement-Portrait or too quirky-party bride. I borrowed a gold and white flowered collar necklace from my friend Angie. It got lots of compliments, so thanks, Ang! It’s nice that the wallpaper coordinated with the theme, isn’t it?
To the sessions on Friday I wore a coral wrap dress from H&M. I also own this in navy and love both. The necklace is super similar to the one I wore to the white party and I bought it at Dillard’s last spring for our rehearsal dinner. More brown tights. More cowboy boots. I will be so sad when/if that trend goes away.
Not sure what is going on with this pose. I think I am attempting to channel Tyra Bank’s couture lessons from America’s Next Top Model. On Friday night, the Alt sponsors host mini-parties in the hotel’s suites. It was so fun hopping from suite to suite, taking in all the different themes. And in this crowd, where many of these gals design parties for a living, you know they are going to be on their game! I was one of at least 2 girls wearing this frock. It’s got fat black polka dots all over it, with sheer sleeves and a belted waist. The dress is also from H&M. Earrings from a local Atlanta shop called Palas Jewelers. My little gold clutch is vintage/thrifted.
I feel pretty good about where I ended up. I also feel pretty relieved I won’t have to plan this out again until next year! And I didn’t really notice anyone else with a “theme,” so I’m glad I didn’t go busting out 5 Hello Kitty-bedazzled cardigans or anything.
Have a great weekend! We have two dinner dates with friends we haven’t seen in way too long. Yay!
Learning from the Pros
There were so many awesome sessions at Alt—and some scary ones where they mentioned lawyers and trademarks and Google Webmaster. But the one I was most excited about was called “The Ins and Outs of Design Blogging.” The panel featured 3 of my favorite bloggers and a fourth who’s blog I can’t wait to dig into.
Kirsten from Simply Grove and Jenny from Little Green Notebook shared some enlightening tips for networking, building readership, defining your voice and staying inspired to blog. (If you’d like to know what they said, just leave a comment and I’ll be happy to share.) But I thought Emily and Morgan’s portion of the panel would be the most interesting to blog about.
Emily (Style by Emily Henderson) talked about—what else—styling. First tip: Your photos should have a sense that a real person lives there.
Your vignettes should crest and recede. Avoid high peaks and low valleys.
There are 3 elements to a great vignette. Something solid and horizontal (like a book). Something vertical with height (like branches or taper candles). And something sculptural with an organic shape (like a round vase, flowers or a sculpture).
If you’re going to show clothing or accessories, make sure they are unique pieces. (Not a dress from the Gap.)
Open flowers look the best. Ask the florist for day-old flowers from the back. (You might even get ‘em cheap!)
If you haven’t been to Morgan Satterfield’s blog The Brick House, you are missing out. She lives in California near Palm Springs and I LOVE her mid-century desert style. And her giant amazing photos. Oh. And she’s hilarious. She shared some of her tips for taking great pictures.
Shoot in natural light. And turn your lamps OFF.
Get below eye level. This is something Taylor has taught me as well. It makes you feel like you’re sitting in the room as opposed to looking down on it.
Cheat objects so they look good in the frame. So move items forward or backward, from side-to-side, or out of the frame completely.
I can’t say for sure that Morgan scooched anything around in this picture, but it’s possible she moved the table toward camera a smidge so you’d see the entire firebox, even if in real life the table is a bit further back. Or the chair to the right? Or the table on the far right into the frame just-so? You get the idea.
Post-production is your friend. Morgan ups her brightness, contrast and saturation.
Some good tips here, right? Which one(s) will help you out the most? You can be like me and answer “all of the above.”
Thanks to the awesome panel for sharing their design smarts. And if you missed my interview with Emily Henderson, check it out here.
Kirsten Grove, Jenny Komenda, Emily Henderson, Morgan Satterfield
Emily’s photos via her blog. Morgan’s photos via hers.
Interview with Emily Henderson
Design Star. Stylist with Secrets. All-around swell gal. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Emily Henderson at Alt Summit and man…she’s just delightful. Seriously charming. Clearly talented. Wears giant tissue flowers in her hair. Drops the f-bomb now and then. Maybe she kicks puppies when no one’s looking, but I can’t find a single flaw.
She offered herself up to bloggers for one-on-one interviews via Twitter and I jumped at the chance.
Due to some time limitations, Erin from House of Earnest (with a completely enviable wardrobe and smile) and I chatted with the Divine Miss Em together over glasses of Prosecco and the obligatory state-of-Utah-mandated mixed nuts.
Molly: Design Star. It has to be hard, right? Because there can be some really horrible work coming out of those challenges.
Emily: Absolutely! It’s a lack of resources, time and shopping on top of lots of limitations. I always said I wouldn’t do anything on the show that I wouldn’t do in the real world. Which is why in the first episode (the white box challenge), I just didn’t do anything and almost went home. The reason I didn’t go home is because we had to do mini-hosting videos and mine was like, “This sucks. Whoops! Sorry about that. But here’s what I would have done if I’d had more time and more resources…” So the judges were like, “Well there’s some personality there so we have to keep her one more week.”
Winning!
Molly: What made you sign up in the first place?
Emily: I wanted a show, but I got there and was like, “Whoa. These people are competing against ME.” I mean, what do I have to do with whether they’re good or not? People would tell me they were a really competitive person and I thought, “Why? Just be a really hard-working person.”
As the winner of the fifth season of Design Star, Emily got her own show: Secrets From a Stylist. In the first season, she decorated a room in style layers, merging the tastes of the two homeowners with a first, then a second, look. The second season features only one look, giving Emily a little more time to share her secrets for decorating and styling a room.
Molly: What is your favorite room from the show?
Emily: I think it has to be Joy’s. She’s a friend of mine and we used this great wallpaper. Viewers thought it was kind of crazy, but the blog world loved it and I got three clients as a result of that episode.
Emily: There are also two episodes that never aired! One is online, but the other one had a 4-poster vintage bamboo bed I had lacquered… I’ll take pictures and put it up on my blog.
Molly: One thing I think you are especially awesome at is layering a room with art and accessories. What’s the fine line between making it feel collected versus cluttered?
Emily: A consistent color palette will keep things from looking cluttered. But truly, I like a lot of things…little things. It’s hard to be objective about your own stuff because it’s yours—you’ve collected it, you have your own attachment to it. But if you can, walk into your house and pretend it’s somebody else’s. Then, edit.
Emily: Sometimes I’ll buy something and it won’t be until I look at it through the camera that I realize it wasn’t that cool—it was just cheap. My new rule is if it were $200, would I still like it? If I would spend $200 on it, it’s worth paying 10 bucks. Otherwise, it’s just junk.
Molly: You have an awesome eye for vintage pieces. What’s worth splurging on?
Emily: If it’s a showstopper, if it’s really unique, if you’re never gonna see it again, if it’s a crazy conversation piece, then that’s what you should splurge on. It doesn’t have to be your sofa or your coffee table. It could be art or a really weird sculpture. That’s what’s gonna give your home personality. It could be a sofa…but I find it more often in art.
Erin: Do you go out looking for specific pieces, or do you see something you can’t live without and take it home?
Emily: If it’s an awesome piece, I’ll buy it and find a place for it. So much stuff from the show has come from my apartment. I call it “Fostering.” I find something amazing and foster it until the right client comes up.
Emily: I get upset if I don’t find the good stuff. Orlando was at the flea market and bought these two “lady chairs.” They’re AMAZING and I was literally kind of pissed. I get really anxious if a great piece pops up and I didn’t find it.
Orlando's Lady Chairs
Molly: Is it tough to stay true to your style with an HGTV show that has to appeal to a lot of people?
Emily: On TV, the camera moves fast, so you can’t study it like a still photo. So for the second season they asked me to make my color palettes very small, 3-4 colors. My first inclination was, “If it’s awesome, it doesn’t matter if it’s a new color.” But really on TV the broader palette was looking kinda messy. That was one thing they asked me to do, and I totally agreed.
Using a more focused palette
Emily: They asked me to use fewer animal sculptures, so I started doing more busts and heads. They did eliminate one pair of pants—these high-waist chambray gauchos. I got a call one day, which never happens, and they said, “You know those jeans you had on in the last episode? NEVER WEAR THOSE AGAIN.” I don’t know if he thought they were ugly or just too weird.
Emily shared her approach to determining your personal style.
Emily: Style is across the board. Your room should look like you dress. Analyze your favorite outfit: Is it fitted and sexy, or more conservative? Do you loosen your tie and untuck your shirt? Do you wear a lot of accessories or not? Is your hair loose and messy, or back in a bun? All these things are style indicators. It isn’t just interior design—it’s your lifestyle. It makes sense if it’s consistent throughout everything you do.
With the success of her show, Emily expanded her design business and has taken on clients. We asked Emily how her styling background evolved into becoming a full-fledged designer.
Emily: AFTER Design Star, I went to Barnes and Noble to buy some style books, basically the ABCs of Interior Design. And I thought PLEASE don’t anybody recognize me. I had a pretty good idea, but the details—like what specific carpet patterns called or the proper names of chair styles were good for me to know.
The thing I got wrong at first was scale. Pieces I’d buy for the show would get in the room and wouldn’t work. I thought my instinct was good enough, but now I know I have to measure.
Big room, big furniture
Molly: So what’s next?
Emily: More show! We’re starting back up in March. And then I wanna buy a house. We’re saving and getting close. And I want to have a baby. My dream show would be following us through buying and renovating our first home and starting a family.
Wouldn’t that be great? I’d totally set my DVR for that one.
Thanks to Emily for her time. It was one of the highlights of my trip!
Come back later this week— I’ll be sharing some of what I learned from Emily and 3 other amazing design bloggers during their panel at Alt Summit.
Photos courtesy of Style By Emily Henderson and HGTV.com.
Postcard from Alt
In case you haven’t heard, I am at Alt Summit in lovely Salt Lake City, UT. Well, it’s lovely from the photo above. I haven’t gotten to see much of the city other than the gorgeous hotel we are staying in, The Grand America. My pal Amy and I splurged on breakfast this morning, and I did feel a little “ladies-who-lunch”ish. And I kinda liked it, not gonna lie.
It’s funny, this isn’t a very “Alt” hotel—it’s super traditional, filled with antiques. But the chandeliers are AMAZING.
I hope you have had a good week. Sorry I have been a little MIA. I have learned TONS while I’ve been here and can’t wait to use it to make this little ol’ blog better in 2012.
Something Old, Something Else Old
Remember how I complained that everything in our (problematic) living room was the same height?
Well, not anymore.
This china cabinet belonged to Taylor’s grandmother and recently found its way to our house. It’s a lovely piece and I really think it makes the room much more interesting. We had talked about doing built-ins on either side of the dining room doorway, but for now those are on the back burner. Well, they were already on the back burner. So maybe now they’re in the freezer.
There are doors too. We haven’t attached them yet, obvi. But I couldn’t resist throwing some of our stuff in the shelves for the time being.
So tell me Internet, what do you know about (what I think is) wax build-up? See the cloudy stuff on the drawers? It comes off with a little fingernail scrape. Any other methods?
Also in the living room is a rickety table holding a half-dead fern.
A little Craigslist special I decided to pick up last week because I clearly needed something else to do.
It needs quite a bit of TLC. The original plan was to paint it, but something about the stain is speaking to me. We shall see. It will be a few weeks before this comes up in the queue.
This weekend my Dad and Stepmom were in town. We did lots of antiquing and took in a little history, too.
2 days until Alt—Eeeek!
The Gift of the Magi
I know what you’re saying. Christmas is OVER, lady. But stick with me. This is relevant.
So I’ve mentioned that I’m going to be attending Alt Summit next week. I’m super excited, a little nervous and in no way stressing about my wardrobe. (One of these is a lie.) And since Alt is a networking extravaganza of blogs in real life, one of the things you should bring with you is business cards.
Well, Taylor and I have chatted about my cards off and on for the past 6 months or so. (For those of you who may not know, we are both advertising creatives.) And then about 2 months ago, I had a Facebook exchange with our good friends, the lovely ladies of Farewell Paperie. They mentioned that they were working on a little project with my name on it. And I knew. I just knew.
See, I’m kind of psychic about guessing gifts. One year my friend Leigh Anne said that my gift was going to be a little late and, I (rudely) said “Are you getting those photo booth strips of us from New Orleans framed?”
So one night after going to dinner and possibly having an extra glass of wine, I asked Taylor if he had gotten Lisa and Jen to make my business cards as my Christmas gift. And you know what, he is such a bad actor. I mean, he was all, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” And, “That would have been a good idea, but I didn’t do that.”
Mmm-hmm.
Meanwhile, we had set a cap on our Christmas gift spending for each other. But if he ordered my lovely custom letterpress business cards for me, clearly he was going to spend more than we had allotted, so should I go over the limit since HE was going over the limit? Should I buy him an iPad???
I didn’t buy him an iPad.
Then Christmas morning rolls around. Awesome perfume. A pretty necklace.
No business cards.
Well that’s a little awkward. Oh. And it’s THREE WEEKS until Alt and I have no cards.
But Taylor came through and designed a card for me in a jiffy. I decided in the interest of time to take the look of the blog over to the cards. It ain’t letterpressed, but the fine folks at PS Print did a good job. Super quick turnaround.
But I was left with a mystery.
If Jen and Lisa were NOT doing my business cards, what were they doing?
Then last Friday I came home to a beautifully wrapped package at my door. This is what was inside.
How awesome is that? I got my letterpressing after all (with the plates, no less!). Yep, Jen and Lisa were working on this super thoughtful wedding gift the whole time. We used our silhouettes (along with the first names we don’t use) fairly liberally throughout our wedding save-the-dates, invitations and on the big day itself.
Now you know the O. Molly version of the The Gift of the Magi. Thankfully, I still have hair.
Moody Glam on Design*Sponge
Wowsers! I’m a little bit beyond floored that our Moody Glam room and stripped Jenny Lind bed have found their way to the wonderful Design*Sponge! Today the room is featured as a Before & After. If you are here from d*s, welcome! Very glad to have you.
When I went to the Design*Sponge book signing in Atlanta this fall I met Grace Bonney. I was a frazzled, soggy mess—darting over to West Elm and only staying for an hour before running back to work. She was so kind and got me all 3 flavors of homemade pop-tarts since I couldn’t stay for the fun. I hope to be able to thank her in person—for the pop-tarts and the Before & After feature—in person at Alt next week!
Have a great Thursday! I most definitely am.
Christmas Card Booklet
So after the whole never-ending story of the bed frame, I was hungry for a quickie little project.
Enter, what else? Pinterest.
I had pinned this idea a few weeks back. (Originally from here.) And on New Year’s weekend when I took all the decorations down, I wasn’t quite ready to get rid of my refrigerator full of smiling faces.
It was a little neater in the prime of the season. My double stick tape lost one-quarter of its stickiness.
So, I stopped into Office Depot (Office Max? I cannot tell the difference.) and picked up six years worth of supplies.
I guess it’s Office Depot because that’s what the packaging says.
Then I stacked up all my cards and chose my smallest (funniest, creepiest?) card so I could figure out where to punch the holes. I used some scrap paper to make a template.
The Paper Pro hole punch I bought billed itself as “50% easier to use than regular hole punchers.” Not sure how they figure that, but you know what, it was! The puncher never got stuck and all of the little dots stayed collected in their little cubby.
Then I grouped my cards by size and orientation so you don’t have to keep changing directions while you look through it. I also tried to avoid punching a hole directly through some sweet child’s head.
The post-it on the back of the photo is blocking the double stick tape I used to hang the photo on the fridge. This way it won’t stick to the card behind it.
Then I had my artsy husband draw a cover for me. I think you could also easily use the front of a non-photo card you received or put your own family’s card as the cover.
And now I have a little book I can pull out every year to thumb through.
It would also be fun to make one of these each year with wedding invitations, birth announcements, party invitations, cards and particularly charming thank you notes.
Seriously, twenty minutes. ARE YOU LISTENING, BED?
Do you save your Christmas cards?
I am not a stripper
Normally when I finish a project, big or small, I have some sense of self-satisfaction. Sometimes even a little pride, because I’ve never really thought of myself as artistic or crafty (and still don’t really…in the conventional sense). But when this project was finished, all I could think was “No way in hell am I ever doing that again.”
For a couple years now Taylor and I have gravitated toward the look of unfinished wood, particularly on more traditional pieces. We saw this chair in Savannah (almost) two years ago and I filed the picture away in the Pinterest of my mind.
Fast forward to Memorial Day Weekend. I wanted to get a proper bedframe for Sadie’s room/the guest room. I had originally considered doing an upholstered headboard on my own, but for some reason—maybe impatience? ( ironic)—I bought a Jenny Lind frame for $75 on Craigslist.
And then it promptly sat in the basement well into the fall.
At the end of September the Moody Glam room was painted and starting to take shape. At some point along the way we’d decided we were going to give the whole stripping thing a whirl. I’d seen tons of traditional, stained Jenny Lind frames and many painted ones, but really hadn’t seen any in the raw wood. (I’ve since come across a couple and blogged about them in this post. ) And so one optimistic October day, I dragged the bed outside and Taylor sprayed on Citrustrip.
I don’t have a full on “Before”, but in these photos you can see that the bed was pretty ding-ed up to begin with.
Spraying the first round of stripper:
So, it dried/cured overnight and the next day I spent about 3 hours with a metal brush, a rag and mineral spirits scrubbing off this gunk. And after it dried, it looked something like this.
Yuck. Ugh. Boo. Not what I was expecting.
The next weekend. Round 2. I’d read about SmartStrip on Janell’s blog and it did a bang-up job on her (awesome) chandelier. I picked up some at Sherwin Williams—the only place I could find it locally—and slathered it on.
So, for the record, SmartStrip was A LOT more pleasant to work with than the Citrustrip. It was a fluffy paste, no odor and didn’t seem very chemical-y. It came off somewhat easier than the Citrustrip and I could use water instead of mineral spirits. A good bit more of the stain came out, though it was hard to tell because I finished when it was DARK.
And then we did this all over again. Yep, a third coat of stripper (the SmartStrip).
I don’t even remember what weekend we’re on at this point, but I was just about over it when Taylor luckily stepped in and said he’d take it from there and start sanding.
So he pulls out the belt sander and takes it to the flat parts of the bed. You can see how much more the SmartStrip (and about 7 hours of brushing and scraping) took off.
Taylor had hypothesized that a dremel tool would be helpful in removing what was left of the stain in all those damn spindles. So, he did a test patch and we JOINTLY (this will be key information later on) decided that it removed too much of the patina and he’d just suck it up and do it by hand with coarse and medium-grit sandpaper. That way, he’d have more control over how it would look.
So Taylor spent a Saturday afternoon with the headboard. When Taylor was done we brought it up and leaned it against the navy wall aaand….loved it! Whew! Only one more tedious day of sanding left. (Okay, and then waxing it.)
Then Sunday afternoon rolls around. And after Taylor’s been out on the patio working for about an hour or more, I peek out the window and see…the dremel tool. And about half the footboard has been dremeled. Aaaannd….I quickly glance at the finished headboard leaning against the bedroom wall and see that the color looks…well, different.
So I saunter down the stairs and in that helpful, wifely way ask if everything’s going okay. And then I maybe sort of enquire why he’s using the dremel when he preferred the sandpaper route the day before. And Taylor, justifiably annoyed with my line of questioning, explains he’s out of sandpaper. So I oh-so-helpfully offer to get more because, well, didn’t we both prefer the way it looks using the sandpaper? And then it just devolves from there.
Why don’t you just do it yourself, then?
Why are you using the dremel when you didn’t like it yesterday?
I’m not doing this for my health, there’s football on.
Well it’s already taken 5 weeks, why didn’t you tell me you needed sandpaper you know I would have gone to get it for you.
Realization that footboard may be irreparably messed up. Expletive.
Calm down. It’s only a piece of furniture.
It’s been 5 expletive weekends!
Bed is aimed at brick wall, then changes directions and is flung with hatred and near-defeat into the yard.
At this point Taylor heads for the shower and I wipe down the footboard and haul it into the room. And when it’s in there, you know, it really doesn’t look all that different. This can be salvaged.
But first a little more yelling—not at me, more just at the frustration of the whole project—and almost just as quickly we’re laughing about it. And then I’m at Ace Hardware to pick up some cloth-backed sandpaper. And then it got dark.
And then it was Christmas.
AND THEN WE FINISHED THE BED.
I am so glad we did it. And I am so glad it’s over. I love how it looks—all the shades left in the wood: gray and gold, the hint of the stain in the deepest grooves, the lighter shade of the wood, especially against the deep, navy wall and the saturated oriental rug.
Speaking of, I snagged the sister rug from my Mom’s house when I was in Florida in September, had it cleaned, and reunited the two like Peaches and Herb.
Yeah, they’re a little rough and old, but that makes me like them even more. I also like how they butt up next to each other—and with no dust ruffle, you can see them extend underneath the bed.
What else is new? Ask these guys.
Found them at an estate sale and couldn’t resist. They hang out on top of the etagere and watch people sleep. Composers on the Shelf.
And I brought some pretty branches in to shade Leeroy Jenkins.
Mother nature sure knows what she’s doing, eh?
I may have also brought in a ladybug infestation. Whoopsie.
At least they go with the color scheme.
Jenny, I’ve got your number
We’ve been working on a little project here for, oh, freaking-EVER.
{House Beautiful - photo 8}
{via houzz}
{horchow bed, john robshaw linens}
You guessed it! We’re remodeling our bathroom!
Kidding. I really wanted to share it with you this week, but my computer was having some issues yesterday and I’m on a loaner—sans my files. I’m actually freaking out a bit in fear of losing everything—it shouldn’t really be a concern as it’s a wi-fi connectivity problem and not a hard drive problem, but still. I don’t like not having access to my stuff! I am a Virgo, after all.
I will just preface, in hopes that you will come back and see what we did, that this was probably the largest pain in the a** project we have tackled to date. It spanned at least 6 weekends and MAY have been launched across the backyard in anger.
On an unrelated note, I have been gradually eating a port wine cheese ball for the past 4 nights. Diets are so 2011.
We have family coming in town tonight and are heading to Tennessee for a couple days in the morning, so I wish you a happy early weekend. Hope the first week back wasn’t so terrible. Though it kind of was, wasn’t it?
