Design Time: Etsy

Designing your house can be so difficult and soooo expensive. Enter: the beauty of the internet and Etsy. 

Etsy is a social commercial website that focuses on selling handmade or vintage items. It removes the store third-party and let's you buy directly from the artisans themselves. I love Etsy and have bought many an item from light fixtures to iPad cases to purses- all fantastic quality and craftsmanship.

I wanted to feature a few shops to aid your house designing aspirations. Because we both know you have them and who doesn't need a little help?

Furniture

1. Recycled Brooklyn - recycled furniture made to order in Brooklyn, NY. Wood, steel, coffee bags- everything is recycled. Helping the environment while making gorgeous furniture.

Recycled Coffee Sack Storage Bench

Salvaged Floor Beam Coffee Table

2. Homestead Seattle - custom upholstered and vintage furniture.

could I live on this leather chaise? why yes, yes I could. 

bring me more wine please.

I love the color of these Rosewood chairs. Perfect pop for any dining room.

3. Rocky Mountain Table Company - a Denver-based furniture company. I love their pieces, industrial chic.

Inside out dining room table

Walnut Coffee Table

Lighting

1. DWVintage - vintage light fixtures. Fun, flirty, industrial. 

2. onefortythree - I love their unique lights. And brass anything. Oh to live in a world made of brass.

Wood veneered pendant light

Black Powder Coated Swiveling Lamp

3. Worley's - unique pieces, handmade in Charlotte, NC

Hurricane Pedestal Lamp

Wooden Wall Sconce

Kitchen

1. Julia Paul Pottery - Contemporary ceramics. Her work is the perfect blend of art and usability. My favorite are the dark clays with easy glazes.

Breakfast Bowls

Six Pottery Tumblers

2. Oh, Little Rabbit - Eco-friendly, organic, fun hand-printed housewares

Cloth Napkins

Tea Towels

3. Wind & Willow Home - Hand-painted wooden bowls and utensils. 

Wooden Mini Bowl Set

Other Home Decorating Goods

1. Linen Crafts - Blankets, bedding, table cloths and kids collections all made with linen fabrics imported from Europe.

Lavender Linen Blanket

Linen Bed Cover

2. Local Produce Design - I'll go ahead an admit some bias here as this is my mother's shop. Nevertheless, she makes beautiful pillows. Always something easy to use to decorate a room.

Blue, Black and Grey Color Block Pillow

Thomas Paul Forest Print

3. Georgianna Lane Photography - You know I love art. In addition to everything listed above, Etsy is also a wonderful place to buy affordable art to dress up your walls. Especially photography. I did a treasury list of various photographers I like on Etsy, but to focus one on here, I chose Georgianna Lane. 

Yes, it is feminine, which is typically not my aesthetic. However, I can't stop staring at her work; especially, her flower series. Buy a massive print and hang it in your little girl's room. Or in your kitchen. It will brighten your day.

Pink Dahlia

Parisian Peonies

Thank you for joining me on today's journey through Etsy. We will return, don't you worry, there are too many wonderful shops to explore! For now, take a moment and have a look for yourself- I bet you find something delicious you never knew you couldn't live without.

Restaurant Review: Full Kee

Sorry I've been such a shit blogger recently. I had a particularly exhausting trip to DC, promptly followed by contracting pneumonia. It's been really awesome. But now I am back with you and am ready to continue my DC eating extravaganza.

The night after we ate at Kushi, we tried Matchbox on Capitol Hill, but the meal was meh and not worthy of a post. So moving on to our next meal adventure: Full Kee. 

Full Kee is a favorite of ours and one I was particularly looking forward to revisiting. There's nothing special about the environment- definitely one you could walk past and hesitate going inside. But then you'd be an idiot and miss out on an incredible meal.

Located in Chinatown, Full Kee has been included in the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in America six years running. In case you need a reason other than my blog to go.

Following our normal routine we sat, ordered beer, and let Jonathan do allllllllll the ordering. 

Ahhhh.... Tsingtao. Refreshingly delicious.

We began with the pork dumplings, hand rolled to order.

I have such fond memories of these. Brief, as I shoved them in my mouth pretty quickly, but fond.

Then, plate after plate of incredibleness started to arrive. Beginning with Crispy Spicy Grouper- 

 Followed by my absolute FAVORITE dish, Stir-Fried Chives Flower-

 Then pork with dried tofu-

Ending with Chicken and Eggplant casserole. Which, I have to say, I wasn't quite sure about as I'm not the biggest eggplant fan, but, cooked this way the eggplant is creamy and almost melts in your mouth. I ate much of this.

Finally, our fortune cookies. We interpreted the fact that we all had the same fortune, as one we were supposed to take REALLY seriously. So we listened and had a really really good time. Much love for my movie family.

Full Kee, 509 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20001. Give it a go. You won't be disappointed.

Spring Looks I Wish You Had Stolen From My Closet

It's that time- time to empty out your closets, put away the winter coats and sweaters, find out what the looks are for Spring and weave them into your wardrobe. Don't throw away all your clothes (but let's be honest, some deserve to be chucked, don't they?), just work in something new. 

Today, I jumped in the car and headed for Saks (as you do) to do a little Spring perusing. I instructed my friend Courtney (we know her from our Honeycomb Studios blog) to meet me at 3:30 sharp to have a wee photo shoot of clothes I would inevitably shove her in and out of. Success! Great clothes discovered, fun pictures taken and a fabulous afternoon enjoyed.

We decided to focus on 6 Spring trends: 60's, Black and White, Stripes, Coral, Gold, and Leather, merging one or two into 5 different looks. We focused solely on day looks, something anyone can wear to work, or out with friends. No, the leather shorts didn't work, but we did find some gems.

60's MOD
Spring 2013 showed us lots of 60's options: Vuitton, Kors, Chanel, Moschino- all created beautiful homages to the 60's silhouette. 

Louis Vuitton

Michael Kors

In an effort to see the translation from the runway to retail, we steered away from the more expensive designers and chose the Angela Tab Waist Dress by Shoshanna. Classic tweed, 60's silhouette, with a tab button detail at the waist. We paired it with flats Courtney already owned from Gap, hot pink hoop earrings which we put with most pieces because they're so awesome, and a Michael Kors rose gold watch.

How cute is she? 

These shoes work nicely with the dress, but other options you could try:

Rachel Zoe "Laura"

Boutique 9 "Justine"

Butter "Gisele Bow Heels"

And obv you need a bag, I like these:

Modalu "Kristin"

Mulberry Small Willow tote

BLACK & WHITE

I am most excited about this trend because I love me some black and white. It feels sexy and bold and already fills most of my closet. We saw gorgeous black and white on the runway:

Phillip Lim

Chanel

Alexander Wang

Courtney and I came back to black and white a couple times, mixing it with leather and sheer, as you will later see. This dress by Nicole Miller was a major success combining both the black and white and the stripe Spring trends. I made her do some ridiculous poses, the aftermath below.

 

It's body hugging, but sexy, and a perfect length.

     

Aaaand for my favorite part: shoes. We basically holed up in the dressing room annoying many people who worked there, so nothing could be properly styled. But, if I could, I would choose one or all of these:

ShoeMint "Lulu"

Manolo Blahnik "Ensati"

Alexander McQueen

Gold and Coral
Two gorgeous and very wearable spring colors.

Diane von Furstenberg

Victoria Beckham

Jenny Packham

We paired a coral blouse by Rebecca Minkoff, gold shorts by Alice + Olivia, and a slouchy white blazer by Theory. There was major hesitation when I pulled out the gold shorts in a "tada!" fashion, but she was a champ.

The blazer is oversized and amazing, the shorts looked fantastic without going too disco, and the coral is the perfect color for her skin tone. A little 1985 homage, in a fashion forward way.

A quick photo without the jacket-

and of course, a Glamor Shot moment was necessary

Shoes: I say have fun with your shoes. Always. There are some crazy styles and colors out there- try them! Accessorize like crazy.

With this outfit you could do an easy sandal-

Joie "Pebble"

A lacy oxford

Latigo "Laceside Oxford"

A casual wedge would look gorgeous too, and if you want to dress it up for drinks, try a platform heel like this:

Kurt Geiger "Esme"

For a bag, try a cross-body-

Mini MAC

Or a tote. This is one of my favorite lines from Paris, Miss Bolsos. It's chic and cheap. What's not to love.

Miss Bolsos "Alméria"

LEATHER

Continuing our nod to black and white, we tried a gorgeous take-me-home-right-now pair of leather leggings by Vince, with a white silk blouse by Equipment. After a long back and forth "I've never worn leather in my life... you will have to peel me out of them... I am trusting you Erin" conversation, we got them on. And she looks fabulous and super sexy.

Look at that Gyrotonic butt, gorgeous dahling.

This is where you can go super crazy and fun with your accessories. The outfit is a blank canvas. Try these!

Senso Xixi Fluro

Pour la Victoire "Veronica"

Kate Spade 'Iver'

with one of these-

Phillip Lim

BrontiBay Paris

Mulberry "Alexa"

SHEER/CUT-OUT

And finally, our favorite dress. Black and white, sheer and stripes. A snake-print dress by Parker. The space between each stripe is sheer. Wear a slip or don't, the dress can be a risque as you would like.

 

Casual, fun and can easily be dressed up for evening. We paired it with a coral Tory Burch belt to color-block it a bit, which I think turned out very nicely.

Shoes to try:

K Jacques St Tropez

Maiden Lane "Embossed"

Enzo Angiolini "Demario"

Bags:

Cross-Body Perfection
Marc Jacobs Classic Q

Milly Metallic Fringe Clutch

Burberry

That is my wisdom for today. Go forth and shop! And find some delicious Spring outfits.