At Home in Hayes

That's right folks, in just 10 days, I'll be moving to uber-trendy Hayes Valley!  I finally found an adorable little studio that suits my needs.  Although, compared to my NYC apt, it feels much bigger than a studio because it has a huge, separate kitchen!  With room for table and chairs, and more than one person at a time, amaze-balls!  For the past few months, my stuff has been in boxes so it will be so fun to finally truly unpack and see what I actually have.  My guess is not much.  I got rid of so much when I left NYC, thinking it just made more sense to start over when I got here rather than pay a thousand + dollars to ship it all out.

Ever since seeing the place, I've been daydreaming of how I will decorate and make it mine.  I've decided on a color scheme of mint and navy, so soothing and so fresh!  Below is a preliminary sketch of how I envision the room laying out, we'll see what parameters I have to work with when I actually start measuring stuff...I've also included a few inspirational images that led to using these two lovely colors.

I dream of having dinner here, Cecconi's at Soho Miami Beach.  The decor is perfection.

Image from Habitually Chic

Desk and Chair are exactly what I'm going for.

Green walls with gold frame, great combo.  Also love the Lucite chair,

Unfortunately, I cannot reference the owner of these images, but they can be found on Pinterest.

Sketchy

Recently, my boyfriend asked me to help out with some basic sketches for tshirts he wanted to print for an internet startup company he's working on, Mailgun.  I'll let you follow the link to get a little more color on what they do, (mainly because I don't speak tech talk) but definitely worth checking out.  They're doing some very cool things right now and it's been super exciting to watch how a small idea can quickly grow into a full blown, capital raising company.  Here are the sketches, and KTW modeling the final product.  Since gun is within the name of the company, we ran with it and I drew "famous movie guns."  See if you can name the movie!

"Blaster Pistol"

 "Gatling Gun"

 "Pulse Rifle"

 "Noisy Cricket"



From Picture to Paper

My afternoon snack.

What do you think?  Do we like this idea for a new series?

I'm getting a color scanner this weekend.

I promise!

Tree-Huggin Day

I've been pretty busy this week with work and have been missing my blog :(  I also have tons of catching up to do with the 4000 + blogs I follow.  I swear I'll come up with some clever fantastic post (hopefully) later today or tomorrow.  But for now, I'll leave you with this sketch :)

I Need a Color Scanner...

But Happy Easter anyway!

Easter Brunch

Although this year, we're planning a brunch at a fun NYC spot for Easter, the planner in me is kind of wishing I could host something a little more cozy at home.  As noted before, my apartment is probably too small for entertaining but I wonder if it could be pulled off...

Can you picture it?

Malted eggs for guests to take home.

Pastel candles of all shapes and sizes.

Beautiful alabaster eggs to display in glass containers.

Colorful straws to brighten the table.

Macaroons

mmm...pineapple glazed ham

Images: my own sketch,1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Neighborhood Sweets

Growing up in Nashville, we always had a go-to bakery for birthdays and special occasions, or even just a special after school treat for good grades (although this was a rarity for me.)  Becker's Bakery is well-known to Nashvillians and even though it closed it's Belmont neighborhood doors a few years back, they are still thriving in another location just outside of town.

I'm lucky to have found a similar place in NYC just two avenues from my apartment!  We used Two Little Red Hens all the time at my last event planning job for our birthday cake needs.  Their cakes are rich and tasty and their buttercream frosting is simply heavenly.  It's so creamy and buttery, ahhhh, I just melt.  I would totally recommend them for your next event.  They are a delight to work with and their cake decorators are true artists.  Their store is a teeny space that is reminiscent of a small farm house.  Tons of straw baskets both hang from the ceilings and hold cookies and muffins on top of glass cake displays. Red hen memoribila decorates the shelves and there are three or four small tables for patrons to sit to enjoy their coffee and cupcake(s).  My favorite is the red velvet cupcake and I'm sure it won't take you long to find a favorite flavor of your own.  You can find them on E. 86th St. and 2nd Avenue.

I love all of the handwritten displays.

Cakes, pies, scones, muffins, brownies, tartes, etc.!

Red Velvet Cupcake, especially divine.
Images courtesy: Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3

Sinks with Skirts

I've always really liked the look of pedestal sinks with a skirt.  However, I've only recently been afforded the opportunity to try it.  My current studio is lovely, however the bathroom is...not.  There's little to no storage and the pipes are as exposed as they can get.  Since I rent, there's not much I can do about this eyesore.  But a skirted sink would do just fine for the moment.  Below are a few of my favorites to work from.  And above is a sketch I did to get started.  Any you like?

And someday, when I make my millions :), I won't have skirt sinks to worry about and this is will be the bathroom I'll enjoy...have I ever mentioned I'm a bit of a dreamer??

Images courtesy of Ballard Designs, Velvet and Linen, and Eddie Ross.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to whoever's reading this blog! So much to be thankful for this year. Hope you like my turkey sketch, quite an interesting looking bird :)

Organizing

Okay, so perhaps my attempt at an "all special events planning" blog was maybe a little too, hmm, what's the word? Overexcited? Carried Away? Although I would like to add fun event ideas to the mix, I'm still hanging onto the idea of "my favorite things." The two can easily be combined, right? So back to it:

I've lived in 5 apartments in my 3 wonderful years in NYC. And no matter what, the common thread between them all has been...you guessed it, TOO SMALL! Each apartment has of course varied some. But in each of them, it has been either the closets, kitchens, bathrooms, windows, etc., that have left me dreaming of wide open spaces. Maybe it's my Nashville roots, or maybe all New Yorkers have this problem...I'm gonna go with a little bit of both.

Anyway, this is where being resourceful (and the nearby Container Store) come in handy. Currently, I am living in an adorable studio with a huge window for lots of light, exposed brick walls, non-working fireplace, hard-wood floors, I could go on but I'll stop bragging. As soon as I saw the place, I said I'd take it. So now, almost 6 months later, I am still loving the place but not getting along so well with the too-small-to-turn-around bathroom or the very limited closet space and the amount of clothes/shoes/stuff I've accumulated up here. I have taken everything out and put everything back in more times than I can count. I've rid myself of sweaters with holes, pants that don't fit, and anything not worn in the last year. But still, I can't come up with a great solution. However, for an organizer like me, this isn't a problem, it's a fun challenge that I am eager to take on.

Even though my current job is not in the creative field, it does allows me some downtime to explore my creative side and organize, organize, organize. Today, I drew out each of my problem areas to hopefully help me when I do my next clean out/organize/straighten up session. Apologies for the notes on one page, floral arrangements and the John Robshaw sample sale have little to do with my closets...