These sunburst mirrors are an enduring design – they are simple but offer serious wow factor when placed on a wall.
The Fiona mirror from Ruby Living : $1725
Sunburst Mirror from Target: $24.19
Whilst I love the clean aesthetic of the Ruby Living mirror and am sure its made of far superior materials than the Target one…paying an extra $1700 (yes you DID read that right!!) for it doesn’t make any sense…… talk about a splurge vs steal hey??!
I came home from (almost) snowy Utah to a wet and cold California. Weeks like this make me long for a fireplace (soon I hope) and a cozy blanket and a good movie on the TV. And just maybe I can relax and snuggle down with one of these …..
These are screaming squeeze me!
As a mom to two young boys I am always keeping an eye out for good storage ideas. I want boxes for toys and lots of them. If I stand on one more tiny piece of loose Lego I think I might lose it (really that stuff HURTS!!!) so here’s some ideas to pack it all away!
These bins are great for Ikea bookshelves!
This rolling cart would look great in any living room.
Gorgeous bright lacquer boxes
These have to be the coolest storage bins ever!!
My first time at Alt Summit was also my first time to Salt Lake City and after lunch with my friend Natalie (check her blog out here) who lives locally she took me to a GREAT vintage furniture store called the Green Ant. Seriously if you are ever in Salt Lake you HAVE to check this store out – its got some incredible mid century modern furniture and its so cheap (well compared to SF prices!). The owner knows his stuff and he has this amazing bulldog, Hannah who has a skateboard for a toy – I love it!
I completely fell in love with a gorgeous mid-century dresser AND a great 1950’s lamp but reality kicked in. How was I going to get them home?? However I couldn’t leave without making a teeny-ish purchase which is currently on its way back to SF via UPS …I’m soo excited!
My new vintage globe.
Hannah. She loves her skateboard.
I had the great fortune to attend the Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City this year on behalf of my company Blurb. I was pretty excited as it was going to be a fun 3 day event filled with workshops, seminars and parties and it would offer me some great advice for growing and progressing this blog. It was also going to be my first time away from Charlie which was worrying and thrilling all at once (hello hotel room by myself for 3 sleep filled nights!!).
I needn’t have worried. The boys were great, Charlie is sleeping better than ever and I had a fabulous time (3 very fashionable parties in 3 nights and 150 business cards to sort through…phew!) and came back so inspired to keep writing. The folks there are so passionate about what they do, they love design & fashion, art and style and I got to meet so many interesting and talented people. It was overwhelming and exciting all at once and I now have a to-do list a mile long.
I also discovered some great new design blog reads so as a fan of renovations and all that goes along with it I thought I would share some of my new faves:
The House Of Brinson This married couple is experts in food photography and produce some pretty incredible images that you can totally drool over. Plus they were super sweet and stoked to meet someone from Blurb which is always nice.
Rambling Renovators Run by Jennifer who is based in Toronto this blog chronicles their renovations on their home. I love that she is about 3 years ahead of me in terms of house progress, it gives me so much hope!!
Emily Henderson This lovely lady won a TV show called Design Star and now presents a show on HGTV, she loves vintage furniture and has an awesome eye….oh and did I mention that she was super nice to me and we totally chatted??!!!
Mimi + Meg I was a fan of this blog before I met Meg and then she told me how perfectly styled I was and that she loved my top… so she’s totally awesome and now I’m a fan for life, nuff said!!!
Bright Bazaar written by Will an ever so nice young chap from the UK who has a love for color. He’s very stylish.
To sum up here’s some random snaps from my 3 days away….
The minted wall of images
Ben the CEO of Pinterest doing his thing
Me & the lovely Em Henderson hanging out at the Blurb party
Bloggers love to breakdance, apparently
The amazing chandeliers at The Grand America hotel.
The Blurb party at Alt.
Telling my story at the blurb party
My partner in crime Eileen and myself kicking back w some champagne after a LOONNNGGG day!
P.s If you came to the blurb party at Alt you can grab your pictures from here.
2011 was a HUGGEEE year for our family. Not only did we begin one of our biggest projects EVER, we lived through a ton of stress and drama and we also expanded our family to 4. These are my highlights of the year….
Starting the year off with a bang, demo-ing the upstairs!
Living with the back of the house like this for months!
Getting upstairs drywalled was a major moment.
The arrival of our gorgeous baby boy during one of the biggest storms SF has ever seen!
Living in a plastic wrapped house.....for longer than should be legal!
Getting windows and siding- finally we were watertight!
Escaping the house for a much needed 4 week break to the UK to see family & friends.
Moving into our bedrooms upstairs after sharing for a year!
Ending the year with some family fun on the slopes.
Wow what a year, we laughed and yes we cried, had some moments where it didn’t seem like things would ever work out and yet here we are, we survived our first year of renovation. The next question is – how many more years are still to come???!!
We’re bit late putting this post out due to the new year coming at us with a bang…really I thought life might slow down a bit but its defo worth sharing. In our infinite wisdom we decided that the week before Xmas was the perfect time to move all our stuff upstairs which meant we had to:
1. install the blinds for privacy
2. seal the back doors from the cold and being open!
3. finish the electrics and install smoke detectors
4. get the baseboard’s painted and installed
5. paint Charlie’s room AND let it dry
6. move all our furniture upstairs and then
7. re-jig downstairs so that visiting grandparents have a place to sleep!
8. and clean out the real front guest room so that we can drywall in there shortly in the new year.
9. clean up the front of the house so that our guests had a way to enter!
We had 2 days to do this, including Xmas eve which is when we also decided to host a get-together for all our friends to come over AND then we had to pack up for our 15 hr road trip to Jackson Hole (I know, insane right??) also we decided to move Christmas up a day so that Santa can come on Christmas Eve morning for the kids?? Um yeah that’s quite a lot to get done in 2 days.
Here’s the move upstairs in progress – can you say chaotic???!!!
The cluttered mess of a living room.
Yes, this is our kitchen.
A different view of the current kitchen/dining area.
Of course we didn’t get everything on our list done..but we came close! We achieved 1. 2. 3. (kind important!) and 6 & 9. ..not bad I feel and at least the house livable and warm! We also kept Christmas on its proper day as in the end it was just too much to try and squeeze that in and we wanted the kids to enjoy the day – it was Charlie’s first one after all.
Happy (belated!) Holidays!
I stumbled across this rug whilst browsing on zincdoor.com and I thought – wait a minute, I’m sure I’ve seen a rug EXACTLY like this one elsewhere about $500 cheaper!
I'm a pretty grey & white trellis print rug....
And I had, on Overstock.com whilst buying another rug for my sons bedroom (which shall now be returned but that’s another story!). I had mind-pinned it as a guest bedroom alternative. Its pretty, non?
wait...I'M a pretty grey(ish) and white (ish) pretty rug too....
I dig chevrons, and they are super hot in the interior’s world right now – so in celebration of all things chevron-y here’s some of my favorite pieces that are out there ….
Zig Zag Floor Pouf | west elm.
Mix-and-Match Lamp Shade – Chevron Lamp Shade – … : Target.
Chevron Chair | Urban Outfitters
One of my favorite things I’ve seen so far for the home is copper pendant lighting. The copper color is amazing – it really adds warmth and style to any room and can work in modern or classic style homes.
My favorites are these ones by Tom Dixon- the oversize of them makes such a great statement piece but at $580 each I doubt they will be going up in my kitchen anytime soon!.
So I found an alternative, still not super cheap at $430 each but possibly more practical for a kitchen Island.
Arteriors Savoy Small Polished Brass Pendant.
I’ll take two please!
We are the Howe Family. Juggling family life, full time jobs and a total house & garden renovation on a tiny budget is our daily challenge. This is the record of that journey, our ideas and inspirations that guided us in creating our home sweet home!
The Renovation Diaries 