My Favorite Blogs!

When I love something, that is usually all I: can, want, and, need to talk about with my friends {as some of them have reiterated to me over and over again} ;) So in the spirit of me sharing things I'm enjoying right now, I wanted to share out the blogs that I absolutely love! They are a part of my daily reading routine you know along with the serious stuff that I read on People.com and PerezHilton.com cough cough...ANYWAY I have followed these bloggers for a few years now and really enjoy getting a peek into their worlds. Check them out if you'd like!

Oh Joy! is graphic designer Joy Cho's blog and it's full of fashion, lifestyle, hosting, advice, and lots of cheery colors!

Love Taza / Rockstar Diaries is Naomi and Josh's blog that follow their life journey full of adorable pictures of their three kids and their adventures as entrepreneurs. 

Cupcakes and Cashmere puts Emily's creative mind on full display. Her blog is full of modern day beauty tips, great fashion editorials, and her journey as a new mom. Love her. 

Lauren Conrad's blog focuses on women. All of her content is about fashion, love, healthy, etc and she recently banned the word "skinny" on her page...#GirlBoss

DESIGNLOVEFEST is just that! Bri's life is so whimsical, romantic, and cheery. I just love reading her diy posts or just staring at her eclectic picture for hours. 

Apartment 34 helps me get my design fix. I love their apartment tours I always get so many ideas!

A Cup of Jo belongs to Joanna Goddard, her blog is full of honest, funny, sad, romantic, and inspiring moments from her life or women around the world. She also always has great recipes and travel posts. 

Apartment Therapy has the most eclectic and exquisite design and home tours. They  also featured my friend's nursery, so bonus points! 

Winter Party Dress Essentials

Yes it's true, winter is still happening and even though some people around the world are enjoying wonderful weather however for us New Yorkers our winter days are still full of cold wind, rain, and upcoming snow! Well, this weekend is my froomie's birthday party (friend + roomie) so I wanted to talk about what are some realistic and adorbs winter party dress essentials while it's still cold.

Fortunately there are a plethora of splurge and steal options out there and here is my roundup below:

Get a fab dress. Just because it's cold outside doesn't mean that you have to wear long sleeve-everything! This DVF dress gives hints of Spring with the beautiful blush colored pink.

If you've been paying attention to the runways or what Joe Zee, creative director of Elle, has been fancying, black and in white dresses are not only in but everywhere (hello Oscar dresses!) This Zara dress does a great job of covering a little bit more up and playing into the black/white trend.

Prabal Gurung for Target. This dress. Enough said.

Layer up! I wear dresses for about 90% of the year and I've found that the only way to keep up my dress addiction when it's chilly is to layer up! Gap has so many great cardigans to put over your dress that will still show off your party attire.

Keep layering! Putting a chic blazer on top of your dress and cardigan will not only keep you warm but also keep you looking sexy and feminine. LC Lauren Conrad for Khol's has some great options.

Pair your look with the proper coat. The other day my friend Corinne called her long puffer coat the "I'll never get laid again coat." Trust me looking chic and staying warm is a constant challenge for me and everyone who lives in a super cold climate but investing in a sleek and warm coat will do the job and have you not looking like a marshmallow. I'm in love with this one from J.Crew.

Here's another great coat option from ModCloth.

Tights tights baby! Wearing tights are just essential to allowing you to wear a dress in the winter and staying warm. Gap has so many great colored, patterned, and solid options.

 Now go out and par-tay! Have a great weekend loves.

Redecoration Sneek Peek- The Living Room!

Painting in progress

It's d-o-n-e! I'm very excited to share these pictures with all of you of our redecorated living room! From being a plain Jane living room to a bright, warm, cozy (there's my favorite word again!) space, it has really come together; I'm really happy with how it turned out! We spent a day painting the space and decided that an accent wall would work best in the space, mad painting skills yo, and then put up a picture wall full of things (art), pictures, and sayings that fit with what we keep close to our hearts. I love every bit of it and I'm so glad that it's done. I cannot wait for our first (eek!) dinner party this weekend to show off the place. Gawd, dinner parties, I'm so adult that I can't even stand it! ; D

I've always dreamed of a white couch (yes I dream about this stuff #DesignNerd). It's so comfy that I could nap for days on it.

I got A LOT of inspiration for how to set up a picture wall from Pinterest! So many amaze examples, here and here.

I also got many examples for how to make a book shelf look aesthetically pleasing from Lauren Conrad, ya we go way back to the days back in So Cal...well that or her blog is full of helpful tips (which I'm obsessed with btw).

Dear Books and tree ornament, you make me happy.

 I love coming home to our space. My Pa always tells me that one should be happy coming home, to just be able to be happy in that space with the people and things that surround you (not in a materialistic way) but feeling calm about what you've decided to fill your within your home. (Okay now I'll stop talking about my dad because whenever I do it makes me weepy) anyway I think I've finally found that balance between experiencing the space outside of my home and being in it as well. I used to feel so restless at home, I actually didn't like spending time at home, I always felt an urgency of going out, going here and there. Looking back and reflecting on what my Pa always told me I realize that there were multiple reasons why my home wasn't desirable for me to stay in (I felt incomplete, bad memories of a past relationship, not being surrounded by things that soothe my soul, etc.) So over the last few months I've made a conscious effort of nurturing my connection with my home and therefore the life that I've worked so hard for. I took up baking, I take bubble baths on a regular basis, I just SIT for hours and read, update pictures around the apartment to reflect what's going on /who's in my life, and make silly videos around my room and send them to my family.

I feel so calm and happy at home now and I've even starting reading this book by Gretchin Rubin who wrote The Happiness Project called Happier at Home which discusses how on a:

Sunday afternoon, as she unloaded the dishwasher, felt hit by a wave of homesickness. Homesick—why? She was standing right in her own kitchen. She felt homesick, she realized, with love for home itself. “Of all the elements of a happy life,” she thought, “my home is the most important.” In a flash, she decided to undertake a new happiness project, and this time, to focus on home. And what did she want from her home? A place that calmed her, and energized her. A place that, by making her feel safe, would free her to take risks. Also, while Rubin wanted to be happier at home, she wanted to appreciate how much happiness was there already. So, starting in September (the new January), Rubin dedicated a school year—September through May—to making her home a place of greater simplicity, comfort, and love. In The Happiness Project, she worked out general theories of happiness. Here she goes deeper on factors that matter for home, such as possessions, marriage, time, and parenthood. How can she control the cubicle in her pocket? How might she spotlight her family’s treasured possessions? And it really was time to replace that dud toaster. Each month, Rubin tackles a different theme as she experiments with concrete, manageable resolutions—and this time, she coaxes her family to try some resolutions, as well. With her signature blend of memoir, science, philosophy, and experimentation, Rubin’s passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire readers to find more happiness in their own lives.

What makes you happy at home?