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the perfect {dinner} party invite.

August 11, 2010 in Dinner Party Worthy, Home Chic Home with 3 Comments

I’m a sucker for anything personalized, and these adorable custom-made rubber house stamps are no exception.

The concept: you send a photograph of your house to Holly, she draws it and then magically fashions her perfect little drawing into a stamp. That’s right – a stamp. Like, the kind you stick in an ink pad. How fun is that? I love when things look hand-written and these stamps would give anything that old-school, almost rustic vibe.

I love the idea for dinner party invites, or any party you’re hosting at your home, really. Imagine how perfect these would be for a housewarming party. Or even stationery. You could use them to send your new address to friends and family when you move. That sounds like a very adult thing to do, doesn’t it?

I love these as a gift for anyone with a beautiful {or new} home they love, but you could also potentially think outside the house. For instance, you could have an image drawn of your wedding site and use the stamp to make your own invites. The options are really endless, and I’m sure all you craftier-than-thou folk out there could think of plenty more uses for something like this.

For a little over $100 per stamp, you can’t go wrong.

clever as a fox.

July 27, 2010 in Home Chic Home with 9 Comments

The other day I came across this list of very cute ideas from Real Simple. It’s all about taking everyday items and turning them into something else.

As if that wasn’t enough to totally float my boat, all of the items relate to my favorite theme right now: summer. Here are my faves.

{Bucket} Let guest go hands-free at an outdoor party. Flip a bucket upside down and top it with a tray for an impromptu cocktail-holding side table at the perfect height for lawn chairs.

{Baby Oil} Bare feet left with tar after a day on the beach? Lift it off with a dose of baby oil.

{Baby Powder} Prevent sweat stains on white shirts: Sprinkle powder on the underarms and the collar, then iron. The powder acts as a barrier.

{Bundt Pan} Cut corn from the cob without the mess. Place an ear in the center of a Bundt pan. As you slide the knife down, the corn will fall right into the pan.

{Pizza Slicer} Work magic on more than your favorite pie: To chop a salad easily, fill a bowl with lettuce and toppings, then run the slicer through it.

{Rubbing Alcohol} Ears clogged with pool or sea water? With an eyedropper, insert a few drops of rubbing alcohol into each ear canal to evaporate it. Rubbing alcohol comes to the rescue, too, when you’ve gone overboard with self-tanner: Fix too-dark splotches by blotting them with the stuff.

{Bundt Pan} Another idea: Use the pan to make a clever ice ring for a punch bowl. Freeze water in the pan, then pop out the ring to chill the beverage instead of cubes.

{Laundry Basket} A laundry basket also makes a great tote for picnic items; at the shore, flip it over and use it as a table. (Hose the basket off when you get home, and it’s ready to go back to wash-day duty.) Lined with a trash bag and filled with ice, it makes an impromptu cooler too.

{Floatie} Don’t leave wine country without a souvenir. You can bring home a bottle with no fear of breakage if you slip a child’s arm floatie over it, then partially inflate to cushion the cargo.

{Shells} Another use: The next time you throw an alfresco dinner party, serve your seasonings on the half shell. Pretty shells transform into elegant vessels for coarse sea salt and ground pepper.

How ridiculously useful/adorable/brilliant are these ideas? I can’t even take it. I’m actually leaving now, to pick up some baby powder – maybe I’ll stop at the beach for an impromptu shell hunt. When I’m done, I’ll be able to use my baby oil to get my feet nice ‘n clean – can’t even tell you how much that one’s going to save my life. And what about all these uses for a Bundt pan? My Bundt pan may finally see the light of day more than twice a year.

Which is YOUR favorite? Do you have any other secret tips or tricks we should know about?

i’d rather be beachin’.

June 23, 2010 in Fashion, Home Chic Home with 9 Comments

Or poolin’. Or boatin’.

Really, I’d rather be doing anything involving me – in a bikini – frolicking around lazily reclining in the sun. Preferably on one of these über chic beach towels, cocktail in hand.

{missoni}

{another missoni}

{emanuel ungaro}

{dvf}

{agatha ruiz de la prada}

{pucci}

Which one is YOUR fave?

fantasy friday: moroccan palace.

April 9, 2010 in Fantasy Friday, Home Chic Home with 3 Comments

I know this isn’t what you’re used to seeing on Fantasy Friday.

But a girl’s got to have a place to put all of her fabulous shoes, clothes, and baubles, doesn’t she?

One of my favorite things to do is to look at all of the insanely gorgeous (and borderline obnoxious) houses that surround me here in South Florida, and dream about one day owning something – oh, maybe 10% as fabulous as a house like this. {And as this home is currently going for a cool $23 million, that takes me to a home worth about $2.3 mill. Yes, please.} The style of the home is Moroccan, which I love. I’ve realized in all my dreamy house hunting that I’m partial to either Mediterranean or Moroccan or something with an exotic twist. Yes, some of the decor could use a little modernization, but all in all, the structure of this house is perfection. I mean, just look at the pool and outdoor area. Can you even imagine daily alfresco cocktailing in a setting like that? D-I-E.

Dreaming about the future is somewhat of an escape for me, yet at the same time very real. The best part? I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen or how it’s going to end, but I know it’s going to be beautiful. One of the reasons I know this is because my fairy-tale has already begun.

{More on this later}

The funny part is I never imagined myself settling down in Florida permanently to raise a family and start a life. I always thought I’d do all of that up north. I guess I thought the north would breed better children – partly because when I went to college, all of the northern boys I met always seemed much more real and…just better (I did later fall in love with one, after all). That and the fact that I’ve known way too many subpar boys (and girls) who originated in Florida – and yes, I can say that, because I’m from here.

When I met Daniel, mind you – a New Yorker in every sense of the word – all of that changed. One of our first discussions was about where we wanted to settle down. My theory was up north, for the above said reasons, and I was fairly sure he’d agree. Well, life is full of surprises. Turns out he was done with living in the cold for most of his life, and he’d taken quite a liking to living down here. He loved playing golf year round, he wanted his sons to be able to play sports outdoors all year, he didn’t want to shovel snow, he loved being near the beach…and the list goes on. Once he started talking, I realized I didn’t have much of an argument. I couldn’t even THINK about not living within a 5 mile radius to the ocean, let alone shoveling snow – ugh. The white Christmases I had dreamed of for my children now seemed better off taking place on a ski trip in Colorado. Or perhaps in a second home in Manhattan.

{It’s funny how you can think you want something and have no idea what you’re talking about. You just have this idea in your head and you stick with it, until you’re forced to actually think it out logically.}

So, the decision and compromise was rather simple. We’d live happily ever after in South Florida (and our children would go to private school).

And with houses like this to dream of and look forward to – can you blame me?