china shepherdess

Ikea Summer Sneak Peek

via www.ikea.com

I stumbled upon a new (at least to me) line from Ikea called HÖGSTEN. Their site says it will be released this month, but it doesn't look like they've added all of it to their main catalog quite yet.

The faux rattan screams 70s Stepford Wife garden party to me in the very best of ways. I am picturing it paired with a classic yellow patio umbrella.

The collection also includes an easy chair and foot stool. These would be perfect for lounging on my (only in my dreams at the moment) front patio.

Tangerine Dream

via www.westelm.com

I blame the uninspired title of this post on the fact that Katy Perry and Russell Brand are getting a divorce and Firework (from her album Teenage Dream) is one of my favorite songs to shake it to while playing Just Dance.

Anyway, the actual point of this post is that I just ordered a rug. I've wanted a runner for my hall and this tangerine number from West Elm is perfect (and the price is fantastic). Orange is one of my favorite colors and I'm going to take advantage of the fact that it is the color of the year 2012 and snap up lovely accesories like this.

Happy New Year, people!

Treetopia: Pink Christmas | Making it Lovely

via makingitlovely.com

It seems I'm not ready to give up on Christmas decorations just yet. Isn't this pink tree from Making it Lovely just beautiful?

I spent time catching up on blogs this morning while I drank my morning coffee and spied Making it Lovely's pink Christmas tree. She linked to Treetopia. I've seen this site before, but choked on the prices. The happy news is that they are having a crazy sale on Christmas trees that ends today. They have trees in every color -- it's amazing!

CB2 Uptown Preview Party

 

Minneapolis finally has a CB2. The store is located in Uptown, near Design With Reach and Roam, helping make the neighborhood more of a home design destination.

My sister and I attended the preview party on Friday night and left with giant wishlists. We also enjoyed the free flowing beverages, food (aside to Molly - SWEDISH MEATBALL?!?) and the many splendored facial hair styles sported by Minneapolis' scenesters.

 

 

It was fun to check out the goods we had previously only been able to see in catalogs. Like this pork chop receptacle, also known as the shop red chest. People are so strange.

 

 

The party was crowded -- mostly in a good way, but I was more than a little paranoid about shaking my booty to the music and knocking over a glassware display. Molly solved this by finding a daybed to recline on.

 

 

We didn't buy anything that night because my eyes were bigger than the storage capacity of my sister's wee car, but I'll be back.

Sampler: Birchbox October 2011

I used to buy a ridiculous amount of makeup. It was especially silly because I don't exactly pile on the product. When I bought my house it became more important to buy a gallon of paint than a tube of lipstick so I kicked the habit. However, my interest was recently rekindled when I saw a video about Birchbox on YouTube. For $10, you get a box of samples delivered to your door each month. I whipped out my credit card and this box of goodies arrived today.

Here's what my October 2011 Birchbox contained:

1. Ahava Mineral Foot Cream
2. colorscience pro sunforgettable mineral powder sun protection (this will go to my sister because my skin doesn't like mineral powder products)
3. Erno Laszlo TranspHuse Night Serum
4. Kissable Couture Lip Gloss in Eric (a sparkly brownish color)
5. Tea Forté Minteas

All of this is definitely valued at more than $10, but none of it seemed like a real score. I totally wish the false eyelashes it appears some people got in their haul were in my box. I kind of worry that they look at a person's age bracket and make assumptions about the sort of products you might like. Maybe November's box will be a bit more exciting.

Wouldn't it be fun if someone translated this concept to home decor? I'd love to get wee sample pots of paint and other fun things. Someone should make this happen!

Obligatory Missoni Post

 

The hype about Target's collaboration with Missoni was certainly something. It surprised me to see bloggers who are normally hyper critical about quality getting into a frenzy over it all, but I guess I remember the same thing happening with their Orla Kiely collection.

The hype got even worse when the collection went live and their website couldn't keep up. You wouldn't know it from most of the ridiculously effusive articles out there, but the story wasn't really that the Missoni collection was SO popular; all of these big collaborations sell out immediately by design. The issue was that they went live with a new e-commerce platform and site redesign just weeks before. I imagine there was more than a little schadenfreude over at Amazon (their previous e-commerce partner) when all of this went down.

This is not to say that I'm immune to the allure of cheap chevron prints. So, I bought myself a little something for that thorn in my side -- the TV room of doom. The Pentagonal Pouf was an online only item that I ordered a day or two after the Target website debacle went down. My previous experiences with Target home delivery weren't so great, but this time it worked out. My pouf in the form of an ottoman arrived safe and sound and ensconced in a tyvek ottoman cozy. You can tell it isn't exactly real Missoni quality, but it will make a great pouf/ottoman/coffee table/dancing platform. It's chilling in my living room until I get my act together and finish my TV room. When will that be? Soon I hope!

 

What can Brown do for you? With help from Ballard Designs.

 

When I ordered the Braided Jute rug from Ballard Designs, I knew I'd be in for a wait. I ended up getting three backorder notices before I got an email last weekend letting me know it was on its way.

Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be available to wait around at home all day on the date it was scheduled to be delivered. I attempted to work with both UPS and Ballard Designs to put off delivery by a day. After wasting a lot of time on the phone, I was informed that, not only could they not arrange delivery for a day later than planned, the rug required no signature and it was left to the UPS driver's discretion whether or not they'd leave the rug sitting outside my home. Seeing as we just had over a foot of snow, I wasn't happy with that option. However, there was nothing I could do other than hope the driver had more sense than that and would instead return to deliver it the next day when I'd be there to receive it.

It was frustrating to arrive home and see the rug sitting there slumped against a snowbank.You'd think that either UPS or Ballard Designs could have stepped up and made sure this didn't happen.

Luckily, the rug wasn't stolen and it doesn't appear it suffered any moisture damage. I considered returning it, but I'll keep the rug and hope that I eventually don't feel a twinge of annoyance when I think about the bad customer service experiences I had with both Ballard Designs and UPS.

Clearly I have a problem.

 

Buried treasure or sign of shopping addiction?

When I was clearing out the room that will eventually become my home office and studio I found a pair of shiny shoes I bought on sale at anthropologie. I totally forgot about these lovelies.

Finally a decision and now a long wait.

via www.ballarddesigns.com

After careful consideration, I finally settled on a rug for my living room and ordered this braided jute rug from Ballard Designs. It seems everyone else had the same idea and the rug I ordered at the beginning of January won't arrive until the beginning of March!

This rug is inexpensive and comes in a generous size that should work in my living room. I'll be figuring out a way to hide or remove the fringe. Here's to making decisions!

Space Camp

via miehana.blogspot.com

 

 

Here's your first peek at my freshly painted living room. It is SO wonderful to have my living room furniture back in the living room where it belongs. I'll talk more about the paint color in a separate post. Right now I want to write about some of my tchotchkes.

I've confessed to this before, but I'll say it again. I'm a confessed Disney dork. I am also a bit nerdy when it comes to the space program. Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily have brought these two interests together with the Disneyland Rocket to the Moon collectible that is now gracing my sideboard. It was a bit of a splurge, but I love it!

 

Here's a closer up shot. Behind my Moonliner is my new to me lunar globe. I had bookmarked a newer version of this on my wishlist, but didn't think to look for something vintage until Atomic Lilly mentioned it on her blog. I was really happy to find a smaller version on ebay for a song. Mine has some dents and a bit of patina, err, rust, but the size is perfect.

My living room will be going through a few more changes before it is "done", but I'm really happy that I've finished painting it and am starting to be able to layer my personality into it. The rest of the room will be flaunted here soon.