{Shabby Chic} With Your Personal Touch

I am just completely obsessed with "shabby chic" & of course when you think of shabby chic.. you think of Rachel Ashwell. She has the most fantastic decorated homes.

'Shabby Chic ' calls for decorating one’s home with gently worn antique furnishings--or new tables, chairs, sofas, beds, bureaus, rugs, lamps, and other items reconstructed. I love finding items almost anywhere; in good or bad condition. The fun part is trying to picture them in that spot in your house, re-done just the way you want them. I love a house that feels lived in & something about the house being mis-matched but actually matching is what makes it feel like a home. I guess you can say I love the idea of "Shabby Chic" but done in our own style.

Once Jason and I remodeled our house for the first time, we decided instead of going out immediately to decorate and furnish our home.. we would do it slowly and eventually our house will be filled with our findings throughout the year. With a few exceptions of course_you can't really having a living room without immediately purchasing a couch... which I hate ... and we're working towards a new one.

I'm pretty sure I can get away with small accents of ruffles around the house without making it too girly_maybe in a way Jason will hardly even notice :) The bedskirt for sure... but this table linen. . not too sure but I do love this.

This color green around the doors is exactly what we had in mind. . it only took us three times before we got the color right.

I have some kind of fascination with vintage linens/throws . . anything lace, distressed .. & I guess you can say "old lady". I love fabrics.

So it seems lately, that Jason & I really love the "no cabinet" look_just straight up open shelves to hold dishes. Which could be easily done, but I'm almost positive our families would KILL us if we did this anytime soon. I mean . . we would only have to get rid of three cabinets... ? hah but yeah we know not yet. Ugh all these plans that I want to do right now.

We already have the farmhouse sink down . . so we're partially there. I've been on the hunt for new kitchen chairs actually. I really want either old mis-matched or distressed chairs that will go with our distressed kitchen table.

Pure {White} Vintage

In the spirit of our big snow storm {which I'm extremely happy about} There's nothing like a a lot of fresh snow in a small town. There's also nothing like a crisp white dress or a piece of furniture in your house. You can't go wrong with white.

what a great color.

{London}

Tourists.

Camden Markets_one of my favorite places there. Rows & rows of vendors selling pretty much anything you can imagine. Part of the markets are held in old horse stalls.

One of the gates leading into Green Park_on our way to Buckingham Palace.

Leading into Sheperd Market_the area where I interned. Such a quaint place_but extremely expensive to live. The "townhouse" where Matthew Williamson is, is a $6 million building.

Matthew Williamson store on Bruton Street.

& there's the headquarters.

Old/New Bond Street & Oxford Street. We were lucky it was still decorated from the holidays.

SOHO

Here's the back of Liberty {amazing ... yet expensive shopping} There's a line at Target that this is based around.

It would be amazing to have a show room & do something wild like this.

Kingly Court in SOHO

I fell in love.

Sacrifice Now {Play Later}

A wedding in Falls, which was the perfect setting for a backyard wedding {pic 1 &2}

The Alzheimer's Benefit at Rutter Ave with Wedding Planner Jan Sokolowski. This was a pretty interesting job. We were given an empty warehouse with... oh god I don't even know how high ceilings. I was allowed to use their scissor lift, which once I got the hang of , was so much fun and I feel my life would be so much easier if I had one to use at all times.

&of course the Platinum Ball at the Westmoreland Club.

Work has been insanely busy ever since I came home from my vacation in January... come to think of it.. where did January & February go?! It seems that everyone is getting married this coming year (I've also had a bride for 2011 & 2012!) which is insane.

Things started off pretty decent my first year and I had a hand full of jobs through-out the summer_but when I look at my schedule for this year my head starts spinning. It's overwhelming in so many ways but I'm really excited. I really love decorating events and weddings. The entire process just gives me this satisfying feeling . . even for my jobs that take me 6-7hrs a day for 5days or I only have 1day so I'm there for 10-12 hours. I love it. My favorite part .. well I guess I don't have just one but I do love going to the event space the night before to check out all the lights and make sure everything is in place and I just get to see this new atmosphere I created (with the help of my entire family & some good friends usually) and it's the most rewarding feeling. The reaction of the client is usually a favorite time also.

So c'mon winter. . let's get a move on here_I don't want to be stuck in the office much longer.

I'm really excited about a new approach we're taking when it comes to meeting clients and designing for them. Here's the start of a sample packet we'll be providing for our clients with what we can provide for them for their big event! I can't wait until this is off the ground.

We'll be providing Cad lay-outs of your event space, a virtual picture with some accents of the accessories you choose for your event (such as lighting, linen colors, dance floors and tent liners)

So this is why I feel I've had zero time for myself lately, but I've decided my main goal for now is to work really really hard for a few years, get this off the ground and moving and hopefully in 20-25 years I can start to relax... a little bit at least. I really look at my parents & I feel they had the right idea when they started their business & I'd like to be able to do the same one day.

The {New Member} of our Family

Henry & Marty

For the past few months I've been trying to convince Jason why it's a good idea to get a puppy {Marty needs a friend to keep him company when we're not around} We kicked ourselves for a while, saying we should of got two right off the bat... WELL Marty's parents had puppies & we were lucky enough to get another boy out of the litter ! So now Marty not only has a new friend, but his brother ! I'm thrilled with the new member of our little family... (& somehow he's potty trained already)

September Issue

Did you see {The September Issue} yet? It's coming out on February 23rd I believe,(I got a sneak peak on the plane from London) really good if you're into that. Said to be like the real-life version of the Devil Wears Prada, which sounds corny, but it's true. I'm a big fan of Grace Coddington and I think you'll agree once you watch this.

One of the photo shoots from the movie. . .

Daydreaming of {Warm Weather}

Well it's snowing again, I don't mind it all that much but this photo shoot made me a little jealous.

Photos by FGR

Happy {Valentines} Day ♡

Happy Valentines Day ♡

Just Me... {Reflecting}

So I guess this is something I reflect on all the time. One of the best decisions I've made in my life (sounds a bit cliche, but so true). When I was in college, things got so crazy at one point I just needed a change and I wanted a big change, maybe not forever but for a little. I searched for almost a year for an internship in London, I didn't go through my school because I just didn't want to be there with anyone I knew.. I just wanted to leave and do something new.

I remember getting the phone call from the agency I went through saying I got an internship at Matthew Williamson and a bonus.. I was starting there 3 weeks before New York Fashion Week started. It made me nervous because I knew it would be hectic, but so excited.

Of course I was sad because I was leaving my boyfriend for 4mths, (typical lol) but he was coming out to visit and was also so supportive of everything... he made it so easy.

The people were great, I got to meet Matthew Williamson a few times (and walk his dog_oo the life of an intern), I worked on the design floor everyday so I was with the creative director, the in-house designer (who used to work for Alexander McQueen so that made for some interesting conversations), and the product developer, who in the end I worked with everyday once they realized I wasn't a design student, I was a marketing student.

My first two weeks I sat at this wooden desk and hand-made the tassles that were going onto

the tie to this dress.

We made these for 2 weeks straight, 10 hours everyday.... they ended up only putting this piece into the show. Slight change of plans.

Of course I had that one bad day where I actually went into the bathroom and called my Mom sobbing. I had to place swarovski crystals on a cashmere scarf for a sample piece.. and what happens? The glue comes through the entire scarf making it look like a mess on the other side. To my surprise the creative director's reaction was "Hmm o'well, it looks great on the front!"

I ended up working on a few different floors in different departments, which I loved of course. My goal was to do as much as I could before I left.

I worked in the sewing room with some of the most talented pattern makers and sewers and since I stuck around as late as I could the weeks before fashion week, I even got to be a fit model for this outfit.. for those late "crunch time" nights. I didn't mind :)

I was also put in charge of attaching these apliques to the top of this dress. I was a sewing pro (majoring in button sewing) after these four months.

The intern who worked with me worked on this dress for hours attaching the frills at the bottom.. I was in love

Once I was put in the production office, I became in charge of the sample fabrics, buttons and trims coming in from PV (premiere vision) for next seasons line. Pretty interesting talking to people from factories all over the world... quite the language barrier there.

This dress I took to get the buttons put on the back and the little old man put on buttons... that didn't snap together... how much sense do that make? Another day I wanted to crawl in a hole.

Sewed apliques on this bag & made the cuffs to these sleeves.

So by the end of my experience I learned what's really involved in developing a collection .. and what the industry is really like. It was a really relaxed environment, which I didn't expect and by the end of my 4 months I was a tea making pro.

Just something I wanted to share that I'm really proud of. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't think more about the opportunity I could of had there after college... but ... I love my job & I love where I am, so I think I made the right decision. Fashion is more of my hobby.... & being my own boss is a pretty nice incentive. I wouldn't have it any other way.

The collection I worked on for New York Fashion Week:

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/F2008RTW-MWILLIAM