Celebrating CelebraTORI

A few weeks ago, Tori Spelling was doing a circuit on major talk shows in promotion of her new book, CelebraTORI.  And from what I could see, she had some fantastic ideas.  More like an entertaining manual, CelebraTORI features parting planning tips and tricks suitable for a ladies-only get together, a child's birthday bash, or a holiday soiree.  And guess what?!? It's all budget-friendly advice!  Yep, Tori says you can throw a high-end party with fancy decor at little or no expense by simply utilizing items from your own home and local thrift stores/flea markets.  (One man's trash is another man's treasure, right?)  Check out these images from Tori's guest appearance on Rachel Ray's show and The Talk:

 The cupcake cones are displayed in a wire basket that was flipped upside down.  Very inventive!

A DIY drink bar...genious!  And notice that nothing matches.  

Instead, it's a beautiful assembly of random vessels.

Another DIY bar, but this time it's for the Body and Soul.  Tori provides the ingredients for her guests to make their own face masks and body oils while attending her Spa party. 

Instead of going through a professional printer or the post office, she saves by making her own invites and hand delivering them to her friends.  Shown above are Pampering Party invitations attached to a bar of soap...isn't that neat?   

Look at how elegant this is!  And, can you believe the flowers are carnations?!? Tori stresses to give them a chance because not only are they pretty, they are also cost-efficient.  Note too that she uses random objects, like the suitcase shown above, to vary the height of her tablescapes. 

  Overall, I'd say Ms. Spelling did a wonderful job!  I'll definitely be adding her book to my "Coffee Table Must-Haves" collection!  But what do you think?  Would you buy it?

How Do You Fiesta?

Who needs a piñata when you can have these yummy treats?

Sip on one of these beautiful refreshments while enjoying some homemade guacamole.

Having guests over this Saturday?  Send them home with a party favor that's easy to make and sure to impress.

Are you wanting to fiesta, Derby style?  Or perhaps its a Mexican soiree at Churchill Downs. Lindsay's got the tips to make your party weekend a success.

Not sure what to cook?  Check out Lisa's menu.  The choices are endless!

And if you still can't decide what food to serve at your fiesta, perhaps this will help.


* All collage images via Pinterest

DIY Celebration Drink Stirs

In celebration of the highly anticipated release of Domino Quick Fixes, I thought we could have a little party with these:

 Instructions:

1. Cut pieces of coordinating paper of varying widths into thin strips.
2. Wrap each strip around a pencil to make them curl. 
3. Grab a handful of kitchen skewers and glue the curly Qs to the ends, one at a time.
4. Enjoy! 

* Instructions and photography via

A Guest of Honor

Hello everybody, and Happy Friday! Today, I am totally pumped to introduce to you HSHA's guest of honor and my very best friend, Ashley Studyvin.  Ashley and I first met when we were 14 years old and after realizing that we had many common interests - including interior decorating - we have been “besties” ever since.  Ashley is creative and has always had a great eye for design.  When she emailed me pictures of her latest project, I took one look and just knew I had to have her guest blog.  So, please welcome Ashley as she shares with us how she created her beautiful, DIY tufted headboard…

I grew up on the East Coast of North Carolina.  Summers meant frolicking along the sandy shores of places like Myrtle Beach, and, if I was lucky, Charleston.  To this day, Charleston is still one of my favorite cities.  The historic row homes that run along cobblestone streets near the water, better known as "Rainbow Row," always tend to take my breath away.  So, it should come to no surprise that our first home, although in Alabama, would be in a cheery, Charleston-esque cottage:

Given the overall look of the home, I knew I wanted to bring the beach to us.  "Coastal chic" is a rather new design phenomenon where you use natural and casual textures paired with contemporary features to create an elegant space that is reminiscent of the beach. In this home, I have used watery tones such as seafoam and aqua, contrasted by pops of coral.  (Turquoise is my favorite color and it is used somehow in almost every room in our home.  I am convinced that Erin of House of Turquoise and I would be best friends!)  Creams and whites are also used throughout the house, giving it the airy, breezy feel of the eastern shores.

With that being said, I recently noticed our master bedroom was one of the most abandoned rooms of our home.  (Design-wise that is!)  We have been sleeping on a large, king-size mattress with no headboard.  So, when we woke up last Saturday, the Husband and I were inspired to embark on a weekend long project: "The DIY Tufted Headboard." 

First, we researched DIY tutorials and ended up using this one from Centsational Girl.  After printing the instructions off, we set out to various stores to gather all the materials. **My advice to any that choose to do this project is to gather the materials well before the day you are going to make it, because we somehow lost half a day trying to gather everything.** We stopped at United Textiles in Bessemer, a “diamond in the rough” discount fabric store, for our fabric.  I was immediately drawn to a crisp white linen fabric, appreciating the fact that it is a casual yet classically chic fabric.  And, because we knew we wanted our headboard to be pretty large, we purchased 4.5 yards.  


While working on the headboard, I made sure to keep some of these inspiration photos close at hand:  

Meredith Heron Designs via Decorpad

via Studio Ten 25

The last piece of advice I would give about this project is to have one person hold down each button while another staples the tuft underneath.  This creates a deeper tuft, and keeps it from looking cheap.  Otherwise, it will look like you just simply glued a button on a board of fabric and will have no depth.  The overall cost of the project was $180, which is nothing compared to purchasing one- similar headboards would cost us upwards of $800 or more. Anyways, after two days of hard work, we are pretty darn pleased with the results!!

Ta-Da! Now for the rest of the room... :)

It's Been a Long Time

I have been so super busy and haven't had the time (or the Internet connection) to blog.  We moved at the beginning of November and my husband and I have started our own law practice.  We are slowly getting things going with that, but in the meantime, I've been decorating up a storm at our place.  I don't have one room completely finished - though, I'm not sure I ever will!  My decorating ADHD seems to always get the best of me (much to my husband's chagrin).  Anyways, here is a sneak peak of our living room...

The couch and pillows were mine before the Hubs and I got married.  We haven't ventured out to buy anything new yet, but that is honestly way down on the list to do.  I posted about the trellis rug here.  The ottoman was a Home Goods score that my mother bought for me as a birthday gift.  Thanks, Mom!  We are replacing the throw with a pretty teal one that is currently stored away.  I thought it would help bring out the beautiful shades of blue in the DIY art gallery (I'll share more about that project later).  And, as you can see, we don't have window treatments, so those will have to be purchased sometime in the near future. 

I've obviously got some work left to do and will be posting my progress as I go along.

Dresser DIY

I deep-cleaned/staged my house this weekend because we are planning on moving within the month and desperately need this house to sell.  While moving furniture around, I decided that I wanted to glam up a chest in our bedroom.  My inspiration: 

the Dorothy Draper dresser.

It's a classic and can be seen in many designers projects these days. Check these out:

  David Jimenez

 Melissa Warner via House Beautiful

 Graham Moss via Decorpad

 Scott Currie via Elle Decor

Sex and the City

It also looks gorgeous in colors besides black and gold.  Like...

(source unknown)

 Turquoise

 Decorpad

Lavender

centsationalgirl.com

and white!

Which is my inspiration.  I love the milky lacquer with the gold rings!  In order to get this look, I plan on painting the dresser with this Benjamin Moore paint leftover from my daughter's nursery:

 (courtesy of Little Green Notebook)

 And maybe use these rings as the drawer pulls. 

There are sooo many websites dedicated to projects like this.  The most appropriate one for what I am wanting to do is a DIY by Nancy Marcus here.   However, you can just do a google web or image search for "dorothy draper diy" and get a variety of results.  

Have a happy work-week!