What I Wore: Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. It is by far my favorite holiday. I mean you get to play dress up along with all your friends, watch lots of scary movies, and eat more candy in one night than you normally do all year. What's not to love? Since Halloween falls on my usual day to post an outfit of the day, I thought this would be more than appropriate. So Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you eat candy until you make yourself sick and dress goofy today!

Monday Design: Free Form Castle

Have you ever wished you lived in a castle? I think a lot of children always imagine what it would be like to live in a castle, I know I did. But a lot of times, even now, I think of castels as big stone buildings with large tapestries on the walls and fireplaces in every room because they don't have any other systems of heating installed. In most cases, every time I've been to visit a "castle" it have been like this because they've all be the ancient leftovers of some royal family that hasn't existed in hundreds of years. So when I saw this home of Prince Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia I realized that it was the perfect modern day castle.

What I Wore: The Running Errands Edition

No one believes me when I say I don't do sweat pants or that I hardly wear jeans, even when just running errands on a lazy Sunday. Well here's the proof! This outfit post was a last minute throw together since I had my camera and was running errands and working around the house. This was what I actually woke up and put on to do laundry in. It has not been staged and no animals were harmed in the shooting of this outfit post. Thank you.

Tuesday Trendspotting: Birch Woody Design

Birch, birch, birch, birch, BIRCH! I love it. I think it's such a cool looking tree. The wood patterns are just so different from other trees that they really do lend well to new designs in fashion and interiors. I've seen an amazing birch print wallpaper for a while now, but lately it seems like I've been seeing the white and black pattern everywhere. I'm thinking that I might need this iPhone case or these pretty vases for my apartment.

Monday Design: Tiny Apartment Style

First thing first. New look on the blog! I am working on updating the look of the site so bare with me please! There are still some small alterations I want to make before it'll be all done, but when it is I hope you like it!

Now, I often think that I need a bigger place because my little one bedroom can feel fairly cramped at times, but what I'm starting to realize is that what I really need is less stuff. Or better storage, but less stuff is probably the best solution. There are a ton of awesome small apartment designs out there, but they all seem to have that one thing in common. This apartment is no exception. Where do people hide all their stuff?

Sunday Moment of Zen: Guide to Life (in 10 Steps)

Not that I want to be the crazy cat lady, but I'm a crazy cat lady so check this out. It's for anyone that needs a little reminder to take a step back and enjoy life. Hope you're having a great Sunday!



BRETON'S GUIDE TO LIFE (in 10 steps) from Ariel Belziti on Vimeo.

Thursday Tutorial: Hot Pink Home Decor DIY

I've been in the process of making my apartment a home for a little bit now. Slowly but surely it's all coming together! Oh course my appetite is constantly bigger than my wallet, so I've been finding cheap ways to creatively decorate my apartment. This hot pink and gold serving tray set way my first attempt at doing just that and I was really happy with how it turned out so I'm sharing this little tutorial for it with you guys!

What I Wore: The Fall Color Blocking Edition

Color blocking is not my strong suit. It seems so simple right? A few colors on top of each other, no problem. Wrong. I think I own too many prints to successfully color block at any point. However, I do love the way that large blocks of color can bring an outfit to life all on their own. Color blocking is the one trend that I always feel stand perfectly on it's own and needs limited accessories (shocking, I know). So how do I color block? I cheat. And you can too!

Happy Blog-o-versary + a Giveaway!

Giveaway closed: Winner announced at the bottom. Thank you to everyone who entered and keep your eyes peeled for another giveaway soon! 

Oh how time flies. It's crazy to think that I've been writing on this little thing for a year now. I honestly thought that it would be a passing fancy and I'd give up on it after a few months, but once you sink your teeth into a blog it's really hard to give it up after all the work that goes into it. So here I am! One year later and still fumbling around trying to figure out what this blog is all about. I'm so thankful for all of you that have been stopping in and reading posts and making comments! You've been keeping my love of blogging going and I hope that in the past year I've brought you all some entertainment.

To thank you all for sticking along with all my shenanigans I wanted to do a tiny blog giveaway.

Monday Design: Design is in the Details

I have an immense fascination with interior photography. Mostly I think this is because I just love photography in general, but interior photography is of a whole different level. Shooting inside is extremely difficult for me and I love admiring the work of those who can do it and do it really well, like David Prince.

Photo Friday: Marie Claire Australia - October

I love looking at fashion editorials from around the world. The only problem is I'm in full fall/winter mode right now, but I love this spring layout in the Australian October issue of Marie Claire.

What I Wore: The Grown Up Leopard Print Edition

It's not a secret that I love leopard print - at least it shouldn't be at this point - so me wearing a leopard print dress on the blog isn't really news. However, this leopard print dress is particularly important to me as it's my second piece of "grown-up" leopard print.

Monday Design: Lovely London Loft

Oh holy brown. This lovely London loft is definitely not lacking in the brown category, but I love every bit of it. Of course, it's constructed with exposed brick walls and extremely high ceilings complete with wood beams. Basically, everything I love.

Photo Friday: Then and Now - The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

A while back I had a long conversation with a friend about photography, art, and photoshop. He didn't understand how photography could be considered art, especially when you manipulate the images within photo editing software. Well my friend, this is where photoshop meets art.

These images, masterfully combined, by Shawn Clover that I found here are absolutely how you create art with photoshop. Clover merged vintage images from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake with present day images of the same locations. Now, this isn't a new concept. In fact, I featured a similar play with new and old images here. However, it's the way that he combines these photos that really got me. I love how Clover almost painted in the old image over the new landscape so that the edges fade and you're not looking at a square cut-out but a fluid piece. It took me a second for some of these to even realize that they were two separate photos. Some just look like portions were colored in black and white.

Fashion Focus Chicago 2012

It's coming. It's coming! IT'S COMING!

Are you ever jealous of New York, Paris, Milan, and London because they get all the cool fashion events and runway shows? Well you should be. BUT, I have good news. Fashion Focus Chicago is coming in just a few short weeks! I'll be there. Will you be there? I'll be there.

My very talented and wonderful friend Jessica is showing in a MadMen competition on the 16th of October and I will most definitely be there. If you're local you should come by! It's not free unfortunately, but the gift bag should be well worth the $40 ($35 if you're a student) and it'll just be all great fun! Find the details here. 

Naturally, I want to go to all the events, but since I am a lowly editor I have to only pick a few. So if you want to stop in and say hi and join me on the fun you'll find me StyleChicago Art Fashion event on Friday the 19th as well. Why? Because it sounds like great fun! 

If you live in Chicago or the Chicagoland area come, drink, play, and be dazzled! 

I hope to see some of you at Fashion Focus Chicago! 

What I Wore: The Vintage Dots Edition

It's been a while since I've done one of these check-what's-in-my-shop outfit posts so I thought I might be due for one. This dress is an awesome one I picked up and it's awesome for two reasons: 1. The fit is fantastic for pear shapes like myself and perfectly professional if you work in an office. 2. It's a little daring in that it's both polka dots and stripes in one dress, so if you're intimidated by mixing patterns (like I am sometimes) this dress does the hard part for you.