Archive for the Decor Category

Inspired by Vegas 4: droog

Posted 7 February 2011 by
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Finally, my final post in the Inspired by Vegas series. It only took one month to post them all. If you missed the other posts, make sure you check out Part I, Part II, and Part III!

I don’t know much about Droog except for what they have revealed on their website. I visited their newest location, within the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard. As soon as I spotted the store from the casino floor (ha), I felt as if I was being drawn in by a magnet. Once inside, I wandered aimlessly at the array of weird and wonderful objects. The shop featured quirky pieces of furniture and other things for the home. When I asked if I was allowed to take photos in the store, the Droog employee’s reply was, “Of course! Take as many as you like.” So I took a photo of every item that struck me as particularly weird, unique or interesting.

(Click on an image below for a larger pic.)

If you’re interested in buying or browsing through more designs by Droog, the Droog website has an online store.

Inspired by Vegas 3: Holiday decor

Posted 7 February 2011 by
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Yes, I am fully aware that we’re well into February and the title of this post contains the phrase “Holiday decor.” This post would have been appropriate had I posted it when I planned to (around the beginning of January) but, for lack of a better reason than being a sorry procrastinator, I am inappropriately posting it during the height of Valentine’s Day season.

Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day? I haven’t ever done so, but I know some people do it. I undecorated my mantel in mid-January – I removed the Christmas decorations and replaced them with our small collection of decorative items. To refresh your memory, the Christmas-y mantel looked like this:

Christmas 2010

and before that, my seasonally neutral mantel looked like this:

Pre-Christmas 2010

and after I removed the Christmas decorations, up until this weekend, it looked like this:

2011

OK, I didn’t remove all my Christmas decorations. I couldn’t bring myself to put away the bottles filled with sparkly twigs and faux leaves. I loosely followed this 6-step vignette tutorial from Apartment Therapy, as I have never deliberately created a vignette before. (more…)

Inspired by Vegas 2: Real inspiration

Posted 12 January 2011 by
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The Cosmopolitan, the brand new hotel-casino that just opened its glamorous doors on December 15th, 2010, was chock full of real inspiration.

Even though much of the Cosmopolitan’s beauty was perhaps unattainable, as shown in many of the photos I included in Part I of Inspired by Vegas, there were still a few delightful little niches that I could see myself reinterpreting for my own living space one day.

Take for instance this charming sitting area (and here’s a 6-second video of the space):

Sitting area at the Cosmopolitan

Don’t you just love the beautifully tufted ottomans, the five different kinds of seating that go-but-don’t-match, and the elegant meshing of modern and traditional? I think those ottomans would be easy to DIY. (more…)

Inspired by Vegas 1: Dramatic luxury

Posted 7 January 2011 by
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Sometimes a homemaker gets to leave the home for a while.

I was in Vegas for the week spanning Christmas and New Year’s Day, and I gotta tell you, I was completely immersed in a sea of surreal beauty. Don’t get me wrong, you can still find the gaudiness and campy glitz for which Vegas is known. However, the new properties on Las Vegas Boulevard – Wynn and Encore, Aria and Crystals retail district at CityCenter, and the newest kid on the block, The Cosmopolitan (which just opened December 15th, 2010) – all exude a different brand of excess: dramatic luxury. (more…)

Calgary

Posted 10 December 2010 by
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We spent last weekend in Calgary. Whenever we go to Calgary, we stay at the Fairmont Palliser.

Photo credit: The Fairmont Palliser - Photos

It’s a beautiful historical building. (more…)

Christmas craft: easy tinsel tree

Posted 6 December 2010 by
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For the last Holiday Home linky party that I linked up to, I had already posted my decked out mantel on my blog a few days before The Lettered Cottage’s linky party (which I didn’t even know about till the day of), so it was really easy to participate!

For today’s “Christmas Craft” Holiday Home linky party, I put together this blog entry especially for the party, which will be is hosted by the always fabulous Centsational Girl sometime later today.

I thought up this tinsel tree while admiring all the lovely tall cone-shaped trees in many window displays at the mall this weekend. I knew I already had all the materials to make one, too…it’s so simple, quick, easy AND cheap!

(more…)

All decked out

Posted 26 November 2010 by
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Update:
New mantel pics posted for the Christmas Craft linky party (made a tree out of tinsel)!

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It’s less than a month before Christmas!

This past summer, I donated and threw out nearly all my Christmas decorations, including my cute little Christmas tree.

Christmas 2008

I thought we’d be moving and I didn’t want to have to move non-essentials. We also sold nearly every piece of furniture we owned, except for our mattress, one bookcase, and my office chair. (more…)