Whats Poppin?

Are you ready to meet the raddest office supply store ever? Poppin sells sleek, candy colored office supplies all designed in house. The fun, graphic product photography was enough to suck me right in and the witty product descriptions sealed the deal.

Back to school shopping season is right around the corner and even though I'm not headed to school and don't have kids to shop for I still love the stock up on new notebooks and pens. Thanks to Poppin I'm adding a new stapler and tape dispenser (and maybe some highlighters, a few clipboards, binder clips, okay somebody stop me) to my "back to school" shopping list.

website - facebook - blog - twitter

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Still Redecorating My Living Room in My Mind

Isn't it funny how thinking about buying a new rug suddenly turns into wanting to redo and entire living room? I started pulling together a mood board to help me decide which rug would work best in the space and suddenly I had several new items added to my wish list.

1 - media storage 2 - sconce 3 - throw pillows

4 - artwork 5 - sofa 6 - rug

None of you actually choose this rug out of the six I was considering but Nick picked it out as one of his favorites and since he hardly ever expresses interest in home decor I like to give his opinions the proper amount of consideration. I think it might be too dark, I need to check it out in person along with some of the other options to make a decision.

The room is coming together more monochromatic than I initially intended. I like it but I think I might want to add some colorful accessories. Although, I do love how Erin's black, white and gray living room came together so perhaps I will keep with a more restrained color palette. Decision, decisions...

If I do decided to interject some color, this bright yellow urban outfitters floor lamp would look pretty snazzy in the space.

What do you think? Could you live in a monochromatic space?

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What to Wear - To a Wedding on the Hottest Day of the Year

This past weekend my boyfriend's cousin got married at a beautiful location in Franklin Lakes, NJ. Yes that Franklin Lakes and no I didn't see any housewives. Knowing that the ceremony and cocktail hour were going to be outdoors and that the weather forecast was calling for it to be 100 degrees I was panicking about what I should wear. The dress I had in mind to wear was too heavily lined and kind of tight so I knew I would just melt in it. Mad dash to the mall on Thursday evening to try to find something to wear that was lighter and more comfortable but still evening wedding appropriate. I thought I would share what I found in this What to Wear post because I was pretty surprised that I was able to find something at the last minute that was cute and really affordable.

The photo above is the only one I have of me in the dress (that's me in the purple making the funny face) so I styled my outfit on my dress form to share with you. Remember that post where I said I was giving up shopping at places like Forever 21 and instead investing in more quality wardrobe pieces? What can I say, sometimes you can't beat Forever 21 in a pinch.

dress - forever21

key necklace - forever21

bangles - forever21

gold glitter belt - zara

t-strap heels - payless

Believe it or not those $20 payless shoes didn't hurt my feet at all. They carried me right through a night full of drinks, dinner, and dancing.

Related Posts:

What to Wear - When It's So Darn Hot Out

What to Wear - How About Stripes

What to Wear - In the Garden

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Virginia Kraljevic - Pen Meets Paper

I used to doodle swirly waves and triangles on the my notebooks in high school. Virginia's fine-lined drawings are like the most incredible notebook doodles I've ever seen.

website - shop - blog - twitter - facebook

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Pre-Fall Arrives at West Elm

Remember yesterday when I said I was definitely keeping my existing coffee table base and shopping for a new marble top? That lasted until this afternoon when I got an email from West Elm with the new fall arrivals and more importantly - this coffee table:

...Trying to remain strong.


There are a lot beautiful additions to the furniture collection, especially in the limited edition section.

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Impulse Purchase...

But who can resist temporary tattoos created for design-minded kids-at-heart. Tattly, started by Tina a.k.a swissmiss, was born from her distaste of the hideous temporary tattoos selection her daughter had to choose from. The list of designers who've contributed to the project include Julia Rothman, Jessica Hische, Jennifer Ward, and more.

The site went live today and I couldn't resist the aperture and you're late tattoos.

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Thinking About a Living Room Update - Perhaps a New Rug

I have that itch to decorate and I'm feeling the urge to freshen up my living room. In general, I'm happy with the furnishings but the decorative elements are leaning a little more feminine than I would like them to be.

I really love the sofa but I think I need to update the legs, I'm not crazy about the legs the Karlstad sofa comes with. Perhaps I should paint them. The side tables are inexpensive ones from Urban Outfitters but they have a nice mid century modern shape so I'm definitely going to keep them. The coffee table drives me a little crazy. The base was an awesome ebay score but I never had a top made for it so I'm still using glass from an old coffee table. The glass is always dirty and we bump into those sharp corners all of the time. I think a round marble top would be perfect so I'm on the hunt for a vintage carrera marble top coffee table.

1 - ikea 2 - ikea 3 - west elm 4 - overstock 5 - ikea 6 - overstock

I think the quickest and easiest way to update the space will be to replace the rug with new graphic rug in a more masculine color scheme. I definitely want something bigger, the current rug is 5x7' but since the sofa is so large it's really screaming for an 8x10'. My top six choices are shown above (Are you humming the "One of These Things is Not Like Other" song from Sesame Street too?). I thought for sure the Ikea Stockholm Rand rug (number 2) was going to be the winner but I decided to shop around a little before I committed to it. I found other graphic cream, black, and gray rugs that I also like and then I came across the last rug from Overstock and I fell pretty hard for it. Now I'm not sure what I want. Which one of these rugs do you like best?

(this is an older photo, we actually have baseboard molding now:)

This is the tv stand on the wall opposite the sofa. Right now I have the tv set up on a console table from Target. I like the simple set up but since the tv rests along a rather large wall in the living room it is not doing much to fill the space and it feels kind of bare. Time to research some tv display solutions that don't look like big, bulky entertainment centers...

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Uninvited Garden Guests

Flea beetles have taken up residence in my garden and are eating the heck out of some of my plants. Sneaky bastards! They've been munching on my swiss chard for awhile which I ignored. Then they moved on to my basil which is annoying but not a big deal since I also have some growing inside. But when they moved on to my eggplant and especially my purple sicilian cauliflower I decided they must be stopped.

Since organic rotenone based insecticides are broad spectrum (which means they may also kill beneficial insects) I'm going to try a homemade deterrent to get rid of the flea beetles. I made a garlic oil spray and I'm going to try misting the plants weekly. My first application was Friday evening, I'll let you know how much success I have with this natural method. If you are interested in making your own garlic oil spray here is what you'll need:

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 - 3 teaspoons of mineral oil

1 teaspoon of dish soap

1 liter sized spray bottle

Combine minced garlic and mineral oil in a glass bowl and allow to soak for 24 hours. I mashed the minced garlic with the back of a spoon after I added it to the mineral oil to extract as much oil out of the garlic as possible. After 24 hours combine oil & garlic mixture with soap, add to the spray bottle and fill the rest of the bottle with water. Shake well and mist affected plants.

You can also try sprinkling smashed mint leaves around the base of your plants as a preemptive flea beetle deterrent. Do you have any natural pest deterrent home remedies to share?

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High & Low - A Marble Coffee Table

high - dwr rubik coffee table low - cb2 smart round marble coffee table

I've always like the round marble top coffee table from CB2 but didn't realize until last night what a great lower cost substitute it is for the rubik coffee table from DWR.

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What to Wear - When It's So Darn Hot Out

How do I justify wearing a tank top and drawstring linen pants to the office? By slipping on a pair of gold flats and calling it an ensemble. In my defense, it is a pretty nice tank and at least my pants ironed (which is not often the case).

studded tank - urban outfitters

linen pants - old navy

gold flats - target

little gold heart necklace - gift from Nick, purchased in Greece

Related Posts:

What to Wear - How About Stripes

What to Wear - In the Garden

What to Wear?

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Behold: Bhldn Does Wedding Decor

It looks like the gorgeous new Anthropologie owned wedding shop Bhldn has jumped into the wedding decor business. The decor section of the online shop looks like the most perfectly curated etsy shop.

If these items fit into your wedding decor budget then by all means snatch them up but I have a feeling that for many they are too expensive to purchase in quantities large enough for decorating a wedding. If that's the case for you (as it would be for me) the site is still a great place to go for decorating inspiration.

And of course there's no reason why you can't just by yourself some beautiful tableware for home and enjoy them everyday instead of just one special day.

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Friday Etsy Favorites

I haven't done a Friday Etsy Favorites in a few weeks and I thought we were do for some cool summer tees and tanks, some bling, and a very chic summer bag.

1 - letterhappy 2 - nubambu 3 - trulysanctuary 4 - drikab 5 - thiefandbandit

Have a great weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday!

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