IN LOVE W/ WALLPAPER

Well not literally... but I really like this. It is official - Wallpaper is back! I must admit I am probably a little behind the times when it comes to this recent development for two reasons - 1. Josh and I rent our apartment currently and so spending the time/money/effort to purchase and install wallpaper is out of the question and 2. the early 90's influx of wallpaper has permanently scarred my opinion (I'm not sure if I will ever recover from this?!?)



Despite me personally being out of touch with this new trend, it is here none the less. I am excited to see such cool graphic patterns that make such a bold statement. If you are thinking about wallpaper - I would totally go for it! I think it is a great way to spice up a room and can definitely bring a whole new meaning to the phrase "accent wall." I think it would be great for a dining room, accent wall in a guest room or office or maybe even above a chair rail in a nursery. Check more cool wallpaper/ fabric out at Mod Green Pod.

VEGAS FOR WORK

That's right, a couple of weeks ago I went to the FABULOUS LAS VEGAS, NEVADA for work. A furniture manufacturer called Foliot Furniture invited several industry designers and specifiers to come and check out their new showroom and manufacturing plant in Las Vegas. They paid for my plane ticket, transportation and 2 nights stay at the Mirage hotel and resort. Very cool.

I went with one of the VP's of my company and had a really great time. We left for Vegas on a Thursday and arrived in time for dinner. On Friday we had the day to site see on the strip. Our first stop was a wax museum at the Venetian. It was tons of fun!! (And we got lots of good pictures - way too many to post!) Here I am with Elvis himself.


Here is Tara giving Tiger some pointers on his next shot.


Here I am breaking it down on the dance floor with Michael.


I took this picture for Josh - it was a massive fish tank behind the reception desk at the Mirage - very cool!

My room at the Mirage for 2 nights - very Vegas, I must say.


At the Venetian - across the street from the Mirage. I think the Venetian might be my favorite.

The dancing fountains at the Bellagio - always fun to stop and see. Now all I can think of though is Oceans 11.


Dinner at a Chinese Restaurant inside the Mirage - very cool atmosphere.

After the furniture event on Friday night, Tara and I had tickets to go to The Beatles LOVE show by Cirque du Soleil. This was definitely my favorite part of the whole trip. I love the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil so both together was mind-blowing! The show was unlike any I have ever seen. Absolutely amazing theatre and special effects, music, performance and costumes.

Overall the trip was a lot of fun. I will say that Vegas is as crazy as people say it is and you have to be very selective about the areas you go to and the places that you stay. I had been once before with my family and we stayed at the Bellagio. This trip at the Mirage was definitely not family friendly and if I go back someday with Josh, I don't think we will stay there. I think I want to check out staying at the Venetian!

GUEST POST

Happy Friday everyone! I am so excited about this 3-day weekend we have on our hands. Today I leave you with a post that I did for my friend Christine who has an awesome design and DIY blog... check it out here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

JOSH'S BIRTHDAY CAME EARLY

So last night Josh got a 6 week early birthday present... the new Iphone 4. (He got the black one but I really like the white one too so I decided to show you both.) He is beyond excited. His old phone was so slow and almost died every night before he could get it back to the charger - ridiculous. It was time for a new one. Here are some of my favorite quotes from him last night...

Right after we got the phone and we were walking out of the store... Josh - "Look at this picture (quality)." Becca - "I know..." Josh - "No you don't, you have never seen anything THIS good!"

When we trying to make a U-turn to go back to firehouse subs for dinner Josh was getting stressed at the traffic and said, "I don't like my Iphone seeing me frustrated like this."

Later after dinner as we are walking to the car..."I've got my wife in one hand and my Iphone in the other... life is good."

O babe you are so funny. I am so glad you like your early birthday present. Love you.

DINING ROOM RENO

When Josh's family was in town a couple of weeks ago we stumbled across a great buy on a new dining room table and chairs. (I would say that our previous dining set was probably our least favorite piece of furniture for both looks and functionality.) We inherited the old table from my dad's condo which we were so thankful for but were ready for a change. We had been keeping an eye out for a new table that would be bigger but still fit in the smallish space - and hopefully be able to fit in the kitchen of a future house! Here is the picture of the dining room before...

After finding the new table... we decided to give the dining room a mini-makeover by painting above the exisiting chair rail and trying to give the room a little more depth. It only took us a couple of hours to paint and I think it made a big difference. Nothing too loud like our other accent walls - but interesting and maybe a little more sophisticated?

We absolutely love our new dining room table!! We got it at Z Gallerie on clearance and they also threw in a nice designer's discount for yours truly. (I love my field!) It is a dark solid wood with charcoal gray legs. The wood is somewhat distressed which we think will be great for future little ones - this way we don't have to worry about it getting damaged. Yet, it is not "country" by any means... the metal legs give it a contemporary feel.

While Josh's family was here we got to immediately test out the functionality of the table by having a full dinner for 6 people where everyone and all the food could fit at the table. Very nice.

Even Molly's area was part of the dining room reno... we picked up these new food and water bowls for her at Homegoods. Very cute and it was time to retire the hot pink ones seen here. Josh was very excited as you can imagine.

WORK IN AUBURN, AL

Last week I took a quick one-day trip with my boss over to an apartment complex in Auburn, AL called Eagle's West that our company owns and manages. We decorated and staged a one-bedroom model to try and entice some more people to rent at this location. This was my first real stab at decorating a model (which is something that I think we will be doing a lot more of...) We did most of the shopping for the model the day before we went. Our budget was $3,000 (not inlcuding major furniture items) and we ending up spending $2,700. I must say it was very fun getting to shop and put together something like this overnight - it almost did not feel like work... does this mean I like my job? :) Here are the pics - how do you think we did?

BATON ROUGE IN AUGUST WITH NO A/C

I must say that the title for this post pretty much sums up last weeks trip with work for me... it was HOT. My boss and I drove down to Baton Rouge last Monday and came back Friday afternoon - we went to work on a project that Capstone is opening tomorrow (Saturday) called The Cottages at Baton Rouge. We were primarily working on decorating a clubhouse for the cottages complex - adding furniture, rugs, art accessories... making it look "lived-in".


Avantages to this trip:

- LOTS of free T-shirts... we were changing our shirts 3 times a day :)

- Got to have lunch one day with my good friend Sarah Rawlings who drove up from New Orleans to see me - I had not seen her in over a year!

- We got to get out of the office for a week and see an awesome student living facility that is so great it makes me want to go back to school just so that I can live in it.



Several disadvantages to this trip:

- We were in LSU country - their fans are always the worst!

- No elevator working to carry heavy items upstairs (i.e. lounge chairs)

- NO A/C IN 117 DEGREE HEAT INDEX...we would walk outside from the clubhouse and this hot weather would feel actually cooler than it was inside


Hot as it was down there... this is a really neat project - the clubhouse is 20,000 sq. ft. and comes complete with a two-story gym, tanning beds, steam room, game rooms with pool tables, poker tables, shuffle board, dart board, TVs for watching game, etc.


Check out the website link to the site... it is really cool. I did not get any pics of the clubhouse as it was still not cleaned once we left. We are hoping they will take professional pictures ASAP. It really was a neat project to be a part of... I learned one thing last week - my job description as an Interior Designer was just broadened and I wil never again take the sweet feeling of air conditioning for granted.