Friday's Foot Fetish: Purple Suede

I fell in love with these shoes over at Blue Eyed Bride a few days ago! Then, when I saw she had paid $350 for them, I knew why. Who wouldn't love a $350 pair of shoes!

I like these as a nice substitute- they are less than $60 and much more practical! Bandolino Wynjara- $58.95 on Zappos

New Favorite Fragrance

This is my new favorite fragrance- White Patchouli by Tom Ford. I bought it recently at Sephora and love the smell- it isn't floral or clean. It is rich and strong. It is complex and mature. Here is the online description, which really makes no sense to me.

With its sensuous core of patchouli, TOM FORD White Patchouli perfectly captures the myth of a generation. Sleek wood blends with the essence of elegant white flowers to create this modern retro-classic fragrance that embodies a sophisticated interpretation of bohemian chic. Citrus and coriander top notes capture attention with their sleek freshness and unfold into a floral trio, revealing intoxicating jasmine, refined muguet, and sensual rose absolute. An alluring base of patchouli oprur delivers rich depth and mingles with tempering sandalwood, dramatic incense, and golden amber for a compelling, seductive appeal.

Tell me, based on that description, do you have any idea what it smells like? Yea, me neither.

Garden Party

I am a professional meeting planner, a certified one with 10 years experience. I plan conferences for 200-500 physicians to attend and get credit to stay licensed. My focus isn't social, it is more audio visual, stage design, shuttle buses, hotel contracts, etc. But, once a year, I get to plan more of a party and I love it!

Remember this dress that I was sales stalking and almost lost? It was for the garden party! I loved it and had the sweetest young girl, maybe 8 years old, tell me how pretty it was. The dress had pockets and they came in really handy! I took this picture after being outdoor in the heat for about 6 hours- pardon the hair and makeup!

The garden party was an outdoor summer dinner at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens for 175 people. We had the most beautiful Texas wildflower arrangements. Plus, we got to keep the vases.... you might see an orange one and a green one in future posts!

We selected tablecloths, table runners and napkins in the bright colors of Texas wildflowers. It added great color to the green of the gardens. Tying napkins with contrasting ribbons allowed us to bring in even more color! If you ever need to rent linens, use chair ties for table runners. You'll save about $10 per table!

The menus were designed by our communications team and we loved them on the tables. Since we had fans running through the courtyard, we used clear marbles to hold them down in the breezes. I had 400 of them in my pockets during set-up.

The botanical gardens were lovely. I love a potted garden and these just did it for me. This picture is my new screen saver- I just love the combinations.

I can't talk about the party without talking about food, especially when this party food was so good. We had beef tenderloin, spinach salad, green beans, homemade dinner rolls and this amazing dish of cheese heaven- corn pudding! So very good! Dessert ended the evening with peach cobbler and fudge brownies.

It was a great party on a pretty summer evening. Next year we are planning a high roller/casino/poker tournament! I can't wait!

Southwestern Spanish Decor

I recently stayed at a hotel that has been recently remodeled and their color scheme was something I had not seen before. I took a few pictures of my suite to share the color palette.

The colors included a deep warm burnt orange, a golden khaki color and a greyish brown. The argyle curtains were a great contract to the more abstract prints on the chair that included a little pop of turquoise. It was very Southwestern, but in a modern way.

The chair and drapes were placed in the suite with a rust colored couch and a coffee table with a Spanish design inset on the top.

The turquoise really came out with the artwork.

The bedroom was connected to the suite's living room with open archways and an iron scroll. I loved the burnt orange wall! Being in Texas, but not attending the University of Texas burnt orange is banned from my house, but looked good in this room.

I would have packed this headboard into my suitcase if I could. It was a beautiful tooled leather that really brought home the southwestern/Spanish room. Loved it!

I hope this room inspired you, too!

Friday's Foot Fetish: Calling 1990

These shoes are the epitome of my fashion sense my freshman year. I wanted these Cole Haan's so badly. I babysat all summer to buy them, a Dooney & Bourke purse and a Jon Hart backpack. I am not kidding. I have always been an accessory girl. I wore them the first day of school with cut off shorts and a white t-shirt. I was going for the too cool for school low key look. :) The mocassin from Cole Haan is back! I just might have to get another pair for old time's sake!

New (to me!) Entryway Table

I found this lovely red table a few months ago and then couldn't get it out of my mind! I recently went back to the store and asked the owner if she was willing to make a deal and it was mine for less than $100! She hit my magic number and I bought it quickly! It is a lovely shade of fire engine red with layers of paint underneath exposed beautifully.
I love the open bottom and pretty legs. It is prefect to not add too much weight to my entryway.
Love it!

New Roman Shade

This is my new blue bathroom. It is Wedgewood Grey that honestly turned out much more baby blue that I expected. It was painted over a khaki color that I think impacted the color. But, I paid people to paint it and it isn't in the budget to do it all over again.

I'm pulling in a good deal of brown to help and take away the baby boy blue. I wasn't sure what I wanted over the window, but my previous curtains didn't go well with the new paint color. While I was thinking about what to do Centsational Girl posted a DIY Roman Shade and I immediately sent it to my Mom/Seamstress to see if she'd be able to help me.

Here is my new roman shade. It was a comedy of errors and provided it doesn't fall down or rip apart, I'll consider it a success. Just please, don't come over and look on the back side :)

A couple of tips I'd add to Centsational Girls' directions:

Plan out your folds and determine how long you need the piece of fabric before folds to be. We ended up making it too long once we realized our folds couldn't be the size we wanted. We just added more folds and hung it higher to compensate.

Placing the Dow rods inside the pockets is good- I couldn't find them long enough so I had to fuse rods together. They had to be taped like crazy.

A plaid or symmetrical fabric makes it a little harder to make a Roman shade with. I had expected to make bigger folds to give it volume, but it would have left me with brown on brown and the ivory hidden and I couldn't handle the visual of that.

CG hung her shade on a piece of wood and then just attached the wood to the wall. With my room, you enter on the side, so I didn't want the wood to show. We ended up using 7 plastic rings and sewing them to the top. It was a great solution, but made hanging 7 nails 7.5 inches apart while balancing on the edge of the garden tub tough.

August Desktop

In honor of my new blog design, your August desktop is "Honeydew" from WM Squared Designs found at Scrap Matters.

Just click on the picture and then right click as save as desktop background. Enjoy!

Friday's Foot Fetish

I am a professional event planner. Event planning is glamorous at times and gruesome at times. We open registration each morning at 6 AM and some attendees always beats us there. We end around 10 PM each night. When at an event, I walk. A.LOT. A pedometer would be a hoot- I don't sit except for a few minutes to eat or help at registration. My feet swell so much at an event that I need wide shoes just for these functions.

Needless to say, I own my share of comfortable shoes that I wear just for events. My favorite brand hands down is Soft Walk. I always buy them on Zappos and haven't seen them in stores before. Some are cute and some even my Mother would consider old fashioned.

Here are some of my favorite cute ones from Zappos.

Maggione in Red
Rosetto in Turquoise
Montrose in Ivory ( I own these in brown!)

Manteca in Black
These are a great illustration of the pillowy bottoms of their shoes. They are so soft and the leather is quality leather that bends. If you are on your feet much, get some Soft Walks!

Do You See What I See?

I made another set of alphabet blocks for a baby boy's shower this month.

Can you see his name inside the alphabet?

It is Grayson! We look forward to meeting Grayson in September.

Here are the directions if you want to make a set!