fall fashion focus

I'm obsessed with fall fashion. Although it's still in the 90s here in Houston AND I'm wearing white denim today I am so ready for boots, skinny jeans, jackets and sweaters.

My latest fashion crush is Britain's L.K. Bennett.  Princess Kate wears a lot of their stuff so the business is currently booming. I was drawn into the store in Houston recently because I have a girlfriend who works there. She lured me into these gorgeous shoes and they are by far the most comfortable heels I have ever worn! 

Perfect with suits and dresses for work {loving the office carpeting aren't ya?!}:

and great for dressing up denim for a night on the town {dressed for the L.K. Bennett event last evening at the Galleria}:

I can't wait until the Stanley Riding Boot arrives in the store so I can try it on.

Also loving these booties: 

Been staring at these for a few weeks, wishing they'd get marked down by 75%!!

Always in the mood for some snake!

Ah so many great designs out there right now it's overwhelming.

Tried on these cuties at Zara last night.

Wanted to love these pants but they were horrible on me.



Loving the military trend so think I'll try these. 

What are your thoughts on the whole mismatched look this season? 

 I'm actually liking it in small doses.  Of course SJP can pull it off.

And Olivia pulls it all together like no other:

She can also pull off the denim on denim trend:

JCrew's version of mismatch looks great!

Shirts buttoned all the way up.  Peplum:

Speaking of JCrew, I have a new found girl crush on the former head of design, Marissa Webb.  LOVE her style, which I've been trying to channel recently like a big goober. Apparently so are many other women...there are blogs out there dedicated to copying her style, too funny.

Always hot for fall, Leather:

and animal print: 

So have I completely overwhelmed you now too???? Sorry.

The good news is it's FRIDAY!  ♥

Enjoy the weekend.

xoxo~

Tricia

Happy 1st day of fall!

It's hotter than blazes here in Houston but according to the calendar it's [finally] officially fall!

Hope you're enjoying the weekend.

xoxo-

Tricia

Master bedroom re~do

After 4+ years in this house, the tornado that had been constantly whizzing around in our master bedroom has moved on to less~cluttered pastures.

I'm so proud to say that my entire home is finally organized. We've hauled out unused items and totally organized the necessities in each and every room!

While it's by no means magazine-worthy, my master bedroom is prepped and ready for her debut. 

My side of the bed

Closest to the bathroom and the only closet in our room which I have full reign over.   Our nightstands are bombay style chests {purchased at Z Gallerie almost 10 yrs ago} which I painted in a white chalk paint mixture.

My hats get rotated out each season and are usually covered up by my 'always open' closet door with a full length mirror on the inside. As you can see, I created an accessory area to keep my scarves and frequently-worn belts and necklaces within reach for work days when I'm trying to rush out the door.  The large basket holds my 'in season' handbags and the off season are kept inside my closet.

A few short months ago you would've seen a roll rack here with clutter fully surrounding.

More necklaces hanging on the metal cross on top of my nightstand. I have a basket in the top drawer of my nightstand with all of my bracelets.

I keep it simple with perfume, rotating between my all time favorite Hermes d'orange verte, and Escentric Molecules 01 layered with Mediterraneo Carthusia.

 ♥ this picture of my angel baby taken when she was 6 months old.

We will eventually get a head board but it's not a necessity at the moment.  Our headboard wall is painted in Fieldstone by Benjamin Moore.

His side of the bed

This nightstand is typically layered with his laptop and work papers. Not only does poor hubby not have a clothes closet in our room, he also runs 2 successful businesses out of the home without a home office!  I try to be very patient with the countless piles of invoices, receipts and computers strewn about from room to room but it's a challenge. 

The left corner of our room is his 'office' area. The large screen Mac computer with a fax machine and printer hidden away. 

These baskets at the foot of our bed store his dress shoes, my winter boots, and our laundry bags.  We keep the lid to the basket on the right off throughout the week so we can throw our dirty laundry inside. 

We used to keep an ironing board up in our room but in our attempt to de-clutter we purchased this over the door ironing board. You can see the little basket storing our iron and spray starch under the chair.  This ironing station set up works perfectly for us, not beautiful but functional.

A view of the wall opposite our bed.  The photo above was taken before the rug was added {thank you La!!} and with a different console table. We used to have a large bookshelf here filled with books, movies and junk! 

We moved this zinc~ish table from the dining room up here.  We'll eventually mount the tv on the wall and hubby can use this table for his work.  I'd like to find 2 sconce lights to hang on the sides of the tv once it's mounted.  Little one's artwork on the left will of course come down as well. 

The rest of his shoes are stored here in these baskets. 

His closet armoire. 

  

This simple IKEA armoire received quite the makeover during the bedroom re~do.  We don't love it by any means but it's held up well these past few years and hubby needs it.  You'll see in the collage below, I created my own chalk paint mixture and crafted this faux~French armoire based on a photo of a gorgeous antique piece {bottom left}. A template was created using masking tape.  A few coats of paint, some heavy distressing and new mercury glass door pulls and voila~

My current view of the armoire from the disheveled bed. 

Another IKEA piece re~vamped in our 'use what we already have' mode. 

Simple IKEA chest of drawers, Union Jack flag traced in homemade chalk paint mixture {same light gray color as used on the armoire} then distressed heavily.  Little one helped me with this while we watched the olympics {hence the Union Jack idea}.  Not perfect, but better than the before.   

It's so nice to no longer feel anxiety while walking up the stairs, in constant fear of what awaited me in the disaster of a bedroom.  While there are still some things to update {mount tv, purchase a headboard and new table lamps etc...}, it feels good to know that only $50 was spent on our room re~do {$5 door pulls for armoire and $45 on down filled King comforter at foot of bed}. 

I thought I'd leave you with a few "reality" shots of the room.  Even on the worst day {pillows everywhere and dirty clothes spilling out of the hamper/basket}, it's 100 million times better than before! 

Dry cleaning and outfits for work ironed and ready for the week are here on the hook inside my closet door. 

 Unmade bed, half opened blinds, dirty laundry, slippers, pillows...my view as I walked into the room today. But minus 3 rolling racks lining the walls, the ironing board and a 3 foot pile of clothes at the foot of the bed~ life is good, at last! 

A peek into our 1940's blue tiled master bath AND my black hole of a closet, which is actually pretty organized at the moment! What a treat right?!

Whew, I'm tuckered.

xoxo~

Tricia

Lake house chic

I'm tired of posting about my own house but I do promise to share our master bedroom update as soon as I snap some pics!

I stumbled upon this great {former} bachelor pad lake house and loved every detail! Leave it to a woman with fierce DIY skills to add some 'chic' and brighten up a dark man cave.

All of the updates were extremely budget friendly and of course they did everything themselves. 

Kitchen update~ remove cabinets and paint wood floors using deck paint.  

I bet this sweet pooch {Huck} loves his bright home on the lake!

The table was made using lumber found on a neighboring property and the chairs were once bright yellow. 

 The reading nook with a driftwood shelf and goodwill chair with an Ikea slip.

I love this light and airy living room complete with a 1920's cane sofa from Craigslist redone with drop cloth fabric and a wing back chair from goodwill also covered in drop cloth fabric.  I especially ♥ the garden lantern turned light fixture!

Yard sale doors turned sliding barn type entry into the home office.

Another door used as a desk top with iron pipes as the legs.

A Target lampshade covered in dictionary pages.

Brass house numbers painted light blue for the stair risers.

 DIY plywood shelving unit sassed up with storage baskets from Target.

 Nothing better than a fun home tour full of DIY info~read the full write up in Country Living here.  You can also check out Emily's blog post with a fun behind the scenes post on the Country Living photo shoot here {thanks for the comment with Emily's blog info Lisa!}. 

Speaking of amazing home tours have you seen two of my favorite bloggers' kitchen updates? Check out Linsey's new farmhouse kitchen here and Holly's kitchen update reveal here.

xoxo!

Tricia