Oh, So Thankful...

Via marthastewart.com

The day after Thanksgiving is always a swirl of relief (made it through another holiday!), guilt (shouldn't have had that second glass of wine!) and pure joy :)

My family is the result of that joy, I am so very lucky to be surrounded by the most loving, caring, happy, funny, sweet, intelligent and just plain fabulous people!

I "co-host" the holiday with my mom and while it's a bit of an undertaking, it is so wonderful to welcome the family and watch as they enjoy the festivities!

We usually have a set menu with familiar favorites on it, however this year...we added two NEW favorites! Please try these...you'll be glad you did!

1. Crunchy Baked Fennel.

This crispy and delicious recipe comes from Food & Wine Magazine. Roasted sliced fennel is topped with crunchy Japanese Panko Crumbs that have been toasted and mixed with sauteed garlic, shallots and fresh tyme and olive oil. I added chicken broth instead of white wine before baking but either way would be so delicious!

2. Ciabatta Stuffing.

My clever mother adapted her recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis' Ciabatta Stuffing with Chestnuts and Pancetta. What'd she do different? Nixed the chestnuts (not a fan) and pancetta (too salty for our crowd) and instead, pumped up the autumn flavors with Craisins and pine nuts. This stuffing is so moist and the Ciabatta bread just soaks up the flavors! Yum.

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday!

Designer Inspiration: Jaime Drake

I am a design junkie, no question. And professional interior designers are my heroes. While I may eat, sleep, breathe--oh, and write about design and decorating, I am not a practicing designer (well, in my own home I certainly am). Perhaps one day but for now, I enjoy sitting back and drooling over what the pros create.

This photo gallery from nytimes.com of designer Jaime Drake's NYC apartment blew my mind. Bursting with color and creativity, it's no wonder Mr. Drake is one of the best around.

My favorite photo is this bedroom shot. I adore, adore, adore the green-painted wall behind the bed and the energetic painting that is ever-so-slightly off-center. So refreshing and fun. Also loving the simple colorful coverlet on the bed...hm...something to think about for my own bedroom makeover.

My other favorite photo? The lacquered wood coffee table that is embedded with Swarovski Crystals. Is he kidding?! For me, this was love at first sight!

You can check out the rest of the gallery here. I hope it inspires you as much as it has me!

Bedroom Makeover III: Bedding Inspiration

Nothing is more fun than choosing new bedding. I'm so excited that I'm having a hard time narrowing it down...here are some of my top choices:

This Calvin Klein set from Bloomingdales.com...is so pretty and a great price ($135.99) but a little too lavender for the hubby I think, we'll have to check it out...

This is another pretty set, from Macys...on sale for $99.99, although the silver is a bit light. I'd have to see it in person.

Then of course, last night I was reading the Elements of Style Blog and Erin picked up an amazing Ralph Lauren bedding set at HomeGoods (my favorite store!) which is exactly what I'm looking for...Check it out here. I think I'm taking a trip over to HomeGoods. She's got great style so I'm pretty excited that we're both going for a similar look in our bedrooms!

P.S. - Erin is hosting a HomeGoods giveaway on her blog right now...you've got to go check it out!

Bedroom Makeover Part II: Primed and Inspired

Thanks to my hard-working hubby the bedroom is primed and ready to paint. I'm a little out of sorts without the comfort of my bedroom tonight, but I'm excited to see how the painting will go tomorrow.

I'm still sold on Manhattan Mist from Behr but here's a shot of our color choices and inspiration page. Manhattan Mist is the color on the bottom just to the left of the page. We'll see how it turns out.

(Sorry for the awful photos, I'm between cameras and only have my cell phone to snap pics with!)

Ok, wish us luck! I know, it wasn't the most exciting update, but hey...thanks for listening!

Bedroom Makeover, Part I: A Grey Romance

We've decided to repaint our bedroom. I'd like it to have a more modern, romantic vibe with a little drama. Kinda like me :)

I fell in love with and scooped up these pillows (in black) from HomeGoods, which are now serving as the inspiration for the entire new look of the bedroom.

They're the Popple ZigZag pillows from Thro., LTD. It's hard to see but trust me they are shiny, luxurious and gorgeous with a silk back. They're over on Overstock.com right now for a good price if you're interested.

I loved they are in grey, purple, black, silver--all of my favorite colors. Right now the browns, peanut butter and robin's egg blue we have in the bedroom just isn't doing it for me.

So we spent our morning pouring over grey paint samples and have narrowed it down. Right now, my choice is Manhattan Mist from Behr. A blue-toned grey that will cool things up and still embrace warmth. Sounds, nice, right?

We'll be priming and painting over the next few days so I'll be sure to take photos and post the before and afters. For now, it's on to shopping for bedding!

Dream Job: Buyer for Anthropologie

I recently started watching Man Shops Globe on the Sundance Channel (catch it Wednesday nights at 10 pm) and I am hooked.

The show follows Keith Johnson, the buyer-at-large for Anthropologie (amazing!!) as he travels the world in search of the coolest, most unique home accessories, furniture, fabric and other cool finds to furnish and sell at the Anthropologie stores around the country and apparently soon around the world.

So far I've watched him shop the biggest and best antique shops, markets and bazaars in France and Turkey. This photo was from last week's episode, when Keith was in Turkey shopping for fabrics.

He pulled out this gorgeous antique suzani...

photo via sundancechannel.com

Look closely at the coloring, the darker greyish spots used to be black but faded so much over such a long time, it's completely transformed itself into something new.

Johnson picked up on that and immediately knew it would be an inspiration piece. He then set out to find additional fabrics that could be transformed into something else...reinvented and sold in the stores.

His solution? He commissioned a local seamstress in Turkey to transform old textiles into one-of-a-kind pillows. They are extraordinary, I couldn't find any still photos online but I remembered that some of the pillows were featured in this Elle Decor article that ran about Johnson's apartment in the October issue.

Here's a photo, although the pillows are a little hard to see...they are there in the center of the yellow sofa:

photo via pointclickhome.

How beautiful are those pillows? You can check out the whole gallery of photos here. And I recommend you do because his apartment is so funky, fresh and worldly, you'll want to move right in.

I think they are also being sold in stores...I'll have to investigate and scoop one up!

Halloween Tips and Tricks

Halloween is just a few weeks away! I know I'm excited, how about you?

I wanted to share some of the new Halloween articles I recently produced, including the "True Blood" Party for Celebrations.com.

And have you checked out AOL Home's newest site: Holidash.com yet? I was proud to contribute this DIY Haunted House story. My friend is one of the editors and she is doing a great job!

Oh, I also recently put together this small, sparkly display in my home. What do you think?

I propped up two glittery skulls from the dollar store on a pair of purple zebra-print candle holders I already owned. I added faux plastic skeleton hands that I also found at the dollar store. To finish, I covered my lampshade with faux spiderweb and a plastic spider or two. Kinda fun I think.

Don't get me wrong, I love to decorate but when you're busy writing about it all day long, sometimes it's nice to find cheap, quick and easy ideas for your own home!

What do you think?