new old

my mom and i sorta share magazines, i read her leftovers...

so i just got around to this spring issue (march 2013) of real simple recently.

i tore these pages out as soon as i saw them.

i can't pin down exactly what triggered my visceral reaction to these pages,

but it was hard.

i think it was the white walls, especially white painted brick.

i am really loving them more lately... the white wall thing.

and the rugs. and the art!

oh and the color/pattern extravaganza. obviously.

and the mismatched/anthropologie effect.

prob the combo of all that mushed together.

took me awhile to hunt them down on real simple but if you want the details on the clothes, you can read all about them here.

california.

 

i've always been a little more on the bohemian/eclectic side.

i like pattern, and color, and texture, just extra stuff. extra layers.

mexican/ethnic textiles, and bright colors.

it speaks to me more than anything else.

 

my friends in college used to call me 'expensive hippie'.

like i shave my armpits and bathe... lets not get crazy.

but my hair is crazy ass long and almost always left to dry on its own...

and i've been wearing maxi dresses for almost 15 years.

 

but lately, its even more than before!

i live in carefree-type layers of loose, worn-in tees, with scraggly denim cut-offs.

and i want my house to have to same feel.

 

casual. with a spark of a little somethin somethin.

does that even make sense?

it does in my head.

 

maybe its summer talking.

maybe it's the fact that half of the people i follow on instagram are from california and they're rubbing off :)

 

but this is me this summer,

and i want it to stick around.

 

i'm kicking off the starchy and proper,

and kicking-back.

 

join me?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

all good things.

and maybe they don't even make total sense to you.

but they all evoke a feeling for me.

and i like it.

 

p.s. ascotfriday just bought a winnebago, the 'wertzebago'!

and i'm sure it will end up even cooler than the one just up above.

i kinda freakin love that idea and just added it to my life list.

 

 

JILL

it's may!

it's finally may. finally.

i feel like this winter was a perpetual monday.

with the hope of tuesday, and good heavens... the weekend! just around the corner.

it was the hardest winter i've had yet.

lots of personal junk and some terribly gross weather.

it all mixed and swirled into this gray monday-ness.

april really couldn't even classify as 'spring' until like... a day ago.

this weather has been nuts.

(and i won't even tell you the snow word is in the forcast for tomorrow night>! wtf.)

anyway.

it's may.

and just being may makes me feel better.

i'm moving forward and leaving that junk behind.

(barring the weather man is just plain nuts and it's not really going to snow tomorrow. a girl can hope.)

but it's may!!

happy may day.

all of these images are from my favorite source.

it's so european, eclectic, colorful, amazing.

i wish my house could come from its pages. honestly.

right up my alley.

all from nuevo estilo.

can you get that subscription in the US?

i'm going to try and find out.

but until then,

here:

happy may!

can i say it again?

happy may!!

JILL

fall mingling.

so this fine early fall....

i'm all for mixing and matching.

less matching and more mixing.

and this is what i love about cooler weather... it allows more layers.

with more layers you have more interest. more ways to mix.

here are 2 outfits i wish i could make magically appear in my closet.

one super colorful, the other not as much.

both with a healthy dose of pattern.

they are so perfect for work right now.

flowers by thebluehouse featuring silk scarves

H&M , $24 / Floral skirt, $63 / Moschino Cheap & Chic high heel shoes, $415 / Kenneth Cole coral jewelry / Silk scarve, $96

foxes by thebluehouse featuring a collar necklace

Wallis fitted blazer / Alice + Olivia leather skirt / Madewell leopard print shoes / Kenneth Jay Lane collar necklace, $300 / Here & There Tee, Animals



 

 

 

 

 

love you all lots.

 

 

JILL

little bits...

of boho.

of glitz.

of glam.

of color.

loulou de la falaise.

she lived a glamorous life.

she had glamorous jobs.

model.

muse to yves saint laurent.

worked with oscar de la renta.

owned 2 shops in paris.

had the most glamorous paris apartment.

see for yourself:

love.

and you can see lots more here.

JILL

{photos via habitually chic}

eclectic eclecticism

i found this house tour of west LA interior designer, tommy chambers, so intriguing.

i like to see how designers live. what they can do when they are their own client.

this is one crazy cool mix of a house.

magpie at it's best.

details details details!

wanna see more? go here.

my favorite bits...

the blue dining chairs and the chandelier in the dining room.

and don't forget that kitchen rug.

fo sho.

JILL

let's talk.

i loved domino, as we all did, and one of my favorite editors was rita konig.

i find her style right up my alley. she's a more-the-merrier type, with an eclectic, mixed, vintage-with-new, repaint, reupholster, and re-use, full on color and pattern style, and i loved her.

i recently found that she contributed to ny mag's blog, the t magazine, after domino. she did before and afters, some major insight to what she's thinking when she does it/why she likes it and why she doesn't kinda thing.

she doesn't do it any longer but i enjoyed going back and reading what she had written. you can do so here, if you so please. i recommend it.

here's her ny apartment that i love for its mix and color.

not to mention that dark pinky inky-purple velvet. delish.

while raving about a friend's beautiful monochromatic place, she said somthing that i seem to agree one million percent with, "...tom's taste is very tailored. all the upholstery is white, as is the fireplace and even his nonshedding dog. it is an incredibly controlled palette; even the art is almost entirely framed in white. personally i am terrible at this type of decorating. my mind is far too scattered and magpie-ish to keep myself to one vision. but for me, with rooms- as with people- it is the mix that makes it work."

love. that sounds like me to a t.

it makes me feel more confident about my scattered and magpie-ish self and style.

even her car is a fantastic orange and unapologetically retro.

her bedroom isn't one that i'd pick for myself but i find it charming and perfectly english, just like her.

some of her other before and afters in her own apartment:

this room she did for a client is exactly why i'm such a fan.

pattern and pattern and color. turquoise leather with a cozy white club chair.

ikat with damask.

glorious.

do you enjoy her as much as i do?

JILL

{images via domino, ny times, apartment therapy, plush palate}