Life Is in the Details

Small details in a house make it a home. I'd much rather have a half-designed home full of little personal objects that have stories and meaning to them than in a "finished" house full of off-the-shelf decor bought at Pottery Barn.

I'm a sucker for fresh flowers.

These are from the Larchmont Farmer's Market, bought for me by Alex. And the jewelry hook thing is a gift from my friend's trip to India. The hanging aortic heart is a thank you gift from my childhood friend.

I love a good bedside table.

The glazed ceramic bowl is a wedding gift from a friend. And the succulent I got at the Rose Bowl, then planted in a vintage Japanese tea cup for our wedding.

I've since changed these curtains that were bugging me so much, but the garden view is what I love. I inherited the purple and white flowers from our previous tenant, and I love that they face the bedroom window.

This is the kind of view I never had in New York City. My apartments usually had prime views of a brick wall or maybe a window where I could see my neighbor going number 2.

The Chanel No. 5, a gift from my dad. I think he learned long ago from my mom that you can never go wrong with giving her a new bottle of No. 5, and he's since passed that wisdom down to me. The pearls, a gift from my mother-in-law, passed down from Alex's grandmother.

The rabbit dish, an engagement gift from my producer and good friend, Angela. It incongruously showed up as a prop in the movie Looper. The watch, an engagement gift from my parents, with a matching one to Alex. And the rings, they were from Pottery Barn, of course.

I kid!

Lastly, this guy makes all the difference in our home. It's like rooming with a miniature friendly lion.

DIY Blackboard

I've been toying with the idea of making my own blackboard signs in keeping with the DIY, rustic feel for our upcoming wedding (less than a month, eek!).

I decided to do a little test run with some chalkboard paint, which I picked up at my favorite hardware store, Anawalt.

First, I picked up some cheapie little framed art at the Goodwill down the Street. This was only $7.

help me, i'm cheezy!

Ideally, I would've removed the frame and just painted the glass. But the back of the piece was totally sealed up, so I had to keep in in tact and tape the gold frame with painters tape to protect it from the black chalkboard paint.

How fun! I felt like my own personal Banksy. Minus the million dollar price tag.

Sssssst!

Sssssssssst! Spray painting is great fun. Vigilant watchers beware.

Who wants to be a skunk?

All done! Leave it for 24 hours to dry...

And voila. We have a chalkboard for our front entryway, where my betrothed and I can leave important messages for each other, like the one above. For our wedding, I may take this down and use it to display our specialty drinks menu (Which is still TBD. Cucumber green mule? Blood orange-artichoke fizz? Thai basil vodka & tonic? Strawberry fix?)