dotty, unnecessary hashtags, and a whole lot of ikea

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it's been a little while since i posted any photos of our home and since we just signed up for another year in our sunny, below-market-value-because-it-is-not-that-close-to-the-train apartment, so i thought it was about time to share some of my favorite little pieces.

p.s. how cute is it that those cacti look like a couple on vacation posing for a photo and waving at the camera?

#partytimeallthetime
paper lanterns from ikea + spray-painted leftover table numbers from our wedding


  #flylikepaper
ikea clock + discontinued blik paper airplanes wall decals
 


#bedsidemanner
ikea headboard + target pillowcase + west elm nightstand



#rainingonmyparade
ikea shower curtain



#thesisshmesis
a chunk of my master's thesis + eames rocker + ikea furryness

friday five: orange things, sparkles, stationery, etc.

1. i am almost done with my wedding thank yous and have not had any complications from licking envelopes (unlike george castanza's fiance.)


2. naked juice's mighty mango.  when i'm too lazy to deal with our juicer, this is my go-to for mangoey deliciousness.


3. essie's lux effects in "set in stones".  it's just a bunch of giant silver glitter, but it makes me super happy when i do a forward fold at yoga and my toes are all sparkley.  


4. a new llama phone case c/o iconomesis.  my co-workers all judged me for having such a silly phone case, but i am huge fan.  i like talking llamas and funny plays on words, so this lil dude is going to be traveling with my phone for awhile.  


5. zara ikat slippers.  zigzags and orange edges?  i'll take both, please!  

friday five: newness around here

1. new summer cotton blanket from target with gray and white chevrons.


2. the yellow dinosaurs from our wedding reception have been popping up all over the apartment.  


3. bright knotted headband.  (exactly)


4. a surprise post-wedding awesome tray gift.  (exactly)

5. my new bright favorite nail polish.  (exactly)

friday five: ikea favorites

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four years ago, the boy and i found new homes for all of our furniture and moved across the country to go to grad school.  for our fresh start on decorating, i envisioned a whole lot of white with maybe some gray for accents.  while all of our heavy furniture is white and wood, the cleanliness and simplicity is nice, but it turns out i like color too.  i've mentioned before that we are big fans of ikea since it's really about how you combine pieces, not how much you spend on them.  we made a trip last week to the bigger chicagoland ikea (yup, there are two and we are somehow equidistant from both.)  and i thought i would share some of my favorite things to buy there.  

p.s.
instructions for making the light fixture pictured above can be found over here.

friday five: workfit blog inspiration

friday four: goggles decision time

i know that my facial expressions kinda give away how i felt about each frame, but just for kicks let's float a poll on this one.

which frames would you pick?
	1
	2
	3
	4
pollcode.com free polls

friday five: dining room tour

this friday, we're taking a tour of our dining room.  since we upsized to a new apartment in august, we've been slowly filling in our furniture gaps and adjusting to not being smushed.  so, here's five bits of the space:



print is in an ikea frame, antlers are from the boy's dad and painted with krylon "school bus yellow" spray paint, ikea lack shelf in white



photograph on the left is of canterbury cathedral, sailboat print is a marushka, matted print is a woodblock print done by the boy's mom, comic is from nicholas gurewitch's perry bible fellowship, pot is from ikea, bookshelf is expedit also from ikea



chair is a 4-leg base herman miller eames molded plastic chair in light blue, an ikea rens throw, and an ikea koldby cowhide on the floor



butcher block tabletop from ikea finished with mineral oil, painting on the wall beyond is acrylic on masonite



chandelier is covered in snow camouflage (last seen here in sheet form)

dotty, pollsters, and dots

[wearing]
dress: joie (similar)
scarf: forever21 (exactly)
jacket: theory (similar)
belt: forever21 (similar)
sandals: simply vera (exactly)









i polled.
you voted.
i wore the dress with dots.


i like this system.  

friday five: shoe poll

i really liked the way that my last friday five poll worked out, so i thought i'd float another one to figure out what shoes to pair with this neon dress that i wore once and then kinda forgot about.  i'm excited about the prospect of it being the perfect summer work dress, so now there's just big shoe decision to make! there's a voting box below or just leave a comment.

what shoes work best?
	1 (green sandals)
	2 (burgundy wedges)
	3 (brownish cloggish sandals)
	4 (coral sandals)
	5 (tan wedges)
pollcode.com free polls

friday five: pattern poll

everybody's read the standard tips for pattern mixing: stay in the same color family, combine different scales of patterns, stripes go with everything, and such.  this "cloud print" dress (they look more like badges to me, but maybe other places have perfectly geometric clouds and i'm just missing out) has been hanging around in my closet trying to befriend other patterns.  i've been trying to figure out what to pair it with, and while the rules of pattern mixing provide some inspiration (see above), i want to attempt to be a little more creative with this. so, i need some help from any professional pattern mixers out there to help me decide which of these works and which is a little too anthro-catalog-explosion-ish.  there's even a vote box below!

which of these patterns works?
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	3
	4
	5
pollcode.com free polls