Girl Palace DIY: Terrarium

I was inspired by a DIY I saw on Design Sponge recently here. So I set out in search of an ugly lamp. I knew I would find one at a thrift shop.



My find:

Not pretty at all in lamp form. These lamps remind me of poorly decorated homes in subdivisions all over America. I couldn't say no to the $3.99 price tag, especially since it was 50% off for the Columbus Day Sale!

Another view of the guts... I was not sure at the outset how I would dislodge the fixture from the inside...



The process:

I tugged and twisted and yanked and pulled and eventually it gave way. All it took was a snip of the scissors and out came the lights.



The planting:

I went to Home Depot and bought potting soil, succulents, and moss. I found rocks outside and reused a saucer from a broken pot to put underneath.


The finished look:

So beautiful! I will most certainly be finding more lamps in different shapes and trying this more. Perhaps they would make a nice Christmas gift for a few friends?







The terrarium sits next to this sweet little pepper plant in a chevron pot I spray painted last summer!

Stay tuned for a peek inside the Girl Palace ITSELF later this week!



Will you try a DIY? What have you been dying to make?!


-H

Freaky Friday: SSFF

And a freaky friday it is indeed. G was up until the wee hours of the morning ordering the new iPhone 5... and I went to bed far too late. It will be and interesting day...

Sights: Our new palace

...pending room cleaning....

here are a few things we purchased for the apartment (not including the knicky-knacky trip I took yesterday for some more unnecessary adorable items):

Butterfly Poster that hangs in Hannah's room $12 via ikea

Easel that sits in the hall for impromptu art sessions $14.99 via ikea

Sheepskin throw for some pizzazz on the sofa via ikea

Sounds: Tyler Lyle

The genius behind The Golden Age & the Silver Girl aka my new addiction. This guy has some serious sex appeal. He has a sort of raspy voice a la Dave Matthews but with a hint of twang, and dose of attitude. And he is such a precious guy. He has a thoughts section on his website with his own musings... on May 17th he wrote,

"Got two songs placed on internationally syndicated shows in the span of a week. Last week I saw a man die on the sidewalk in front of my apartment from what looked like a heart attack. Next week I return to Atlanta with a plan to make an album and re-visit the trucker bar and record store and the pasture lands which are entire districts of my anatomical geography. Life is too difficult and too expansive to say anything about it definitively. One year is nothing and a day is enough to change someone entirely. Enough thoughts. I have to buy frozen pizza for game night."

What a thoughtful guy. Once arrested for Occupy LA, it seems he's rather forward and passionate, which comes through in his music. The title track from his CD is my favorite.

Flaves: Failed batch of chocolate chip cookies

There's nothing like craving something and heading home to make it and ruining it. Such was the case when G and I were at the Co-Op the other night. I decided we must make chocolate chip cookies at 10pm. We purchased the ingredients there. When we got home I followed the instructions from a recipe online but the cookies turned out to be more like a thin, cookie, brownie. How?? Then the other night I took our left over dough and created a giant cookie-brownie. IT-WAS-DELISH. Crisis averted.

Favs: Buddha

As previously mentioned in my post from Wednesday, G and I took a trip to Home Goods and each came home with a buddha. I have been searching for one for quite some time... no not the chubby, smiling man with the coins all around him and fake bamboo. I wanted something more legitimate. I know, Home Goods is not necessarily legitimate but it feels more so and it has inspired me to seek information about buddha and his teachings.
What I understand so far is Siddhartha Gautama was the son of an Indian warrior king who led an extravegent life throughout most of his adolescence. As he became bored with his lavish lifestyle he wandered into the world in search of understanding and after a few encounters he concluded that suffering lay at the end of all existence. He gave up all of his lavish possessions and became a monk in hope of comprehending the truths of the world around him. After an epiphany he spent the remainder of his life traveling around India teaching what he had come to understand, the results of his pondering (if you will): The Four Noble Truths and other contributions to what we now know as Buddhism. These truths are explained as a contingency plan for dealing with the suffering humanity faces. Also a product of his insight is karma. Contrary to the modern opinion of karma, the Buddhist interpretation relates to good or evil actions a person takes during his or her lifetime rather than preordained fate.
The article I read also goes on to talk about The Cycle of Rebirth. Who knew this gorgeous white statue that now resides on my dresser would lead me to so much insight... lovely.
An interesting topic that I will further investigate.
source

Have you ever purchased something, perhaps during travels, that has opened you up to a new interest? Have you ever investigated the origins of things you own?

Hopefully this new knowledge will inspire you to investigate something new!
TGIF- have a glorious weekend everyone!


-H

Online Only Mags

Happy Hump Day!

Have you caught up on your online magazines for the month??
My favorite monthly reads are:

Matchbook Magazine
Lonny Magazine
and
Domino Magazine (lucky for us, this month IS a print edition)

Matchbook Magazine this month...lovely. I adore the layout and friendly appeal of this online mag. One of my favorite features are their monthly calendars, reminding us of things from the debut of Friends to National Strawberry Cream Pie Day.
This month they highlight The Icon: the smoking slipper. A classic staple that takes some practice to style, but very worth it and standout when done correctly.

Mine

shoes c/o Steve Madden

Yours?

Save:

c/o Alloy

Sizzle:

c/o Cobra Society via Saks

Splurge:

c/o Tory Burch via Bloomingdales

I also adore their Equestrian styled section....see my post later this week about this trend! They also have an article with The Curiosity Shoppe out of San Francisco (if you've been paying attention to all things Target, you know this is their partner shop!) and the ladies of Current/Elliot.

Lonny Magazine this month...as always has the most stunning interior design photos. There is one of a dining room that reminded me I always wanted to get a black lamp shade and cover the inside with gold leaf...wouldn't that be nice and shiny!!?! It is also nice that you can hover over the items and it will let you know where it is from and the cost!
Then there is a divine set of photos Garden of Earthly with spectacular colors and ornate objects that look just like scenes out of  Eat, Pray, Love when Julia Roberts is in Bali. So lovely. I'm dying over the buddah on page 113....and all of the fresh greenery. G and I just bought a giant tree for our living room and some other small plants--its amazing the affect it has on the entire space. And don't even get me started on the Ariane Goldman home...holy moly.

If you need some inspiration or just something to brighten your day... check these out!

And Domino is in print so I need to get to went to Barnes and Noble...

Reading this on the in-between while at work 

 Grabbed this beaut while I was at it...

October 2012

We took an impromptu trip to Home Goods just the other night... oops. We each ended up with a buddha, Kingston got a new bed and G ran out with an owl statue she just had to have.

Hope you are having a nice hump day!

-H

Design Dreams

As previously stated, G and I are currently in the process of a move. We are eagerly awaiting our transition from our respective communities to join Uptown. We found a quaint, inclusive, garden level apartment in a charming 1900s yellow mansion.. (pictures to follow).

We shot each other an excited look when our landlords, who conveniently live next door, told us they have an Au Pair for their children who is from Mexico. That's all too appropriate for us since we both long to practice speaking Spanish.

On to the purpose of this post: Design. For this here ramble, we appreciate any and all: input, suggestions, comments, ideas, etc. G and I have an established taste in housewares and accessories, both very expensive, but we have managed to curate our places with finds from the thrift shops and hand-me-downs. We enjoy random paintings and artwork, brass trinkets, and blankets of all kinds. It should be interesting combining everything we already have.

A few things still on our list:

TV Stand/Entertainment Center
We get it. We could find this easily at IKEA but we feel more creative than that. Any suggestions? Perhaps a refab is in store if we should find one at the thrift shop, but you can't count on that. I tend to drift towards pieces like these:

source

source

But I don't have $200 to spend on this...to the thrift shop we go!


Bar Cart  (FOUND)

I hunted for a bar cart forever. I was not expecting to find one when I did but I had to grab it... a whopping $4 pricetag was too hard to deny. It needed some work so I took it home with me...about $12 worth of spray paint and my eager father was all it took to transform it. I intended to do it myself, but mister-fix-it (aka my dad) who apparently doesn't have enough to do around the house, spray painted the entire thing for me.

Before:

wretched fake wood grain and missing a few screws: plenty of potential

After:

Much better: may improve with gold leaf on the handles

I have a plethora of glassware of the art-deco sort and an ice bucket that is gold + black. I might try a contrasting framed vintage Vogue cover that has a silver frame above it... or perhaps glass shelves to display the glassware? The top tray will have a couple bottles of liquor but what would be most appropriate for the bottom tray? I don't want to hide my beautiful glasses down there... maybe accessories? Shaker glass, stir sticks and the ice bucket? HELP!

Couch
This proves to be a tough one. We do not have the measurements of the space so we haven't looked yet but I am going to hit up the Salvation Army and hope to find a gem.

I was thinking one like this Horchow Beaut but...not quite in our price range.


 Paint
Commence conflict between G and I... I think we should paint a room in our house. Green. She says it too much work. I say little work for much pleasure.

source unknown

Domino Magazine

Courtesy Anna Rifle Bond of Rifle Paper Co

 An animal
Yeah, I know what you are thinking.. and no we are not getting rid of Kingston. I mean a mount of some sort...

Domino Magazine

Luckily I received a tiny antique one from my Dad that is actually a hand-me-down, along with some antlers that were 'not big enough to use for hunting anymore.' K, Dad... we'll project them.

source unknown

Plant
Something divine. Huge. Inspiring. Super Green.

Domino Magazine

 Today was/is moving day for both of us. I am exhausted and have just a handful of things left to transport. For G the process is just beginning. Oh and Kingston, HATES moving. I don't blame him... but he's been a basket case these last two days... Almost over love <3

Have a lovely Labor Day Weekend! New posts to come FNO (from now on) via our palace right on Pleasant Avenue.

P.S. By the way, saw the sexiest fox today when I turned on our street... hope he is our new neighbor.


-H