Inspiration Board for a Bedroom Makeover
My room has basically remain unchanged since I was in middle school. When I was about 13 we had an addition put onto our house and I was all about my room being beachy and surfer girl. Since then I just haven’t had the time or energy to update it. Now that I am a lot older I feel as though it could definitely use an update. I am thinking a mint green blue for the walls with more shelving and hooks to accommodate the massive amount of clothing, shoes, and jewelry I have accumulated. The boyfriend has promised to build me the driftwood bed pictured above. All I need now is to go get some paint and a few of the times listed below.
London calling
Wellllll it only took me two months to finally sort through my Europe pictures! I had four wisdom teeth taken out two days ago so I figured I might as well try to do something productive instead of sleeping and complaining about how my mouth feels like its been ripped into shreds haha.
On March 11th I arrived in London with fourteen fellow college classmates in order to study retail spaces. For the next four days we spent twelve (+) hours a day exploring the city, basically walking until I thought my feet were going to give out. I will now share with you what I believe to be the highlights of everything I saw/did.
Markets:
Portobello Road Market:
This was the first market we visited. Portobello Road is a really cute street that on Saturdays hosts an outdoor market. It is kind of like a mix between an street fair and a flea market setup. A variety of vendors lined the streets offering many goods ranging from food to clothing to vintage items. The street itself contained many boutiques offering cute clothing, jewelry, antiques, etc. I found an adorable lace shift dress for only 10 pounds at one stall. Towards the end of the street we found a great vendor selling vintage designer bags. There was the most amazing creme Prada hobo for 250 pounds that I passed up and really regret it now.
Old Spitalfield’s Market:
Old Spitalfield’s Market was not actually an intended stop in our agenda. The original plan was to visit Petticoat Lane, which was a huge letdown.. I do not suggest wasting any time in stopping there as the running joke after we saw it was that it should be called “Poverty Coat Lane.” Luckily, Spitalfield’s was right down the street and turned out to be worth the stop. Spitalfields is a covered open air market. There was a wide selection of vendors selling many of their homemade crafts and items as well as an assortment of stores (Birkenstock, Agnes B, Benefit Cosmetics, etc.) that function all week long. I managed to score an adorable navy inspired jacket at a haggled price of 30 pounds. Plus, there were delicious organic cupcakes!
Camden Market:
Camden Market was definitely the most unique of the three markets I visited. For one it was huge and extremely crowded! There were all types of stores and the atmosphere was very festive. I found it quite interesting that there was so much visual merchandising, especially in the stable market area, considering it was a market. There were some great vintage stores as well as some boutiques that are worth checking out.
Department stores:
Selfridges
Liberty
Harvey Nichols
Princess Diana memorial/engagement ring inside of Harrods
Selfridges, Liberty of London, Harvey Nichols, and Harrods are all worth the trip. Department stores in England (and Paris as well) are like the equivalent of our malls in American. They are absolutely humongous! The visual merchandising is so crazy it must be seen to be believed. Unfortunately, I do not have many pictures of the insides because photography was frowned upon. Each department store had its own niche. The one with the youngest/freshest merchandising mix was Selfridges (bottom floor contained high street brands such as Topshop), Liberty of London was very classic and seeing all the liberty prints in person was great, Harvey Nichols contained merchandise at a higher price point but also had a good variety while Harrods was a bit more classic with their clothing selection had the MOST AMAZING dining areas. The best meal I had in my whole time in London was had in Harrods.
Boutiques/cool little places:
Dover Street Market = this is a MUST checkout.. it is the craziest concept store. Things are not always what they appear to be, such as changing rooms disguised as port-a-potties. Amazing merchandise, my best friend picked up the cutest commes des garcons wallet.
C4LA = Japanese hat maker located in the shoreditch area of London. It was a very interesting little stop with some great hats for sale.
Zhandra Rhodes Studio = had a great tour of Zhandra Rhodes studio. Everything is handmade & sewn on the premises. Ben (who is Zhandra’s right hand man) was kind enough to let us play dress up!
Royal Arcades = located on Old Bond Street, very cool to see how stores were once housed.
Museums:
I was a little let down after visiting the museums in London. The first we visited was the British Museum, which was almost a total disappointment except it contains the rosetta stone. The Tate Modern had many interesting collections but a lot of the exhibitions cost additional fees. The Victoria & Albert had a semi-okay fashion exhibit but the most amazing jewelry exhibition I have ever seen. If I were to pick one museum highlight I would say to check out the William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery, as it is very comprehensive and unique.
On my way to the Tate Modern, walking across the Millennium Bridge.
Totally illegal photography within artwork.
Jewelry exhibition at the V&A.
Other touristy things/pictures:
So of course we did do some touristy things during the visit such as watching the changing of the guards, taking pictures of the Houses of Parliament, walking down Abbey Road, marveling at the efficiency of the tube, and probably a ton of other things that screamed, “hey we are tourists from america!”
Overall the experience was amazing and cannot even be explained within a single blog entry. Sorry for this terribly long jumbled post.. maybe if I am still out of commission tomorrow because of these wisdom damn teeth I will post a Paris entry up and posted.
to lag: to proceed or develop with comparative slowness
I apologize, I am a terrible blogger. The past two months have been super busy beginning with my trip to Europe, constantly working, looming college graduation, and just today I was told I got an internship at Marchesa! I will make a photo diary of my trip (+ and a real post soon) but ill leave you with my picture of these Dover Street Market mannequins.
presents from paris
My boyfriends dad arrived home from France today with presents in hand. Each time he comes back from a business trip overseas he brings us home small gifts and treats. This time was no different and he brought me back my favorite.. macarons and french magazines!
in memory
My small tribute to an incredibly talented designer. He will be greatly missed.
sea of ruffles
Anyone who personally knows me knows I am a girly girl. I am sucker for all things pretty, pastel, lace, and ruffled. Now that you know this you can understand my excitement when I realized that many of the spring collections contained pieces with beautiful ruffle details in muted tones. Below I have picked out some pieces that I would love to include in my wardrobe going into the spring season.
1. Anthropologie Grasslands Dress
2. JUST CAVALLI Ruffled Silk Chiffon Shirt
3. ASOS Ruffle Detail Skirt
4.Free People Rows of Ruffles Dress
5.Topshop Paris Flippy Skirt
6.Marc Jacobs Yili Silk Jacquard Dress
oh hello
I have begun this blog in an attempt to channel some of my creative energy. The name jolies petites affaires means pretty little things. Everyday I see things I find utterly beautiful but until now have had no space in which to share them with others. Hopeful you enjoy these things as much as I do.
image via fgr
