Home Tour: Anya Kucheryavenko

Anya from Elegantly Untamed has such a cute style. I wrote about her biz here in November of 2012, where she sells the most bling-y iPhone cases. They're gorgeous & so unique...talk about intricate detail.

 She was born in Russia but operates out of upstate New York & today she decided to share her home with MadeByGirl readers. My favorite part is the mantle area over the fireplace, love all the bunched up candles and gold accents!

 

Below is Anya explaining in her own words a little about the decor in her place:

I have a lot of black and gold in my place. A lot of the pieces I found  at antique stores, like the brass etagere and the S chairs that I painted gold. The credenza I transformed as well, by painting it white and gold, then adding the vintage lions head pulls I found on eBay. All the paintings I did myself also to go with the decor. Other places include IKEA, Home Goods, Target,  Flash Sale Sites, eBay, craigslist, and local retro shops.

-photos above by Marie D. De Jesus/Democrat and Chronicle

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Emerald Green is IN

Hi everyone, Katie here from H2 Design. And yes, by now we all know that emerald is supposedly the color of the year. But I have to admit... I wasn't completely sold on the idea immediately. 

So to help persuade myself, I gathered together some examples of successful spaces that use the trending emerald in varying doses; as an allover color (WOW!), in moderation through key anchor pieces, and as a refreshing accent.

Miles Redd via House Beautiful.

Matthew Bees via House Beautiful.

Okay... I think this plush emerald sofa (pictured above) may be calling my name?!

Nickey Kehoe. Photography Amy Neusinger.

Nathan Turner.

House to Home.

I'm personally more comfortable with the latter; decorating with emerald in moderation. How do you all feel about the color of the year? Yay or nay?

Below I've pulled together some fun emerald toned accents to sprinkle throughout your homes...

1 - Emerald Vase, Terrain / 2 - Amazon Moss, Benjamin Moore / 3 - Emerald City, Liza Hathaway Matthews / 4 - Esme Glass Lamp, Stray Dog Designs / 5 - fabric / 6 - D.L. Rhein Basket Weave Pillow, Zinc Door / 7 - Zebra Pillow, Dwell Studio / 8 - Sanitraner Print, Anthropologie / 8 - Emerald, Glassy Baby

-post by katie hackworth

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10 Lovely Tops

Welcome back everyone! With Valentine's Day around the corner & all these  heart & lip shirts popping up everywhere, I decided to jump on the trend! There are so many options available, but I ended up buying this one which was super affordable - you can find it here at Forever 21.

So, tell me, are you liking this heart & lip trend? 

1. im in love
2. chinti and parker
3. shop the trend
4. forever 21
5. asos
6. forever 21
7. markus lupfer
8. wildfox
9. Jcrew
10. markus lupfer

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Shay's Leap of Faith + Home Office

It feels so good to know it's Friday - right? A little time to relax despite the ton of work I still have to do! Today, I wanted to share a gorgeous home office from blogger & photographer, Shay from So Shay blog. I'll let her tell you about it in her own words.

Hello! My name is Shalyn Nelson and I am a wedding and lifestyle photographer from Austin, Texas. This past year I was working the typical 8-5 corporate job and worked from a small desk that blended into a sea of bright blue cubicles. Once the clock hit 5:00, I drove home & put on my photography hat & worked until the early hours of the morning. As of August, I took a LEAP OF FAITH & started working for myself! 

I am passionate about photography so this is a HUGE risk for the sake of living a life that I love.

For the past two years, I have been working in a room with boring, blank off-white walls that was had Berber carpet and yellow outlets. There was a tiny, old white fan that would creak every time I would turn it on. Basically, my work space was anything but inspiring. I wanted to work in a space that I could vibe off of, and just enjoy.  I spend so many hours working in there, it just started to become a room I dreaded walking into because it lacked energy, and life!

My office space was inspired by the colors gold, white, gray & pink. I’m currently re-branding my business, and I knew that I wanted it to match and reflect me 100%. When I had my blog redesigned last year by Kelly Ann, she sent me a mood board and when I saw it, I did a happy dance and instantly fell in love. It has become what I’ve based all of my brand on. 

One day I looked at my husband & we just decided to dive in. We moved everything out, tore up the carpet, and headed to Lowes to buy blue tape, paint, and tons of supplies to start building the office of my dreams.  We had a $1000 budget so most of the things you see in my office I have had around my home for quite sometime. I always thought that you had to buy the new, hip and cool things to make an office awesome, but honestly, you can find things you have around your home that can work just as well! 

We bought our dark walnut laminate floors from a discount flooring store in Austin, Texas. My husband put the floors in all by himself with the help of me handing him things and supporting him like the good wife that I am! ;) (Haha!)

The next step was the walls. We started out by painting one wall with Blackboard Chalk paint. I really wanted a board to write out my ideas, thoughts, and to-do list on and because there are two doors already taking up a lot of the space on the wall, I figured this would be perfect. It is almost a surprise factor when you walk in and realize that it’s there. It’s super fun!  

The gold wall was my idea and I admit it, I’m totally in love with the gold trend right now. I once saw a wallpaper on Pinterest that looks like this: When I looked up the cost, I realized that I couldn’t afford it and so my husband and I decided to paint it by hand. At first glance, it looks a little intimidating, but honestly, it wasn’t that hard to do at all. We sectioned off the stripes with blue tape and before I knew it, my gold chevron wall came to life! To say that I am in love with it is an understatement.

Slowly but surely my office came to life. My space was ME and I couldn’t wait to start working in it. The white shelf in my office was a hand me down from my brother, so I painted it white and installed white IKEA lights underneath it. The desk is from IKEA and that’s what I’ve been working from for the past two years, so it was nice to see it pop on the hard wood floors. 

The gold chest was a lucky find that I found while antiquing a couple of weeks ago. I almost had a heart attack when I saw it, and adopted that precious baby immediately. I use it to hold a lot of my things and it is also a little place for people to sit when they come hang out with me in my office. The chair was also found antiquing a year ago, and I’ve been using it in my guest room until recently. 

All in all, I love my office and I hope that you can gain inspiration from it. It’s my favorite place to be in the house, and I feel blessed to be able to work from home and in a space that I feel inspired every single day. Making a space your own and utilizing the things in your home can go a long way! 

SOURCES:

The floors were bought at Discount Floor & More. Drew put them in all by himself.
The Gold Wall: Drew and I hand painted this. It was tedious and crazy, but SO worth it.
Camera Bag: Jo Totes
Chair: Bought at an antique store
Desk: IKEA
Gold Chest: Bought at antique store
Blanket: Marshall's
Pillow: Bed, Bath & Beyond
Picture Frame in Window: Hobby Lobby
For Like Ever: Gift from DDHP; Purchased from OhDierLiving
Chandelier: Lowes
Frames: IKEA
Prints: Stephanie Stervoski Print Shop (She's amazing and just released new prints!)
Flowers on Desk: IKEA
Vase: Was Drew's Mom's that she gave to me. It was gray and I spray painted it gold.
Book Case: Hand me down from my sister-in-law. Painted it white. Added under-lighting from IKEA.
Sticks in Vase: Hobby Lobby
Gold Pillow: Marshall's
Wooden Gold Heart: Marshall's (Spray painted the heart gold)
Gold Frame: Free from neighbors yard. Was brown and spray painted it gold.
Love Letters on Shelf: Hobby Lobby
Cameras on Shelf: Z-Gallerie
iPhone Case: Target
Mood Board by Kelly Ann Creative


- post by shalyn nelson

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20 Picks for Valentines Day

Are you in LOVE??  I know I am. I'm so grateful to have a wonderful & loving husband.  I'm looking forward to being with him this February 14th sharing a special dinner & exchanging gifts.  I'm very much into romance & all things 'LOVE', in fact it's one of my favorite words, can you tell?? 

By the way, when I was single..... I used to get buy myself a Valentine's Day gift - I know, it may be a little odd, but it was my way of letting myself know, that I loved me! But NOT in a vain way....

With that said, here are 20 cool picks for Valentine's day. Which ones do you like best??

1. diptyque candles
2. coin purse - paper source
3. je t'aime gold lips - MadeByGirl
4. lingerie - anthropologie
5. mast brothers chocolate
6. shakespeare 
7. mini mon amour by Louis Vuitton
8. gold feather pilow- Jayson Home & Garden 
9.  macaron lip gloss - paper source
10. the perfectly imperfect house book
11. valentino
12. sugar free recipies by babycakes
13. your/mine glasses
14. nutella cupcake - billy's bakery nyc 
15. v-day cards paper source  
16. gold heart earrings via cwonder
17. Jcrew Darling cashmere sweater 
18. what i love about - via paper source
19. mast brothers chocolate
20. heart sticky notepads via paper source 

 

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How About We?

A few weeks ago, my guy surprised me with tickets to the Broadway show "Once" which I'd really wanted to see since we both LOVED the film. 

To say the least, the show was fantastic & I can't wait to see it again!

My husband told me he got the tickets through a site he'd found called HowAboutWe (for Couples). This super cute site is basically for dates...NOT to find a date but to go on one. 

I mean, have you ever been clueless about where to go on DATE NIGHT with your husband or wife? Well, this site will guide you with that.

The homepage of the site isn't all that interesting, but once you get inside...WOW, what a difference! The site has a whole bunch of ideas for dates...from samplers at restaurants to pottery classes to wine tours. Talk about cool date ideas!

It is a subscription site - for $22 a month, you get some major discounts on some pretty cool stuff. Those "Once" tickets, normally $125 each - but my husband scored them for $80 for the pair on How About We!

And the site is really well done. You can "wishlist" dates as a reminder, or book them. Once you book a date, they send you an email and you provide the best days for your date...then go!  

We already have our next date set up...

images via how about we

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My Canon EOS T2i For Sale

UPDATE: SOLD

 Hi everyone! I wanted to let you all know that my CANON EOS Rebel T2i SLR is for now for sale.   Reason?

I've purchased another camera & I no longer need this one.  This is a SUPERB camera if you really want to UP the quality of the photos on your BLOG & so on!  It has 18 Megapixels & everything you see on Cocoa & Hearts as well as most of my own pics from my are shot with this camera. I never used the flash, so it's totally new.  

PRICE: $500 + free shipping (so, you save on tax+shipping)

WHAT YOU GET:

CANON EOS REBEL T2i 18 MP DIGITAL SLR CAMERA  EF-S 18-55mm IS LENS.Battery
Charger
8GB + WI-FI CHIP  (normally you'd have to pay extra for this)
EYE-FI Card reader (normally you'd have to pay extra for this)

MORE INFO:

• 18Mp CMOS (APS-C) Sensor
• HD 1080p, 720p, and VGA Video Capture
• 3" Clear View LCD with Live View
• 1.04 Million Dot Clear View LCD
• Up to 3.7 fps RAW, JPEG, or RAW+JPEG
• ISO ISO 100-6400, Expandable to 12,800
• 63-zone metering / 9-point AF system
• Compatible with SD, SDHC, and SDXC
• Eye-Fi Menu Status Indicator Support

BATTERY LIFE: 

Expected battery life is 440 shots at 72F, and 400 shots at 32F


This lightweight camera retails NEW for $539 & higher in some stores like Amazon. You can see here.

It's in great condition & shoots gorgeous pictures as you can see below:

If you have questions or are interested - please email me here. Great way to save a little money & get a few extra items like, card reader & an 8GB wi-fi memory card! Thanks!

-images by jen ramos

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