Pocket Doors

Since I used my Monday post to recap Nemo, today I'm getting back to my weekly home design post.

How do you feel about pocket doors? Indifferent? I was certainly indifferent to them until I lived with them. And you know what? They are just plain awesome.

I can't say for sure how many years ago my parents put an addition on their house, maybe 12 years ago (mom?) and they opted to put a pocket door in for the hall bathroom. Genius! What a space saver. I loved the idea of it.

The condo J and I purchased is actually deeded as a 2 bedroom - the second bedroom being where our living room is. But because it's technically a bedroom, there's a set of doors separating the kitchen from it - in the form of double pocket doors. It is such a great use of the existing walls. And it's nice to give any guests who spend the night in our guest room living room a little privacy. As an early bird, I love that I can get up, get the coffee going, take Tucker out, etc and not disturb guests.

Would you consider pocket doors if you were given the opportunity? Here are a couple rooms with pocket doors that I'd love to have in my future home.

Pocket doors to the outdoors? Seriously? Amazing.

What do you think? Are pocket doors for you? 

Blizzard Nemo

I know many of you are in the same position we're in over here, shoveling ourselves out from this snow storm. Um, where the heck do we put all this snow?!

First things first, who chose the name Nemo? I don't know when they decided to start naming blizzards but using sweet Disney characters just seems to strange!

We got about 2 feet here in Boston and spent a few hours Saturday clearing the sidewalk off, as well as J's car. My car was another story...and we had no energy left Saturday for it. Sunday we headed out at noon to clear my car and didn't get back inside until 2. I was exhausted.

Here's a recap of Nemo through pictures:

Friday night the emergency light outside our place was aglow. We kind of forget about this light since it's rarely on.

By Saturday morning, the snow on our deck was up to my waist. Tuck wouldn't go near it.

Opened the front door and holy smokes there is a lot of snow! That would be my car buried under that snow mound...

 Tucker was pretty hesitant to go out there. 

 A view down our street. The left side of the street (our side) seemed to get hit by all of the snow drifts.

 The plows decided to use our corner to push snow/store snow. Gee thanks, now we have 6 feet of snow to move. The sidewalk in front of our place is our responsibility and we take it seriously. We don't want anyone slipping and sliding on our property. That would not be good!

 Love living in a corner unit for all of the extra windows....downside? A lot more sidewalk to shovel! Good thing J is a machine when it comes to shoveling.

 Ugh, snow hanging over our roof. This makes me really nervous!

 During snow emergencies, you cannot park on the main street. And from Friday at 4pm to Saturday at 4pm, the state had mandated a travel ban. So strange to see the streets empty!

 Even stranger than seeing no cars, seeing everyone walking in the road to get around!

Tucker supervised from here...

Finally digging my car out. 2 feet of snow piled up. Somebody get me a garage stat.

The weather Sunday was gorgeous. Blue skies and fairly warm. Hopefully the weather stays warm this week to help get rid of this snow! For those of you still without power I really hope it comes back soon. Positive thinking.

Perfect Timing

Well, we are hanging in this weekend staying dry during this blizzard! Those of you getting hit by Blizzard Nemo, stay safe! And warm.

This week J & I lost out on a house we put an offer on. Ya, it almost happened. I was pretty bummed about it. Our offer was verbally accepted but before the sellers signed our offer, another offer came in, which meant another round of best and final offers, and before we knew it, the house was no longer ours. Yes, that can happen, so be prepared!

As I was sitting here scanning a few new blogs that have caught my attention recently, I came across some pretty great reminders. Reminders I needed right now. Reminders that even though we may not have gotten the house we wanted, there will be another. And we should be very thankful for the home we already have.  (Tucker is pretty upset though, I did promise him a king size dog bed in our next home...)

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As much as I'd love to say I'm taking the weekend off and won't be watching HGTV or reading a home decor magazine, let's be serious, it's going to happen. Even if we weren't looking, these things would happen! I may have even stopped on my way home yesterday to stock up on some new magazines while I'm stuck inside this weekend during the blizzard....magazines, catalogs, and coffee are my ideal weekend morning routine. 

Wine & Chocolate Tasting

Last Saturday, I was invited to a wine and chocolate tasting party. Seriously? Two of my most favoritest things! There was no way I was missing that!

Everyone was asked to bring a bottle of wine as well as a chocolate that paired well with it. You could go the straightforward route and bring chocolate candy, or you could get fancy and make a chocolate dessert. I went the straightforward route....

Of the 6 girls, we worked it out perfectly and had 3 whites to try and 3 reds. Prosecco, Moscato, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Zinfandel. Yum!

Our directions were as follows:

It was awesome. Everyone did a great job picking out the perfect chocolate for their wine. I brought the sparkling wine and decided to go with fruity chocolates. Lindt Intense Orange bar and Ghiradelli Raspberry squares. It worked out perfectly! I favored the orange. But, either way...follow the steps above and you will be quite satisfied with your pairing!

 The six pairings were as follows:

• Prosecco with fruit flavored dark chocolate
• Mosacto with Lindt white chocolate
• Chardonnay with Ghiradelli french vanilla chocolate
• Merlot with a milk chocolate mousse
• Cabernet Sauvignon with Trader Joe's dark chocolate truffle and caramel with black sea salt
• Red Zinfindal with a dark chocolate tart

I would never have expected this, but the pairing I was most surprised by and loved was the Moscato and white chocolate. I don't normally drink sweeter white wines but omg, add the white chocolate in and this was quite the dessert! 

Another thing I noticed was with the Merlot, the chocolate mousse seemed to smooth out the wine. Because you taste the wine alone first, you can really taste the difference once you add in the chocolate. It certainly enhances the flavor of the wine!

The two homemade desserts were incredible. I couldn't stop. 

Cait was kind enough to provide us with some great eats in addition to chocolate. An amazing cheese plate? Count me in.

Swirl, sniff, sip! Oh, and then eat chocolate and sip again!

Well, I failed in my blogging duties during the wine event because I totally forgot my camera! So I hope you don't mind these iphone photos. And I didn't snag a group picture...wah! But we had a great time. And I would highly recommend giving this a try.

Thanks for hosting such a fabulous event Cait!

My First StitchFix

Well, my first StitchFix came!

Inside I found a neatly stacked pile of clothes and one pair of earrings. Although the clothes fit just about perfectly, I didn't love anything enough to pull the trigger. The striped dress fit like a glove, I couldn't believe it! But, the pattern was just too busy for me. I knew it wouldn't get worn. And the white silk top with black edging? Absolutely loved it! Problem is, I already own one exactly like it.

 The earrings I received were really nice. But, again, they just weren't "me." I wear studs most often so I couldn't justify purchasing the drop earrings. I did love that every piece of clothing came with outfit options. It was a great way to see how the pieces could be worn!

 These last two tops were so fun. I loved the Emerald peplum silk top. I just wished it fit a little better. I came very close to buying it, very close. But I'm trying to be better about only buying clothes that fit exceptionally well and that I know will get their wear. That's why the chevron sweater was out too. The stripes were blue, very close to the color of jeans. I know I'm not the only one who has trouble wearing blue tops with jeans when the colorings are very close. Or am I? If it was a little longer to wear with leggings I would have been sold. 

So we were out of luck this time around. But I am still looking forward to my next shipment. When you checkout on the StitchFix website they ask you to leave comments so I made sure to tell them what I absolutely loved about the items they sent me and the reasons I didn't keep them. I loved that they asked about the size, style, price, and fit/cut. All to help better serve you in the next shipment!

I will certainly let you know how the next one goes.

And if you're interested in joining, here's an invite! 

Serena's Bedroom

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? We had a great weekend of relaxing over here. It was my first full weekend off in quite sometime so J & I took full advantage of it. We made it to the gym, the condo got a deep cleaning, we stopped at a few open houses, and I enjoyed a wine & chocolate tasting party with girlfriends (details to come!). There was also plenty of puppy snuggles going on...

Sidenote - there's nothing better than good old fashion sweatpants. Yoga pants are cool, but as for comfort? thick sweatpants can't be beat.

On to today's home decor idea -

If you watched Gossip Girl back in the day, there's no way you missed Serena's bedroom at the Waldorf residence. Grasscloth accent wall, sunny yellow, and most rememberable? The butterfly art display.

I remember googling the bedroom after the episode ended and looking into who created the art installment. It was just so unique! Did you know it's made of beer cans? Crazy, right! It also probably cost a bajillion dollars....

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I haven't thought anymore about this bedroom since J & I moved in together back in 2009. A butterfly bedroom wasn't exactly in the cards anymore. So I was super excited to stumble upon this amazing little girls room! I hope she knows how cool her mom is for designing this for her!!

photos via

I absolutely love the idea of using grasscloth in our future home and will totally keep this idea in mind if when we have a little girl. The warm color and added texture really appeal to me. Hopefully it won't break the bank to use it though. Any design decisions you'd love to incorporate, even if they're a little on the pricier side?

Birchbox: January

We have reached another weekend! Woop woop!

Shall we look at what I received in January's Birchbox?

This month I received:

• amika - Color pHerfection Shampoo
• Clark's Botanicals - Smoothing Marine Cream
• Harvey Prince - Skinny Chic (perfume)
• theBalm - Put a Lid on It Eyelid Primer
• 100% Pure - Nourishing Body Cream

The shampoo and body cream are perfect travel sizes so they were put right into my travel toiletries bag for a future use. The Skinny Chic perfume is too crisp for me. It reminds me of Clinique Happy which I wore in high school. Great fresh scent, but I don't think it suits me anymore.

What I have been using, the face cream and eyelid primer. Loving the Marine Cream! I've been wearing it every night to bed. It has glycolic acid in it to exfoliate dull skin. What I don't like about it? The steep price tag if I decide to purchase it once the trial is gone - $115....yikes! I've also been trying to use the eyelid primer all week to give it a try. I've never used a primer before so I wasn't sure what to expect. It looks like my eyeshadow is staying in place better though! No more caking in the eyelid wrinkle, if that even makes sense? ha.

Want to see what I've received in that past? December, November, September/October, July/August

Interested in joining Birchbox? Here's an invite! (full disclosure - if you use my invite,  yes I will earn points. But I've really enjoyed my experience with Birchbox and learning about new products. I wouldn't invite you if I didn't think it was worth the monthly expense.)

Have a great weekend! We are off to a few open houses (yay!) and I have a wine tasting event Saturday night. Cannot.wait! And enjoy the Superbowl if you'll be watching!

In honor of my brother-in-law - Go 49ers!!