Girl Pic

daisy dreaming....

Monday, March 28, 2011

Chandelier

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was pretty productive. I got started painting some of my Craigs List chairs since my upholsterer is coming to get them this Saturday. As you know, I'm in the process of re-decorating my dining room. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my chandelier. It's one of those non-special, huge chandeliers that came with the house...never been a fan of it, but it did the job. I was hoping to save some money and just switch out the light bulbs, give it some paint and be done with it. Keep in mind my dining room has like 30 feet tall walls, so I was not eager to have to get scaffolding just to take it down and install something new. This was my inspiration, seen here on Design*Sponge: On Saturday I finally made it to Home Depot and got the globe bulbs. I was really excited to get home, install them to see how fabulous it was going to look. Well, it was not cute. Even my husband said, "I do not like that at all". I agreed. Now to begin a search for a perfect chandelier. I remembered awhile back seeing a chandelier I had liked by Troy Lighting. I went to Lighting Universe to see if they still had it in stock....they did (yay), but the price was still way too much (b00)! It was listed online anywhere from $560 - $600 in all the google searches I did. Here is a picture of it...isn't it fab?
Photo courtesy of Lighting Universe
Since I didn't put anything into a "chandelier budget" into my project, I knew I had to get creative. I looked at a lot of the standard sites and even ebay...no luck. None were big enough for my space or just way too expensive and lacked personality. At about 10 p.m. last night, instead of going to bed, I decided to just jump on Craigs List to see if they had anything remotely cute. I had one of those no way!!! moments. I typed in "chandelier", clicked search, and the 3rd one down was this VERY chandelier (above) listed for $300! I coudn't believe it. Apparently this person bought it, decided they didn't like it and couldn't return it for some reason. I emailed the seller and I am now a proud owner of this amazing chandelier for the bargain price of $250!!!!! Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE Craigslist? My whole dining room is turning into finds from there! Anyone else addicted to CL or have any fun finds they want to share???

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Revisiting our wedding flowers

Happy 5 year wedding anniversary to my husband, Jason! It's hard to believe that 5 years ago today we were married in La Jolla, surrounded by our closest friends and family. What an awesome day that was!

Below are some of my favorite pictures from the day. All photos are by the fabulous Suzanne Hansen Photography. Check out her amazing work here.

Here is a picture of my hair before the humid beach air messed it up(made my naturally curly hair super frizzy).

We chose to see eachother before the wedding, so we'd have good daylight for pictures. This picture was taken right after we saw eachother. I loved the back of my dress. The knot in the back is what sold me. It is an Elizabeth Filmore from The White Dress in Newport Beach.


This picture was taken in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art, where we had our reception. This picture just makes me laugh. Suzanne has always been able to get us to be silly.

The ceremony....quite possibly the most beautiful spot in all of San Diego.



I did my own flowers - I wouldn't have it any other way! How could I hire another florist (I'm too much of a control freak!)? I was very happy with the way my bouquet turned out. It's funny what you find inspiration from. Mine came from the tie we picked out for him to wear. I found a vintage broach at an antique store that I put in my bouquet that helped coordinate with my earrings.

This is perhaps one of my favorite pictures. This was taken in the Museum...how cool is that mural behind us? I wish I could remember what Suzanne said to us to provoke these weird poses, but I also love how much it shows off everyone's outfits.


Instead of doing a seating assignment table, I did a tree. I used a manzanita branch and blinged it out with real crystal chandelier strands. It was really pretty the way it moved around. I had many brides use it since my wedding.



Since we had the reception at the Museum of Contemporary Art, I wanted to bring in a creative way of doing the actual table numbers. I have been a long-time fan of Bella Pilar art. You may have seen her line of greeting cards at Papyrus. I contacted her to do these table numbers, and she was so nice to do them for me. We matted them so they really looked like their own piece of art. I got the mini easels from Ikea, and stained them brown. I was so happy with how they turned out.



Since I was doing my own flowers, I couldn't do intricate centerpieces. I had chosen to do square tables, which usually requires multiple centerpeices. Since the museum has an amazing ceiling, I knew I wanted to do something with height. I chose simple, but beautiful dendrobium orchids. We also put a cherry blossom tree branch in the middle centerpiece. I strung crystals in between the 3 vases. At the bottom, we had square vases filled with Hot Princess pink roses and white hydrangea. How cool is that blue wall?


Here is a great picture of the room. You can see the back wall was a red tapestry....that bothered me at first (the museum changes up its walls every quarter). In the end, it added so many interesting photos. The head table was behind Marilyn Monroe!

What an amazing day that was. I really can't believe it was 5 years ago already. Hope you enjoyed the pictures...it was fun for me to look at them again!

If you're interested in Daisies Of Our Lives doing the florals for your wedding or special event, email me - kelsey@daisiesofourlives.com or leave a comment!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Dining Room

I have been wanting to re-decorate my dining room for a VERY long time. Ever since we moved in, I never really liked it. It was just too rustic for my taste. I have slowly but surely been selling our current furniture on CraigsList to try to make a dent in my budget.

A lot of people don't use their formal dining room...but we do. I always host Thanksgiving and all the other family get-togethers. Plus, everyone walks by this room (it is right off the entry) to get to the main living space. There is no hiding it.

There are a few design dilemmas I've had to work around. First are our 30 foot ceilings. Second is the little "nook" space that is in the wall where the sideboard/buffet should go. Lastly, from the moment we moved in I never liked the slate I chose to go around the fireplace

I decided that my design aesthetic for this room would be a combination of retro (60's/70's) mixed with modern touches. I have diligently been on Craigs List just about every day for the last 6 months trying to find the perfect wing back chairs and lamps....and yes, I found them! Oh and if you've never heard of Craigs Easy....it is a lifesaver! They need a little love, but they're going to be fab! More to come on those...

Here are some of the pieces I'm planning on getting:

West Elm rug, Anthropologie curtains, Mor (the most annoying commercials in the world, but, they have a big enough table for us) dining table, Anna Maria Horner fabric for accent chair

Our upholsterer comes on Saturday to pick up 9 chairs....yes, 9 chairs that he'll be re-upholstering for us. I'm going to be using my two wing back chairs from CL as my end chairs...I really want to upholster them in this beautiful raspberry color to bring some femininity to the space, but not sure I'm brave enough! May stick with a nice royal-navy blue to match the curtains. All the rest of the chairs are going to be cream.

More to come on the dining room!

Happy Weekend!

The weekend is almost upon us! Hubby is home from traveling all week and I'm so excited to have some family time!


My baby girl, now 6 1/2 months (how did that happen?) has decided to cut her first two teeth and roll over all at once. She is already pushing up and trying to figure out how to bring those knees forward...uh oh. Not ready for this.

I'm really excited that a few new things are happening. First, the blog is under-going a long overdue facelift. I can't wait until we are ready to push it live. Second, my good friend Jen got engaged! Yay! Wedding is set for October. More to come on her wedding. Lastly, I have decided on a theme for Drew's big 1st birthday! Let the psycho-planning begin!

I came across a lovely blog called Me Oh My! via my daily visit to Made By Girl . She has such great inspiration for my home. From what I can tell, she lives in a "cookie cutter" home like we do. My challenges with our home is that there is no real personality to the house. She has done such a lovely job and gave me plenty of ideas!

Have a great weekend everyone....it is supposed to rain in San Diego, but we are still managing to squeeze in a bbq with some good friends. Chao!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...