Full of Peplum

I’m really into Peplum, the the quintessential ladylike shape. Peplum adds  curves to a straight body and or accentuates your already sexy curves. Best of all, you can easily dress this cut up or dress it down. It’s a classic, chic work outfit, even fits well into a red carpet gown or pair it with jeans and some fab pumps. Everyone is loving it, including celebrities…

Photo credit: news.instyle.com

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge  wearing a teal dress and fitted peplum jacket by L.K. Bennett,  Blake Lively wearing Jason Wu, the fabulous Jennifer Aniston (in Tom Ford), and Michelle Williams (in Louis Vuitton)

But don’t cry!!…Here are some styles the rest of us can afford 🙂

Love the color of this top, perfect for summer with white jeans and killer pumps Sunny Attitude Top $42.99/ Can this skirt be any more classy sexy? Eternal Flame of Love Skirt $42.99/ and this dress has the vintage charm with a modern touch thanks to those sleeves…loving that color, too! Work With Me Dress in Coral $49.99

Classic, sexy, red…perfect! Hybrid Sleeveless Peplum Dress $154.52/ I am loving this top with some white jeans for a classy look or red jeans for some spice AWear Floral Peplum Top $45.45/ Did you know you could wear sneaks and still look like one classy lady? ASOS Mini Skirt With Peplum $72.72

❤ Elisa

Girls Night

This pat weekend I got together with an amazing friend that I’ve known since the first day of High School. It was fun to do some shopping and catch up over burgers and fries.

We did some people watching (and there’s A LOT to talk about in this mall), some updating on her upcoming wedding preparations and of course talked about our ex-boyfriends, you know…the usual girl talk 😀

We went to Johnny Rockets for some guilt-free burgers, fries and chocolate milkshake. Doesn’t it seem that when you’re sharing “bad” food with a close friend it feels like it almost doesn’t count as “bad”…that it’s justified? Hehehe, maybe it’s just me 😀

And of course I got to try on her beautiful, HUGE engagement ring…aahhh, so pretty on my short stubby fingers hehehe.

Like the coral color on my nails? It’s Essie of course. Speaking of nail polish, I must share with you what a nail polish freak she is…just look at her bag!!

I think it has to be like 5 lbs heavy! She has every color imaginable, just look at those corals, pink and blues…!!! I swear I think I could paint my nails a different color combination every week for a year and still have options left. I love having her as a friend 😛

Spending time with this old friend reminds me of this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”

I love being able to be silly, crazy and 100% myself with her.

Lesson of the day: Don’t take your friends for granted, nurture your friendships the same way you would a relationship.  Everyone needs special love and attention.

Much love, Elisa.

Spaces We Love

Ikat Obsession….Continued

Juuuust in case you thought my Ikat obsession was worth a mere one post…. I just HAD to go find me something to buy. No really I swear, it was physically impossible to keep working unless I satiated my Ikat shopping desires.

Confession: I got the romper and scarf…sigh.

ASOS:Metallic Aztec Wrapped Bangle / River Island Aztec Envelope Clutch / Soludos Ikat Printed Espadrilles / Pastel Ikkat Print Scarf / Reverse Cross Back Frill Playsuit In Ikat Print

But if wearing is not eanough (and I understand your struggle) then you can also have it around your home.

We can always rely on West Elm for the coolest home accessories… including cool and modern Ikat throw pillows (swoon)

~

How about this beautiful pattern for a baby nursery room? I bet this baby would grow up to be sooo cool.

Knowledge:

Ikat is an Indonesian language word which means to tie, bind or wind around and it refers to the ancient way that the fabric was constructed. It is one of the oldest forms of textile decoration.

The defining characteristic of ikat is the dyeing of patterns, by means of bindings, into the threads before cloth construction, the weaving of the fabric, takes place. Herein lies the difference between ikat and tie-dye. In tie-dye the fabric is woven first and the resist bindings are then applied to the fabric which is dyed.

Thank you, Wikipedia!

 

OK lovies, I hope you learned something today…Ikat is cool.

– Elisa

Crazy For Ikat

I’m currently obsession over ikat print. I can’t get enough!

Splurge vs DIY

Love these painted spoons from Anthropologie? I’m sure you do…and so do I. But now a days there are so many DIY ideas out there (like this one from CreativelyChristy) that you don’t need to spend $36 plus shipping on these. I say, head on over to a thrift store, get yourself a variety of silverware and make a DIY fun filled weekend out of it.

Here is another great example from 100LayerCake

Looooove these doves, by the way ❤

Have fun!

Elisa
Live.Play.Love

Giant Crepe Paper Flowers From Honestly…WTF

I’m sure by now everyone has seen these beautiful giant crepe paper flowers from Honestly…WTF (love those girls!!) but I just had to post about them! I am absolutely in love with these colors. I myself have never worked with sheets of crepe paper, only the small rolls we use for party streamers, and now I can’t wait to get my hands on some of these and try out my own projects.

Here is a quick rundown of the steps to make these beauties for for details head on over to Honestly…wtf.

WOW….can’t wait to make some of these myself.

They get their crepe paper from their “favorite (and the ultimate) boutique for creative inspiration, Castles In The Air” which is online so everyone can go buy some crepe paper and start making flowers. There’s no excuse…start making them!!

Share your pictures…I promise to share mine 🙂

Toodles, lovies! Have a beautiful Thursday!

-Elisa

Inspirational blog – Young House Love

I’m sure you’re familiar with Young House Love, right? OK, well then you should be! Young House Love is an amazing blog run by self-proclaimed “DIY dorks” Sherry and husband, John. They are really such an inspiration to everyone of their fans and I think the main reason is that they are genuine and full of love…and this shows in everything they do.

I’ve always been into reading DIY blogs but after coming across them is when the idea really stuck in my mind that…hey, I can do this too.  I can turn a passion into a “job” that I love to do everyday! Eventually Live.Play.Love Shop came into the picture along with this blog and of course Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr…uuggghh social media overload!! I did not realize how time consuming this would all be! It’s difficult to split my time b/w work, school (I just started an MBA) and friends/family. Not to mention that reading a blog and maintaining a blog are two completely different things (duh)…as verified by Young House Love in their very interesting post Blogging FAQs where they share in detail everything about their experience blogging…all of the behind-the-scenes happenings, how their blog grew, how they make money, how they get sponsors, the top ten things they’ve learned about blogging and MORE. It’s an extremely informational post and worth reading by everyone. Here are some interesting pie charts…

A global look at how they spend their time...as opposed to the somewhat random and always-changing things that get done in a day.

Here’s a further breakdown of the breakdown above to give us a better sense of what they really do within those general categories.

And for an hour by hour play of what they day is like check out their post Blogiversary IV: Day In Da Life

See...I told you it was time consuming!!

I think a HUGE reason for their success as a business and as a happy family is teamwork. They really seem to split the work, responsibilities and the fun between all in the household (even Burger get a cut). Another reason is that they are honest and genuine people so it’s easy to love them…and their immense list of projects

Get to know Sherry, John, Clara and Burger and fall in love.

Get to know them

With 40,000 plus Facebook fans, 18 thousand plus Twitter followers, 68 million blog hits to date (and counting) they surely have a thing or two to teach. And to someone like me, a small timer just beginning to wet my feet in this blogging world, their knowledge is extremely appreciated. They always were and continue to be an inspiration.

I hope you guys enjoy their blog as much as I do.

GET INSPIRED!

Elisa
Live.Play.Love

*All the images on this post come from Younghouselove.com.

From my garden

Meow....what are you doing?

Have a beautiful day!

– Elisa

Live.Play.Love

Color lesson

I went to the mall this weekend and it only proved what I was suspecting…COLOR IS IN, people!!! So, this inspired me to do a little color research. Many thanks to the Krylon website for the info. I plan on having fun with color this spring season so I’ll be purchasing lots of spray paint 🙂

Here is some basic color info I’ve put together…I hope you learn and enjoy!

Have a wonderful weekend lovies.

Ciao!