lonny love: dransfield and ross

Sometimes I read Lonny and Rue and feel like they must be running out of really good homes to feature. Everything is decent, but nothing is really hitting it out of the park. It all kind of blends together, like one big block of 'meh'.

Sometimes, though, there's that one gem that jumps off the pages and punches me straight in the gut. That I see and think, "Man, they really hit paydirt with this one". In April it was Anna Burke's home (um, insanity), and this month it's the beautiful old farmhouse of John Dransfield and Geoffrey Ross.

Here's a little taste of the gorgeousity:

Can we all agree that this place kicks ass? I think so.

For more, check out page 49 of June's Lonny. Happy Monday pretties!

finding the time: i can't vs i won't

Erin's inspiration board

Dallas and I had a pretty interesting conversation yesterday about finding the time to fit everything we want to do into our lives, and the excuses we make for not doing the things we never get around to. Like, in my case, working out. Essentially it was about the fact that when you really want something, you find the time, and most of the time "I can't" is really just another way of saying "I won't".

I'm not sure that I agree with that entirely (mostly because I think that sometimes we all need to give ourselves a break for not being able to take on everything), but I do to a certain extent. It comes down to priorities really, and making sure that your goals are always top of mind. It's about figuring out HOW to make the most important things all fit, even if you have to adjust your game plan a bit to do it.

This morning's feature on the Everygirl (man I love that site) gave me a swift kick in the butt about that very same concept.

Erin from Elements of Style - one of the most popular design blogs out there - is featured, and she talks a lot about what you have to do to be a successful blogger, and how starting her blog was the catalyst to her entire career. One of the main things she stresses is that she has written every weekday for five years, and that it took more than a year of that for her to get any serious traffic.

The fake working is pretty adorable

The thing is, this isn't news to me. I know that posting every day is one of the biggest keys to blog success (I work in web communications for Christ's sake), but I still haven't been able to get myself to actually do it. The main reason is that I have a full time job, and it's hard to fit it in, but that doesn't mean I can't. What it does mean is that I need to figure out how.

So I'm going to try to tweak my process, because right now my posts are taking me an incredibly long time to put together. There's research and writing, but mostly it's picture editing in order to make things fit the dimensions of my layout. I'm going to try to spend less time fretting about the perfection of the look of each post and more time actually posting. And I'm going to set time aside every day to work on it. If it matters you make it happen, right?

Maybe I'd get more done if I worked somewhere like this ...

I'm a little too realistic to think that this will all happen overnight, but I'm hopeful that I'll at least increase my weekly posts from two to three, and slowly keep building from there. Baby steps.

And hey, I can use it as another excuse for why I "can't" work out...

lady love: les composantes

Lately I've been obsessed with classic handbags. Not classic like a Birkin, but classic like that bag you found in your mom's closet that doesn't look the least bit dated. The kind with lines, materials and hardware that will never go out of style, and that actually look better with age (there is something so magical about wrinkled leather, isn't there?). Nothing flashy, just quality through and through. The kind that doesn't need a name attached to it because it just speaks for itself.

Unfortunately those bags are pretty darn hard to find.

So when I came across Les Composantes on Pinterest I knew I'd found something special.

I'm probably completely out of the loop on this one, but I hadn't heard of the brand or its creator Morgane Sézalory before. It was difficult for me to round down which pics to include here because they are all so good...

The reds are especially INSANE, and I'm truly drooling over them. I love a woman with a true appreciation for blood red...

Apparently Morgane started out hunting down, styling and reselling vintage clothing and accessories. Essentially she would find the cream of the crop, put together fabulous outfits and incredible photo shoots, and then have first-come-first-serve sales. It's still a huge part of what Les Composantes is about.

Her taste is absolutely impeccable. She's that friend who always looks perfect and always says "a garage sale" when you ask her where her jacket is from. She's finding the one piece of gold at Salvation Army long after you've (ahem, I've) given up and gone to buy a smoothie.

Morgane added the custom clothes (like her high collared shirts) and accessories (the purses and I think some of the shoes) to her vintage finds a few years later. She still works on a first come first serve basis, releasing small batches of her finds and creations once every month.

What I think is particularly amazing is that it's often hard to tell which is which. Notice I said "I think some of the shoes" above. That's because she has them in so many colours that I assume she designed them, but really they could just as easily be vintage.

Everything in her store could be new, or it could not be. It all blends so seamlessly.

Which is how you know you have a classic on your hands.

The kicker? She's adorable, and so is her fabulous little Parisian apartment:

I want to hate this girl - for obvious reasons - but I  can't help but really love that Morgane recognized her strengths and made a life out it. She knew she had an eye, and the creativity to "package" her finds so perfectly that she could impart her vision onto others. Her business plan is probably something  a lot of people would have scoffed at, but here she is. It's kind of awesome.

More inspirational ladies please. It's such food for my soul.

Oh and more red handbags too. Yes I'll take some of those as well...