kids, sparkles, candy and love..

Ok so Valentine's and I may be on the outs this year, but even my cold cold heart couldn't resist this video of ridiculously chic kids sharing their ridiculously cute takes on love.

I mean, let's face it, their answers are pretty much exactly what mine would be. What is love? No effin' clue. What do I love? Chocolate, fur coats, high heels, and my dad. Exactly kids. Exactly.

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The girl in the leopard and pearls is my new style icon. She knows her shit. For real. 

Much love today chicitas, whatever that means ;)

green kitchen love! no i haven't lost my mind...

First off, I want to send all of you huge hugs for the sweet messages yesterday. Nothing helps a shitty mood like whining your ass off and getting nothin' but love in return. You guys = the best. 

Secondly, I want to say a big fat HOLY COW about Bailey Quin's new home (published in Matchbook yesterday)! It is, by far, my favourite of her homes, and the girl has overhauled three. In like five years. Craziness. 

The bathrooms and kitchen are especially insane, and while I'll leave you to check out the former in the mag (you must, they are perfect), I just had to talk about the latter . . .

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At first I couldn't tell if it was a trick of the light that made those cabinets look deep green rather than black, but once I confirmed via her Pinterest, it was like I was doing internal backflips. It just makes it so much bolder and more interesting, and it goes so well with the rug that I don't even know what to do with myself. 

Bailey posted more pics on her blog today, and I think it might actually be one of my favourite kitchens of all time. The oven KILLS ME:

Funny thing is, I was already planning a post about green kitchens. Last week, I came across this other looker that had me at hello...

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...and I immediately started looking for others that got it right. Before seeing it, I would have thought green cupboards were an absolute no-no. I've been loving green for a long time - I posted about my crush in August, and even designed a whole photo shoot around emerald last winter (take that Pantone). But cupboards? That much? Well, between that lovely lady above and Bailey's even better version, I'm officially hooked.

Here are a couple more green beauties I'm not hatin' on . . . 

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Pretty clear from these that adding a splash of baby blue in this scenario is a veeeery good idea. 

So what do y'all think? Is green the new navy for kitchen cabinets? Would you just love this one from afar or actually chance it?

when life knocks you on your ass

Last week was a terrible week. Straight up, no sugar coating, an absolutely terrible week. On Monday, the day started with a migraine and ended with a freak massive flood. I worked until 11pm helping to get the word out, and woke up to the news that the damage to our offices would mean working from home for the rest of the week. This might usually be a good thing, but I was on call for most of it, some days as early as 6am and always well into the evening. The lack of sleep kept my migraine friend around, and I spent Tuesday taking calls and writing emails with my head over the toilet.

Not fun.

The on call thing also meant I needed to be by a computer at all times, so leaving the house wasn't in the cards. I live alone, and it wasn't long before the stir crazy navel gazing set in. And what could help that situation out more than some unexpected and surprisingly painful news from your ex? Nothing, it seems. Nothing could.

By Friday, I have to admit, I was done. Just done. I woke up, shuffled into my kitchen, and grabbed a bottled smoothie out of the fridge. When I shook it the cap flew right off, spraying deep blue acai juice all over the fridge, all over the counters, all over my kilim rug. All over me.

For a minute, I just stood there. It truly felt, in that moment, like that juice was shit, and that bottle was life.

And I cried.

I don't know why I'm sharing all of this. I don't have any wise words or beautiful lessons-learned all wrapped up in a bow. I know these problems, in the grand scheme of things, aren't that big, and that I have so much to be thankful for. But for some reason it felt a bit dishonest to post pretty pictures of kitchens today. I just wanted to be real, in part because I know that I appreciate it so much when other bloggers do the same. When they show us their battle wounds and their scars. When they take a pause from the sparkly and shiny to show us the muck.

Because we all have muck, right? Not everything can be brass and marble kitchens, or leopard pumps and statement jewels, or perfectly plumped pillows and expertly laid tables....not everything can be so clean. And that's ok, right? I mean, it has to be.

Hope you all had better luck than I did this past week, and that we all will in the one coming up. Big kisses. I'm going to go pull up my boot straps now.

xoxoxo