Retail Therapy

Thank you all so much for your words of support while I try to figure out my next move in life.  I talked with my sister about my blog dilemma and I think she had the right idea.  I'm going to keep up with my blog through this spring and then take a little hiatus while I design some furniture over the summer.  Then I'll come back in the fall hopefully with a whole lot of things to show off!

In the meantime, since I was feeling kind of grumpy this weekend I decided to do a little retail therapy and got the following items:

One of these items cost me $5 at the Jr. League of Washington Tossed and Found event.  The other one cost me waaayyy more than I can afford.  But if you average the two together.....I still spent more than I should have.  However, you know how every once in a while you see something that you absolutely just have to have?  This is what happened with this purse.  I am a HUGE fan of Kate Spade and the colors of this particular purse are just SO ME.  In fact, this is the basic color scheme I'm using for my room makeover which has been in progress for about a year now.

So thank you to all of you and, of course, to the wonderful Kate Spade and the Jr. League for giving me a little boost this weekend!  I'll keep on going for now!  :)

Sister Parish Design

One of my best Christmas presents this year was the Sister Parish Design book by Susan Bartlett Crater and Libby Cameron.

Each chapter has input from some of the top decorators in America and England, plus some absolutely beautiful watercolors by Mita Corsini Bland.  Here are some of my favorites:

A Capital Collection!

This past weekend was the annual Junior League Capital Collection where vendors gather to sell Christmas gifts to crowds of happy people and 15% of the proceeds go to charity.  As member of the Junior League, we all came in for shifts to run registers at the different stalls.

This was the stall where I was stationed.  It was filled with Christmas decorations that could be personalized on the spot by the sweetest southern woman who founded the business.

My friend Sarah and me ready for our shifts!

Even Santa and Mrs. Claus stopped by for a visit!

I wish I had taken more pictures but they kept us all pretty busy!  It was a ton of fun and the perfect way to get in the Christmas spirit!

Which is Better - NYC or DC?

Junior League Headquarters in Washington, DC

Junior League Headquarters in NYC

My sister has been trying to convince me to move to NYC ever since she deserted me to move there this spring.  Ok, so their Junior League headquarters look a little fancier than ours, but I think ours is incredibly charming!

I am using this as a barometer for which city is better because I think the Junior League is such a great way to join a community and make friends.  I have been a member of the DC chapter for a few months now and I have met some great girls and learned a few things, too!  Here are the most important things I have learned thus far:

1. I need to go shopping
2. Don't spike the punch

The first one is obvious.  Most girls who are in the Junior League are impeccable.  We had a meeting at 8:00AM last Saturday and girls arrived in full-on Chanel suits.  I'm going to be honest, I put my shirt in the dryer with a wet washcloth instead of ironing it that morning.

The other pearl of wisdom came from an experience I had at our first meet and greet potluck at the headquarters.  We were all assigned what type of dish to bring based on the first letter of our last name, and I was assigned to bring a drink.  True to my competitive self, I assumed that the purpose of this event was to see who was the best cook and I set to work finding the cutest drink recipe I could.  Since it was a summer potluck I decided on a girly punch with spritzer, lemonade, vodka and some fruit garnish:

Turns out I was literally the only girl, of the 40 or so girls who had received the drink assignment, who had not decided on a bottle of either white wine or Perrier.  Literally, the only one.  A few minutes later some girls came over to tell me they were enjoying my drink and that they were grateful for something non-alcoholic to drink other than water.  Oops, I guess I should have labeled my drink.  When I let the girls in on my secret, their smiles flickered a little.  “Well how much alcohol is in it?”  they asked.  Wait, you’re supposed to measure out the alcohol in your drinks??

The moral of this story is that this is one of those fruity drinks that completely masks the flavor of alcohol and so, if you make a similar drink, you should probably be smarter than I was and measure it out.  The recipe is actually very similar to a drink we used to make in giant trashcans in college called a Pink Panty Dropper.  If I had remembered that while I was making the drink I might have watched my vodka a little more carefully.  I definitely don’t think my social status would be helped by making a bunch of Junior Leaguers lose their panties!