Everything seems a bit more fantastic in gold! While gold has always been a fashion and decor staple it has taken a sudden upswing in popularity. Over its silver and copper counterparts, Gold has become the fashion do. It is everywhere from gold beads, bangles and gold thread to gold bowls, baubles, and patterns. Gold has become the go-to item to spice up an outfit, class up a casual style, and spiffy up a room. A dash of gold there (on toe tips or fingernails) and a dash of gold here (on the wall paper or dotting the placemats) a dash of gold everywhere!!

1.Top Shop Blouse 2.Essie Nailpolish 3.Aldo Watch  4.Modcloth Sweater 5.Dholic Tiped Loafers 6.Nordstrom Lush Dress 7.Keiko Styke

Doesn't it just add that little extra something a room or a party. I love using gold in small items to class up a room...I can't wait to see where I can use a little gold glitter this holiday season.

1.Modcloth Wallpaper  2.Anthro Artisan Mini Satl Cellar  3.Gold Bottom Cups  4.Eiffel Tower Scissors  5.Urban Outfitters Pillow  6.Schumacher Wallpaper  7.Leif Glittered Geo Chain  8.Terrain Placemat  9.World Market Glitter Birds

This year we had a Harry Potter themed party for the Halloween season. The wizarding world of potions, every flavor beans, parchment, and candlelight was just begging to be my classy ticket out of the usual garish purple and orange Halloween we so often see.

While Harry Potter is hardly a new trend in general, the world of parchment, chocolate frogs, dragons, polyjuice potion, and so much more is a trend I see enduring as long as the stories are printed! For those of you to whom this trend is old hat, enjoy...and for those who haven't joined the trend yet....what are you waiting for! Go start the first book!

It is just a land of beauty. The water, trees, mountains....ohhh there are just not enough words to describe what a pleasant place this little (well not so little) northwestern city is. While I was getting my little taste of real fall in the leaves and brisk breezes I managed to come across a few paper store gems! First de Medici Ming packs quite a wallop into its tiny ally style store! Handmade papers, letter press cards and calendars, block print patterned posters and ooh so much more. I couldn't resist buying a calendar for 2013 with vintage travel posters for each month.

One of the fabulous things about Seattle is the coffee....and treats. I think we tried every coffee place within a 10 block radius...which let me tell you, in Seattle there are a lot of coffee places within 10 blocks. After getting our coffee for the day all that was left was the delicious of what treat to try that day, cupcakes, French pastries, fresh fruit at the market, ice cream...and the list goes on.

The other paper gem I stumbled upon was The Paper Hammer. Another treasure trove of letter press, hand made papers and books, illustrated posters and totes...and those wonderful little paper items you don't exactly need....but want ever so much!

I would say this trip was a smashing sucess and should be repeated as soon as possible!

Credits: Top, Second Left, Second Right, Third Left, Third Right,Fourth Left, Fourth Center, Fourth Right, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh Left, Seventh Right

Maybe it is just me, but I don't think there is any excuse for a lack of design consideration in any industry. So I went on a hunt and found some glorious exceptions to my unfortunate trend of the day.

1.Lufthansa 2 & 3. FinAir  4. Air France 5. Air France 6. Virgin America 7. Aeroflot  8. Aeroflot  9. SAS

So once again, a trend that is not so much a new trend on the radar, but more a trend I like to perpetuate and support...cupcakes! There is just something so wonderful about a tiny frosted cake all to yourself, not to mention the wonderful favors these boutique bakeries dream up.

I am no newbie to cupcakes, living in orange county I have been an avid sprinkles fan for years and even had sprinkles cupcakes in place of a giant came at my wedding. Since the discovery of sprinkles in my life almost 5 years ago I have found many other delightful 'cupcakery' in the area-the perfect circle in orange, frosted cupcakery in long beach, and merely sweets in brea just to name a few.

So while visiting the other sister half of Alethea and Ruth was no surprise she had me try out the local cupcake shop! Cupcake Royal is just down the street and around the corner from her house in the delightful city of Seattle. (more on the trip in total coming soon) While I am not sure any place can capture the crown from sprinkles in my mind, cupcake royal is pretty spectacular. We tried some seasonal treats of pumpkin with cream cheese frosting and vanilla apple spice with salted carmel frosting, as well as the gourmet vanilla with lavender frosting and chocolate with peanut butter pretzel frosting. After trying these I am convinced that in more ways than one, Seattle is a pretty sweet place!

It is October, and even though it is 100 degrees is southern California I refuse to let one more moment of fall pass by without proper seasonal cheer. Good ol' Charlie Brown knew that pumpkins are the real star of fall time! There are so many ways to decorate, eat, and smell them. I will be trying a few of these tasty treats and sprucing up my sweltering house with a few of these festive decors....if i can't have a real fall I will bake, and decorate, and light pumpkin spice candles, and blast the air conditioning until I can drink my pumpkin spice latte' in mild chilliness.

one- glittered pumpkin candle holders | two- pumpkin mac&cheese | three- who can fully appreciate the fall time season without a little Harry Potter! | four- geo dot carved pumpkin | five- pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies | six- pumpkin pecan tassies | seven- vintage dome pumpkin vignette | eight- pumpkin cheesecake bars |nine- pumpkin casserole dish | ten- pumpkin spice candle | eleven- buffalo bills pumpkin ale | twelve- blush glittered pumpkins | thirteen- baked pumpkin spice doughnuts

Hi all! So the other month the awesome wedding blog stylemepretty did a 'behind the scenes sneak peek' of some minted designers - which I was honored to be a part of! (you can check that out here) I tooks some photos of my 'studio' (read: desk in the living room) for that and decided to document the rest of our little city apartment to share here. We seriously love our location in the city, the building we're in and the amount of light our apartment gets throughout the day. We have been renting the place since we got married in December, but over the summer we bought it! Which means I have some serious remodling plans - esspcially for our teeny tiny kitchen...

But welcome! Here is where you walk in...

Entryway and hallway library (or really - two bookcases).

Living room and studio combo. Working from home, I spend a lot of time in this room - and nothing makes me happier than the amount of light this room gets, even on rainy days here in Seattle. And, fun fact, the curtains were made from the aisle runner at our wedding!

The living room and dining room are connected by a really wide archway. And then off the dining room is our one person at a time kitchen. SO tiny - totally works for us right now, but I have dreams of knocking out walls...

And our bedroom. There is no picture of the bathroom because there was no part of that room worth sharing - UNTIL just the other week when we 're-did' it (on the extreme cheap) with some paint and shelves. So I'll have to share that soon. 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

 With it being fall I am in a harvest mood and wishing I had planted a fantastic summer garden I could be gleaning from now. However, I am confined to a small cement patio, which I attempted to make use of with a few small potted items. I did end up with a tomato plant that jut keeps giving and a basil plant that is miraculously still living despite weather of 90+ degrees for the past few weeks. While looking up new gardening ideas I kept running into awesome ideas for windowsill gardening, especially for herbs. From vintage tin cans to mason jars, almost anything can be used as small planters. I have found countless inspirational ways to set up small herb gardens: on the windowsill, on shelves in front of the window, or in window boxes.

Through all my searching I found great resources for planting tips and information. Such as, Organic Authority's recommendations for the best herbs to grow in a windowsill garden: basil, mint, stevia, sage, and thyme. And Garden Guide's collection of articles on herbs and herb gardening.

 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

And the wonderful thing about windowsill herb gardening, there are so many pretty accessories and tools you can get!

1.Zinc & Willow Tray 2.Metal Herb Pots & Tray 3.McCoy Planter 4.McCoy Planter 5.Twine Stand with Scissors 6.Copper Garden Labels 7.Petite Watering Can 8.Mini-Tools 9.Mini Colander 10.Herb Scissors

Sometimes the end of the week just needs a little visual pick-me-up. So here is a smattering of some vintage/vintage inspired packaging that has me dreaming up new fonts and illustrations!

Vintage packaging and design seems so straightforward. These examples use only two or three colors, one or two fonts, maybe an illustration...but there's the genius! So simple, yet so wonderful. I love how vintage packaging often has a hand done feel to the fonts and illustrative details. There is nothing like a vintage package or logo to really let a font shine. The fonts used on words like Bingo (5), Sparklers (3), and Blendwel (9) just look like they were especially created to capture the feel of that product. Another fun part of vintage packaging is discovering what kinds of things packaging was designed for...pen tips, wooden rulers, and 'nurse white' shoe cleaner. Not exactly high demand items these days, but cheers to the past for this visual inspiration!

1.Olive Sinclair Chocolate 2.Speedball Pens 3. Easy-Lite Sparklers 4.Best Matches 5.Bingo 6.Ace Staples 7.Jell-O 8.Petring's City Club Coffee 9.Blendwel Crayons 10.Wescott Rulers 11.Cavalier Cleaner

1: Madewell - 2: burgundy and gold necklace - 3: anthro ring - 4: burgundy tights

Honest moment: I've disliked the color burgundy for a long time. I guess it usually feels dated to me... a little too dark and dowdy. Isn't that so unimaginative of me?! So sad. I'm starting to have to eat my words though because I've been eyeing burgundy everywhere lately...and I kind of like it! I feel like it made a big splash in the beauty world last fall-winter. And at that time I'm sure I said 'I will never wear lipstick that dark' - but, um, just call me a trend follower - it's all I can think about buying right now. I'm also really loving the suprising color combos that burgundy looks great in: punchy fushia + burgundy (yes, please), and pale pink + navy + burgundy (I can totally get on board with that). Now I'm not saying I'm going to start painting my walls burgundy or anything, but I think it's time I welcomed some burgundy in my life.

1: Madewell top - 2: Urban Outfitter Bag - 3: Mac Lipstick - 4: Two-toned flat - 5: J.Crew Outfit - 6: Butter Nail Polish - 7: Urban Outfitter Sweater - 8: Beauty is Life Lipstick