Gardening in High Heels

cultivate a beautiful life

Sunday Lately, 39

Sunday again?  Where does the time go?

Cute Fall Starbucks cups

Don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here drinking coffee + PSL syrup out of these cute little fall Starbucks cups.  FYI: the Starbucks barista totally affirmed my choice to just put the syrup in the coffee instead of ordering a latte because that’s the best way to drink it. #justsayin..

Updating

So I jumped and got a new computer.  I was stupid and spilled iced coffee all over my keys a few weeks ago and of course fried the keyboard.  I tried using an external keyboard and that was fine but wouldn’t fly long term.  It kinda sucks that I have to rebuild some files (my Photoshop didn’t transfer and neither did Microsoft Office….wth?), but I did get lucky in that the time machine backup and Apple ID mostly synced everything as normal.

Reminding

I need to remind myself of plans and things that I have to do, so I’ve been writing things down a lot more.  I seriously am losing my mind; if I don’t write something down, I’ll lose it.  The thought just..poof..flies out of my head.  So I’ve been using my trusty Moleskine notebook/planner a lot more.

Needing

Support.  I am so so so so so happy to be starting Emily Cassel‘s Freedom is Sexy program this week.  I have a goal that I want to hit by the end of October and I need someone to push me to get there but also provide structure and helpful insight.  I know I have people I can lean on, but sometimes you need that objectivity.

Wearing

Scarves.  Gotta bust out scarves this week.  To me, sweaters and scarves and booties are true fall-weather gear and I can’t not embrace that any longer.

Being

I’m being antsy.  I hate not having a direction.  But I think it’ll be there soon enough (see Needing).

So what have you been up to lately?

 

Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup with Katy, Nicole and Meghan. Use their themes or use your own. Just remember to link up with them so we can see what is happening with you lately!

DIY wine rack makeover

Another day, another chance for me to DIY and get spray paint all over myself.  I can’t get enough.  Case in point: these lamps and these picture frames.

It’s gotten to the point where I have figured out the prices and selections at my Pat Catan’s and Joann Fabrics stores is not as vast or easy on the wallet as at Home Depot.  Seriously.  If there is one store I avoid like the plague (next to IKEA for reasons why here) it’s Home Depot.  I always feel like a 6 year old in pigtails asking for help there.

But I found spray paint that was like…75% cheaper there than at a craft store.  So of course I had to do something with it…

80s wine rack makeover with spray paint. Love how this turned out! | Gardening In High Heels

I have this really old hand-me-down wine rack that my mom left when she moved out and it’s just not doing me any favors.

I think it was part of my parents’ dining set when they got married because the caning looks similar.  How she got this one piece and the rest of it stayed with my father, I’ll never know.  Mysteries of the family.  Either way, it’s mine now and I have stared at this long enough.

To the paint!  I used Rust-oleum Gold Metallic and Semi-Gloss Black spray paint to update this clunker.  Krylon is usually my go-to for spray paint, but I think Home Depot has a deal with Rust-oleum.

80s wine rack makeover with spray paint. Love how this turned out! | Gardening In High Heels

True story: growing up, I was not a fan of gold.  I only wore silver jewelry and I gravitated towards cooler tones.  Well, times have changed because I can’t get enough of gold accents now.  I mean, it’s a design element in the tagline in my header!  And black and gold just looks so chic together.

Please ignore the fact that I am from Pittsburgh and am proclaiming my love for the black/gold color combo.  I swear I’m not that stereotypical.

If you need proof that I cannot do anything without first making a huge mess, I give you my hand after spray painting the tiles on the top of the rack.

Spray paint blunders

The tiles look pretty, too.

Ceramic tiles spray painted with Rustoleum gold spray paint - perfect DIY update! | Gardening In High Heels

I’m so happy with the outcome of this DIY makeover.  The best thing about spray paint is how easy it is to completely change the look of something.  I’m at the point where I want to paint anything that isn’t nailed down (and maybe some things that are.)

80s wine rack makeover with spray paint. Love how this turned out! | Gardening In High Heels

80s wine rack makeover with spray paint. Love the gold and black combo! | Gardening In High Heels

80s wine rack makeover with spray paint. Love the gold and black combo! | Gardening In High Heels  80s wine rack makeover with spray paint. Love the gold and black combo! | Gardening In High Heels

Keep wine corks in a latern from IKEA! | Gardening In High Heels

I thought I’d be super-cute and paint an old DVD/CD tower to match.  It didn’t have nearly as much luck.  I thought I grabbed the paint+primer kind that can cling to a water buffalo, but either this laminate was no match for the paint or I didn’t get the right kind.

Spray paint fails - you get chips if you don't use the right kind or prep your surfaces!

I tried to put the shelves in and got scratches galore.  Fail all over.  So this has been sitting on my back porch while I get the nerve to take it up to the curb for trash day.  I hate giving up on a project, don’t you?

80s wine rack makeover with spray paint. Love the gold and black combo! | Gardening In High Heels

What have you DIY-ed recently?

Sunday Lately, 38

This week dragged.  Anyone else, or is the cheese standing alone on this one?  I mean, I did manage to write + publish two (yes, folks, two) posts this week, by far the most I’ve done in a long time.  And I had an interview on Wednesday for a position in the marketing department where I currently work, so I was pretty consumed with putting together my presentation for that.  But not for nothin’, this was a long freakin’ week.

Essie Chocolate Kisses and OPI The Living Daylights glitter. Fall nail combo!

I did my nails this week, though, so that’s something!

Dwelling

I’ve been trying to make up my mind on a few different paths that I want to take and I’ve been dwelling pretty heavily on that.  I tend to get stuck in analysis paralysis if I don’t just make a move and make it quick.

My car?  I decided I liked it, wanted it, could afford it, and bought it in a matter of hours.  What kind of planner I want for 2016?  I’ve been belaboring over the perfect one (Emily Ley, Get to Workbook, DIY my own!) for months.  Among other things I won’t get into now.

Helping

I feel like I can finally get back to helping other people.  This summer was just…I don’t know, but I had no desire to blog.  The freelance work I do was half-hearted.  I made no progress in moving forward in a business of my own.  But I finally feel like I can start helping other people again.

That’s what I really want to do: be a helper.  Everyone has a beautiful story to tell and I want to help them share it with the world.  And I want to help them share it with the world so they can make meaningful connections along the way.  I want to share a story of a business in a way that people want to go there.  Or introduce two people because person 1 has a need that I know person 2 can fulfill.  Now they’re happy.  Look, I made that happen!

That’s what I want to do.

Forgetting

That words are as powerful as the emotions behind them.  I think a lot of people forget just how strong a weapon words are.  Use it wisely and kindly.

Switching

From coffee to beer…which is probably why I’m getting so introspective right now.  I’ve found I hit a very happy buzz and get all kinds of reflective after about half a beer if it’s been a few hours since I last ate anything.  Mental note…use this to my advantage.

Also, I am not writing this on Sunday morning.  I am out with my aunts doing an Ovarian-Cancer-benefit 5K.  I love the magic of scheduling.

Relying

On lots of coffee.

What have you been up to lately?

Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup with Katy, Nicole and Meghan. Use their themes or use your own. Just remember to link up with them so we can see what is happening with you lately!

5 stages of putting together IKEA furniture

I have spent the better part of the summer putting together IKEA furniture and the process is the same no matter what. It’s long and painful and never really gets any easier the more you do it.  It’s almost like the Five Stages of Grief, but with more crying and throwing things.

Putting together IKEA furniture sucks! Five stages everyone goes through when they're putting together IKEA furniture | Gardening In High Heels

Excitement

Yeah, alright, I have new furniture! I’ll refresh my look and it’ll be so affordable. I may even do one of those Apartment Therapy IKEA hacks. And I got this fun organizer, and these plates, and a funky Euro print, too, and it was all in one place. One-stop home furnishings shopping. I love this place and I’m never leaving. I’m so urban and hip, I can’t stand myself.

Disbelief

Wait a minute, that cost how much?? But I just got some dog-butt hooks and a night stand! Also how do these Swedish people transport this stuff? Are they ridiculously strong and carry it home on their backs? Because this defintely isn’t fitting in my car and aren’t European cars even smaller?

Frustration

Why do I have 50 little screws and only 10 holes? Do I have to make my own? Am I being punked? This can’t be right, can it??

And what’s this diagram showing me? Not to climb on the bookshelf? No kidding! How about I also don’t take my new desk lamp into the bath with me.

I give up. I’m going to lay here like Sadness until Joy drags my away by my foot because I am done and this is stupid and I’m stupid because I can’t figure out why this little line drawing looks so happy and I just want to jump into a bath with my desk lamp plugged in.

Acceptance

Fine. I’ll keep building because it’s better than figuring out how to get it back to the store half-built. Also, I don’t want to go to the 7th circle of hell ever again. So I’ll just stay right here. Pouting.

Begrudging Relief

It is done. Someone get me a coffee the size of my head and follow it up with a stiff drink. I need to forget that experience ever happened. I am never doing that again. Oooh mail’s here, look at the new catalog! I want this..and this..

—

I swear, if you want to get married to someone, put together IKEA furniture first. If you successfully build it will all the parts and don’t want to rip each others’ head off, congrats. You should get married. You could also probably raise kids together as well or at least care for a very large dog.

I think I’m going to lay off the IKEA furniture for a while.

What’s your IKEA experience been like recently? Any fun stories?

Creative Closet: Jewels and Jewel Tones

Summer is my season.  The light fabrics, brighter colors, and all-around more carefree feel is fantastic.  That said, there’s something about the golden light of fall that’s so beautiful.  I love the jewel tones that come out in the fall.  It isn’t the dark black and endless gray of winter, but it isn’t the in-your-face punch of color of summer.

It also is the perfect time to bust out cranberry-matte lips and leather.  I feel like my most bad-ass self in the fall.

So I figured today’s Creative Closet prompt is a perfect time to come out of outfit-sharing hibernation.

Leather jacket, vampy lipstick, and jewel tones for fall.

Leather jacket: No.14 Boutique (during the #StylishPittsburgh event!)
Lips: Dazed by ColourPop
Top: Mossimo @ Target
Jeans: American Eagle
Sneakers: Converse

Love matte cranberry lips for fall! | Gardening In High Heels

Jewel tones and red lips for fall | Gardening In High Heels

Nothing compliments jewel tones quite like some jewels.  You know my favorite way to dress up an outfit is to add a little sparkle.  And damn is this ring sparkly.

Anjolee anniversary eternity band | Gardening In High Heels

I’ve been looking for a great eternity band to wear and I love this ring from Anjolee.  Their anniversary rings are stunning and super comfortable, even though the U setting has some height to it.  And this is just further proof that you don’t need to wait around for someone to buy you something shiny – go out and get it yourself.

Anjolee anniversary eternity band | Gardening In High Heels

Although if you need to give someone a little push…go ahead and bookmark the shiz out of that page.

I love the amethyst pop to contrast with the emerald shirt.  It isn’t an obvious pop, but it’s enough of a statement that I don’t really wear other jewels when I have this ring on.

I also can’t get enough of this lipstick.  It’s my first ColourPop Lippie Stix shade and I looooove it.  Like, “I want to wear this even when I’m just hanging out around the house” love it.

Statement eternity band by Anjolee, jewel tones, and red lips..fall perfection! | Gardening In High Heels

Truly embracing my inner rebel with this outfit.

How do you add some fall into your outfits?  Any other lovers of jewel tones?

This post was sponsored by Anjolee. Their jewelry is gorgeous and I couldn’t resist spreading the word about them! Thank you for supporting the brands that support GIHH.

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