mon préféré

before and after restyle: bookshelf/console

2011-07-09T15:22:00.000-05:00

you know when something has been a certain way for so long you don't even notice it anymore? we've been living in a rathole! it's time to move on from the lingering "just moved in" look we've had since february and onto something a little more....pretty. so, i'm going to share with you throughout the apartment revamp process. today's post: really embarrassing bookshelf slash console.

much better!

inspiration board: chevron

2011-06-13T10:44:00.001-05:00

chevron is hot! (as hot as that guacamole we get at the local produce store emilios, with all those fresh jalapenos and the seeds still in tact.) the lovely zigzag print is literally everywhere i look. and i love it! (just like i love that guacamole, although chevron won't hurt me like that guacamole will hurt me.) i especially love the diy tray, and if you're interested in maybe dabbling in your own diy project involving a chevron fabric, you can get some here. enjoy some of my favorite chevron finds!

{witandwhitstle zigzag card set} {anthro scattered chevrons curtains} {anthro maillot swimsuit}

{martha stewart diy tray} {madeline weinrib pillow} {urban outfitters zigzag duvet}

{west elm zigzag rug} {anthro wandering ikat shade}

a must visit: etymologie

2011-06-08T18:40:00.000-05:00

have i mentioned lately how much i love anthropologie? i could have my entire blog themed wholly on all things anthro. it is very tempting! they have quite a bit going on for themselves these days... a successfully run clothing and home store that make a many swoon, breathtaking visual artistry, the new and HOT BHLDN, and now this. etymologie is their new blog that features imagery with stories (contributed by anthro employees) based on one word chosen every week. pretty unique and very inspiring. hire me!

from the oven: blueberry streusel muffins...two ways!

2011-06-06T08:30:00.006-05:00

goodmorning poopsies. yesterday was the hottest day ever. (and don't even get me started on my second level, air condition free apartment. i'm sweating just thinking about it. no, i'm glistening just thinking about it. much more lady-ish.) and of course what do i choose to do??? bake!!! i love baking. but i may or may not have had some upper-lip glisten while making these muffins. totally worth it. (in my opinion, not kyle's.)

this delicioso recipe that you can get word for word here comes from my new favorite. ina garten (specifically her back to basics cookbook). they're especially yummy. always eat one straight from the oven.

they're perfect for a lovely breakfast.

but what's stopping you from adding a bit of glaze and serving them for dessert? i wouldn't turn these down anytime. enjoy!

before and after: chalkboard table!

2011-06-04T12:31:00.008-05:00

let me just say, before and afters are often my favorite things featured on other blogs. if you have any that you would love to share with mon prefere, please do!

so a while back, (and by a while i mean years), i posted about how much i love love love chalkboard paint. i was specifically inspired by a before and after chalkboard dining table i saw on the ever popular design*sponge. so when my sister and i moved into a new place with a dining room, we saw it as a chance to get creative. or steal someone else's idea. however you choose to look at it.

these are the before pictures. beeteedubs, this expandable mid-century table was forty dollars***. FORTY DOLLARS! we found it at an amazing thrift store called jubilee. check it out! the table was a little shaky but after a few manly turns of the bolts, it was brand new again.

i'm sharing my in process photos, so you can learn from me. always sand first. after not sanding, the primer peeled right off the table. so i scraped it all off, sanded, primed, painted one coat, and then a second coat, and then finally...

success! a beautiful table that provides endless entertainment and lots of character.

and here's how it looked on halloween...

*** yes, the table was forty dollars. but after finding that it did not fit in the station wagon that everything fits in, and then renting a truck, and paying for gas to drive back into the city and then back out to wheaton, and buying primer, chalkboard paint, and paint supplies, the total came to roughly $150. still absolutely worth it.

wedding invitations

2011-06-01T08:00:00.008-05:00

i am very proud of these. it may be partly just a little because my other half designed them. and thank you to all the wonderful ladyfriends who made the wedding envelope production line. (it involved way more tools and sewing skills than i had planned... and was a craft of which i had more photos to share!) thanks emily anderson for the lovely photo!

rue mag

2011-05-24T08:30:00.010-05:00

if you love this,

then you'll love this.

rue magazine is a new-ish online magazine that is an inspiration. i had the honor of helping style a photo shoot featured in rue with my then to-be wedding photographer emily anderson. i had a great time and have since been eagerly awaiting each issue. i hope you enjoy it as much as i do!

inspiration board: floral prints

2011-05-23T08:00:00.005-05:00

anthropologie and i share a love for everything floral. they just nail each and every one of their flowery patterns from vintage inspired to modern and i melt for every one. and in this case, pretty + pretty DOES = pretty. my dream home involves multiple floral prints. (don't tell the man i live with. actually he already knows and to my deep dismay he does not love the floral print as much as i do which may be at some point a serious serious hurdle to which our marriage will suffer.) until then, enjoy some of my favorites.

a must visit: pinterest

2011-05-21T16:11:00.003-05:00

my dearest sister has introduced me to the wondrous treasure that is pinterest.

a virtual, categorized inspiration board that i desperately wish i had known about for recent wedding planning. exceptionally easy and rather addicting, you will find yourself buried deep in the tabs of your internet browser of choice just to "pin it". i highly recommend it if not to organize your own inspiration, then to snoop others'.

wedding

2011-04-28T21:09:00.005-05:00

recently i was married. it was a perfectly freezing february day and i still made everyone take pictures outside. and they are totally worth it. thanks Emily Anderson! we were so so lucky to have you. here's part one. and part two.

portfolio

2010-06-29T21:30:00.006-05:00

hi friends! i've missed you. you can add me back on your bookmarks list, kyle, because i'm back!

well i'm an official graduate. and i have an official portfolio. i just want to give you a quick update for now so click here to check it out! i'll post again soon. i have no more excuses now that i'm done with school.

from the oven: pumpkin biscuits

2009-11-22T22:16:00.006-06:00

3 things i love. 1. biscuits for breakfast. 2. biscuits for lunch. 3. biscuits for dinner. and this melt-in-my-mouth recipe (thanks to the head chef in the schmunk household) works for all three. especially for thanksgiving.

here's the secret recipe:

2 cups flour
3 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 cup chilled butter
3/4 cups buttermilk (fat-free, low-fat, or full-of-fat)
1/2 cups canned pumpkin

heat your oven to 450 degrees. combine flour and next six ingredients; cut in chilled butter (literally take 2 knives and cut the mixture, therefore chopping the cold butter into tiny pieces) until mixture resembles coarse meal. combine buttermilk and pumpkin. add to flour mixture just until moist. knead dough lightly on floured surface. roll to about 3/4" thick. cut into squares or use biscuit cutter. bake for 10 or so minutes (depending on size). MUST serve with honey butter.

honey butter:

1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup honey
1 t orange rind

mix in small bowl and chill.

also. double the recipe if you know what's good for you.

i love chalkboard paint

2009-11-05T18:26:00.015-06:00

have you seen this stuff? i want it in my home. but only the kind where when the chalk hits the board it shrivels into dust, not the kind that no matter how hard you press the chalk barely shows up and then screeches like your taking sister mary clarence's fake nails to it. she does that in sister act 2: back in the habit. (you've seen it. and fyi information i just watched that video twice, it's so good.)

i'm sure you all know that i love the before and afters from designsponge. i'll never forget one i saw of a mediocre table turned into this.

who cares if you get a little chalk dust in your food during dinner? everybody loves tums. also. there's this.

if our fridge was actually ours i would have painted it yesterday. but good news! i could probably paint the kitchen...

painting smaller objects is a cheap alternative and no less awesome, of course.

these would make great gifts. i'm going crazy thinking of all the things i could paint! this is not the last you shall see of chalkboard paint. i'm going to test it out and i'll get back to you. and in case you want to as well, i've heard hudson paint has the best.

love/hates: ikea

2009-10-26T20:17:00.010-05:00

it's been a while. and i'm going to be honest. my sister thinks i'm in here working on autocad for my advanced detailing class. and i should be. but i miss this! so. i'm back. no more leaving you, poopsies.

love/hates is now formally a new theme for posts here on mon prefere. let me tell you a little story about a love/hate i have with a big huge @$$ box store from sweden. one time, i needed a piece of furniture, fast and cheap and of course, looking hip. ikea is the obvious choice for this right? they offer really great design affordable to the masses. unfortunately, some of their pieces come mis-shapen (my dad had her for gym class), missing key ingredients (not enough screws in the box, for example), holes pre-drilled in the wrong places, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. in my case, i needed a desk chair. when i brought it home to wrestle it together, i was immediately disappointed to find the metal pieces would not fit together. even when i tried to bend them with my super-woman, arnold schwarzenegger, and samson combined strength. so, i bring it back. because i've driven all this way i decide to go for a shop. buy something, go to returns department to find they don't have the chair in stock, go home, build what i bought, return for missing piece, buy something, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. it's a cycle. they're quite genius, actually, because they don't offer a department that checks stock over the phone. so you have to physically go there and will probably physically walk out with something. even if it is just a set of cutting boards for a dollar and some swedish meatballs, maybe even a cinnamon roll.

nonetheless, you (and by you i mean i but probably you too) can't help but shop there because they have some really great stuff. like this, for example:

i can't help but be reminded of way back when last semester in architectural history. i studied about designers like le corbusier and charles eames that did what ikea does. good design. good prices. maybe every once in a while, if you're lucky, good quality.

ps- i made this...

2009-06-18T00:25:00.018-05:00

i recently came upon a website called ps-i made this.... it is unbelievably creative. don't click on the link if you are easily annoyed by extremely talented people. i have a question. why don't i think to make beautiful bracelets out of toilet paper rolls? why can't i think to take an old t-shirt, cut it up and make it into a summer scarf? why can't i take a map, mod-podge it onto a plastic take-out container which would otherwise be trash and make it wall-hangingly worthy? why???

once i overcome my extreme case of self-doubt and the tad bit of jealousy, i am inspired. because, really, we can all think this way. it just takes some practice thinking differently and being creative. so. buy some mod-podge, grab some newspaper and run with it. next time you see a trash bag, cut it up, braid it, make it into a headband. and from now on dc cans+pretty paper= vase (for those of you who are inexperienced dc consumers, dc stands for diet coke).

i love wallpaper

2009-06-13T16:54:00.019-05:00

here's the deal. i love wallpaper. i love what it does to a room. i love that it's daring and risky and therefore usually separates your home from others. i love that it makes dull fabulous. and i especially love that it comes in animal prints. it can be a scary commitment and somewhat pricey, but it has so much personality! i've scouted out a few wallpaper websites for you, my poopsies, and put together samples of papers that caught my eye.

walnut wallpaper is a great find. it has a huge selection of wallpapers from all sorts of designers and enables anyone to order it, peon or interior designer.

who knew that anthropologie sells wallpaper? The cheapest is the pink floral design at $88 a roll and the most expensive being the woods print at $200.

5qm has a selection of vintage wallpapers which could be fun but also come dangerously close to looking like you've had the same walls for 30 years.

something about seeing the pattern on a wall behind a chair makes it seem more doable. the first two are from twenty2 and the last is from printpattern.

too expensive? scaredy cat? solution: accent wall. wallpapered accent walls are much less of a financial commitment and perfect for those who are a bit nervous to cover an entire room while still accomplishing the wonderful, joyous things that wallpaper accomplishes. also, bathrooms, although difficult, are also a great place to wallpaper.

things i do not love:

2009-06-05T18:37:00.011-05:00

i'm not sure whether to acknowledge that i have taken another 3 week leave of absence or carry on as if i've been here all along but nonetheless i'm back. maybe i should come up with a line like britney did for her comeback. i believe hers was, "it's britney, bitch". mine, of course, will be much more creative and appropriate. but i don't have any ideas, so if you do, let me know.

i would like to introduce to you a new post that will become a usual: things i do not love.

1. Candyman. not a man that sells candy. because this would be a huge mistake if you thought i would not love candy or any man that brings me candy. its a movie and it had "horrible" written all over it, a. because it was free on ondemand and b. because the tagline is "i dare you to say candyman 5 times" (which involves staring into a mirror, saying candyman 5 times, and just waiting for him to appear only to rip you to shreds with his hook of a hand). but how can one resist them horror movies on such a dark and stormy night? it was scary. and ridiculous. and made no sense whatsoever. but that still didn't stop me from sleeping in my big sister's bed.

2. this.

this is our media stand. and this i do not love. lauren once referred to it without hesitation as "the tv cart". that is all i need to say.

3. these.

these i also do not love because they are an eyesore. do you know when you are so accustomed to something because you see it a million times a day that you don't even see it anymore, like the nail polish remover spot on your coffee table or the decorative stencil you painted on your wall with the intention of covering it in it's entirety but you stopped at one because you don't love it but mostly you are just lazy? these do not fit in this category. something must be done.