HUNT: Whenever there is a redhead on screen, I tend to take notice on how they are styled, especially what colors they are wearing.  It can be tricky to get the right colors to work with the my coloring:  Blue eyes = cool colors & Red hair and freckles = warm colors… which colors work best? Tuning in this way, I’ve actually found a lot of good inspiration, as silly as it sounds. Most recently I fell in love with Joan Holloway’s yellow ochre coat and thought how pretty it looked against her red locks and that swellegant blue eyeshadow!

GATHER: I found a similar harvest color hue in this modern sculptural jacket at Anthropologie. I really love the unexpected silhouette! Pair the retro color with some gold jewelry and a messy updo… I think I’ve found a wardrobe staple for autumn. P.S. Mad Men‘s costume designer Janie Bryant was once asked if the show’s vintage style rubs off on her current wardrobe. “Sure,” she replied, “But there’s a fine line between looking like you’ve been influenced by the early ’60s, and looking like you’re going to a theme party for the early ’60s!” In other words: A little period styling goes a very long way.

I’m so relieved that it’s pouring rain today – instead of beckoning the call to go outside for a bike ride as planned, I can instead dedicate some time curled up by the windows while going through the enormous stacks of books I have neatly ordered all over my dining table.  One I’ve been feasting on just came out by one of my favorite bloggers, Joy, and author Meg called Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business. Its packed with wonderful ideas and encouragement, I’m taking lots of notes!  Check out this adorable stop motion trailer for the book:

I love this particular Q& A from an interview that Jordan just shared on her blog.

Jordan: I like that you included “Positive attitude” as one of your nine qualities of a successful freelancer. Forgive this question for sounding too chipper, why do you think a positive attitude is so important?

Joy: A positive attitude is everything. As a freelancer, you get work by convincing others that your work and skills (and ultimately you) are worth hiring for a project. Clients (and people in general) respond far better to positive people because who wants to be around (or working with) a Debbie Downer? Also, a positive attitude doesn’t mean you need to be uber happy all the time. It’s more about being able to stay positive even when some projects or clients aren’t your favorite, when thing aren’t going as planned, and being able to make the best out of any situation.

This is just one of many of the reasons I feel so drawn to Joy: her positive attitude and ability to churn out inspiration and beauty around her- she effortlessly radiates that in all of the creative work that she touches. Congrats on the new book, Joy!

You know those days. We all have them. Today was one for me – too much seemed to press on me, overwhelming me into auto-pilot.

I’m fortunate to end such a day with the love of a man who stopped his short to stay with me and bring me into the sunshine.  We took my favorite route to walk along the water and watched the boats go by.  All along the way he reminded me how all the things I was sad about… it was not my fault. And it never was. Ah, I really love this man. I feel like I have a very big secret if you don’t know my husband – the best secret I’ve never wanted to keep. (How did I get so lucky??) I wish you all get a chance to know him in your lifetime. He’s changed mine for the very best, in every way possible. So you can run and tell that, homeboy.

Flipping through my September issue of Vogue, I stopped when I came to this particular page photographed by Steven Meisel. The editorial is simply called Tender Is the Night. The grellow knit with mismatched vintage looking buttons running up the back, the bias cut velvet skirt in a fawn-gold hue, the rear window pause a la Grace Kelly – the call to ladylike elegance is beckoning! A Modest Proposal: The look is covered up, demure- you could say (gasp) mature! So how is it so intriguingly sexy? Concealing is the new revealing. But was it ever out of fashion? Love it!

It’s funny how the act of simply writing something down can cause it to materialize in your life.  Try it sometime.  It doesn’t have to be the vague, overreaching, old fashioned, pie in the sky “five year plan” kind of goals that have been flogged into our collective mind since infancy.  That’s boring! Actually, it can be anything.  The more simple, the better – just write it down.  The more you craft how it looks, smells, tastes- the better.

Before summer started, I made a little list of things I wanted to experience, but I had completely forgotten that I had wishlisted enjoying s’mores at Golden Gardens until after it happened a weeks ago.  (The magic of the list?) A gathering of families from our church toasted mallows, melted Hershey’s chocolate sandwiched in between graham crackers while the kids played and certain blue eyed babies ate sand.  No.15 on that list – check! Summer is slipping away, but looking at these pictures I casually shot that night, I realize I want to eek out every last drop.  What are your favorite summer memories? For us northern hemisphere-ers, we’ve still got time to make some more, right?

I really believe in the William Morris adage of “have nothing in your house if you do not know it to be useful or believe it to be beautiful.” This past week I’ve begun the task of the ultimate life edit, going through each room, reevaluating each and every piece and asking myself what the purpose and current (not original) love is behind every single object I come across.  All of our moves have kept us pretty in check from accumulating too much, and my need for a clean home to combat my creative cluttered mind makes this job seem easy on the onset.

But it’s amazing how many things I’m finding as I take an honest look!  I’m experiencing that as I go through old saved items, certain objects are not the memories themselves –  and after a few good pictures are taken, or a good journal entry is written about them – I can promptly take it to be donated, given away or sold – and I am free.  This is no easy task, because I’m finding that there are more emotional ramifications to keeping things than practical ones.  (I found this article useful.)  I’ve also had to admit that I was experiencing unnecessary guilt from holding onto gifts that weren’t ever really “me” – but I felt trapped into never being able let go of them.  Finally by knowing that my loved ones never meant for me to feel overwhelmed or bogged down and realizing that it was a gesture they were giving – not a thing, and certainly not a feeling of guilt!  Let it go.  Say goodbye.  Make room.

To truly give yourself permission to liberate yourself from your stuff gives such wide open emotional space in your life.  Suddenly there is room for possibility.  And more room to play.  Inspiration abounds! Speaking of which, these scenes are really speaking to me – they were all found in stylist (and recent HGTV design star winner) Emily Henderson‘s portfolio.  Did you know she has a blog, too?  I really love the balance of nature and moments of gold in the places she created.  Hanging artwork outside? Of course you can!  (I adore seeing the folding SX-70 in the first shot above.)  So, tell me dear readers, we always talk about spring cleaning, but do you ever do a fall or autumn cleaning too?

Sufjan drops a new EP this week, so here’s a preview of the epic composer extraordinaire, courtesy of bandcamp. *update – I changed the preview song to one I can’t stay away from listening to and only describe as haunting – it’s even titled “Enchanting Ghost” how perfectly fitting! Lyrics after the jump. (Remember when he was going to make an album for each of the fifty states?) Don’t you love free music mondays?

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I love this little portrait display in the new issue of Lonny Mag.  The loose style pinned up without frames in an informal manner feels just right.  It feels like new crop of online magazines are hard to keep up with, but Lonny is starting to fill the sad hole that Domino gave me, if just a little bit.  (I think the only thing that will truly fill the hole is reading the back issues!) And now there will be another online decorating glossy on the block- Rue Magazine. I’m excited to see the first issue and see how it does! What do think? Will you be reading it?

Oooo, I cannot believe that three loves of mine have collided into an insanely cool contest, it gives me crazy butterflies just thinking about it.  The prize for first place (a girl can dream!) is a photo shoot with Todd Selby + a CB2 gift card + fuel to fire my endless love of decorating! Win. Win. Win! We really need your help in clicking that orangered vote button here so that we may catch up – we are a few days behind since I joined in a few days later than the rest, and we would love to make it to the next round in the contest. :) Thank you!

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The first time I went to Europe I was engaged to be married.  I was touring Italy, studying on an Art History trip and Venice was a stopping point along the way – a place to explore more museums and paintings and architecture.  Had I been prepared for the ache that would settle in my inner arena for being in the most romantic city in Europe (as I found myself without the man I loved) I might have planned for him to meet me there.  But something about the stillness of solitude before the great leap and the assurance that his unconditional love had really come into my life gave me a calm. That love was happening right then and there.  And that connection to him made everything I saw in those moments as romantic as if he had been there. The ache would have been the same. Venice gives you this longing.  It is a painter’s city.  An artist cannot help but love being in love here. From Piazza San Marco to the Rialto bridge, textures and light are all orchestrating a grand chiaroscuro that you only have to open your eyes to be a part of.  The shimmering canals and the sea fresh skies are the cymbal crashes in the song that you never want to stop listening to, but you leave knowing that you can only come back on one condition – that you come back with him next time.

Going to Venice without your fiance doesn’t break your wild romantic heart, it assures your strength in being there alone and surrounded by people other than him without being completely swallowed by the events to come and the city that is far more beautiful than you.

This trip being before the time digital cameras were introduced, photographs were counted very carefully as every frame needed to be taken with the greatest thought. Still, I wish I hadn’t been so frugal with my pictures because my memories have faded so much since then.  In this one, I remember clearly… I was thinking of him.