Ugly Holiday Sweater Party

via Instagram

SO I know the holidays are past us now (even though I still have a pile of holiday decorations waiting to go into storage) so clearly I am a little behind! But I wanted to post about a holiday party we threw this year - it was super festive!
Apparently this idea of "Ugly Holiday Sweater Party" is a phenomenon that unbeknownst to me sweeps the holiday season. I am not sure how I got this far in life never hearing of this...but alas I am now in the know!
Also I didn't realize how hard it was to find a really ugly holiday sweater these days! I know I have had them in my day, gifts given to me through the years that a forced smile and thank you must be expressed to the generous giver of that holiday adorned sweater. Too bad I didn't hold on to them - what I would have given for that holiday cat sweatshirt I had when I was 15 =/
So the search for the perfect holiday sweater was daunting, I scoured thrift stores, department stores and discount chains like Target and Khols but I found the best place was a thrift store and I hit the jackpot at our local Salvation Army. There were so many good choices but I ended on this bad boy! I paired it with a festive top I found at old navy and some bright red tights! Oh and of course some reindeer ears.

We held a contest at the party for the ugliest sweater and I  have to say - there were a lot of ugly sweaters there, def. some great finds. But ultimately the winner was my brother -and he made his own holiday sweater. A trip to Michael's a little bit of crafting and this is what he came up with! (Yay! we are a DIY family)

We set up a photo booth in the bedroom, I put wrapping paper on the wall as a backdrop and guests had fun posing in their ugly sweaters. We had one Halloween sweater at the party as I did not discriminate on what holiday the sweater could be for, and of course my favorite sweater of the night you can see here with the white holiday cats - loved it!)

Some of our guests got a little carried away with the photo's and they hijacked the cat's scratching post. Jules was hiding safely in the closet during the commotion but I don't think he was too pleased about this.

A trip to Home Depot for some last minute decorations for the party ended with this coming home and landing in my tub! Guests got a pleasant surprise when they visited the bathroom (not only did he light up but his head moved!). Sadly he was returned to Home Depot the following day as I certainly have no place to be storing that beast all year long.

Photo via thezartorialist.com

I did a little DIY decorating as I came across this "Steal this idea" post on Brooklyn Limestone a few days before the party and so I did! I cut out letters from red construction paper and strung it up! It was rather time consuming so I only got one string across the room but I put some up along the wall.

Please ignore the gaping hole in the ceiling where a light fixture should be - and stay tuned for a future post regarding my never ending search for lighting!

We also played some party games at the party one being White Elephant Gift exchange. And this was super fun! All the guests were asked to bring a wrapped gift ($5-10) and we picked names out of a hat and each person choose a gift, opened it and then the next person could either pick a new gift or steal a previous gift that was opened. Surprisingly the most coveted gift of the night was a vintage 1982 issue of Penthouse (someone stole it out of their parent's collection) and yes these were late 20s to 30 somethings at this party. Other fun gifts were an old boom box (with a tape deck!) we aren't sure if it actually worked and I think it was picked up from the trash on the way to the party - but it offered a good laugh when it was opened. I walked away with a bottle of wine so I felt like a winner! We then played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity which is an awesome "adult" party game, it's a saucier version of Apples to Apples. All in all it was a fun night filled with holiday cheer!

OK well time to take the holiday decorations down to storage, until next year!

30 Day Challenge - Go!

Happy 2013!!! I know it has been a while since my last post and I have along list of prepared excuses that I keep repeating to myself to find some kind of justification,but that fact of the matter is... there is no good excuse.  Sure I can say the holidays got a little crazy, work started to pick up, I took on a part time job, I discovered Dexter (and there are 8 seasons!). And yes these are all valid excuses but really it makes me realize that this blog is yet another unfinished outlet of my life.

All too often I find myself full of wonderful ideas that I put in motion, like the stamping starter kit I bought at Michael's that got one use and went back into the half organized closet - that never got completed.The jewelry tree I am making for my friend that is painted and has a base but has been sitting sadly unconnected on my entry way table (next to a pile of unopened mail) for months now. The 2nd Hunger Games book that I bought immediately after finishing the first one and sits on the shelf never cracked open. And this list can go on and on. I am not sure what is it that stops me from finishing the great feats I set in motion - apprehension? boredom? fear? laziness? life? But there is one area in my life that my follow-through has proved successful and it dawned on me - perhaps I need to pull from whatever it is that drives me in that area into other areas of my life.

So what is it that I have so dutifully followed through with and without fail never falter at - yoga! Yes I am yoga addict - perhaps it is the addiction that drives me but I keep a steady 5-6 day a week yoga practice and I am very diligent (obsessed?). I plan my work meetings around yoga, I plan my social activities around yoga. Pretty much everything else runs secondary to me being able to make it to that daily hot yoga class. So yes my friends think I am a little crazy but this is one area of my life I have managed to keep up with and can't live without. And in fact before I discovered yoga this was a similar case with going to the gym - I always held a pretty steady and stringent workout routine. I always needed this constant in my life and made every effort to keep it going. SO I have started to ask myself why and how I can apply this to other areas of my life.

At the beginning of last year my yoga studio proposed a 30 day challenge. 30 days. 30 yoga class. At this time I was averaging 3-4 classes a week (which was decent) however the switch up to 7 days was scary but I took the challenge! I was even more stringent on making classes than I was before and I was careful to not overdo it in class and I paced myself, looking for that balance that would enable me to complete the challenge. And I did it! One class a day for 30 days! I realized that I could wake up early on a Sunday! (granted Sunday remains my one day off now) but the challenge helped me to see that it was possible. And following the challenge my practice was seemlessly upped to 5-6 days a week which I have held strong (give or take a vacation here and there) now a year later. And I completed the mid year challenge without a problem and I started doubling up on classes like it was no sweat (ha!).

So taking those 30 days and making going to a yoga class a daily priority conditioned me to continue it after the challenge. The premise behind the challenge is that they say it takes 21 days to form a habit (and well 30 was just a more even number!) so if you do something for 30 days you are essentially creating a habit. You condition your body and your mind and you just do it. SOOOO of course my yoga studio is doing this challenge again and it starts today - of course I am doing it again (I have a reputation to uphold) but I am thinking of adding my own challenge in regarding my blog.

30 days, 30 blog posts!! I realize this is rather ambitious and running it simultaneously with the yoga challenge is probably a bit much - but I figured to just go for it! I want to take this blog to the next level and without posting that is never going to happen. So I figure for 30 days I am going to make this a priority. Now you may see some shorter posts, I may stray from my DIY, design mode to maybe recipies? travel? who knows!  I am going to try to mix things up and see what works and what doesn't. I can certianly use some help! So let me know what you would like to see on here and if anyone has a design dilemma - please email me! You can email me at kimberlyvenzke@gmail.com

So what can you commit to for 30 days? These challenges work better with support! =) Ok here I go ... look for another post tomorrow and time to finish up some work so I can make my yoga class...ha!

Bringing a little Ombre into my life

OK so you may or may not have heard of the Ombre trend that is sweeping the fashion and design world. Basically the word Ombre means - having colors or tones that shade into each other. You have seen this effect in hair and it can go from using natural hair colors like blond to brunette or getting crazy and adding color like red or blue to your locks. For those of you that are fans of the show The Voice (me! me!) you may have noticed Christina Aguilara with some color at the end of her locks in recent episodes.

Photo Source

But this isn't a blog about hair or fashion now is it?! So why am I talking about this? Well - this can be translated into furniture - of course!! Check out these awesome inspiration photos of make-overs using the Ombre look. What a cool idea to paint your exposed radiator in shades of your favorite colors!

via OppsRedone

via Natty by Design

via Frou Frougal

via Cool Cribs

OK so I have had this unpainted dresser for many years I snagged it at The Christmas Tree Shop (an awesome store if you are lucky to have one near by you should check it out). I have taken it to many apartments and moved it around a thousand and fifty times. Here is a rather bad picture of one spot I had it in at one time.

Recently it has resided inside my closet for storage and has been hidden away for the most part. It has remained unpainted as I could never decide what color to paint it! THEN the painting bug hit me and I scored a can of this beauifulness ....

Benjamin Moore - Gypsy Rose

AND well you can just imagine what happened next....

I loved the pink so much I used it as the base of the main dresser and then I did a little mixology for the drawers. I didn't have to prime this piece because it was in a natural wood state. But if you wanted to paint over a finished piece you would need to prime it first. I sanded this one a little bit by hand before I painted it to help the paint stick. But again if you are using a piece that has a finish on it I would recommend more sanding. I used some paint samples of very light pinks that I had on hand, I had purchased when trying to decide my wall color. You can buy these paint samples wherever they sell paint and they are usually about $3 each. I used those and a little white acrylic craft paint for mixing with the new pink paint. I kept the colors I created in small containers with enough paint to do several coats on each drawer. SO I had the darkest and the lightest colors right off the bat - the ones in the middle did get a little tricky. At one point I wondered how I could possible have another shade but some adding of white and pink here and there just seemed to make it happen! Here is the final look - what do you think?

My sidekick Jules left me on my own to paint this one but he was there to check things out in the end.

SO this is not the final resting place for this beauty in my room but simply staged here for your viewing pleasure. You will have to stay tuned for a future post to see what I have in store for this bad boy! I am going to leave you with a before and after side shot and maybe this can inspire you to look around your home and see where you can bring a little Ombre into your life!