Post of the week: DIY edition

The Cullen family completely transformed their dining room and it looks UH-mazing. They give a step by step guide on how you can do the same.
Go check it out HERE!

Sunday Sampler ~ Valentine edition

The talented Jessica Jones at How About Orange has posted some fabulous last minute Valentine ideas.

Tina at Mommy's Kitchen has shared some easy and scrumptious Valentine recipes to share with your loved ones to celebrate this Holiday of Love.

Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely had her baby boy this week!! Be sure to go over and welcome August into the world!

Melanie Nayer is a member of the crew over at Gadling.com and she has posted the Top 5 Hotels to visit for Valentine's Day. The El Dorado Resorts made the list and as most of you know I've proclaimed them as the most romantic resorts on the planet.


This week I invested into a bed that caught my eye a few weeks ago on Reichel's genius blog: http://www.copycatchic.com We are LOVING how it transformed our bedroom so THANK YOU Reichel for sharing your find.
Reichel finds amazing deals on stylish home items and shares them to the world. Go check it out!

Hope you are all enjoying your Valentine weekend!

Sunday Sampler

For those who are ready to put their party pants on, be sure and go check out Journeyetc.com's top 10 of the Best Party Hotels.

~~~~

My friend Debbie from Delicious Baby has created the ultimate travel app! It will help guide you on your next trip to make sure you hit the places that you don't wont to forget about. Click HERE to read more about it and to try out the free trial.

~~~~

It is the Christmas choir performance at my church. I am in the 1st grade and quite nervous. My tall, blonde friend Christie was the next step down and right in front of me. The music plays and before I know it, the performance is over. The first thing my grandmother said afterwards was "Why on Earth would they put that tall girl in front of you?! We couldn't even see you!" So every year after that she would ask the choir director to make sure we were all assigned spots according to our height. Christie made the top row after that year. LOL She is now happily married and just blogged about her recent Alaska cruise vacation on the Rhapsody of the Seas. Click HERE to read about it and to check out her fabulous photography skills!

~~~~

We all know that Hawaii can be pricey on their food. For instance, they don't even have a 99 cent menu at McDonalds! LOL Sheila from GoVisitHawaii.com has put together a brilliant list of affordable places to have breakfast in Hawaii.

~~~~

This week's before and after favorites go to Casa Cullen's dresser do-over:
Before
After


and Centsational Girl's dresser do-over:

Before
After
~~~~

Last but definitely not least, don't forget to get your weekly dose of the most recent and juicy celebrity gossip from Hot Pant's Talk of Tinseltown.


Have the most fabulous week ever my loves,

Sunday Sampler

Love THIS post that Nomadic Matt wrote about the most amazing festivals from all over the world. Have you been to any of the ones he mentions yet?? I know a few of them have been added to my 'bucket list.'

~~~~

Jasmine Star is a photog whose blog I've been following for quite some time now. She is funny and incredibly talented. When I saw that they had her featured on Style Me Pretty's blog this week I was so excited and as always, her photos were a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Check it out HERE.

~~~~

Casa Cullen did a lovely post on her Top 10 Design and Accent books. There are some on there that I must add to my collection.

~~~~

Check out THIS stunning before and after of an antique settee chair.

~~~~

One day when I have my own house my garden will be very chill and will look something like THIS.

~~~~

How to strip furniture.

~~~~

Beautiful hotel in Barcelona with fine attention to detail: http://bellevivir.blogspot.com/2010/07/mandarin-oriental-barcelona.html

~~~~

And that's my Sunday Sampler of favorite posts from the last week. And because every post is better with a picture or two, I leave you with some shots of my stud muffin Hudson from this weekend:






Much luv!

Sunday Sampler

Camille's husband, Trey, came up with a clever way to turn your patio tabletop into a chalkboard. LOVE this idear. Yes, I'm a Texan so I have every right to say idear. ;-) Go check our her cute momoblog blog! http://www.camilledawn.com

~~~~

My office chair at work, well... it has seen better days and I have been contemplating on if I should give her (yes, she's a her) a little makeover or not. Well, after this week I have definitely been inspired to do so just as they showcased HERE on Design Sponge.

~~~~

Yanet from 3 Sun Kissed Boys has transformed their storage shed in to the utmost über cool 'Mancave.' Be sure and check it all out HERE.

~~~~

The CheapChica's Guide to Style showed us how incredibly BEAUTIFUL a white dress can be paired with a skinny red belt as shown HERE by the Ms Jessica Alba.

~~~~

We are loving the new twist to our Chocolate-covered banana pops thanks to the recipe from Mommy's Kitchen. Thanks Tina!

~~~~

As most of you know I specialize in Destination Weddings so I also follow some wedding blogs such as Style Me Pretty. Some of my faves from the past week: THIS Haiti engagement photo shoot and I ADORE the idea from THIS wedding to have the string of pictures going over the tables. Simply yet so clever.

~~~~

Amanda is putting us all to shame by constantly showing us how much more organized she is than us but she may be on to something HERE. ;-)

~~~~

To get your week's worth of celebrity gossip, go check our Handbags & Handguns post HERE.

~~~~

Gina from Dreamland is doing a series of inspiration quotes and it makes me love following her blog that much more. Click HERE to be inspired.

~~~~

Have a shindig coming up? Ruffledblog.com has free downloadable bounting letters that are sure to enhance any party.

~~~~

The Dominican Republic is a new favorite destination of mine and I am eager to share with you all the fun details I was able to learn from the trip so stay tuned for that!


Much love,

What is your style?

Each hotel often has their own style of decor that is used throughout the property. French country or contemporary for example. For me personally I often lean more towards the traditional/ glamorous style over the modern. Click HERE to take a quick quiz from well-known decorator Ethan Allen to see what your style is.

Oh, Betsey Johnson how I love thou...

My set of 'American Tourister' luggage has gone through a lot in the years we have been together. She's been good to me, most of the time at least. Ever since her handle broke it's like I simply can't trust her anymore. So, it is time. Time to go on to bigger and better luggage.

This one by Betsey Johnson is calling out to me. *DROOL*

While I'm at it, I would also LOVE to have Betsey Johnson's fantabulous pink house. ***Double DROOL***

Think the boys would be up for it??? :P

Home office

Ever since I was a wee little girl I've dreamt of having my own home library one day. Never once did I fantasize about my wedding or meeting prince charming... it was always the home library wish. I envisioned it to have high ceilings with my desk backed up to tall windows that had long lacy curtains. The book cases would be so high that you would need one of those library ladders...
well, this year I figured 'ah, what the hell... I'll try to make my own home library now with what I've got. Why wait, right?

After I leave my work office I often work from home in the evenings. The room I called my office was also being used as a second living room. It had the TV in it that we watched all of our movies on and the boys had some toys 'n things in the room as well. All of this in a small 11' x 11' room with 8 foot high ceilings. As you can probably imagine it wasn't the best place for me to get my work done in.

Once I had a vivid idea in my mind I talked with the hubbie and he liked the concept. It was a PLAN. I was going to transform the small, cramped-up living area into my home library/office where I could clear my mind and focus on whatever it is that I needed to focus on (travel planning, photography, scrapbooking, etc). The boys needed an area in the room as well where they could do homework and arts 'n crafts. I immediately got to work making my plan with the small budget that I had.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied on how it is turning out. Here is a peak of what it looks like so far...


Before Pictures: (sorry so close-up, all I had was a 50 mm lens on my camera at the time)








Beautiful desk area right?!










Now:

Busy Saturday!

Today was a productive day in the Rominger household. First, I was able to sleep in a little with my new comforter from IKEA. It is so soft and I needed to catch up on some Zzz's, how could I possibly not?!


I know what you may be thinking... "White? Really? With a house full of boys and a dog?!"
Yes, I got white. I like white. And besides, it's a good excuse to have the no-one-is-allowed-to-play-on-Mom's-bed rule. ;)

It was nice outside today so the boys and I enjoyed most of our morning in the backyard.

The remainder of the day I mostly worked on my home office project. Yup, that's right. I'm transforming my pathetic "office" into a beautiful room where I can feel relaxed and focus on my work. I'm really excited how it's coming along. Before and After pictures coming soon!

After returning from taking some more trash bags of clothes and shoes to the Goodwill drop-off, I found this on the living room floor:



As soon as we ate dinner, my dad and I headed out with the boys to the local Carnival. It was cold but a ton of fun!





The only thing Hudson wanted to do was go on the little Truck train ride. Of course, we had to bribe Mr. Cool-Dylan to go on it with him.







Dylan REALLY wanted to play the game where you have to throw the ball into the fish bowls to win a fish.



He shoots...



He scores!

He named him Sheldon.

Sproost!

There is an interesting quiz over at Sproost that calculates what kind of personal style you have. Click here to try it!

My results came out to be a mix of 3 specific styles:
47% Classic
26% Wine Country Style
27% French Eclectic

Eye Candy overload!

Yesterday I found an Amazon.com package on the couch awaiting for me when I got home from work. Excitement overtook me for I knew it was my Domino book! I haven't been able to put it down. LOVING it. :)

Quiz time! What is your Ikea style?

Country Classic

I know what you are thinking... 2 quizzes in one day! Yes, I'm sorry I just can't help myself. No more for today I promise!

Click HERE to see what your IKEA style is. Don't forget to share your results!


*Terrah*