My Chic Life

Rub a Dub Dub

My older sister Christina (shout out!) is a whiz at all things scrapbook related. She can create scalloped edges with the best of them! She can also produce a beautiful Rub-On design without ever once getting mad and throwing the design and the scraper tool thing against the wall while complaining about the newly formed callouses on her hands (unlike her younger, more beautiful sister, me). BUT for something as adorable as these designs, I might just suck it up, slather on the elbow grease and make it happen!

Hambly Studios has a beautiful collection of silk screen, greeting cards, stickers and my favorite, rub-ons in every category under the sun, kept fresh and unique by (equally cool sisters) Amy and Allison! Check out their adorable website for ways to use these (like on votives or glassware) or steal my idea and do an entire series of cocktail plates using their mustache line! Oh, you’re such a gentlemen!

Snow Bunny

Plans of moving to my new apartment got scratched when the snow report described the powdery 18 inches Mount Baldy received on Friday and the 12 more it would cheerfully collect overnight. 30 inches of fresh snow just minutes out of LA! It sounded too fantastic to be true and way too awesome to miss.

With half-day prices as low as $44 we skied our little bunny hearts out from and still had enough bucks to hit up the Yacht Club for some Hefewiesen and a basket of freshly battered onion rings. I hope my landlord will put a hold on my new place ‘til April. With snow so good, I may want to be a commuter this ski season.

Would you rather… always have something stuck in between your two front teeth or always have a rock in your shoe??

Yummy Waffles

Today is National Pancake Day, and in celebration I’d like to give some love to my favorite meal, breakfast! Sadly, being a busy 9-5er usually means a Balance Bar or starvation until noon, and frankly, I’m sick of it! I want to wake up to a fresh Belgian waffle every once in a while (preferably with fresh fruit and ice cream like the one pictured here) — is that too much to ask? A fresh-cracked egg, veggie omelet, grandmas biscuits and gravy… euphoria!

Sadly, until I get my personal chef, or I convince my boyfriend to wake up before me, I guess I’m stuck dreaming. So help me find something to dream about…what’s your favorite way to eat breakfast? I want to indulge vicariously…

Melanie Renee

You’ve gotta love that it’s the middle of February and it’s a perfect 75 degrees and gloriously sunny in LA. It really makes me want to run home and put on a sundress, a Melanie Renee sundress, specifically. They’re vintage inspired and have a one-of-a kind feel, Melanie Renee’s designs are like a breath of fresh air on a warm smoggy day.

Check out www.melaniereneedesign.com to put together the perfect outfit for a breezy February afternoon … unless you’re a Chic Reader in Fargo, where its 9 degrees but feels like 1! You should still get the dress, just order a parka to go with it!

Sweet Birdie

Um, how adorable are these cookies?? Eleni’s Bakery in New York makes the most precious collection of cookies in everything from butterflies, to vegetables, to a bust of Obama for any of you who are still high from inauguration day. I’ll be honest, I haven’t actually TRIED these cookies… but they’re so flippin’ cute I’m not sure that I care WHAT they taste like! Please, someone order these and send me one (I’d prefer the oriel) and in the meantime, based solely on aesthetics we’re going to recommend them to all!

Dezign With a Z

After obsessively shopping for mirrors, frames, and art to cover the walls in my new place, I discovered the best thing since Tivo!! Wall decals! They are the perfect combo of sleek and unique while remaining inexpensive enough for all of us commitment-phobes. Investing in art can be scary! Who knows if you’d be into black and white watercolors of the Eiffel Tower in 5 years?

As if their selection of pre-made, ready to order decals wasn’t enough, you can create your own CUSTOM decal by sending them a favorite photo. Just send a jpeg of that adorable picture of Mittens you have on your fridge to Custom@DezignWithaZ.com and in about a week, it will have a new place of honor, on your dining room wall. Eat your heart out Ikea!

Would you rather… Do a job interview severely DRUNK or severely HUNGOVER???

Polite In Public

I love a good photo booth. I cheered when some photo booth companies started printing out 2 strips of photos so the host could keep one and the guest could keep the other. I celebrated the custom borders with room for a company logo or personal message. I even gave a standing ovation when they began including a CD with digital prints for the host.

But now, Polite in Public booths have taken this merrymaking must-have one step further by providing their clients custom backgrounds! They’re travel-ready, can fly anywhere you need them, AND they even bring props. Encore! Encore!

Sloan Showalter

As event planners we’ve seen just about everything by way of party favors, entertainment, or branding for an event. Never though, have we seen such a clever and beautiful way to do all three! Sloan Showalter creates one of kind portraits for event guests using Sumi ink and Asian brushes on large format paper.  Extra cool, is that she paints using her non-dominant hand which gives her artwork its whimsical style…think, the nicest most high-end sketch artist you’ve ever seen! We’re dying to book her for one of our events, as we’re positive clients would freak out and carry us around the ballroom on their shoulders for bringing them such a fantastic concept!