Ladyplace: Sprucing Up the Entryway

Anyone who follows me on Instagram has seen the updates happening in my home. I've gotten a lot done - the only big project left is painting the bedroom which I know will happen one random Saturday when I feel like it. As for the rest of the apartment, I'm in that stage of editing. Changing out things I thought would work, rearranging furniture and accents, seeing what works best where, completely eliminating plans I had to try something new, probably in favor of something easier.

This most notably happened in the entryway, which I thought I wanted to paint black and white striped.
Alas, I realized that was too lofty a task to take on, and I had the idea for a gallery wall in mind all along. I thought it would be too busy with stripes behind it.

Behold, the entryway when I first moved in...  not where the desk is, but that area in the back right of the photo. It was essentially a holding room for items I didn't know what to do with. I quickly sold the large Ikea mirror...

...and picked up a rug off Joss and Main and this little console table from Overstock. Note that's one of the two doors into my bedroom.

Rearranged it a bit to be more eye-catching when you walk in. Lovely, yes. Alas, nothing special.

So as you've seen with my living room gallery wall, I've amassed a sizable collection of black and white art, most of which is my own (so can we really call it art? sure we can). I still had a good selection that didn't make the cut for the living room display. Black and white photos from my travels, my European monument sketches, art I picked up in Paris, a New Orleans street sign, a page torn from a J.Crew catalogue... you know. High-end, museum quality stuff. So I opted to hang it all floor to ceiling in the entryway. Completely fill the space.

Not going to lie. I think it turned out awesome.

(Please excuse the crappy quality photos. This was shot in the middle of the day - that's how little natural light my entry gets.)

Either way, as you can see, my rug was NOT holding up for this high traffic area. Between all the snow, the thaw, the rain, dogs, my boots, etc., the light jute quickly stained and has been getting worse by the day.

Commence Sprucing Up Scene 2.

Enter my new polka dot rug from Lulu and Georgia!
(Technically called the Pinhole Rug on their site.)

IT'S SO FLUFFY!

I knew I needed a dark color to mask all the dirt settling in this area, and the polka dots are too fun. A perfect alternative to my original plan for stripes.

Now I just need a larger mirror. Still dreaming about this gilt guy.

Can't wait for John and Maura to step in and photograph this space properly.

But for now, Tucker approves. And that's saying something.

See how other bloggers, including Danielle, styled their Lulu & Georgia goodies on the L&G blog!

And... you can do some sprucing of your own with Lulu and Georgia! Just use the discount code NEWYEARSPRUCEUP20 to get 20% off your purchase now thru Sunday, February 2nd! Yay! Free honey for everybody!

California Dreaming on Such a Winter's Day

What a lovely unexpected surprise! A week or so ago Danielle and I received an email for a quick job opportunity in the Bay area. California break in January? Sign us up! We'll be recording a series of videos today and tomorrow where we'll be competing not as "experts" but in an area where neither of us have any skill at all. It's not at all Everygirl-related, but should be a fun(ny) time nonetheless. And this all happened to fall on the same week my boyfriend was already heading to SF, so I both tagged on a few extra days for vaca and we'll be here until Sunday. It's 16 degrees in Chicago today. 74 in Santa Cruz. Dinner with some SF-based friends Friday night. What a glooorious break.

Any restaurant recommendations for Santa Cruz or brunch/lunch recos for San Fran? All help is appreciated!

10% Sale on Joss and Main Today!

I may or may not have acquired a few new pieces.

I picked up the gold lamps in the Bright Ideas lamp sale and the leopard print Martha Stewart rug in the Safavieh rug sale! Tacky or fabulous? I'm gonna go with the latter. Adding a bit of ladyglam to my lady apartment. Not really sure where the lamps will go (you get two lamps for $162 by the way). Probably the entryway and/or the bar and/or my desk. We'll see. They really work anywhere in my place. As for the rug, I recently got a tiny 2x3 area rug for my dressing room/hallway, but it got dirty in approximately 10 minutes. White just isn't practical with dogs. I desperately need to switch it out with something that will better hide paw prints. Animal print should do the trick. This is also the perfect size. My current white and black area rug is 2x3 and it's just too small for the hallway; this new one is 2'6" by 4–perfect!

Not a Joss and Main member? Sign up! Use code SORRY10 at check-out for the discount! There are a ton of great sales going on right now.

In other news, remember several weeks ago I pinky promised I'd be posting more? And then completely dropped the ball? Yeah. A few of you called me out on it. Rightly so. I don't know why... whether it's the cold, the holidays, the workload, the wanting to relax in the evenings with my friends, family, puppies, the wanting to do nothing at all, the lack of inspiration, the fact that I post apartment updates on Instagram, the cyber bullies lurking in the shadows, or - spoiler alert - all of it, I've just not felt the desire to blog much over the past couple of months. The real reason I started the blog in the first place was to find inspiration for my dream job. "Live creating myself." Write about all the things I loved in hope that what I should do with my life would reveal itself. And it has with The Everygirl! Sure it might not pay great and the hours aren't ideal, but it's truly my dream job and I feel so lucky it's what I get to wake up and do every morning. And there are so many ways I want to improve it and grow it. It's where I'd rather put my energy. And when my energy isn't going into my work, it's going into my family and friends.

So what does that mean for LCY? Has it served its purpose? Is it time to close up shop here? I don't know. I absolutely still enjoy documenting my decorating trials. And I like sharing news updates and exciting things going on in my life and the lives of those around me (when they allow me to share it). And I love love love hearing from readers; whether you write asking for advice or giving input about my place. How can you walk away from something that still brings you joy? You shouldn't.

So for now I guess we'll keep on like this. I do apologize that I'm not as reliable as I once was. But I appreciate those of you who have stuck it out!

Until next time... : )