Long Beach Antique Market.

On Sunday morning a few friends and I braved the cold temps and wind to explore the Long Beach Antique Market! And by cold, I mean 50's - which is practically freezing by Southern California standards! The rain and cold kept a lot of vendors away, but it was still a great turn out!

There was definitely an eclectic blend of merchandise...see for yourself!

There were crates.

Vintage scales like this one that my friend Jill snapped up for $16! She passed on the sleeping doll.

Mannequins arms, anyone??

If arms aren't really your style, how about heads?

There were faux tree stumps, too! These had some sort of plywood top...but they looked good!

This ornate mirror was beautiful!!

More vintage crates.

 

This barn door was only $1000 and they deliver :-)

One booth was full of cute vintage fans.

And there was a unusually high amount of taxidermy related items.

I don't think a can spray paint would work on this guy, so I went home without him :-(

Overall, it was a super fun morning and for my first visit - I was not disappointed! I definitely plan on going back! Oh and admission is only $5 and it's every 3rd Sunday of the month - rain or shine! So if you're in the area, you should check it out!

Jill's cl-office.

Yesterday, my dear friend Jill (in real life, not just blog land!) and her amazing office, which was really a closet, was featured over at I Heart Organizing! 

Yay, Jill!

She turned what was once a dark, cramped, lackluster closet...

...into a bright incredibly organized workspace perfect for her business which specializes in creating at-home activity kits for young learners!

 Jill is one of the most organized people I know and one look at her home can easily tell you that! You can read the full feature here.

Congrats, Jill! Now to celebrate, let's go to Ikea. And the Container Store. And Hobby Lobby.

The Greystone.

Saturday afternoon I spent the day celebrating my friend Jenny's birthday pretending to be a real housewife of Beverly Hills. We lunched at Villa Blanca, grabbed dessert at Crumbs Bake Shop and then drove over to the Greystone Mansion.

Picture from 1928.

Prior to Saturday, I had never even heard of the Greystone Mansion. Wikipedia describes it as a Tudor-style 46,000 square foot home with 55 rooms sitting on 16 acres of land. And no, that's not a typo, it's actually 46,000 SQUARE FEET!! Holy moly, it's huge! I could fit my place in there 108 times over. Crazy!

Once we meandered our way from the parking lot, through stone walkways, and lots of steps (my Fitbit counted 12 flights total) we found our way to the main house! It's just beautiful and has such amazing architectural details!

I'd take this view in a heartbeat!

The former pool and it's wonderfully arched pavilion...

Here's what it looked like back in the day...

A beautiful fountain...

 via CocoCozy.

And gorgeous staircases...

via CocoCozy.

This estate has been used in a ton of movies (like Witches of Eastwick and The Holiday!) and has a fascinating story behind it, too! The mansion belonged to oil tycoon Edward Doheny and was gifted to his son, Edward "Ned" Doheny, Jr., and his family in 1928. But after living there for only four months, Ned was murdered by his secretary, Hugh Plunkett. The story goes that Plunkett was angry over not receiving a raise and suffered a "nervous disorder" (not a good combination!) Either way he killed his boss and then himself! Kind of creepy, but fascinating!

Anyhow, I had a wonderful day exploring a part of Southern California that's just 30 minutes away! I should really do that more often!

A suite revival.

I have the most amazing best friend in the whole world! Linda's hilarious, smart, beautiful and so much fun to be around. But nobody's perfect, right? There has to be something wrong with her. Now I hate to be the one to point this out, but she does have a flaw.

She's not much of a decorator. So she was thrilled when I mentioned how badly I wanted to re-decorate her master bedroom and give her a brand new space! And I was thrilled when she and her husband gave me complete freedom with the design! I believe his exact words were "I don't care what you do." It was music to my ears!

So here's the first area I tackled - it's an adorable little nook where they had a simple little IKEA dresser and a full length mirror. Functional but not much of conversation starter.

So anyhow, going into the project I was inspired by this little green number - I loved the shape and lines of the dresser but was leaning toward more of a lime color (which would go well with their current and remaining brown bedding.) But then something happened - we stopped at a Kirkland's Home Store and saw this gorgeous piece in a muted turquoise shade. We both loved everything about it and knew immediately that this was the look to go for! Gorgeous, right? However, the $269 price tag was most definitely not what we were going for! Luckily, I found an diamond in the rough on Craigslist a few weeks back for a mere $20 bucks! I don't have a really good before pic so these two will have to do. We had already taken out all the drawers and it was on it's back so we could paint it. Here's the top and you can see the drawers here, too. It didn't come with any hardware but that was an easy fix! And besides the finished product, the price tag on this bad boy was the best thing about it!!

Are you ready for the after? I'll warn you - it's taken several people's breath away. Including mine!I had high hopes for this dresser but truth be told, it has exceeded all expectations! And it was only $20...take that Kirkland's.

** Update - some additional pictures**

These lamps were also part of that day's makeover! They were marked $8 each at Goodwill and when I went to pay for them they were half price!! I love when that happens!

Both lamps got new lampshades from Lowe's that helped tie everything together!

And here's the other one sitting on her new goodwill nightstand painted in the same turquoise shade.

I know the picture quality isn't the best but I've been meaning to add to this post for awhile now! I can finally check that off my list :-)

Owls are adorable.

After the wreath, my craft spree continued for Linda's baby shower which was a few weeks ago! It was a wonderful sunny afternoon perfect for an outdoor "Owl" themed shower! I scoured the internet for ideas and eventually found a few cute things that I could easily recreate - the owl fan and skewers added a wonderful touch (if I do say so myself!) I absolutely loved everything about the shower and was honored to be able to celebrate baby boy Isai! Here are a few of my favorite pics... By the way, Linda's amazing and talented sister-in-law made the owl cupcakes! It was actually a really simple theme to carry out - mason jars, flowers and greenery from my yard, and a few owl accessories and we were good to go!