Clearly I’m not afraid of multicolored stripes – or color in general, I suppose. But I’m especially loving the gorgeous layering of colors in these pretty spring finds. And for the record, I picked up that little striped Old Navy dress for $12 this week. A total score!

from top: j.crew top // old navy dress // splendid henley // stylemint tee // asos blue & red dress // asos multicolor dress

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I can’t believe it’s almost the end of February – but do you know what that means? It’s time for the Academy Awards! And even better – it’s time for my Academy Awards PARTY!

All the details on the great event here:

Remember – regrets only to oscars@rachelshingleton.com please!

Now, because it is a Pencil Shavings Studio party, and we do love us some color, this party is all about glitter, sequins, and a rainbow of hues.  Here’s some of my inspiration for the party!

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About a week before we went to DisneyWorld, we were having dinner at my parents’ house. “Mom, where’s that old photo album full of the photos from our trip when I was a kid?”  She told me to go digging in one of the closets, and sure enough, there was the fantastic treasure trove of old photos. We have not stopped cracking up. I think this was roughly 1986 or 1987, putting me at a year or two older than Jude.  It really blows me away how much Jude resembles me when I was little.

Allow me to present a rough comparison of our trips. I give you “Disney World: 1986 vs 2012″.

For the record, please note that for my traveling ensemble, I was carrying a single red rose, a My Little Pony, and was wearing that awesome pink polka dot frock. Dramatic much?  We also howled with laughter at my fantastic pose in the photo below left. I think I counted no less than 3 separate Mickey Mouse sweatshirts that make an appearance in these photos. So of course on our first day when we arrived with Jude, it was 40 degrees. For the high. And I had packed only warm weather clothes. So it was off to the nearest sweatshirt emporium where both Jude & I acquired the least-heinous Disney sweatshirts I could find.

I really love that photo album that I got from Mom. The photos of us 3 together – me, Mom, and Dad – are utterly priceless. I see a happy little girl with crazy 80s outfits having the time of her life with her folks. And someday I know Jude will see the same thing when he looks at our photos.

Except without the puff paint and tiedye. And the mullet.

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Can we all agree that Disney World really is the happiest place on earth? I’m pretty sure it is. Well, that and Paris.

Jude was the perfect age for this. It was a pretty taxing routine, and we blew on through naptime, but I was willing to be flexible as long as we were till having fun and not throwing tantrums. We spent four days total exploring the various theme parks. On Valentine’s Day (Tuesday), Simon ducked out of his conference and came to join us at the Magic Kingdom, and I’ve gotta say, it really was a magical day. I felt so glad to be with  my wonderful little family. We rode rides, we ate junk food, and we laughed until we couldn’t laugh anymore. Perfection.

For the record? My kid is a total daredevil. He is fearless. I think that’s one of my favorite things about Jude. He’s joyful, fearless, and it brings me ridiculous amounts of joy to show him things.

We rode Peter Pan over and over again, and I drug him onto It’s a Small World (my favorite!) twice.

But right up there with Peter Pan was anything having to do with rockets or Buzz Lightyear.  And when he finally got to meet Buzz Lightyear in person? I thought the kid was going to explode with excitement.

A big thank you to my sweet husband for taking us along on his conference. We really did have an amazing time.

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After a high-blood-pressure-inducing traveling experience (we nearly missed our flight – we got on the plane only by the grace of God in the form of a mechanical error!), we are home safe & sound from DisneyWorld. And it was quite the adventure, to be sure.  I won’t say that I’m missing the crowds and craziness, but it really truly was a magical time and we made a lot of memories. Simon was able to join us for the last day; he was attending a real estate conference for the majority of our time there, so mostly it was just me and Jude on our own.

More on our trip this weekend when i’ve had time to resurface!

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No big blog post for today or possibly a few days due to my personal issues with paying $9.95 a day for Internet access. Boooo.

But! We are having a marvelous time exploring Disney World while Simon attends his conference. Yesterday was the Magic Kingdom; today will be Epcot. And can you believe we are here on the coldest weekend in ages here? Of course we are. So since I packed our warm weather gear (I swear the forecast said 75 degrees), we made haste to the enormous Disney store on Main Street and promptly purchased the least obnoxious sweatshirts I could find. And, of course, the least obnoxious ones are always the most expensive. Sigh.

Have a great week!

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Lest you think from my title above that we were hazing all the new BNO attendees, our third Bloggers’ Night Out was held at the fabulously fantastic Makeup Bar. Let me tell you, those girls know how to throw a party. Not only were they offering the aforementioned waxing, but there was all kinds of amazing food, and free makeovers!

In honor of our exciting night, I printed up envelopes for everyone to put their newly-acquired business cards in. And I also stuffed all the cards with invitations to my Oscar party.

I curled my hair up a la Whoorl and put on my best mix-and-match patterns.

I’m gonna admit, I was a leeeetle bit nervous about pairing up so many crazy patterns. But then I thought, what the heck. Life’s too short to not have any fun with my clothes. Plus I’m pretty obsessed with that skirt that just came from Asos yesterday. What I wore: Asos skirt // J.Crew outlet top (similar) // Marc Jacobs scarf (similar) // Stella & Dot necklaces.

 

Yours truly getting a smoky eye last night by the super-sweet, knowledgeable staff at the Makeup Bar.

Let me just say how thrilled to pieces I was when I walked through the door and saw a fantastically enormous group of women having a smashing good time. Our already-awesome group has grown exponentially, and it was exciting to see so many new faces.  Admittedly, despite the full-on-socializing mode hangover I’ve been feeling from Alt, it’s still hard to enter a room full of unknown faces. I heard from a few first-timers that it was a little bit intimidating to walk in and not really know that many people. Hopefully we can help circumvent that the next time around by implementing a few little improvements.

Susan also told me that she and Danielle tossed around the idea of doing roundtables to facilitate discussions on blogging from some of the, erm, blogging veterans. We I cracked up in the car on the way home that maybe we could call it the Teepee Summit? Or the Bison Summit? Or the Bison Powwow? Um, no.

Interested in checking out any of OKC’s finest bloggers? I’m biased, bien sur, but here’s the list I’ve got:

I know I’m forgetting several people, so if you would, please comment below & I’ll add you to the list ASAP!  See you all at the Oscar party!

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It’s been two weeks since Alt Summit and I finally find myself back on level ground after flying high from all the info, socializing, and brainstorming. It’s a rocky re-entry after such an amazing trip. I have a billion ideas, and now the hard part is harnessing all that energy to accomplish something awesome.

Here’s what I’m percolating on two weeks later:

Building Relationships

Going to Alt reminded me that I love meeting new people. I was on such a socializing high for about a week after that for awhile there I was handing out my business card to complete & utter strangers. I tapped into the socializing side of myself that I had kinda, well, forgotten.

I also realized that I love the relationships I’ve been growing through blogging, especially our Oklahoma City group of bloggers. That’s why I really wanted to pursue fun events like Bloggers Night Out (tonight!) and my upcoming Oscar party. It’s about connecting – it’s a word I hear time & time again. I’m amazed how often it pops up in conversation at church (“I came to this church because I really connected with the people”) and amongst friends (“I loved Alt because I was finally connecting with people that were like me!”). Connecting is a more meaningful word to me than networking. Connecting makes me think of  warmth & life-affirming relationships while networking often feels cold and superficial, as if you’re only talking to people to see what it is you can get out of them.

Knowing My Brand

I’ve really been focusing on what my brand is. That’s a confusing term to people who aren’t necessarily in the design world, so let’s use a different word for it in the context of visual images & graphic design: identity.  What’s my identity? Who am I? And how does that relate to me as a blogger, a writer, and a designer?  I felt like Alt helped gel into place all the ideas that I’ve had floating around about who I am and what is my visual identity.

Pencil Shavings Studio is heading in really amazing directions and the opportunities are coming out of nowhere. I’m amazed at the things that are popping up, and it encourages me to keep on designing gorgeous, useful things.

Creating Awesome Content

The #1 most-harped-on topic at Alt was creating original content. That’s the clincher. So I’ve been strategizing about how to make better content by doing these two things:

1. Brainstorming about what it is I’d like to read about
2. Creating an editorial calendar based on those topics.

Improving

One of the best things I wrote down from the Pinterest keynote was how the founder sought to hire people who were better & smarter than him. That really stuck out to me in one area: my blog design. A designer’s worst challenge is to create their own designs, whether it be their own personal brand, blog, etc. Plus there are so many things I’d like to do with this blog, but frankly, I don’t have the know-how to do the coding. So I’m bringing in the big guns and hiring a design firm to do it for me. They’re better at it than me and I can’t wait to see where they’ll take me.

Another way I’m wanting to improve is with my photography. Simply put, I love taking pictures. And I’m always looking for ways to improve my photos, so I’ve signed up for one of Nicole Gerulat’s online classes in March.

At the heart of it all, I love communicating and I love blogging. Alt Summit was the big reinforcer to me of both of these things.  I love inspiring other people through beauty. At the heart of it, I want women to feel empowered and inspired to create beauty in their everyday lives. It doesn’t have to be through stuff, although there are definitely lots of pretty things to choose from; maybe it’s in creating a beautiful experience for your kiddos or your husband. Or maybe you create beauty in your everyday life by painting every room a different color to lift the spirits of those who live within those walls. Regardless, I appreciate everyone that comes along with me on this journey.

It’s about being humbly secure in knowing who you are and what your purpose is.

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Somehow it’s Wednesday. I have zero idea how that happened.  It’s been an off week kinda because Juder’s been staying home from school because of a mild cold. So I haven’t accomplished a whole lot work-wise, but I have accomplished a whole lot of little-boy-snuggle-time, and that trumps it all.

Item No. 1 of Interest: Did I tell you how awesome the OKC Orchestra League show house party was? Speakeasy was so much fun. I seriously should have taken more photos, but the night got away with me. Upwards of 300 people crammed inside that amazing 10,000-sq-ft 1920s-era house for an awesome night of great food and stunning architecture. I can’t wait to see the house once it’s been transformed. My lone photo of the night was of my shoes & purple tights.

I hopped into the tiny downstairs guest bath to, erm,  powder my nose  (does that state it delicately enough?) and nearly had a heart attack when I realized I was staring at 850 versions of myself. The owners had covered every surface in the bathroom with mirrors. Let me encourage you to think really hard about that for a minute. The bathroom. In floor-to-ceiling mirrors. In a space about the size of an airplane bathroom. It was like doing your business in the 360-degree mirror room of What Not To Wear. But in high-def.  I could not get out of there fast enough.

Item No. 2 of Interest: I got my first sample in yesterday of my iPad cases! They’re fabric with a leather spine and suede lining, kind of like the DodoCases they sell at J.Crew. I’m super happy with how it turned out. I keep thinking the possibilities are endless with this!  More info and pricing as I get them available. I’m hopeful to have them ready for the shop by early March.

Item No. 3 of Interest:  Did you hear? DOMINO IS BACK! The Twitterverse was all aflurry yesterday with the news that they’ll be releasing “Quick Fixes”, AKA special editions. I heard somewhere that it’ll be twice a year, so we’ll see if that turns out to be true. Regardless,  the entire design community just heaved a humongous sigh of relief.

Item No. 4 of Interest: Look at MAH BAYBEEEE! A couple of weeks ago, we did a mini-session at Uptown Kids with photographer Angel Porch. I got this proof and I cannot stop staring at my baby’s precious face. I am not even kidding you when I say that I have stopped total strangers to say, “LOOK AT THIS FACE!” Simon’s all, “Give it a rest.” And I’m all, “Did you see that photo?”

Item No. 5 of Interest: Only 3 more sleeps til DisneyWorld.  Jude wanted me to tell you that.

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Around New Year’s I started feeling inspired to perk up our home with some new accessories. One thing I was noticing from pinning lots of home decor inspiration to Pinterest was that patterns and pillows make the difference in a room. And one area we could really use a perk was in our family room.

Our room has some serious green accents, such as our Madeline Weinrib rug and my grandmother’s green buffet, but I really wanted to pull in some other colors such as red and blue to make the room that much more interesting. I think people are scared to use red and green together as it comes across as Christmassy, but it really is a fantastic color combination if you get the shades of the respective colors right.

That’s why these Schumacher Chiang-Mai dragon pillows fit the bill perfectly. They include the colors we already had going on in the rest of the downstairs (the pale blue, greens, and browns) but they also added interest in the reds an oranges. It’s the perfect jumping-off point for accents & accessories.

Then I stumbled on the Safavieh chevron throw pillows at a sale on Fab, and I thought, Perfect! Yes, it’s bold, but they work because they are contrasting types of patterns and the color schemes are harmonious. The strong geometry of the chevron is a great contrast to the flowy, hand-drawn feel of the Chiang-Mai dragon pattern.

Now say “dragon pattern” ten times straight. It’ll make you giggle.

And again, we’re pairing bold geometrics of the chevron against the Moroccan pattern of the rug.

I went ahead & put together some pattern formulas for you to check out. These are the perfect way to perk up your decor without spending a ridiculous amount of money.

Reds: chevron  +  chiang-mai dragon (schumacher)
Pinks: hable construction + trina turk
Purples:   ikat + chevron

yellow 1: chevron + seahorses
yellow 2: squares + trellis
yellow 3: lemon  + bamboo

green 1: squares + scribbles
green 2: houndstooth + borders
green 3: floral + mod links

navy: silhouette + greek key
blue: small chevron + large chevron
black: ampersand + interlocking circles 

Tips:

• Hunt around on Etsy, eBay, and sites like Fab.com or Joss & Main to get great deals on designer items. I like Etsy for pillows in fabrics from Schumacher, Trina Turk, etc.
• Mix & match similar patterns, such as the blue chevrons shown above. BUT the key to making this work is choosing them in radically different scales. The reason this pair work is because of (1) the color schemes and (2) the small scale of the first and the oversized scale of the second.

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