balcony season...revamp

i am so excited that spring has sprung and with it weather that allows me to sit out on my balcony.

it is always a cherished space but this year i am going to make it even more of an oasis with more greenery, a diy on the canopy and a few other things...

but saturday i was jut content to sit out with a cuppa and some reading and make some plans for myself...

tea for one set | gold hammered tray | android tablet: hp | similar marble planner
 similar tropical pillow cover (2 for $9 and incredible deal | the new paris book
 similar faux fur throw | love seat | ottoman/table | canopy

a luxe halloween prep...

fall is without a doubt my favorite time of the year... halloween thru new years is such a magical time and i really love to celebrate it all.

this year, i am getting a bit of a head start, i mean it's oct 2nd and am already getting my fall and halloween decor up. WOOT!

i was searching for pumpkins and i came across some that are so fun...and this year, i am going with a more simplistic, luxe halloween vibe that is a little more bling-ish than scary.

so, i ordered one of each of these awesome studded pumpkins (currently 25% off) to go with this black and white pumpkin that i found locally.

black halloween studded pumpkin

cream halloween studded-pumpkin

i have had this gold skull forever...it is one of a small collection i have been building and it is actually a bank...now the black pumpkin with the boo luminary HAD to be mine...i saw it in an email but didn't remember from where and just so happened to go the marshalls yesterday and found one!!!

p.s - while halloween is definitely my theme right now, fall of course will be mingled in so i am planning for it and purchased these cute plates and napkins also...

p.p.s - check out my for the home | autumnal | and winter holidays pinterest boards!

minimalist tea...

ok if you follow me on social media you know that i am a pinkies up err day tea lover and i love having fun mugs and tea pots to enjoy my tea in.

i purchased this cute SAIC tea for one set months ago and i love it. the SAIC btw is the School of The Art Institute here in Chicago and this is one of the pieces in a collaboration that they did with CB2.

it's minimalist with a slight asian flair to it and i pull it out when i want to have a tea and chill moment...

{links to a few similar tea pots}

rewind...the most wonderful time of the year...

i always feel that post christmas blues when the 24/7 playing of christmas songs ends on the radio. this christmas they actually extended it thru 12/27 so it wasn't a instant smack but i still felt it nonetheless...sigh

anyway, here are some of the images that i snapped to capture the moments...

living room...

i have been looking for a rug for months...mainly because i just could not decided what direction i wanted to go with since our sofa is such a deep grey, i knew i wanted something to compliment it but brighten the space without being a complete and total dirt magnet.

this charcoal herringbone woven jute area rug caught my eye a few weeks back during one of my regular stops into world market & then they had a sweet members sale & i had to snatch it up (read the crazy back story of how i thought i was going to get it home here).

i will of course post more when i get it closet to completion but anyway, the white faux leather chair is temporarily in the living room for christmas but it is for the lounge area.

oh and i finally decided on an entertainment center and because i have always wanted a fireplace & the fact that we don't have one nor the space for a free standing one, made getting an insert the next best thing...

Joe put this together on saturday so i haven't styled it out yet oh and side note, i love this movie, focus...a nice departure for will smith getting some love action, and yesterday was Joe's bday and a co-worker gave her these cute tulips, which reminded me that I need to get some of my vases out of storage but lort...i went there to get my tree stand and dare i say it, it really needs a purge...sigh

anyway, this entertainment center keeps selling out on every site that i have seen it on which definitely played a part in me deciding to just get it (or regret it). but it is available here in two colors & here in black and here with enclosed cabinets instead of shelves which i wish i would have gotten.

christmas in every corner...

i love the holidays so needless to say, i have been on the hunt for weeks for new decor items to compliment pieces that i already have.

last year, we didn't have a real tree because we moved 6 days before xmas but this year, man...i am going to go ALL OUT and just christmasfy the heck out of our place.

and i do mean every corner...here is one such corner off our entryway that i took some quick snaps of with my phone. it's my modern take on christmasy, so it's more about color than say traditional christmas elements...

almost identical storage bench | pillow: tjmaxx - i love this merry version | round serving tray | flameless candles - love this set and it has a remote & timer!! | similar shorter moroccan lantern | similar mirror frame

halloween entry way vignette & tub update...

halloween is my jam, so in addition to decking out my apartment door with a little halloween vibe, i added a little vignette to our entryway.

this is how it looks with the lights on. 

most of the decor is from targets suck you in section aka the dollar and more section with the exception of the LOVE marquee letters which are from QVC and are always on display here on my shoe cabinet and the candle skeletons are from tj maxx.

ohh and the contractors finished installing the tub and boo, it's a shorter, metal one and nowhere near as comfortable as the previous one but at least it's finally in but major side eye to them for the somewhat sloppy grout job and friggin mess they made...although they were annoying, i stayed in the apartment most of the time they were there but apparently should have stayed until it was 100% completed because they left grout and ish all over the tiles and used my broom to clean up and left it all dusty...

this is how it looked after i have scrubbed it a few times but as you can see, there is more grout to remove. normally i would pitch a fit but i am as of late, a gentler more don't give stupid stuff too much energy, let it go version of myself, so i sigh and move on..

a tub full of annoyances...

when we first moved into our apartment back in december, i put together a laundry list of things that the property manager needed to address and one of those was the fact that although it was brand new, our tub had a hole in it.

fast forward to some 10 months later, and it turns out that after weeks of them coming to knock on the door asking if we had any leaks and their looking around in the bathroom, that the hole that they "fixed" was leaking water into the apartment below and needed to be fixed.

so they came last week and i was assured that it would actually be taken care of properly because you know i can't be without my soaks. and of course they lied. they came and removed the old tub and sat a new one in it's place but did not actually install it.

for the most part i let Joe deal with the property manager because frankly i don't/wont have the patience. they annoy me in so many ways, so i have just spent the week asking her if she contacted them and finally today, a week after removing the old tub, they are here to complete the job and boy are they annoying and I just can't wait for it to be done and done.

but in more happier news, did you check out my modern, halloween door decor?

decor: cheers to a bar full of gold

my gold obsession is of course no secret, so it should not come as a surprise that i try to fit it in anywhere that i can.

 i thrifted this awesome bar car forever ago, 2012 to be exact and i am going to give it its due and set it up for fall.

i purchased this gold ice bucket & hammered gold serving tray a couple of weeks ago & i have had these Joseph Altuzarra NM + Target gold old fashioned glasses since 2012 also.

the "pick your poison"cocktail shaker is from tjmaxx and i have so many other cute additions that i plan to add...

stay tuned...

Morning! Setting up my #Fall bar. 🍷What are you drinking & loving this season? I tagged Lots of fab gold #barcart accessories here> www.liketk.it/1NHgo #liketkit

A photo posted by Jaye "Goody" Gipson-Trimble (@curvatude) on Oct 15, 2015 at 7:16am PDT

oh and funny not so funny story about this door behind the cart...if you look at the wall, you see the piece that a door would normally close into (a strike) but this door obviously does not fit it and that is because the door leads to the closet that was turned into a furnace room (such a loss..for real, real) and the gas company came out and said that they would shut the entire building off because the door was not properly vented. so the maintenance crew initially cut a huge hole in the top of the door that was originally there and replaced it with what turned out to be a smaller door and a big headache that i have just handed over to the lord and let go of...sigh..

autumn home...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

fall is the start of my favorite time of the year, with halloween kicking off everything with it's crazy, colorful fun...i realized that a lot of my fall things are in storage because we moved in december last year and it just made sense to put them there but now i am like i need my things!!

so i will have to take a trip, although of course i have already purchased a few new things from target and other stores as i have seen them...stay tuned

My latest #Target $1+ section haul...the selection keeps getting better & better

A photo posted by Jaye "Goody" Gipson-Trimble (@curvatude) on Sep 27, 2015 at 8:16am PDT