Time to be Thankful!

With Thanksgiving only 3 days away, I'd love to focus on everything that I'm thankful for. Health, family, and my all around awesome well being are the top things I'm happy that I have especially this time of year.
I'm super thankful for my blog. I'm really happy that I brought it back after a 6 month retirement. I've been getting such positive feedback too that it's definitively spurring me on! Also, my every expanding design business--e*design, photography, interior accessories. Thanks everybody.

I am really loving my new job as well. As much as I loved working in the D & D Building, it is thrilling to be working for an architect now! (No, I don't work for Frank Lloyd Wright but I AM making my way up to Oak Park today!!)

Online Design magazines like Rue, Lonny, Nesting Newbies, and High Gloss! I love all the new innovations in magazines and the level of creativity is astounding. High Gloss comes out in January and we are all eagerly anticipating its arrival...!

Glee. Yes, I love Glee. I'm not ashamed and it makes me ecstatic. Gwyneth Paltrow re-earned my respect in the latest episode. Check out whats playing on LOOP on my ipod HERE.

I'm very thankful for my friends--who are SO adorable and innocent and send me email saying "Have you seen this website--The Selby?!" HAHA Why yes, I think I might have heard of it. My friends are super supportive of pretty much everything in my life and I am thankful for that. (Group hug??)

Fabric. I'm working on a few throw pillows and new drapery for some clients and I'm LOST (not unhappy about it though) in a world of fabric swatches. Fabric is so much fun and you can do so much with it.

This is just a small smattering of what I am thankful for....AND...





As a side note (on the blog, not in my life), I'm thankful for my fiance! YES, I'm engaged!! The beau/love of my life proposed last Friday and we are SO so happy. You might see some fun wedding inspired posts as I'm planning it!

What are you thankful for?!!!


Alicia B.

Friday Faves

Enter my awesome give-away to win this adorable beach bag!! ENTER HERE. Now.

This week I went from wearing wool sweaters to flip flops, and now this weekend is going to be Summer weather! If you know me, you know I'd rather be in a sundress and flip flops than anything else so let's just say I'm excited. I've been rather lonely without my sister here (to clutter up my apartment), but I've been super busy anyway. Class, studying for my final next week (HAH), and making pillows!

This warm weather makes me wish I had a beach house or a house out in the country. My parents house in CT is sort of like that, I suppose. I love the wood floors in this country house in upstate New York. Isn't the light that floods into the next room amazing? Gil Schafer.

Here is one of the pillows that I sewed last night. I love the soft green color of t he vines in the fabric. The back of it is a soft natural linen fabric.

Do you like this fabric?

Horses are everywhere lately in design. How cute is this little Jonathan Adler ceramic horse sculpture? I'm so excited to be going to a Derby Party this Saturday. I love the Derby so much and I've only gotten into it in the last 4 years, since I moved to New York. My family and bf all choose a horse solely based on the names. It's tres fun.

Any weekend plans? Which horse do you have your bet on? I'm going for Awesome Act. It's all about the power of positive thinking, right? If you have a positive name like that, he's bound to win!

Alicia B.

Living Room Decluttering Project

As I've mentioned many times before I like to collect stuff: small objects, books, design mags, vases, etc. This is all well and good but I have a minuscule living space so from time to time I have to reassess and make things look a little bit neater. This time, I had to take a look at my open bookshelf that is full of DVDs do something about it. I also have a huge chest full of fabrics in my front hall that is getting quite full so I decided to make a "door" for my open shelf.

I'd been dying to use this gorgeous Matthew Patrick Smyth fabric from Schumacher for something and thought it too neutral for throw pillows but for this purpose, it's perfect because it's subtle. The green is faded enough to coordinate with the green of my bookcase.

I love to iron! I had to iron it, then fold in the edges and make sure they were crisp and perfect before I sewed it into a rectangle to cover the bookcase.

Woo! Late night sewing!

I had to get these little hooks and screw them into the frame of my bookcase in order to hang my fabric panel up.

Next I had to put these little grommets into my fabric. Before you do this on your fabric, take a scrap and practice. You need to make a tiny hole about the size of an eraser tip in the fabric, then put the bottom half of the grommet down, put the fabric hole through it, then put the top of the grommet on that, take a hammer and whale on it. Funny moment: I did all that except I wasn't hitting the hammer hard enough so I had to go back to the hardware store to see what I was doing wrong. I wasn't hitting it hard enough so the burly hardware store guy just told me to "put some muscle into it."

How perfect does that little grommet look? I know. So.......

Here it is! (Don't judge my TV. Clearly I have other priorities.) I may still have stacks of magazines around but at least they're organized (Martha Stewart in one pile, Domino, Blueprint, and House and Garden in another etc). And whats that on the floor?

It's the little Charlie Brown Christmas tree!

I know this doesn't change the fact that I need to edit a wee bit in my living room/my life, but I think it simplifies that area of the room and and pretty fabric so what more do I need right now? Now I'm off to collect glass tiles for my project because I finished the floor plan last night! Modern is still not my preferred style but it sure is fun to see what other materials are out there--I'm learning a lot.


Alicia B.

Swedish Modern Chair Makeover

I'm full of many projects lately and I am really enjoying them. This is a Swedish Modern chair that (below) belonged to my father; he got it back in the 70's which is quite apparent when you look at it. Well, now it's mine and I decided that the yucky tan vinyl had to go. Good choice, yes?

Sad deflated chair.

It really does have a beautiful frame.

Here it is completed! I had it reupholstered in European Cream Linen from Fabric.com. I think it looks clean and comfortable. Last night I sewed a little throw pillow from extra fabric left over from my love seat from Roger Arlington which is unfortunately no longer around. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty pleased. My apartment is still coming together piece by piece even after a few months but it's still fun!

Alicia B.

DIY Seat Cushion

Now that the semester is over I have TONS (a little) free time to do projects that I've been waiting to do for months. Today the project was to recover a seat cushion. My roommate and I found a pair of chairs at an antique fair--OKAY FINE we found them on the street, and fell in love but the fabric on the seat was horrid. We each found super cute fabric and made them our own. Check it out:

Here is the chair once we removed the screws from underneath and the seat part popped out. See how boring and ugly that fabric was? They def needed a make-over. That blue scrap is fabric that I was playing around with but eventually decided against it.

Here is the frame of the chair. It's in great condition and the caning is PERFECT!

After removing the ugly fabric, we put two layers of batting and then the fabric on top and took a staple gun and secured it on the bottom side all the way around. It's important to pull it very tight. My roommate (above) chose Amy Butler fabric, August Fields Coreopis Fields from Fabric.com.

Then put the seat back on the chair and screw it back into the frame! YAY, now you have a fun fresh new side chair.

This is the fabric I chose. Isn't it fun? It was so fun to choose the fabric and to see what fabric my roommate chose. They're so different!

I'm so pleased with my fun red embroidered linen fabric! I think I might stain the chair a darker mahogany color but that's another project for another day.

Glamour Shot.

Next stop is throw pillows or some other fun sewing project! HERE is a helpful website explaining how to do the above project. It's honestly pretty easy and I didn't need to read up on how to do it. I'm that awesome.

Alicia B.

Roger Arlington Fabic Sale!

You absolutely must go to the Roger Arlington Showroom in the D & D building on the upper east side right now. They are selling fabric for $1/yard! YES, ONE DOLLAR. These are fabrics that are being discontinued so some are adorable, and some are just terrible and there is a reason they are being phased out.

I just bought yardage to reupholster my tiny loveseat in my living room. I couldn't find the exact fabric but it's a cross between a large gingham and a small window pane pattern. Or maybe it's just plaid.

This was the closest one I could find but the white part is wider and the brown is a bit more muted than above. I'd love to make some cute pink pillows to go with it!


Alicia B.

Plaid Love

Isn't this Ralph Lauren tablescape so cozy/beautiful? I don't think I would change one thing about it.

Ever since I took a look at the new Loro Piana interiors collection (yesterday) I've been loving on plaids (more than usual) for interiors. They look so cozy and warm and I definitely need that since, if you are in New York today you might have frostbite (me). Plaids are coming in different forms, window pane, tartan, gingham, etc. Here are some you could...warm up to? Wow.

Nathan Egan loves this wool plaid from Rogers and Goffigon. I do too.

This comfortable and classic looking interior was designed by John Peixinho with a tartan plaid bench in front of the fireplace. In Newport, RI.

Mixing tartans is allowed too! From Domino.

Designed by David Mitchell this mix of different neutrals and beiges is carried by those two chairs in Rogers and Goffigon wide gingham print.

I SUPER love these two chairs. They are covered in Colfax and Fowler Lanark plaid.

Jeffrey Bilhuber covered these two chairs in a soft Bahagalpur plaid by Shyam Ahuja.

Through looking, I think the best places for plaids are Ralph Lauren Home, Colefax and Fowler as they are a British company, Holland and Sherry for plaids, tweeds and herringbones, and of course Loro Piana. Am I a stodgy old British man? Hmm.

Alicia B.

Scalamandre Outlet Sale

I've been scavenging for some beautiful high end fabric at a better price of late and I came accross this "outlet sale" at Scalamandre! They have some of the most beautiful fabrics in the world so check it out. Below are some of my favorites.





Now I realize that my taste is either of an old lady or a 12 year old but you learn to embrace it. Thanks.



Alicia B.