Bathroom Pitfalls 101

Bathroom designs that we LOVE but don’t know how people live with...

We love wood countertops. They look beautiful and have a rustic elegance but would most certainly warp or suffer water damage over time. We also love the vessel sink and exposed chrome decorative trap, and the wood plank floors.

Love the self-rimming stainless steel sink for a cool bachelor pad, although he might resent mopping up the water around the basin with a wall-mounted faucet mounted that high!

Love the stone wall cladding in the bathroom for a sophisticated clean look, but we don’t recommend a rainhead shower head as your only showerhead, as you can't vary the water flow strength and you end up with more of a drizzle versus a waterfall. Look for pre-fab solutions this vanity at Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware.

Love the tiny wall-mounted lav solution for a tight space – especially with the quirky mirror. Overall a well done design, although we are not sure how you control water temperature with a single criss-cross valve.

Love the under-mounted lavatories with space for decorative towel folding AND storage. This is a very well executed vanity design!

Love the vessel sinks with the side-mounted widespread faucet. Great floating cabinet with ample storage space and cool peek-a-boo vanity mirrors.

Love the beautiful chrome legs and tile work, but not extremely functional for a bathroom lavatory. Who doesn't have bathroom clutter to hide?!

And lastly, love the integral lav (basin carved right out of the counter slab) with a shelf for towels. Not much storage, but would be great for a powder room or a rarely used guest room.

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awesome in anthropologie

anthropologie is one of my favorite stores. though the only thing i really buy there are candles, if you ask me where i like to shop, i would say there. kind of bizarre, i know. husband and i went in there last week to smell candles. we are obsessed. i came across this new scent that i MUST have. it's called santiago huckleberry. it's also available in a perfume, so of course i sprayed that on myself. it was smelling fabulous even the next day. so, i am sharing that great find with y'all. in addition to that, i am posting a cute fashion picture from there. you're shocked i'm sure. check out these great graphic towels that amanda and i discovered while at a friend's house. please note, all drapery is only available online. we've already driven up to santa monica to find that one out...jolene.

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Jan Showers Us with Beauty

jan showers is a full service interior design firm based in texas. her recent book, glamorous rooms, has made it's way onto our amazon must read list. and so we did. it was especially nice to see the forward by michael kors, one of our designer icons. she has marvelous taste, typically described as elegant and well-crafted. i tend to enjoy this style as it is something i can only dream about living in...and keeping clean.

on a fashion note, once i typed michael kors above, it's like i have to immediately look at his fabulous fashion on the internet. so i did. and i am including it in this post. you're welcome.

i am in a fashion 'mood,' if-you-will, this week. i think it may be because the husband decided to switch out the dvr box (amanda doesn't know what dvr is, so don't tell her how amazing that could be if it were in her life.) and i lost all of my recorded shows. that includes rachel zoe. gasp. i know. i've heard it's a good episode, too. so i'm dealing with that by looking at michael kors and babbling about fashion. spent. ok, check out the book and these fashion forward designs. jolene.

i just cut my hair and dyed it darker today, so i was reminiscing with these models (below). also, these are my colors. *tear*

i always thought wearing yellow with blonde hair doesn't work, but she makes it look a. maz. ing.

get it on the fur (inside joke; perhaps we will clue you in later)
greens. purples. yellows. yummy.

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celebrity interior desinger: thom filicia

thom filicia has been designing for the stars for quite some time. he was on queer eye for the straight guy and oprah. the latter being my personal goal. he's also educated and trained in the design industry, which also makes him a personal design icon. i was glancing at his website last week and fell in love with many of his projects, so i decided he would be the perfect designer post for today. then, on my favorite blog, the sartorialist, i noticed thom's designs matched many outfits perfectly...so i decided to pair up his designs to some great fashion finds. though rather challenging, i found it extremely fun. it's like a game. i like games, but only if i win. so i hope i scored a homerun today with this post. jolene.

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Sparkle & Glitz

Add a little sparkle to any room with something mirrored or metallic. We love the way something shiny and reflective adds multiple dimensions to a design and always catches your eye. The collection of images we've posted below shows how a pinch of glitz doesn't have to be overdone glam.

Mix it in with classic settings...

...or contemporary ones.

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DIY Monday

amanda and i have been doing many DIY projects lately, and this past weekend we remembered the main step...taking pictures!

we always enjoy stopping by goodwill to drop off items and also search for great finds. about a month ago, we spotted these fantastic vases for only $1.99 each. we are doing this project for my dining room, and we have a collection of blue vases in our back pocket for the upcoming photoshoot, which is tbd. because these vases weren't blue, we decided to paint them blue ourselves. luckily, amanda just painted her bathroom a light tifffany blue, and we had some leftover paint in her garage. what's even better. it's a glossy finish. so we created a funnel, painted the bottles, and now we have amazing pieces of art in my dining room for under $4 total. if you have any leftover paint and a goodwill close by, this is a quick, easy diy. i cannot wait to see these in my dining room with pretty pink flowers inside :) jolene.

vase as purchased

make shift funnel

1 down 1 to go
finished producttwo happy vases ready to adorn my dining room.

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must listen and must see cool stuff!!!!!!!!!

The story of The Deaf Ears begins with the 1999 movie Oxygen, a mediocre thriller starring Adrien Brody about a kidnapper who kidnaps a rich woman and buries her alive somewhere in Manhattan, leaving a masochistic cop 24 hours to find the grave before the victim runs out of oxygen. One lazy summer afternoon in 2006, singer-songwriter-pianist Joel Mullins, leader of Austin’s acclaimed indie-pop quintet Tammany Hall Machine, was watching the movie on the USA network, when the words “deaf ears” appeared on the screen. It immediately occurred to Joel that this would be a great band name. read full story

visit their official site at thedeafears.com you can purchase the new album and sample the music. i love this band not only for their talents in music; i also love that the front man joel mullins is my brother-in-law and the father of my nephew vox mullins. vox happens to be the cutest baby in existence. (sorry other moms out there) maybe i'll get permission to post a pic of this cuteness for you all sometime. for now just listen and enjoy! amanda

Why beat around the bush. The Deaf Ears have crafted one of Austin's best indie rock albums of the year.

First, let's get one thing straight: From now 'til the end of time, a large swath of musicians from around the world will claim The Beatles as their biggest influence. That's never going to change. Some of these musicians will go on to form mediocre bands that sound so derivative of their heroes that it's embarrassing (like Wolfmother with Led Zeppelin, or Jet with The Who). But others will form bands that are really fucking good.
The Deaf Ears are really really fucking good. And while their music isn't the most original to come from this city, it's still so refreshing and compelling that I haven't taken their debut album Live Forever out of my car stereo since I popped it in two weeks ago. The attention to detail, be it in the production value or the songwriting or the performance, is obvious.

Sure, The Deaf Ears' sound is largely influenced by The Beatles, but the greatest lesson they seem to have learned from their role models isn't the chords or the melodies, but the importance of a meticulous work ethic in the studio... the craft of recording an album. read full review

steptember issue

Each August, fashion mavens look forward to getting their hands on a copy of Vogue magazine's fall issue. Filmmaker R.J. Cutler gains unprecedented access to the inner workings of this fashion bible as Anna Wintour, the magazine's legendary editor-in-chief, and her staff carry out the massive preparations necessary to produce the issue.issue. (fandango)

i cannot wait to see this movie! a coveted rare look inside the inner workings of vogue magazine. the movie highlights the creation of the mother of all issues of the year the "september issue" the bible of all bibles.

"...beyond the cutting-edge froufrou, the film is also a portrait of unapologetic girlie power: smart, talented, competitive women working hard at their jobs..." Los Angeles Times

- Sheri Linden

I like this quote a lot especially while jolene and i are working so hard to create our domicile name and brand. amanda

if you're lucky enough to live in an area where this movie is showing and want to get tickets or find a location here is the fandango link. september issue fandango

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