A Newlywed Home

I wanted to take a break from wedding things and talk about home decor.

When my husband and I bought our house back in May, we had to furnish and decorate our new four bedroom home. For the past almost a year now, the whole house has been a work in progress…and I’m told that home decor is always a work in progress.

Now that we’re in 2013, the house has really progressed and there have been some huge changes…let me share a few:

This is one of my two family rooms. The whole house was a hideous color with no light fixtures when we bought the house:

Ick, right? It looked dark, there was no overhead lighting, and the brick color was doing no one any favors. After some paint, crown moulding and furniture, it now looks like this:

I DIY stained the fireplace in a black cherry color that go well with my espresso media console and matching coffee table.
The cabinet fixture that was to the left was torn out during renovations.
Btw, that best looking “sofa” is a double papasan, and worth every penny!

We painted the walls a very pale, pale mint green, and paired them with white mouldings. Separately, it’s hard to tell the difference between the white and the pale green, but when they’re contrasting with each other you really get that bright, fresh effect that’s wonderfully soothing. You can see that better here:

One of my favorite features in my house is that wall with the fireplace. When guests come over, that’s the first thing that they comment on. Here is a pic when it was a work in progress:

For those who are wondering how I painted the wall, I ordered the birch tree stencil from cuttingedgestencils.com and DIYed the whole thing (: the stencils were easy to use and the wall dried quickly. My advice: paint from top to bottom when using these stencils. For me, it was much easier to match the stencils in a straight line starting from the top then trying to end in an even line at the top after starting from the bottom.

One thing I really want to recommend to you if you are redoing your house: install crown moulding. It changes the look of your whole house and makes the place seem open and upscale. This is when we were installing them before to painting the walls…and they were already improving the place:

That’s before and after (well, minus the new paint). You can REALLY see that horrible adobe colored paint. I have no idea who painted this house before us, but they used gloss paint everywhere, even the ceiling! Note for the future: glossy paint only in the kitchen and bathrooms.

Next up is my second living room:

This space was a space with tons of potential. However, the high ceiling, defined area, spaciousness and natural lighting were all lost because of the drab grey-taupe walls. After some rehab, this is the new space:

I took these photos off of my staircase.
I really wanted this area to be quirky and fun. I was really inspired by the multicolored urbanoutfitter curtains and the lime green carpet. Some fun things I did here:
The large carpet is actually two smaller rugs (courtesy of Target) put side by side. Much cheaper than purchasing a 10 by whatever feet rug.
Another thing is that birdcage lamp. I bought this lamp to use as a non-traditional side table at TJ Maxx Home Goods (love that place!) for about $100. With the help of two plug-in cord kits (a la ikea and urbanoutfitters), I was able to transform it into a lamp.
The daybed is possibly my favorite piece in the house. I bought it from Cost Plus World Market after much debate with my husband. It just gives the whole room something special.

Last but not least for today, I created my formal dining room with the chairs that I upcycled previously (refer to this post). Before reno, this was the space:

Again with that ugly wall color, right?
Well now, it’s light and airy:

That last photo gives you a sneak peak of what my kitchen now looks like. I stained the cabinets and changed out the hardware instead of ripping out all the cabinets. The kitchen used to look like this:

So far, I’m in love with how things are turning out. Usually, I’ll pick a special piece or two (like the curtain print and lime green carpet) and design things around it, thinking about how the space will function.
I’ll continue to share more and more in the future but I hope you all enjoyed this post (:

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Love,
Jewels

Senna Artemisoides ssp. Artemisoides

I had the serendipity today of discovering that the dead looking bush outside of my house is in fact a beautiful senna artemisoides…also known as the feathery cassia or feathery senna.

I’d just gotten home from the market and was checking out the roses in front of my garage when I smelled something sweet–like honey–wafting from the front door side of my house. Now, I usually go in through the garage everyday so I had no idea that my bush was in bloom! It was quite a shock to walk around the house and see a splash of bright yellow.

I’m in love with this plant; it’s drought resistant, hardy, fragrant and so very pretty. Fast growing, too! I don’t have much of a green thumb but it still bloomed like this (: apparently the plant is native to Australia and does well with little water and full sun. Great choice for places like California and Arizona. Before, when we bought our house, it was so shriveled and dry that my husband wanted to rip it out. I’m really glad that it bounced back and brought me into spring!

As always,
Thanks for reading!

Things they don’t tell you…

…before your wedding day (or things they did tell you, but you refused to believe)

Hi all,

It’s been quite a while! Finally the wedding is all done and over with, and the thank you cards are written and ready to be sent out.
Today I wanted to share some things that I wish people told you BEFORE your wedding day.

1…

Get a special hanger for your dress. You’ve seen those adorable hangers that say BRIDE with wire lettering. No? Well, for example, GetHungUp on Etsy is one seller of many that have wire lettered hangers for your wedding day:

Mine would have said Mrs.Kim, had I not forgotten this detail on my own day. Consequently, my wedding dress pictures are pretty but not quite as pretty as they could be.

Oh and before we go any further, all of my gorgeous wedding photos were taken by Anha Nguyen, whom I highly recommend! Couldn’t have had my day without her.

2…

Don’t be shy about getting dressed and undressed on your big day. There’s bigger things to worry about than a room full of your bridesmaids AND your photographer watching you get into your wedding dress.
If you do fret yourself about it….you’ll end up trying to take off your sweats AFTER you’ve put on your dress and it’ll take 4 girls to help you get it off. It’s far less painful and uncomfortable to just get into your dress without giving a damn who’s watching. Just saying.
And if you have a corset/lace-up style dress, someone will have to dress you and it’ll be up close and personal:

Prime example…my bridesmaid shoving the tied ends of my laces into my butt. Almost felt violated when they had to reach UNDER the dress to make the laces lie flat inside the dress!

3…

You can’t tell in this candid photo that one of my friends took of my first dance…but that reception dress was a nightmare. A beautiful nightmare.
There are several lessons to be learned from this dress:
The first is that sheer, almost nude panties–like lacy, pinkish nude–are not nude panties. Almost nude panties are not as invisible as fully nude colored panties.
Which brings me to my second point: try your dress on in full sun. Don’t try your dress in a sunny spot inside of your house…Actually BE in bright, full on sunlight in your dress to test its transparency.
Unfortunately for me, I had not done that prior to the wedding, so when I was hit with the full power of the sun in the third floor of the glass covered yacht…well, it was like X-ray vision. After moments of panic, frantic efforts to shove white toilet paper under my dress to cover my almost nude panties, and yells at my poor groom to LEAVE ME ALONE (because he kept saying that we had to go down to announce lunch time), my mom came through with some nude panty hose which miraculously fixed the problem.
The third lesson to learn is that, when people tell you that you’ll lose weight during those final days before your wedding, you really will. Believe it. You’ll stress out so much that a dress that fit just perfectly 3 days ago will somehow be a size too large on the day of. My beautiful Sue Wong dress was beaded, embroidered and figure flattering…but had to be constantly lifted up throughout the reception to keep from slipping off of me. Despite the Bombshell multiway (Victoria’s Secret!) bra that added 2 cup sizes which I had worn just for this strapless dress, my dress would not stay up on its own.
The final lesson that ties all of these points together is that something will absolutely go wrong on your wedding day–guaranteed. I’m not saying that your venue will burn down or your veil will tear or someone will get hurt….no, no.
But you will most definitely have at least one crisis or problem. Brace yourself and just breathe. If you have a good coordinator and mom on that day, like I did, you’ll make it through.

4…

The beautiful cake that you paid for (and in fact, most of the food you paid for) will be eaten by everyone else but you and your groom or bride. Yep. We’d never bought so much food/spent so much money on food and been so hungry as we were on our wedding day. It’s not just that you won’t have time to eat…you just won’t feel like eating because of the nerves and the stress of pulling off your whole day. Also, you’ll spend most of your lunch or dinner time taking pictures with every single table.

PS, the cake was done by Cinderella Cakes, and the cake topper was custom made by Travis and Laura of Etsy’s Adaura…$15 plus shipping. The cake flowers were created custom for me by MissErikas of Etsy’s AllAmericanElegance…$29.97 for 10 gum paste flowers plus shipping.
Thank you sellers for creating and delivering my orders carefully, quickly and beautifully (:

And last but not least for today:

5…

<–This picture on the right has a little sneak peak of my baby’s breath bouquet hiding to the right of my maid of honor’s arm…

Be confident on your wedding day. Nobody needs to know that you actually hate your legs and are worried about that one zit on your face. I know that I knew it, but I didn’t need that to ruin my day. That was the one day in my life when I had on a big, white dress, cathedral length veil, sparkly shoes, false lashes, fancy jewelry, sparkly nail polish on my hands and feet all at the same time…and no one thought I was a crazy-princess-wannabe-gone-overboard. Instead, they told me that I looked nothing but beautiful.

And as a bonus, I’ll add one last thing:
If you’ve been resisting getting your hair cut to keep it long for your wedding, you’ll want to chop it off not long after your wedding is over. Like me!

I recently got a pixie.
Well, maybe that last bit was just me. But I couldn’t stand my long hair anymore.

So I’ll continue to share more photos and tidbits of my wedding. I still have lots to share! For example, as a preview…this was my guest seating “chart”:

Definitely something a bit unique!

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Love,
Jewels

Promo code

Use promo code “happy2013″ for 10% off at my Etsy shop!
Code is valid until end of January.
Come visit me at http://www.etsy.com/vintageminds

Happy New Year again!

Happy happy….

Happppyyy New Year!!!!
A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you’re fast asleep…
I hope all the dreams that you wish will come true in 2013.

(By Anha Ngyuen Photography)
((Dresses from Marciano))

Love love love,
Jewels

Pinecones…revisited!

So I finally got around to using my pinecones!
They sat in my garage for so long that I didn’t even need to clean them…
Everything has dried out and fallen off naturally (yikes, sorry hubby).

I was thinking about table number holders, and really liked this:

Found on Etsy, made by Galley360

I did love the silver sea urchin, but then I remembered that I had a big Forever21 bag of pinecones waiting for me!

There were pinecones of all shapes, but I only chose the ones that could stand upright and had a split or slot at the top into where I could slip a piece of paper. These were the chosen ones:

All nice and in a row (:

I really just wanted to keep it simple and bought two cans of teal tinted glitter spray paint. I sprayed a total of 26 pine cones with the two cans….

…just enough to make it look as if the tips were fringed with snow.

This is a better view:

Creating these took all of 25 minutes total, including picking out the cones. I sprayed them pointy side up, and then added coverage by flipping them upside down. To avoid getting glitter anywhere else, I spray painted these on my lawn grass…..And now I have very holiday looking, glittery grass (;

This was so easy and quick, and the samples that I made looked adorable:

I won’t have them exactly like this for the wedding, but it’ll be something along these lines.
And after the wedding, the pinecones can either be made into a wreath or be re-loved as vase/bowl fillers. They cost a total of only about $15…the pinecones were donated to me by the trees at my neighborhood park (refer to this post).

Thanks for reading, and follow Lovejeweled on Instagram if you want to preview my projects before I post them here!

Lots of love,
Jewels.

P.s.
Sneak peak at things to come:
My ornament inspired ring bearer “pillow”

….And my DIY cufflinks for groomsmen gifts

Stay posted, stay warm!

A bridal makeup post

I was looking at lots of pictures of other brides and celebs for ideas for bridal makeup.
Should I go smokey?
Should I go invisible makeup?
Should I go with color?

There are so many choices for brides, it’s difficult to choose one look (a happy problem, for sure).
There are several looks that I always love and at times emulate…two of which are softer versions of the smoky eye.

First is Charlize Theron’s bronze goddess smoky eye:

Found here

This golden bronze look is something I do in the summer when I’m nice and tanned. I haven’t done it lately since the weather got a little more silver friendly, but it’s still one of my favorites. It’s great to do with Urban Decay’s Naked palette (the first one), since the palette has practically every shade of matte/shimmer gold/brown you would need. I usually wear this look with a nude, glossed lip, and use brown eyeliner instead of black. Blending your shadow is also crucial to achieve that wow factor. Also, I tend to skip my blush and opt for my bronzer to pull the whole look together. Don’t forget to highlight those cheekbones and brow bones at the end!

Next, Mila Kunis, my secret girl crush, shows off a second of my favorite looks:

Found here

This one’s more of a night look, the one I wear when I want to feel like I can conquer the world. It’s a confidence booster because of the heavy liner; there’s something about having black liner smudged around a girl’s eyes. Mila Kunis really knows how to pull off the under eye liner. I may not recommend this version of smokey under eye for brides…black or any very dark color lined closely to the eye can close the eye up instead of making it look bigger. If done wrong, it can also look like a black eye. When I do this look, I like to line my waterline with pencil liner, then line my eye with a liner brush dipped in black eyeshadow. I then blend that line by applying a layer of deep bronze (or any other dark color several shades lighter than black) directly underneath it. Gently smudging those two lines together will give you a nice, gradual effect.

Frmheadtotoe on YouTube has some nice tutorials on makeup application, one of which will show you how to do what I described above and more: watch it here
She also has a great eyebrow tutorial that I recommend for brides who want to avoid over plucked/trimmed eyebrows.

Last but not least, I think that Tae Hee Kim’s look is classically bridal, the epitome of invisible makeup:

Her look is all about creating luminous skin, not about accentuating a particular facial feature like the eyes. This look pulls all of her natural beauty together by creating that glow. Also, perfect eyebrows are an essential part of this look; a more natural, filled brow looks best here. For those of us who suffer from dark circles, I’ve found that Garnier’s dark circle roller works like a charm. It gives you that instant doe-eyed effect that invisible makeup needs. A good tinted moisturizer, a touch of blush and facial highlighter, just a dab of eye/brow liner and tinted lip balm is all you need…the idea is that less is more.

For the past couple months, I’ve been looking at all three of these looks and thinking about what I would do on my wedding day. Obviously, after the pictures above of these gorgeous celebrities, mine won’t compare…but here’s a couple examples of some looks that I’ve played around with:

This one above is somewhat Taylor Swift inspired; it was created with black liquid eye liner and gold cream eye shadow. When I make a wing with the liquid eyeliner, I like to extend the line of my upper eye line down to my lower lash line, gradually thinning just up to the midpoint of my eye.
It really creates a frame for your eyes, and it works great on Asian faces. It’s kind of like a toned down version of real life anime eyes, you know…with the thick, pointed outer corners. Try pairing the dramatic liquid liner with some white eye liner at your lower water line.

This look was a day time version of the Mila Kuis look. I lightly lined my lower lash line, but kept things balanced with some nude, matte shadow and shimmery highlights. I also added a nice khaki accent to the lower lash line (thin, thin line!) to play off the brown of my eyes. My skin is glowing in the sun because I used Guerlain’s meteorites which I love love love.

Last but not least, this was my engagement photoshoot eye makeup. I wanted it to be more dramatic than usual, so I used false eyelashes…which I tend never to do. It was also a heavier smoky eye than I normally do, but I stayed away from too much glitter or shimmer so it worked out well in the photos. Don’t wear high shimmer or high glitter shadow on your wedding day, unless you want your pictures to look like junior prom photos!

Speaking of engagement photos, we had a blast with our photographer…she really helped us capture our playful personalities. I won’t post them today but I promise I’ll write a post about it some time soon.

As always, thanks for reading! For my SoCal readers, stay dry (:

Love,
Jewels

Not a wedding post

So I know this has nothing to do with weddings, but I wanted to share some doodles with you today (:
It’s something I’ve done since high school, just for fun…
I’ve recently begun again after finding the joys of Artstudio for iPad.

This is a freehand drawn lion, inspired by a photo I saw the other day. Kind of think it would make a cool tattoo, yes?

The only downside to drawing on the iPad is that my Targus stylus is a bit thick, and I adore it, but its hard to see the line I’m making when the work is small and detailed.

This next one is less intense, maybe a bit more pattern oriented…

And because the hubby was making fun that I kept drawing tattoos (which I’m not and of which I have none…these images just happen to look ok to use for ink) I doodled a butterfly…

Lets hope no one gets that on their lower back…

I like the lion the best…it used more negative space than I usually would, and I think it worked out for the better.
What should I doodle next?
Someone throw me an animal to draw.

Love,
Jewels

Ps.
Attempted to learn to use the pen tool in vector drawing…and failed. Decided that hand drawing was better anyway. Ah well, c’est la vie.

Finally! A wedding guest book post!

Those of us Etsyholic brides have probably already seen a lot of these:
The Thumbprint wedding guest book.

In their original form, they usually come as a tree and look something like this:

(By bleudetoi on Etsy)

I personally like the ones with the houses (courtesy of Disney/Pixar’s Up), and wanted something a bit more unique for my wedding.
I decided to draw my own house for my guest book:

…and this is my new house!

I won’t have the purple balloons on my wedding day…those were just for reference. I’ll have ink pads ready for my guests to stamp and print their fingerprints (:

However, for those brides who do not love the idea of ink on all of their guests’ fingers, I started to design guest books with predawn balloons or bubbles to sign, like these:

Of course, I did design the simple tree as well…

…with a bit of a romantic twist.

Recently, I had the chance to design a custom guest book for an international bride, Kaori. She requested that I incorporate her and her groom, her puppy, Hawaii’s Diamond Peak, and surfboards into her design. This was the result…just a sample…

While looking at and designing thumbprint guest books, I began to think of more alternatives for the traditional guest books, and created a color-by-numbers one…

So far, I love the idea and will probably draft up some more designs.

Tell me what you think, thanks for waiting through the loooong hiatus.

With love,
Jewels.

April update

Hello hello, it’s been a while! Just wanted to bring everything up to date (: the house is within days of closing, my cousin is still in town…and now so are my parents.
It just seems as if everything is happening at once…
I’ll pick up on posting more as soon as the move is over. Then it’s back to wedding central! Meanwhile, please keep posted for home decor updates (:

Thanks for your patience!