Making it Lovely

April
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This is a brilliant ad campaign for a science museum.
I’m good with clowns, but heights… not so much.
Barbie without makeup.
Chicago’s once-beautiful jail in the heart of the city.
Saturday is record store day! Locals should check out Val’s Halla, here in Oak Park, and Old School Records over in Forest Park.
Soap opera scores: so easy a cat could do it!
It all comes down to Jenna Lyons.

My Writing Elsewhere…

I’m in love with these tiles.
This may well be the summer of the fairy garden around here. I’ve been wanting to make one with the kids, and there are so many good (teeny tiny) options out there!
How to choose bathroom finishes. (I still need to choose a color though.)
Mother’s Day is coming up soon. Get her one of these cards at the very least.
Get the look: a bold entry. (A cute dog helps for this one.)
Still on the wish list for a while: gorgeous tufted leather sofas.

Honor Roll • 4 Comments • April 19, 2013

ShoeMint Giveaway

April
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I’m working with ShoeMint again today to bring you another fun giveaway. One lucky reader will win the pair of shoes of their choice!

ShoeMint Sandals

You remember ShoeMint, yes? It’s a collaboration between Rachel Bilson and stylist Nicole Chavez, manufactured by Steve Madden. The members-only site continually rolls out new styles, so they’re always on-trend, and the site even makes personalized style recommendations for you. Styles start at $79.98 whether you choose fabric, leather, or suede, and they offer free shipping and returns. I’m pretty well set in the flats and heels department but I did need some new sandals for the upcoming warm weather, so I picked the cuties above. I’m gonna rock them with shorts and that loose, white sweater, and the orange necklace I picked it up years ago at a local shop.

Which pair would you choose? Visit ShoeMint to register for free (no obligation to buy), then pick your favorite pair and leave a comment below with your choice for a chance to win!

One entry per person, open to US and Canada residents only. Entries will be accepted until midnight CST, April 23. One winner will be chosen at random and notified via email, and they will be noted in this post once confirmed. Good luck!

p.s. New members save 20% on their first purchase.

'F' for Freebies • 216 Comments • April 18, 2013

Tufted Leather Sofas

April
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Taxes pretty much wiped out our savings for a while. (Oh, wasn’t I clueless, wanting a new rug or to fix up the outside of the house?) Yeah, we need to recover a bit financially before any major purchases, but that doesn’t stop me from keeping a running wish list in my head.

Leather sofas, especially of the tufted variety, have been on my radar for a while. I liked this one a couple of years ago, and you all left some useful comments about the practicality of leather for families with kids and pets. (It’s a go.) Then of course, there was the eighth edition of Making it Yours, featuring a green leather chesterfield. I don’t think a chesterfield is quite my style (although I do appreciate them), but I am finding myself drawn to leather.

Victoria Smith's Living Room (SF Girl by Bay)

Victoria has a beautiful leather sofa from DwellStudio (above, featured on The Everygirl).

Genifer Goodman-Sohr's Living Rooms

Genifer Goodman-Sohr (image source) had one black leather sofa in her SF apartment. It belonged to her boyfriend/husband, as I recall (I have the old Budget Living magazine around here somewhere). She then picked up a matching one for her Nashville home (featured in Better Homes & Gardens).

Maxwell Leather Sofa from Jayson Home and Garden

I know I can’t run right out and buy a new couch, but I’m filing the idea away for when it’s time. I put together a list of my dozen favorites, but it’s the one above from Jayson Home that I’ve really got my eye on right now. So good.

Someday, or something similar, perhaps.

'F' for Furniture • 34 Comments • April 17, 2013

Bing Loves Pinterest (and Bloggers)

April
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I’ve been working with Bing, along with several other lifestyle and design bloggers, to help them understand our searching and social media habits. (When I mentioned being in Seattle last December, it was to visit the Microsoft headquarters.) Our focus group discussed some of the irksome technical aspects of blogging that we deal with, such as finding original sources for images. We all had plenty of love for Pinterest, but it can be frustrating to come across photos we’d like to incorporate, only to find that the source listed is a search engine.

Bing — Pin To Pinterest

Bing has worked to include the feedback from us bloggers, which led to (among other things) a ‘Pin to Pinterest’ option in their image search. You can search, using their image filters (by color, size, etc.), then pin directly from the results. The source will be credited, not just bing.com, and you can narrow down results to a specific site as well (e.g. site:makingitlovely.com).

Bing — Pin To Pinterest

It was interesting to be a part of the process. From a traffic standpoint, a search engine would benefit by acting as a middle-man and retaining their URL as the source. We bloggers though, as content creators, insisted that pinned images should go back to the original page and I’m glad to see that was implemented. It makes the feature more useful for us, and also for you and the Pinterest community as a whole. Hooray for making our internet lives a smidge easier!

This post was sponsored by Bing.