Valentine's Day Bar Cart & Heart Scewer DIY

As I've discussed before, I love being able to decorate my apartment as feminine as I want (like my gallery wall here). This bachelorette pad thing is something I try to take total advantage of because I know I won't be able to do it forever. This year, I'm feeling especially excited for Valentine's Day, and it shows! Over the weekend I added some fun, easy, lovey-dovey updates to my bar cart:

I made the little heart shaped straw toppers / drink skewers simply by cutting hearts out of construction paper and then gluing a toothpick in between 2 hearts. I think they are adorable! My XOXO pillow from Chapters Indigo (on major sale!) is also looking great with this theme! And I can't forget about my adorable 'Cherry on Top' cards by Ashley Brooke Designs. I had this one on my inspiration board and one day I opened it and found a hidden little love note from M. inside! He's so sweet.

Do you decorate for Valentine's Day?
xox

Light my Fire: Pretty Matches

How ugly/always-out-of-fluid-when-you-need-them/ gives-the-impression-that-you-are-a-smoker are regular plain old BIC lighters. I mean, don't we deserve something a little more lovely to light up our deliciously scented candles? I think so. Enter pretty matchboxes and matchbooks. There is something so classic about a match, no?

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via Katie Armour

source unknown

via Live Creating Yourself

via Design Darling

Well, I know I said I was going to buy less in the New Year, but I've had a little slip up. Jackie from York Avenue posted a picture of these matches and the price was right and I just couldn't resist. Jackie! I thought we were in this together!

Now they are mine, all mine. Well, I had to pre-order them, so soon they will be mine.
Get 'em at Waiting on Martha!
xox

Business Cards & Guest Post

This Saturday is Blogpodium. I'm so excited, and also a little bit nervous. This will be my first blogging conference and I can't wait to finally meet so many of my local blogging friends here in Toronto (not to mention hear all the great speakers including Sarah Richardson and my girl Steph).

One 'must' for every blogger is a well designed business card. I made the careful decision to custom design my own using photoshop and have them printed. I love how they turned out! The little watercolor zebra I painted is my favourite touch.

I spy me in one of these pictures...can you spot it? Amateur hour over here. Also, you can see that I started to gold leaf the edges for an extra touch, but my beloved gold leaf pen ran out of ink. I will have to get another one. I also used my gold leaf pen to add the leopard sports to the little lucite tray that I'm using to display my business cards, which you can read more about here.

Speaking of girls I'm dying to meet at Blogpodium, Sweet Elyse from Peonies and Brass is going to be there and I just so happen to be blogging over at her site today about my favourite furniture hack.
Do you have an guesses what it is? Head on over to find out!

Will I be seeing any more of you on Saturday? I hope so loves.
xox

Favourite Furniture Fridays: Michaela Noelle Designs

Hello to The Designer Lifestyle readers! I'm Michaela and I share my life as an interior design student and lover of all things lavender and pretty over at Michaela Noelle Designs. I'm thrilled to be over here today showing off one of my favorite pieces of furniture.

At the beginning of last school year, I moved into a new house with some friends in Seattle.  Turns out that the room I would be living in is really the dining room of the house, so I had a serious transformation on my hands! I decided to try not to buy any furniture from "standard" superstores {target, ikea, etc} and instead, hunt for the perfect furniture at flea markets and consignment shops. I found my dresser at a local Seattle consignment store and took it home, only to stare it at for a few days blankly. It needed something. New knobs were a must- but it was calling for something else to make it really sparkle.

My love for chevron is very apparent if you pop over to my blog, so I decided to take my favorite pattern and paint it on my dresser. After a few hours of measuring, taping, painting, touching up and adding knobs, here's my favorite dresser:

 

While some may feel chevron is overdone or trendy, I beg to differ and happen to think it will be here for a long while! It's one of the earliest patterns to be created, and just adds a touch of zig-zag to the ever-classic stripe. Have I convinced you yet?! :)

Thank you, Tiffany, for having me here today!
xo

Michaela is one of my fave bloggers! She is so down to earth, and talented (clearly!). Please give her some love! Thanks so much for sharing girl!

If you have a piece of furniture that you'd like to share, please e-mail me at thedesignerlifestyle@gmail.com
xo Tiffany leigh

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all of my dear followers. Just like on Valentine's Day when I left you an inspirational pink room, today I'll leave you with the most perfect pastel room that you ever did see, dressed in all the tones of spring and Easter. It's the living room of Ana Antunes, and I'm a little bit obsessed with it.

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Have a blessed day.
xox Tiffany Leigh

If this dress were a couch {# 2}...

If this dress were a couch...

It would be a barely there creamy satin settee with a deep scoop back and some fabulous glittering gold pillows.

Now the only question is, how does one move in such a short little number? xox Tiffany Leigh

ps. Check out part one of this series HERE