Supernatural Botanicals

Do you obsess over your home’s design?  Are you constantly looking to books and magazines for great interior design ideas?  Is your DVR full of HGTV design shows?  Then you’ll love Design Sponge.   Design Sponge is one of the most popular design blogs in cyberspace, and has a celeb readership (Nate Berkus reads it regularly).   Design Sponge is packed full of great ideas to transform your home into your sanctuary.  Jump over and check out the blog here.

The prettier the vanity, the prettier the girl.  Having a well-designed makeup vanity, or makeup station,  not only acts as an addition to the aesthetics to your room, but also makes putting makeup on a far more enjoyable experience.  Being able to keep everything in oneplace simplifies your life and keeps you ultra organized.  Look at these designs for inspiration.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are the epitome of hippie-chic, and are known as the modern day pioneers of the throw-back style.  Long beachy hair, flowy tops, lots of bracelets, and cut off short-shorts are the makings of hippie-chic style.  It’s one of my favorite looks!  Here’s how to achieve it:

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To achieve beachy hair, wash, then only partially dry your hair with a high watt blow dryer.   Spray your hair with a texturizer (try Beach by Supernatural Botanicals), and scrunch with hands, then air dry.  It creates long, loose waves.  A center part (if you can do it) is ultra-hippie style.

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Loose fitting and flowy tops create an earthy, cool style.  Try Forever21.

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Everyone has tons of jeans.  Turn some of them into jean shorts.  While cutting them, cut longer than you think you need at first.  You can keep cutting them off until you acquire the right cut on you.  After cutting, pull the strings and fray them out a bit.  After several washes, they’ll be perfect.

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Accessories…and lots of them!  Wear lots and lots of bracelets.  Mix colors and textures together.  Scarves are a hippie staple as well.

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Nothing makes working more enjoyable than a beautiful office.  Be creative, be colorful, and steal some ideas from some of these gorgeous home offices.

Ensure that bedside lamps are the correct height with this little trick: When you’re sitting in bed, the lampshade bottoms should be at eye level so light will shine on your reading material not in your eyes.

Shapewear is certainly enjoying its time in the spotlight these days.

Shapewear is a different name for a girdle, the same kind of undergarment your mom and grandma wore.  It’s the elastic garment that cinches in  your body girth to give you a skinnier appearance, albeit, “about to pop” and “I can’t breathe” appearance.

Somehow, women seem to be embracing the new-school girdle and seem to be okay with it, as evidenced by its multimillion dollar sales in the US last year…although I can’t think of one man who would be okay with this look, with one exception, (and that exception being Dr. Rey).

Wouldn’t getting into shape be far more rewarding than squeezing your back fat or thighs into an apparatus that literally almost squeezes the breath out of you?  Didn’t Rob Lowe’s character in St. Elmo’s Fire (as he openly laughed at Mare Winningham’s character for wearing a girdle) steer you clear of even the consideration of wearing a girdle, er, shapewear?

Does the thought of having to eventually take your dress off for your significant other, or even worse, God-forbid, emergency medical staff, make you want to hit the treadmill instead of face the wrath of public humiliation?

Or does it?  The upside, after all, is having an appearance that divulges no bulges or flaws.  And if we look good on the outside of the dress, is that good enough for us to strap ourselves into elastic apparatus’ to conceal the real story?

What are your thoughts?  Shapewear…Love it or lose it?

Utilize plants all winter long to reduce fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses by more than 30 percent, partially by increasing humidity levels and decreasing dust.  Plants do wonders for the aesthetics of a room.  Home retailers, such as Home Depot, have beautiful 6′ plants for about $30.  Turn up the design element in the room with an up-light (also sold at Home Depot).  Putting a light underneath the plant’s branches will cascade shadows all over the room…it’s a gorgeous look.

The color blue, reminiscent of the sky and ocean water, is not only relaxing, it’s also the hue that makes us more creative.  Researchers from the University of British Columbia says the color blue can amp up your creativity.  Consider painting your office a sensational shade of blue and get your creativity flowing.  Want more ideas for a fantastic home office?  Check out Home Office Design Blog to get your office gorgeous and productive.

The Ravel Hotel Rooftop Bar and Lounge, NYC.

“I like my body now, at 47, better than ever.  It’s taken a lot of hard work at the gym.”  Designer Marc Jacobs on his incredible new buff body.  Kudos, Mr. Jacobs.  You look sensational!