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White Out

Ode to this glooorrrrious time of year when we’re on the cusp of Fall… ye know, when leaves start to turn and everything smells like cinnamon spice and looks like tartan plaid & pumpkins… (well – in most parts of the world).  And I am SO trying to channel that nostalgic, elusive feeling of Fall here in SoCal – what with all my windows open and fans on and Harvest Apple candles about to burn down the house. But alas – gowel, it’s 87 d*mN degrees outside.  And while perhaps I should be dreaming in autumnal shades of ochre / persimmon / deep garnet, all I’ve been gravitating towards this week are shades of white.  Maybe it’s because it’s been hazy and chilly here this week in the mornings.. (?)  Or maybe it’s cuz of this:

F. Scott Fitzgerald Quote | Covet Living

Maybe my affinity pour blanche has to do with what my boy Scooter said: it’s the spirit of wiping the slate clean first and starting over again with a blank canvas (which, as it turns out, I do feel like I’m doing in my life – and that’s another post)… but whatever the reason, see below.  And exhale.  And maybe if you have the 1989 album, turn on my girl T-Swift’s “Clean”.

{ my favorite kind of outfit }

White on White | Covet Living

{big, big sigh}

Wash Out | Covet Living

{stunner}

Coleen McGill Design Group | Covet Living

{what sundays are made of}

Low Back, Low Bun | Covet Living

{çava, my old friend}

Paris Rooftops | Covet Living

{I think I forget}

Love | Covet Living

{unknown source but picasso / matisse-esque}

Nude Sketch, Source Unknown | Covet Living

{that hardware – i can’t even}

Sweet Brass Cabinet Hardware | Covet Living

{waterworks sink.  if i could only afford that sink or a shower, i’d take that sink and have it double as a bird bath.}

waterworks sink | covet living

{clean}

White Bathroom | Covet Living

{my wildest wardrobe dreams: isabel marant}

Isabel Marant Sweater | Covet Living

{so warm.  i love everything in atlanta homes mag.}

ATL Homes Kitchen | Covet Living

{head to toe perfection, sans the scowl}

Neutrals on White and Denim | Covet Living

{laguna 6 by zio bios creative}

Laguna 6, Zoe Bios Creative | Covet Living

{black shower doors are all the rage… but so is this}

White Shower Doors | Covet Living

{#truth}

It's All Messy Quote | Covet Living

{the sweetest little old fashioned kitchen… note the detail and how the wee range slides in on top of the baseboard.}

Antique Kitchen | Covet Living

{denim + white = perfection.  always.}

White Blouse and Jeans | Covet Living

{but that gold backsplash}

White Kitchen, Gold Backsplash | Covet Living

Next week, pumpkins and lattes and flannels and jewel tones – honest.  And PS I’m sorry the formatting is jacked up on here – Karrie and I, in our infinite confusion over the techie back-end of our blog, can’t figure it out.  And PPS I’m sorry we’ve blogged like 4x this year.  We both love doing it SO MUCH and love all you wonderful people who follow along, so we’re making it more of a priority.  Pinky promise.

xoxo!

Steph's Scanned Signature

 

Bohemian Garden Party

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Last weekend, I hosted a birthday party (on the front lawn) for one of my beloved gal pals, Hope… she’s the kind of person who doesn’t know strangers, always makes everything fun, always includes everyone (aka the anti-mean-girl – and you can’t get enough of those), has an easy-breezy and ever-positive spirit, an infectious love of life and a larger-than-life love for Taylor Swift.  Which has infected ALL OF US, including yours truly:

Taylor Swift Concert | Covet Living

Anyhoo.  Besides kicking ass at life, Hopes (a fellow design guru) is also insanely creative and has mad ingenuity.  For her birthday this year, she wanted to do a “laid back dinner outside” with just a handful of her closest friends… and had a fun, boho vision of laying out blankets and lanterns around a low table.  As soon as she said that, I knew we were about to embark on something magical in a Woodstock / flower power sort of way. This was the vibe we were going for:

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

And – YOU GUYS – I gotta tell ya… this was SO EASY.  So I promise you can do it at home this weekend if you wanna.  We only had a few days to plan and for a second, Lilly (my co-conspirator, aka Princess Jasmine) and I panicked and thought we were going to have to rush order all sorts of hippie hoopla from Etsy, buy West Elm out of lanterns, etc… And theeeeennnn we decided to just chillax and try to use what we already had.  Here’s what we needed:

  • String Lights (and some way to hoist/rig ’em up over the table)
  • Low Table (at the height you can sit on the ground and eat)
  • Blankets
  • Pillows
  • Lanterns
  • Flowers (for centerpieces)
  • Flowers (for flower crowns – more of Hope’s genius vision)
  • Tableware
  • Gold chargers
  • Temporary tattoos (duh)

We also thought about trying to make everything match and coordinate, and then (psssssht) threw caution to the wind and decided that – whateva – it’s boho, yo.  The curtains aren’t supposed to match the drapes… (this all goes back to my theory about how when you put a bunch of things in a room that you love, they somehow miraculously look great.)  Here’s how it all shook out:

SATURDAY, 12PM:

Hope (with her Chicago besties in tow) brings over some stuff she had at home: blankets, pillows, votives, tea lights & gold chargers.  And flowers she picked up from the market… for centerpieces and (duh) for flower crowns.

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Boho Party Inspo | Covet Living

SATURDAY, 12:30PM

Some dude delivers a massive, 300lb parquet dining table that Hope just bought off of Craigslist for $20.  Girlfriend can scout a deal, I tell ya.

Craigslist Table | Covet Living

But since she wants us to sit on the ground, we know we have to hack off the legs. So we plop down around my coffee table to gage how high we want it, settle on 17″H, and measure/mark the legs on the new table… remove them (luckily, they screwed off) and Hope ran to Home Depot to have them cut down (there’s usually a small fee to do this, but the nice fella with the saw did it for free for her.  Aww.)

SATURDAY, 1:30PM

Temporary tattoos {from Pigment}, check.

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Pick up cupcakes from Pure Cupcakes down the street. #nomnomnom // {Meanwhile, Princess Jasmine is baking a homemade lasagna and scooping up a salted caramel cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.  Otherwise, we pot lucked it.}

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

SATURDAY, 2PM

Gus resting up for the festivities.  The excitement of party prep has already sidelined him.  Obviously.

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

SATURDAY, 5PM

Hope comes over to help start setting up.  Neither of us have showered, and nothing’s set up yet.  Party starts at 6:30pm.  NBD.

First order of biz: rigging the string lights.  We only had one measly string of lights and no trees close enough to hang them from, so we stuck some old pieces of molding (pulled from a heap of &^$# in my landlord’s garage) in a pot and weighted it down with bricks.  It only fell about 18x before we finally stuck the landing:

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Then we heave-ho’d the table out and laid blankets/pillows around it.  I scored the vintage batik runner on Etsy a few months ago:

Boho Garden Party | Covet Living

We set the table with the votives and flowers Hopers brought + a bunch of mismatched antique glassware I’ve been collecting since before Baby Jesus was born.

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Extra blankets got draped over the backs of the Adirondack chairs to make them a bit cozier.  I bought the giant lily lanterns at Celadon Home in Charleston about 10 years ago.

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

{Hopes putting out the last few Moroccan poufs}

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

6:30PM: TABLE SET!

{Chargers – $1 at Michael’s // ikat plates & plastic silverware – $1 at Wal-Mart // floral napkins & confetti – leftover from a wedding shower Karrie recently threw // antique glassware, Mexican bowl and runner – from the depths of my closet}

Bohemian Table | Covet Living

6:45PM: BOHO YARD PARTY COMMENCES

{to the tune of T-Swift – if you really wanna play along listen here}

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

boho yard party | covet living

7PM: DIY FLOWER CROWN CRAFTING COMMENCES

{Easy tutorial here}

DIY Flower Crowns | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

…even Gus was in on it.

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

He loves his Aunt Hope.

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

8PM: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

How cute is she?? Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

8PM – MIDNIGHT

Taylor gets louder & louder… Gus takes 400 laps around the table to show everyone his stuffed animal, then disembowels it on the lawn… neighbors try to complain about the noise but then decide coming over for birthday cake is a better plan, we may or may not have camped on the lawn, etc.  Good times.

boho garden party | covet living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living
Bohemian Yard Party | Covet Living

So the moral of the story is: Gowel… don’t stress!  Use as much of what you already have around the house as you can, don’t worry about everything matching, and have everybody bring a dish so you don’t have to do all the cooking.  Teamwork is a wonderful thing. #Girlsquad #easybutton

Howeva – if you don’t happen to have string lights & kanthas & colorful tableware just laying (is it laying or lying??) around, here are a few picks I love:

Boho Yard Party | Covet Living

edison bulb string lights, target, $24.99 :: vintage hmong batik runner, similar to shown, about $79 :: chatoyant tumbler, anthropologie, $10 :: geometric appliqué pillow, target, $24.99 :: tie dye lumbar pillow, target, $24.99 :: fleur & frond bowls, west elm, $8 each :: faceted lanterns, west elm, $49-$69 :: bohemian kantha quilt, etsy, $89 (UM – I *LOVE* THIS ONE – somebody better go buy it before I do.)

As for the morning after… have truer words ever been spoken?

the morning after | covet living

xoxo!!

Steph's Scanned Signature