The Girl Cave

Eeeek! Guys, I am so totally happy to finally share all of these photos with you :) I know some of you have seen the amazing feature that the sweet Jen put together over at Made By Girl. But I too wanted to share the beautiful photos Jenna McKenzie took because I have loved 'em to pieces since the moment I got them back. Looking back on all of my Girl Cave progress posts from the past few months (which you can find here, here and here) it seems like I've really talked this space up; so I am hoping that these photos fill your expectations and more. And I hope all you chicks out there find the inspiration to morph a space in your home, into the perfect cave for you. Thank you so much, Jen! Big hugs. And Jenna, you're a rockstar. Xo

Like I mentioned over at Made By Girl, I've since traded out the blue nailhead chair for two purple-gray armless versions (which are pretty rad), and flip flopped the furniture in my office to better accommodate clients and guests. But I have to say I just love that blue chair and thought it was an awesome purchase for $299 (HomeGoods). It currently sits in our bedroom. The silver lamp base is from Ikea and the white lampshade is from Target. The zebra carpet which has quickly become one of my most favorite details in the room, is from Overstock and was a deal at $180. And remember those white acrylic chairs I told you all that I hated? Well I bought the carpet once I returned the chairs. The white waste basket was $9 from HomeGoods and is used to house my wrapping paper and ribbon. It's a fun little detail that adds a little colour to the room.

My desk is the Josephine desk from World Market, and was on sale for $170 when I bought it back in February. It has a few chips and scratches on it now from bumping it into things during our move, but I adore it because it looks like a cross between West Elm's Parsons Desk (which I wanted so badly but couldn't justify buying) and a desk I loved over at Crate and Barrel. The drawer doesn't open nearly far enough but I love my desk and hope to use it for at least the new few years. My silver cake stands are from Target and my gold rimmed blue tumblers are from a vintage shop downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. The white book case is from Ikea (and is such a versatile piece). The white rhino head was a birthday present from my husband for my 25th birthday; remember how badly I wanted this guy? He's from Z Gallerie, and my turquoise geometric print dress is from Lulus. The silver gymnast statue was a birthday gift from my sweet Mum, when I was growing up.

I just love having that pink wall. It's totally my fave thing in our apartment (I don't remember the colour but it's a Martha hue). My gray desk chair is from World Market and is actually a dining room chair. It was on sale for $100. The pink cake stands are from Marshalls. The white bowl is vintage, as are the sea foam green wall hooks. The Mrs hanger is from LilaFrances on etsy and is from our wedding. The green floral print and pink Greek key pillows were hand sewn by me and the white pillow is a ring bearer pillow from Hobby Lobby. The pink flower stud earrings are from Forever 21 (Christina, I know you asked :) and the milk glass vases are vintage etsy. My curtains are from Target and are clipped back to the wall because they are too long. And I'm too lazy to sew 'em. And they're clipped to the wall with thumbtacks. That's how I roll, people.

Be jealous of my peonies. Sometimes I find myself staring intently at them for long periods of time. And you can be a little jealous of my vintage teal tea cart too. I love that it doesn't really match anything in the entire room; except my blue tumblers. One day I'll use the cart and the tumblers to start a really cool mini bar but until then it houses my craft supplies. And it's pretty to look at.

Keep Calm and Hey Gorg On, blogettes. I don't care what everyone seems to say these days about these posters becoming cliche. I love my custom Keep Calm print; it was custom framed at Hobby Lobby. The silver frame on the white shelf is a vintage find and the canvas of the bouquet is from my first Inspiration Shoot and the one that Style Me Pretty featured on Valentines Day. My floral dress is from Forever 21 and the wire letter "R" is Anthropologie. Gray cardigan from Express.

And because everyone loves a good Before and After...

One more just for kicks:

And proof that Girl Cave's make you really happy. See?

Oh and because this little guy works overtime to keep me company all day and night, I had to include some him in here too!

Hugs, everyone!

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My Office Redo {Part 3}

I have a confession for you guys. My office also known as Hey Gorg Headquarters (ha!) is pretty much done. Meaning I have an awesome new girl cave space to hang out in, do work in and if need be, have meetings with my brides in. I am currently waiting on a few more details to perfect the look and a custom framing order to come in but I have to say it's the cutest space in our entire apartment. I feel so at peace in my office and just love what the room represents to me. The cave will be getting her photos taken (yeah I referred to it as 'her') the first week of June so by the end of next month I should have some official photos to share with you. Here I thought I'd share the last little bit of progress I've made without giving away too much!

A few weeks ago Andrew tried to help me hang a white IKEA shelf on my pink wall. I really wanted the wall directly behind my desk to have a shelf and pretty print on it. However, due to how ghetto our apartment truly is, we found the wall bowed really deeply in the middle making it impossible to fasten the shelf onto the wall. So after I sulked for about two point five minutes I decided the shelf could call the gray wall home. See? Isn't my husband such a diligent girl cave helper outter?

So while husband worked on hanging the shelf, I got to work on unwrapping my newest office purchase; my two knock off acrylic cradle chairs from Overstock. I was pretty stoked to get these in the mail and couldn't wait to put them together. In my head they seemed like the perfect addition to my girl cave, providing a little bit of retro in an otherwise very feminine and soft space. They were $200.00 for the set and I thought they'd be great because I could clean them easily and if they needed to be moved, they were easy enough to put somewhere else.

But once they were set up, I wasn't really feeling them. They were too white against the rest of my furniture. And too plastic. And I hated how you could see through the base of them to where plugs and other things I would rather remain hidden would be (I am a cord snob and do my best to always hide them whenever I can). So while husband played with Yurchenko like a good Dad, I sat and tried super duper hard to make myself like these chairs because after all, they took a good hour to put together and no one likes having to return big purchases like this. I actually sat for about an hour stewing over my decision.

But I didn't like em. And couldn't make myself like em. So I rearranged the room. Switched the desk and lamp. Moved the bookcase. And tried to make the chairs work. I sat in the corner of the room trying to visualize everything together but yet again I was completely stumped on what to do; nothing seemed to work and nothing felt completely right. I didn't know where my tea cart would go now and I would still have the problem of my lamp cord being visible through the wire base of the chairs. My problem was starting to look like it wasn't a matter of where the chairs would go but rather, if the chairs should stay.

So any guesses what I did next? :) Can't wait for the big reveal so soon!

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My Office Redo {Part 2}

Happy Monday everyone. As promised here it is; Part 2 of my office redo efforts (you can catch Part 1 over here). And I've been getting in the ridiculous habit of calling my office the Hey Gorgeous Events headquarters that how much I'm digging this project so far. Yup, almost all 200 square feet of my space is given such a fancy name in my books. How in the world did I become ever so lame? Sigh. Anyway read on and see if you can spot the few changes and additions that have been made. A little I Spy if you will. It'll be fun.

I know what you're thinking though. "But Rhi, not much has changed since your last office redo post!" and to be fair, you're right. Not a whole lot has. I am however trying to keep things somewhat a surprise since I am hoping to have a photog come over to snap some photos of my new space and me in that new space for the new changes I have stored over here. Muahaha. I'm so sneaky sneaky right? Once everything is in place and cleaned up I just know my little office will be equal parts cozy, inspirational and representative of me and my business - three things that were uber important to me before setting out on this revamp endeavor. The walls are 95% finished and the pink wall behind my desk is so adorable and even more perfect that I could have ever imagined. On Sunday, Apb's mom came over to help me fix up the creases where the ceiling meets the walls and I did my best to set up my new book case, put together my new lamp base, and get things organized and in order. So far it is starting to look like something. Something to call my own. And check out that new vintage blue tea cart. I am obsessed with it. And love where it currently sits. Can't wait to show you all the little details!

Don't be too taken aback now by how good I look when I paint.

Some of the things I still need to get are chairs (or one chair) for a sitting area, a small side table, my rhino head from Z Gallerie, a lamp shade for my new lamp, some photos framed for the pink wall, a shelf hung on the pink wall, one last chunk of wall painted (the wall behind the door you can see in the above photo to the left), a mirror for my walk in closest, a trash bucket, and perhaps a carpet for over in my sitting area. Any recommendations for a cheap place to buy pretty chairs or a cheap rug? Do you think a rug would be too busy?

What do you guys think so far? Be honest :) Xo

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My Office Redo {Part 1}

This my friends, is a little awkward. Showing you photos of our little unfurnished, undecorated and rather dingy apartment that is. I feel sort of naked and the photos? Well they just ain't pretty. And I just said ain't. Ew, Rhi. Ew. I gave a little shout out on Twitter asking you guys if you wanted some progress pictures of my attempts to make my first office serve as an inspirational work space and the results sort of blew me away; seems you guys wanna watch this little baby morph into something pretty just as much as I do. Let's go!

This doozie of a room is my office. It's supposed to be the 'master' bedroom in our 1,000 square foot apartment but the layout is tres crappy. There's a bathroom door in one wall which you can see above, an entry door on another, a closet door on a third (where I am standing to take the above photo) and a window on the fourth wall which is off to the right. Our large queen size bed would have had to go under the window had we of decided to make it our master. No thanks. Also, the 'spare' bedroom has bay windows. Which Apb and I love having in our bedroom. So the master has become my girl cave. Three cheers for girl caves everywhere!

Now let me inform you a little on the joys of renting (as if you didn't know). I can't wallpaper anything (sad face), the carpet breaks my heart with it's ugliness (this girl wants hardwood) the doors are dark nasty faux wood (I despise them) and the list goes on. I do realize things could be way worse but I have a weakness for pretty surroundings. So this little project to spruce up my space has become a task of clever design and thinking a bit outside the box; two important qualities of any successful stylist, no? First up: we have the paint. And the painter I hired on contract. Aka my husband. I picked a Martha Stewart gray called Nimbus Cloud for three walls and a Behr pink called First Waltz for the accent wall behind my desk. P.S. I'm not normally as messy as the photo shows. Promise.

The door to my closest directly above, I am hoping to remove and replace with something a bit more neutral like perhaps a curtain or even nothing at all since my closest is fairly organized and my wardrobe is in my opinion a mixture of fun patterns and colours. The desk and chair are both from World Market and my milk glass vase filled with fresh tullies is vintage. And yes indeed that is a pile of approximately 23 Hershey Kisses wrappers from the deliciousness I ate today. Thanks for noticing my chocolate addiction.

Like mentioned above behind me will be my pink accent wall. I picked the wall colours to match my branding and because well, I love em and they continually leave me happy and inspired. Behind me will be a white shelf on the pink wall, filled with various sized frames and canvases of the shoots and weddings I have done. In the corner where you see my husband painting, will be my client area with a seating section, throw rug, side table and cubed IKEA bookcase (I don't care what you say they are affordable and great for organizing tons of your stuff). I have a fun collection of cake stands I am hoping to show off too and a few other quirky plans for making this office pretty cozy so stay tuned for more progress posts! Thoughts so far? Xo

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