3 Design Rules For A House With Style

I am paralyzed with indecision.

This is unusual for me. We need a rug in the mud room. I love the stripes, the nautical look (and the price!) of this one from Home Decorators. (It's $53 for a runner, people. $53 with no shipping charges!)

But alas, the rug sports lots of white.

This pic is of our current mudroom rug, complete with the dog hair it attracts and shows off like Leonardo DiCaprio and supermodels. 

Clearly, white is a problem for us here at Guru Girl Enterprises.

So, uncharacteristically, I am resisting the Siren call of online shopping, and I am remembering design tips I’ve learned the hard way.

Design Rules*

(*for a Family Friendly House With Style)

1.      Pick durable materials. 

     No silk shantung or linen.

Anywhere.

Ever.

For my mudroom, an outdoor rug with its bulletproof material is the way to go. There are some great looking ones out there. (Ballard Designs & Cost Plus are my favorite sources.)

2.   Be disciplined with color choice.

For foolproof decorating, choose 2 main colors for big furniture and 2 or 3 accent colors for accessories.

Limit yourself to this color palette in all you buy, and your house will suddenly reflect the ineffable “flow” of a swanky hotel. (Minus those gross, morning-after, room service trays left in the hall.)

At Guru Girl Enterprises our main colors are brown and golden yellow. Accents are crimson and a dusty blue, with the occasional hit of orange.

So for me this rule means the mudroom rug should be brown or yellowish with maybe a pattern in crimson, blue or orange.

3.     Pick a style and stick to it. 

     No decorating the kitchen in French Country, the family room in Boho Chic and the bedroom in Hollywood Glam.

This rule means the nautical rug I love is out. Because there is nothing else beachy casual about my house. I’ve got more of a rustic, Pottery Barn vibe going on. That style should inform my design choices, even down to the mudroom rug.

Phew. “Guru Girl, this is a lot of thought just for a rug purchase,” you’re thinking.

It’s true that at first, this thought process is time intensive, but it soon becomes second nature (like burrito wrapping a baby).

Then, it actually saves you time, money and sanity. (Unlike that burrito wrapped baby who, although cute, also costs you all of the above.)

Imagine, the next time you’re at Ikea, overwhelmed by the choices. But unlike the mad lemming shoppers all around, you resist the impulse buy. Instead, you think of your design rules and make the informed choice.

And presto! You bypass bad decorating, shopper’s guilt and the annoying exchange process. Return home, burrito wrap yourself in your favorite blanket and enjoy your favorite design show on t.v.

Happy decorating, guru girls & guys!

1 Shoe To Put Pep In Your Step: The Lillian Suede Low Wedge

I missed the MTV Movie Awards last night. I have, in fact, missed the entire network for the last 6 months. Don’t even know what channel MTV’s on anymore.

As far as pop culture betrayals go, this is big. Like Gwyneth-And-That-Coldplay-Guy-Break Up big. Because I thought MTV and I were going to go the distance.

Apparently, no. But here’s a relationship I’d bet on instead: guru girl and the J.Crew low wedge. Because it has all 3 things a spring shoe should feature:

1.      A beige color. (Elongates the leg and goes with everything.)

2.    A low heel. (Easier to walk in because there’s a little height but not so much height that you’re teetering.)

3.    A casual style. (Looks great but not like you’re trying too hard.)

Like a rock star who also does yoga, this shoe checks all the boxes a girl could want. (Unless the girl is a movie star and not very open to the whole groupie thing.)

So, this shoe is, in fact, better than your average rock star because it will make you look great, feel great and the only medical issue it will make you fear are blisters. (Click this link to go to jcrew.com to see the lillian suede low wedge, available for around $129.99.)

The "Must Have" Spring Wardrobe Pick*

The "Must Have" Spring Wardrobe Pick*

*bigger than Kim Kardashian's "Vogue" cover. Not an, ahem, small task. 

Like Kerry Washington and her preggo tummy, I am also fairly bursting… with great fashion ideas.

Had you concerned for a minute there, didn’t I? No, no. The baby shop is closed here at guru girl but the fashion shop remains open, open, open! Especially since I read many a fashion mag over spring break.

Here is my favorite spring fashion pic: this versatile motorcycle jacket. Available for only $78 at Kohl’s. It’s true! Runway designer Peter Som has unleashed his beachy chic clothes on strip malls across America.

Throw this lightweight jacket on over a dress for an instant edgy yet casual vibe. It’s also the perfect topper for boyfriend jeans and a body skimming tee.

Think of this as the classy version of your favorite jean jacket and wear accordingly. May you be as fashion forward as our favorite “Scandal” vixen. Minus the “must save the free world” scowl. 

Make A Gallery Style Photo Collage: For Less Than $25

Spring break is in the air, guru girls and guys! And you know what that means. Tequila slammers!

Sorry, 90s flashback. Spring break means pictures. Lots of pictures. Not pitchers.

Many of you are escaping somewhere tropical or snowy or, in my case, scorpion-filled.

And on vacation you’ll take some really great pictures, which will then languish on your phone or Instagram account.

Unless you try this great new display I just saw!

Make yourself a gallery wall of vacation pictures. For less than $25. For realz.

Here’s how:

1.      On vacation, make sure to take pictures of more than just your friends and family. Take random shots of cool scenery. Think street signs, flowers, iron gates, funky looking storefronts. Zoom in as tightly as you can so the object fills the entire frame.

2.    Back at home, print out 25 of the best shots, including lots of your scenic ones. The scenic ones are key to giving your display that modern look. Walmart and Walgreens both print pics on the cheap. (Walgreens’ prints are as low as 20 cents per print.)

  

3.    Get thyself a giant sheet of foam board. You can get medium sized ones from Target and big ones from crafting stores like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby. (The 20 x 30 foam board retails for $6 at Hobby Lobby.)

4.    Glue your 25 chosen pictures in rows onto the board.

5.     Frame it up! In a ginormous frame that you’ve picked up from Ikea.  There are dozens of sizes – the Nyttja style fits the 20 x 30 foam board perfectly and sells for $9.99.

Voila! You have yourself a gallery-worthy art piece that doesn’t make you scratch your head and wonder what in the heck just happened.

Uh oh. There goes that pesky 90s flashback again.

Try this photo display and the only thing you’ll be flashing back to is the great vacation you just took.

Happy spring break, guru girls & guys! 

Ignite Your Spring Wardrobe: 2 Great Buys

This just in: climate change and global exploration could release long dormant diseases.

Yup. Scientists just found an ancient virus buried in Syria.

How it is we can unearth a virus from 2,000 years ago but have no idea where that Malaysian plane went?

What good is all this GPS stuff when we can’t find a million dollar airplane, but we can’t help finding stuff like ancient viruses meant to be buried forever?

This development is upsetting for hypochondriacs like me. Because I don’t think they make vitamin supplements big enough to protect from Jurassic era superbugs. And I’m tired of spending my sheckels on magnesium and Vitamin D.

They’re much better spent on cute, spring clothes like my lastest fav: this baseball jersey style sweater from J. Crew. Paired with this blinged out necklace? (Also from J. Crew.) Sporty and glam.(Click this link to visit j.crew factory site for more info about the sweater and necklace.) Sweater is available for $45.50. 

It’s just the sort of unexpected combo that’s all the rage this spring. Unexpected in a good way, not unexpected in the “guess how the world is ending this week” kind of way.

Buy it, wear it, laugh in the face of doomsday predictors… or be one of them, but with style more killer than the Ebola virus. 

St. Patrick's Day Rainbow Cake: The Truth Revealed

So I still stand by the St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Cake that I recommended in the previous post. But I have to make a few clarifications.

Hopefully, this will not be as embarrassing as in college when I had to go to the registrar and clarify my reason for withdrawing from the class I’d signed up for: “Uses Of War”.

This class was a foolish waste of an elective for a liberal arts major like me. It also covered lots of gruesome war-related things and featured no cute boys, which was the whole reason I signed up for it in the first place.

I discovered all these things after attending the first class meeting. It was unfortunate. As was my meeting with the registrar, who forced me to explain it all. There is nothing that sobers you up faster than having to verbalize your flibberty gibbet ways to an authority figure.  

And I am happy to say that I took the rest of my college career very seriously, keeping academics at the forefront of my mind and boys at the very, very back of it.

Mostly.

Sometimes, in life, reality includes some unhappy truths. I’m not saying that’s the case with this fine Rainbow Cake. But I am saying it is different than advertised.

Now that I’ve made it, I know. Here’s what you should know too, before embarking on the Rainbow Cake:

1.      This is not a fast cake to make. There are lots of steps. Allocate plenty of time. Don’t get distracted. Or leave the cake alone in the same room as the dog.

2.    Do not skip the parchment paper step. I am always tempted to skip steps like these that feature extraneous products. Don’t give in to the temptation.

Line each of your pans with parchment paper that you’ve cut to fit the shape. This makes dumping the baked cake out of the pan an absolute snap, which is important because you’ll be doing it 4 times!

3.    You’re going to be cleaning up. A lot. Multiply the clean up factor of making one cake by 4. Because you’re making 4 mini cakes so that means 4 bowls, 4 spoons, 4 pans. 4 times the amount of cleaning, people! Clearly, I could have been a math major in college.

4.    Buy extra frosting. One frosting can doesn’t cut it. Because this isn’t just a cake. It’s a creation. A creation that is tall and starts to lean like the Tower Of Pisa if you don’t have enough frosting to stabilize the layers. Or if, like me, you try to make do with only one frosting can because you’ve already done a last minute trip to the grocery store to get the parchment paper you initially forgot and you simply refuse to go again.   

5.     Go with 4 layers, not 6. The initial recipe calls for 6 layers. I think you get the same effect with 4.

The cake was a little trickier to make than I initially thought, but I’m glad I did it. I think the now-11 year old is gonna be psyched when she digs into it tonight at the family birthday bash.

Happy baking guru girls & guys!

St. Patrick's Day Dessert To Wow Friends & Family

Every year in March I get the same request from the 10 year old as she plans her birthday celebration: “Mommy, will you make your famous cupcakes?”

And every year I magnanimously nod my head, before I dash out to the store to get the Pillsbury cake mix I use to make "my" famous cupcakes.

I may not be a creative baker, but I am a creative presenter. Here are "my" famous cupcakes that we recently made for literacy night at the elementary school. We chose to depict the childhood classic “Aliens Love Underpants”.

We did not win. Which was a disappointment.

But not as big a disappointment as the birthday treats I made for the 3^rd graders a few years ago. They had a class snake named Montie, whom they loved. Naturally, the 10 year old decided her birthday treats should be rice krispie treats shaped like mini Montie’s.

So we made them. And we shaped them. And they certainly resembled something. Though not exactly the class pet.

I didn’t mention this to my child and hoped against hope that none of the 3^rd grade boys would bring it up. Which they didn’t.

Yet more proof the universe is not always brutish.

So there are a few “misses” in the baking column. But I’m feeling energized and ready to tackle a new cooking project for the birthday this month.

I just read about the rainbow cake. Which I think sounds fantastic, partly because it features my old standby – Pillsbury cake mix!

So I’m going to give it a go. Let’s be clear that “give it a go” means I shall be baking no less than 6 cakes, people. And going a little nuts with the food coloring.

You should try it too. For St. Patrick’s Day! Stage your rainbow cake with a little leprechaun figurine next to it. Cute and easy. Like Miley Cyrus. Allegedly.

Rainbow Cake Directions:

1.      Get yourself 2 boxes of white cake mix. Make up your batter and divide into 6 bowls.

2.    Add food coloring to get the different rainbow colors.

3.    Buy 6 disposable cake pans and line them with parchment paper.

4.    Pour batter evenly into the pans.

5.     Bake it up! But bake 5 to 10 minutes less than the cake package instructions tell you since the layers are pretty thin.

6.    Cool, stack and frost.

7.     Decorate with Skittles!

8.    Stage with your leprechaun figurine next to it. Get it, leprechaun at the end of the rainbow? (Don’t worry. Miley probably didn’t get it either.)  

Happy baking guru girls & guys!