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INTRODUCING JAMIESHOP.COM


Have you ever been reading Elle Decor or House Beautiful and noticed how many of the items in their product round-ups are "to the trade?" You could stumble upon the dining table of your dreams only to realize you'd need an interior designer to hook you up. Enter the online buying service jamieshop.com, the brainchild of L.A. designer Jamie Herzlinger. 
Sign up on her website, shop the trade catalogs on her website, and score the items you've dogeared for as much as 40% off retail. 

With designers like Bungalow 5, Jan Showers, Marjorie Skouras (my favorite!), Scalamandre, Schumacher, and hundreds more, you'll have access to top designers at the best prices available. Whether you're furnishing your dream home or searching for one perfect finishing touch, jamieshop.com is a brilliant way to get designer products at a discount.

*This post is sponsored by jamieshop.com, a site I genuinely love and endorse. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Design Darling possible!

LABOR DAY SALES!


This week cannot end soon enough... Not the best in my book. Can you say retail therapy? Fashion week is right around the corner which means I've been doing a lot more shopping than usual. Whether you're headed to the city or simply welcoming September in style, here are a few Labor Day sales you should know about... Plus a few of my top picks from each!

C. Wonder: 25% off full-price items with code LABORDAY


Joie: 20% sale items with code LABORDAY13


Nordstrom: Up to 40% off shoes

- Shopbop: new markdowns just added


- Tory Burch: 20% off purchases of $300+, 25% off purchases of $500+, 30% off purchases of $750+ with code LABOR DAY

OUTFIT {C. WONDER}

Silk pocket skirt (want this in every color!)  //  Stretch jodhpur patch leggings

Have you guys heard about C. Wonder's Get Prepped campaign? Carly and I had a blast choosing items from the new collection and styling them for cooler weather ahead (naturally we chose the same shoes...). I'd previously only shopped C. Wonder for home decor so it was kind of fun to put together an entire look. I'm totally into these jodhpur leggings for fall but I'm having a legit love affair with this shirt — it costs less than $100 and comes in seven colors so you know I'll be stocking up. 

P.S. You can find my eyeglasses here!


HOW TO DRINK MORE WATER

I can finally cross #19 off my 101 in 1001 list. It's embarrassing to admit but this is definitely the goal that I started and stopped the most number of times... Drinking that much water is tough! Here's what worked for me this time around to finally get me on the right track.


1. Have a concrete, measurable goal in mind.
"Drink more water" sounds a New Year's resolution that starts with the best intentions but never gets accomplished because it's so vague. I went shopping for one huge bottle of water and found a 50 ounce bottle. I decided that to go from roughly 0-8 ounces of water a day (sad but true) to consuming this huge bottle would be major progress so that became my goal: drink 50 ounces of water each day for seven days. 

2. Decide how to measure your goal.
Like I said, I bought one huge bottle that I refilled each day. I liked being able to see exactly where I stood for the day and tried to hit the halfway point in the early afternoon. I felt ridiculous carrying the bottle outside of my apartment so I used my BKR bottle (I have the pink pictured above) to pour water from the big bottle into a smaller, more transportable option.

3. Have a buddy.
Eddy works with me in my apartment three days a week and is great about drinking water every day so it was super helpful to have him encouraging and reminding me to keep drinking. There were definitely times when I was sick of going to the bathroom every ten minutes or felt so full and so sick of the taste of water... It was nice to have someone who could make me keep going when I needed a kick. Coworkers, family, or friends would all make great partners!

4. Keep your goal top of mind.
It's easy to start drinking water in the morning and forget about your goal before lunchtime. Having one big bottle at my desk was a constant reminder of how much I'd consumed and how far I had to go. I also posted a little note on my fridge to remember to take it out each morning!

I know this might all sound a little silly (how hard could it be?) but it's definitely a healthy habit that I've struggled to adopt. How many of you are good at getting enough water? What has worked well for you? Let's hear it!

OUTFIT {FOUR EYES}


Consider this outfit my ode to back-to-school... Two years out of college. It's funny to think this tote got me through four years of college and now lugs my laptop to and from the coffee shop a couple days a week. My brothers head back to class this week which naturally has me thinking about back-to-school shopping, something I fully intend to do regardless of my zero plans to set foot in a classroom anytime soon. 

I finally got my eyes checked (for the first time since 2006, oooops!) as part of #83 on my 101 in 1001 list and had the hardest time picking out my new glasses. Unsurprisingly I landed on the same frames as my go-to sunglasses — I guess you could say I'm a creature of habit. They've made a huge difference (I'm literally seeing my neighborhood through new eyes) but seeing myself in glasses is definitely going to take some getting used to. Hellooo nerd alert. 

I hope those of you headed back to class this week have a wonderful semester! And for the rest of us... New "school" supplies, anyone?



HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR JEWELRY


I was totally overwhelmed by the positive feedback on my studio tour last week! I'm excited to break it down a little and share some projects and sources that have been particularly helpful for making it work in such a small space. Given the interest for this post on how to organize your clutches, I thought some of you might like to know how I organize my jewelry.

I started with these Container Store acrylic jewelry stands in two heights: one for bracelets and one for necklaces. I happen to own way more bracelets than necklaces so the taller one holds a mixture of the two. I keep my earrings and rings in boxes and trays — right now I have this on my windowsill and this on my bathroom counter.



My clutches and my jewelry sit on top of the dresser in my only closet (note to self: next apartment must have double the closet space). I like that the jewelry stands are clear so the surface of my dresser looks tidy and I can see all my accessories at a glance.

What do you think? Could you live with this organization system? How do you store and display your jewelry?

*photos by Trent Bailey for Glitter Guide


WEEKEND READING

Photo of the Louvre by my friend Kate. See where else I'm itching to travel here!

1. A funny (and smart) TED talk.

2. An affordable campaign desk. (Keep the brown wood or paint it!)

3. I just signed up for Netflix (#lateadopter) and can't wait to make my way through these recommendations. Any others you love?

4. I'll obviously be needing this striped quilted vest for fall/winter.

5. I'm pretty much drooling over my friend Katie's fashion week Pinterest board. Counting down the days!

6. Seriously digging the scarf print on this fall tote.

7. Sweatshirts and ruffles don't usually go hand in hand but this little number totally works.

8. It's me on Unabashedly Prep! I'm wearing this dress and these heels. Navy or nothing ;)

9. The obsession with all things scalloped continues.

10. Under $200?! This coat is almost too good to be true.


WEEKEND EYE CANDY


What. A. Week. I definitely took my own advice and ran myself ragged with work, doctor's appointments, and evenings with friends. Suffice it to say I was blown away by all the love for my little studio tour that went live on Tuesday. You guys even crashed their servers for a little bit... Amazing

After skydiving last weekend, I made more progress on my 101 in 1001 list by finally getting my eyes checked and buying glasses I don't actually hate. Oh and I'm three days into my goal to drink the recommended amount of water every day for a week — is it lame that I'm pretty sure this is the hardest goal on my list?

Today I'm meeting up with Eddy to run a mile in Central Park and hopefully live to tell the tale. I was a gymnast through high school, a cheerleader my freshman year in college, and I make it to the gym three times a week but I am not, not, not a runner. That said, I am very much a list-maker and hopefully the motivation of crossing another goal off my list will keep me putting one foot in front of the other. If you see a redhead collapsing in Central Park this afternoon, do stop and say hello.

 One more thing: this 101 in 1001 list wraps up at the end of September and I'm hard at work drafting my next list. I have about 80 tasks written down but I'd really love your input! If you or someone you know has written a similar list (bucket list, 25 before 25, 30 before 30, etc.), please email me or leave a link below. I'll take all the inspiration I can get!

Oh and join me on Pinterest for tons more eye candy every day of the week. Have a good one! xx

*Photos 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 


CHRISTOPHER BURCH'S SOUTHAMPTON HOME

Remember when Carly and I went out to Southampton with C. Wonder? (Pictures here, here, here, and here). We had the pleasure of eating lunch at founder Christopher Burch's home, which was just published in Architectural Digest. It was such a treat to take a virtual tour of the whole place having seen the grounds in person! No surprise here: my favorite room is the blue and pink master suite. How chic is that glossy white ceiling? Here are a few pieces to help you recreate the look chez vous



25% OFF AT J.CREW

Leather front top (want, need, have to have)  //  Calf hair wedges (totally remind me of these)
Lulu Frost solar earrings  //  Leather pocket sweater (basically my fall update to this)

Did you catch all the fall arrivals at J.Crew yesterday? Let's just say my wishlist tripled overnight. So much navy, so little time! The best part is you can take 25% off orders of $150+ with code FALLSTYLE at checkout. Scalloped mini, don't mind if I do! Shop all the new arrivals here!



LOTS OF LITTLE THINGS



 First of all, I have no idea how I survived long car trips or even coffee lines before the advent of Twitter. Lately I've been doing a better job remembering to tweet little tidbits of my day or random thoughts that pop into my head. I posted this a couple weeks ago and have been thinking about it a fair amount since. There are plenty of things on our calendars we all dread — deadlines, dentist appointments, etc. — but giving yourself lots of little things to look forward to can totally offset the nagging obligations. 

Around the same time, I stumbled upon this quote: "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." Gretchen Rubin's book (which I highly recommend!) repeats over and over, "The days are long, but the years are short." Both of these are such obvious sentiments that totally escape me in the day-to-day grind. Letting even one day pass by without fun or inspiration or progress is such a waste! Going a couple months without seeing friends turns way too quickly into "oh, I haven't seen her in years." Putting off goals on our bucket lists just makes it less likely that we'll ever cross everything off (hence my 101 in 1001 list!).

I'm trying to be more conscious about filling my days and weeks with lots of happy little moments: coffee with an old friend, dinner dates at new restaurants, happy hours with bloggers from out of town, meetings I'm actually excited about, and of course bigger goals and projects like those on my list. I miss so much when I decide I'm too busy or too tired to go out. It's way, way, way more rewarding to approach each day with energy and enthusiasm and collapse into bed each night exhausted but totally content. Now that I'm more aware of it, it's definitely something I'm going to make a concerted effort to improve about myself.

A few of the things I'm looking forward to right now? A Red Sox game with my dad, New York Fashion Week, a fall jaunt to Nantucket, a weekend trip to New Orleans, and — at the end of September — the start of my next list (wooohooo!).

Does any of this ring true for you? What's one thing you're looking forward to this week or this month? P.S. You can follow me on Twitter here if you're interested in more daily musings! 


SOCIETY SOCIAL GIVEAWAY!




In honor of my apartment tour on Glitter Guide today (!!!) , my dear friend Roxy of Society Social has offered to give away one Piper bow chair to one of you! This is literally my favorite item in my whole apartment and I couldn't be more excited to see one of you end up with its twin! To enter, simply follow the steps in the widget below and I'll contact the winner on Friday. Good luck!!!

6 DRUGSTORE BEAUTY BUYS

When it comes to makeup and skincare, there are definitely some things I deem worth the splurge. For instance, this tinted moisturizer will change your life and I literally get separation anxiety from this magic tool when I travel. But there are a few things I'm content to pick up at the drugstore — I'm totally the girl who stocks up on chapstick at the checkout counter then goes home and puts one in every bag, clutch, wallet, etc. Here are a few cheapie finds that work just as well as their $$$ counterparts:


The small (3.5 ounce) size will last you months if not years. I put it on my lips every night before bed but I've found it also works wonders on dry hands come winter.

I don't wear lipstick often but, when I do, I love this bright pink shade. There are so few shades I feel I can really wear as a redhead that, when I find one I like, I buy multiples!

The colors look pretty sitting on my bathroom counter and the brush makes for an even application and longer looking lashes every time. 

I use it with my Clarisonic every night. I refuse to spend money on something I'm quite literally washing down the drain and this leaves my skin feeling super soft.

I've always been pretty good about wearing sunscreen but lately I've been keeping an extra tube of this in my bag to apply to my hands before gel manicures. Better safe than sorry?

An inexpensive exfoliator that works all over... I'm sold.

I wasn't so sure how I felt about putting olive oil on my lips but one swipe and I was addicted. The texture is amazing but I'm seriously obsessed with the smell. I have made all my family and friends try it and the verdict is always the same: Must. Have.

Tell me: what are your favorite drugstore beauty buys? Most worthwhile splurges? Let's hear it!

P.S. Pop back over for an exciting announcement this afternoon!!!


LOREN HOPE LOOKBOOK


There's so much wardrobe inspiration in Loren Hope's fall lookbook styled by my sweet friend Sara Kate. The tortoiseshell glasses, the vintage yellow trench, not to mention all the fabulous baubles... It's a feast for the eyes. Shop my favorites from Loren's new collection in the slideshow below:

P.S. For those asking, the tortoiseshell glasses are Warby Parker's Winston frames. They're sold out in the tortoiseshell but you can scoop them up in black here or shop all their tortoiseshell frames here.

WEEKEND WARDROBE


All J.Crew, all the time.

This is actually the opposite of what I'll wearing this weekend because I'm home in Connecticut getting ready to — drumroll, please — SKYDIVE tomorrow! (Although, trust me, if you could jump out of a plane in chartreuse satin pumps, I'd be all over it.) Can you say best birthday present ever? I'm going with my brother Grayson and can't wait to cross #98 off my 101 in 1001 list. 

Who's already been skydiving? Who's dying to try it? Should I be shaking in my boots right now?! Do tell! And have a good one, whether you're laying low or, you know, leaping out of a plane at 120 mph. Eeeeek!

MIXING BLACK AND NAVY




Oh, New York, you're rubbing off on me. Everywhere I look — even in the dead of summer — everyone is wearing black. I'm far from relinquishing my beloved navy (far, far, far from it) but I've decided mixing black and navy is a good way to step up my New York game this fall. Shop the slideshow below for more navy and black picks:


SAILING NANTUCKET


One of the highlights of my last trip to Nantucket was a sailboat ride around the sound with thirteen of my siblings, cousins, and friends (recognize Amy, CarlyEmily, and Grayson?). Not only did I get to check off #39 on my 101 in 1001 list but we spent the most delightful hour and a half dangling our feet off the sides of the boat, sipping Prosecco and snacking on picnic foods, and trying not to let our cameras and phones fall overboard. I couldn't have asked for a better group and I'm so happy to have these photos to remember it by.

P.S. I wore this sweater (now on sale) and these jeans!

P.P.S. All photos by my friend F.E. Castleberry. See more sailing shots on his blog here!

OUTFIT {JOIE DRESS}



This outfit incorporates pretty much every one of my sartorial favorites: blazers, bows, navy blue, stripes... I could go on! I'm so excited for fall and couldn't resist pulling my tried-and-true schoolboy blazer out of my closet early. I'll be wearing it layered over a summery striped dress this month and over button-downs and sweaters in the cooler months to come. 

Remember when I contemplated this clutch in this post? I wound up choosing the navy (#shocker) and I've already worn it for my birthday dinner, date night, and a handful of occasions in between. The quality is killerOh and the shoes! I love a good pointed toe pump and the ladylike bow detail on this pair makes me giddy. The kicker? They're only $59.95 from SoleSociety. I mean... That's what we call a no-brainer.



SLEEPY JONES GIVEAWAY!


"Sit back. Stare at the ceiling. Stay awhile. We're starting a little movement of non-movement." So begins the story of Sleepy Jones, a sleepwear company whose classic pajama sets are the stuff dreams are made of. Inspired by creative types who'd sooner die than don a suit and tie, the line was made for working from home and lounging around on weekends. Suffice it to say I've found my new morning uniform.

How fun are these shots from Nantucket? I've slept in my Marina top with and without the matching bottoms and the Tauba shorts have been a a no-brainer for morning coffee on my fire escape since returning to the city. Fred's lucky I didn't try to steal his Henry shirt during our trip (though why borrow from the boys when you could have your very own Swiss dot robe?!).

The best part, of course, is that one of you will win the pajama set of your choice! Just follow the steps in the widget below and we'll draw the winner on Friday morning (so you can spend the weekend pondering your perfect PJs). Thanks, Sleepy Jones!


*all photos by F.E. Castleberry