Kate Spade Winter Accessories

Brrr....it's officially winter (at least it feels like it).  The high today is 11 and the high on Sunday here is a whopping 5 degrees with a -5 degree low.  Don't mind me while I bundle up in all the layers.  I love, love, love Kate Spade.  They're bright and fun take on life is just great.  Who doesn't need a little cheer in their life during the cold and dreary winter months?  I know I sure do.   These cold weather accessories would make excellent holiday gifts and stocking stuffers!

Favorite Tights for Fall & Winter

I have a love hate relationship with tights and hosiery.  I love wearing dresses and skirts in the fall and winter to work but seem to have terrible luck with hosiery.  I can put on a brand new pair and have a run in them before lunch.  Does this happen to anyone else?  Last year I picked up a pair of Kate Spade black tights and I don't think I'll ever go back to other brands.  Not only are they insanely comfortable, but they are still going strong without any visible wear.  Considering the rate at which I was purchasing different brands, the price point is very reasonable as I'm heading into a second year of wearability.

I also love Kate Spade socks! I got some last year on a whim to wear with my boots and was a little weary upon first putting them on because they seemed to thin to be comfortable but they felt great! I now have an array of tall, ankle, and no show socks.  I definitely recommend trying those too!

DIY: KSNY Inspired Ornament

I found this tutorial via pinterest for a DIY version of these darling Kate Spade ornaments. I found plain white porcelain ornaments at Michaels that already had gold hardware.  I simply bought a black paint pen that was located in the same section to do the lettering.  This project took barely any time at all and I was done.

For another tutorial on these and other similar Kate Spade ornament, follow this link. 

Party Inspiration: Kate Spade

I put together a little inspiration board on Pinterest with more ideas and links to tutorials on some cute DIY projects.  I love how bright, cheery, and fun the brand is.  It makes for the perfect inspiration for a chic birthday party for people of all ages.  Bold pink, gold, and black and white are my go to colors in the KSNY branding but the rainbow palette is amazing too.  

All the cute sayings and quotes that Kate Spade has are perfect to incorporate into your party through your invitation, signage, banners, etc. We all know about their love affair with bows.  When looking at KSNY inspired parties, a recurring theme was a napkin done in a bow on the place setting.  I absolutely love this idea!

Hop on over to my Pinterest for more ideas, links to products and tutorials, and pretty parties.

Follow Amanda's board Kate Spade Inspired Party on Pinterest.

Inside My Purse

I see these inside my purse/bag posts a lot on the blogs I follow and I just love them.  I thought I would post my own.  I have two purses that I shift back and forth between most of the time, my Longchamp and my Kate Spade (similar style).  Both are in colors that I feel can be pulled off year round.  Here is what you will find inside my purse:

Wallet: Since I often switch my purse, I keep my cards and cash in my Coach skinny (similar).  It makes it so much easier than switching from wallet to wallet along with my purses.  

Lotion: I am constantly battling dry skin on my hands and my elbows.  I try to keep some lotion in my purse (and in my desk, car, etc).  I just love the smell of this EOS cucumber scent lotion.  It is so refreshing.

Lipstick: My new favorite for the season is Maybeline's Color Sensational Vivids Lipcolor in Brazen Berry!  It goes on fairly smoothly and you can either wear it light or layer it on for a more dramatic and deeper color.

Lip gloss:  Last year my sister gave me a tube of Revlon's ColorStay Mineral Lipglaze in Timeless Nude and I could not be happier to find such a perfect colored gloss.   It add just a touch of pink and makes for a classic barely there lip color with tons of shine.

Nail Polish:  I am not normally one to tote around nail polish in my purse, but I have recently been trying those at home DIY Gel Manicures and I have a fairly good success with them.  I will admit that I am definitely guilty of walking around with horribly chipped nails.  Luckily with this new manicure process that mimicks a gel manicure, my nails have looked great and remained fairly chip free.  The bad news is that now any time I get a chip, I'm eager to touch up to maintain the manicure and stretch it out a little longer.  With that you have the bottle of Revlon nail enamel in Urban.

Cell:  Like I could manage to go anywhere without it (I actually made a trip to the bank on my lunch and left my phone at work...I survived, but I did actually try to make a call on my way back to the office).  I just officially transitioned my phone case for fall and winter and put my Lilly case up for a few months.  I am loving animal prints for fall and winter so this Kate Spade case sang to me when I saw it.  I just new I had to bring some more Kate Spade into my tech life.  My first pretty case for my first iPhone was a gorgeous pink and purple floral Kate Spade case.  I used it until it broke and never got tired of it!  I love the design of my new case.  It's one of those that is barely there in feel. 

For the rest you will find a couple of no snag hair elastics (and sometime you find tons of regular hair ties), wintergreen Altoids, an address book, a small notebook for jotting down & sketching ideas and notes, and a couple of pens.  Not pictured is my lovely Lilly agenda.

Like most women, you will find tons of other various things in my purses at any given time but these items are things you will generally find when I am carrying a bag big enough to hold it all.  What do you always have with you in your purse?

Merry, Merry Christmas!

First of all Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating today! I hope you've had a great day with family, friends, good eats, and safe travels!  I spent the afternoon in Orange county celebrating with my mom's side of the family.  Now we're expecting our first blizzard of this winter and I'm really wishing my toes were in the sandy beaches of Destin already!

I spent the weekend in Lafayette celebrating Christmas with Wyatt and his friends and family.  I was so excited to give him Christmas gift.  I decided I wanted to give him a bar cart after discussing with him earlier in the year about maybe making one for his apartment.  I found a cart on eBay and my dad ended up refinishing it for me to resemble the cart found on a Design Sponge post. I'm so lucky he took on the project for me because he did an amazing job! Overall the cart was in decent condition (especially if you compare to what the cart looked like in the before on the Design Sponge post).  Here is the before and afters.  It seemed to be a big hit with all who saw it this weekend.

Wyatt outdid himself with my Christmas gifts.  To begin the gift giving, he gave me a calendar with a not inside explaining that I needed to pay attention the locations inside the calendar and that the following gifts each represented one of the places in the calendar.  He admitted that a couple might be a little stretch but he really did pull from what he knew about me o fulfill all these gifts.  With each gift also came an explanation by him of why he chose that item and a little history about the location and it's connection with the gift.

Boston - Red Tulips
Belgium - Godiva Chocolate
France - Ciroq
Quebec - Mapel wood box
England - Cannister of tennis balls used at Wimbledon during a Championship match
Vienna - Milk glass snack set (of 6)
Denmark - Book of fairy tales
Bavaria - Two bottles of wine
Portugal - Espresso Beans
Venice - Gift certificate to All Fired Up, a potter place in Lafayette where we can make something together
Newfoundland - A pair of earrings shaped like fish
Brazil - A green bracelet made of Tagua

To top off an already amazingly creative and thoughtful present, he also gave me a new Kate Spade purse.  He knew I had been eyeing some Kate Spade products and with the help of my Pinterest, he picked this one out for me.  I love it and all of the other gifts.  I'm really looking forward to using my All Fired Up gift certificate with him sometime this winter.  His parents gave me the most darling milk glass fairy lamp.  It is so pretty when the tea light is glowing inside.