Style

Before & After Renovations

Play Place

Home contributor Audrey Scheck reveals a playroom before-and-after so spectacular you'll want to move into that tent immediately.

When we found our new house, we knew immediately that we would make one of the downstairs rooms into a play space for the kids. Our first house didn’t have a dedicated playroom, which meant that our living room essentially functioned as their play area. 

In other words, the toys were everrrrywhere.

Quick backstory here, because I always think it's nice to know a little about the history of a house: The previous owners were both scholars, and they each had their own office in the main house. Her office (which is now our playroom) was downstairs, with an exterior door leading out to the backyard, and his office was upstairs. They also had a library downstairs and a guest room, which became Huxley and Tilly's rooms, respectively. Despite being 100 years old, the house was in great shape - it just needed a little rethinking to make it work for our growing family.

Style

Why I’m Giving Up New Clothing Until 2020

Me, TJ Maxx ad campaign, 2013

When I write up my Links & Love & Stuff posts, this is how I do it: I put together a list of articles I've read recently that I think you guys would be into. I add a little commentary of my own. And then I finish by peppering in links to various products - clothing, usually - that I've seen and coveted on my daily travels around the Internet. I use affiliate links for those, so anytime someone makes a purchase from one of those links I get a small (usually minuscule) payout. Together, these affiliate links account for approximately 1/1,000th of my income. I do it anyway, though, because every little bit helps.

Yesterday, I was writing up Links & Love, and I got to the part where I do the clothing-peppering...and all of sudden I felt sick.

Fashion Tips & Reader Questions

Dressing Room Try-On: Madewell Fall 2019

Alright, folks, apparently we have a new feature: The Dressing Room Try-On. I spontaneously did one of these at Everlane the other day, and it seems you guys were into it, hooray! ...But honestly? I think I was into it even more. It just felt like a throwback old-school blogging - you know, the kind I've been all nostalgic about lately - where everything isn't glittery and perfect and staged. It's just fun.

(I had fun.)

Madewell is one of those brands that I forget I love until I go into one of their stores, and then find myself wanting everything. Alas, it's also priced slightly above my "Everything" budget, so I had to keep the actual purchase to One Of The Things (scroll down to see which one I went for), but still: It was all so good.

Fashion Tips & Reader Questions

Four Perfect (And Affordable) Basics Your Fall Wardrobe Absolutely Needs

This is not an ad for Everlane. But it might as well be.

A few years ago, when Everlane first launched, they did a little blogger-seeding, and I ended up on the receiving end of one of their leather tote bags and a black turtleneck. The pieces were good - very good, even - but they never made the leap into constant rotation for me, and even though I poked around on Everlane's site from time to time, this tank top is the only piece I ever bought from them.

It's not that I didn't like Everlane's stuff - I am all about great basics, and am super on board with their ethos - but even given my generally positive experiences with the brand, I never really trusted that their direct-to-consumer (and thus surprisingly affordable) prices could come along with truly top-tier quality across the board. As an example, I didn't feel like the sold-out-everywhere Petra tote that I owned (and ended up giving to a friend) would be one of those leather items that ends up looking even better over time; I thought it might be more of a flash-in-the-pan thing.


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