a sleepover kind of giveaway: Radisson Hotels

I mean, weren't we all waiting for a giveaway that takes us away from reality? One that requires an overnight babysitter? Radisson Hotels is celebrating their 50th anniversary and are giving away 50 free nights for 50 days across the world wide web! Today, the giveaway has come to Sadie + Stella. Seriously. Where would you go? 

How about the Radisson Blu Chicago? If any of you are Flipping Out lovers, you will recall this is the hotel where Jenni tied the knot. Lucky. Ducky. 

One winner will win one voucher that is valid for one free night, standard room, double occupancy at any North American Radisson Blu or Radisson Hotel of the winner’s choice. The voucher expires one year after issue date. The full terms and conditions are located on the room night voucher.

To enter:

You MUST be a follower of S+S {if you already are, thanks! If not, just click the little follow button over near the top right column} Visit Radisson Hotels and come back here to comment, leave your email address and let me know where you and your traveling gnome would be jetting off to should you win. 

For additional entries you can:

• Like Sadie + Stella on Facebook
• Follow Sadie + Stella on Twitter
• Tell your Facebook friends about the giveaway and link to this post
• Post your favorite piece on Facebook
• Blog about the giveaway and link back to this post 
• You can also tweet about the giveaway, mentioning @sadieandstella and link to this post in your tweet!

*Be sure to leave a comment each time you do one of the above! 

This giveaway ends Wednesday December 5th, at midnight. Good luck!

Client updates and everything else

So my loves. I told you I have been on the grind lately, and I wasn't lying. Remember this house renovation I was working on? Well stuff is getting done slowly but surely. I will give you a peek into a few semi updated rooms. Foyer. Yes. 

Powder room. Check. I know you can't see it all right now and that is the beauty of things. This baby will be adorned with a red chandy and a killer mirror. More to come. 

Remember this perfect dining room I was working on? Well stuff is getting done over there as well. My client probably wants to kill me for showing these preliminary pictures, but she is working it over there! Here are her new lamps. Obviously not placed. We are waiting on the delivery of her killer buffet. Side note. Girl loves plaid. I love a girl who loves plaid. 

Amazing mirror. I am absolutely smitten. And to think we almost couldn't get this bad boy due to a sell out scare. 

Little bar area. Chic abstract art, no?

And the fabulous pink persian. I die. 

Well that is that as far as client updates go. We spent Thanksgiving in Raleigh with some of our best of friends, and while there, I obviously had to make a beeline to my girl Jamie's shop. Furbish. It was everything I dreamt it would be. Fancy trays. 

Never ending tchotchkes. Never ending. 

Larvely painted furniture. To say I was in heaven would be truly an understatement. 

While I was doing that...our dogs were doing a lot of this. Here are the dogs with their bestie Nocci on Thanksgiving. This was shortly after Stella terrorized their entire house looking for all of Nocci's toys. She is a hoarder. 

That is that for now my loves. I have to tell you. There is maybe the biggest surprise of all coming tomorrow on this little blog. You will be sorry if you miss out. Trust me. Love you. Mean it. XOXO

Favorite Room Feature: Vivid Hue Home

Happy hump day my larvlies. Today we have a super lovely and important guest. It is the one. The only. Heather from Vivid Hue Home. Heather loves color and she loves fun. I mean what kind of person would you be if you didn't love color and fun? She is not afraid to change it up with pattern and cheerful hues, which makes me adore her in each and every way. After perusing (stalking) through all of her spaces in her home, I have to say, I have a few favorites of my own. But on this cold winterish day, Heather is going to be sporting her sunroom. Doesn't it just take you back to a different time? A time of like 70 degrees plus?? I wish. 

Hi everyone!  I'm Heather from Vivid Hue Home.  I'm thrilled to be sharing my favorite room in my house, my sun room!  It's one of the few rooms in our house without a television.  I can close the doors to this little retreat and escape* into an entire home mag before my family finds me and demands something from me  (*that's if I snugly tuck my body behind the sofa and the throw pillows).  

I'm not a professional designer but I love everything about decorating and I use my own home as my palette for design experiments. I'm not afraid to use color or texture in my spaces.   I also love to pair bargain finds with higher end purchases to pull a seamless look together.    In the sun room, I invested in a pair of custom Lillian August robin egg side chairs and an Oly Pipa coffee table but then scored the lime green lanterns on discount from Pier One for $6 each.  I also found  the end table lamps with the basket weave shades for $25 each at Home Goods. I find mixing eclectic styles and price points in a rooms keeps it from taking itself too seriously. 

I had the ceiling painted a similar spectra blue like the walls.  I wanted to soften the look in the room and provide a great backdrop for the chandelier.  (BTW, I loved the round bulbs in this vintage looking chandelier...it added a little bit of modern flair). 

I'm constantly playing around with styling my end tables and consoles.  It's a never ending process and changes with the seasons. 

I hope you find this room as relaxing as I do.  I'd love for you to hop over to check out the rest of my spaces and places.   I'm so gracious for Lindsay's invite to guest over here.  What an honor!  Thank you!  Heather

and a winner shall be named...

Remember the horse of course? I am sure we could not forget the fabulous giveaway from the fabulous Ivy and Vine. Well. Should we crown the winner? Let's. The winner is...Natalie! Nat. Girlfriend. Can I borrow them? Love you. Mean it. Thank you to all and to all a good night! 

S+S Gift Guide: The Decorista

I mean about time I got it together, right? I know what most of you are thinking, "where in the hell is a gift guide from S+S?" I know. I know. It takes me a hot minute to get in the Christmas spirit, but when it smacks you right in the face, you do not have much of a choice. You feel me? So I am kicking off this holiday gift guide segment with the absolute worst person to buy for on your list. The. Worst. You know that person who has everything? Everything is perfectly styled and positioned at all times? The Decorista. I know what it is like to shop for one of those people because I happen to be one and I am constantly reminded of how difficult I am to shop for. I accept that. But this time,  I am going to help those out in need. 

Make the piece thoughtful and purposeful. Make it unique. You know, a sexy lamp or a slap ya mama throw. Us Decorista's like it collected and different. If you are still scratching your head, here is a punch list that any of our kind would covet. Santa baby. 

Gift it: Side Table/Rug/Plate/Blanket/Lamp/Finial/Box/Bowls and Tray/Pillow/Candle

monday musings: holiday chic

Lovers! So sorry I missed you like 3 times last week. So sorry. I am a slacker and I admit it. Do you ever get in one of those funks? Where the creative juices just aren't a flowin'? Induced by writers block, lack of sleep and being over worked? Well I was there last week and it showed. It took some turkey time, booze and QT with some of our best friends to get me over the hump. While I am still not batting at 100, I am getting there. 

How can it be? One holiday has passed and now we buck up for the biggest and most intense one of all, Christmas. Christmas generally brings stress and angst for me due to the ridiculous expectations people put on it for gifts and travel on a timeline. It becomes about something that it is not really about. One thing this girl does enjoy about this holiday though, is the fabulous decor that comes with the territory. Now I know this is not going to be a shock to any of you at all, but super traditional holiday decor is not my thang. I love the use of any and every color mixed with any and every pattern. Limiting yourself to red and green only does not work for me, nor should it work for you. Think outside of the box. You will be so glad you did. Look at these fabulous tables, homes and trees just waiting to be recreated. 

Inside Out Magazine

Knight Moves

Style at Home

Tartanscot

Magical and whimsical isn't it? I hope you all have a fabulous Monday. Love you. Mean it. 

A lil' horse of course reminder

I thought I would come to surface from my turkey and stuffing coma to remind you about the fabulous giveaway from Ivy and Vine that ends tomorrow. Trust me, and these horseheads, you do not want to miss out. Enter now.  Here.

Get into my shoes

Want to creep into a day in the life of me? Head on over to one of my top favorite of all time blogs, Effortless Style. You'll see it all. Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend. I know we are. I will be back next week with posting on the regular. Promise! Loves. XOXO

Favorite Room Feature: The Design Daredevil

My love muffins. I am so sorry we missed each other yesterday. I was swamped, overworked and needed to sleep in, frankly. Call me a teenager. Prepping for the holidays is never fun, but I could not be more excited to get my Thanksgiving on with some of our greatest friends. Let's look at some design first though, shall we? Today we have an incredibly special guest,  The Design Daredevil. She is bold, she is daring and that is the way I like it. If any you are fans of Design Star, you would have seen this blonde bombshell kicking some serious design ass. Let's see what Jessie is workin' with today. 

Hey heeeey S&S readers! Jessie AKA The Design Daredevil here and I'm SO flattered Lindsay invited me over to participate in the Favorite Room series. CONFESSION: I'm a bit of a fraud because I'm currently homeless and therefore roomless. That's right folks, a breakup and crap economy have resulted in this 31 year old interior designer living and her two Chihuahuas living in her Mother's guest bedroom. SCORE!

But don't fret kitty cats, this Design Daredevil is back with her boo and earning a steady paycheck yet again. A sexy new pad is in the works, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share my favorite room of all time. It's not my fav because of the design, but because some of the best memories of my entire life took place here. I present to you, my Bachelorette Pad Loft Kitchen. Glam, Girly, and Urban. Not totally my style anymore, but I'm proud of it because I did all of the work with my own two hands. Unfortunately no real cooking ever took place here (I stored sweaters in my cabinets people) but an awful lot of martini shaking went down. Cheers! Here is the "Before". This was the MLS listing picture and exactly what it looked like when I bought it. Boring, generic, builder finishes.

And here is what I did to it. First off I painted the cabinets matte black. That alone made a huge difference. But I needed more, More, MORE glam so I had to hook up a backsplash. I installed Fasade panels, which I totally recommend. It was crazy easy and only cost me around $200 bucks. But my my fav element is the full height installation I did next to the last upper cabinet. I painted a piece of sheet rock (drywall) hot pink then arranged mirrored chargers in a symmetrical pattern on top and attached them with construction glue. Let it dry over night, then nail to the wall. Easy peasy. Bling Bling.

I needed to style the countertop so I grabbed some left over glass vases from various flower arrangements. You know those ugly things you never know what to do with? Just spray paint em. Spray on the inside, not the outside, and it will never chip. Pretty huh? 

I had these bar stool chairs. Lets be honest, super boring. So I painted em with left over grey paint.

I also had this boring wine cabinet. And I painted it black, lined it with Art Deco patterned paper, and put a hassle on her.

Boo ya! Ooooo....ahhh....Then I found the PERFECT kitchen rug at Walmart and styled the top of the stove with a Vanna Vanilla mudflap girl...ya know, cause I'm klassy like that...

I wish I could invite you all over for a cocktail, but I don't live there anymore. Stay tuned for my next kitchen, which I'm thinking will be all white and brass...

Ivy and Vine Giveaway

Oh my lawd. I am telling you, generosity is happening here lately. 'Tis the season. I am sure you all are well acquainted with Ivy and Vine, but in case you are not, allow me to introduce you to the fabulous Heather and her fabulous shop. It is chock full of covet worthy high style home decor. I find myself wanting each and every piece to dress any and every corner of my home. Want to see what you are getting?

Green and Black Horsehead Bookends

Yep. That's right. I mean, for real. Can you imagine these on a side table, bookshelf or the like? How to get them...

To enter:

You MUST be a follower of S+S {if you already are, thanks! If not, just click the little follow button over near the top right column} Visit Ivy and Vine's Shop and come back here to comment, leave your email address and let me know your favorite piece in Heather's shop. 

For additional entries you can:

• Like Ivy and Vine on Facebook
• Like Sadie + Stella on Facebook
• Follow Ivy and Vine on Twitter
• Follow Sadie + Stella on Twitter
• Pin your favorite piece on Pinterest 
• Tell your Facebook friends about the giveaway and link to this post
• Post your favorite piece on Facebook
• Blog about the giveaway and link back to this post 
• You can also tweet about the giveaway, mentioning @sadieandstella and link to this post in your tweet!

 *Be sure to leave a comment each time you do one of the above! 

This giveaway ends Monday November 26th, at midnight. Good luck!

Monday Musings: Nanjing

Good morning my sweet peas! Oh happy day. We are in the throws of a holiday week and I could not be more thrilled. I have to admit, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It has all of the elements and benefits of Christmas minus the stress. Let's talk about what has really been on my mind lately. Nanjing. I was recently at a home decor boutique and spotted some pillows in the jade green shade of the Schumacher Nanjing fabric. Right then and there I decided I would give an arm or a leg up for any piece in this print. I quickly decided some of this fabric would be paired with a contrasting colored piping and reside in my living room. Non-negotiable. Look at all of this Nanjing at play. 

Shelter

Rue

The Foo Ate My Dog Homework

The Visual Vamp

Please tell me you now feel, understand and share my obsession. Please. It is such a whimsical and lively pattern. Larve. Ok. Big surprise in store for you later on this morning. Check back. You will not be sorry. Loves! XOXO