Irina Dress Boutique: January 2012

Interview with Kristin and Claire of BLOW UP

As many of you may have heard, Audrey Grace will be popping up in NYC March 23rd-31st at the Highline Loft. For the NYC pop up shop we have organized some really exciting work and events. First up, I am working with the girls of Blow Up! on event styling. Kristin and Claire truly have the same taste in fashion and decorating as me. They love Lula mag, Mulberry, puppies, and are frequent contributors to NYLON. I don't want to give too much away, but they are planning a beautiful, whimsical setting for Audrey Grace's NY space. Check out their work, inspiration and an interview with them below, plus a sneak peek of what they are planning for Audrey Grace's NYC takeover. So yeah, Kristin and Claire are the cutest. Check out there amazing blog here.

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your company BLOW UP! What you do, and your art work, designs, prop styling, etc.
We met a few years ago and instantly bonded over our love for design and DIY. We officially started our studio BLOW UP! almost two years ago. We have diverse design background from one another which helps bring different perspectives to our projects. Claire comes from a background in interior design and Kristin worked as a designer at Nylon Magazine. Collectively we tackle everything from art direction, set design, visual identity and prop styling.

What are your favorite places to visit in New York? (shop, cafes, etc.)
We like the free stuff new york has to offer. We try to take advantage of the “free” nights at museums, pop into openings at galleries, and ride our bikes everywhere looking for inspiration! Our favorite place to ride to in the summer is Fort Tilden Beach. If we ever get a day off, you can find us there :)

What are your favorite magazines, blogs, books and films for inspiration?
Mags:

I love you magazine
Apartmento

Movies: Beetlejuice
Twin Peaks

Blogs:Cat party blog
The cat scan tumblr

Who are your favorite designers and photographers?
Tim Walker, Guy Boudin, Ryan McGinley, Leslie David

What was your favorite SS12 show?
Louis Vuitton’s SS12 show by far! Just check out the LV inspired video I collaborated on with the talented stylist Michelle Reneau. http://blog.blowing-up.com/?p=1972

What has been your favorite project you've worked on?
That’s a hard one! Each project is so diverse and special in it’s own way. All of our projects signify a milestone, learning process, and challenge that are not comparable to each other.

What does the future look like for you?

We have no idea but we have BIG plans ;)

Tell me what y'all are working on for the Audrey Grace NYC pop up shop.

We are working on making it BLOW UP! :) Our paws will be on everything from the store layout, design and concept, props, color pallet and styling of merchandise.

What were your inspirations for this project and what is the theme?

The theme is inspired by chic, soft femininity. Picture dramatic floral’s, over-sized balloons, pretty pastels, cupcakes, blown up paper swans, bunnies, and fawns. It’s going to be girly and fun!

What type of girl do you see shopping at the Audrey Grace pop up?

A dreamer (with a sweet tooth ). The pop up shop will be like walking into a whimsical day dream.

What are some of your favorite things that are for sale at Audrey Grace?

We love the curated collection of illustrators and colorful artwork.

Top Five Tuesday: January Favorites

Happy Tuesday followers! Hope you are all doing swell. Today I am linking up with Rachel at Just Peachy! Todays top five is January Favorites. Well considering last top five Tuesday I did I didn't choose just five so this time I will do my best to control myself. So here they are:

Number One:

OPI's Best Of The Best mini nail polish collection. Technically this can count as one item right? There are so many neutral colors in this that I LOVE an have been using this month.

Number two:

My new MacBook Pro that I received for Christmas. Let me just tell you I don't think I can ever go back to having a PC after this computer.

Number 3:

I'm going to say my number three favorite is monograms so I can include both of these items.

My Pink Marley Lilly Monogrammed Scarf

Lands End Monogrammed Vest. I definitely should have ordered it in an XS but I didn't really think about that fact until I received it so it is kinda big.

Number 4:

Kind of a double again but I am not good at choosing so I paired them together because they are both used on your eyes.

Pixi Limited Edition Eye Pallet

This is the info on the back in case you are interested.

And here are the colors inside. I love how thin and compact this is and since I don't own a ton of eye shadows this pallet had a great mix of colors.

And my mascara which is Nars in whatever they call their darkest black.

Number 5:

L'Oreal's ever strong hair products. I use these because they are supposed to help prevent breakage and split ends and since I straighten my hair daily I need as much help as I can get.

Thanks again Rachel for hosting this wonderful link-up! If you have any product recommendations for me then I would love to hear them. What are your favorites?

dWa

New Arrivals - Logan Circle

Eva Franco owl print silk dress
Size 2 $75.95

Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent silk velvet burn out blouse
Size Small $103.95

Mark & James by Badgley Mischka nude sandals
Size 9 $130.95

Trina Turk fuschia rayon dress
Size 0 $88.95

Grey Ant grey wool skirt
Size 0 $38.95

Ramblings

1. I think I am still on Pacific time. I can't fall asleep until 1:30 and can't fully wake up until like 10. This could be an issue.

2. I need to visit Vegas again. I didn't walk outside for almost three days... major fail!

3. I am loving my Erin Condren planner. It is organizing my life or lack there of....we are booked solid until July. Not cool for the stress level.

4. Winston's fur momma had her last litter of puppies. We are pondering a new addition to the family. We ~~maybe~~ are falling off the deep end.

Source: google.co.uk via Julie on Pinterest

5. I have definitely failed my New Year resolution of working out. Only one day this entire month. Not cool. Let's start over tomorrow.

6. We bought our first piece of furniture yesterday.... a new couch! Now I just need my house to go with it. (that is a whole other increasingly depressing story)

7. I bought a replacement for my favorite necklace this past weekend. Of course, mine was discontinued but I am kinda liking this new one. Hopefully the vacuum will spare this beauty.

8. I may make these for my office on Valentine's Day. March may be a better beginning for #5.

Source: bakedperfection.com via Julie on Pinterest

Hope to come back with some more ~~uplifting~~ enlightening posts these next few days.

K. Slademade

I have an obsession with all of K.Slademade's products. Honestly, shut the front door, her items are precious. One of her clutches would match my blog perfectly and I wanted to cry when it said it was sold out. Is this not the epitome of my blog?

This was a custom bag so only one exists (insert me sighing in the background).

I think her products are a clever twist on a classic product and I need a babysitting job so that I can get one of her adorable clutches in my closet. All of her products are so cute and colorful and reasonably priced! She has both a website and an etsy site where you can purchase her products. Because the above clutch isn't available another clutch that would match my blog rather nicely is this one:

Ahh so cute. All of her other clutches are super fun and colorful as well and you couldn't go wrong ordering any of her products. Here are a few of my other favorites:

Cherries and Berries foldover clutch!

Bone Fold Over Clutch w/ Orange Zipper

Love Bird Earrings.

The Suede Leather Key Chain Tassels would be a perfect gift for an upcoming driver!

Have any of y'all ever ordered from K.Slademade? Which products are your favorites?

Hope you have a happy Monday,

dWa

Dress Reveal, Drum Roll Please

Ok ok I've made you wait long enough. I absolutely loved having y'all guess which dress you think I picked and all of you were right, I was shocked and so pleased that y'all agreed and would have picked it for me. So in case you didn't guess and have no idea what I am talking about scroll to the post below this one. I am so pleased with my dress and stunned that all of you guessed correctly that it is the first dress, the blue one.

So now that I know which dress I will be wearing I would love your advice on

shoes (definitely flats), hair, makeup, jewelry, and a bag. I'm sure I will continue to ask these questions but for now I allow you to quit wondering which dress I chose. Hope you had a great weekend!

dWa

Prama:Choose the Dress

Sorry for not blogging the past two days but I have been busy and took some time to relax (finally). Well I have some exciting news for y'all! Today, I went prom dress shopping and actually purchased my dress! I had no idea how this process would go considering I have never had to shop for a formal gown and let me just tell you it is overwhelming! I fell in love with quite a few bridesmaid dresses but they would take multiple months to come in. And yes it is early to be looking for prom dresses (prom is on March 30th) but I do not have multiple months to wait for a dress. So after sadly leaving the bridesmaid dresses and entering into the prom dress world I was shocked. I have never seen so many sequins, cutouts, and slits in my life. There were a whole lot of tacky dresses but mixed in between were some dresses that I loved. So some advice for you is to not be disgusted and leave like I was about to and instead ask for some help from the employees and tell them what you want and what you don't want. I was pretty specific and my dress had to be long, not be bedazzled, and not be strapless. Well the shop did it. I tried on about four dresses that I liked and would look appropriate to attend prom in. I choose one of these three and I am going to be super annoying and make you guess which one I picked! Ignore my facial expressions and the fact that I am in a dressing room.

Which one do you think I chose!? And also which dress is your favorite? Come back some time tomorrow and I will reveal which dress I will be wearing to prom. But for now happy guessing! I can't wait to hear what you have to say!

dWa

Vanity Fair

Natasha Thompson of The Secret Tea Party for Audrey Grace. Check out more of her amazing work here!

Headbands

Today I have decided to post about an accessory that you can never have too many of. Because my school has a uniform (see post here) headbands are the perfect way to express yourself and hold your hair back! On occasion I do have to take them off towards the end of a day because the spot behind my ears will start to hurt but other than that headbands are one of the most spectacular inventions, and did I mention you can find some REALLY cute ones!? Here are some of my picks for the perfects headbands to accessorize any outfit!

This ivory headband is so cute and wintery and looks super comfortable! It can be found on this etsy page.

This velvet leopard narrow headband is found on the same etsy page and is just the right amount of animal print.

I am loving this sea foam one as well! (again from the same etsy shop listed in the link above)

Ok, to begin I am a huge fan of the preppy clothing and accessories found on the Kiel James Patrick website. How could you go wrong!? Well not only is their clothing adorable but so are their Vickers Leed Headbands. Below are a few of my favorites:

The rope look on this headband is spot on!

I am pretty positive that I am going to order this one after I finish this post because it is precious. I love the mix of the polka dots and stripes and the colors are cute too!

I am loving the elephants on this one!

This one would look pretty cute with my uniform and I love the braided rope design. And how could you resist the plaid lining on the bottom of all of these!

I have really grown to love needlepoint items especially the belts but since that is not practical for me these headbands are the perfect alternate! They can be found on this etsy shop.

Loving the blue gingham pattern on this one!

Another great place to find cute headbands is J. Crew. By the register they usually have a bunch of cute options and often I can't resist the temptation of putting one on the counter to be purchased. Where do y'all like to search for headbands? I would love to here from you!

dWa