Ideas Needed!

I have some changes in mind for my blog so am thinking it's now time to invest in a domain name.  When I started blogging, I thought I would focus my blog on my business -- thus I chose www.pinkmapledesign.blogspot.com as my name. But since then it's really become more personal and simply a creative outlet for me to share the things I love.

So I need a new name.  I already own the domain name www.pinkmaple.com for my business, so that's out.  Here are some other ideas I've come up with so far:

Pink Maple Chats

Pink Maple Loves

Love, Pink Maple

Pink Maple in Boston

Pink Maple in New England

Like any of them?  Any ideas, comments, thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I would also love to hear what your favorite types of posts are: fashion, beauty, design, diy, travel, personal pics, books, tv -- what do you like best? Or what would you like to read more about?

Pink and Blue Perfection

This week's episode of Million Dollar Decorators airs tonight, but I only just caught up on last week's episode. Imagine my surprise when Mary McDonald walked into a client's house to do an office renovation and what room did they walk through on their way?

This pretty little room I just posted about last week:

What surprised me is that I always thought this room was a hallway. The table, two chairs, and mirror seem typical of an entryway.  But turns out it's actually a sitting room.  Go figure.  Still love it!

This is the office renovation featured in last week's episode.   The client was initially not so into the bold painted floor, but ended up loving the finished room.  What do you think?  I think it all looks gorgeous together, but I don't think it would be my preference for my own home.

Butterflies Everywhere

Sutton Top in "Out There" (Image from The Pink Crab)

I found this pretty Lilly at Lord & Taylor over the weekend.  Between it being marked down significantly plus a coupon, I ended up paying a mere $40!  I love a Lilly bargain, don't you?

J Crew Favorites of the Week

Three tops caught my attention in the newest J Crew catalog.  All, in my opinion, are perfectly cool and comfortable for a hot summer day but also very appropriate for a typical business casual work environment.  All are also catalog/jcrew.com only--why are none of these pretties worthy of in-store availability???

Silk Casbah Blouse

Lace-front top

Silk Peplum Blouse

Monday Already?

Over the weekend I headed to the outlets in Wrentham, MA.  I had a couple wardrobe additions in mind, but all in all was just in the mood to browse the shops on a nice Saturday afternoon. 

J Crew was rather disappointing--I had a 20% off $100 coupon burning a hole in my pocket, but alas no luck!  The stock of Jackie cardigans seemed low, no cafe capris in sight, and nothing else really struck me.  I did pick up the outlet version of the new resin necklaces in the regular stores.  One in coral like that pictured below and another one that is a mix of chain and tortoise links (with a fireball thrown in for a bit of sparkle).  I've actually been finding the Kittery, Maine J Crew outlet to be far better than the Wrentham one lately--any other area readers that agree?  I generally like Wrentham because it's an outlet mall and in Kittery, you have to drive from one little cluster of stores to another. Plus Wrentham has Kate Spade and Saks Off 5th (not to mention no tax on clothes).  But lately the Kittery J Crew always seems have many more varied things; far more work clothes, shoes, handbags, and accessories.

The Banana Republic had a nylon knock-off of this Rebecca Minkoff bag.  It was such an exact copy, it was crazy! 

Meanwhile over at Saks Off 5th, real bargains on real Rebecca Minkoff could be had.  This calf skin little bag was marked down to less than $100.  Had it not been so wintery I probably would have had to make it mine!

Sunday was a happy Father's Day spent sunning and reading the Times, and as I gave my dad a Red Sox grill cover, appropriately, a cookout!

And now here we are at Monday again.  Who else is in favor of 3-day weekends all summer???

Saturday Morning Miscellany

As I sit here writing on this Saturday morning, the sky is blue and the sun is shining -- such an improvement over last weekend here in the Boston area -- which was cold, rainy, and all together highly depressing.  This weekend feels like summer has returned!

My weekend fun started Thursday night.  (Let's momentarily forget about the fact that I had a busy work day starting bright and early at 8am on Friday!)  Thursday evening I attended the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston's Friends Council Annual Roof Party at the Taj in downtown Boston.  The roof at the Taj is actually all enclosed, but has an outdoor feel with black and white tile floor, paper lanterns hanging from the ceilings, and a gorgeous view of the Boston skyline.  We enjoyed delicious hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, music by a great DJ, a silent auction and raffle (of course I won nothing!), and a performance by some of the members of one of the Boston clubs' performing arts programs.  The kids were so talented, it was amazing!

Me with 2 of my good friends from law school

And while most Boston sports fans' focus is now on the Bruins' Stanley Cup win, Friday night I kept my own focus on my beloved Red Sox and went to the game.  Despite the forecast, no rain all evening and I got to enjoy a 10-4 win.

These photos are my poor Blackberry camera attempts to show the fabulous new HD video screens at Fenway.  All 3 screens look like videos plus ads, but at various points the ads go away and they turn into giant screens.  Hard to explain, but when they revealed them on opening day it was quite impressive!

Later this afternoon I'm off to do some outlet shopping! Happy Weekend!

Town & Country, Where are You?

Town & Country is included in Amazon's latest magazine subscription sale--a mere $5(!) for a year-long subscription.  While Town & Country is one of my favorites, I'm not a current subscriber.  I don't generally subscribe to all my favorites because I like being able to buy one at the store when I'm in the mood.  I don't know about you, but sometimes when I'm out and about with nothing particular to buy but really want to buy something, a magazine purchase will cure my shopping craving.  But lately I'm rarely able to actually find Town & Country. It's never seems to be in the drugstore or supermarket magazine sections.  Most Borders in the area are closing.  So that leaves Barnes & Noble and I always have to search high and low for it there--it never seems to be in the same section: sometimes it's in the "lifestyle" category near magazines like Harpers and Vanity Fair, sometimes it's with the regular women's magazines like Vogue and Real Simple, and other times I just plain and simple can't find it!  All this leads me to decide that I will definitely be taking advantage of Amazon's sale.

My current subscription list is actually rather small:

Vogue

Condé Naste Traveler

Lucky

Entertainment Weekly

What are your favorite magazines?

Million Dollar Decorators

I have featured the beautiful rooms of interior designer Mary McDonald on my blog in the past.  So I was excited to learn she is one of the designers in Bravo's new show, Million Dollar Decorators. Even if you're not a reality fan, you can ignore the designers' outlandish statements (see Jeffrey Alan Marks musing that his job might be more stressful than the president's) and snobbish attitudes (see Mary McDonald refusing to cut a project budget at the client's request) and just enjoy all the decorating prettiness!

Chocolate and Pink Birthday Wishes

Hello friends!  It's been a week since I last blogged, I don't have a very good track record lately! Sunday my dad and I hosted an hors d'oeuvres and cocktail party in a private room at a local bistro to celebrate my mom's birthday.  We had around 40 guests--a nice mix of family and friends--and a good time was had by all.  It was a wonderful start to the summer!

Since we had a mix of men and women and older and younger guests, I decided that chocolate would be the most universally-appreciated party favors.  I kept it simple with Hershey's plain chocolate bars and Hershey's bars with almonds and decorated them with pink oval labels from Paper Source.

The party's pink theme started with the invitations and continued with the favors, simple arrangements of pink tulips for the tables, and a pink signature cocktail--a pomegranate martini.

I hope you had a lovely Memorial Day weekend too!