today’s biz ladies post comes from tiffani jones of second and park. tiffani runs a copywriting and content strategy business as well as a web design agency and is here today to share the ins and outs of successful project management. since i’m currently facing a pretty intense project deadline myself i will be soaking up every last bit of her advice- and there’s a lot of it. tiffani will walk you through how to organize projects, break them into tasks, assign work and- my favorite part- handle some of the pitfalls that can stand in the way of a happy project ending. thanks so much to tiffani for her great advice!
CLICK HERE for the full post after the jump! read more … October 13th, 2009 - 10:00am 
nicole hill gerulat is a commercial/advertising photographer who specializes in lifestyle and food photography. you’ve probably seen her work in some of your favorite magazine – just this month, she had a photograph in martha stewart living! it’s a job that she is uniquely qualified for. not only did she attend the brooks institute of photography, but she is also a graduate of the french culinary institute! when she’s not taking fantastic images, nicole is teaching others how to do the same via her art weekends in dc, nyc and in utah! (my photoshop skills could seriously use an art weekend!) {thanks, nicole!} -amya
[those are my own cowboy hats --i was raised with horses! the sofa bed is from ikea, pillows from cost plus world market, rug from pottery barn, chair and ottoman from down east, paint color: martha stewart valspar (lowe's) "surf" ]  frames and shelf from ikea, prints are my images (with the exception of the large horizontal on the top row), cushion from anthropologie, painted school chair was bought at the beehive bazaar 
the kitchen is julia child-inspired! my husband made the pan rack. the utensil holder is from ikea. rug from ikea. my goal – based on my mom’s and aunts fridges – is to have pictures covering every inch of space! i’m almost there! CLICK HERE for the rest of Nicole’s sneak peek (including all the images on one page) after the jump! read more … October 13th, 2009 - 09:00am 
today d*s guest blogger and artist extraordinaire elisabeth dunker is sharing some images from her everyday life. i love getting little glimpses of people’s days and this certainly looks like a beautiful one. click here to check out all of elisabeth’s images…
*ps: i’d like to plead “book insanity” for deciding to round all the corners on post images for the past two months. i don’t know what i was thinking. today we resume with normal, non-rounded images. sorry for the momentary brain lapse… 
October 13th, 2009 - 08:00am 
back in 2004 when jenna of whimsy & spice was apartment shopping with her partner (in life and business), mark, she never dreamed that she would end up in a new construction building, particularly in a neighborhood like park slope which has such beautiful brownstones. they were already living in the neighborhood on the top floor of an old townhouse but after going to endless open houses, but this apartment had the key features they were looking for: space (1350 sq ft), 3 bedrooms, good light, an open, airy feel, a bit of outdoor space (2 balconies), no renovations needed, a great public school district and most importantly, an elevator for jenna’s back problems (which eliminated carrying groceries, a heavy baby and a stroller up 2 flights of stairs). she says the trade-off is that it has no architectural interest and the bathroom and kitchen fixtures scream mid-2000 construction, but they’ve worked on making it a comfortable home that they’ve grown to love and will serve as the (eventual) base of operations for whimsy & spice. i love how jenna’s experience in graphic design adds so much to their business and home – such great style. click here for more images of this lovely home and here for jenna’s delicious recipe for peach ginger ice cream blondies! {thanks, jenna!} -anne
[above: This wall is on the north end of our apartment in between a window and sliding doors to the balcony. All the furniture are ebay finds, the pillows are ones I made from Hable Construction remnants and the print is a tour poster from Small Stakes. ] 
In general our apartment is fairly neutral. The living room has very pale gray walls, a rich velvet blue chair from Room and Board, a bluish-gray sofa, also from Room and Board and black and yellow accents.
The bookcase was the first major piece of furniture I purchased after I finished grad school. I bought it at a furniture store on Broadway in the Village and we use it to separate the living room from the dining and kitchen areas. The main space is just one big room. Sometime last year I banished all toys from the living area but kept the toy kitchen so the kids can cook next to Mark. The kitchen is on the other side of that narrow black wall.
This wall is opposite the couch and features another chair I got on ebay. It arrived with the ugliest, brownest upholstery you can imagine so I immediately started working on covering the cushions literally a half hour after the chair arrived.
CLICK HERE for the rest of jenna’s sneak peek after the jump! read more … October 12th, 2009 - 01:00pm 
after seeing all the sneak peeks from the team at fossil -shay, jill, kate and ryan – i think it’s safe to say this team has great style. we’ve already seen her diy file cabinet, but today we have a look into the rest of the home of casey green, design consultant and part of the concept team at fossil she and her husband live in a charming little home built in 1940. they honed their diy skills and flipped the condo, which of course came with everything in it’s original state (pink and burgundy tile bathroom anyone??). the result is crisp and fresh. click here for additional images of casey’s home. {thanks, casey!} -anne
[above: The wing back chair is from my husband's parents and I had it recovered in Romo fabric I discovered during a work trip in London. ] 
My Office: This is my favorite room in the house, and is where I run Kenwood Studios, my design consultation service. The bulletin board above my desk is made from a salvaged door. I cut the length down, then coated it with magnetic paint. I finished it with 1 coat of chocolate brown paint and 1 coat of dark stain. The desk is from West Elm, and the chair is from a flea market in Canton Texas- upholstered in Amy Butler Fabric. The file cabinet was recently featured in the DIY section of d*s.
When we moved in there were 3 separate doorways in this tiny little room, so my husband started by closing off one of the doorways and adding built-ins for all my craft storage. We actually used 12″ deep kitchen cabinets from Ikea and trimmed them out at the top and bottom. We were lucky enough to find the original tongue and grove ceiling underneath the drywall, so we spent a weekend carefully refinishing it back to it’s original glory. right: The letterpress set was also a great find from Canton- I was giddy when the guy sold me the entire set WITH the wooden tray for $50!
I love the soothing wall color in this room- Benjamin Moore’s Sea Haze. The bed was a great craigslist find, as was the midcentury modern chair I refinished and reupholstered with an Eddie Bauer houndstooth fabric. The lamps are from Target, and the comforter is from Anthropologie. I gave my husband 2 options and he chose the one you see, so he proudly tells everyone he picked it out. :)
CLICK HERE for the test of casey’s sneak peek after the jump! read more … October 12th, 2009 - 12:00pm 
out first sneak peek from furniture designer jennifer anderson is another exercise in good use of space. a little over two years ago she and her designer/developer boyfriend (and his two kids) combined spaces and moved into an 850sf cottage in the ocean beach neighborhood of san diego. the challenge was to scale back two residences – jennifer’s studio apartment and chris’s 1,625sf single family residence – into one, while at the same time melding their styles together. downsizing is always a challenge, but these two make it work. click here to take a closer look at the spaces. {thanks, jennifer!} -anne
[above: The Echo Chaise is a piece that I made during graduate school. It is made of industrial felt and maple veneer. It’s meant to be used in a variety of ways: sitting on the lower bump like a short stool, sitting on the higher bump like a tall stool, using it like a regular chaise lounge and also as an inverted chaise lounge with your head lower than your legs. Emilie Douglas designed the coat rack in the living room. She designed and fabricated it while we were both living in Los Angeles and working as furniture designers for Rivr Media’s television show, “Freeform Furniture.” 
Both Chris and I have been long-time admirers of mid-century Danish modern design. The black leather PK22 lounge chair is an iconic piece designed by Poul Kjaerholm. In fact this piece (acquired by Chris from the Danish consulate in New York City) influenced much of the work that I completed while in graduate school. The small walnut and ash side table along side the mid-century sofa was acquired three years ago from The Messler Gallery at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine where I was teaching a summer workshop. The table was designed and built by Jerry Osgood, one of the pioneers of the Studio Furniture Movement. Artist Lockwood Dennis of Washington did the block prints above the sofa. I purchased these from the visual display department at Nordstrom (for next to nothing) while I was working there before graduate school.
In the living room and hallway are drawings by Todd Partridge a local San Diego artist with whom I went to graduate school.
CLICK HERE for the rest of jennifer’s sneak peek after the jump! read more …  October 12th, 2009 - 11:00am | 
