Saturday Surfing: November 11th, 2017

I know it’s a big trend now to trick out your house in holiday decor right after Halloween, and I totally get it. I get excited about Christmas, too, but I gotta force myself to slow my roll, because Thanksgiving also counts!

I also get the urge to fast forward to Christmas, but T-Day deserves its due. It’s one of the most meaningful holidays, and not just because of the pecan pie (well…). I usually also get to spend some extra time with El Hub, because he takes a couple extra days off from work when he can, and then I just love hanging out with friends and family, and feeling cozy and safe, and taking in the sights and smells of fall. It’s a reminder to be grateful.

And, of course, the food is awesome.

It is though. 🙂

Which leads me to Thanksgiving decor. Ever since getting the new couch, I’ve been wanting to add some color and de-neutralize the room, and I was tempted to jump right in with the Christmassy accessories, but I decided to take my own advice and slowed my roll. So, I did an autumnal/Thanksgiving theme with throw pillows and a wreath.

Dude! I don’t know why throw pillows are so stressful. I was chatting with a friend a couple weeks ago, and she said that it took her six trips to HomeGoods to work out the pillow situation in her living room.

It took me about the same amount of time, HAHA! I had a hard time deciding on like… I dunno, I always see pictures of sectional couches with pillows that look purposefully mismatched, but they still work together, and it was hard for me to figure out how to find things that weren’t too uniform looking (?).

I started out trying to do matchy pillows, but nothing looked quite right, so I googled pictures of sectionals with couches and noticed that, in almost all of the pictures, there are an uneven number of pillows. It’s almost always either five or seven.

The bigger sectionals typically have seven throw pillows — each of them different. Then I read a post on a decorating blog that talked about how, when you pull together a group pillows for a couch, think of the pillows as working within a color scheme. That totally helped me.

It finally came together when I found an autumnal wreath and the pillow with pumpkins and leaves. I liked the colors and ended up following their lead in choosing the other the pillows for the couch. I looked for rust, orange, wine, burgundy and gold, and for different textures, and eventually brought together a bunch of pillows that match (I think so) but aren’t identical.

LOL! I get that this has been a lot of pillow talk, but it was so much harder than I thought it would be!

Point is, if you’re looking for pillows to decorate your space with, start with one that you love, and use that color palette as a jumping-off point.

One of the things about these pillows, by the way, is that they make it so nice to get cozy in the corner and read. I love curling up on the couch with a book and a blanket and reading. 🙂

Speaking of getting cozy and reading, here are some stories that caught my eye this week…

• Pretty soon we might have the ability to virtually try on our makeup with the help of AI (artificial intelligence) that was originally developed for security and defense purposes. This was by far the most interesting story I read this week, and all I have to say is GOOOOOOO SCIENCE!
• For my Hawaii peeps: y’all are getting a new La Labo store at the Ala Moana shopping center.
• If your dog’s Christmas wish list includes perfume (totally reasonable), you can now gift him or her this cologne made especially for canines. Fancy!
• Scented lingerie is a thing now. This lingerie line sells underthings made with handcrafted French lace and woven from threads that have been scented with fragrant microcapsules of perfume.
• MAC is doing a collaboration with Puma, and um…if they do some MAC-branded Pump sneakers, I WILL FREAKING LOSE MY SH*T.
• There’s been a lot of talk here in the US lately about increased FDA regulations on cosmetics. Last May, Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) reintroduced the Personal Care Products Safety Act (S1113), and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) recently proposed the S2003 FDA Cosmetic Safety and Modernization Act as an alternative. Here are the differences between the two acts.
• A woman is suing Sephora and claiming that she got herpes from their lipstick samplers.
• Women of color are increasingly able to influence the cosmetics market through their purchases.
• Look out for a new liquid lipstick from Fenty Beauty on November 23rd (!).
• The Lipstick Lobby is part of a growing number of companies that are making activism trendy.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my friend! Let me know what you’re up to.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy Veterans Day!