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retro

Design Your Life

Staycation: Create a Hotel At Home During Coronavirus Season

03/15/2020

Does the COVID-19 Coronavirus social distancing have you down about missing your spring break vacation or plans?

Bring them to you.

Decorate. And please bring some flowers in and have a tray of muffins in the kitchen for a bed and breakfast feel. Or have a tray of special snacks on your coffee table and decorate your living room like a motel. You can also pretend your living room hotel is anywhere: the beach, Disney World, France, space, Japan, decorate it accordingly.

Get these coasters and more at bando.
Beverly Hills Hotel Pillow By Floral Inferno

There must be a limit to how much Netflix and snacks a person can handle, which are reasons we all can enjoy a few fun activities to make our staycation even more splendid (and memorable).

This article is about actually blocking out a few days or a week of time to “be on vacation” at home. It’s not a list of things to do on regular days of social distancing.

1. Splurge on Meals

Often times when we’re on vacation we eat meals out but on this staycation we may need to order in if places are looking too busy. Look up your favorite restaurants on DoorDash or UberEats and order dinner or takeout.

You could also make a cooking date night and subscribe to Hello Fresh or Marly and Spoon for the week you plan your vacation.

Orange Juice vase from bando.

2. Host a Fancy Cocktail Party Or Themed Gathering for Housemates

Your vacation at home is probably one of the best times to have a fancy gathering with your best friends or family members. Why not go all out and make a whole decadent meal?

If you’re worried about this being a lot of work on your end, try a pot luck and invite others to help prep.

3. Be a Tourist

Most staycations are a great time to act like a tourist and go on an adventure exploring your hometown. If you are having your staycation during the period (now) of distance restrictions it would be best to go to the forest, nature parks, walks around non-crowded areas, etc. Pack a picnic, enjoy your time, take everything in. You may find new favorite spots!

Picnic in your own backyard, the forest, a meadow.

4. Break out the Games

Grab some cards or board games and sit at a table inside or outside and play. If you live alone, download a card game app (Uno, Exploding Kittens), or play a board game online. They even have board games on most gaming consoles. Play a few different types of games, nostalgic games that you’ve been missing or didn’t even know you liked!

5. Make Your Own Spa Day

Create your own Spa Day and make sure you have some epsom salts, essential oils, and candles. Treat yourself to a bubble bath with a cold glass of champagne or green tea and a book. Try a face mask. Exfoliate.

After your bath, turn the shower on hot and fill the room with steam. Breathe deep and relax.

If you’re living with someone you feel comfortable asking, ask to swap massages.

6. Get in the Holiday Spirit

Pretend it’s Christmas for a day and that you’re snowed in. Make hot chocolate, light some candles, decorate cookies. Cut snowflakes out of a few squares of white paper. Sing Christmas carols and watch a Christmas movie on tv. You could even have a holiday-staycation where each day is a holiday theme: New Year, Halloween (ex: swap the hot cocoa with cider, bob for apples, wear costumes, watch scary movies, spooky); Valentine’s day (make valentines and cookies, make strawberry sodas with strawberry ice cream, sprite and strawberry jam, hearts); Easter/Spring (hide eggs with either scavenger hunt notes OR treats, boil eggs and dye with food coloring, pastel colors)

Drinks and doodles while listening to records?

7. Camp In Your Backyard

Want to go camping but don’t want to be in a campground? Do it in your own backyard! You also have access to necessities and snacks. And bathrooms. Make a fire pit and roast marshmallows. Tell spooky stories. Count the stars.

Lounge outside and make it an event.

8. Go For a Crawl

If the travel restrictions lift, get together with a friend or your partner and explore your city by going on a crawl. Choose a theme for your crawl such as sampling the best tacos, donuts, beer, or pizza.

If you’re stuck inside, try a bunch of the candy, chips or teas in your house and rate them.

9. Get your DIY on

Try to learn to do a new craft or project you’ve been wanting to do. Make it a group effort and invite everyone over to work on the same type of project such as knitting, cooking, painting, even digital creations (laptop party!).

You could also plan to learn to do a project together such as friendship bracelets, painting wine glasses, making dream catchers, creating vision boards, etc.

10. Take an Online Class

Have something you’ve had on your to-do list to learn for quite awhile? Something you’ve been wanting to learn, do, create, or experience? There are all sorts of classes online where you can join with others and achieve your goals right from the comfort of your own bed!

A few great places to try:

“Vacation is a state of mind – you don’t have to actually leave your house to get that same relaxed, never-leaving-this-room-again feeling you get in a hotel room. These products will help you recreate that feeling, whether you’re on your way to paradise or bringing paradise to you.”

ban.do?
Escapeland

The Beale’s of Grey Gardens

05/27/2014

greygardens

I’ve always enjoyed Grey Gardens. I love documentaries and anything concerning unique individuals and their points of view on the world. Especially former socialites (relatives of Jackie O) living in isolation within a house full of cats and costumes while reading astrology, talking of gossip, singing old songs and sun bathing on the beach. What’s not to love?

For those who have yet to see the 70s documentary, Grey Gardens is a film by Albert and David Maysles who filmed the documentary in a technique which allowed the women to tell their own stories. The film depicts the everyday lives of a mother and a daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in a fall-to-ruin, cat and raccoon-filled mansion known as Grey Gardens located in East Hampton, New York. There has also been a broadway musical and an HBO movie created about the Beales due to the cult following of this interesting film.

If you can’t get a man to propose to you, you might as well be dead.
~Little Edie

Young Little Edie

Little Edie

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Little Edie: You can’t have your cake and eat it, too in life.
Big Edie: Oh, yes, I did. I did, I had my cake, loved it, masticated it, chewed it and had everything I wanted.

beales

Business Features Visual Splendor

Inspired by Lovely Lovely UK

03/25/2010
lovely

I *love* Lovely Lovely — you may even recognize seeing some of their goods in my apartment feature — I had to have quite a few of their pop art cute, neon sugar clad brand. Years later, they’re still my favorite plates.

Picture 1
Picture 3

If your taste is anything like mine, the retro revival food (check out the rosy gelatin mould!) and cake-inspired palettes are enough to make your eyes gleam with eye candy overload.

Visual Splendor

A Visual Tour of Apartment Seventy-Seven

08/21/2009

I happened upon a sweet, little apartment on the east side of Indy one glorious day. My very dear friend of the time and rosey-cheeked sweetie needed someone to take it off her hands while she left the country for a year. I urged her to go, life-changing adventures like that are worth having! So I found my a little 70s mushroom cornucopia nestled in kitty town, Indianapolis. Kitties of all walks of life and colors roam the sidewalks outside, the cobblestone streets provide that only the occasional slow-moving car drive by, they’re adorable to look at but no fun to drive quick on. This yellow brick road of the kitties actually does them a favor by protecting their streets from speeding demons.

Wild, flavorless strawberries peek out of the grass in every kept yard, the plants allowed to freely grow in a woodland flower district. Dark and covered in trees, this little hippy Halloween town has a lot of charm to offer.

The apartment, although a bit too big for me to keep up everyday, was absolutely lovely when arranged just the way I liked it. I had lots of friends ask me if they were in wonderland once inside and my closest friends and i have had the most amazing, special, one-of-a-kind nights and parties in this delectably roomy apartment.

Take a look around for yourself! I always welcome new friends and visitors to explore my world. If you have an apartment/special place you’d like explored, we would love to return the favor! *xoxo* Be careful not to spill tea on the… oh feel free to slosh your tea around everywhere on your imaginary tour!

seventy-seven

teancense

expedit

living in sync

zebra of a different color

owl bookem'

kitschen

bathroom wall

etagerie

daisy love

Mise en Snap Visual Splendor

Mise en Snap: A Woman is a Woman

08/04/2009

A Woman is a Woman (Une Femme est une Femme’) is a 1961 French new wave film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It’s colorful, quirky and adorable in it’s imagery and story. I found the interior shots to be clean, bright and simple, yet quaint and kitshy-cool. Reminds me of the delicious interior eye-candy to be gorged on in each of the Jeu de Paumes books.

The film centers around the relationship of an adorable exotic dancer Angéla (Anna Karina) and her live-in boyfriend, Émile (Jean-Claude Brialy). This films requires little-to-no serious thought, all of the discussions are completely trivialized and cute to watch. For instance they use book titles to argue and debate issues, pointing to titles that communicate the response that they would like to give.

Angéla wants to have a child while Émile does not, all the while Émile’s best friend Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo), constantly insists that he is in love with Angéla. It must be that every woman’s biological urge to have (bear, adopt, get a cat or chihuahua instead of) children kicks in at some point in their lives (even if just by passing thought!) no matter how much fun they may be having. *wink*

Have a taste!

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

a woman is a woman

Business Features Self Decoration

Spank! Japanese 80s Revival Fashion

01/20/2009

Spank! fashion! It’s a shop promoting the girly, sweet clothes most of us wore in the 80s and reviving and reworking them into new outfits for fun and raving. The shop is owned and opperated Tavuchi and her cute friends. If you’re ever raving in Tokyo, you’ll surely spot Spank! girls frolicking amongst the colour and lights making everyone’s night a little sweeter.

Spank-a-rama

Spank!

Try this style by pairing frilly mini-skirts and eighties toon nighties. Don’t forget to LAYER, as this is also important. If you view decora (or FRUiTS) fashion you will notice many differing layers. Colour, texture and pattern all differ creating a rainbow of color upon every cutie and toys are used as accessories and more. However instead of the many different decora colour palettes, Spank! uses the soft, feminine pastels of the 80s girl’s fuzzy companions and cartoon favorites.

Spank! Video

Mise en Snap Visual Splendor

Mise en Snap: Tales from the Crypt

12/24/2008

I recently had the fun of re-watching the 1973 movie edition of Tales from the Crypt. An absolute design gem in my opinion, you can find lovely mise-en-scenes in most old films (especially in Hitchock’s). Try watching some of your favorite old films for inspiration when designing anything. You’ll find as many tacky, funny goodies as you will absolutely sensational ones. Mind not the knives, terror-stricken faces and gore — as my grandmother LaVera once said, murder is necessary to tell a story.

tales from the crypt

tales from the crypt

tales from the crypt

tales from the crypt

tales from the crypt
All horror films should contain tea parties nestled within their gore!
Many Miseducated ladies are known to have fright fests
so why not get a little tea party motivation simultaneously?

tales from the crypt

tales from the crypt

tales from the crypt
I’m really digging the modular stereo with rainbow tuning.

tales from the crypt

tales from the crypt