Categories Archive
It is starting to cool off a bit in Northern California and I’m craving a good Pumpkin Spice Latte! I want my whole house to smell like Fall and pumpkins, so I recently ordered several candles from Wax Cabin Candle. I light the Pumpkin Horchata candle and it smells like someone is baking a yummy cake in my house, I love it! I also ordered a few of their other best sellers – Lavandou Fizz, Cozy Cabin and Brunch. I have always loved anything Lavender and it makes me feel like I am having a spa day. Since there is very little travel going on right now, Cozy Cabin made me feel like I was in a log cabin in the woods 🙂 The great thing about these candles is that they are 100% soy wax grown in America and they are hand poured in New Jersey. They last a long time and smell great! They have a nice selection of fun boozy candles and even Mandles (candles for your man). Wax Cabin was kind enough to offer our readers a discount code to get 15% off your order. Just use code simonandkabuki15 at checkout. Check out their whole selection here Wax Cabin Candle Company. They make perfect Christmas gifts for you or your family and friends! Happy...
We’ve got some super sassy, super cute new mugs up on our Etsy Store. For all of you hard working mammas out there who need to put a smile on your face as you drink a cup of joe —these are for you! The mugs are 11 oz. each, standard coffee cup size. If you sign up for our Email List you can get 15% off your first order of mugs or prints. Perfect gifts for Mother’s day! 🙂 Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook to get all of the latest updates, contests and sales....
Check out our newest Simon+Kabuki Prints. We’ve added lots of fun new digital prints. You can download a high quality JPEG to print at home, online or through most office or stationery stores. These are perfect for last minute gifts or to decorate your own walls. We will be adding new stuff daily. Any requests or suggestions? Sign up for our Mailing List to get 15% off or buy multiple prints to get a great discount using the codes below. Coupon code: BUY2GET1FREE – Simply add 3 items (priced at $5.50 USD each) to your cart and enter the code for your free print. Coupon code: BUY4GET2FREE – Simply add 6 items (priced at $5.50 USD each) to your cart and enter the code for your free prints. CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR PRINTS...
We have some exciting news to share! We’ve just launched personalized art prints with Frecklebox.com. If you are looking for an awesome quality personalized print on archival paper Frecklebox.com is the place to go. You can easily preview your print before ordering and you can order an 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 print. We had a lot of fun with these, lots of new illustrations and watercolors. They make a perfect gift for the upcoming holidays and any gifting needs you have coming up. Use code YAY! at checkout to get 35% off art prints. Available in 8 x 10 or 11 x 14, printed on high quality paper, frame not included. We still have our downloadable digital art prints on Etsy. These are not personalized or printed but are great for a last minute gift. Check out our holiday collection perfect for easy, low-cost decorating over the holidays. Check back often as we add more products to our store. Here are some coupons for ordering at our Etsy Store: Coupon code: BUY2GET1FREE Simply add 3 items (priced at $5.50 USD each) to your cart and enter the code for your free print. Coupon code: BUY4GET2FREE Simply add 6 items (priced at $5.50 USD each) to your cart and enter the code for your free...
Have you ever bought real art? Not the kind you find at World Market or Pier 1, although nothing wrong with that, but the kind where you can see the artist and get to know them and customize your order. Well now you can and it’s really easy. There are lot’s of options like Etsy, Minted and Simply to Impress. We have a large stationery line with Simply to Impress and now I’m super excited to announce our new Art Prints. The great thing about ordering through Simply to Impress is the awesome options they have. You can get your print framed or unframed, mounted standard, floating or deckled plus some can be personalized as well. Not long ago I purchased some art online and made the mistake of not getting it framed right then and there. I thought I could find some great frame elsewhere that would be perfect. After traipsing all over town and spending more in gas than the frame would have cost, I finally ordered it online. Lesson learned. Take a look at some of our new prints, HERE. Let us know what you think. And if you make a purchase (thank you by the way!) send us a picture of it hanging, we’d love to see it!...
Have you checked out Guildery.com yet? If not you should stop reading and head on over there! With Guildery you are able to have a perfectly color coordinated home with the most beautiful fabrics, furniture and paint. They make it easy and eliminate the guesswork. Everything is super high-quality and manufactured in the USA. The founders are Shane Reilly (founder of Decorati, acquired by Gilt Groupe), and Kelly Berger (co-founder of Tiny Prints, acquired by Shutterfly) so they know what they are doing. S+K is so happy to be a part of this group. You can check out our Swing Time Collection and have some fun mixing and matching. They’ve just launched headboards and wallpaper, see some selections below! So pretty and so many options. Have...
We are heading into the homestretch of holidays. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I love getting together with family and sharing great food and great company. We usually do 2 Thanksgivings, one with my side of the family and the next day with my husband’s side of the family. Double doses of turkey, cranberry and yummy sweet potatoes. My mom keeps the menu the same every year and we grumble if she changes anything. 🙂 We only get cranberry mold and candied sweet potatoes once a year, you can experiment with other dishes 364 other days! We start off with cream of mushroom soup and then head into a food overdose with; turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, candied yams, rolls, stuffing, etc. We also usually try to take holiday pictures that day while we are on a walk. What are some of your traditions and what are you thankful for? For me having family so close is great! Check out our cute placemats from Frecklebox.com, perfect for setting your table. You can also download these FREE S+K placecards here; turkey and leaves. Just print on cover stock, trim and fill in the name and you are good to go. They’d look super cute placed in pinecones on dinner plates!...
After over 20 years of renting office space in various cool abodes, Simon+Kabuki has flown the coop. We rarely have clients visit us anymore so it made sense to take the plunge and move our offices to our homes now. It saves us quite a bit – no more rent, liability insurance, internet, phone system, etc. Erin and I both live in the same neighborhood and carpooled to work, so getting together to go over projects weekly is pretty easy. I wish I had a separate space for my home office but I think I have another year or two before that happens. In the meantime, I’ve set up a nice little office space in my bedroom. At first I searched the house for other little niches but in the end chose my bedroom. I don’t know about you but if you have kids there always seems to be a pile on the table or shoes near the door or dirty clothes on the floor. That is why in the end I chose my room. 🙂 As I sit here typing the birds are chirping away outside and the fountain is gurgling (and my dogs are occasionally barking and farting, nothing is perfect!). Quite pleasant for the most part! I think I may actually get more work done! Take a look at the history of our office spaces....
Have you had a chance to check out our new home decor collection, Swing Time, on Guildery.com? We are so happy to be a part of Guildery and their launch. We are also super excited to be featured today on their blog and homepage. If you haven’t checked it out yet head on over to get an idea of how our ideas come to life and grab a super cool pillow while you’re there! Right now you can enjoy free shipping and you can also buy our fabric by the yard. Here are our links: Blog Post...
Have you had a chance to check out the just launched Guildery.com? They have some amazingly beautiful home decor items using custom fabric from some great textile designers. Here are some additional pieces from our line I thought I’d highlight, hope you like them! Love the gold lamp, you must see a close up of the detail! So happy to be partnering with them. If you get a chance head on over. Use code PREVIEW for 20% off until August 31st. I think they are also doing free shipping right...
Stripe 1. a relatively long, narrow band of a different color, appearance, weave, material, or nature from the rest of a surface or thing: the stripes of a zebra. 2. a fabric or material containing such a band or bands. 3. a strip of braid, tape, or the like. Stripes are an easy way to add either a bit of zing to your decorating or wardrobe or a way to add a soft texture. Here are a few great examples of stripes. I love that you can add anything to stripes (florals, polka dots, etc.) and it matches. No guesswork involved. Who would have thought that the lowly line could do so...
My husband has accused me of cheating on him… with our yards. He says I spend all kinds of time lavishing them with attention and I get all excited when presented with a fresh bloom. In another life I will be a landscape designer. There are a lot of similarities to graphic design but with an added layer of complexity. You have to consider seasons, growth and whether the damn dog will tear it up. A friend of mine was recently visiting from Southern California and asked if I would come down and help re-design his yard. Before you start thinking, “oh sure he wanted you to come and work on his… yard,” I’d like to clarify that Peleg is my gay boyfriend so of course everything about this project was super fun and totally fabulous. I do not cheat on my husband with other people’s yards. Just ours. I asked Peleg to send me the dimensions of all of the planters, get everything cleaned out. No weeds, rocks, old roots etc. and have a drip system installed before I arrived so that we could get it all done in two days. I also sent a list of questions about how he intended to use the space and how it should feel when he walked outside. Then I gave him the task of going for a walk in his hood and taking pictures of plants that he liked. This is a great way to figure out what will grow successfully in your own yard. We found plants in varying heights, textures and colors. When you’re doing a planter, you...
My daughter went away to college and when she didn’t move back home after the first year my sons went on a campaign to put a pool table in her room. So we did. After 4 years away, she came back home for a few months until she could afford her own place. Since her old bedroom is now the Pool Room, she moved into our guest room. With her effin’ cat. Who tore up the carpet trying to escape. This is how a lot of my home projects start, with one repair that snowballs into a total makeover. I figured if I have to replace the carpet, I might as well paint while the room is empty. And now that I’m painting a new color I’ll have to get new bedding. And since I’m starting over, I might want to rearrange the furniture because I haven’t hurt my back lately. The afternoon sun shines on the bed so this room might have to double as the Afternoon Nap Room. Now I just have to redo the attached bathroom, stay tuned! ...
We’ve decided that when our lease is up at the end of the summer, that we will move our office to our homes. Erin and I live within a mile of one another so getting together for meetings and brainstorming will be easy. Most of our corporate clients no longer come to our office. We either go to them or everything is done by email. Our licensing manufacturers are all over the country and world so we get together with them only occasionally at trade shows. It’s a changing world we live in. One of my problems with moving my office to my house is that I won’t have a dedicated room just for my office. I will need to have a multi-tasking area, like the corner of my bedroom or my living room. It will be a big adjustment but will also save us some money (rent, insurance, phone bills, etc.). I’ve just started thinking about some space ideas and also getting to the difficult task of cleaning out an office that has accumulated 20 years worth of stuff! Here are some ideas that I really like. I’ll keep you posted with before and after pics when I finally get around to making changes at home. And check out my Pinterest board for my...
I am doing some Spring cleaning on my computer and came across some of our original tabletop designs. These designs have not been picked up yet but I sure hope they do. I love the colors and pattern combos and burlap is still a big trend. And I don’t think we will ever get rid of the bird trend! 🙂...
Our Eat at Moms dishes were a big hit at stores. And now we’ve been asked to design a new collection along the same lines. We are working on that now and it’s looking pretty sassy! But we are super excited that our Eat at Moms collection is also coming out as a fabric line. Now you can have a super coordinated kitchen! The fabric line should be in stores (Hobby Lobby) in 2014. It’s always fun to see a design collection across multiple products. Check out some of the fabric swatches...
Orange is not just for Halloween. Used in home decor it adds a great pop of happy brightness to any room. It’s easy to update for fall with pillows and rugs or you can add orange into your decor all year round. I love the all white kitchen with the orange hanging lights or the orange front door and the orange barn door! Plus if you keep everything else neutral it’s really easy to switch out colors with the seasons, trends or your latest whims. A super easy update using orange just add some pumpkins to your decor either inside or out. For great inspiration check out Houzz.com, Better Homes and Gardens or...
I didn’t even realize I was being a psycho until most of my so-called friends called me that when I told them my plans for not one, but two, dinner parties in three days. I was thinking it was super efficient to entertain a couple of days apart since I was renting tables, dishes, etc. Am I right? The first group were U.S. members of my husband’s cult board and the second group was the international cult board. I like to be compared to Martha Stewart (but with a pinch of Jennifer Aniston) as often as possible AND I just traveled to Italy where every meal is described by region, so I decided everything had to be local. I dragged my husband’s sober ass to a winery about 15 miles south of my backyard to pick out wine. Did I mention that he doesn’t drink and my favorite wine is Coors Light? Luckily we have lots of alcoholic friends who are willing to educate us. We picked out a Pinot Noir (which is apparently what the Kool Kids are drinking) and a Chardonnay for those who prefer beer and juice boxes. Of course we had to have wine from Napa Valley, since it’s a stone’s throw away and known around the world. I thought beer tasting would be a nice start (not because I was trying to get everybody wasted in case they were no fun) so I got local beers too, from hubby’s college town and San Francisco (also in the hood) and one from San Diego just because it’s called Arrogant Bastard. How could I NOT serve that? I...
My son is off to college this summer and that leaves me with just two left in “the nest”. My daughters still have quite a while before flying away – about 6 years, but I’ve often thought of what car I would drive and what kind of house I would own when the nest is empty. Growing up I always wanted a Chinook for a car. If you are unfamiliar with this car it is basically a small pick up with a camper shell attached. I thought it would be awesome to drive around with your house attached. Then as a tween I really wanted to live in an apartment, I thought that would be so fun. Don’t tell my parents who celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next year, but I kind of wanted them to separate or divorce so I could live in an apartment. (I know I’m weird) As a college graduate I finally achieved that dream! 🙂 (The apartment not the divorce) Now of course I live in a standard ranch house and drive a standard SUV! (To drive my standard family of 5 around) But I dream of one day having a small cottage with white slip-covered furniture (and no one to spill stuff on it), a cute little garden, and a small cute car like a convertible bug or a Mini Cooper (no carpooling allowed). I guess you can tell from my Pinterest boards I like turquoise? Funny since I have none in my house now! Don’t get me wrong I love my kids dearly and will totally miss almost everything about having them...
The last few weeks we’ve been doing a lot of gardening. I am an amateur gardener at best. I try lots of stuff and see what works. A few years ago we took out our kids play structure and replaced it with garden boxes, a bench and a fire pit. We were totally excited to start planting. What we didn’t realize is the big beautiful tree that shaded our kids area also made growing veggies more difficult. Live and learn! What I have found is that some veggies like the half shaded area. We grow cauliflower, strawberries, broccoli, leeks and a few other veggies here. Tomatoes didn’t do so well so we plan to set up another box on our super sunny side yard. I’ve also recently started tucking veggies into pots with flowers. On my front porch I am growing jalapenos and rosemary. I have a separate flower box that I’ve planted mint. Make sure to plant mint separately otherwise it takes over the whole garden. I have seedlings for basil, cilantro and chives that I plan on adding amongst flowers. I hope this year I finally figure it out and have a very bountiful season! If you have any gardening tips I’d love to hear...
One of my favorite design collections is Mediterranean Dreams. I love the colors and the feeling I get when I see it. We have fabric that is out now in this pattern but we are also developing home decor products using the collection for Surtex and the Licensing Show. I would love to see pillows and sheets in this design. For home decor we softened up the tones a bit, the fabric collection is brighter. You can also currently purchase wall murals from MuralsYourWay. Below are the original design collection we did and also two color variations. Hope you like them! If you are attending either show, swing by our agent’s (Jewel Branding) booth and say hello. Surtex, May 19-21, 2013 in New York City, Booth 408 Licensing Expo, June 18-20, 2013 in Las Vegas, Booth...
Even though it is raining outside and there are a bunch of dead leaves on my lawn, I am dreaming about spring and summer when I can be outside enjoying my yard. I love when all of the flowers are blooming and the vegetable garden is overflowing. I have a lot of work to do in my yard but with the cold weather I have a hard time motivating my lazy ass to get out there. But I definitely like to collect inspiring pictures of what I hope my yard will look like in a couple of months! I love using both Houzz.com and Pinterest to collect ideas. Here are some of my favorites from both sites and you can tell that I love the whole cottage garden concept and who wouldn’t love to have a pond a little boat in their yard?! What I really want is the house above, garden, picket fence, bike and all! And if it is a block from the beach, bonus...
I love adding pops of color and bold graphics to a home. The key to achieving the perfect balance is to keep it balanced. If you are looking for an easy way to add a graphic pop, try painting a wall with chalkboard paint. It allows you to change it up whenever you want, like with the seasons or holidays. Another great idea, add a large letter or monogram to the wall. You could even take a sharpie to a kids room, just make sure they don’t see you doing it or you’re in trouble! Have an all white room? Adding a few bright colors will make it come to life. If you’re still not sure about what to add or afraid to make a commitment with paint or furniture go for a big graphic canvas. You can find tons of great ideas on Houzz.com and...
This year my Christmas decor is all about glittery, vintage-y, sparkly stuff. It started in October when I saw this sparkly silver reindeer that’s the size of my dog on display at Z Gallerie. While my judgmental self was thinking it’s way too early for Christmas displays, my holiday-loving self was like “I gotta have this.” I bought it and hid it from my hubby cuz he already thinks I’m nuts, I don’t need to fuel that fire. My living room is also decorated with, surprise!, reindeer and sparkly stuff. But I also have a feather-y thing going on just to make sure it looks completely fabulous. If I didn’t know better I’d think a Drag Queen decorated my house this year… And my new favorite decoration is on a table in the entry way. It’s a random collection of a bird cage, a wreath, a candles and plumes. I think holiday decor should be whatever makes you feel festive and smiley. It doesn’t have to have a theme or matching colors. For years I’ve been collecting Bumbles (the abominable snowman from the Rudolph movie). I put them in odd places all over the house and the friends and fam that come every year during the holidays love to try to find them all. I still have work to do, gotta get the stockings hung by the chimney with care and get out some of our traditional ornaments. And then there’s the tree… oh how I love the chaos of Christmas. And no, I have not started shopping yet. Whatever. ...
Last week my kids had the week off. My son did several college tours and I took Friday off for some fun family time. Most of our weekends are taken up driving to soccer games all over town so it was nice to have a free Friday to explore our nearby parks and recreation. We often head to the beach but this time we went to Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz. I’d never been even though it is so close to us. It is a historic state park with a farm and houses that have been preserved. The day we were there they were doing living history demonstrations for elementary school classes so we got to tag along. We then had lunch swung by the The Seymour Marine Discovery Center and then headed over to the new Sanctuary Exploratory Center near the boardwalk. It’s small, free and easy to visit on your way to somewhere else, like dessert on the wharf. We visited for 30 minutes, the most entertaining part was the movie they play about the area. We then visited a great home store in Aptos called the Warmth Company. I loved everything there and if I win the lottery I’m heading over for a shopping spree ASAP. We decided to take the scenic route home and found a super cute farmstand. It works on the honor system. There were prices for everything and a place to put your money. The whole day was awesome and it was great not to have to rush from one field to the next. What hidden gems are in your neighborhood waiting...
