My latest obsession is the Essie color Greenport from the Summer 2009 collection titled North Fork. It's SO beautiful!! I got a mani today and opted for this color straight away since they didn't have the new Mint Candy Apple Green on hand... I think I'd prefer this to that anyway! Reminds me of my Peacock Plume walls at the Wynn! It's a beautiful vintage color.
Photo credit: Vampy Varnish
Greenport
Kitty Earrings!
I made these kitty earrings for Anjellicle Cats Rescue. For just a $10 donation you can help a great organization save kitties AND get a cute pair of earrings! Check out my designs and be prepared to see more Jolene Jewelry here and on Etsy soon!
Jolene Turner Hosts the NYIGF Exhibitor Videos
This is one of ten videos; the rest can be found on the NYIGF Channel.
Equestrian Dreams
When I chose this horse motif background for Abode's current background, from The Cutest Blogs on the Block blog, I guess you could say I was subconsciously inspired by Betty Draper and her equestrian-inspired afternoons on "Mad Men." Betty Draper, Don, and really the set designers, costumers, and Matt Weiner, the creator of "Mad Men," have certainly brought to the forefront the absolute loveliness of the early 1960’s style, dress, and interiors. Pair this with Weiner’s deliciously sumptuous execution of it and his camera shots, and what you have is a visual masterpiece. And it's such things as this that inspire me to update Abode, my style blog.
Many of you may be familiar with Jolene's World, or as it was aptly nicknamed in 2007, J's World, while that is still going strong with silly anecdotes for my two fans to enjoy, Abode has been something I have had in the works now for a few years. It started as a personal portfolio specifically geared toward a job I really wanted. While I was told it did impress, and I got an interview as well as the momentary dream of relocating to San Francisco, I didn’t get the job. What I did get though was a clearer vision of my interior design tastes, and a vehicle for sharing my visions on the world wide web.
Over time Abode has since morphed into a bit more of an overall style blog, likely due to my own morphing from city to city, life-path to life-path. Abode is a celebration of interiors indeed, but also fashion, my personal style, the art of thrifting, what inspires me visually, and silly things like my love for plastic animals and Tokidoki.
When I began this blog, I was living in Chicago in this adorable brownstone I dubbed the EP Suites located smack in the middle of Boystown. The apartment was charming with exposed brick, my watermelon-colored living room wall, black and white checked kitchen flooring, and crown molding. Later I moved to my favorite Chicago flat in Lincoln Square, a fabulously huge three room studio with a deck for gardening (a hobby that I wasn't as good as say choosing Strawberry Shortcake curtains for my kitchen) and two doors to rooms other than the bathroom! Here I got all my colors just right, Peacock Plume for the living room walls, and a deliciously beautiful brown-vintage pink for the accent walls.
In each apartment I had everything strategically placed and my interior design evolved each day, until I could get it perfect, which, in Lincoln Square, may have been at its best when Time Out Chicago did an article on the place for a May 2008 issue. Shortly thereafter , out of the blue really, I decided to move and get rid of everything I own. I guess I always just wanted to be one of those quirky girls featured in a magazine, showing off her thrift store apartment full of tacky things like Hello Kitty Pez dispensers and old hats. Once this happened I was done being owned by my things and decided to move forward as a vagabond.
For a girl who LOVES her things, her home, her space, deciding to lead the vagabond lifestyle was a weird thing for me to do. In fact, as I write this now I have nowhere to live. I am in New York City, happy I am finally here, but a little lost. I literally only have in my possession a handful of clothes, okay a closet full of clothes, my computer Miss Stella, some jewelry, my jewelry making kit, books, a ceramic deer, four tokidokies, mini Rebecca for photo shoots, and a little rubber guy with a red heart that I found on the street in Soho (he was washed thoroughly.) Adding to the mix, and again inspired by Ms. Draper, are my new cool equestrian style boots. (Shown here.)
While I should probably be focusing more on where I will live than what I will be wearing, I figure, if anything, at least these boots will keep me warm should the park become my new temporary home.
And, alas, whatever part of the park I may end up, or hopefully maybe a place with four walls, I will still be blogging here on Abode and hope you will follow me and be inspired too by my tastes and stylrific influences!
Anna Sui for Target—Disappointing!
I didn't buy one piece, all of it seemed cheap, poorly made, and WAY over priced for Target! Dresses were marked from $60 to $80. Silly! For that price I'll go to a better boutique and get something more original and much more well made. I'm just sayin'.
I did pick up a couple cute tops at one of my fav cheapy shops Forever Twenty One or, as I lovingly call it, Forever Slutty One. Going to wear this number to a very Foxy Birthday dance party on Saturday! Oh I'll wear some sleek black pants as well, I'm not in my twenties afterall..
Anna Sui for Target
So excited about the next Go International collection for Target from Anna Sui. Sui says she based her designs on the women of Gossip Girl, however many industry experts have noticed the striking resemblance to numerous Sui designs of the past. Either way I am loving this Serena (above) and this Blair (below!) Must get mine come September!
Old is New Again
At the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market, found an old vintage frock while donning a similar dress just picked up on the cheap at Forever 21
Unicorn Necklace
As a new resident of New York City, I have come to realize a creative drawback for myself personally, one I can easily live with, but nonetheless is odd and a bit difficult, is that I have a roommate for the first time in 11 years! The actual roommate is not the problem; she's a doll! What is the drawback is that my craft of decorating and making my space my space, is, at the moment, non-existent.
This is not just because of having a roomie to share space with, but also I am living in an already furnished apartment. It's SO bizarre! Not the furnishings of my new place—luckily I have purple lilac bedroom walls—but the fact that, overall, my little nook is not speaking 'Jolene!'
To counter this lack of creative force in decorating my home full of tchotchkies, chic thrifty finds, and, of course, the occasional Strawberry Shortcake home good, I have been dabbling more into my jewelry making. I have purchased some goods here in the city that I has me coming up with new, creative ideas for necklaces and earrings. Once completed, I hope to be showcasing these goods here on Abode!
One such item I made a few months back that I am proud to share is this pretty unicorn necklace. I made it with my friend Mandy in mind and gave it to her on my last trip to Chicago. Mandy is my type of friend that would definitely wear a unicorn necklace and when someone will comment on it I can just hear her say "Oh this is my unicorn necklace; my friend Jolene made it."
I hope she still wears it. :)
Sunae, Kanzashi, and GiGi
At this years National Stationery Show, held at Javits in NYC, I saw new artists, old friends, and many beautiful, artist-driven work that made my heart sing! Here are just a few of my favs!
Red Cap Cards artist Carrie Gifford introduced new artists to her card company, including this fabulous Japanese artist Naoshi! Naoshi paints in shiny color sand, a process called "SUNAE" in Japanese. Her imagery is smart, quirky, and very funny!
Artist Amy Kwong for her stationery company Smitten Kitten showed pretty stationery as well as her line of beautiful handmade couture necklaces she crafts herself. Similar to Origami, the flowers are called Kanzashi and are made from vintage silk scarfs, and are accented with glass and acrylic beads.
As a HUGE fan of Dare Wright and The Lonely Doll, this company certainly tweaked my fancy! Gigglegraph offers up silly cards with the sneaky GiGi doll everywhere!
Oh Economy
Okay so the economy BLOWS and many things in my personal life have been affected, i.e. family and numerous friends losing their jobs, no one eating at my restaurants, no one wanting to actually pay for writers...and now the final straw, my beloved Domino Magazine has folded.
I credit Domino with SO much; introducing me to the COOLEST, HIPPEST young interior designers; showing me how to have a FABU home that is SO all about my personality, well put-together, and still so affordable; having pages oozing with the color pink, teal, and purple; and being a resource that truly spoke to me about what design could be for me no matter what my bank account was or my style desires! I have never been one to follow rules, and Domino was the first shelter pub to recognize that people's homes can be as individualistic as their personalities.
The Premiere issue in 2005 with Ruthie Sommers on the cover; this cover had me immediately sending in my subscription card and I was a loyal fan ever since. To read more about Domino's folding, go to this good article in The New York Times: A Girl World Closes, and Fans Mourn.
Domino I will so miss you. R.I.P.
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