Cheap and Chic-Bar Soap

My man brought home some no-frills, seriously organic "pure and gentle, soap the other day....like a whole box of it! A years, supply, in fact. We actually, up to this point, haven't even used bar soap in our house aside from the occasional travel size pilfered from a hotel.

I love the idea of organic, pure...well, anything, but this soap wasn't very pretty at all! And it comes in an ugly plastic case. Dustin went around the house putting the soap by every sink, still in the packaging. Since we moved into our house only a year ago, I'm working hard at removing any "new" feeling from our space and give it a lived in, layered and creative environment. Well, the placement of the soap looked super generic.

While I was at Anthropologie today picking out iron hooks to mount on our wall in SLEEVELESS's new retail space, I grabbed a couple soap dishes. One is small and wouldn't hold this huge bar of soap and the other was the perfect size. I went home and sliced my soap into little slivers intended for one time use.

I put them in the small dish and into the guest bath they went....

I put the other bar of soap by the sink...but I think I will slice this bar up as well because it just looks so much prettier!

So, I thought I'd share a relatively inexpensive way to take a boring bar of soap and style it pretty. Do you have any ideas to warm up our house by using thrifted items, old, colored bottles, herbs...etc. etc. I would love to hear more ideas!

"SABOT"

"SABOT"-n. a shoe carved from a single block of wood.

Take a lunch break to run over the Sabot, a small but impactful little boutique in the Buckhead shopping district of Atlanta, GA. The store carries brands that are as clever and sophisticated as the name of this boutique that headlines shoes and accessories. Since I have an affinity for Rick Owens and Yigal Azrouel, I was immediately drawn to Zero by Maria Cornejo.
Mostly monochromatic color scheme with a few pops of color and lots of drapey action, of course was all I needed to get me "into" this brand.

I had a great conversation with Desiree, the sweet and savvy owner, about being in business and the problem solving that comes part and parcel with being an entrepreneur. Sabot has been in business for 7 years and has weathered much of the economic storm that has been the death of many retailers. We both agreed on two things: 1.) Do what you love, and the 4 letter W-O-R-K isn't so bad, in fact, it can be a lot of fun....and 2.) Go big or go home! There just isn't a happy medium...you just gotta go for it!

On that note, Sabot, is our first boutique in Atlanta carrying the SLEEVELESS accessory line, so if you are in ATL, please stop in and shop for all their fine offerings....or find them online Taigan.com.

Be-Dazzled

Maybe I'm the last to know about Zuhair Murad, but this Lebanese designer has the most brilliant gowns, party dresses and couture. If I had a million dollars, I would have a closet full of these over the top frocks.
How are these for a Little Black Dress? I think so!!!!!

And what about this seaside inspired vision? I don't even know where I would wear this, but I would want to try it on and walk around my house and then hang it back in my closet as a collector's item....
This is how color blocking a gown should be done:

And here are some sheer options for a red carpet event...I mean, "whoa!"

And guess who got to wear this insanely gorgeous art? Kellie Pickler at the annual CMT music awards:

And around her neck, she's wearing a the limited edition "Cleo" necklace from SLEEVELESS. You can place an order at here.
I'm going to bed with visions of sugar plums and beaded tulle dancing in my head...
xoxo