Switch hitting

It's a new year.  I have started my annual cleanse, and now on day 3, I'm jonzing for my morning coffee, a glass of Pinot and some cheese and crackers.  I know that if I can just stay strong, the cycle will continue, and in a few days I will feel clarity and more refreshed to kick off 2012.

To keep on track, today I took a trip over to Barnes & Noble to pick up a copy of Shape magazine - It's always inspiring to see before and afters of people who have dropped some serious lbs (did you see that issue of People magazine this month where they were 1/2 their size?)!  Anyway, while I went there to pick up Shape, I started flipping through Vogue and the like.  Finding the images a little too far out of touch for my physique, I ended up in the house & home section.  Go figure.

But, that's it. 

A friend of mine, Gretchen Aubuchon, is launching a new website next month called Fashion + Decor (http://www.fashionanddecor.com/).  She has come up with the great concept of coupling fashion with interiors.  She is literally "pairing fashion to home decor to inspire dressing our homes as we would dress ourselves".  Though personally I am still an old school believer that interiors (or at least the ones that I create) begin more organically, there is an opposing school of thought out there that believe they are influenced more by how you dress or what you see on the runway. 

Now I am not a girl who is hung up on fashion.  I always thumb through the design magazines before I pick up a fashion one (which usually comes after a dose of US Weekly), so for me, this theory works a little backwards.  I see a beautiful space and then conceptualize it as an outfit, especially with color schemes that I normally wouldn't think of putting together on my body.   But, in trying to stay on track for a healthy new year, I came across this inspiration.  This is my goal.  I am going to look great in this swimsuit.  AND, for the first time that I am aware of, I'm a switch hitter.  Fashion is going to influence my design, and I'm going to use it as my jumping off point for a new project....

  Mara Hoffman

For more about Fashion + Decor, make sure to check out Gretchen's blog, http://www.gretchenaubuchondesign.com/.