I spent several summers during college in France, primarily Paris. I studied French, as well as fashion and fine arts. After an initial visit to France to visit family as a teenager, I was irrevocably hooked. If it’s French, odds are, I’ll love it. Nobody does style like the French. I look back on my time in France as such a delightful experience, and undoubtedly a huge influence in my design career. I look forward to future trips someday. I would love to push little boats around the fountains in the Jardin du Luxembourg with Jude. 

Speaking of my love for France and all things French, I really enjoyed Sophia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette. Visually, it is unmatched. Colors, textures, fashion, textiles — even the food is to die for. It’s an absolutely gorgeous movie, and a visual love letter to the chateau at Versailles. My favorite scenes are of the Trianon and le Hameau, where Marie-Antoinette would get away from the rigours of palace life. Anyway, worth a rental, especially if you’ve got a big ol’ flatscreen TV.

It was also inevitable that I would fall in love with prints and patterns. I grew up in the most fabulous, colorful house ever. My parents’ favorite colors were kelly green and royal blue, and their interiors entirely reflect that. They hired an interior designer who was inspired by what we would now term the Hollywood Regency style, with lots of chinoiserie accents (gorgeous bamboo shelves, I love you so). My parents were unafraid of color, and as a result, so am I. I’ve never met a color I didn’t love, perhaps with the exception of mauve. Because let’s face it, mauve is such a hospital color. I gravitate towards color, I totally crave it. 
The kelly green carpet that runs through their home was the perfect setting for all of my childhood dollhouses, stuffed animals, and My Little Ponies. A Barbie House really looks better with the most luscious green carpet you’ve ever seen. Nobody makes carpet like that anymore.

Stripes get their own category, aside from print+pattern because they are just so darn fabulous. I know that someday Jude will look back on his childhood photos and wonder what on earth was up with all the stripes he was wearing. But stripes are so awesome – they can convey order, but also whimsy; they can fool the eye and deceive the viewer.

In fact, I love stripes so very much that I painted our powder bathroom in black and white stripes. I’m sure our future buyer is going to looove that, but oh well. It still makes me smile every time I walk in it.

Since it’s my birthday, and I am anticipating a fabulous cake, we should discuss cake. I love cake. I love all kinds of it. I would almost get married all over again just to have the cake testing again. And I am just amazed at how creative cake decorators can get. Nothing delights like a whimsical, fabulous cake. Check out these purse cakes below that we saw at the Wynn Las Vegas.