What Do We Think?

It was time the ol' blog got a little makeover. What do you think? I've got a new header and a new look, I made it a wider size so that I can fit larger images, I added some buttons below each post so you can share anything you think a friend will like and I've got tabs at the top of the page so you can read a little more about me, hire me for various projects or contact me with a special request of something you'd like to see me write about.

I also created a new Facebook page just for the blog! You can "like" me on Facebook and get all kinds of updates on everything you like reading here. You can follow me on Twitter too and get tweets about what I'm working on.

I'm liking the changes, but I want to hear what you think! So drop me a line and let me know. Also, it would be great if you'd pass me along to some of your friends! So please share articles you like, suggest they like me on Facebook, or buy a billboard with my web link in your town - whatever tickles your fancy.

A Little Nip and Tuck...

KatyHarper.com is getting a facelift this weekend - complete with an updated look, larger photos and its very own Facebook Fan page (independent of Yours Truly's page). Check in Monday for all the bloggy goodness! And please excuse any weirdness in the header, pictures, etc over the weekend - lookin' good takes time, y'all!

Double Feature: All Pursed Up and A Bonus Closet Tip

Typically I live by this wardrobe philosophy - Spend what you can spend on classic pieces that you'll have forever (or at least for many years), but scrimp on trends. Chunky, strappy wedges might be in style right now, but next year they'll probably be SO last season. That military-inspired jacket may be a must-have today, but soon it’s going to go the way of the leisure suit. Even though I love Anthropologie’s, if an item isn’t on sale, I’m going to try to find its match somewhere like Forever 21.

But one area where I absolutely don’t scrimp is on handbags. Don’t get me wrong – I used to have a closet full of purses in every size, shape, color and material. But you know what? The cheap ones would break or tear. We carry a lot of stuff in there (remember this?), so a bag has to hold up. And that’s why good quality bags cost so much more – they hold up. So I’ve gotten rid of all the crap, and now have a small but mighty group of classic bags I’ll have for years to come:


From left: I don't wear brown very often, but this Michael Kors bag is more "neutral" than "brown," so I can wear it with black too. The black Longchamp bag is great because it's nylon, so it weighs nothing, but still has great stitching and is really sturdy. Kate Spade made my use-85%-of-the-time bag - it's black pebbled leather in a timeless shape, and the hardware is somewhere between silver and gold, so it goes with everything. Plus, the inside has tons of pockets and is Kelly green. The patent Dooney was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law, and can be dressed up or down while still being timeless.

Now, I’m NOT advocating spending $4,000 on a Birkin. In fact, if you stalk your local TJ Maxx, you can find great deals on some really nice bags (the Michael Kors bag above used to live at TJ Maxx before I brought it home with me for $150). Here’s a sampling of some timeless bags to invest in, whether you go for the gold and plunk down $500 at Saks or find something a little less expensive but still well-made and not trendy:

Totes by Tory Burch
Shoulder Bags by Marc by Marc Jacobs

Top, from left:
This Tory Burch quilted leather bag (whose link refuses to work with the HTML on my site, so you're going to have to just go to the Saks site and find it) is a great neutral shade that would work with brown or black.
This Marc by Marc Jacobs bag is a great shap, and has a nice belted detail.
Tory Burch makes a quilted nylon bag that's classic and light.

Bottom, from left:
Even though this DKNY bag has lots going on, it's still a classic look with a little more flair.
The stitching on this Donatella Lucci bag is beautiful, but won't go out of style.
The, in my opinion, perfect pebbled leather, use-it-every-day, black tote from DKNY.

Are you convinced? So before you but on your shopping shoes (or pull up your favorite shopping sites), here are a few things to look for in a stylish bag you'll have forever:

• Try to resist the urge to buy a bag with the designer's name all over it. You don't need it to say "Coach! Coach! Coach!" or to have "MICHAEL KORS" in 76 point type. Think understated.


• Even though green's your favorite color, stay neutral. Ten years from now, you'll be happy you did.


• Invest in leather for your main bag. It won't snag like cloth will. A secondary bag in nylon is also good to have for travel, since it's light.


• Minimal is better. Try to stay away from lots of zippers, grommets, tassles or, God forbid, rhinestones. If you don't want such a plain purse, tie a scarf around the handle to give it some personality (see above). You can change it as often as you change your outfit.


• Look at your wardrobe. If you wear black more often than brown, black should be your go-to bag.


• BONUS CLOSET TIP: Stuff handbags that you're not using with tissue paper or bubble wrap and keep them on a shelf in your closet so they'll keep their shape.

Next week, I'll tackle the rest of your closet - I'm starting a wardrobe from scratch for my friend Krislyn, balancing the nice things you should spend good money on (i.e. - her fancy lawyer suits) with the trends to make you look non-boring. All on a budget! Happy weekend everybody. Tune in next week, and send me to your friends too!

Cocktail Hour: Strawberry Mojitos

My gaggle of girlfriends came over last weekend, so I wanted to make them a fancy drink. I decided on Strawberry Mojitos. I like these because they’re refreshing when it’s warm outside (which it TOTALLY was on Saturday) without being way too sweet, and they’re not hard to make. The recipe is fairly classic, except I use less sugar because I wanted to cut down the sweetness. Here’s the recipe, followed by a fewer-calorie variation my friend Morgan told me about and another variation for when you get bored.

*Note: Normally I have step-by-step photos of recipes, but I was, ahem, distracted while I was making these.

Ingredients for half a pitcher (double if you have lots of friends or are really thirsty):
2 cups white rum
4 cups club soda
½ cup sugar
A bunch of mint
14 strawberries with the stems cut off
4 limes, halved
Ice

OK – mojito recipes tell you to muddle the mint, lime pieces and strawberries together in a glass or pitcher. But I’m here to tell you that A) that’s hard to do, B) if you’re using a glass pitcher, you’re going to break it if you do it too hard, and C) requires a bar tool that I didn’t have. And no, a wooden spoon isn’t the same, and Trusty Husband would have been mad if I’d used the handle of his hammer like I considered doing.

Food processor to the rescue.

I threw the rum, sugar, mint and strawberries into the food processor, squeezed the limes in there and put 4 of the halves in, and pulsed it about five times just to break everything up and get the flavors into the rum. It’s totally fine to have the lime peel in there – the bitters give the mojito part of its signature taste. I poured that mixture into the pitcher THEN added the club soda so I didn’t have a huge bubbly mess on my hands. Add ice, and drink up!

VARIATION: If you’re watching your calories while still imbibing (which we all know is easy to do and always turns out well), you can substitute Diet Sprite or Diet 7-Up for the club soda and sugar. I’d take out a lime too, so it won’t be so limey.

VARIATION 2: You can substitute Bacardi Dragon Fruit rum for the regular white rum – it gives it a different little fruity kick.

Space-saving Laundry Baskets

Regular laundry baskets take up way too much room, especially if you have a laundry closet or stackable units. So a genius invented these collapsable laundry baskets that are awesome:


Big enough for a load of clothes, and has handles!


Collapses into this little toot when you're not using it!


Stacks neatly in a cabinet and comes in many colors!

You can buy these at Walmart for about $3 each. And seriously - they're great. I don't know if everyone else knows about these, but I love them and wanted to share.

See What Condition my Condition is in

Do you get icky dry hair like I do? Seems like in the winter with all the heating and cold air and what-not, mine gets brittle and generally blah. I never met my grandmother on my mom's side, but I'm told she had the most beautiful hair imaginable - you could almost see your reflection in it. Her secret was putting olive oil on it every night.

I've also read that avocado is good for your hair because of all the "good" fat in it. So, how 'bout a mixture?

Get some olive oil and a too-ripe-to-eat avocado (it'll be super smooshy) at the grocery store.*


Scoop out all the avocado and put it in a microwave-safe bowl with approximately 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Smash it with a fork until it's pastey. Resist the urge to locate the nearest bag of tortilla chips and dig in.



NOT guacamole.

Microwave the mixture for about 20 seconds. Work the mixture into your hair, starting at the roots. Do this in the kitchen over the sink, or you'll have a real bathroom mess on your hands.

Tell your husband/boyfriend/significant other to TRY to resist you while you look like this.

Cover your hair with a shower cap, or, if you're like me and put the mixture on before you realize you don't have a shower cap, fashion one out of a grocery bag and a headband:

I can't believe I put this on the Internet.

Let the mixture stay on there for at least an hour. I left mine on for two, until I got hot ironing and guacamole started running into my eyes. Wash your hair (I had to shampoo twice). Mine felt NOTICEABLY softer and silkier!

*Sidenote: When I was making my way to the avocados at my local Publix, I actually saw a woman put two of them in her pockets and head for the door. I found this odd because A) avocados are like a dollar, B) if you're in a situation where you can't afford food and have to resort to stealing, are avocados really going to be your go-to booty? C) From what I could tell, she didn't even squeeze them to see how firm they were. For all she knew, she could be stealing inedible avocados, and no one wants that.

House Tour: The Living Room

A few people have wanted to see the new house and what I've done decorating-wise. So here are a few pictures of the living room and kitchen, which are really the only rooms I feel like I'm COMPLETELY done with.

The living room presented a bit of a challenge at first, because it's long and narrow. It's completley open to the dining room and kitchen, which is what I wanted. When they say "people congregate in the kitchen," they mean it.

These rooms are a mix of new items, antiques, Ikea stuff, TJ Maxx stuff, random finds, family hand-me-downs and so forth. I like it, because it feels collected - which it is. I hate it when rooms feel like you walked into a Rooms To Go and shouted, "I'll take it all!"


So here she is. I'm standing against the wall while I'm taking this pictures, so you can tell how narrow it is. Trusty Husband and I got new furniture for this room, since the furniture we both had before wouldn't fit. Since the space is so narrow, I had to go with a glass coffee table (from Overstock) so it wouldn't visually take up much space. The Oriental rug was my mom's, and I love the teals and rusty oranges in it. Throw pillows are from World Market, Pier 1, TJ Maxx - I love combining colors and patterns - that Ikat pillow is my fave. Our couch came from Haverty's, and the leather chairs are World Market. My mom gave me the framed palm prints a few years ago, and they're one of my favorite things I own.


This shot is looking from the front of the house into the dining room and kitchen. I love the open floor plan. The mirror to the left was something I searched EVERYWHERE for. I wanted a sunburst mirror, and believe it or not, it's hard to find a big one that's not a skillion dollars. Luckily, Macy's had one left, and the wedding present store credit I had made it a steal. The two little rattan cubes under it serve as extra seating and provide a little storage. And I found them at Walmart for only $29 each! Our silver chest sits next to them. It was a wedding gift, and I found that little table at Stein Mart randomly one day - the chest fits perfectly on top.


You've gotta have a TV. Usually I hate those TV holes that every builder seems hell-bent on putting in new houses, but there's not space for a TV armoire in here, so it works. You see the surveyor's lamp I searched high and low for on the left, and my collection of small globes on the mantle. I found the candle sconces at Hobby Lobby when they were half off, and they look built it. Of course, getting up there to light the candles is practically impossible.


Trusty Husband put these Ikea bookcases together. We decided to get two wide ones and one narrow one so they would look a little more built in. The lights along the top give them a museum-y vibe, highlighting the Doss "library."


Here you can see the dining room table I found several years ago at the Salvation Army and refinished. I recovered the seats here, and I like how the pattern looks with the pattern in the rug. Fake lemons give the table a little color, but don't block off the rest of the room with much height. Our little bar is to the left, with Trusty Husband's Game Day Juice.


Here's the dining room. I had always wanted a dining room table with two upholstered chairs on the ends, and stumbled upon these babies at TJ Maxx one day. My stepmom found the china cabinet at an antique mall in Montgomery, and Trusty Husband used a day off work to go get it. It fits perfectly in the space between the windows.


There's not much to show in the kitchen, but I like that I have plenty of counter space to make all kinds of messes. The cabinets have an antique finish on them that looks really nice.


Yes, we hung a Sonic Youth framed poster in our living room over the bar, because if you can't have a sense of humor at home, where can you?


Here's a close up of the mirror. I love the little flowers on the antique parts.


The globes. Pretty to look at, not meant for geography.


This is a real piece of coral my mom gave me, and I really love it. The birds came from a great store in Birmingham called Yucatan, where they import all kinds of cool things from Mexico.

So, there you have it. Trusty Husband and I were so fortunate to be able to sell both of our houses as quickly as we did, so we could get settled here. We managed to stick to a pretty tight budget and still have a house we love coming home to. What do you think?

The house was built by Tim Yates in Auburn, who is a fantastic guy and pays a lot of attention to detail. And I must give a shout-out to my good friend and our Realtor Blake Cleveland, who sold it to us.

As soon as I put the finishing touches everywhere else, I'll share those too. Thanks for walking through my living room with me!

A Little Spring in your step

It got up to almost 70 degrees in my neck of the woods today. So of course, I've got spring - and all its fashion and footwear - on the brain.

I'm considering a pair of Tom's shoes for that transitional not-warm-enought-for-my-Rainbows weather, but every time I try them on, I feel like they make my calves look fat. Has anyone else experienced this? I hate it when I LOVE something in theory. I had a similar experience with blond hair in 2006, but that's its own story.

I like natural and red, both $44:

They make wedges for $69, but you can find cute, comfortable wedges everywhere in the spring and summer:

These Soludos are like Tom's, but for only $28. The stripes would be great with all kinds of summery looks:

Ms. Burch has fashioned her own version, but at $95, you could buy two pairs of Tom's:

These Rocket Dog's from DSW are a little different, and the price is right at $29:

So what do we think? Do you like these sort of flat espadrilles as a transitional shoe? Do any of you have these and love/hate them? Please tell!

Favorite Thing: Three Designing Women Stamper

Why should Oprah be the only one who gets to rave about her favorite things to the general public? I've got LOTS of favorite things, so I'm going to start a little blog segment about them. First up - Three Designing Women Self-Inking Stamper.

Trusty Husband and I got this as a wedding gift, and I just love it. Three Designing Women has tons of designs, so it's hard to choose just one. Ours has our address on it, so it makes paying bills just a little prettier. I like it so much, I think I'm going to order one that says something like "From the Library of Katy Doss" (did y'all know that's my new last name?). It'll help get loaned books back to me AND make me seem fancy and library-having.

They retail for between $30-$40, and in my opinion are totally worth it. The quality is really good - it looks like the letters were printed instead of stamped.

You could get all kinds of stamps made. If you're a cook and give out recipes or goodies a lot, you could stamp the card with "From the Kitchen of Jane Doe." Or if you make jewelry or scarves or shoes or whatever, a "Handmade by Jane Doe" would be great on pretty cardstock. Or if you have a baby, you could get some permanent ink and stamp "This baby belongs to Jane Doe" on his or her heel. You know, whatever makes sense for you.

Take Notes

If you're like me, you make lists. Lots and lots of lists. Lists of lists. And while the magnetic Snoopy notepad on your refrigerator gets the job done, it's not that great to look at. So here's an easy project to make a dry-erase board that matches any decor.

All you have to do is frame a pretty piece of paper or fabric. Easy peasy.

Find a picture frame you like that's big enough for notes (I used an 8 x 10). Then go here:

The scrapbooking aisle in your local craft store has tons of great paper. Find a few pieces you like, or head to the fabric aisle and get some fabric. The great thing about this project is that you can change your background as often as you want. You can get paper for Christmas, or for a baby's room, or a birthday, or girls' night, or tax day (if that's your thing). The only thing to remember is that you need to keep the paper fairly pale so you can see what's written on top of it.

Pretty blue houndstooth

This would be cute in a little girl's room.


I love this! It looks like the side of a barn. Your hubby can put this one in his Man Cave for his Honey-Do list.


Love this pattern too.

Just cut the paper the size you need. I got a couple of pieces and put all of them in the frame, so they're there when I want to change things up.

Voila! Pretty, huh? Now grab your dry erase marker and get to work. Trusty Husband suggested I illustrate the message board with the "Businessman's Special" from the Andy Griffith show:

hahaha gross. Also, my dry erase marker is kind of old. If you buy a new one, the writing will be much darker.

One last tip: if you're making your grocery list on here, just take a picture of it with your camera phone before you leave the house, and you'll have your list right there with you at the store!

Bedside Table Makeover

Trusty Husband and I had a quandary in our new house. Sneaky floor vents sat right in the space where our bedside tables should go, making it impossible to have a traditional stand with drawers. If we moved them out to give the vent enough space, they looked like we just randomly placed bedside tables in the middle of the room. So I went on a quest for two matching bedside tables wide and tall enough to accommodate floor vents bringing us much-needed heat and A/C.

You'd think this would be an easy task. You'd be wrong.

I searched at tons of places - World Market, Ashley, Target, Z Gallerie, Macy's, TJ Maxx, Pier 1, Anthropologie - but no one had anything that would work. Everything was either too close to the floor, too narrow or far too expensive. But in a last effort at my second HomeGoods, I found these:

Two tables wide and tall enough for the vents, with a cool shape, for only $39.99 each. But oh - one was black and one was white, and no ma'am, everything we have is on the floor and going in the back to look for another table just like one of these won't do any good. Hmph. Hello, paint.

I needed to slap a coat of paint on these babies. That required two coats of primer first to try to get the black table as white as possible.

There we go - two primed, white tables. Now for some color:

I went with a high-gloss pale turquoise to go with the red and brown accents in the bedroom (photos to come). Here's a tip when painting tables: Turn them over on an old sheet, and paint all the corners with a brush first. Then roll the rest of the inside, THEN turn them over and paint the outsides and the tops. Your first inclination will be to paint the tops first, but then you have to wait for them to dry before you can really get underneath.

Another tip: if your project is going to span more than one day, you don't have to wash out your brushes and rollers. Just keep them in a plastic bag and they'll stay wet. This saves a lot of time, because washing paint out of brushes takes FOREVER.

I painted my tables in the garage, but let them dry in the sun. Sometimes I cover painted furniture with a coat of polyuruthane, but with high-gloss, you really don't have to.

And there you have it! It's hard to tell in this picture, but the color looks really nice. And since these tables didn't have drawers, I found two small baskets on sale at Hobby Lobby for all of our random bedside junk. So when you need something specific for your house, don't rule out finding mismatched items and giving them a once-over with your trusty paintbrush!

Wake Up Your Make Up (Bag)

Since I was little, I've always been enamoured with organizational bags, so my love went from Trapper Keepers and Backpacks to wallets to day planners to makeup bags. When I was killing time in the airport this weekend, I found a great deal on an even greater makeup bag. It's got lots of pockets, it's hard-sided and it's a fun green:

The brand is Sydney to Go by Sydney Love, and it was on sale from $30 to $6.99! I was so excited to bring it home and organize all my war paint and then tell my readers about it.

HOWEVER, it apparently exists only at the PGA store (random) at the Tulsa International Airport, because I can't find this damn thing anywhere online. But it's so good, that I wanted to give you something comparable:

This cosmetics case from Luggege Showroom seems to be the same size and have similar pockets inside. It's more, at $47, but still a pretty good bargain.


I use my makeup bag everyday - I keep it loaded with all my makeup, as well as toiletries, so I never have to pack my bathroom stuff for an overnight trip. I just grab it and go. It saves a ton of time and embarrassment when you don't accidentally forget your deodorant.

Who's got a great makeup bag they want to tell me about?