October – 2016 – Luxor Living and Style

HOME DECOR REVAMP: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

October 31, 2016luxorlivingandstyle 1 Comment

I have a few home remodels and revamps under my belt. This latest one is finished. It was just a small nest, but my husband let me do whatever I wanted so I ended up changing it from an all white bachelor pad that didn’t look lived in and transformed it into a fun, cozy nest for two.

Pretty much the only thing that is left over from his single days, is the dining table with nude angels on the base. I mean, who doesn’t need naked angels around the house? Oh, and the single guy, creme leather sofa set in the front office. It kills my soul, but he won’t part with it.

We took two bedrooms, and made them into our separate offices because it was a total waste of space to have spare bedrooms when literally no one ever comes to stay over night! We have sold two beds in the past 6 months, and I have one more in the garage to deal with.

This commercial grade flooring was completely scratch resistant and made life so much easier than the previous carpeting that was there before. I am using this same flooring in the bedrooms of the new house we are remodeling because it goes with anything, doesn’t show dust like dark wood flooring does and is so extremely durable and scratch resistant.

The kitchen was probably the best part of the house, with a large center island that makes cooking a lot more enjoyable. The large crystal chandelier over it was the focal point of the area. Black granite was used in the kitchen, as well as in the two bathrooms. We could not bear the thought of having different counter tops throughout such a small home.

When it came time to list this home, it sold within a week. In the mind of a new homeowner, there was literally nothing a person would need a to repair or change, except perhaps the paint. Paint is the cheapest, easiest fix for a new homeowner. Of course it is the first thing we are changing in the new place we found, along with the flooring throughout and a bathroom revamp. (I’ll share those pictures once it’s complete!)

I had been wanting to share this little revamp of mine for months, but never had the time! Now that we made the decision to sell, it seems the perfect time to share! We are super excited about the move and can’t wait to share the progress on that project!

-SDS

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Easy Date

October 21, 2016luxorlivingandstyle 1 Comment

Johnny Was Tunic, Johnny Was Scarf, Johnny Was Houston, Uggs, Gucci Glasses, Stephane Sjoberg, Luxor, Top Houston Bloggers

Gucci Glasses, Johnny Was Tunic, Uggs Booties, Johnny Was Scarf, David Yurman Couture Ring

I am an easy date. I had been off all day running errands, but we had scheduled time together for a quick dinner out and a movie. We have a new favorite theater close to home, which has those reclining seats so we are super jazzed to go to the movies now more than ever.

There is a salad I love, at a restaurant he never wants to go to, so I offered to pay for dinner to make the prospect more attractive. (Just a life lesson here…men absolutely love it when a woman offers to pay for something here or there. They melt.)

Which brings me to the big event near the end of our movie date. No, not that big event. Throughout the movie, there was a girl next to my husband, who was clearly not that into the guy who brought her. She was literally texting some other dude on her phone the entire time.

Ten minutes before the film is over, her date curses her loudly, threw her purse and phone down as he ran out of the theater calling her terrible names. All of which were probably accurate. My husband helped her pick up her MAC makeup that was all on the ground at our feet, before she left. She had a sheepish look on her face as if…oh crap, he caught me, this is super embarrassing.

As we left the theater a few minutes later, I’d looked around to offer her a ride, but then decided that the guy she was texting throughout the movie needed to come pick her up.

Back to me. I’m an easy date for my husband. Females do not really think enough about how much a simple movie and dinner night out costs these days. My husband and I are so glad to not be part of the single universe. I know men hate it. My male friends…yes, even the rich ones constantly bitch about how expensive it is to date these days. And they really hate it when the woman doesn’t think twice about the cost.

I literally got ready for my date in 25 minutes. In and out of the tub, throw on a black Johnny Was Tunic and pretend it’s a dress, a scarf to look like effort was applied, and the coolest new Uggs that will be a staple this winter because they are so comfortable. My mean work peeps are like, “…but there’s maroon fur stuff on them” and I’m like “I will deal with it for the comfort factor.” I’d come across them at Nordstrom Rack and decided they were wonderful.

I love my life right now. I love my husband right now. We both are so happy which is kind of scary because you don’t want anything to happen to mess it up. I tell young people all the time, that you do not know what love is. You can’t. You think a crumb of cake is exciting until you have an entire cake. Until you have an entire cake, you don’t know that a crumb is just a crumb.

A female friend of mine that’s almost 60, and about to get married again, after divorce and grown children recently said, “I have literally never been so in love and happy.” This confirms my belief that we don’t know as much when we’re young. Generally speaking.

We left our movie date telling each other how much easier life is to not have to deal with dating people and hoping to come across a decent person. He then calls me an Easy Date which I can assume has a lot of different meanings.

-SDS

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Bye, Summer

October 5, 2016luxorlivingandstyle

Stephanie Sjoberg, Luxor Living and Style, Houston Top blogs, bloggers in Houston, Houston fashion, Johnny Was Houston, Johnny Was Scarf, Gucci glasses, David Yurman

Johnny Was dress, Johnny Was Scarf, Gucci Glasses, David Yurman ring

Bye, Summer. You kicked my ass. I gained 10 pounds because it was too hot to do anything outside. I’ve been working in my yard all week because I neglected her all summer because of you. The A/C in my car now needs a trip to the doctor (again) because of you.

Now, that it’s a cool, crisp 89 all week, as opposed to your sorry 100 degrees or more…I will pull out my Fall Wardrobe. There will be boots, and velvet, and layers and good hair days because it’s just about impossible to have a decent hair day when it’s 100 degrees and humid outside. The struggle is real.

The post above is from about 6 weeks ago. I didn’t post much because it was just too hot outside to deal with reminding Ken Sjoberg to focus the camera before clicking. Ugh. He goes from Alejandro to Liverpie real quick when it’s hot.

Summer made me decide to only post when it’s fun. I was with a friend on this day, and it was so hot and steamy outside that I decided to embrace the messy bun.

As far as the light silk Johnny Was scarf…I literally feel naked without one on now. I’ve sort of made a game out of the scarf thing at this point. Each Johnny Was scarf is like a little piece of art. Things are looking up though because we are now moving into real Johnny Was Scarf Mode as Winter draws closer.

Let’s move forward together into Fall and Winter! Bring on the boots, scarves, jackets, fabrics with texture…and please Lawd…put the flip flops away by November. This is a non-negotiable.

-SDS

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#WORKFLOW

October 4, 2016luxorlivingandstyle 1 Comment

On top of the all of the hats that I wear…I also have this little side gig called a full time job. The stylists and managers that work with me are from a wide array of backgrounds and hear me when I tell you that each person brings their own personality with them in their handbag to work every day.

I am proud to say that we have a full time school teacher in our midst, who just enjoys the brand we represent, Johnny Was. We also have another part time stylist that works full time at a doctor’s office. There are others among us with college degrees or makeup artist backgrounds, or both. Whatever the case may be, we all basically feel like we live together. I guess that’s because we actually do. We spend 8 hours a day together which is probably more time than I see my husband.

On this day, I was trying to up the amp on a typical mandatory store meeting. The deal was that we would do a mini photo session before the meeting for fun.

There is a really cool blank white wall, outside our store in Highland Village, that bloggers come by weekly to use as a make shift “studio” because the lighting is perfect most any time of day. It’s like trying to herd cats, to get more than 3 people to look acceptable in a photo, but we had fun and it was something different to do.

I always tell young people that if you can do retail for any length of time, it will prepare you for absolutely anything the world has to throw at you in the future. No matter where you work in the future, there will be challenging personalities in the workplace. Integrity and basic sanity are my top two prerequisites for hiring. Insanity is far too disruptive in the workplace and you have to be able to get along in order to be relatively happy and productive at work. Integrity is everything. If a person is the most intelligent being on the planet yet holds no integrity…what good are they? Everything else can be taught, but I can’t force integrity into a person. That was your parent’s job.

In the past, I’ve gone through spells of being self employed and working from home. I actually missed being at a job and having work people. For the past year, these have been my work people. My days consist of making sure Fetus Randy’s mom doesn’t do any heavy lifting, sharing the joy in Haley’s engagement (and big ass ring) , wondering if Miranda’s cold is going to get us all sick, and blending everyone’s life together through holidays, birthdays, weddings, deaths, vacations etc and keeping it real about why we are all here and what we are expected to do. Oh, and hell no…you can’t be off every Saturday. Are you insane ?

The ladies all decided that it was OK for them to star in my blog. Well, as long as they looked good. I thought it would be fun to show a peek into who I spend my days with. This is our #workflow.

-SDS

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Month: October 2016

HOME DECOR REVAMP: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Easy Date

Bye, Summer

#WORKFLOW

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